Preparation is Complete - Just Counting the Days to the New England Convention

Saturday this week was the NMRA monthly meeting.  I went there along with just over 20 or so others.  There were some very good presentations about JMRI operations (by Duncan) and ABLO (by Anthony).  There was also a session by one of our local MMR’s Arthur on the Structure Building AP.  They were all very good and worthy of a larger forum.  We had a few laughs talking to the guys as well.

When I got home I started on some of my tidy up tasks for building a few HO clotheslines.  I also painted these a galvanised silver colour.  However, the main task of the later afternoon was removing the wooden edges on my New England Convention diorama and cleaning up the edges and making them square.  I also painted the edges of my diorama a nice black colour.  On Sunday I went back to the diorama and fixed up a couple of small indents on the sides and painted those black again.  I also painted up about 60 pallets of various colours and made up 10 N scale clotheslines and painted them.

I also packed up everything so the car is ready to load on Friday morning.  I found a storage container to put my diorama in to keep it safe for the trip.  I won’t be away until about 1:30pm in the afternoon as I have another appointment in the morning.  But I will have two travellers to take with me Armidale (PK and Geoff) and they should keep me entertained for the 5 and a half plus hour trip.

Next weekend’s Blog update will be made from Armidale and might include a photo of my diorama, and hopefully will include some other photos of other dioramas that attendees have brough along.  I'm hoping that there will be a good few dozen of them.  I hear that Kevin’s (apparently undersize) and Arthur’s dioramas look pretty good.  I’ve sort of seen Marty’s and his looks pretty good as well.

More Clotheslines

I had lots of plans for this weekend.  But they didn’t all eventuate.  I had some work related activities on Thursday and Friday night that involved a few drinks.  Saturday was Club meeting day, so I went to the club and had a good time talking to the guys there.  I also cooked the lunchtime BBQ.  Before the Club meeting, I was watching one member run his NSW train with 2 x 81 class locos on it.  He was having trouble with it not moving.  I had seen that before, so I checked out the locos.  I thought that one loco might have lost its address or lost its consist address.  The lead loco was just not running and had just seized.  The motor was trying to turn, but the wheels wouldn't budge.  I took the loco to the test track, took the top off it and watched it as we tried to move it back and forth.  The wheels would turn about 3 mm and then lock up and the ammeter on the DCC workstation would just go through the roof as we moved it from forward to reverse and back again.  Not good, given it is a new SDS sound equipped loco.  So that member will be contacting his dealer on Monday.  Just before I left the Club I got a call to order some more clotheslines and tarpaulins.  So on Saturday night I cut out and wrapped up about 40 tarpaulins.  

Sunday was Bathurst day.  So I spent it in front of the TV watching the great race.  While there I cut up the components for some N scale clotheslines.  I also cut up and assembled 20 HO scale clothesline posts.  I have started on the top part of the clotheslines and I should finish these by mid-week after I pick up some more styrene tomorrow.  I couldn't be bothered in heading to the hobby shop today.  I did already have about 8 clotheslines that needed to be painted so I did get the paint out later in the afternoon during one of the safety-car periods in the great race and painted the first 10 clotheslines posts and the 8 clotheslines tops I had already completed.  When the race completed, I painted the next 10 clothesline posts.

I did have a list of tasks to complete for the diorama I am taking to the New England Convention at Armidale, but I did not do anything on that front.  I do not have too much to do to complete it.  However, there is always next weekend.  I was planning on also painting about 40 to 50 pallets in various colours, however the morning was rather wet, so I decided against doing any painting in the morning.

On Tuesday this week, we went to Kevin’s place and checked out his layout progress.  He is concentrating on his logging area at the moment.  We all then had a discussion about the size of the diorama for Armidale.  The rules state that they were to be 12 inches or one foot x one foot.  Some of those in attendance and I will not name Kevin directly, are making their diorama 300mm x 300mm.  That is undersize, so I think it should be excluded from the competition (Hehehehehe - what are friends for).  If he wants to make it 304.8mm x 304.8mm then he would be OK to enter it into the diorama competition.  So there was a bit of jovial debate raging.

Tomorrow I have a full day planned.  Do my Tax, look at a couple of new cars for the boss and then pick up some more styrene from a local hobby shop.  I might then start completing the next few clothesline tops, and maybe paint some pallets.  On the subject of clotheslines, it seems that PK might actually be progressing his outdoor clothesline, so he can eventually line his shed and maybe start his layout.

Shed Progress

This week, I have been pottering along continuing to work on my Fetters Shed.  I can advise that all the walls are complete.  The roof structure was built.  The four doors were built and everything was stained with a mixture of ink pad ink and metho.  When the components dried, I glued the four sides together.  Next task was to cut out some corrugated card as individual sheets, and then I painted both sides of these sheets a corrugated iron colour.  Once the sheets dried, I glued them to the fettlers shed.  The sheets were trimmed to size.  The last job was to attached the doors so they all worked - to some extent - yes they can swing open a bit.  I then cut up some styrene strip to create some wood slats for the doors.  A place was found on the diorama and the shed located.  It then had a few weeds placed around it and it was slightly weathered using the Tamiya Accent Colors. 

I also added some trees and weeds to other locations on the diorama.  I also made some street signs and installed them on the layout.  The last thing that has been added is a few railway personnel.  There is still some work to do, as I still have two weeks before time runs out.

A shot of the shed frame and the roof

This is a shot of the shed with the roof on top.

A completed shed, with doors installed

A slightly expanded view with some of the local crew discussion an issue with the track

A view of some of the rest of the module.

Modelling Update

We went to Shelton’s place last Tuesday and had a nice evening talking about model railways.  I think there was about 8 visitors, but we just sat in his pergola and talked, and dunk tea and coffee and ate.  We did not get to his shed to view any layout progress.

On Friday I was struggling with motivation for progressing my diorama for Armidale.  Saturday was the NMRA meeting at the nearby Logan Club.  There were four very good informative presentations on during the day and a fantastic lunch provided by the Club for those in attendance.  I do enjoy checking out the old HO layout at the Logan club as I was a member there about 20 years ago when it was constructed.  It certainly has had some very nice work done to it.  One presentation was by a friend Phil Flynn.  He is also making a small diorama to show off his “Lighting without Wiring” and particularly without soldering presentation.  Phil is presenting this session at the same time as I’m presenting mine at the October New England Convention.  So I was very happy to sit through his session.  So Phil's presentation triggered some thinking about how I was going to implement some interesting scenic effects on my layout.  Given I work in the IT sector, and have access to various fibre optics and understand their basic working principals, I knew what Phil was talking about, but never put 2 and 2 together to come up with a very simple solution to what I want to do in a section of my layout near the old Community Hall just off Fairy Lane.  Phil helped me solve a problem.  More on that when I schedule that work in November and December.  Sometimes you are just looking a solution right in the face and you do not see the answer.  Phil made it obvious.

On Saturday evening a few of us that used to work together in the same team over the last 10 or so years and my mate PK, went over to PK’s side of town to attend a belated 50^th birthday party for one such work mate who moved on.  He just happens to be the husband of a lady in my team now.  It was a very nice night.  PK and I went halves in a 1:24 scale model car just like the make and model and year that is in his garage that he has restored.  I think it will be a great journey for him to build this model with his 10 year old son, and who knows what will come out of it.  Maybe he and or his son might enter the ranks of becoming another modeller.  The only issue was that we ordered the kit from a Sydney based hobby shop with express postage and 4 days later they said it is in the mail.  OMG I’d have to know what standard delivery is like, if this is express post.  You also guessed it, it did not turn up in time for teh party to give to our mate for his present, even though PK was advised on Friday that it was to be delivered that day.  That turned out to be Monday in a later email.  I guess Thursday’s public holiday did not help.  Once this model has safely arrived, that shop might get a blast or two from PK about lack of customer service, with a lecture on Express Postage.

Today however, I did get around to sitting at the kitchen table and I did some work on the diorama for Armidale.  Just before lunch I went for a walk around the block to take a photo of a particular sign that I will be (well I have already) produced in miniature form on my diorama.  Further works continued on completing the fencing and work has now commenced and will be completed next weekend of a scratch built fettler’s shed.

So I still have plenty to do, no motivation to do it and not much time left before it needs to be completed.  Oh well things change.

Diorama Progress

 This weekend I was able to tinker about on my diorama module for the New England Convention which is 5 weeks away.  I did a bit of work on the track.  I added ballast, and roadway between the tracks.  I also prepared the fencing for the module.  I also found some old telegraph posts hanging around so they also got installed.  My list of detail items to add to the diorama seems to be getting longer.  Next weekends job is to build a fettler’s shed and install that on the diorama.  Slow and steady is the aim here.  I think I spent most of the weekend watching various football on TV.

Next Thursday I will go off topic to build some more track cleaning wagons.  Hopefully I’ll build 4 more of these items and finish the two I already have half built.  I then have to fix up an Arduino program for my niece’s husband and then I might be able to ask for him to knurl some more track cleaning rollers.

We have a Tuesday Nighter’s get together this week at Shelton’s place.  It will be interesting what he has done since our last visit.  Next weekend is also the next NMRA meeting for the division.

Slow Week with Great Weekend

This last week, I developed a pretty bad cough following on from a cold.  Did did test for COVID.  This is something that happens more often that it doesn’t with me after a cold.  But with some deadlines at work, I could not afford time off work, so I worked from home.  If I did have time off, I could have done some more modelling work.  That was a damn shame.

On Friday Afternoon I installed a few more fascia signs on the layout.

Saturday was Club Meeting day so I went to the Club meeting, which happened to be the AGM.  I took some modelling work and did a small bit of scenery work on a corner on my 12” x 12” diorama module.  On my way home from the Club, I received a couple of TXT’s and a phone call from Darren.  He was considering a BBQ at his place that night and a train run or two with a small groups of mates.  So when I got home, I sweet talked the boss, got approval, packed my esky, grabbed some warm clothes and hit the road.  It was a simple but very nice evening.  Rohan Fergusson was up in Brisbane and he brought along a couple of small trains of fantastically weathered wagons for a run of Darren’s layout.  I just watched these run back and forward a few times from branchline terminus to junction station a few times.

Today I did a further small amount of work on my diorama module.  I had planned on doing more.  The level crossing is now almost complete.  I also stained the various fences with Tamiya Panel Liner Colors.  I have identified a few more items to build and install on the module.

Next weekend I plan on getting stuck in and completing the level crossing and doing all the ballasting off the track.  Then the detail work will begin.

Building Some Wagons

This week I decided to try and clean some things off my work bench.  I broke out the WBAX wagon from Broad Gauge Bodies that I p[icked up last weekend at the Exhibition.  I cleaned up its flash, and then with the roof and the base banana’ed I decided to try the hair dryer method to heat them and straighten them up.  After a minute of two the heat was enough to make the pieces soft enough to bend back to a straight shape.  I then super glued it together and then got my pin vice drill out and added the various steps from the supplied wire and the two handrails.  I then added the various brake and value connections underneath the wagon.  On Saturday I afternoon, I gave the wagon a spray of yellow paint and added bogies.  It came out quite well.

The next task was to get the BGB O/OX wagon out.  Again I cleaned up the flash, and then super glued it together.  I added the various hand rails, shunters steps and the tarp hangers at each end.  I still have to see if I have suitable bogies but I gave it a paint job of light grey as well.  The next job on the workbench was a QR TGV van.  I hit its underside steps with the hairdryer and as they got hot, I was able to bend them a bit so they hung down straight instead of being splayed out.  This was then painted a QR grey.  I think it looks good.

A future task is to add decals to all three models.

When I was in the shed, I decided to add the four sections of fascia that I painted the previous weekend to the layout.  The first two were on the inner side of Cassino Meatworks.  I removed the chairs in that area to get access, cut out holes for the staff machine and the intercom plug-in-point out and affixed the first two pieces of fascia.  That looks good.  I then went around to near Dutton Park and added the first piece required at that location high up under the track benchwork.  I stopped short of adding the last piece of fascia however, as this will be a bit of a contortionist act.  There are some other sections of track on the layout that also need some very small fascia created and fitted.  These are around Dutton Park to Park Road and Dutton Park to Fisherman Islands. 

I then added the various name tags that I created during the week for the various locations for the layout.  These locations were for every road crossing, every river or creek, every major landmark, like a Tunnel name or Spiral.  This will hopefully allow people to track where they are on the layout.

My main plan for this weekend was to work on my diorama for the Armidale Convention.  I didn’t get to that until later this afternoon.  I did some work while watching the football on TV.  I still have to spend at least one day next weekend to complete the scene that I am working on in just one section of the module.  But I still have a few weeks left before we head to the Convention.