Weekend Update 1/6/19

[Bobster]

Tom L,

Up vote and atta boy on the Rock Island Caboose and boxcar.
I would have up-voted sooner but I was out of town and away from technology for the weekend.
Always wanted to do one but minimizing spending to finish many other projects.

Bobster

[Mark W]

Birds, Babes, Intermediate Bulk Containers, and Pallets!


https://i.imgur.com/A8sGgNL.jpg

[up1950s]

She's hot !

[Jbub]

Mark, I want to know how you paint this stuff with such accuracy?

[Dave V]

Thanks for all the suggestions.  Dowels will probably do the trick just fine...I can drop "receiver" tubing into the foam to make sure they align each time.  The dowels can really just be extensions of the support posts.

The "buttress" pieces are the problem...  Whether attached to the shed or the ground, they're gonna break...no way around that!

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Is this of any help? https://blog.macsales.com/46117-how-to-use-the-iphone-xs-depth-control-feature

Unfortunately, no. The problem is that camera components have matured in the last 3-5 years. The last few innovations being optical image stabilization and backside illumination. What we see now is just improvements over glass quality and algorithms.

It's the algorithms that are causing the issues. In portrait mode, they attempt to see a human in the picture, then digitally blur everything else out. Portrait mode requires a minimum distance of about 3 feet which make mode photography impractical. Selecting "F16" just brings the depth of field closer to the natural state of the lens.

Even in standard picture mode, you can see enhancement artifacts all over those photos. Take a look at my first photo and you will notice a dithering of the background near the folded jacks. Check out the equipment locker. it knows the front plane should be sharp (closest to the cab) but the side plane is diffused into the background where it should be in focus. Same goes for the rear of the far equipment box which is diffused where the knuckle crane is in fairly sharp focus.

I'm not even going to get into color reproduction, "dirt" rendering (which it want's to clean - see hood and roof).

My guess is that the natural limit of a cell phone camera is about an F4. Anything smaller than that is done with software. The software is trained on portraits and scenery, not macro photography. The result is much worse than my Lumia phone from 2012.

I am hoping that the photo processing is on the software side. If that is the case, I should be able to use a 3rd party app that isn't so aggressive. But Apple touts it's embedded "neural" processor for photography, which makes me think this is at the hardware level.

All this is incredibly frustrating for a $1000 piece of machinery.

[nkalanaga]

For a snowshed, mounting it could be as simple as extending a few of the posts below the sills, so that they fit into holes in the subroadbed.  It isn't like they need to carry electricity, or survive major earthquakes.

[Mark W]

Mark, I want to know how you paint this stuff with such accuracy?

I went through trying to paint 4 of them before I threw one across the room out of frustration.
It landed next to a sharpie!...

Tomorrow I'll be picking up some gray and silver sharpies.

[mclarenf119]

I took the feedback I got on my "passenger station" build and got back to work on it. Still not done but I like the direction it's heading now.



Also, started working on my little boxcab I've had in the drawer for a while.



I drilled holes for the railings but I realized the .02" wire was still way too big so I plan to putty the holes and find some smaller gauge wire to get it looking right.

Also got my arduino/dcc++ base station setup. Still working out some kinks but its almost there.

[Cajonpassfan]

I took the feedback I got on my "passenger station" build and got back to work on it. Still not done but I like the direction it's heading now.

That door *needs* a big window above it. As wide as the door, and its top perhaps flush with the other windows? Or arched centered on the parapet above?
Otto K.

[muktown128]

Birds, Babes, Intermediate Bulk Containers, and Pallets!


https://i.imgur.com/A8sGgNL.jpg

Mark,

Nice job cranking out more 3D printed items.  Just curious - what are the dimensions on the IBC's?  The ones in the photo appear to be rectangular.  The ones I'm used to seeing are appear to be square to my eye.  We have these type of IBC's where I work, so I should be able to get dimensions pretty easily.  I've seen different styles of these type of IBC's with the plastic bladder in a steel cage.  Some on a wood pallet, some on a metal frame base and some on a plastic base.  I've also seen ones with a sheet metal box around the plastic with an opening at the top. 

Good idea on using a silver sharpie.

Scott

[MK]

That door *needs* a big window above it. As wide as the door, and its top perhaps flush with the other windows? Or arched centered on the parapet above?
Otto K.

Or some big sign.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I do have to design it to allow access to the trackage but otherwise yes, it’s straightforward.  Tedious, but straightforward.

You're retired now. You've got the time... lol.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Feeling back in the groove after starting to figure out workshop space in my new place.

The first project? Make a portable layout! In order to do that I needed to finish some corners and a few other modules.

I've been humming "Back in the New York Groove" all weekend.

This is the full set. A pair of easily separated crossovers. I'm planning on reusing the York Tower on the one along with John's shed. The other will just have a relay box.



And here's another utility corner. This one will have a marsh along the outside because I figured that'd be fun to do. I haven't done one of those yet and since some of these are ostensibly set on the Eastern Shore of MD, it's fitting.

[thomasjmdavis]

Tom L,

Up vote and atta boy on the Rock Island Caboose and boxcar.
I would have up-voted sooner but I was out of town and away from technology for the weekend.
Always wanted to do one but minimizing spending to finish many other projects.

Bobster

I'll second that.  I've built a couple of the Rocket Express kits also.  One of the "hidden gems" in N scale- makes a really distinctive car.  I wonder sometimes about the fascination everyone has with 3D printing- old fashioned resin kits require less prep, and don't suffer from "artifacts".  Anyway, TomL, you did a great job on both boxcar and caboose.

Tom D