One side of building has alternate brick color and sills painted. That's fatiguing! This will look great once the mortar goes on.
Roof back in, foundation painted and one wall ready for mortar. Time for a break. Where's that beer.. Wain?
Last night's work party centered around Rey working on flatcars. He feels that oob they are as much as 18 inches too high, so he lowers them. It is a task that takes a great deal of time and effort. He removes the entire bolster section at each end using the dremel to cut out the area he wants to modify: He then reconstructs a new bolster with a much lower profile: Once in place he paints the deck in black, brown and gray; in that order. When dried, he uses a grinding wheel in the dremel and slowly removes the paint to expose the different colors and scuff the deck for weathering. Here is a completed one and one in progress: Looks fantastic. Wain continued the area east of the golf course by adding foam contours. I like the mini-cut look. Meanwhile Doug began to add a shoulder to our roadways: Scott and I worked on the hill brake, which has become a pain. The sheathing cable keeps coming out of its attachment point. As such, Scott drilled and tapped 2-56 screws to keep the cable in place. That worked great. But the travel of the wire was insufficient, and we determined the piano wire that connected the push knob to the actuator switch was too short. Scott will fabricate a new one and hopefully it will work come next week. If not, we'll pull it out and try something else. As always, very pleased with the progress. Hope you are too. Thanks for checking in. M
Does Wain work by a set measurement? Such as where the coupler height must be? Of is he somewhat going by eyesight?
Just for fyi, it's Rey that works the cars. To answer your Q, he meticulously measures the heights using calipers and ho scale ruler. If something is out of scale or dimension, he takes copious notes and fixes each car in that series the same for consistency sake. Amazing stuff.
You guys are so far ahead of me it ain't even funny! Amazing work! I'm definitely going to try the flat car weathering.
One thing I failed to mention in that post, I use each piece to its fullest extent. If I have to cut it to fit, I use the remainder as the first piece on the next layer. It makes for realistic seams. I will also come back with a felt tip pen and highlight the seams. The final step will be dry brush of black oil paint, using the finest brush I have. It's not to go everywhere, just highlight spots on the seams, just like the sealer would. It is especially visible in the corners and around obstructions. I'll post that when I get to it. Also, remember oil paint takes a long time to dry, so when you're done using the oil, put the model away and come back to it in a day or two. M
Thanks John, spent some more time on the building yesterday, I'll post some pics later this evening. M
Fun to come home to this..... Wain came by earlier and painted in the clouds. We find it better to do this without others around, it's safer for them (no harsh fumes) and easier for the painter to move around and get their desired angles. I love the shading effect and how it sends the dulled landforms into the distance versus the darker landforms which pop. As I mentioned yesterday, here are two shots of City Hall with the second side painted. Two to go. Well, the guys start arriving in a few. Better get ready for them. Back later for more progress photos. Thanks for checking in. M
It works! Scott has successfully engineered the hill brake. It took fabricating our own push/pull rod, but it is working like a charm. Red LED brake engaged: Yellow LED, disengaged: instead of
Do you think there will be any troubles with operators bumping into that lever? Just wondering how durable it might be.
I know there will. So we are going to have a clear lexan cover made for it. Imagine a clear 2" pvc pipe around it. M