04-25-2021, 11:57 AM
Man. Time really flies when you're life feels like its just one distraction from another. I hope everyone is well, considering?
I've managed to keep plugging away on certain aspects of my never ending list of things to do on my MRR.
I have some photo's and updates but in no way should any of this be taken as "in chronological" order.
I finally finished all of the Tichy boxcar builds I was working on. All weathered and done. I did a lot of experimentation and hopefully learned something along the way. Photos always seem to highlight the weathering, like the run off streaking and such. It doesn't appear so bold in person. Its not a complaint. I happy with how all five eventually turned out.
Ohhh...I also banged off the Tichy/Gould Steam Crane and Boom Car too. I wished I had made/caught (paid closer attention to) some details on the Boom Car prototype photo before final assembly. One being the brake rigging should be on the other end of the car where the "shed" is, and a chimney for the wood stove inside. Necessary for those cold Canadian Rocky winters. The chimney I can go back and add at anytime. The reversal of the brake orientation....meh, I'll leave it. I'm very happy with how it turned out. At least I got the window right. I used some Microscale Krystal Klear for the windows instead of clear styrene. Other then the lensing it makes, I actually liked using it. Some care was needed to clean up the edges on the trim plus I pushed it's "stretching" to the limit with an opening that size, but somehow managed to pull it off. I actually allowed each window to dry by, supporting the model and putting it on its side with the window facing down, the Klear will bow outward, however as it dries, it shrinks and dries flat and taught. Worst case scenario is it doesn't work and I use styrene. But so far so good. I'll definitely use it again for glazing on other builds and projects.
The steam crane was soooo much fun to build. Seriously. I enjoyed the small different sub builds, the painting of each assembly and then finally putting it all together as one piece. There is still more I'd like to do. I'd eventually like to add some canvass curtains to the sides. While the proto type I was looking at has hard body enclosures around the crane mechanism, i feel as a modeler it'd be a shame to cover up all that hard work. Plus some additional weather to the deck. I can still pull the boiler off so I can easily make both of those happen in the future. As a matter of fact. I'm pretty sure Doctorwayne has a tutorial somewhere on the site on how to make realistic canvass curtains for steam locos. I'll have to see if I can find it.
My oldest loco 8416 got a decoder upgrade to a Loksound 5 and I made some changes to the front headlight from the stock P2K two lenses to the single large lamp up front on the short hood. That Krystal Klear was useful in making a nice lens for the headlamp. I have a book with the prototype photo of this engine way off in the distance but the single headlamp is clearly seen. (Not sure about the back, so I left it alone). I also rewired it with nano LEDS and wired the number boards up to a separate function on the decoder so that they work independently from the headlamps. I still have some work to do on this engine, and sadly for some reason, the function for the number boards stopped working a few weeks later...it's probably a bad function circuit on the decoder...@#$%!" I can fix it by rewiring the lights to a new function wire, but i do not have the inclination to open her back up and fix the issue this moment. Plus eventually I'd like to go back and replace all the plastic rungs with metal ones so...yeah.
Another Arduino project I've been working on is adding sound FX to my layout. Why? Just because. What this is an Arduino wired up to IR sensor, speaker and a small MP3 player that has a slot for a small Micro SD card. You can upload any sounds you like to the memory card and when someone approaches the sensor the sound file plays on a loop. When the person moves away the sounds stop. The sensitivity can be adjusted right at the sensors as well. Right now this module is wired up under the water feature I have and it plays the sound of gentle waves, like a lake lapping up against the shore or the hull of a docked car float. I can see me eventually putting these modules in several other spots just to add another dimension to the whole layout. I mean, the engines already have sound right?
Lastly, how am I going to power all these lights and sound effects? Well, I did what I've seen so many other MRR do before me and I repurposed a CPU Power Supply Unit. I separated the different voltages into their respective groups so that I could use them for my purposes; 12v, 5v and 3.5v, Yellow, Red, Orange respectively. I wired up a green LED with a resistor for a power ON indicator at the front, the big orange thing on top is a resistor to "trick" the CPU into thinking there is a load aka "motherboard" on it, otherwise it won't power on at all. It's a incredibly quiet set up and runs completely independent from the layout power. As I progress, I'll be able to wire my building lights and accessories to the buss wires I've run and it will provide more then enough room to grow. So far I have my grade crossing circuit and sound FX wired up and it does the job more then adequately.
Whew... So, that's what I've been up to. Thanks for looking. Until the next time, take care everyone and be safe.
I've managed to keep plugging away on certain aspects of my never ending list of things to do on my MRR.
I have some photo's and updates but in no way should any of this be taken as "in chronological" order.
I finally finished all of the Tichy boxcar builds I was working on. All weathered and done. I did a lot of experimentation and hopefully learned something along the way. Photos always seem to highlight the weathering, like the run off streaking and such. It doesn't appear so bold in person. Its not a complaint. I happy with how all five eventually turned out.
Ohhh...I also banged off the Tichy/Gould Steam Crane and Boom Car too. I wished I had made/caught (paid closer attention to) some details on the Boom Car prototype photo before final assembly. One being the brake rigging should be on the other end of the car where the "shed" is, and a chimney for the wood stove inside. Necessary for those cold Canadian Rocky winters. The chimney I can go back and add at anytime. The reversal of the brake orientation....meh, I'll leave it. I'm very happy with how it turned out. At least I got the window right. I used some Microscale Krystal Klear for the windows instead of clear styrene. Other then the lensing it makes, I actually liked using it. Some care was needed to clean up the edges on the trim plus I pushed it's "stretching" to the limit with an opening that size, but somehow managed to pull it off. I actually allowed each window to dry by, supporting the model and putting it on its side with the window facing down, the Klear will bow outward, however as it dries, it shrinks and dries flat and taught. Worst case scenario is it doesn't work and I use styrene. But so far so good. I'll definitely use it again for glazing on other builds and projects.
The steam crane was soooo much fun to build. Seriously. I enjoyed the small different sub builds, the painting of each assembly and then finally putting it all together as one piece. There is still more I'd like to do. I'd eventually like to add some canvass curtains to the sides. While the proto type I was looking at has hard body enclosures around the crane mechanism, i feel as a modeler it'd be a shame to cover up all that hard work. Plus some additional weather to the deck. I can still pull the boiler off so I can easily make both of those happen in the future. As a matter of fact. I'm pretty sure Doctorwayne has a tutorial somewhere on the site on how to make realistic canvass curtains for steam locos. I'll have to see if I can find it.
My oldest loco 8416 got a decoder upgrade to a Loksound 5 and I made some changes to the front headlight from the stock P2K two lenses to the single large lamp up front on the short hood. That Krystal Klear was useful in making a nice lens for the headlamp. I have a book with the prototype photo of this engine way off in the distance but the single headlamp is clearly seen. (Not sure about the back, so I left it alone). I also rewired it with nano LEDS and wired the number boards up to a separate function on the decoder so that they work independently from the headlamps. I still have some work to do on this engine, and sadly for some reason, the function for the number boards stopped working a few weeks later...it's probably a bad function circuit on the decoder...@#$%!" I can fix it by rewiring the lights to a new function wire, but i do not have the inclination to open her back up and fix the issue this moment. Plus eventually I'd like to go back and replace all the plastic rungs with metal ones so...yeah.
Another Arduino project I've been working on is adding sound FX to my layout. Why? Just because. What this is an Arduino wired up to IR sensor, speaker and a small MP3 player that has a slot for a small Micro SD card. You can upload any sounds you like to the memory card and when someone approaches the sensor the sound file plays on a loop. When the person moves away the sounds stop. The sensitivity can be adjusted right at the sensors as well. Right now this module is wired up under the water feature I have and it plays the sound of gentle waves, like a lake lapping up against the shore or the hull of a docked car float. I can see me eventually putting these modules in several other spots just to add another dimension to the whole layout. I mean, the engines already have sound right?
Lastly, how am I going to power all these lights and sound effects? Well, I did what I've seen so many other MRR do before me and I repurposed a CPU Power Supply Unit. I separated the different voltages into their respective groups so that I could use them for my purposes; 12v, 5v and 3.5v, Yellow, Red, Orange respectively. I wired up a green LED with a resistor for a power ON indicator at the front, the big orange thing on top is a resistor to "trick" the CPU into thinking there is a load aka "motherboard" on it, otherwise it won't power on at all. It's a incredibly quiet set up and runs completely independent from the layout power. As I progress, I'll be able to wire my building lights and accessories to the buss wires I've run and it will provide more then enough room to grow. So far I have my grade crossing circuit and sound FX wired up and it does the job more then adequately.
Whew... So, that's what I've been up to. Thanks for looking. Until the next time, take care everyone and be safe.