Tumut

Hi again

Have been dedicating a lot of time to the backscene. Using Gormo's guide to Photofiltre plus some extra PM assistance, I've come up with something to work with.



I used two images of the hills around Gundagai, one I cut up and flipped the image a couple of times to remove the obvious repetitiveness, the other I blended out a lot of Patterson's Curse and different hues of foliage. It measures 45x200cm and will cover most of the Tumut side.

Still needs a little work but gives a feeling how the landscape will look.

Reidy

 

A test section. I tried my hand at adding in a cutting but I'm not happy with the effect. Also the printer doesn't seem to handle more than one a4 page before it starts horizontal banding


The WIT experiment seems to be working okay. I'm quite cognisant of adding a fascia to the front edge. I haven't worked out how to do that yet...



Track bed has been cut to size. I went with anti slip matting. Had a roll in stock.

So there you go for now.

Reidy

 

gormo wrote:

Just replaced the ink. Tried the whole gamut of diagnostic/maintenance items on the printer. I'll print a page at work to see if it makes a difference.

Quite happy with it so far, thanks to you Gormo!

Reidy

 

SMR CHRIS wrote:

Thanks Chris. All seem to be working as they should so far, all comes down to holding your tongue right when you bend the wire 😜

Reidy

 

Gary wrote:

Hey Gaz
It seems fine when you print one page (have a look at the bottom right of the four stuck together on the backscene) and then gradually packs it in. If you give it a rest for 10 min, page one comes out sweet again. End state is that its a cheap P.O.S and not worth the paper I feed it!
I bought both switch types, the smaller ones you mention and the ones I'm using. With the 50 mm drop down to switch level, the amount of bend in the wire steered me toward the longer throw of these switches. And I like big slidey things.
What's annoying is that I don't want to glue the tubes down yet because I haven't worked out how I'm going to mount the fascia and get the holes for the wire to line up correctly. Everytime I pull the track up to cut the channels for the point wire, the flex track never seems to go back in the same way. It always seems to shrink and I end up with big gaps. Very annoying.

Thanks
Reidy

 

Hi all

Just a quick update. I've successfully wired the layout and have been doing some preliminary runs with 4858. The layout works quite nicely without any narrative in place with industry etc. I'm currently trying to get neodymium magnets to uncouple my wagons. Unfortunately this isn't going very well. I'm concerned that the S wagons I've got set up with Kadees are either allowing too much left and right swing on the couple to allow the jaws to open or the magnets aren't strong enough. Should the kadees be rigid in the draft box?

Some photos to come. Once the uncoupling is sorted it's on to the good stuff.

Reidy

 

I promised some photos. Whilst not a good overview of the works in progress, I did do some weathering over the weekend. 4858 has been grubbied up and another 3 S wagons. Shame I don't have a nice diorama to show them off yet.



Reidy

 

A link to a short video with some better detail. Quite happy with how it's come up.

https://youtu.be/o_oKtWIOaBU

Reidy

 

Haha I might have a crack. Up against the guys who have already submitted entries I've probably got Buckley's chance, but it's fun none-the-less. The S wagons only take about 10 min max, definitely not ground breaking stuff.

In other news, I've got some cube shaped neodynium magnets en route. Hopefully they will work better than the cylinder shaped ones. I concluded that they aren't strong enough to reliably work at the mounting level I wanted them. Fingers crossed it works so I can install them and paint the track and sub road bed.

Reidy

 

A quick update. Some progress has been made recently.



I have been working with the styrene to form some relief on the layout. Having got the profile I wanted, I've experimented with polyfiller powder mixed with paper shredder confetti as a sealer and filler for the terrain. I'm waiting for that to dry as I type.



I found a bag of bricky's sand in the shed and I'm experimenting with it as a 'ballast'. In keeping with my prototype, the track is laid directly on the ground sans any form of traditional ballast profile. The non-slip matting holds the sand nicely. My only concern now is the colour. The method seems to work well, either a change to soil or colouring the sand with an airbrush.

Reidy

 

And a bit more of an overview. I've got the creek in and some culverts made up out of MDF.