fifteen minute modeller

fighting procrastination fifteen minutes at a time

Month: December 2020

That was 2020

31st December 2020 / / 0 Comments

Who would have thought, even eleven months ago that we would be in the grip of a global pandemic and that the freedoms and norms that we took so much for granted would have been stripped away from us. Just the simple act of going to a model railway exhibition would no longer be available to us, or standing around in a model shop shooting the breeze or purchasing that much needed supply would no longer be acceptable. Maybe some used the time constructively, but myself, I went in reverse. When we heard of people freed up from the daily routine that were flourishing at a myriad of pastimes, I seemed to recoil inwardly and struggled to motivate much activity in my hobby. I love that it has been like an old friend through time, both through the good and the bad times, but I seem to have this switch that gets flicked when seemingly the best time to make hay is now and I go in the opposite direction.

I started off the YouTube channel to really push myself to produce something, anything really rather than the endless planning and doodling on back of envelopes and generally talking about doing stuff rather than doing it. However after a solid start at the very point when I could have doubled down on it, I went into modelling hibernation. I didn’t start the channel for any self promotion reasons and it all came about due to a friend saying why didn’t I put up a video of all the footage I had taken over the years of our trips out to shows and real railways and I thought huhhh, you might have an idea.

Then the whole fifteen minute modeller idea took form and the idea was to pick a project and move toward this by little steps each day. Well at least consistently every week. Somehow, out of nowhere I decided to model in 4mm and use a gift given to me the year previously. But the ground work needed to be laid in order to get the modelling space that I had envisaged. All of this took longer than I had planned, and I still have a load of ideas that I want to put in place, but they will have to wait till next year now.

The common theme running through 2020 was starting things but not finishing. So 2021 is going to be about completion. I have a load of the projects for friends that are in varying stages of completion. But I am going to try using some new age productivity guru get things done. The irony is that when I get myself sat down at the modelling table I really enjoy it and the time flies by. So I will be taking a dose of my own message and just get something done on a regular basis toward getting first layout finished in 2021.

Some things are not on camera as I feel that its just having fun and I really enjoy getting out the Kato track and switching round some wagons in an imaginary industry. I think its important to play as ultimately I think most of use started out with a train set on the floor, maybe? and its just fun. I think this can be done with any scale or gauge and can be a few minutes or a few hours depending on you opportunity. I think it adds to the serious bit of model making.

And finally I thought I would just add mentions that have given me a joy to follow over a difficult year and really enjoy the journey both these inspiring modellers take. I think that 2021 may be a bit more of the same but I plan to enjoy my efforts and hope that I can achieve at least a bit of the plan.

So as we wave goodbye to the current year just leaves me to wish anyone following my ramblings here a peaceful and productive year ahead…

Until the next one.

Bouncing Box

27th December 2020 / / 0 Comments

In keeping with the small scale of operations at 15minmod towers, I was served up this great little video and two things sprang to mind. 1) Now that Unit would make a great little model; due to its size and uniformity. 2) at 3:13:00 there is a great little cameo layout idea. I have long thought that these little spots lend themselves to my restrictive space for modelling and the focus it allows is way more important to me. I never can resist the chance to noodle a bit and although it probably wouldn’t be that interesting in reality all these little scrappy are gathered together for patching together in a glorious multi faceted quilt of a railway.

Plan 25433989.23

So filing away for future ideas, I am lead to think that in these times of shortage, but an abundance of time it would be an ideal little 3D modelling project. Not having a 3d Printer won’t stop the fun of designing the build and yes I know there are places you can get things printed but as I try to stay focused on my current project when the mind wanders a craves sometimes different this is what I might turn to. The thought did also cross my mind about trying to create this in etched metal, as there are a number of variants of this that would lend well to filling out a sheet of nickel silver or Brass

BUT CONCENTRATE TOM!!!

Until next time..

Yard Office Build

20th December 2020 / / 0 Comments
#126 Yard Office Build

Back in October, I decided to get the mojo going again by building something, anything for the first layout that could propel me back to activity. I decided to start with something so simple I couldn’t really get it wrong. I can’t help but think of a Baldrick cunning plan at this point. But often the biggest hurdle to starting something is me! In my mind there are a million plans waiting to be materialised but very few of them have ever or will ever reach fruition. So the idea to get back to the modelling table popped into my head when I was browsing Peco’s website.

No bearing in mind I am predominantly a 2mm modeller I decided to build this in 4mm. This is due to a number of reasons. Partly because I started the foam board layout and I’m not sure why but I decided to base it around a Loco that was gifted to to me or swapped, I can’t quite remember now and that was a GWR Pannier Tank Loco and although I am not a Great Western modeller I have had vague leanings since a trip out to Pendon in my early years and spending hours looking at the Bridge scene. In fact I seem to remember being left there to watch the trains go by, I have no idea where the parents were, and that inevitable time to leave and not wanting to. It just seemed to me that this Loco would be at home in an urban location.

West London, off the beaten track somewhere. A little yard serving a local community, from a time when the rail network served the nation. This is partly due to my time living in London and always fancying building something from that location, where the railway is built up against just about everything. Also along with their family friend who I introduced to the joys of 2FS, had intentions of building something based around popular in the East End of London.Which was served by both the GWR, LMS and LNER. However that’s a whole other story.

So coming back to the original point of this post, and the reason to build the yard office, I settled on this as a simple structure that could be easily modified to the needs of the space that I was going to build. This building was he really there to oversee traffic in and out of the yard and to make sure no funny business went on. I haven’t messed around with the materials used. It is mainly to try out some techniques, and use in a way that gives more detail to it. I have also decided to build three iterations because I want to use different materials and techniques. I started out with the intent of using only what I had around me, this being food packaging, which is freely available. I simulated a board siding in order not to have to use a brick papers or other materials and also because I liked the look and this fitted in more to the location. The next iterations will be using that card and paper, and then I will return to the final build with the things I’ve learnt from building the previous versions and will be the one that goes on the layout.

The process of colouring was interesting. I knew from past experience with colour matching in the digital world that a lot of it is subjective to the time of day and the conditions that one is painting and also to what the viewer sees. Also I think it must’ve been decades since I last broke out paints and mixed up colours. it’s funny how wide the knowledge we have as modellers is for all the different mediums of this hobby. With the wonders of the internet one can get very detailed information on liveries etc, but in order not to get distracted and trying to achieve perfection I deliberately made myself just do it. I knew that this was purely a test and that there was no pressure for it to impress, me or others, and that freed up the progress. I think by the third one i will not only have a model I’m pleased with but will have got chops up to speed again.

I’ll leave you with a few pics from the build, and as I finish up this post I will be settling down to cutting out the next basic carcass on the way to another opportunity to learn those rusty skills.

Until next time..

Two Brains

13th December 2020 / / 0 Comments
#125 Mini DIY DCC

The 2FS mag came through the letterbox the other day. In it is an interesting article on amongst other things DIY DCC. I have rather been out of the loop with DCC as I have not had a layout to run it on and also I’ve not been in a club environment for a long time where they have been using it on a group layout. It struck me about this particular article was the simplicity of the set up, and the flexibility of it. One forgets that often we are bound in to proprietary systems to keep u buying additions or because they offer something that other manufacturers don’t.

Yes I know I can hear the people saying that it’s not that easy and that you can’t just plug a play. But let’s face it, if you have the bent to be interested in the electronic to that point you maybe able to fathom the depths of the diy digital. The fact that there is so much open source out there is testament to the back room hackers want to do something differently.

I for one fully support this and will be mashing up my Arduino and Raspberry Pi and teaching myself some programming stuff to control my little world, and with technology being so cheap, there’s never been a better time to do it!

There’s also information available at the DCCwiki

Until next time..

Browny biege-y chocolatey

9th December 2020 / / 0 Comments
#124 GWR Colours

In pondering the colour of the Yard Office I am building, I have been wrestling with the locations that I could draw on. I initially settled on the Scottish region light blue, only really because I like the colour. But the more I thought about it I realised that I couldn’t bring myself to anger the gods of fidelity so relocated my intentions to the west of London and so therefore in God’s Wonderful Railway (Great Western Railway, to the uninitiated)

I then came across this site with its mine of knowledge on Stone 1, Stone 2 etc. Now that I have the location I have no choice but to go chocolate and cream!

The future got 10 shades Brighter

6th December 2020 / / 0 Comments
#123 Acrylic Paints

So on the first after lockdown, I needed to pick up some paint. So a trip to our local “big town” was needed. Oh my, you wouldn’t think there was a global pandemic on, added in with that, Chrimbo frenzy that was really starting to get into the swing of things. But thankfully the art supplies shop was a bit of a haven away from all that. I’d forgotten what it was like to be in an art shop with all the different pencils paints paper et cetera. I could spend a happy few hours in there just perusing the racks of inspiration.

Looking for the acrylic paints that were tucked away on the shelf down near the floor, I came across an exactly right set. It had the necessary black and white in and a good mixture of others too.

By now the shop had another person had come in so I decided to pay for the paints and leave. To my surprise, a small queue had formed outside the shop and I don’t think it had seen such patronage. The fact that this little shop still exists and is stocked in every nook and cranny brings joy. I had a faint whiff of nostalgia, where all shopping were like this, and not the out of town centres of consumerism that we have grown to accept. Before I go on a melancholic ramble on how good things used to be I must remind myself that we didn’t have the wonders of the internet to provide us, modellers, with so much easy information at our fingertips or resulting friendships that have grown out of this wondrous medium.

Now bear in mind the last time I bought paint was probably when I was in my teens, and that was somewhat hazy as to whether they were for myself or as a gift for a relative. I was really unsure about what I was going to need. However, there is nothing that one can’t find out without a few moments of noodling on Google and a brief interrogation by the assistant.

Now come to there use. Obviously, there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube on how to paint with acrylics, but I will mainly be using them on card for architectural models. But as I have said before, I want to at some point go all Bob Ross and try a back scene, even if it is by numbers. But that will be a whole other story.

So now I will leave you with my ponderings of how to recreate Stone 1, Stone 2 and Chocolate Brown.

Until the next one..

Transport Fever 2 – For Mac

2nd December 2020 / / 0 Comments
Transport Fever 2
#122 Transport Fever 2

I recently came across the game of Transport Fever 2 and was piqued at the level of detail and game play. The game in question I came across on YouTube was based on a Swiss map, so how could I not like it! Now added into that I found out that the developers are bringing it to the Mac platform and suddenly my indifference to the recent announcements from Cupertino needed to be reevaluated. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to rush out and blow a grand on a new Apple but if my current 2011 dinosaur of a MacBook would run it I am definitely in.

Looking at the new M1 macs, and by the reviews they have been getting they would certainly be up to the task. However I am very much an iPad convert now and wouldn’t give up my pencil for anything. I know there’s a plan to be able to run apps from each platform on either but the reality is usually much different from than the promise.

But watching the trains trundling around the lakes and mountain passes made me think about commanding my own state owned railway in Helvetia..

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