The wrenches are from a company called Vector Cut. They do some really nice work. I ordered several items from them such as chair kits, screen doors and tool sets. You get a lot for your money.
Just finished another one. It is my version of Laurie Green's model in HO. It will never be as good as what he has done, but I kind of like it. I seem to be stuck on these water front structures!
That dock scene is going to go well with the other one. Really well done while keeping a consistent feel. This is not a criticism. Don't change a thing. But that guy in the one piece bathing suit freaks me out. I hope it doesn't become a new style for Hipsters. Matt
I saw the guy in the bathing suit on Ebay and just couldn't resist it! He seems to draw a lot of attention and comments. I figured if I had to explain him, he would be the banker that owns the mortgage on the property so he can come take a swim anytime he wants to! I am kind of going for a run down depression era feel. I did build a small boat repair operation as a part of this scene also if you would like to see it. I am keeping all of these models separate for now because they are being built for the master structures certificate. Currently working on a fresh seafood buyer/seller and will need to come up with one more and have no idea what it will be!
On my workbench is the usual mess. However, I do have a Micro Engineering On30 Code 83 with a metal frog and I have no idea how to wire it to make the frog alive. I think I need a toggle switch, but I'm lost there as well. A simple diagram of the above would be appreciated. Thanks, Jim
Box, Like many of us I'm slowing down and getting on in years. Scenery I can still do, but my brain doesn't do well with electrics anymore. I used to know most of this stuff, but I'm not doing well at it anymore. I can follow a diagram or map, but I can't answer your question. Jim
I have not been very active lately, but still have some converted On3 models that I'd like to report about. They are all originally Bachmann-Spectrum On30 models that had been converted to On3 by someone before I bought them. Here, first, is my little Bumblebee 2-6-0 model that came with a number 136 on the sides of the cab and on the boiler front. However, the headlight panels came just yellow without numbers. Also, as this is meant as a substitute for a 268, I think it needed a number on the rear of the tender. The decals used are San Juan Decals. As the tender is relatively small, the pre-1940 12" numbers are still a bit large, so they go over the rivets. But I tried smaller numbers (10" size) that I happened to have as well, and they just did not look right in comparison to what I like about 268 (see last picture). To some people this might actually seem more appropriate, though. The fact that this model has no true prototype left room for some individual preferences. So in the end, the result comes as close to what I wanted as was possible at all. I also added some real coal on top of the plastic insert. and a few pieces were added in front of the coal bin to hide the missing opening. Finally, a picture of the finished engine on my display shelf where it can be compared to the much larger MMI Ks. I feel this is a nice addition as it is. The one thing that is not exactly optimal is the fact that the conversion from On30 to On3 did not include the cylinder spacing. Thus, things are a bit tight there. But I ran the model for considerable time without problems.
This second post will be about the still unfinished project. I have had three passenger cars here for way over a decade. I had bought them at the time because they were cheap, and because they also had been converted to On3. So when I got my "bumblebee" engine last year, the idea was to run it with these three passenger cars. Well, actually, the set consists of one coach, one observation car and one combine. And they were all lettered for Colorado & Southern. (The first two pictures are from the Bachmann web site.) They are considerably shorter than a D&RGW coach should be. But I plan to have them decaled for my D&RGW anyway. What I had not realized anymore was that all three cars were in much worse condition than I had remembered. But I needed to take them apart anyway for painting, so I did not mind doing the other adjustments as well. The second set of photos shows the cars as they look now. The roofs only needed the clerestory windows glued in. It was more complicated to get all the other windows out. They will have to wait till the car bodies will have received their new darker paint. I plan to get them done following the colors used by Blackstone for their HOn3 coaches. At this point, I only removed the lettering so that it will not shine through eventually. I already spray-painted the interiors. These will not be prominent in the end, so I did not want to go into any detailing. It was only that I felt the dark green color was not what I wanted. I used some chocolate-brown color that I think is good enough as a compromise. Again, as I can't have models of true prototypes, I did not feel like I needed to go into more detailing. The major problem, so far, was to get the couplers mounted at the correct height. I used both On3 Kadee and San Juan Evolution couplers. I actually prefer the smaller Kadees, but the Evolution model allows more vertical tolerance, an issue that is a bit critical with the Bumblebee's tender. Lowering the coupler is easier than lifting it, at least in this case. I'll use Thinfilm decals as they have a nice gold version that I prefer over the yellow one. I own a fine San Juan train set in HOn3 that came with this gold color lettering. I think it has a special class of its own. So I tried pretty hard to find such a set of decals for On3. Had it shipped from Australia, in the end. But as I live in Switzerland, shipping from the US or from Australia does not really make that much difference.
Just a bump for this thread. Finished this awhile back. I need to build a freight shed to go with it.
I had the bodies of these three ex On30 Bachmann models painted by a local professional, asking to use Blackstone's coach colors as a guideline. My own contribution was then to re-letter the models and reassemble them. Unfortunately, the models got a clear coat of glossy acrylic paint instead of the enamel kind I usually apply for better adhesion of the decals. It did not seem to matter at first. But I goofed in no longer realizing that the coach and the observation car came with different bodies. There was simply too much time since I had taken them apart, and for some reason those larger windows on one end of the observation car had now escaped me. So I lettered the observation car with coach car numbers and the coach car got one of the available names of the observation car. It took a night before I detected the mistake. I tried to remove the faulty lettering to replace it with a more correct version. But I soon realized that this was impossible without severely damaging the paint underneath. It turned out that the Thinfilm decal must have essentially fused with the acrylic, most likely helped by the Micro Sol setting liquid that I use customarily. On an enamel surface, the decals would most likely have been destroyed as well in my attempts to remove them. But at least, the paint would not have been damaged. So there was no other way but to accept this mistake and give the cars a clear coating of satin enamel. Then the assembling was done, adding a strip of age resistant scotch tape on the inside of the toilet windows for that "milky" look. As none of these cars has a real prototype to go by, I selected letterings to bests convey a plausible impression. And as these models are too short, problems arose fitting the decals in some cases. I would have liked to apply the "BAGGAGE RAILWAY EXPRESS AGENCY" lettering to the side of the combine door. But there was not enough space. And it took some juggling to apply the name band over the windows, but at least it was possible to fit it. The photos show the final result, with the observation windows combined with coach numbers, and the OURAY name on the coach. The final picture shows the full train with the also fictitious "Bumblebee" engine described earlier. I'd love to have about two more coaches, but that's not really urgent. I more likely will add some freights anyway.
Cleaning up around my bench revealed these little gems sitting. Kitbashed from Bachmann N scale gondolas, they need loads and weathering. Oh yeah. A layout to run them on wouldn't be bad either..
Work in progress. Chivers Finelines (now Five79) body, Graham Farish (Bachmann UK) chassis. Working on designs for 3D printed pilots, GE-style side frames and counterweights. Cheers NB
A few days and a Shapeways order later... Alas the counterweights did not work out as planned - back to the drawing board... the equaliser detail is a bit shallow on purpose, otherwise it wouldn't clear the c'weight mounts. Cheers NB