Weekend Update 7/8/18

[up1950s]

https://www.transcontinental.com.au/story/4437171/scrap-the-second-airport/

[mark dance]

thx for the always interesting opening photo Richie.  I guess I will kick off the modelling portion of the update this week...

Work continued on the small Nelson steam plant in order to test techniques for the matching, but much larger, diesel house.  The large windows begged for some simple interior detailing.  Also added were external cooling pipes, a chimney and up right tanks to match my 1970 era.





However as the model is compressed in length and depth I found the chimney and cooling made the building look too toy like so I removed the pipes and replaced the chimney with a smaller one.



A reminder: here is the proto (albeit inactive 20 years after my time frame)



And here is the model as it currently sits on the layout in the middle of Nelson yard.  Still have to experiment with weathering, finish adding lights and add the overhead steam pipes to the diesel house and car shops.





Have a great weekend!

md

[peteski]

Work continued on the small Nelson steam plant in order to test techniques for the matching, but much larger, diesel house.  The large windows begged for some simple interior detailing.  Also added were external cooling pipes, a chimney and up right tanks to match my 1970 era.

Very nice!  Are those the Alps-printed window muntins?

[bbussey]

I finished the primary painting of the subway portals for the New Haven station platform on the B&NL.  These are before final touching up was done.  I'm replacing the ballast in the roof with fine black sand next week when it arrives.  Hope to get the windows in this weekend, and start on the lighting circuits.  The group photo is slightly larger than full size.

[johnb]

Just need poles

[nkalanaga]

Instead of sand, how about painted sandpaper?  You can probably find a grit to match your stone size, and a piece of paper is a lot easier to glue neatly than a pile of sand.  It worked for me, but glue it on with water-based glue, and if you don't like the results, pry it off and you can still use the real sand.

[DKS]

Instead of sand, how about painted sandpaper?  You can probably find a grit to match your stone size, and a piece of paper is a lot easier to glue neatly than a pile of sand.  It worked for me, but glue it on with water-based glue, and if you don't like the results, pry it off and you can still use the real sand.

This is what I've done for stone-covered flat roofs as well.

[davefoxx]

Instead of sand, how about painted sandpaper?  You can probably find a grit to match your stone size, and a piece of paper is a lot easier to glue neatly than a pile of sand.  It worked for me, but glue it on with water-based glue, and if you don't like the results, pry it off and you can still use the real sand.

You don’t need to glue a “pile of sand.”  Spread a layer of white glue, sprinkle the sand over it, let it dry, and voila!  This is how I make my coal loads with black sand.  Might even be easier than cutting a piece of sandpaper to perfectly fit.

DFF

[SP-Wolf]

A blast from my past - I dug out my Con-Cor Pa's



Thanks,
Wolf

[bbussey]

You don’t need to glue a “pile of sand.”  Spread a layer of white glue, sprinkle the sand over it, let it dry, and voila!  This is how I make my coal loads with black sand.  Might even be easier than cutting a piece of sandpaper to perfectly fit.

Agreed. That is how I secured the fine ballast. I thought the ballast was fine enough, but that isn’t the case. Hence the fine black sand replacement.

[mark dance]

Very nice!  Are those the Alps-printed window muntins?

yep.  The larger vertical mullions and frames are laser cut.  The narrower (1") *muntins*are ALPs printed. 

On the steam plant, and on the end walls of the diesel house, the window elements are assembled individually and glued into the window openings.  However on the much larger diesel house side walls, the walls will be laminations of three laser cut pieces and one contiguous ALPs printed Mylar sheet.  This is quite a registration challenge and the Mylar window sheet is being reprinted with a 0.994% scaling factor in the long dimension to accurately fit to the laser cut walls.  Over the 17" length of the longest diesel house wall a scaling difference of a few thou is quite noticeable in the alignment of the last window frame and *muntins* (vernier acuity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernier_acuity).

It was also a colour-matching challenge between prototype photos, the spray painted laser cut pieces, and the double struck CMYK ALPs-printed Mylar, thankfully now behind us.

As expected this is a very interesting project pushing me to learn all sorts of new stuff.

md

[peteski]

yep.  The larger vertical mullions and frames are laser cut.  The narrower (1") mullions are ALPs printed. 

On the steam plant, and on the end walls of the diesel house, the window elements are assembled individually and glued into the window openings.  However on the much larger diesel house side walls, the walls will be laminations of three laser cut pieces and one contiguous ALPs printed Mylar sheet.  This is quite a registration challenge and the Mylar window sheet is being reprinted with a 0.994% scaling factor in the long dimension to accurately fit to the laser cut walls.  Over the 17" length of the longest diesel house wall a scaling difference of a few thou is quite noticeable in the alignment of the last window frame and mullions (vernier acuity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernier_acuity).

It was also a colour-matching challenge between prototype photos, the spray painted laser cut pieces, and the double struck CMYK ALPs-printed Mylar, thankfully now behind us.

As expected this is a very interesting project pushing me to learn all sorts of new stuff.

md

Thanks Mark!  Your window making technique worked extremely well. Yes, there are many tricks that can be used with Alps printers to achieve desired results.  It does take some experimentation and some examples of the printer can do things that others can't  But in the end it is a wonderful tool.  I often use multi-layer spot color printing and non-native color ink ribbons to get solid ink coverage in colors not achievable with standard CYMK inks. 

I know that I'm being a stickler, but since I have learned about it I try to use the correct terminology: those thin dividers in your windows are muntins, not mullions.  Here are the definitions for both.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullion

Muntins are often confused with "mullions" (which separate complete window units), and "astragals" (which close the gap between two leaves of a double door).

I know that often information on the Interwebs is not ture, but in this case it seems genuine. I'll use "muntins" where applicable until someone proves me incorrect. 

[Angus Shops]

Work continues on the effort to detail and update my fleet of Atlas GP 7 and 9's. I repainted 1 GP7 (from an incorrect block CPR scheme) and 1 of the GP9's (from CPR script to block) and added BLMA drop grabs, Gold Medal lift rings and wipers, Miniatures by Eric horns and homemade cast resin winter hatches. I used Scalecoat paint (my last bottle) and  Black Cat decals, which I really like.

I struggled with the detail on the pilots. I used Trainworks cut levers and MU hoses but found these parts to be so fine that they are pretty much invisible when painted black against the almost black (excepts for the heavily weathered yellow visibility stripes) pilots. A bigger problem was the mounting pins for the cut levers penetrate the pilot on the side sill casting and interfere with the proper seating of the handrail castings and makes the reassmbly of the body difficult and imprecise. Given that the cut levers are invisible  (seriously, I can't see it!) I plan omit this item on future models. I've made up a master for some slightly more robust MU hoses which I'll resin cast and see if that works better on the next rebuild; this will be a really fine and delicate part but it's worth a try.

I'm really going to have to improve my painting technique with acrylic paints. I find Scalecoat nearly "foolproof" buts it's no longer available at the LHS, and it's toxic and a pain to clean up. Rapido's paint line is excellent, but I'm not confident enough that I can do a 'perfect' job on the locomotive shells. I have some dead car shells that I can practice on later this weekend.

The next problem is going to be the lack of availability of the BLMA drop grabs at the LHS. I really don't want to have to hand bend my own, but I suppose I could if I have to...

Geoff

[BCR751]

Work continued on the small Nelson steam plant in order to test techniques for the matching, but much larger, diesel house.  The large windows begged for some simple interior detailing.  Also added were external cooling pipes, a chimney and up right tanks to match my 1970 era.

A reminder: here is the proto (albeit inactive 20 years after my time frame)



Have a great weekend!

md

Don't forget the Osprey nest.   

Doug

[mark dance]

Don't forget the Osprey nest.   

Doug

...and wind sock

I may pass on these for now.  I don't think they arrived until after the plant was moth-balled.  Besides, I already have one nest.

md