Author Topic: How low (small!) can you go?  (Read 4085 times)

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peteski

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #15 on: February 29, 2020, 01:56:15 AM »
0
I added a close-up photo  (taken last night) of the car with the antenna to my original earlier post.
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wm3798

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #16 on: February 29, 2020, 09:38:52 AM »
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Is that one of those ancient Bachmann Dodge Charger /Plymouth Satellite looking things?
They actually aren't bad models with a few upgrades.
Lee
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peteski

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #17 on: February 29, 2020, 11:53:19 AM »
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Is that one of those ancient Bachmann Dodge Charger /Plymouth Satellite looking things?
They actually aren't bad models with a few upgrades.
Lee

That's exactly what it is.
The original wheels have been replaced, and Microscale Kristal Klear windows were added.   Yes that series of cheap models (except of course  for the Corvette, with its greatly exaggerated fender humps) has surprisingly well-proportioned bodies bodies, once the gaudy paint has been stripped.  Then the crappy (thick ill-fitting) windows insert needs to be ground out (because it is usually glued in so well that there is  no way to pry it out.  And of course wheels need to be replaced. 
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ksmiley

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #18 on: February 29, 2020, 06:09:52 PM »
+3
I'm not sure if this on the right track (pun?) however, I was wasting time watching YouTube one day and watched this train burst out of some trees cross a bridge, and then disappear again. It must have intrigued me as I went and found the bridge on Google Maps and captured the 'street view' of the bridge. So long story short, I built a T-TRAK module just like the picture. When I put the module in a show, I have a copy of the picture in front of the module, including the same color car in roughly the same position. No radio antenna though. I also added a few pedestrians, and signs on the bridge. People thought it was pretty cool but they did have to be led to the picture/module relationship a little. All good comments overall though. I was feeling great until I found this picture and it showed the 'rough cutting' of the Railroad sign on the bridge.

BruceG

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #19 on: March 04, 2020, 10:04:16 PM »
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Our club has a “Seek and Find list handout to help visitors locate various little vignettes. Josephine’s Pizza is on the list, and most “seekers” find it. Some mention the pizza on the table between the two diners. Very few notice the pepperoni.  [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

Maletrain

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #20 on: March 05, 2020, 09:55:04 AM »
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Bruce, don't they also notice those "extra long swimming pool noodles" sticking through the ceilings and floors between the first and third stories in the windows on the right?  :trollface:  Maybe draw the curtains?

But, otherwise a very interesting scene with a lot of detail that really sets it apart from the usual plastic-model-on-a-painted-board scenes.

BruceG

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #21 on: March 05, 2020, 12:20:59 PM »
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I agree on the wires, but it’s not my model to fix. I can’t take credit for the pepperoni, either and apologize if I gave that impression. I’m just the reporter.

Maletrain

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #22 on: March 05, 2020, 01:05:37 PM »
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I agree on the wires, but it’s not my model to fix. I can’t take credit for the pepperoni, either and apologize if I gave that impression. I’m just the reporter.

Yes, I do know about that.  Messengers should be issued bullet proof vests.   :lol:

brill27mcb

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #23 on: March 05, 2020, 08:30:36 PM »
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Yes, I do know about that.  Messengers should be issued bullet proof vests.   :lol:

Yes, with a Railwire logo on them...
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nkalanaga

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #24 on: March 06, 2020, 01:40:11 AM »
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A pizza should be fairly easy, as details go.  They're flat to start with, so a photo, printed on cardstock, would be perfect.

Thinking of including one is what takes the imagination.
N Kalanaga
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Lemosteam

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #25 on: March 06, 2020, 08:00:25 AM »
+2
These three items are the smallest things I have modeled.

Tom Hanks on my polar express- not Hanks himself, but the 0402 LED hanging from his hand, painted to be a black lantern with only a spec of the LED face exposed for a light so dim (via resistor) you can really only see it in a darkened room under close inspection:





Then the hobo roof scene of the same project, the fire spit is made from 0.008" diameter split with an exacto to make the "Y"'s at the top with a 0.005" crossbar.  The coffee pot is made from 38 gauge 11 strand black flex wire with a shor section of insulation representing the pot, three wire strands representing the handle and a final strand to hang the pot on the crossbar. 



The fire is made from multi-strand fiber optics trimmed at various heights and angles and then pierced through a hole in the roof.  a flicker LED rests just below for the fire effect.


The next smallest item are the front boiler class lights on my LIRR G5s #39 build:



DKS

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #26 on: March 06, 2020, 10:45:42 AM »
+6
Well, let's see. Probably some of the stuff I did in Z Scale counts as the smallest I've done accurately (some T Scale items come to mind but I've lost all of the photos). Smallest single item that people notice is likely the lamp over the door.





This styrene escutcheon may be one of the tiniest parts I've ever fabricated.



Smallest thing that no one notices? I think it was the photographer's camera.





Not as accurate but still mighty small was the working barber pole.




Lemosteam

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #27 on: March 06, 2020, 10:47:05 AM »
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We all knew you would win @DKS !  Glad to see you back.

peteski

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #28 on: March 06, 2020, 11:38:53 AM »
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Well, let's see. Probably some of the stuff I did in Z Scale counts as the smallest I've done accurately (some T Scale items come to mind but I've lost all of the photos). Smallest single item that people notice is likely the lamp over the door.

Not as accurate but still mighty small was the working barber pole.





Oh man, I so want to build a copy of that one some day!

You are the master of miniature animated models. How about the operating ceiling fan (in the barber shop?). Or didn't you have a working box-fan in a window? Then there was the excavator . . .
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narrowminded

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Re: How low (small!) can you go?
« Reply #29 on: March 06, 2020, 12:23:27 PM »
+1
My contribution this far would have to be a one piece machined  4"/ 4 1/2" diameter handwheel in brass complete with 5 through holes, radially placed, and the valve stem projecting out the back.   Envision a .025"/ .028" diameter wire stood on end with five evenly spaced holes drilled in the end.  Then the stem machined to .008" diameter and parted off. 

@mmagliaro  was the instigator of this mad pursuit when he was making his beautiful steamer and this is his photograph.  I couldn't get a picture of it, even badly focused. :D

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=44651.msg575124#msg575124
« Last Edit: March 06, 2020, 12:26:17 PM by narrowminded »
Mark G.