Just to let everyone know, who is interested, the the next convention will be held on Saturday 23rd July 2011 at Loftus TAFE.
As one of the organisers, I look after the conventions blog, which is now on my 'reading list' for a quick link.
Have a look, sign on as a follower ( so I know someone is actually looking at it !), all registration forms (down loadable) and info will be posted as it becomes available.
Please pass this on to anyone you may feel may be interested in attending.
Note that we are always looking for people to present or demonstrate on a relevant NSW subject or modelling skill.
Thanks
Gary
25.1.11
Progress...?
Sometimes a hard thing to measure in this hobby of ours.
Whilst this is my first post in over 4 months some things have still been happening. The LLC & W workshops have been rather quiet with only a few minor jobs, that didn't even rate a post, passing over the bench. Be assured though that I continue to read the blogs of fellow modellers with much interest and just a little envy of your progress and achievements. They have been and continue to be an inspiration.
Whilst I am blessed with a '4 on, 4 off' job, a big chunk of my '4 off' is taken up caring for my aged parents. Things haven't, and won't, improve on that front and I am not looking forward to the months ahead.
The Cave has not progressed past the construction stage (see last post) but I have finally pinned my electrician (also a keen modeller) down t0 a date in early Feb to come and start the wiring. Once that is roughed in I can install the insulation and think about sheeting with gyprock (drywall to my U.S. friends!). There will be an air conditioner in there somewhere as well to cater for our ever, seemingly, psychotic climate. Whether I can afford to turn it on remains to be seen! What a great idea privatising our power was !
I have also been working on some track plan 'concepts' with the help of friends and fellow bloggers which has been an incredible help as I have never pinned down a length of track in my life and it has allowed me to start visualising what the end product may resemble. Whilst I have accumulated a fairly healthy inventory of prototype knowledge, translating that into something that can be modelled is a completely different matter and set of skills.
I have also purchased a NSW outline #7 point jig from Fast Tracks, courtesy of Gwyder Valley, and some supplies for point building. I have also decided on code 70 ME track and have ordered a rather ridiculous amount direct from Walthers while the AUD is at it's prime (and the track is on special!) and placed other items on a 'wish list' for future damage.
So while my new Runway 13 air brush has not had a drop of paint through it since purchased at Liverpool last year I'm going to venture out on a limb and say "Yep, I've been doin' a bit" and I'll even call it progress !
Whilst this is my first post in over 4 months some things have still been happening. The LLC & W workshops have been rather quiet with only a few minor jobs, that didn't even rate a post, passing over the bench. Be assured though that I continue to read the blogs of fellow modellers with much interest and just a little envy of your progress and achievements. They have been and continue to be an inspiration.
Whilst I am blessed with a '4 on, 4 off' job, a big chunk of my '4 off' is taken up caring for my aged parents. Things haven't, and won't, improve on that front and I am not looking forward to the months ahead.
The Cave has not progressed past the construction stage (see last post) but I have finally pinned my electrician (also a keen modeller) down t0 a date in early Feb to come and start the wiring. Once that is roughed in I can install the insulation and think about sheeting with gyprock (drywall to my U.S. friends!). There will be an air conditioner in there somewhere as well to cater for our ever, seemingly, psychotic climate. Whether I can afford to turn it on remains to be seen! What a great idea privatising our power was !
I have also been working on some track plan 'concepts' with the help of friends and fellow bloggers which has been an incredible help as I have never pinned down a length of track in my life and it has allowed me to start visualising what the end product may resemble. Whilst I have accumulated a fairly healthy inventory of prototype knowledge, translating that into something that can be modelled is a completely different matter and set of skills.
I have also purchased a NSW outline #7 point jig from Fast Tracks, courtesy of Gwyder Valley, and some supplies for point building. I have also decided on code 70 ME track and have ordered a rather ridiculous amount direct from Walthers while the AUD is at it's prime (and the track is on special!) and placed other items on a 'wish list' for future damage.
So while my new Runway 13 air brush has not had a drop of paint through it since purchased at Liverpool last year I'm going to venture out on a limb and say "Yep, I've been doin' a bit" and I'll even call it progress !
24.8.10
Locked Up !
No, not me, the Cave !
Making the most of my last block of days off and the fact that most of these jobs could be done by one person, I got stuck into it and here is the result.
Cutting in the doorway required removing a couple of sheets either side of the opening so the wall girts could be 'coaxed' into their final position. No top door jamb brackets were supplied so it was off to local hardware, again.
Pre hung doors, gotta' luv'em!, dropped straight in first go. A hand full of tek screws later and it's in.
Cut a piece of cladding to go above the door, refit the wall sheets, another days work to add guttering and down pipes and there you go!
Here's the view from the back and the side wall now replaces the fence. Neighbour's happy as his veggie patch is 6" wider. The old fence frame will come down - one day!
The hardest part of the cladding stage (and the producer of the most naughty words) was trimming the gable flashing off vertical with the edge of the guttering with snips. The DVD made it look so flamin' easy. I even have scars!
Next stage will be a roughing out of the electricals. My electrician is also a keen railway modeller and is building a 6M x 10M layout room himself, at least we will be speaking the same language when it come to explaining what my needs are.
Then comes the insulation, lining, painting, flooring and air conditioning - now I'm depressed again. I thought it was time to start some benchwork !
Making the most of my last block of days off and the fact that most of these jobs could be done by one person, I got stuck into it and here is the result.
Cutting in the doorway required removing a couple of sheets either side of the opening so the wall girts could be 'coaxed' into their final position. No top door jamb brackets were supplied so it was off to local hardware, again.
Pre hung doors, gotta' luv'em!, dropped straight in first go. A hand full of tek screws later and it's in.
Cut a piece of cladding to go above the door, refit the wall sheets, another days work to add guttering and down pipes and there you go!
Here's the view from the back and the side wall now replaces the fence. Neighbour's happy as his veggie patch is 6" wider. The old fence frame will come down - one day!
The hardest part of the cladding stage (and the producer of the most naughty words) was trimming the gable flashing off vertical with the edge of the guttering with snips. The DVD made it look so flamin' easy. I even have scars!
Next stage will be a roughing out of the electricals. My electrician is also a keen railway modeller and is building a 6M x 10M layout room himself, at least we will be speaking the same language when it come to explaining what my needs are.
Then comes the insulation, lining, painting, flooring and air conditioning - now I'm depressed again. I thought it was time to start some benchwork !
7.7.10
The Cave gets a lid (almost) and 3265 gets a home.
A productive few days off with some corrugated colourbond getting heaved into position as 'lockup' gets a little closer.
Chief Construction Engineer Hardie (looking more like an Italian fisherman on this occasion!)
rolled up for another stint and we discovered why there are people who do this for a living and the importance 'checking for square' when building anything.
I thought that I had been pretty vigilant in this regard, checking, adjusting, checking again etc etc. Frames went up ok, walls went up ok, roof went on ok...nah! I knew the slab was square but something went awry in the framing stage I think, as when the roof sheets were were set atop the frames and lined up with the end wall they were not square to the side walls,
the disturbing part was that it was more pronounced on one half of the roof than the other!...go figure.
After a frustrating hour or so trying to work out what was going on, it ended up being a case of 'put and look' with each roof sheet and trying to get each sheet progressively back into square. The side wall is more critical than the end wall as the relationship between the guttering and the ends of the sheets is pretty important to get rid of storm water into the guttering rather than over it!
It took about 3 hours to get 8 sheets up (not quite half the roof) and secured in place, and about 10 minutes to silicon up the holes where the tek screws missed the roof girts completely after sheets were re aligned.
At the end of the day I offered a prayer of thanks....for gable flashing, as it will certainly cover a multitude of sins.
From the bench.
The saga of 3265 came to an end with the addition of a crew and some coal and will be delivered to it's new, and very patient, owner shortly.
Many lessons learned from this project. Whilst I am a proponent of DCC it really does cause a 'raising of the bar' when building locomotives. I suppose I have built around 30 or so white metal loco's but this was the first to have DCC and sound fitted. The lack of 'electrical tolerance' of DCC decoders and more so when sound is involved, will cause this builder to refine assembly methods and be more vigilant of potential electrical problems during construction rather than trying to fix them afterwards. I have described
these kits as "rolling short circuits" before and this project has shown this to be even truer on this occasion. I have at least another dozen of these kits in storage, with a few more on the list. It was my intention to sound equip them all as I eventually build them, and probably still will, but with some trepidation as I tune my 'DCC sense' to spot problems as they become apparent.
Some pics of 2606 are included, not built by me but required some attention and a dusting up for that 'in service' look. The side and connecting rods had been left silver and the paint work was 'as delivered'. A coat of black metal etch on the rods followed by a light coat of TLB 'Grotty Black' all over and some weathering using Humbrol Brown 113 and a little gray primer. Finished off with Testors Dulcote, which also masked the edges of the number decals somewhat as well.
Chief Construction Engineer Hardie (looking more like an Italian fisherman on this occasion!)
rolled up for another stint and we discovered why there are people who do this for a living and the importance 'checking for square' when building anything.I thought that I had been pretty vigilant in this regard, checking, adjusting, checking again etc etc. Frames went up ok, walls went up ok, roof went on ok...nah! I knew the slab was square but something went awry in the framing stage I think, as when the roof sheets were were set atop the frames and lined up with the end wall they were not square to the side walls,
the disturbing part was that it was more pronounced on one half of the roof than the other!...go figure.After a frustrating hour or so trying to work out what was going on, it ended up being a case of 'put and look' with each roof sheet and trying to get each sheet progressively back into square. The side wall is more critical than the end wall as the relationship between the guttering and the ends of the sheets is pretty important to get rid of storm water into the guttering rather than over it!
It took about 3 hours to get 8 sheets up (not quite half the roof) and secured in place, and about 10 minutes to silicon up the holes where the tek screws missed the roof girts completely after sheets were re aligned.
At the end of the day I offered a prayer of thanks....for gable flashing, as it will certainly cover a multitude of sins.
From the bench.
The saga of 3265 came to an end with the addition of a crew and some coal and will be delivered to it's new, and very patient, owner shortly.
Many lessons learned from this project. Whilst I am a proponent of DCC it really does cause a 'raising of the bar' when building locomotives. I suppose I have built around 30 or so white metal loco's but this was the first to have DCC and sound fitted. The lack of 'electrical tolerance' of DCC decoders and more so when sound is involved, will cause this builder to refine assembly methods and be more vigilant of potential electrical problems during construction rather than trying to fix them afterwards. I have described
these kits as "rolling short circuits" before and this project has shown this to be even truer on this occasion. I have at least another dozen of these kits in storage, with a few more on the list. It was my intention to sound equip them all as I eventually build them, and probably still will, but with some trepidation as I tune my 'DCC sense' to spot problems as they become apparent.
Some pics of 2606 are included, not built by me but required some attention and a dusting up for that 'in service' look. The side and connecting rods had been left silver and the paint work was 'as delivered'. A coat of black metal etch on the rods followed by a light coat of TLB 'Grotty Black' all over and some weathering using Humbrol Brown 113 and a little gray primer. Finished off with Testors Dulcote, which also masked the edges of the number decals somewhat as well.
11.6.10
Still alive....
Someone said to me the other day "the blog's a bit quiet lately, what's happening with the cave?"
April and May were 'post free', this is the first time this has happened since I started "the Works", and pretty well 'everything else modelling' took a back seat due to some fairly serious ongoing health problems with my parents.
The cave did get a bit of a kick along today thanks to some help from my mate Lindsay, who also helped with the slab pour, with his help we were able to get both end walls sheeted in less than 2 hours. This bit of progress has inspired me to get a move on and get the thing locked up as soon as possible. Thanks Lindsay - again! Next stage with be to insulate and sheet the roof and seal things up to satisfy the bush fire requirements for my area.
3265 is finally a runner with the help of Marcus Amman and Ray Pilgrim who both played a part in it's commissioning. I have learned that Romford tender wheels are most DCC unfriendly. The hub of the wheel is actually wider than the tire and touches against the lip of the top hat bearing in the bogie side frame causing all sorts of short circuit problems. Wheel sets were replaced with SEM axles and all is well. Thanks Marcus for ID'ing the problem and Ray for your 'programming persistence'.
Not much else has been happening on the bench of late, unlike my counterparts North of Narrabri and at Splitters Swamp Creek, some very nice rolling stock work there Blair and Geoff, if you haven't seen it yet check it out from my blog list.
I'm off to Epping tomorrow to give Ron a hand on the Eureka stand, so stop by and say g'day if you're around.
Cheers
April and May were 'post free', this is the first time this has happened since I started "the Works", and pretty well 'everything else modelling' took a back seat due to some fairly serious ongoing health problems with my parents.
The cave did get a bit of a kick along today thanks to some help from my mate Lindsay, who also helped with the slab pour, with his help we were able to get both end walls sheeted in less than 2 hours. This bit of progress has inspired me to get a move on and get the thing locked up as soon as possible. Thanks Lindsay - again! Next stage with be to insulate and sheet the roof and seal things up to satisfy the bush fire requirements for my area.
3265 is finally a runner with the help of Marcus Amman and Ray Pilgrim who both played a part in it's commissioning. I have learned that Romford tender wheels are most DCC unfriendly. The hub of the wheel is actually wider than the tire and touches against the lip of the top hat bearing in the bogie side frame causing all sorts of short circuit problems. Wheel sets were replaced with SEM axles and all is well. Thanks Marcus for ID'ing the problem and Ray for your 'programming persistence'.
Not much else has been happening on the bench of late, unlike my counterparts North of Narrabri and at Splitters Swamp Creek, some very nice rolling stock work there Blair and Geoff, if you haven't seen it yet check it out from my blog list.
I'm off to Epping tomorrow to give Ron a hand on the Eureka stand, so stop by and say g'day if you're around.
Cheers
24.3.10
The Meccano set I never had.
No I haven't left the country but I did leave the state for a while. Not long back from nearly 3 weeks away touring Gippsland and southern Victoria. Caught up with friends and was able to get to the Healsville Railway Festival, a mix of model and 12" to the foot railways held during the Vic Labour Day long weekend.
As you can see from the pics I have struck a blow on the "cave" project. Two fairly full on days work (one started at 7.30!, most out of character!) with a pretty impressive result, if I don't say so myself!
Big thanks to Layne, who actually volunteered with no coercion whatsoever, definately would not have got this far without his help.
The wall frames I assembled and clad the day before on the slab. The gap is for the entry door which is cut in last. Chief Contruction Engineer Hardie can be seen here admiring our handy work. The walls, at this point, are supported by nothing else other than the orange ropes! Before you even think it....no, we did not drop them. Everything, to this point, went disturbingly to plan!? You can see the assembled rafters on the ground, next step.
Rafters in place, ropes remaining, just in case. These gave us the most grief of the whole job. Getting them at the same angle and the same height was frustrating and time consuming. The first attempt resulted in an 80mm difference from one end to the other. Not long after this stage my neighbor stuck his head over the fence and said "Starting the benchwork tomorrow ??"
Around 5.30 in the afternoon this was where we left it! Cladding the end walls next, then the roof insulation goes in with the roofing to follow. Resting tomorrow for sure.
From the other side. The pipe work in the fore ground is the remnants of the fence, which proved quite handy to lean on.
As you can see from the pics I have struck a blow on the "cave" project. Two fairly full on days work (one started at 7.30!, most out of character!) with a pretty impressive result, if I don't say so myself!
Big thanks to Layne, who actually volunteered with no coercion whatsoever, definately would not have got this far without his help.
The wall frames I assembled and clad the day before on the slab. The gap is for the entry door which is cut in last. Chief Contruction Engineer Hardie can be seen here admiring our handy work. The walls, at this point, are supported by nothing else other than the orange ropes! Before you even think it....no, we did not drop them. Everything, to this point, went disturbingly to plan!? You can see the assembled rafters on the ground, next step.
Rafters in place, ropes remaining, just in case. These gave us the most grief of the whole job. Getting them at the same angle and the same height was frustrating and time consuming. The first attempt resulted in an 80mm difference from one end to the other. Not long after this stage my neighbor stuck his head over the fence and said "Starting the benchwork tomorrow ??"
Around 5.30 in the afternoon this was where we left it! Cladding the end walls next, then the roof insulation goes in with the roofing to follow. Resting tomorrow for sure.
From the other side. The pipe work in the fore ground is the remnants of the fence, which proved quite handy to lean on.
20.2.10
3265 - Ex the Paint Shop
A couple of pics of the finished paint job.
I think this paint job was more difficult than 3822 (from a previous post) because the the 32 is a physically smaller loco and has more plumbing to work around. When it came to masking up it was just that much harder because of its size. Doing the boiler bands in sections was difficult when it came to lining up the short sections in a nice straight line.
All that remains now is a coal load and some tender tools, a crew and a test run on Bylong.
In the next post(s) I will cover the 'process' that I use to paint white metal.
(Sorry Geoff, this has been a long time coming and I realise I'm doing a 'backflip' but after a rethink I decided to make a post of it.)
I think this paint job was more difficult than 3822 (from a previous post) because the the 32 is a physically smaller loco and has more plumbing to work around. When it came to masking up it was just that much harder because of its size. Doing the boiler bands in sections was difficult when it came to lining up the short sections in a nice straight line.
All that remains now is a coal load and some tender tools, a crew and a test run on Bylong.
In the next post(s) I will cover the 'process' that I use to paint white metal.
(Sorry Geoff, this has been a long time coming and I realise I'm doing a 'backflip' but after a rethink I decided to make a post of it.)
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