Tarnation Supply Warehouse

Building a Good Ol' Fashioned DPM Style Model for an Upcoming Project.

A bit of a diversion, how good does it feel to build one of these type of models again! Its been years for me!

The idea is to butt two of these "Schultz Garage" by Woodland Scenics models together to build a larger building...

Like this! They went together easily enough... except where the cement overflowed and dissolved some of the brickwork on the nearest corner. No worries! I'll think of something to hide that. The back of the facades don't have any detail, so since I have some left over wall material...

Sweet! This beefs up the wall and adds some more detail to the building.

I want a good old fashioned red brick color for the building. A lot of guys are using Americana craft acrylics for these sort of projects, so I thought I would give it a try. I went to my local Micheal's crafts store to get a bottle of "Americana Heritage Brick", but of course they were out, so I got the next closest thing, "Rookwood Red" with "Fawn" as the trim color. It doesn't really matter what color I get anyway, weathering will alter these colors dramatically.

See? Just adding a mortar mix already changed the color quite a bit. For the mortar I just rubbed on some Durhams water putty tinted to a light grey into the cast-in mortar joints. The building looks quiet stark this way, so its going to need to be toned down.

I gave the building a weathering wash which really toned things down and really brought out the detail (including the melted brick smudge on the near corner!). Most folks use an India Ink / Alcohol mixture for this, but I prefer a Bragdons Weathering Powders / Alcohol mix. It gives me a more dusty and dry look that I like for my Southern California set buildings.

For the windows and doors I used the same "Fawn" trim color.

And they were cemented into place. I'm thinking of doing something different for the freight door, so I skipped it for now.

There is a popular technique among craftsman where paper signs are sanded tissue thin so when applied to the side of a brick building they look painted on. So I thought I would give it a try. Its pretty tough to do and when my sign finally ripped, I stopped and glued them on. But I think it was too soon, they still look kind of thick.

I have some doors left over, so I thought I would experiment and see if I can make one look partially open...

I carefully cut out an opening and then filed it smooth up to the door frame.

The new freight door was painted and installed.

 Then the doors and windows received the same weathering powder / alcohol mix that the bricks did. Look how it really brings out the details. But now with that open door, I'll need some interior detailing.

With the last of the leftover wall material, I cemented them together to make an interior office space. I hate to waste, so this makes me happy.

So easy and effective.

The roof was constructed as per the instructions, but with longer pieces of styrene. But I'm not entirely happy with the plain roof, I mean, what kind of roofing material is that supposed to be anyway? So...

 A scale 3' strips of 600 grit sandpaper was cut and glued to the roof to simulate tar paper.

The "tar paper" was weathered with the Bragdon Weathering Powders.

Also of note is how thick the windows and doors are. The model comes with clear styrene to fit behind them, but I think it will just highlight that thickness. So...

 I've experimented with using Micro Kristal Kleer for windows in the past and wasn't too impressed, But for an industrial building like this, I think it might just be perfect! And it fits IN the window openings, not behind them. Its messy work, so it was applied from the back of the windows.

Micro Kristal Klear goes on white, but will dry clear. Being IN the window frames, this should help the window frames look thinner.

And there ya go! I'll come up with something to hide the melted brick thing when this building is put into its scene. But until then, this has been a fun little diversion. Yes sir! A fun little diversion indeed!

Dandy

Visiting the Saddest Place on Earth

I was, as all my friends were, very saddened by the closing of Disneyland in California a while back. So I enthusiastically jumped at the opportunity to visit the old abandoned park recently and well... It turned out to be the most depressing thing I have ever done.

The first thing that struck me was how overgrown everything had become. The perfectly manicured landscaping had gone downright bohemian.

Being a rail fan, the Main Street Station was one of my favorite places. I could still hear the Station Masters announcements: "Your attention please! The Disneyland Limited now arriving..." Fortunately that still lives on at Disney World in Florida which is still alive and thriving.

Despite the Disney Co's best effort to keep the park updated, the basic concept is very 1955. With every passing year, Disneyland looked more and more like a miniature golf course.

The Jungle Cruise has become, well... a jungle! Such an attraction had become less attractive ever since video gaming made visiting adventuresome places so much more submersive than just riding a boat with a stand-up comic with viewing the "backside of water" as the highlight.

Once hailed as the way of the future, the "highway in the sky" is now a relic of the past. I really had thought that monorails would have been everywhere by now.

This post might be a little off topic, but Disneyland was really a scale model layout. Main Street scales out to roughly 7/8th scale. A very large scale layout that you could actually walk around in. But Disneyland, just like model railroading, can't compete with the limitless virtual world. 

 So sad. The whole time I was walking around I kept hoping I would wake up from this nightmare and find it was all just an April Fools joke. Yes sir! Just an April Fools joke!

Dandy

#426 Project~ Making the Circuit

#426 Makes her shakedown run around the Southern California Traction Club modular layout setup:

And she ran beautifully all weekend.

She's come a long way from her years as a tarnished display piece. Yes sir! She's come a long way!

Dandy

#426 Project~ Energizing the Diablo

With the Diablo Mechanism firmly installed, its time to wire it all together.

I find soldering the wire to the trolley pole base a little tricky. The wire attaches to the brass bushing which inserts into a plastic insulator. The wire can't be soldered on ahead of time because then the bushing would be too fat to fit through the plastic insulator. The only solution I've come up with so far is soldering it in place fast before the plastic has time to melt.

The bushing is prepared ahead of time. First by roughing it up with a Bright Boy so that its clean and etched, ready to accept solder.

Then the bushing is tinned (hot solder flowed on). I had to keep it thin so it could still be slid through the plastic insulator. 

Then the wire is shaped and tinned as well.

Then I line everything up, add some flux and then hit it with the hot iron. Hopefully the wire and bushing will melt together before the plastic gets too hot. Remember to clean off the flux residue with some alcohol. Give the wire a tug to make sure a good connection has been made.

Each wire from the two bushings (double pole car) connect to one end of a Micro-Mini Connector plug from Miniatronics (50-001). The other plug of the connector connects to each pole of the motor. To help keep wires organized and out of the way of moving parts, one of the plugs is glued to the top of the motor (above), and the wires are bent accordion style. A rubber band secures the plug in place while the glue dries.

Testing the electrical connections is a simple matter of stuffing one power pack lead into the hole of one of  the bushings and the other lead into the other bushing. Give it some juice and (if all goes well) the car should roll across the work bench (which it did!). So now were ready for the test track. Yes sir! We are ready for the test track!

Dandy

Every Good Hero has a Side Frame

Installing Side Frames onto the Diablo Mechanism

Hollywood Foundry suggests a couple of ways to mount the side frames to the Diablo, but I'm going to go with soldering them on. Solder is good, I trust solder.

Ooh look at that texturing on those tabs! All that extra surface area will really help the side frames stick. I further cleaned and roughed it up with a Bright Boy.

Hot solder will really stick to this kind of surface. Flowing solder onto the surfaces to be joined ahead of time (tinning) helps make soldering easier and more reliable. I removed the cover plate from the Diablo and then tinned the surfaces of the tab and the side frame itself with a soldering iron.

 

After determining where exactly the side frame sits so that the journal boxes will line up with the axles, all I had to do was hold the two pieces together with tweezers and then heat the joint with a small torch. I could feel when the two pieces melt together.

 These side frames are on there solid. I never have to worry about them ever falling off. I cleaned the solder joints with some alcohol so that the flux residue won't corrode the joint.

Reattach to the Diablo and were all solid man. Yes sir! Solid man!

Dandy

Diablo Unchained

Mounting a Motor to the Diablo Power Truck couldn't be any easier!

With the Diablo Power Truck built and installed, I added a small drop of Labelle #108 oil to all the moving parts (except the belt- You want friction there!). Now I'm ready to install the motor.

Hollywood Foundry's instructions for this are very clear and concise.  So don't do as I do, do as they say!

 The drive shaft of the power truck is a bit on the long side for this car. I want the motor to be reasonably centered so that the car is well balanced to aid in reliable operation. So a little trimming is in order:

A cutting disk equipped Dremel tool made quick work of trimming the drive shaft to size.

- and now the motor is well centered and ready to be mounted.

 In an attempt to get the cars in my fleet all running at similar speeds, I ordered a motor that was around the same size as those used in the Niles cars. Which is a little on the small size apparently*. So I had to add a few layers of double sided tape the get the motor up to the right height for the drive shafts to line up.

*Some people insist that its best to use the largest motor that could be fit ( I don't want to name any names but, his name starts with a "F" and ends with a "-red Gurzeler"). So that's something to consider.

 I was able to get the two shafts to line up pretty darn well. Which is good! You know, all in the name of reliable operation.

 A nice length of Silicon Tubing is included in the power truck kit. A little longer that what I could fit. So a work order was placed with the maintenance dept to trim it to size.

The silicon tube was worked onto the pulley shaft and then the motor shaft. Then the motor was pressed firmly into place. And that's all there is to it! No screws, no drilling, no nothing! The tape is more than sufficient to secure the motor in place. It couldn't be any easier to mount a motor than this. Yes sir! Couldn't be and easier!

Dandy