Well our plans for this weekend were certainly scrapped at
short notice on Friday morning. We had planned to visit a fellow modeller’s place and have
an Operations Session on Saturday. However, that outing was cancelled when Brisbane was
placed into Lockdown for 3 days from 6:00pm Friday evening. So not to be
100% beaten, we retired to our online forum on Saturday morning and into the
afternoon, with us all online talking and doing some modelling activities. Well I
was watching cricket in the background as well.
While this online activity was occurring, I was getting phone calls and
texts from someone, exchanging emails from someone else and having Facebook Messenger messages
from someone else. So lots occurring on Saturday while sitting on the PC
all locked up. In the arvo I mowed the grass and assembled a new stand
for the printer in the kid’s playroom, as the old location for the printer has
now been replaced with a second monitor by the main user of the PC in that
room - the young gamer in the house.
While I was at work on Thursday, PK visited to drop off 7
packets of styrene that he purchased from me so I could do some more pallet
construction – among other things. During this week on Thursday and
Friday evening, I completed adding the bracing on my 20,000 gallon water
tank. On Saturday after talking to someone online and showing off some
photos I took back in 1988 of the real tank from The Risk crossing loop, I realised that the tank
was painted grey/silver before it rusted away. So on Saturday I painted
it grey primer, before I weathered it with Rusty Brown paints. Also on Friday
evening I cut up about 230 strips of styrene to make another run of 78 pallets.
Back on the topic of the water tank stand, I still need to build the front stand attachment to the water tank stand, and
add some water pipes. I was given some information on the pipe sizes
required on Saturday on the phone by Cliff.
The water tank stand made out of styrene 'I' Beam, tube and rod.
The tank painted grey primer
A bit of a close up photo of the painted tank
Another task that I am also working on is trying to add some roof
mounted whirly-birds to two 12m x 6m steel sheds on the layout. Now there is no use just
having these ventilators on a building if they are not going to rotate in the
wind. So I am designing a motor assembly and drive train so the two
whirly-birds in each shed rotate. PK has given me this challenge, and he has
made it even more difficult, as he also wanted a squeaking sound to come from the
shed when the whirly-birds rotate. First things first. Now also wanting detail items of some things very
different and the first one of everything, I am thinking of having these whirly-birds rotate at two different speeds. A slow speed and a slightly faster speed.
We will see how this develops. Brad has done a fantastic job in designing and printing these whirly-birds. I’m sure they will be available online very soon.
The other activity from last week, was adjusting the sidings in Kyogle, and moving the Veneer factory. here is shot of that area.
The veneer factory has moved back from the front of this baseboard. The foreground will now be used for a model of the Norco Factory.