The Western Maryland in Free-moN Modules

[John]

I’ve wanted one of these premier service band jobs since I was 4 lol. I’ve been a finalist for Pershing’s Own twice, and the USAF Academy band. I thought that door had closed but I found out Navy upped the enlistment age to 41, so I might get one or two more shots. If all goes well, DC would be my permanent duty station for the next 20 years! So in that case hopefully lots of free time!

As for the audition trip, not sure just yet. I’m really not pleasant to be around the days immediately before an audition. They weigh pretty heavy on me.  After might be a possibility so long as there’s beer to celebrate!

Or drown my sorrows!

You get the gig I want an invite to your first concert.   USN 1974-2000.  .   Best wishes

[PiperguyUMD]

🫡

[PiperguyUMD]

@brokemoto Fortunately I didn’t have the swayback issue. However the Atlas sill is bowed out - both walkways push out from the center. Not sure if that’s something that was defective or if it’s simply from being separated from the rest of the shell for several years. I do wish I had added the tabs that lock the shell and sill together on my high hood, that would help a bunch. Instead, when I’m ready, I’ll just glue the two pieces together. Probably for the best since some of the stanchions are connected to the long hood via the battery boxes.

If you need another high hood, let me know. Happy to whip one up! I can also do a batch of stanchions for you too. My new printer + ABS like resin is a pretty good combination for these. The resolution is high enough that it actually prints holes for .008 wire, and the material is tough enough to stand up to normal handling. I don't think its on the level of some of the brass stanchions around TRW, but certainly much better than stock and doesn't require soldering!

[PiperguyUMD]

Built a set of semaphores for the 4th canal crossing module. These started out as bits from showcase miniatures, with a couple of added goodies. Mistakes where made, and when I need more in the future, I’ll make some adjustments, but overall very happy with the feel these give the scene

The semaphores on the WM seemed to have some kind of equipment box on the bottom of their semaphores that was different than the base that came with the kit. Model popper to the rescue! I eyeballed some reference photos as best I could and came up with this to slip onto the bottom of the signal mast.



On to the etched metal bits. Ladder - piece of cake. Signal motor - no problem. Add the base and here’s where we’re at. I’m not sure how I want to attache these to the module so for now, I’m leaving the mast long so I can stick them into the foam.



The flag glues onto the lenses, but I needed to paint them red and white, and the back black. First up, I shot it with white. Once that dried I masked the white stripe and hit it with red. Final step on the front. I masked the flag and sprayed the black. Smooth sailing from here on out, flipped it over and sprayed the back with black. Got the rest of the assembly while i was at it.





The WM labeled their semaphores on the mast. I used number board decals to do this, but I had to scavenge for the “A”. This was an unbelievable pain in the butt! Could be better, but I know I could make it worse!



Now the ugly! The instructions say to use Microscale Krystal Kleer for the lenses. They clearly didn’t have 3d printers and clear resin! I attempted to make the lenses by dabbing clear resin in the opening and then immediately curing it. Looked great until I tried to take them out of the tweezers and realized that it had leaked all over the place! Didn’t get any pictures but had to do a bunch of clean up. Next time I’ll use the Krystal kleer!

Haven’t researched what the different positions mean, but this is how they’re set in one of my reference photos with a passing east bound.

[PiperguyUMD]

In other news got this email this morning! I go play for semi-finals, and hopefully finals/interview on the 29th. Prayers/Good Vibes/Happy Thoughts greatly appreciated. This is a dream job! Plus I'd be close enough to a few  s to participate in shenanigans from time to time!

[PiperguyUMD]

Working on the water in the canal this weekend. Its the perfect thing to do between practice sessions. Trains for 30-40 minutes then disappear for a couple hours!

I was really happy with how the epoxy river table approach turned out on the other modules so I'll use it again here. Damming things up this time was much easier than it was on the corner modules!

I started with clear packing tape across the openings.



Next I covered the front of some plywood scraps with more packing tape.



I ran a bead of silicone caulk on the tape just under the canal just in case there were issues with the tape. Looking back this was probably necessary, but I remembered using it somewhere in the process before. Couple of clamps at the bottom of the fascia and we're all stopped up!



I used Woodland Scenics deep murky water for the pour. I know the C&O canal wasn't in use in the 1950s, but I wasn't able to find any photos of just how much water was still in it by that point, so I'm strictly guessing here! That said - there was some water when I scouted out the location in 2022. Once everything sets, I'll come back and scenic the banks and hopefully complete the disused and somewhat overgrown look. The initial pour went great, no leaks!



I came back about 30 minutes later to take care of any air bubbles. I hit the surface with a hot air gun, which worked great - until it didn't! I was working on a few stubborn bubbles on the south side of the bridge when I noticed I wasn't making any progress. To my surprise, it appears that the hot air gun had cured the spot I was working on! Keep in mind this is only 30-40 minutes after the pour! I touched the surface, it was hot but solid. The problem was that there was a ripple around this cured spot. Like a dummy, I touched the ripple. It was not cured. So now I have an other worldly ripple where the Loch Ness monster hides out and some kind of weird squiggly next to it. Crap



Meanwhile, north of the bridge turned out perfect.



So, what to do? Fortunately these disturbances don't seem to be very tall. I think I could probably just do another pour to cover them up. I really don't think it will take much to fix which is a good thing, because I like the amount of bank I have on each side of the canal. I used the entire batch of Woodland Scenics resin, but I do have enough left over from the Long Run module to do the job. Its craft resin from Amazon, but once the Woodland Scenics stuff has fully cured it should be a problem right? Anyone have any experience mixing resins in this type of scenario?

[CNR5529]

Not sure about mixing the two different resins, but my first thought was that ripple sort of looks like the wake of a motor boat going by and bouncing off the shoreline. You would probably have to add a bit more ripples and dry brush some highlights (and of course add a boat), but it would turn the oops into a happy accident so to speak.

[John]

put a kayaker there

[eja]

In other news got this email this morning! I go play for semi-finals, and hopefully finals/interview on the 29th.

Congratulations and best of luck.  Getting this far is no small achievement. 

I know auditions are stressful and the resulting decisions can often be puzzling. What was your audition piece?

Ed

[PiperguyUMD]

Thanks @eja I’ve had to prepare a lot of material as this position is split between the concert and ceremonial bands. It’s also possible that the winner will have to sub in the Jazz Commodores. Because of the variety they’ve actually asked for everything from Bach to Michael Bublé. I also know they aren’t kidding when they say that candidates may have to sight read so I’ve been working on that too. It’s been a busy couple weeks for sure!

[eja]

Wow ! That is quite an audition list.  The Lohengrin Act III Prelude should be a piece of cake.  I suspect trombonist are expect to know that before they exit the womb. Sort of like Mediation from Thais for us violin players.

ed

[PiperguyUMD]

Don't want to jinx it, but looks like we might be in the clear. Gave the Woodland Scenics stuff the full 24 hours to cure, then did a thin top coat with the Amazon stuff. Looking good about two hours in, I'll give the final verdict in the morning.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

In other news got this email this morning! I go play for semi-finals, and hopefully finals/interview on the 29th. Prayers/Good Vibes/Happy Thoughts greatly appreciated. This is a dream job! Plus I'd be close enough to a few  s to participate in shenanigans from time to time!

F Yeah!!! Go buddy go!

[wm3798]

You've done it!  Remember, the WM opened in 1903 through there, and the canal was still in business until 1923.  You wouldn't have your Potomac, but your K2 would be right at home, and you could whip up some 2-8-0s with the simpler W.M. on the tender... and put a canal boat and some mules in the scene!  Think Multi-Modal!

All that music looks pretty interesting, but you can always add something of your own choosing, right?  May I suggest this classic...

Lee

[PiperguyUMD]

Looks like this little trick worked! Took the dams down today, cleaned up the fascia, and did a little scenery touch up to cover where the resin seeped up the banks.. I've got a bunch of scenery goodies on the way to wrap this one up, gonna be fun!