Fantastic work with the house, this is coming along very nicely indeed.
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I had already covered some foam with water-based wood putty, which attached itself to to the foam quite well, but seemed a bit fragile. As suggested, I added water to PVA glue (50-50) and applied two coats to the putty. The first coat soaked into the putty with a slight glaze. The second coat was definitely a glazing coat. It is no longer fragile.
Thanks.
While I am preparing to do some landscaping, I bought a few cork sanding blocks and, with a pair of pliers, broke them up into smae pieces. These pieces will serve as rocks. Got this idea from a railway scenery website. I placed the pieces in a sieve and roughed the pieces up a bit to get fid of the smaller fragments of cork. I discovered that these look like gravel. So I plan to use that too.
I plan to glue the cork rocks into place first before pianting them to look more like basalt/igneous type rocks.Comment
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PVA is a fantastic - and cheap - resource for modelling!
I'd like to try Modge Podge at some stage when I can find it because it seems to be a PVA-type glue but dries totally clear and is somewhat elastic (i.e. non cracking) when dry?
Over here it's way more expensive than ordinary PVA but railroad modellers swear by it so perhaps it's worth the extra money? For some applications perhaps...
I've seen many modellers use cork for just about everything but it's getting harder and harder to find nowadays since the French bought up, in advance, all the cork in the world for the next 100 years or so... (to secure wine production since Bordeaux wines, per definition, must use real cork stoppers and not plastic or composite materials)
10 years ago I just went to IKEA and bought a 10-pack of cork trivets whenever I needed cork for something but the ones they have today are really bad ones, thin and just glued together by small waste pieces of cork... Not the same as larger chunks.
Your posts are truly inspirational and it makes me want to dig deeper and build bigger and better dioramas! :smiling:Comment
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Found same difficulty to find cork for my purpose. Then remembered that my hand sanding block is made from cork. Went to hardware store and bought a few blocks at about $1.50 each.
Long time ago I watched a friend of family draw (pyrography) on light coloured cork, using a wire-nib burner. Then painted the cork with cloured inks. She done beautiful Australian landscapes, and made a good living from it.Comment
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This is coming to life......:thumb2:Comment
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Thank you @Snowman and @Jens Andrée for your response.
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Discovered what the bridge swing gates looked like. They got replaced with boom gates in 1995.
here is the best photograph (zoomed in and cropped) showing the swing gates.
Used Fencing wire for gate hinge axle, brass tubing, washers, solder, flat wire, and fly screen to make the gates.
Discovered that electrical terminals contain couplings ideal for attaching levers to the axles, and stoppers for links.
Showing what the gates will look like once they get closed across the road.
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Thank uou @spanner570 for your :thumb2:
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Designing and testing the servo controller circuit.
Designing and making four controllers on a DIY printed circuit board.
Making wooden brackets for the servos and gate axles. Assembling them under the display table.
Over each set of two gate servos sits microswitches which will be enabled when the gates are fully opened and closed. These will trigger other circuits, including the red and green control panel lights for each gate.
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Playing around with motor controller circuits. Deicided to drop the voltage to the motors to slow down the revolutions and the speed of the span in motion. Using diodes in series to drop the volatges. The 'INCH' button, on the control panel, drops the voltage even more, so to gently dock the span back onto the road. The circuit opted for controlling motor direction (CW - CCW) is logic controlled.
There is a rotational drift after power is cut to the motor. This needs to be considered in terms of locating sensors which switches the power off.
Making the two motor controllers circuits on a single printed circuit board.
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Amazing combination of skills, craft and vision.Comment
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Thank you @JoeC and @johnm93 for your responses.
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Painted several 1/72 scale, or OO gauge (1/74) scale, figurines. Cannot remember which ones I ordered. The tallest figure is 25 mm (1").
The second row are council workers (in high visibility work clothes). The fourth figure is the same as the third, but his left arm got amputated and repositioned. It turned out really good. It has opened a new door of possibilities for me.
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Just caught up again Peter, great work, and nice looking figures.Comment
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Those circuit boards took me back to my initial workshop training days (18yrs old - a long time ago!) - just like you, we designed and made our own. Cool!!
Impressive work, all round!Comment
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Thank you papa 695 and Snowman for your comments.
Gavin, I guess bad habits die hard :smiling:
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Now for the boat that traverses under the bridge,
Because the boat does not turn around to come back, it reverses back instead. To avoid having a reversing boat, in appearance, it could be symmetrical and appear to have two bow sections. So I bought two wooden boat kits to build such a boat.
I cut the keels, decks and cabin walls in half. Joined the bow sections together.
Used a tea-candle and a tin can to heat bend the planking to the shape of the hull.
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Thank you Snowman for your response.
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Drew the waterline and planked it. Then planked in between gunwale and waterline.
Then filleted the boat like a fish. Sanded the base flat and smooth.
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