Estate Update

[Bilco]

And Gari’s clock seems to have blown off again.

Yep - blown away in the Great Gale of October 1987 and not replaced ...

[Bilco]

Despite the interruptions of preparing for and going to Wimborne, and immediately afterwards going off on holiday in Madeira, some progress has been made ...



A start has been made in building up the ground around the track - more bits of foam board cut into odd shapes and glued down, then painted to look something like concrete - Stackers has concreted over most of the Stable Yard - Arfur Biscuit will be rotating rapidly in his grave ...

The wiring has finally been finished and tested ...



... looking like a particularly untidy mare's nest from the front ...



... but not too bad from the back. Those square push switches fit quite neatly, Christopher ...

There are family visits scheduled for the next couple of weeks, so I've had to vacate the dining room table - I managed to polish out the scratches before mai laidy wiaf noticed ...

[Thorness]

"I managed to polish out the scratches before mai laidy wiaf noticed ..."

Sounds like a lucky escape!!

Cheers
Don

[Bilco]

While I was away doing other things I applied what's left of my mind to projected operation of the diorama/photo plank/mini layout. At first I thought that a simple traverser, to move between the two exit tracks, and to store off-scene trains, would fit the bill. But that would mean that there would be travel in one direction pushing any rolling stock - not ideal, given my dodgy coupling arrangements.

In the back story I mentioned a line out to a balloon loop (and maybe to be realized in model form in years to come), which would mean the locos and whatever they were pulling would arrive back the other way round from how they left. So perhaps I need a turn-table instead ... or as well ...

So, a traversing turn-table, or a rotating traverser?? A travturble?? A Rotaverser?

On t'Bay I found this ...



... a 35cm bamboo wood Lazy Susan. I also found some drawer runners and, putting these together with some wood from the pile at the back of the garage, I cobbled together this...





Not a masterpiece of the joiner's art, but it does the job. It is still in development, of course, with a few matters to be sorted out - attachment to the Yard, power supply, control of movement fore and aft, and round and round ...

Hours of fun ...

[Bilco]

A little more progress to report - on the Rotaverser ...





I got a leadscrew on Amazon and fixed it to the base to control the movement of the traverser part of the Rotaverser. The leadscrew is meant to be part of a 3D printer - so does this qualify me to post on 3D printing threads? The metal bracket attaching the traverser to the moving part of the leadscrew, and the handle for operating this strange device came out of the 'useful one day' store at the back of the garage ...

Hours of fun ...

[Jon Randall]

Looks interesting Bill and very neat.

[Bilco]

Progress continues at a slow pace ...





Track has been laid on the turning part of the Rotaverser, and seems to match up quite well with the scenic part of things. A little fine-tuning of rail levels is required to (hopefully) get a smooth transition from one component to the other. The radius that I ended up with for the two curved sections is less than the 12" I hoped for, but better than the 6" that I deployed on Berger Hall 1900. Also, there is no scenery close to the track to give clearance issues, so I hope everything will run acceptably (if not perfectly) ...

A little scenic work has been started at the front of the Stable Yard - stonework columns to (a) support the stone walling (yet to appear), and (b) support the balustrading along the edge of the upper Yard (also yet to appear) ...

Hours of fun ...

[PeterH]

Good work.

That fiddle yard reminds me of a carnival ride. Just add flashing LEDs.

[Bilco]

Maybe I can arrange things so that the 'Magic Roundabout' theme music accompanies the turning of the handle ...

[chris stockdale]

‘Hello dear thing,’ said Ermintrude, twirling a daisy in her mouth. ‘Love the Rotaverser, very clever. Now, must go, busy, busy!’

Cheers,

[Bilco]

Things progress slowly ...

I've arranged a simple system to attach the Rotaverser to the diorama/photo plank/layout ...



... 2 steel right-angle brackets fixed to the scenic bit ...



... and 2 Mega Magnets - rare-earth magnets about 12mm diameter - inset into the end of the Rotaverser.

The whole thing fits together neatly, so that the 2 sections can't move sideways in relation to each other, and are held tightly together ...



This last photo also shows that I've wired up the tracks on the Rotaverser to 2 sub-control panels. Power is tapped off the controller on the main board via a pair of plug-in flying leads, which are moved to the other side when the turn-table component is rotated through 180 degrees. Power is sent to the required track by the rotary switch.

The only thing to remember is that the black wire goes to the far rail, whichever way round the turn-table is. The first photo shows the R and almost erased B that I marked on the end of the scenic section to remind me which wire goes where ...

Rail heights have been fettled - some adjustment to the 'feet' of the 2 parts was required first to ensure that they are level and stable...

Hours of fun ...

[Bilco]

This weekend has been spent balustrading ...

I bought a couple of dolls-house scale wooden balustrades from t'Bay ...



... much too big and bulky for what I wanted, but I cut out the uprights, shortened them slightly, made a base plate and a top rail from Woodlands Scenic plastic sections, and fashioned intermediate columns from 2 x 1.5 cm wooden strip and card ...



... and here they are after a spray of undercoat, just propped in place ...

Hours of fun ...

[Jon Randall]

They suit it well Bill

[Bilco]

Three weeks since my last post - so what have I been doing?

Fiddling around with bits of card, wood, styrene, paint, glue ....



The current state of play. The balustrade is fettled, painted, weathered, and fitted. It came out rather better than I expected. On the Rotaverser I've fitted a front to hide the gubbins, and garnished it with some trees and a wall to blend in with the main board.



A close-up of the balustrade. ARRGH!! The pillar at the bottom of the steps is well off-kilter - how come I didn't notice that when I was glueing it very securely into position ...



A view across the Yard, showing the surface treatments. I tried to show two slightly different pours of the concrete, with tar filling the gaps between the slabs to cope with expansion. The gravel at the rear is the same mix I used on Berger Hall 1900 - I did make a lot of it. That bottom pillar doesn't look any better ...



A view across the Rotaverser into the Yard. The bottom pillar is discreetly hidden from view - no-one will know. I've also fitted a safety board to the side of the Rotaverser so the locos won't fall off the end - it moves along with the track, but stays at the back when the turntable is turned ...

HOWEVER - I did have a set-back yesterday - the main board has been sitting on the table in the conservatory in the lovely weather we've been having. The back-scene was stuck to the hardboard backboard with Spraymount. Then I put the board in the garage for a few days, and found that the expansion and contraction of hardboard and photograph of the Stables were different, and the cooler temps and slight dampness after some rain resulted in buckling of the Stables photo. Luckily, I was able to prise the Stables photo off with the aid of a set of feeler gauges, left over from the days when I used to check sparkplugs, sliding a very fine one behind and gently levering. Once it was off with very little damage,I was able to clean up and re-stick it (using Woodland Scenics Scenic Glue) and it looks OK again - but judge for yourselves from the photos ...

We're off to Cornwall tomorrow, with our walking group. If I survive I'll get on with things next week ...

[PeterH]

Wow, that’s turned out well. That wall along the front sets it off well, and gives me an idea for my stalled layout.

[Bilco]

Another 3-week hiatus - but I did spend one week of it walking in Cornwall (and didn't we have lovely weather instead of incessant rain). We went down and back by train, which was a lot easier than driving, and on the whole worked out very well.

I've been giving some thought to populating the layout and, as I had it to hand, started with the other figures in the Fujimi Mechanics kit. You may recall that I used the sitting figure as the driver of Sir Macintosh, with just a little repositioning of the arms.



I wanted a photographer for a little vignette, so adjusted the standing figure and added a camera. With the other two I did some cutting and shutting, took a leg from a left-over Henry Ford figures kit, and made a couple of figures just chilling out ...



The left-over bits, including a pair of legs from the Italeri Truck Accessory kit, will need a bit more imagination to create a figure from - perhaps Igor can add them to his body-part stash ...



Hours of fun ...

[Bilco]

Further to the theme of figures - I have been looking through what's available on eBay, and decided to get some of the American Diorama 1:24 figures. I now have three standing and two sitting ...



These are made with resin, but I think I can make a couple of small alterations, and perhaps some repainting, to get what I want. The sitting figures look larger in the picture as they're closer to the camera, but in fact they do seem a little larger - maybe 1:22.5 rather than the 1:24 it says on the packaging. Still, real people come in different sizes, too ...

I could do with some female figures, but the American Diorama ones are either rather scantily dressed, or even seem to have mislaid their clothes altogether (what do people do with those - or shouldn't I ask?). Anyway, I'm sure mai laidy waif would not allow me to have anything like that on my layout ...

It was relatively easy to get female figures suitably dressed for 1900 on Berger Hall, but modern-dress ones are a little harder to find - any hints gratefully received ...

[PeterH]

Well, I’ve never messed with a model body. But admire those who do. My diorama book says to clothe figures with Kleenex or thin paper coated with a putty made from styrene scraps dissolved in solvent - he uses trichlorethylene. Want me to send you some scans?

[Bilco]

Thank Peter - but I've found some suitable figures on Shapeways ...



... a couple of the few that actually had clothes on ...

[Bilco]

I've spent a good part of the last three weeks working on figures - especially female figures - in present-day dress, and now have a range to show ...

Those two figures from Shapeways have been painted - the rough finish isn't too apparent from a couple of feet way ...



On looking at the site again I see that I could have got them in a polished finish, which would probably been better ...

I also bought a couple of Masterbox productions ...





... lots more bits of Igor to get his hands on ...

[Bilco]

Having amassed a stash of body-parts from the Masterbox figures, Fujimi Mechanics set, Italeri Truck Drivers, and some Schleich left-overs that Igor has had maturing in his store for quite a while, we set about mix-and-matching them to get the required 4 drivers, plus misc. seated passengers and standing figures ...

Our first attempts were less than successful ...



... no, I don't think so ...



... oh, stop being silly Igor ...



... but finally we produced three drivers who'll do. From the left, a Truck-driver mash-up with legs modified to sitting plus Mechanic's arms, Truck-driver legs with Masterbox Ken top, and Masterbox Keri top on Ken's legs ...

... and close-ups ...





The female driver is Stackers Berger-King's girlfriend, Salina Smith-Crisp ...

[Bilco]

And finally - to produce the last driver we dragged out a couple of old, Chinese Preiser rip-off figures and gave them a tidy-up and repaint ...



The driver is Nigel 'Ice' Biscuit, great-grandson of Gari. When asked why he had taken 'Ice' as a nick-name he said that he thought it was cooler than Nigel ...

The lady is Nigel's grandmother, Ena Larstick, who's come along to make sure Nigel is behaving himself. She has never been known to leave her house without her old brown coat, flower-pot hat, and a disapproving expression on her face ...

Nigel seems to lead a charmed life, always managing to avoid the dirty jobs, but always getting to drive one of the locos. The other drivers call him the Jammy Dodger ...

One malicious rumor has it that he and Stackers are in some sort of 'relationship'. Funny you should say that ...

[Bilco]

While all the photography parlaver was going on in the Yard, some of the volunteers took a break in the shade beside the loco shed ...



Meanwhile, there are a couple of other figures being progressed through Igor's workshop - photos to come in a few days ...

[Jon Randall]

Looking good Bill, people always bring a layout to life.

[Bilco]

Right - as promised, a photo of the latest two figures ...



On the left - the head and legs from the Truck-drivers kits, and torso and arms from two Schleich figures, while levitating in the coach it's various parts from the Truck-drivers with legs modified for sitting ( and Ken's cap)

Time to concentrate on other work the layout needs - at least, until the Chinese Prieser rip-off figures arrive ...

Hours of fun ...