fifteen minute modeller

fighting procrastination fifteen minutes at a time

Category: Misc (Page 2 of 3)

BBBd4

15th October 2014 / / 0 Comments

Arriving back home with a new sheet of 6mm ply and the intent to get on and attach it to the base I found that in having it cut at the store it seemed to release all the tensions in it and found it to have warped drastically in the middle to the point that it was a very shallow U. This was not what I had expected and after going through a pile of around 25 sheets to get the best of I thought I had managed this. However I was wrong and what it has taught me is that it seems to be increasingly hard to find decent quality sheet timber. Not to be deterred I am now going for plan B which is to get 9mm ply for the top and this should hopefully keep its rigidity although adding some weight to it. So seats down on the old jallopy and of to the wood yard I must go.. well not today but hopefully tomorrow.

Lock Keepers CottageIn other news something I have been eyeing up for some time is something from scalescenes and I particularly liked the lock keepers cottage as this seems an easy model to complete and I can think of a nice little diorama with canal and river scene it would fit in and all this extra plywood I now have sitting around would come in handy for building a small 2mmFS micro layout. But that’s yet another distraction that I am trying to avoid at the moment and concentrate on the main project.

One of the things that I have in plenty is mounting card and a professional guillotine that my Dad use to use so should be able to make a reasonable go of it. I will just need to see how there printer is fixed for ink and this I will call a micro project.

Building blocks and U-turns, kinda

27th August 2014 / / 0 Comments
10" Table Saw

My new 10″ JET Table Saw

Well in true me stylee nothing happens for ages and then three things at once! Things have been slow on the modelling front due to various life things getting in the way but I have managed to eek a bit of time here and there and although this isn’t an actual modelling post it is more a setting for the foundations. In the first pic you will see my newly set up table saw. This has been sitting around for oh I don’t know months, but finally got over the inertia to get it out of the box and set up in the workshop, only took about three days with potters out there with cups of tea, lots of looking and ‘thinking about’ followed by more cups of tea and then some action. Yesterday was the big grand starting up day and thankfully the morning was set sunny as the workshop doesn’t have a lot of light, well only natural light at the moment so rather reliant of some reflected sun to illuminate the table. Thought that this was important due to the nature of the beast and its ability to sever limbs and the like. I am not scare of these kinda things but it pays to be cautious and in this instance RTFM was observed completely. Finding a straight and levelish piece of timber was another thing. However I can happily report table saw started up perfectly and zinged along until the kill switch was hit rather gingerly. Next up was the ceremonial cutting, well before the 10 minute hunt for safety glasses and ear defenders, the later not found but a memory of leaving in allotment shed so mental note made to collect before 2014-08-26_13.47.56any more cutting is carried out. Having watched numerous vids on Youtube with people not using protective ‘stuff’ makes me think I would rather keep hold of all my digits, limbs and faculties.

All in all a successful and positive step forward in 15minutemodding towers, however I do have to pass on a bit of a mini rant. The quality of this so called quality hobbyist saw is in my view bordering on the crap spectrum. The whole thing has a cheap and nasty feel to it and after the original bits missing needing replacements I rather lost confidence in the whole thing which is why I guess it took so long to get to this point. The fence is nigh on bloody useless and also the mitre ‘thing’! I was about to do the following when a bit of sense prevailed. So I am now looking for ways to mod it. I like the vid as the bulk of what I see myself cutting is going to be ply and small dimensional lumber but I am hold fire before going down this route of replacing the top with ply, I will firstly look at a beefed up measuring channel and fence locking handle but I am going to try it out on some board first to see how far out of gauge it is. For a Swiss firm and a Trusted UK distributor I would have expected a little more oh well onwards..

Having posted else where my desire to do something constructive lead to a dresser top ops session. This initially started out as a test of some Kato track and then became a mini ops sesh. Amazing what you can do with four wagons and a loco. Having started out with all but my only DC loco leaving me to think all the others had failed in storage or transport I had the head slapping moment of realising that all the other locos are DCC and the KATO power unit for the GEX set in DC Duh!!!! anyway spent a couple of happy evenings switching wagons around on an imaginary town somewhere in deepest New England. This lead me on to further thoughts about my then current plan, but this and more in a further post as duties call!

One more thing… just a teaser for a bit of an epic adventure next week with my mate Mr D

Gingeryitius

26th June 2014 / / 0 Comments

Having for a very long time wanted a lathe, a number of factors over the years have construed to thwart me in this endeavour. The first being time and the latter being money. Now in a position where time is abundant but money is scarce I find myself going back to the idea of self build, or in modern par lance open sourcing.

A couple of years ago I came across mentions of the Gingery Lathe (GL) this then followed research and finding out that there was a set of books to go from nothing to a full workshop of machine tools. This sounded amazing and just what was needed. However at the time my work was all consuming and left little time for backyard casting antics let alone machining and making that level of mess in a second floor flat. So ideas of having my own lathe were put on the back burner until a time came when I would be able to make mess and have some space and time to do that.

Going back through my browser links the other day I came across the GL links which whetted my appetite again to have a go at backyard casting a machine tool making. With all my other Youtubing around table saws and the like I came across another amazing find and just what I was looking for!

Having no experience what’s so ever in metal work apart from the very limited sojourn at school I am also interested to learn these skills and some others to make for a fully rounded home shop bodger (my term) which will include a bit of welding too. This will hopefully start to pan out over the next year as I know these things take time and things have to be learnt. Even now I am looking for evening classes for home engineering and welding.

Rattle and roll

23rd June 2014 / / 0 Comments
GC HST Northbound

HST Northbound home on Grand Central

Returning home from the smoke we travelled on Grand Central on one of the HST sets and although they no longer powered by the Valenta engine we still rocked along only stopping in York and Thirsk and reaching York in around 1:50mins from Kings Cross which unless your Jenson Button is nye on impossible and, its much more pleasant to travel by train, watch the landscape go by, have a cuppa tea and relax than either sit in traffic jams or getting caught in the speed cameras. But anyway this doesn’t have much to do with 15 minutes modelling a day.

However on my return a pack was waiting for me which I had forgotten about which was nice and has a good selection of pictures both old and contemporary. I still like to be able to peruse through my book collection and think in some ways I would like to have a look at the e-versions but there is something nice and tactile about paper.

However there is a bonus DVD to watch. I will have to find a quiet moment to watch this but being HD I am looking forward to being able to pause and take screenshots for future reference. I was pointed to this magazine from another forum where the special issue was dedicated to rhbmagndvdthe RhB I thought that it should not be missed. The pictures are all of really good quality and the black and whites are clear and crisp. So my bed time reading is sorted out.

And finally I am still waiting for the Table saw to be fixed so I can look at starting to cut the ply for the modules and hopefully that will be this week however I do have enough to be getting on with for the moment.

Up hill down dale

23rd June 2014 / / 2 Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9wn_CSVUWM

Just a short post to show a rather ramshackle test proof of concept for the GEX set going round a 150mm curve radius helix. As this is only for the none scenic sections it will all be covered over, but access needs to be possible as there will be switches half way up for the middle level and due to the tightness of the curves derailments may occur. I set out to get 50mm of lift in the helix in one turn which is probably double the amount Kato allows for their lifted sections but there recommended clearance is 50mm so it was a good guess.

As you see the loco easily pulls the coaches up and I did a test with the full compliment and it didn’t struggle at all but as I am only going to be using 4 at most this is a satisfactory test.

ArmchairTV modelling

20th June 2014 / / 0 Comments

Just a quick post about the new (to me) Trainmasters TV.  I have just been able to join up and getting a discount for subscribing to MRH made it even more appealing. Although the content is predominately North American the modelling techniques are pretty universal. I am just working through back drop painting at the moment and have picked up some really useful tips. Although at the moment I am doing this digitally I plan to get some brushes and acrylic paints to have a go at a Alpine backdrop.. don’t hold your breath though as this is going to be a lot harder than I think and having seen the like of Troels Kirk’s work I won’t be happy till its right.

TMTV is not only about modelling and there are some interesting in sites into the proto railroads that normally I wouldn’t find that interesting. I think that the possibilities are endless when it comes to the content they can serve up and am looking forward to how they progress with this. Although you can find so much on Youtube  the content here has a much more polished feel to it and as its all in HD you get the full effect..

So for the price of a sandwich a month, you can get some really good quality content to sit back and watch and learn.

Oh and then theres Lionel 🙂

Building blocks

24th February 2014 / / 0 Comments

Today I have been messing around with my Rasberry Pi and a box Lego that goes back to when we were kids. It has been kept in a  trunk for the the last oh longer than I care to remember and successive generations of kids both family and friends have played with it. It is lasting testament to Ole Kirk Christiansen that his bricks are still being used today by young and old. Even now, usually at Christmas when we all get together the Lego box comes out and the adults build and play with the kids with just as much fun. Spaceships, cars, dolls houses, farm yards and trains are all conjured out of the imagination and brought to life by those little plastic bricks.  But I digress..

So the plan is to build a case that houses both the Pi and my SROG II. I Have been messing around with both I am also going to look at unifying the power supplies for both if I can making it more compact and portable for future needs. As the SPROG can only really run a small N or Z scale layout I am not planning on running an empire from it but hope to use it for layouts that I may exhibit in the future. I have uploaded JMRI to Pi but have not had time to test this out yet although there are plenty of examples on the net to reference its use on the microPC. One factor that needs to be address is the screen. Here I have had a number of thoughts, one of which would be to get a cheap tablet and remotely control the Pi. I guess testing would prove the suitability of this method. Or a small touch screen could be mounted onto the case but the costs start rising once you go do this route and part of this project is to do things cheaply in line  with the R-Pi Project.

I was also thinking about future add-on modules for switching and signalling but that would be a future hack once I have the combo-pack up and running. Also running through my mind is the idea of using 3D printing to make custom blocks for embedding switches, LEDs and port holes to the basic Lego structure but this is down the road a ways…

Anyway some pics to come tomorrow once I am happy with the lash-up.

Table top tactics

19th February 2014 / / 2 Comments

Having spent the last couple of days unpacking boxes I reached a bit of overload and the ‘stuff’ I had accumulated over the years had mounted up. I am really quite amazed at the fact that I had all of this with me whilst living the life of a contractor and out of a suitcase pretty much. So at least I am getting to the point that I know exactly what I have although I keep thinking that I am going to uncover an unmarked box full of stock that I had forgotten all about. Like the one today, full of US Z scale stock. As I have indicated the narrowing down will help focus but what of the moment? Well thats where the table top railway comes in. A bit of fun in 00 as I found a bunch of stock that I thought had long gone. Obviously sense prevailed in the last cull 🙂 The loco and stock are no where near the same eras but hell its my railway and I don’t care. I also have a childhood Hornby J73 (I think, as its not in front of me) which will need a strip down, clean and lube and I am going to put in a Lenz decoder if it turns out to be a good runner, if not I am going to stick to DC.

The plan is, there is no plan. It is there to just get out when the mood takes and do a bit of shunting/switching using a simple dispatching method using dice, or an online dice program.. hmm that reminds me must learn some coding. Don’t plan to add to this and am going to go with the no scenery but might mock up some card buildings that can be used for the industries. I think if it can all fit into one box that will be good.

Anyway off to PLAY

00shuntingplank

Stock take 2

18th February 2014 / / 0 Comments

Ok so next up box of mainly UK N scale and some US N and some odd and sods of 009, some kits I completely forgot I had and bunch of Lenz decoders. The real surprises were the 2mmFS Peco converted wagons, some Z scale track gauges I made on a makeshift power drill lathe many years ago, Dapol Class 86 and the Dapol Grand Central HST pack with couple of coaches.. all new to me. Some of this will go as I will never model ECML and the 009 will probably go too.

Ok onwards and upwards as they say.

Stockbox2

Stock take

18th February 2014 / / 3 Comments

Just a quick post and I took the decision to see what I actually have inventory wise. I kinda feel this pic is a bit like the images of fighter jets with there full payload laid out in front of them and something I use to take great interest when I was in my teens but now I am going to take each box and lay out and inventory everything that I have. I am then going to sell all the stuff I am not going to use and hope to get enough to fund a new lathe, or airbrush or maybe if I am really lucky both.

I think it may give me the opportunity to sort all of it out as at the moment I have no idea what is where and I keep thinking ‘oh where’s so and so’ and not finding it/them and then going out and buying another. So there are many duplicates and although this is a good thing at the moment I really want to stop slapdash purchasing. Case in point (pun intended) I was hoping to start my 2mmfs wagon kit, but like hell can I find the broaches I brought for similar process. So before I hit the buy online button I am going to make sure I can’t find them first.

As you will see there is quite an eclectic selection of 00 – early BR loco and wagons; N – BR Blue and mixture of everything between that and big four; N – US all North Eastern; Z – Swiss (my fav box set), and US – CP; NG in the form of HOm and 009 and lots of other bits such as point motors and my SPROG. Anyway enough for tonight.

Box Inventory 1

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