Sunday, May 8, 2016

Prepping for the May Show - Amongst Other Things.

I spent quite a bit on time down the shed on Monday - A Public Holiday in Queensland.  Firstly I installed some more 12’ fence posts.  But I did not have enough.  So I had to make another 10 posts and paint them up and I still didn’t have enough - I should learn to count - or have more fingers sown on to my hands.  Having no 0.080” styrene rod left, I decided to cut up some wire posts out of some piano wire that I had.  I cut up just enough so I could complete the fence around the Lismore Shell Oil Siding and the Rocla Sleeper Siding.  I then decided to paint up a couple of batches of fence posts from ‘I’ beam.  I then put a few of my styrene and brass 44 gallon drums on a stick and painted them three different colours.  These were left to dry.  However, they were left too long, and the they became welded inside my piece of wood with fence posts holes and when I removed them (on Friday), most broke off with some styrene post left inside the holes - Bugger!
 
On Monday afternoon I decided to paint the top piece of the Murwillumbah Cement Silo with a tin of paint I purchased a couple of months back.  So I did this and emptied the very small tin.  However, the writing (pad printing I'm reliably informed) on the pipes that makes up the three vertical tanks atop the Cement Silo, was still showing through.  Well that was a bit of a bummer - Bugger number two.  So that meant that last Friday I had to buy another tin of light grey paint and give the silo tops a second coat.  This turned out the last tin in the hobby shop when I picked it up.  Maybe things were starting to turn for the better.
 
My next project of the day was to paint the corrugated card that I was going to clad my Park Road Goods Shed with.  But my paint tin of silver paint developed an issue and the nozzle seems to jam up.  The tin is full but nothing comes out. Another Bugger!
 
Turning to scenery I placed a few water tanks around some of the fettlers camps.  I now realised that I need about a dozen more tanks to position around the camps.  Might have to try and look out for some at the upcoming Show.

As alluded to above, on the way over to set up the tables for my display at the May Exhibition on Friday, I picked up a tin of light grey spray paint from HobbyOne for the Murwillumbah Cement silos, and on the way home, picked up four cans of SuperCheap paint for $10 for other modelling jobs.  I used the silver super cheap paint to finish the corrugated card that will go around my Park Road Goods Shed.  I let that dry.  It turned out quite good.  The last spray of the light grey paint from the Hobby Shop was used on the Cement Silo and it finally concealed that troublesome writing on the pipes.  maybe they are still looking up.

On Friday Night, there was a modelling night put on by another local hobby shop - Simon Says Hobbies and Games.  I went along with Darren and Brendan and three other plastic modellers as well as Simon himself.  We had a blast.  My first task was to put together a small luggage trolley that I picked up a long time back.  First issue was there were no instructions.  As I was cleaning up the flash on one of the wheels it did a really good vanishing act onto the carpet.  Well I think that classifies as yet another Bugger for the week.  So I assembled that item and if any passengers need to use it on Cassino platform, they will have to balance their luggage to ensure that the three wheels can carry the suit cases. I have two more trollies to put together but classified that as a bad joke and moved to other projects for the night. 

Following that episode I finally got around to attaching some small clips (made from styrene channel with a small locking clip added to the end) to Murwillumbah Cement silo, to allow me to position the pipe work that runs down the front of the Cement Silo structure to be fitted against the structure.  It should be able to be clipped out and the top of the silo removed if required at a later date (well it should be able to be removed).  I then added some black heat shrink to the end of one of the pipes in each of the three groups to make it look like flexible hosing.  That seemed to work well.   I also finally fitted the now dry corrugated iron to the Park Road Goods Shed.  It fitted like a glove.  I have purposely left a hole in the roof with no corrugated iron cladding, and I will have some workers up on the roof replacing the sheet.  However, I think I will have a worker hanging from the rafters after falling through - just another mini scene on the layout.

I will post later in the week about the May Show.

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