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Comments
Keep up the good work,
Paul
A few more baby steps today - the tortoise and the hare . . . .
Today I began by adding the under floor joists.
The metal casting was prepped, attached and an attempt was made to surround the attach points with black epoxy applied with a pin for some semblance of control.
The dormer interior was blackened, in the event that interior illumination is activated.
At this time, well removed from the end < ! > I am inclined to add an outside lamp over this door and try to use the Ngineering product shown in the second photo.
So much for this time. If anyone sees anything that needs correcting please let me know.
Respectfully,
John
I think you have found your groove.
One question I had pondered was how old was each building. Once I decided the age, it became easy to determine the effect that was required. For example, if the the main building was "x" years old, the warehouse would be less than "x" years and the yardmasters office would be younger than the warehouse. This is based on the assumption when they built the main building they did not think about the warehouse and yardmasters office. You need to decide the growth and when additions are built. Given this, your building color, nail holes, etc looks about 5-10 years old.
Those gooseneck lights are crazy hard to build. If you do decide to build them, buy the jig and the other suggested tooks. It will make everything easier.
The dormer door has brown in the peeling paint areas, is this what you wanted?
Marty
The build is coming together. The wall color is really nice. I like the nailholes too.
I thought I would give you my two cents about the lights. The ngineering lights are awesome. They will add alot to your build. When you start building them I have found that for myself trying to make an assembly line will make things happen quicker rather than one at a time.
I will punch all the lamp shades at one time and do a bagful at a time. Next i will cut the wire and twist it and then paint all the wire at once black if it will be seen. I brought the fixture to bend the goosenecks and it is the way to go. I am trying to do 5-10 of these in a sitting so I have lots to use. Then I will put everything together. I brought a variable temp soldering iron from Weller. It is much easier appling the solder to the wire then using a 40 watt soldering iron from Radio Shack. The temp is much more stable and you can dial in the temp you want. I tried prepainting the formed goosenecks and the lampshades but it was difficult to slide the lampshades on. The paint tends to scratch off the stainless steel wire easily as well. If you have any windows open and light up the inside you will realize it will look empty. One last observation is depending on the amount of bend and placement it may hit the roof edge so you may have to make another type of bend. I have yet to determine some of the final wiring to the circuit board and actually have a fully light building. I have made alot of mistakes trying to fiqure out the fastest and easiest way to make the lights. Once you get the hang of it, it isn't hard.
I hope this helps. I am looking foward to seeing more of your splendid build
Jim
Steve
Marty, thank you for your comments. My skill level is probably not yet sufficiently tuned to intentionally create an age. I am just hacking away and trying to do things as much the same as possible for continuity - it ends up the way it ends up! I like your idea about trying to make the add on buildings look newer and if I haven't already stained wood for them I'll try to do that. The brown peeling effect in the white painted frames is one I think I need to address and my best guess would be to try to cover those areas with a more transparent white paint. I wonder if that is correct.
Jim, thank you very much. I need as many comments as possible! I'd like to know your overall lighting plans if you have the time - I'll recheck your thread, but I don't think I recall you forecasting your intentions. I'll take your advice and make several of each style, though I'm winging it without too much of an overall plan. I understand your roof edge comment as would pertain to the light over the door in the dormer - I share your concerns and hope to be able to deal with it somehow. Generally speaking I want to put probably a nano size in each dormer area then experiment with making them very dim. It is interesting what you are saying about the interiors looking empty if lit. I have been wondering about printing a scale photo of an appropriate interior and mounting it on the wall behind the illumination. Does anyone have any input on that? Maybe a photo of an O scale build log interior scaled down to HO . . . does that make sense?
I have been involved in electronics since high school, both as an amateur and with a small communications business. I know how to solder, have the correct temperature adjustable iron and any number of solders with assorted melting temperatures. I placed a large order with Ngineering two days ago trying to cover as many eventualities as possible. That included the lamp bending jig, lamp kits, all tubing diameters, wire, the power distribution board, the small component mounting boards and the whole family of 1/4 watt resistors. I know how to deal with the math for LED's. Their web site is also nicely done in that respect. Mike thank you for mentioning it. Yes, I agree that they have an excellent presentation.
Steve, what are you building? I see you have 8 posts - Have I missed a thread from you? I'd love to see what you are working on.
For my part, I am following Brett's manual and am now up to page 30 with nothing skipped. The existing build logs are a great help and I look ahead at Joel, Marty and Paul's photos and comments as I move along. Who am I missing?
I continue trying to improve my photography and have discovered manual focusing. Next will be an attempt to learn time exposure like Paul uses.
These are the last small steps prior to glueing the walls together. Below is my jig to bend the tar paper around the edge of the large awning.
The results appear satisfactory. Trimming will follow after the glue has dried.
The awning end pieces.
Nothing major or exciting other than the fact that once I attach the big awning the next step is to begin glueing the walls together.
At this point I am going to wait for my order from Ngineering to arrive and experiment with the interior dormer lighting and attempt to put a lamp over the upstairs dormer door. I want to have lights in place prior to putting the walls together.
I'd appreciate input if suggestions could be made for photos that I could attach to rear walls in the dormers, just in case the illumination necessitates it. One of the forum's O scale build logs (Karl maybe?) has an interior scene that looks possibly appropriate to go behind the large doors on the dock. I am wondering about a false wall there with an appropriate photo attached and open or semi open dock doors. It seems like these steps ought to be easy at this stage.
Ngineering has a sequencer that will enable lights to be randomly turned on and off. I am considering that seriously so that I could light all interior windows but not have them all on at once - it seems like all at once would kill the effect . . .
What am I missing?
Respectfully,
John
Marty
That repair made the end look to squared and perfect so I cut it up a bit with my blade, recolored it then wire brushed it.
I finished the large awning and mounted its four angled supports but I want to let the glue set over night before attaching it to the loading dock wall. My little metal blocks are a blessing every day for support and for "squaring" things. Based on an earlier comment, possibly Paul, I was conservative on how low I brought the vertical boards for the second level of the building. As a result, by fudging the absolute tiniest amount in vertical placement, I can get the pressed board parts all on the lower horizontal planks and the equivalent of flashing on the upper vertical planks - and the underside of the awning is still a nice distance above the door frames. It pays having you folks out in front of me . .
Tim phoned from Ngineering last night - it sounds like my electrical goodie box may arrive today. My first challenge will be attempting a light above the dormer door.
As a long time New England coast resident I can say with certainty that the second level of a building such as this was customarily the sail loft. In keeping with Jim's suggestion I am hunting for a suitable sail loft photo that I can reduce in size and attach to the inner wall of the large dormer. I'm not sure what I'll do for the two small dormers on the other wall but I've got time to think about that.
Thank you for looking in. Please don't let me miss anything!
Respectfully,
John
Karl.A
I think the idea of a photo is an excellent one. Much easier than trying to build interior walls and trying to find the right details to fill it. I built interior walls and floors on the passenger station from the logging essentials kit and still am not done with it. I think planning ahead on where you want lights is the right way to go. Mine was an afterthought. The electronics will be a piece of cake for you based on your background. Can't wait to see how the lights come out for you! Keep up the great work. Hopefully I might get a few lights done this weekend on the exterior of the Line Side shed so I can try my hand at scenery in the next few weeks and then some photos to post. I am a slow builder.
Jim
I have some pictures of my HO scale service shops under General News, Another Winner, where I entered it in a local NMRA contest. Your work is coming along very nicely.
Steve
Yes, the camera is one's worst enemy. I continue in my attempt to educate myself in its use. Speaking of cameras, is this by chance someone we know? I'm thinking of when I had to replace my manual because I spilled wine on it . . . .
Jim, as soon as you have photos of your lighting experiments please let us see them. This is totally uncharted territory for me. Perhaps my Ngineering supplies will arrive today. My first intention is to attempt a solution to illuminate above the dormer door and experiment with interior lighting therein. Yesterday afternoon I found a bunch of sail loft photos, filed them and then picked one to resize and insert into the dormer with the door. It can't be said that it is very visible at HO scale but it will keep the room from looking empty. I will figure out how to photograph the effect - I have a T3i/600D camera which is up to the task - if I am!
Respectfully,
John
John
John
Under the Discussion "GENERAL NEWS AND RAMBLING" the thread Another Winner is the location of my project HO Scale Locomotive and Service Shops.
You are a wizard. That is unbelievably awesome work. I think I need to follow your lead with my white trim and cover the brown areas with grey - that would hopefully look like the way you distressed your white.
Please contribute to this thread with ideas for my improvement. I am posting my small steps hoping to receive constructive comments while the iron is still hot, so to speak, so that I can upgrade my efforts before getting myself into too deep a hole. I look at the fantastic work that all of you experienced folks do and only wish . . . .
What are you working on now? Please show some photos and shed your proud incognito status . .. . .. . ..
Respectfully,
John
Thanks for the comments. If you are wanting the peeling paint effect, I followed Brett's instructions in his manual for the model.
My current project is a scratch built model of the Sturgeon Saw Mill. I am muddling my way through it. It is my first scratch built model. I am using some of Brett's castings, I bought plans from Boone Morrison of the original mill. I then had to draw my own plans and modify the structure by widening it and raising the roof several feet to allow for some commercial castings of sawmill equipment and stationary steam engines to fit into the project. I have had to go back and rework several things a couple of times.
What I have learned from building a couple of Brett's models have been a tremendous help and has given me the confidence to try this project. I did not think that it would be appropriate to post pictures on Brett's site for this since it is not one of his models. Maybe when I am done, I will post pictures on one of the other RR forum sites.
In the meantime, I am still learning and progressing, taking 2 steps forward and 1 back on occasion.
Steve
Karl.A
Thanks for commenting on your weathering the white Steve - clearly you follow instructions better than I did! I should review and see where I went wrong . . . .
If you have the patience, it would be very beneficial to new people like myself to see a build log of what you are doing. Scratch building has many additional nuances as you are well aware. I'd really enjoy following your progress and hearing your reasoning.
What I am posting is I believe the opposite of a build log because I don't know enough to say, "Here is how this is done". I am simply posting my progresses, tiny as they are, hoping someone will stop me before I dig myself into too deep a hole.
With that in mind, I don't know yet how anyone finishes these projects. My electrical supplies arrived from Ngineering today and I was more than surprised to see the size of the micro LED's. I haven't opened the nano size yet !!! With my 4 diopter work light/lenses and my eye glasses I can barely discern the tab on each end of the micro LED. I added the 12 diopter addition for assistance but that leaves minimal work distance between the glass and the task. The electrical characteristics are so minimal that I can not "see" the LED with my Fluke meter to test forward conduction. I thought I had burnt out the first LED, but eventually when I pieced the clues together it was OK.
I did a quick (four hours) "breadboard" setup to see what it would look like. Errors and trying to find the LED when it would fly out of my control were time consuming. The next time will be more expedient. My wife and I both think the amount of light is satisfactory and shouldn't be reduced further but my initial photography attempt makes it look a little on the bright side.
My pin vice is too big to hold the .018" tubing while doing an end flare so I can't work on the light for over the dormer door until mid week when a Starrett 162A pin vice arrives.
Here is my initial photography attempt. I'll try to figure out a way to get a picture that isn't overpowered by the light.
Yes Karl, I cropped that photo from the banquet at the museum. May I please be the last to congratulate you on your award.
Respectfully,
John
I did open the nano light package. I said to myself, how am I going to see what I am soldering? Mike M suggested Ngineering's site on magnification. I sent Tim an email asking more information and this is what he said:
Here's information on the Stereo zoom microscope:
http://store.amscope.com/sm-3b-frl.html This is an excellent microscope at a really, really great price. 5-year warranty.
Hint: turn the boom stand base around backwards and place a heavy weight on it. This gets the base out of the way on your workbench.
And, of all the accessories offered, if I picked one it would be the 0.5 magnification Barlow lens: http://store.amscope.com/sm05.html This lens is to be screwed onto the objective (bottom) lens and divides the magnification in half and doubles the working distance. It makes the scope a 3.5X (highest Optivisor magnification) to 22.5X (more than anyone would every need in modeling (even in Z scale).
I did not want to spend that much money, so I am going to try the Optivisor replacement lense no. DA=10 with an Opti Loupe for each eye.
Steve
Alan & Marty, thank you for commenting on the level of illumination. Steve, I quickly looked at the stereo zoom microscope, think I'll order one but I need to go back in detail and absorb all that you said. First, I wanted to get today's work written up. Thank you for that information. It is exactly what I need. Soldering in the blind is not satisfactory. While I got lucky configuring the first unit it made me realize it is not a satisfactory way to move ahead.
I have a whole new respect for those many people ahead of me who have implemented illumination to some degree in their models. These LED's are daunting! Probably because I don't have the tools but that will be dealt with.
I few more tiny steps yesterday and today to report. As mentioned yesterday my goody package arrived from Tim.
To those of you who haven't seen these LED's, the photo below is of the larger of two sizes that Steve and I are discussing - this is the micro, the nano, if you can believe, is half this size. That should illustrate the requirement for advanced optics.
This is how I mounted the micro LED on a lateral strip that goes above the center of the dormer. The sail loft picture on the rear wall is sloppily mounted because the available viewing angles are satisfied.
Here it is in place. Look carefully for the pair of 38 gauge wires leading out of the top of the inside of the wall. In some fashion yet to be determined I plan to extend and run every set of wires out of the building to an external location where I can activate the ones I choose.
I have the Ngineering bending tool for wall mounted lights but won't have a pin vise for flaring the .018" tubing until Wednesday. That will be for over the door locations such as the dormer door.
I went over to RR as suggested and found the photography tutorial. The last two pictures herein used the curved sloping background with side reflectors for shadow reduction.
Respectfully,
John
Make sure you block/blackout against light leakage. Do a test...at night in complete darkness turn on the LED and see where light shines through the walls. You will be surprised that it goes right through the card and stripwood.
Marty.
Make sure you block/blackout against light leakage. Do a test...at night in complete darkness turn on the LED and see where light shines through the walls. You will be surprised that it goes right through the card and stripwood.
Marty.
I never would have thought of that. Thank you. Will do. Now is the time to catch it before the building is constructed. Additionally, I plan to throttle the light level back a bit even though it already seems OK.
John