Sabtu, 22 Jun 2013
June 22, 2013 Removable Section IV
In this post I'm still working on the basic scenery remodel. The first picture shows the module with the houses in place for checking the flocking. The Grandt Line No Problem Joe's or my Old Miners house has been replaced with a Campbell Models Farm House, I added his garage and kept the plastic Grandt Line Outhouse.
The house on the far right is a Laser-Art LaSalle Catalog Home Kit. The house in the center front is a scratch built Sears 1916 Catalog Home and the house on it's left is a Scratch Built 1900s Home from a 1982 Mainline Modelers Magazine. I have redone the flocking around the houses and put a new layer of gravel on the road widening it to make it consistent with the adjoining road.
The picture above is a closeup of the Campbell Kit house (my Retired Miner's house), the garage is scratch built from scrap material. The added rock formation behind the house came out very nice and matches the rest of the rocks. The ground flocking is finished and later I will add bushes and shrubbery.
Here I have finished the ground cover with Woodland Scenics Flocking material. There will be several small Pines in the yard of this 1926 LaSalle Catalog Home. I glued the Woodland Scenics tree bases to the Paper Mache and covered them with flocking to hid them.
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The house on the far right is a Laser-Art LaSalle Catalog Home Kit. The house in the center front is a scratch built Sears 1916 Catalog Home and the house on it's left is a Scratch Built 1900s Home from a 1982 Mainline Modelers Magazine. I have redone the flocking around the houses and put a new layer of gravel on the road widening it to make it consistent with the adjoining road.
The picture above is a closeup of the Campbell Kit house (my Retired Miner's house), the garage is scratch built from scrap material. The added rock formation behind the house came out very nice and matches the rest of the rocks. The ground flocking is finished and later I will add bushes and shrubbery.
Here I have finished the ground cover with Woodland Scenics Flocking material. There will be several small Pines in the yard of this 1926 LaSalle Catalog Home. I glued the Woodland Scenics tree bases to the Paper Mache and covered them with flocking to hid them.
The lower level flocking, road, driveways and rocks are finished, There will be a total of 12 small Pine trees on the lower level and 55 tall Pines on the upper level. All the trees on my layout are now using a base that the tree trunks plug into for easy removal. As I have stated several times on my blog that I error-ed badly by not using the Woodland Scenics tree bases when I originally installed them. Now everything is removable for easy maintenance. The module will look very nice when I'm finished with it.
Had I known that I could turn out scratch built houses this nice earlier on I wouldn't have bought kits. The house above is a scratch built Sears 1916 Catalog Home #264B110, later called The Silverdale.
All of my scratch built catalog houses turned out much better than I ever expected. Building them was actually easier than assembling a Craftsman Kit. I did learn several construction tricks from Campbell Models that really helped. One being Campbell Corner Posts, they make the wall construction simple and very strong as well as more realistic.
This is a Campbell Models #381 Farm House Kit or now my Retired Miner's House with the Miner sitting in his Captains Chair. You can see the electric meter on the rear corner of the house, if you look close you can see two .015" holes in the top of the rear corner post. The steel .010" Music Wire power drop to the house will plug into the two holes. The actual power for the lighting enters the house through the floor on .030" brass rods.
This is the Miner's garage, it is built from scrap material leftover from my Catalog Homes.
This is a Campbell Models #381 Farm House Kit or now my Retired Miner's House with the Miner sitting in his Captains Chair. You can see the electric meter on the rear corner of the house, if you look close you can see two .015" holes in the top of the rear corner post. The steel .010" Music Wire power drop to the house will plug into the two holes. The actual power for the lighting enters the house through the floor on .030" brass rods.
This is the Miner's garage, it is built from scrap material leftover from my Catalog Homes.
The house above is a Blair Line Laser-Art LaSalle Kit #629. I didn't use the shingles that came in the kit because I wanted the shingles to match the rest of my houses. I use Campbell shingles on all my shingled buildings.
More as my project continues.
More as my project continues.
Ahad, 9 Jun 2013
June 9, 2013 Removable Section III
In this post I'm working on the basic scenery remodel. The first picture shows a Plaster of Paris rock being held in place while the Paper Mache Glue dries. I used a thin coat of Paper Mache to attach the rock to the plywood frame. The Plaster of Paris was still damp from the mold so Paper Mache works very good as a glue because both will dry together in the same time period.
I used a Woodland Scenics mold to cast the rock then cut the casting at the proper angle to mate the mountain. I used the remaining cut off pieces to extend the rock for the needed length to fill the space.
Several weeks back I added a level space on my main layout for my Chalet, that in turn created the need for this new rock so that the removable section would mate up to the Chalet ground level.
The picture above is titled "What a Mess", this is a typical construction area when I'm working on something. I decided to replace the Grandt No Problem Joe's house or what I call my Retired Miners House with a Campbell Craftsman Kit #381 Farm House. It fits in much better with my other three scratch built Catalog Homes. The new house is a bit bigger than the Grandt house so I had to call in the dirt contractor to remove a chunk of the mountain. That caused a need for another rock to replace the chunk of mountain that I removed. You can see the added Plaster of Paris rock used as a filler behind the new house. As you can see I have done some preliminarily adjustments to see how things will fit the changes. I also added a small scratch built garage for the Miner's pickup or tractor. I also needed to rearrange the power lines to fit the new houses.
The new rock came out very nice and it matches the original rocks.
Here I have cleaned up my mess and finished staining all the rocks with Woodland Scenics Burnt Umber #C1222, Black C1220 and covering the new Paper Mache with several coats of Earth Undercoat #C1229.
I have also added the tall pine tree mounts, the white spots in the grassy areas are half inch long Plastruct #90106 Tubing glued into �" holes. It is �" OD with an ?" ID, the Woodland Scenics TR1106 Tall Pine Conifer Trees have a ?" mounting stud on the bottom of the trunk and fits perfect in the tubing. I error-ed badly by not using the tree mounts provided with the Woodland Scenics Trees when I originally built my layout. By using a plugin type base the trees are easily removable for maintenance. Now all of my 500 trees are removable
The Next Phase is Flocking.
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I used a Woodland Scenics mold to cast the rock then cut the casting at the proper angle to mate the mountain. I used the remaining cut off pieces to extend the rock for the needed length to fill the space.
Several weeks back I added a level space on my main layout for my Chalet, that in turn created the need for this new rock so that the removable section would mate up to the Chalet ground level.
The picture above is titled "What a Mess", this is a typical construction area when I'm working on something. I decided to replace the Grandt No Problem Joe's house or what I call my Retired Miners House with a Campbell Craftsman Kit #381 Farm House. It fits in much better with my other three scratch built Catalog Homes. The new house is a bit bigger than the Grandt house so I had to call in the dirt contractor to remove a chunk of the mountain. That caused a need for another rock to replace the chunk of mountain that I removed. You can see the added Plaster of Paris rock used as a filler behind the new house. As you can see I have done some preliminarily adjustments to see how things will fit the changes. I also added a small scratch built garage for the Miner's pickup or tractor. I also needed to rearrange the power lines to fit the new houses.
The new rock came out very nice and it matches the original rocks.
Here I have cleaned up my mess and finished staining all the rocks with Woodland Scenics Burnt Umber #C1222, Black C1220 and covering the new Paper Mache with several coats of Earth Undercoat #C1229.
I have also added the tall pine tree mounts, the white spots in the grassy areas are half inch long Plastruct #90106 Tubing glued into �" holes. It is �" OD with an ?" ID, the Woodland Scenics TR1106 Tall Pine Conifer Trees have a ?" mounting stud on the bottom of the trunk and fits perfect in the tubing. I error-ed badly by not using the tree mounts provided with the Woodland Scenics Trees when I originally built my layout. By using a plugin type base the trees are easily removable for maintenance. Now all of my 500 trees are removable
The Next Phase is Flocking.
Selasa, 4 Jun 2013
June 4, 2013 Craftsman 4 volt Cordless Lithium-Ion Screwdriver
Helpful Information
Several years ago my grandson gave me a Craftsman 4 volt Cordless Lithium-Ion Screwdriver for Christmas. That little screwdriver/drill is by far the best hobby tool I own. I was using it constantly on my removable section when it refused to take a charge. I was devastated when I couldn't get a replacement battery from Sears. Sears has no information on this tool, I even tried calling the Sears Parts 800 number. It's like Sears never sold them. All I got was "I'm sorry sir".
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Several years ago my grandson gave me a Craftsman 4 volt Cordless Lithium-Ion Screwdriver for Christmas. That little screwdriver/drill is by far the best hobby tool I own. I was using it constantly on my removable section when it refused to take a charge. I was devastated when I couldn't get a replacement battery from Sears. Sears has no information on this tool, I even tried calling the Sears Parts 800 number. It's like Sears never sold them. All I got was "I'm sorry sir".
I opened it up to hopefully find a number on the battery but none of the many numbers did any good with Sears. I did quite a bit of research and finally located a type 18650 battery that worked very good. The only place I could find the one I wanted was on E-Bay, buying from China is taboo in my books so I kept searching E-Bay for a US dealer so at least part of the money would stay in the US. It shipped out of Pennsylvania and I received it a week later.
The Battery I bought is a protected 3.7 volt 65mm long x 18mm diameter with solder tabs type #18650, the battery has a capacity of 4200 mah, almost double the capacity of the original battery. The battery type 18650 breaks down to size, 18mm x 65mm, make sure that the battery is either an IMR-18650 or "protected" to prevent a fire if shorted. Most of the China/Hong Kong batteries don't state if they are protected.
The bottom line is I have my drill/driver back working perfectly.
This is my 4 Volt Craftsman Driver/Drill with a #76 drill bit in a Micro-Mark Mini Chuck, best Hobby Tool I own. Low speed is 200RPM and High is 600RPM with all the power needed for any hobby project!
The Battery I bought is a protected 3.7 volt 65mm long x 18mm diameter with solder tabs type #18650, the battery has a capacity of 4200 mah, almost double the capacity of the original battery. The battery type 18650 breaks down to size, 18mm x 65mm, make sure that the battery is either an IMR-18650 or "protected" to prevent a fire if shorted. Most of the China/Hong Kong batteries don't state if they are protected.
The bottom line is I have my drill/driver back working perfectly.
This is my 4 Volt Craftsman Driver/Drill with a #76 drill bit in a Micro-Mark Mini Chuck, best Hobby Tool I own. Low speed is 200RPM and High is 600RPM with all the power needed for any hobby project!
Ahad, 2 Jun 2013
June 2, 2013 My Removable Section Remodel II
When I originally built this module I attached the Woodland Scenics TR1106 trees direct to the scenery base by drilling a �" hole in the Paper Mache then filling the hole with glue. That was a terrible mistake, the glue held so good that removing them tore up the trees and scenery very bad. I had thought that after the trees were attached I would never need to remove them. Well over time they deteriorated badly. After learning the hard way I now use the base that comes with the trees and cover them with flocking. There was over 50 trees on this module that needed removing during the remodel and I dinged the Paper Mache/flocking pretty bad removing them. The Woodland Scenics tree base has a tight fit 1/8" hole for the stud on the bottom of the tree trunk.
I tossed all of the toy like tree bases for the existing trees during the original construction so I have improvised. Plastruct �" Styrene tubing works very good as a mount. I cut the tubing into �" lengths and glue them in a �" hole to hold the trees. The �" Plastruct also works for my power/telephone poles. The pictures above and below shows how the improvised tubing works very well to hold the trees and poles.
More as work progresses.
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I tossed all of the toy like tree bases for the existing trees during the original construction so I have improvised. Plastruct �" Styrene tubing works very good as a mount. I cut the tubing into �" lengths and glue them in a �" hole to hold the trees. The �" Plastruct also works for my power/telephone poles. The pictures above and below shows how the improvised tubing works very well to hold the trees and poles.
More as work progresses.
Sabtu, 1 Jun 2013
June 1, 2013 My Removable Section Remodel
Work is underway on the repairs to my 15 year old Removable Section. My previous post described how this section warped badly from the combination of Paper Mache and severe temperature changes in my garage. The following pictures are of the reconstruction of my 2 foot by 4 foot removable section.
In the picture above I have removed all of the structures, power poles, figures, vehicles and trees.
The picture above shows the module in place on my layout "Bear Bones".
Here I have brought the module into my hobby room to work on it at my workbench. I have the new houses in place to see if every thing will fit. In the remodel phase I'm replacing the Walthers Cornerstone plastic kit houses with my scratch built Catalog Homes from the early to mid 1900s.
The house on the hill was originally a Grandt Kit "No Problems Joe" house. It didn't fit in with my Catalog Homes So I'm replacing it with a Campbell Farm House Craftsman Kit.
In the picture above I have glued a Balsa base for each house to sit on, I used a level to make sure everything was correct. I have also added a thin coat of Paper Mache as a "filler" to mate the ground level to the house mounting bases. I now wait until the thin Paper Mache has fully dried before adding thickness. I learned the hard way that Paper Mache applied too thick causes warping, as it dries it shrinks and causes stress on the material that it is applied to.
Because of the shrinkage from the Paper Mache I keep the level handy and double check constantly for warping.
I went to a standard contact spacing or foot print for the power to my house lighting so they can be easily swapped for a different look on my layout.
This is one of my scratch built houses in place, the wet Paper Mache is the second thin coat or layer.
This house is a scratch built Catalog Home sitting in place.
This is my Retired Miner's house, it was a Grandt Kit house but the plastic roof shingles looked out of place next to my other houses. Here I have replaced it with a Campbell Kit house that "fits in". The Grandt Kit consisted of the main house, a storage shed or tool building and the outhouse. The shed looked like a toy building so I have replaced it with a small garage made from leftovers from Campbell Kits. I will keep the Grandt outhouse but replace the plastic shingle roof with a rusted corrugated metal roof.
The house above is a Laser Art Kit that turned out very nice. It is a model of a Sears Catalog House and that's what got me into building my own Catalog Homes. I can't say enough about the Laser Art Kit, the detail and ease of construction is extremely good. I did vary from the shingles that came in the kit, I used Campbell shingles so that they matched the rest of the houses on this module.
This picture is taken from the south east corner of the module as it would sit in my layout
I still have a long ways to go on this project but I'm happy that it's going so well at this point.
Read More..
In the picture above I have removed all of the structures, power poles, figures, vehicles and trees.
The picture above shows the module in place on my layout "Bear Bones".
Here I have brought the module into my hobby room to work on it at my workbench. I have the new houses in place to see if every thing will fit. In the remodel phase I'm replacing the Walthers Cornerstone plastic kit houses with my scratch built Catalog Homes from the early to mid 1900s.
The house on the hill was originally a Grandt Kit "No Problems Joe" house. It didn't fit in with my Catalog Homes So I'm replacing it with a Campbell Farm House Craftsman Kit.
In the picture above I have glued a Balsa base for each house to sit on, I used a level to make sure everything was correct. I have also added a thin coat of Paper Mache as a "filler" to mate the ground level to the house mounting bases. I now wait until the thin Paper Mache has fully dried before adding thickness. I learned the hard way that Paper Mache applied too thick causes warping, as it dries it shrinks and causes stress on the material that it is applied to.
Because of the shrinkage from the Paper Mache I keep the level handy and double check constantly for warping.
I went to a standard contact spacing or foot print for the power to my house lighting so they can be easily swapped for a different look on my layout.
This is one of my scratch built houses in place, the wet Paper Mache is the second thin coat or layer.
This house is a scratch built Catalog Home sitting in place.
This is my Retired Miner's house, it was a Grandt Kit house but the plastic roof shingles looked out of place next to my other houses. Here I have replaced it with a Campbell Kit house that "fits in". The Grandt Kit consisted of the main house, a storage shed or tool building and the outhouse. The shed looked like a toy building so I have replaced it with a small garage made from leftovers from Campbell Kits. I will keep the Grandt outhouse but replace the plastic shingle roof with a rusted corrugated metal roof.
The house above is a Laser Art Kit that turned out very nice. It is a model of a Sears Catalog House and that's what got me into building my own Catalog Homes. I can't say enough about the Laser Art Kit, the detail and ease of construction is extremely good. I did vary from the shingles that came in the kit, I used Campbell shingles so that they matched the rest of the houses on this module.
This picture is taken from the south east corner of the module as it would sit in my layout
I still have a long ways to go on this project but I'm happy that it's going so well at this point.
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