TimberSurf's 2018 OO Gauge Christmas competition No. 11 submission

Thanks Toto, you and me will both be windmill h'experts by xmas!

 

The plan has changed. The idea to retrofit the working mechanism is flawed, as it requires the mechanics to be built in at an early stage and would be near impossible to 'add' later. Thus, as the build is progressing swiftly and I have lots of time before the end date, I have decided to make the whole thing animated, or to coin a new phrase, it will have Animotion. For the purpose of the competition, it will not have a sail. (no clue how to make it anyway). At some point in the future, after the comp, I might get round to adding it, but for the mean time, the drive mechanisms will be fitted, but not used.
I still have not secured the XPS insulation. I may have to bite the bullet and order 6 sheets to make the carrier cost worthwhile!

 

Are you offering?

 

More progress, prototypical braces have been added to the helicopter landing pad, glazed windows and door installed.



A servo has been mounted in the base, in readiness for the Cap (that's the bit on the top that rotates) axis shaft driver.


The shaft has been glued to the cap base.
and the drive arm made


The Cap side walls have been bent using a hair dryer and shrimp paste glass jar as a former.




An LED has been installed in the top and encased in a 'black box' to stop light bleed.

 

Ian, there is no helicopter landing pad! The copter blades would hit the windmill blades!

I was actually joking, at first the hexagonal top reminded me of the opening scene of Camberwick Green, but now the diagonal braces have been fitted, it just reminded me of a ships landing pad

Not much done tonight. Had a bit of a tidy up of the workbench, as I bought some more plastic draws, to store stuff in.
I have so many projects on at the moment, I needed to clear the decks and box up em up, to make room for more!

As part of this build, I need to sculpt some extruded polystyrene, so want a hot wire cutter. As usual, I think what's available off the shelf is either really cheap and nasty or good but very expensive! So I will make my own!

After some investigation of the principles, I ordered some bits. Having arrived by Monday, a quick test was done and nothing worked .
I had my suspicions and tried a test without the PWM unit, et voila, hot wire!
It seems contrary to what I remember what the blurb said, the PWM unit does not work on 5V! It says on the front 12v-24v, that will teach me!
Well it's not a problem, I just have to use a very specific length of wire to get the right temperature for my hand carver (thick wire). For my bench cutter, I can use a 12V supply, so hopefully the PWM unit can be used on that.

 

I put an Ammeter on the hot wire sculpting tool, it draws 9 Amps! (way too hot)
Increased the wire length and now draws 7 Amps, but is the right temperature. (pics to follow)
Fitted the main shaft down the center of the windmill with associated bearings (oversize tube) and bracketry and managed to glue it solid! Ended up dismantling the whole thing to get the (glued) sleeve off the shaft. Now resoldered together and different glue used to re-attach the (wrenched off) brackets back on!
I was thinking about the hand rail and decided to try an experiment, to my surprise, it worked beautifully, apparently you can solder steel together!
I soldered 12mm high staples together, end to end to make a continuous railing. Not sure I will use it on this build, but definitely worth remembering for future. When used in earnest, as proof of concept, may well end up as 'How to' on my website.

 

Finally re-glued all the workings for the central shaft again ready for a trial, then the servo mount snapped off!
My revell glue does not weld the cheap plastic strips I got from China, very well!
So after a few hours of setting with araldite , hooked up to a servo tester and bingo we are in business!


Assembled



Central shaft innards



Top with central shaft that will hold the wiring


Roof with motor mount installed for tail fan


I will cobble a video together soon, but in the mean time, here is a gif of the barn with its four modes of lighting.




The 1.6mm screws turned up, so I can start to mount the main sail blade motor, hard part next is to create the tail fan!

 

Progress report
I have bit the bullet and ordered £50 worth of 25mm thick Extruded Polystyrene sheets!
The sculpting tool is up and running, the (bought in) 200mm long knife works just dandy and I have constructed a ginormous bow saw for cutting up the sheets WITH (PWM) temperature control! (Gormo eat yer heart out) {I will be using Gormo's excellent Black and Decker Workmate method}







While waiting for the base materials to turn up, my attention has been on accessories to enhance the scene (and compound the re-use theme).
It struck me that there should be a Water Well, so construction has begun.

With such an idyllic Holiday setting, I wondered what else might be found as an outdoor pleasure equipment supplied by the letter? Badminton net? Trampoline? Kids slide?

So for now, it will be a family size barbeque, we shall see what else I dream up later!

 

The XPS turned up today, so have fun chopping it up with the hot knife. It draws more current than I thought so I had to swap to a bigger PSU and use my posh PWM units (has on/off, a pot and a digital readout of percentage) but now works brilliantly, just like a sawbench. I have even made a cross cut linear slide to cut pieces at right angles! Piccies to follow and maybe a vid.
After my reasonable success at making casts of walling for my station, I thought i would have a go with stonework. Having made a sheet mould in gun silicon, I thought I would push the envelope and try a curve.
The result is pretty good, so here is a taster after weathering.

 

The diorama will be 4 inches tall, with technically no base board (just a hollow frame). Rather than simply glue four sheets of 25mm together (seems wasteful) I have designed a framework in CAD and have cut the pieces out with my new hot wire saw (plus/minus 1mm accuracy!).
I did some test samples of various glues yesterday and have picked three winners, Araldite for small areas, Gorilla glue for structural joins and PVA for the scenery. All others either don't stick or melt the styrofoam!
The assembly was glued together tonight, I am really impressed with extruded Polystyrene , it does everything I have learned off the net. We will see how the carving goes tomorrow!

 

The Extruded Polystyrene, carves well, takes sanding, routing with the dremel, cuts with precision with the hot knife, carves semi well with my carving hot wire tool (wont pass through the Gorilla glue seams ) and is as tough as old boots, it's just the dogs nuts!

Basic shape done in no time. Glued a few extra lumps on to break up the flat top.

Next experiment (boy this project is pushing every boundary for me!) is in a Modroc replacement, all the terrain videos rave about sculptamold. So in at the deep end, not bought any, but have had a bash at making my own. This diorama is the test bed (may come back and bite me). So rattled up a quick mix and blasted it on. I can't say I am impressed with the way it goes on, but maybe that's my homemade mix's fault, either way, we shall see what it's like tomorrow when dry!

 

So checked if Lumsdonia sculptamold was dry this morning, but still wet and soft!
I left a desk fan blowing over it all day and by night it was rock hard.
It is very tough and sticks like mad to the styrene! Result!

I guess that will be another 'How To' that I need to write up!

So with some more normal filler, I have smoothed out the areas that need to be flat, 'rutted' the road, gravelled the gravel area's and painted the whole thing in a base coat! (phew), very good accomplishment done tonight!

My super lightweight base has gone from sparrow weight to 5 fat pigeons!

 

Catch up piccies











Now to do about 10 sessions of gluing grass on!

 

I have had about 7 goes at the static grass, of which one underdone and one overdone, but both retrievable and the learning curve is, well, steep !

Fences, hedges, walls and a gate have now been installed. Luke Towan has has just released a new video (I won't put a link, as it might show mine up) but has basically used the same technique as me. Who stole from who?

On another note, I experimented with artificial smoke Version 2 and Version 3 a year back and got conclusive results to use as for the next iteration (hopefully the last!), I ordered all the bits for version 4, but never got around to making it up! So tonight, I constructed it and it works perfectly . It's much more compact too, so it looks like it will get its first outing in this diorama.

On another another note, I am in deep doo doo with wife and now have to go out shopping tomorrow to buy her a pack of 9 Andrex loo rolls!
Apparently I took a posh roll instead of a cheapy to make my sculptamold, so not so cheap now!

 

All the static grass is now done. Still some bits like water, tree's and some more weathering to go, but all fences, walls and hedges are now in place.
Here are a couple of teasers to keep your interest up as xmas is a long way off yet, for the big reveal