fighting procrastination fifteen minutes at a time

Month: April 2014

Foaming ‘ell

Well just a quick post before I go to bed as a full and fun packed day ahead at York Show very much a favourite of mine and so far has never disappointed. But back to tonights fifteen minute effort. As you can see from the picture be below I have managed to overcome the inertia and start something constructive. I came to the conclusion that it is better to fail than never try at all and so I got the craft knife and hot glue gun out and made some mess. The beauty of foam board is that it docent make mess and is very quick to build something. I had a basic idea and just went with that, very rudimentary measurements were made and the cutting was done on a professional mount cutter that my dad use to use which in theory should have made it an accurately produced cutting list however they hadn’t reckoned on me using it! However I thought that practice makes perfect and no task can be completed with perfection on the first run however much I think it can. I do suffer somewhat from perfectionist tendencies and have to wrestle with this pretty much every time I pick up a tool. But I am learning to overcome these thoughts and in the words of Nike ‘just do it.

Some some quick details it is 1m long and about 300m wide and the facia will house the light with the electronic mounted at the back of the underside for easy access.at the moment there needs to be a lot more bracing to make more robust and hopefully take some of the kinks out that I have found in cutting the board. I have to say that it was wombled from some friends that had it sitting around. Having looked at the completed work this evening I am wondering if the warp at the eastern end, as I am calling it, will be suitable for laying the tracks. I am going to use a mixture of Easitrac and hand lay and if it is a problem I will have to raise the road bed to be able to level it across the whole board. So we will see.

Even if this a failure in the long run it will certainly help get the momentum going and what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger 😉

Anyway more to follow in next couple of days as I have a hectic social calendar and a couple of trips away. Stay tuned..

Foamboard Test Layout

Day 2 of Foamboard build

Back on the Wagon

After a rather too long a hiatus in modelling terms due to life getting in the way I have managed to get back to the workspace. Yesterday I attended the NEAG meet that was primarily for getting people building and most of us built a 2mmFS Mineral Wagon kit and had the challenge to complete it by the end of the day. I didn’t get off to a good start by forgetting my soldering iron (I have at least 5 with the temp controlled one I was going to take got out ready the night before, and a craft knife) Thankfully one was provided for me and I cadged off my fellow AG member for the knife. It also realised/remembered that there are all sorts of little jigs and things like Blutac and hair clips. I have also been thinking about toolbox build and adapting it to my needs. I therefore haven’t moved ahead with this yet but I have make contact with local timber merchants who will supply and cut good quality Birch Ply along with carcassing timber for another project.

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get that far but I certainly managed to get a good way on with it. The boost it provided has got be back to getting on with my modelling and certainly will keep momentum going as I got another kit to bring home with me to start as soon as I have finished the first one. In fact I have a rake of about 15-20 to build of these so once I have completed one to my satisfaction I will start batch processing.

This leads me on to what to run these on. Well I am going to try to build a foam board micro, a kind of inglenook keeping it simple!! but building some things that can be transferred to the ‘big’ layout. But less talking more doing! 🙂

Wagon kit building

Wagon kit building starts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before lunch

Before lunch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Somewhat nearly finished

End of the day