February 2017 update

For those not following my Facebook page (which isn't updated that often!), a quick update.

Back at the start of the year I bought myself a cheap Chinese airbrushing booth to give it a go. Until today it has been safely in the box. Today I decided to give it a go as the temperature in Brisbane was forecast to be 39C (but only got to about 37C) and I elected to stay inside most of the day (apart from having to do some chores)

The LPG (propane) tanks I am painting are the kit PK gave me to do for the Club layout. So here is how I went.

Tanks to be painted however I need to mask up and remove the platforms

Platforms removed my using glue to 'melt' the bonds

Tanks masked up ready for painting

Booth setup in the laundry with exhaust tube out the window

Tank ready for airbrushing on turntable

Tanks airbrushed in Tamiya white acrylic

On another note yesterday was also very hot and I decided to go to the Banyo Library to a MERG presentation by Davy Dick, over from Scotland on his annual holiday to the Sunshine State. His talk was on layout sound and the various ways to enhance a layout's animation. Very informative as always and a hell of a lot cooler with the a/c than RMCQ's monthly meeting in the tin shed yesterday (36C)! (Sorry RMCQ but Davy only comes out once a year).

August update

I thought it might be time for an update as I have done a few things in the last couple of months. 

On the modelling front, I have been continuing EVER so slowly on PK's gas and fuel depot kits for the Club HO layout. Not as fast as I would like as work and family seem to keep getting in the way ;-) Whether I get to finish these for judging at the Club Xmas modelling competition is another guess. The project that I am working on will be gearing up again for some fun (read hectic) times so more than likely I'll be stuffed by the end of the day and not have much time for the modelling side of things. Weekends might be a go now that my son's soccer commitments on Saturdays is over for the year, but I am sure the missus has that 'things to do list' to show me. She mentioned something about bathroom and laundry renos, which after 18 years in the same house are probably well overdue!

The June-July school holidays saw the family go on a road trip through NSW and to Canberra to visit the national monuments and places of interest. Enroute I was able to call into Thirlmere railway museum which was great. In Canberra we went to the Canberra railway museum, which isn't as big as Thirlmere in its collection, however it does have Garrat 6029 which is operational compared to Thirlmere's 6040 which is static. The boys and I were even allowed to venture into the cab of 6029. (Took away a piece of coal as a souvenir from its tender!). Photos below.

On the electronics front, I have been reading and researching Geoff Bunza's articles about how to use Arduinos (in their various forms) as DCC decoders. Very interesting. So much so that I sent away for the particular opto-couplers from China (via Ebay) as I couldn't source them at either Jaycar or Altronics. These arrived last week, so now to find time (ha ha!) to put the electronics together, at least on a prototyping breadboard, and see what can be done. I see some immediate possibilities such as building and street lighting control and effects which one decoder using various functions to control these. Also servos for crossing gates/booms or industrial site gates. Just need to experiment a bit.

On the computer front I have been mucking around with Linux Mint as an alternative OS for some old PCs with out of date Microsoft OS (Win XP, Win 95, etc). The Raspberry Pi side of things has been fairly stable of late, just keeping the OS up to date.

On the Internet side of things, two big decisions made in the last week. My website "GB's Shed" is no more. I didn't have the time to keep it maintained and having documents in various locations was becoming annoying. So I shifted all the documents to my Dropbox account and re-linked them on my Blog site. Having them on Dropbox allows me to maintain them in the one location. Then I deleted the website.

The second big decision was, after many years of baulking at the idea, I have joined the Facebook community, but only for modelling, prototype railway articles, and things that interest me (electronics, etc) purposes. No family posts or joins on this account. It might also be an easier medium for sharing progress photos of the modelling. So if you are on Facebook, look me up if I haven't already requested being a "Friend" of you. The link is on the "My Facebook site - Greg's Shed" link in the side bar. Hopefully I have set it up correctly, but please feel free to provide any guidance to this FB newbie.

So the rate I am going, the next blog update may be over the Xmas holidays, so maybe best to keep track of what I am doing via Facebook ;-) 

Some photos from the road trip for your visual edification.

Class 6040 at Thirlmere

Class 40 leader - 4001

Class 43 - 4306

DMU 723

Steam crane loco 1034

NSWGR 4490 and 3642

Thirlmere roundhouse

NSWGR Breakdown crane

NSWGR Pay bus

8646 and friend

Canberra Railway Museum photos

Garratt 6029

6029's brakes

6029's gauges

looking through the driver's window of 6029

NSWGR 3016

NSWGR 4807

CFCLA C502

CFCLA S311

CFCLA 44209

44209's control desk

44209's engine room

44209's radio

NSWGR RM37 under renovation

Bye Beaver Spring

Today marks a sad day as my son Lachlan's layout, Beaver Springs (see link to side) is no more. He decided it was time to pull it up and make more space in the Shed.
No soon had the space been cleared and vacuumed then the missus put up the reserved sign for the BBQ table she is currently renovating. It was my Dad's and we became its owners when we were settling his estate. Dad LOVED painting so there was about 4 or 5 coats to strip off back to bare timber so that we can start again.

My thanks to Lachlan's Followers for supporting him over the last few years.

Quarterly update January - March (Easter) 2016

I thought it might be time to update those that follow my blog with what has been happening so far this year. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to spend on the hobby due to the project that I am on being very busy at the moment and by the time I get home, sorted out the usual family related stuff (kids, dinner, washing up, etc) I don;t have much time left of an evening to do anything as I am pretty stuffed by then. 

However I have been plodding along with the Gas and Fuel Depot kit that PK asked me to put together for the Club HO layout. He has also added two other kits for the same project, a dual fuel tank depot and a fuel gantry. I have measured the area onto graph paper and will cut baseplates for the kits from 3mm ply to aid easy fitting and removal if required. So far the building are put together as are the two longitudinal gas tanks. I will probably repaint the office and out buildings as the default plastic colours are pretty non-prototypical. 

I have also been spending some time putting together various options for the layout station town backscene from photos and Model Builder software.

Today I went out to Mr Mackie's for a running session on his layout Cassino. There was a good turn up of other crew members and the session ran pretty well I think.

Well the next quarter will probably be much the same as the first. Continuing with the kits and backscene.

If I have anything special to note I will add a blog entry but at this point in time another update in June-July is probably the goal.

Ciao for now and happy modelling.

The 2015 wrap up

Time to wrap up 2015's posts, what there was of them. I haven't been as active on the blog basically due to not much happening on the hobby front. A very busy year with family and work commitments.

Some modelling has occurred in the first part of the year, but the only thing in the second part was my entry into the Club's Annual modelling competition. This year was a Kadee kit of a logging caboose. Photos below show my interpretation. I airbrushed most of it and was trying to get the feel of dirt and mud stains on the bottom half of the timber, along with a dull rusting on the roof. I think it was a fairly good first try at one of these cabooses (cabeese?). 

Other interests this year was learning more about electronics and starting in the land of Arduino control of layouts. 

Today I was over at Mr Mackie's for the final running day of 2015. Very enjoyable. Go on over to his blog to read about it.

What is in store for 2016? Well maybe I will get the trains I have ordered would be a start! Progressing with the Club HO layout's station backscene/low relief work. Possible modelling a kit for the layout. Delving more into Arduino and how I can interface with JMRI. Maybe even doing some more work on my layout. However all of this is predicated on the simply notion that I will have time to do these things ;-) 

Goodbye 2015 (yes I know a week early but can't see the point in waiting that long to do the update) and welcome 2016.

Ciao for now.

September 2015 update

Since the last post a month ago (where did that month go!) still not much modelling happening. Fathers' Day my boys gave me a couple more Oxford Diecast models for the layout.

Red Ford Transit MkI Recovery

(picture sourced from Oxford Diecast's website http://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/)

London Brick AEC Matador Wrecker

(picture sourced from Oxford Diecast's website http://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/)

I also put together a concept low relief model of a number of buildings for the Club layout 'town' scene behind the railway station. I used Model Builder software, cardboard and foamboard. It looks like a good possibility to fill in this area. I may even experiment with different scaling to provide deeper perspectives.

As for the Raspberry Pi, nothing more with this apart from using it as a wifi base station that runs JMRI. However, I have been researching the Arduino board for possible use as a input &/or output localised device that can control a number of sensors, switches, lights/LEDs, servos, etc in a local area but be connected back to a PC or Pi to allow JMRI to be the interfacing program between the different systems. There is a lot of bog standard electronic projects that it can control, but more importantly, the model railway electronics community has been seriously delving into its potential and there are already DCC and CMRI libraries for the Arduino. It is just a matter of getting one or two and playing with them, learning how to program them (very basic C++), an researching how to do railway automation with them.
You can get the original boards or clones as these are an open-source board.
I'll probably start with a Uno model as these are for beginners to learn on. These provide 14 digital I/Os and 6 analog inputs, plus other capabilities that the reader can look into if you so wish.

Arduino Uno
(picture sourced from https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardUno)

I have started on the model I am going to enter into the Club Christmas modelling competition. It is a Kadee logging caboose.

(picture sourced from http://www.kadee.com/htmbord/page104.htm)

I will probably change the colour scheme a little as I am keen to experiment with the airbrush compressor kit I got for my birthday back in July. I went to Hobbyrama today and purchased some acrylic paints already diluted for airbrush use. They are a Vallejo product called Model Air.

So until next time, happy modelling.

Shapeways as a source of model rail designs and parts

Shapeways allows designers to design and sell 3D printable items. I have from time to time perused the Shapeways site for model rail parts and designs that may not be readily available in 'ready to place' or kit form. However to date I haven't actually ordered anything from them.

The search filters is a bit simple and could do with an Advanced Search feature to allow improved search results, however with a bit of persistence you can muddle through the results.

From a NSWGR modeling point of view, I can recommend a visit to Ray Pilgrim's Shapeway store as he has invested some considerable time in designing prototypical signals and relevant support brackets for the servos, etc. I would be interested in seeing how lighting up the Clearance Posts with LEDs would look on a layout.

From a generic railway modeling view, I came across Madasu Designs which offer some interesting accessory parts for a layout. I would particularly like to see how the 500 gallon water tanks and the 44 gallon drums turn out.

Another shop, Focus offers a number of designs that might suit modelers. I particularly like the whiskey barrels. It would also be interesting to see how open the designer would be to doing these in OO (1:76) as beer barrels that could be used as freight cargo or static features near an old UK style pub.

Well that is about it from me on this topic. Have a look at Shapeways as a possible source of model rail parts, etc or even give it a go yourself with their online tools for designers.