Meeting up

Comments to my post yesterday have drifted towards meetings. I've been a member of a few modeling and gaming groups over the years. Model railway groups tend to meet on weeknights, with the most common being Tuesday-Thursday. Personally for me the worst night is a Friday night. After a long week I tend to sit down on Friday night, have a couple of drinks and relax. I'm not overly good with going out again and talking for the evening. The frequency can be anything from weekly to monthly. Weekly tends to suit actively modeling clubs, while monthly suits an interest group, such as NZR modelers etc. Weekly groups tend to meet in a fixed location (club rooms or shed) while the monthly ones tend to rotate round the members houses. As an aside it would be nice to have an NZR modelers group in Palmerston North, say meeting monthly for those with an interest

Wargaming clubs that I belonged to tend to meet on weekends as a decent game can take 4-6 hrs. This doesn't suit everyone, but they tend to meet only every other week. The location is generally a cold dusty church hall which are cheap to rent, though I've been to some in working mens clubs (mmm, bar...) or schools.

I have been kicking around the possibility of having a day meeting here one weekend as a get together for like minded individuals locally (and not quite so local). Subject to approval by the lady of the house, would there be any interest in such a thing? I can provide a layout, and there could be some chats about track laying and soldering etc, which seem to be the most common topics of interest.

Saturday morning.

"Does the sun ever shine here, lad?"
"I don't know sir, I'm only 9."

Its been (apparently) unseasonably wet here in Palmy. The radio commented the other day that it had rained on 62 of the last 25 days. However today it looks like its one of those 'once in 3 weeks' days when I'll get to mow the lawns and even do some gardening. Hence there will be sod all modeling today.

I've also found in the last couple of weeks that I've been a bit stalled modeling wise. Its odd considering that normally after a big show like Railex ones enthusiasm juices tend to be in full flow. I'm just wondering if its something to do with the stage that the layout is at currently. I've pretty much done all the track, and now its on to the making buildings etc. This is not something I feel that I'm particularly good at, despite a track record of building possibly the largest NZ120 building ever attempted (Dunedin railway station). The 2 signal boxes I've done are OK but I'm not particularly happy with them. The station will be a bit of a bastard as its an odd collection of buildings that have just sprung up. then there's the bits around the loco depot etc. This is all getting a bit overwhelming quite honestly but I guess I'll just have to leap in and get started. For some odd reason I didn't have this problem with starting the track work which was possibly even more imposing.

Oh, and did I mention there's a convention coming up at Easter?

So, what have other people run across that has held back a modeling project

No smoke this time.

Due to Schloss Dandruff being a bit of a plague ship this week, not a lot of progress.

I did receive a care package from the states though, with some more decoders (purchased before the NZ dollar goes spiraling to oblivion). One went into the railcar which had previously prototypically started smoking. I first went round with the heat shrink tube and made sure that the motor contacts were also isolated. Thus far it seems to be fine and runs really nicely, though the chip settings need a bit of tweaking.

'Any stray electrons leaking out then?'

Also note the added weight at the front, which is a cut up Kato 2-8-2 weight. I think it needs a bit more weight, but can't seem to find any of my printers lead.
With the lid back on it now looks the part.

'Now, no more fires you...'

I must get it finished though. The drop windows need to be added, and I must do something about more accurate couplers. It would also be nice to replace the front and rear 'skirts' with an etched offering...

Brain stroming

Here at Mini-Me-Wagons the madness has taken over again, after spending a few evenings talking trains with the head Druff. Last weekend was spent, out of the rain, trying to get one of the ideas from Druff space into Cabbage space. The starting point was a simple pencil drawing scribbled on the back of the nearest credit card letter of a 4 wheel 15ft under frame.

Druff Space

The idea is based on the same sort of thing from the 2mm Association in the UK and of course the crazy idea of making it from one piece of brass just folded into a wagon.

From the information the Armless one provided in the dim dark past for the design of the J5 laser cut body, the idea was put into Cabbage space. With all the appropriate level of nutter details like 1/2 etched rivets.

Cabbage Space

All the pieces are joined together and fold around each other in a devilishly clever set of ever increasing layers to form a 15ft under frame. A CAD model has been made up to prove the concept and a few errors noted, hand brake on the wrong side again!!!

Cabbage space folded

Final stage is to put it all together in the jigsaw puzzle of the etch and send it off to PPD.

Now we wait............

Sort of done

Well, after the weekends ramblings, back to something a bit more concrete. I got to sit down at the weekend and have a crack at the fiddly bits of scissors crossover for Waihao forks. This did take a bit of doing. Doing a normal crossover involves a bit of unsoldering and remeasuring, and when it comes to something like this its just a case of making it up as you go along. Along the way I had to reset several crossing frogs, redo the point blades, and shift other bits of rail back and forward to get the geometry roughly right. I still have to do the throwbars at the moment, but its essentially finished.


The end result is something that will accept both finescale and NMRA wheel sets. I'm not sure if I'd attempt another one though. However I've reached the point that working with code 40 rail no longer holds any fears.

Saturday Morning

A couple of conversations over the weekend past have got the little grey cells prodded out of their slumber and wanting access to the keyboard.

One comment I did hear quite a lot is 'oh, I could never do that'. I also have conversations where quite detailed minuata of modeling was discussed. Now I've never been much of an engineer (I'll work with them under duress, but that's about it). Regauging 2mm wheel sets for me meant twisting them on the axle until they went into the NMRA track gauge, rather than worrying about how i was going to shift them precisely 0.4mm. And with things like this I do think that people do talk themselves out of actually making models. Now Ill admit that it is very difficult to push on with a project that is not turning out the way that you thought it would, and I have plenty of 1/2 finished projects sitting on the workbench to prove it. By in large though, I manage to push through and get things reasonably complete, though I suspect my PhD is the only thing I've actually properly completed in my life. What I have managed to do with my modeling is to push through and build models of things I needed for the overall project. And I do believe that its important to have some sort of overall goal to model making. Be it building a wagon, an entire train or a layout small or large.

This has been a bit rambling but I have a bit of a head cold and have spent most of my energy today being coherent at work. I am not quite sure what the point of it all is, maybe just that its all in the mid you know....

RailX III

OK you wanted pictures

First we have the big and boy is it big LGB

Second English N not sure of this one's name

Third Taumaniu

Forth we have the 9mm/O gauge Kaikora layout

and lastly Rimu Flat which is the MMW layout

As for running the demo tables at the shows we have been doing this to pass the time and draw interest to the hobby for the last 4 years
It is a great way to get the audience involved
I remember last time we were at Lower Hutt RailX we were modifying S scale sheep for Kai Iwi Tunnel, you could only get runners and we needed some eaters so I was busy moving their heads down. there were about 5 kids standing around watching they would all ask "what are you doing" the reply would be "I'm cutting their heads off" this would have them intriged for 30 mins watching.
At Palmerston North Show last year saw the inventions of the birds we were hand making pukeko, the punters would watch ask "what are you doing" this time the reply was "I'm making......." at which point I would dip the blob of solder I had into a bottle of blue paint and hold it up for them to see "Oh ... its a pukeko"

Here we have Michelle building S scale disels, Steve was making paper cabbage trees Michael was doing nothing and out off shot Micheal Gee painting telephone poles, Tim building Df and Cabbage working in the other 9mm scale D cars