Backdrop epiphany

In response to my hack-job about composition, Neil Erickson sent over an in-progress photo of his layout that he likes. It is a simple, entirely railroady scene, quite similar to the painting of a train I showed in that post. I quite like the oil painting varnish on the photo; I’m not sure if that’s […]

Challenging composition

Some of the comments in Friday’s post lead the way to thinking about model railways as art, and it’s worth getting a book out of the library to refresh ourselves on the elements of composition. My favourite art book is Jeanne Dobie’s Making Color Sing. It changed my dabbling with watercolour dramatically. One of the […]

Of Accuracy and Realism

Lance Mindheim’s piece last week about prototype modelling strikes a chord for me. You should read it yourself, but to précis, it is an argument for flexibility in prototype modelling to augment appearance. Embedded in the essay, Lance says, Its taken me decades to realize this but the two, appearance and accuracy are, in fact, […]

And now we are two!

For many years, I was the only Canada Atlantic Railway modeller I had ever met. Then for a short while, Ron Newby was hoeing this very long row with me. Then, he found other, more accessible subjects, and then as far as I know, I was the only one again. A couple of weeks ago, Richard […]

Bubbly bolster

The wheel plan for 622 requires perfect castings. Unfortunately, every attempt so far using my test molds has resulted in large bubbles. These bubbles are not there when I pour the resin, but seem to be forming during the curing process. According to the Smooth-on website, this could be due to humidity, and I should […]

Solvent fail

I should have known I was in trouble when the Tamiya cement so reluctantly entered the syringe. But, my trusty MEK Pak has finally breathed out the last of whatever makes it work, and so, I was stuck (so to speak). So I went ahead and made that test mould with Tamiya Cement. Plainly this […]

Test masters

I was just about to glue my 3D printed wheels to the bottom of a box and rashly pour rubber over them, when my inner project manager whispered in my ear and pointed at the risk register. Wrecking the Shapeways wheels would put me back a couple of weeks and $16 in shipping alone! For […]

Vacuum chamber

My first plastic vacuum chamber for evacuating rubber Moldavia never held much pressure. For this attempt, I poked around at the local thrift store and ultimately came away with a pot and a tempered glass lid that will enable me to see what is going on inside. Until I got hold of it, there was […]

First four tyres

The photo above presents the first four Proto:87 tyres to be found among the chips around my lathe. These are the 30″ pilot wheels, and their brass centres need to have spokes cut in before getting soldered into the tyres. They’re not perfect, but every wheel is better than the last, and I think these […]

Wheel Progress

Parts for the first wheel rolled off the lathe this week. The engine truck wheels are only 8 mm in diameter, and have eight spokes. The spokes themselves are only a couple of millimetres long, and so, I have elected to make these wheels in two parts – a tyre and a centre. I actually […]