Freelance 2018-1

[faraway]

Did the roofs with tarpaper (looks like that is the dominating roofing in Westgate) using textures from <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://clevermodels.squarespace.com/textures/">http://clevermodels.squarespace.com/textures/</a><!-- m -->

[faraway]

3D elements for the last one of the series. May be I redo this one later.



The building got a new skin. The mash wire doors are not a suiteable object for 3D details. They got the rails only and I moved to the rain gutters and downspouts.

[faraway]

Buildings #6 and #7 fill the gap in the center of the layout.




Seven contemporary industry buildings form a series of background structure over 4,25m (14’).




I have a bunch of Walthers AC for the roofs and electric appliances on order. I intended to make some air ducting on the roofs around the ACs but it looks like most roofs have only small AC units, a few larger AC units but air ducting on the roof is very rare. Did that change over the last years? I remember to see lots of them in Google some years ago.

ps. Loctite 401 is an outstanding fast setting CA glue. It sets in less than a second (at my fingers...... )

[dingbat]

The structures look excellent! You did quite a job in such a short time. I'm very impressed with your work (as always).

[faraway]

Thank you dingbat. It is a great pleasure to build a new layout from scratch. I enjoy it very much.

[FCIN]

Really nice work Reinhard! May have to try this myself. I've made mockup's of structures using foam board, but not with this level of detail. Could easily be permanent structures.

[faraway]

Adding first scenic details to the ground and the roofs

[Brakie]

Reinhard, I just noticed those modern Phol Low designed switch stands. A detail often overlooked on modern ISLs.

[Rscott417]

Probably overlooked because they're $12 each! I have 9 that I intend to use and wasn't too thrilled spending $100 on non operating switch stands.

[faraway]

Probably overlooked because they're $12 each! I have 9 that I intend to use and wasn't too thrilled spending $100 on non operating switch stands.

I bought mine several years ago and reuse them quite often. I glue them down on plastic ties with white glue to make sure they are easy to remove with a drop of water and ready for the next layout scenery. They are quite robust. I miss them whenever I go to the 1980s to run Conrail but they do not fit in that timeframe.

[faraway]

I have got a nasty problem with an Atlas 19° (#572) Atlas crossing. One of the rail drops for about 1" by 1/20" just before it reaches the plastic frog. That makes the plastic frog a tad higher than the rail. Just one frog at one side should be no big deal and in fact almost all engines master that challenge.

Except my longest and biggest engine. A Walthers Mainline SD70ACE runs with one truck on the elevated crossing plastic frog and with the other truck on the dead frog of the next switch. I think that is really tough luck to have two dead frogs in the perfect distance to isolate such a long model.

I got two 19° crossings and both have the same production fault. I tried to "raise" to rail be a layer of solder. It works but how performs the soft solder on the long run? Anyhow I use the SD70ACE not so often to switch a stub track. It is more curious than annoying.

My LHS has no more code 83 19° crossing. I ordered a code 100 19° crossing. Lets see if it works as a replacement.

[Rscott417]

Can you shim the rail off the ties with a thin strip of styrene?

[faraway]

Can you shim the rail off the ties with a thin piece of styrene?

I don't think so. The rail is deep buried in the plastic. I tried to lift it a bit but failed. It works for now and I will try to get a code 100 in that spot. May be sand the back of the ties down until the rail heads of code 83 and code 100 are at the same hight and solder it in place.

[Rscott417]

That's a good idea

[doctorwayne]

If you're using Atlas rail joiners, the fret to which they're attached is also nickel silver. If you trim it, then tin it and the top of the rail, you should be able to solder it in place. That should bring the rail's top up to where it should be.

Wayne