Quiet earth (was: Exercise module for Plettenberg railroad in 1/22.5 scale)

[Bill Gill]

Volker & Helmut, Most excellent collaboration again!

[Hydrostat]

Thanks, Bill. I'm indeed very happy about that kind of 'modeling abilities exchange' with friends, which allows me to build items (at least in lots) which I wouldn't dare to model the old fashioned way .

I've got some more pics from mounting the lot. Those are the printed parts. They're cut from the printing tree and cleaned via an ultrasonic cleaner with lukewarm water and some detergent to get rid of the wax. All straight plain areas are sanded a bit. I forgot to add the parallelogram's weight and the footstep.





The printed parts are connected with brass rods of different diameters from 0.5 to 1.5 mm. I use the caliper's depth stop as end stop to cut the rods to length with a wire cutter with sheer cutting edges.





The linkage for the footstep (left side up) requires a bit more effort, but it is easily done with simple techniques in spite of the necessary repeatability.





An 0.5 mm steel sheet with a 0.5 mm slot at the required position serves as jig. Bending starts at the linkage's lower end with a right angle. The jig now serves to create the opposite reverse angle. I'd already cut the projecting rod when I took the picture. Of course it's easier to bend the part when it's longer.





That's the result:





The outer edge serves to bend the next angle. The linkage then is positioned inverted to create the next opposite reverse angle:





The outer edge again serves to achieve the U-shape.








After cutting the protruding rod the linkage is done.

Two brass rods with 0.5 mm diameter strengthen and connect the footstep to the drawing table's feet. The bore is amazingly well printed in spite of the very thin surrounding wall, but it's difficult to insert the rod. Ultrasonic cleaning doesn't remove wax from such a deep bore. Drilling the wax out doesn't work, too, because an 0.5 mm drillbit's thread is only a few mm and the wax isn't transported out when the thread is inside the bore. But I found a trick: I hold the printed part under hot water when inserting the rod. The wax starts to soften and the rod easily slides through.

but volker
does it work?

Well, Kim, don't you think that's an overcharged request? Uh-oh: click me.

Cheers,
Volker

[Allan G]

I'll take the approach Russ might take. Satisfactory!
Wow! I find bending wire a major challenge but this gives me some ideas that might help in the future.
That's one of the things I really appreciate about this site. A novice like me keeps learning new approaches to tasks.....Allan

[Lawton Maner]

It is comforting to see that some of your techniques are as simple as a piece of scrap metal with a notch in it.  It gives hope to those of us who can only dream of doing work on your level.

[finescalerr]

Your photos, drawings, and text are a terrific tutorial. Thank you. -- Russ

[Hydrostat]

Hi,

I'll take the approach Russ might take. Satisfactory!
Wow! I find bending wire a major challenge but this gives me some ideas that might help in the future.
That's one of the things I really appreciate about this site. A novice like me keeps learning new approaches to tasks.....Allan

thanks, Allan. Helmut offered to mill a jig for the linkage but often there's a simple solution one can achieve with one's own capabilities. I'm glad you benefit from that basic description.

It is comforting to see that some of your techniques are as simple as a piece of scrap metal with a notch in it.  It gives hope to those of us who can only dream of doing work on your level.

Thanks, Lawton. What I said above. I have to add that there's some additional work with a spiky eyelet plier required to reach a right angle, because the rods tend to bend back a bit, but the jig doesn't offer more than a right angle at the slot. The most difficult part was the slot itself because my jigsaw's blade is a bit narrower than 0.5 mm. I had to widen the slot with sandpaper which wasn't fun . About 'level': Come on. I think I'm in good company here at finescalerr. I know I am .

This summer I got a small package from the States by Marty. I was surprised and overwhelmed to find a neat little gift inside - no, let me say 'award', and arranged it with the completed drawing table and another item in the office. Thanks again, Marty! I hope you guys recognize what it is ...





About the other item: It's part of the interesting distraction mentioned in the very first post about the drawing table. Mr. Wackerfuss, the former Kuhlmann engineer, has been restoring a ship model of the four-masted barque Ponape (former Regina Elena) since 1996. His father built it in WWI during war imprisonment on the Isle of Man. He worked as sailesman on the ship. They were delivering niter from Chile to England and didn't know that a war had broken out when their ship was brought up by british navy. He built the ship from a piece of mahogany wood and beef bone and got a honorary certificate for it in the camp. At the end of imprisonment he managed to transport the disassembled ship in a wooden box to Germany. It 'sleeped' in there from 1918 until 1942 when he decided to rig it, which took four weeks. It then stood on a kitchen cabinet. The second half of the year 1943 brought a british air raid. A stick-type incendiary bomb hit their home and got stuck in the cabinet. When they opened the kitchen door the bomb started burning. They tried to recover the model but it was badly damaged and only hull and some masts survived.

Mr. Wackerfuss asked me to model the ship's figurehead what he felt to be beyond his abilities. I tried my best after I got some pictures from swedish Aland Maritime Museum and came to an result he was pleased with. I have to admit that I really do admire modelers who create their own figurines in a believable manner. For me the most difficult part was to model it in a given size to fit into the available space at the ship. The result is a bit clinched and the proportions of face and hands don't really work, but we considered his father's situation and abilities when the original model ship was built. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to see the amazing ship model first hand and only have some hard copied color pics which don't suit to be shown here.

Your photos, drawings, and text are a terrific tutorial. Thank you. -- Russ

Russ, you deliberatedly forgot to mention me showing off in the youtube clip? -- rekloV

[Bill Gill]

Volker, congratulations on the "award" from Marty. Thank you for posting the link to your YouTube video. It was terrific to see the table in action.

The figrehead looks very good. Once upon a time I worked at a maritime museum and there was an exhibit of figureheads of varying degrees of skill. The proportions of the figures were often distorted for the same reasons that you found: the finished piece had to fit the ship. The poses the figures strike are not very natural, so the carver had to find away to put it all together. Sometimes features were exaggerated in order to be more visible from a distance.

You said that you "modeled" the figurehead, did you sculpt it out of some material or did you carve it out of some kind of wood or other material?

[Hydrostat]

Thanks, Bill.

That's an interesting point about figurehead's artistic qualities. I forgot to mention that the Ponape figurehead is preserved in that swedish museum. It's the only part remaining from the ship at all, if I got it right. I'm happy I can't show the pictures, because you'd see the differences immediately ! But what might the result then in the camp have been? Without having a picture at hand - only your memory?

Regarding 'modeling' (a German word for sculpting is 'modellieren' so I didn't get the ambiguousness ) I used Fimo from German Staedtler company to sculpt it, which hardens in the oven. The figurehead had to be hollow or at least a rounded slot at it's back and my first try was sculpted on a plastic box. The plasticizers from the material dissolved it after two days pausing ... next time i used plastic tubing of appropriate diameter and hurried up to get it into the oven. It worked but it still was a bit difficult to separate both materials. I found out that one can bend the baked parts to a certain extent, when it's heated up again which helped to finally form the rear dress part. I milled a slot in the backside and glued a piece of copper sheeting to it, which will serve as fixture at the ship.




Cheers,
Volker

[Ray Dunakin]

but volker
does it work?

Well, Kim, don't you think that's an overcharged request? Uh-oh: click me.

Cheers,
Volker

Holy cow! As a static model this would be fantastic, the fact it actually WORKS is truly astounding!

Thanks for the tips on bending the rods for this. Very helpful information!

The figurehead sculpture is very nice, good job!

[1-32]

well blow me down it works-nice
kind regards kim

[Bill Gill]

Volker, Excellent 'modellieren' on the figurehead. I used Fimo to make a truck load of apples for the back of one of the HO scale pickup trucks I did. I liked how it worked. Some colors of the Fimo were kneaded together completely to make a new shade of red and others to make a new shade of green, then those two were blended, but not completely. That way when rolled out to make the individual apples, they already had the mix of colors already and needed no painting. The paint on your figurehead looks like many I saw at the museum.

[BKLN]

What a great story about that ship model!

I just (unsuccessfully) attempted some sculpting on a model project myself, so I am even more impressed with your results! Very nice!

[nk]

That easel...that easel...that easel...Wow wow wow. Really beautiful Volker.

[michael mott]

Volker the working easel is very sharp..... Now you need to do another video doing a drawing on it

Michael

[Hydrostat]

Holy cow! As a static model this would be fantastic, the fact it actually WORKS is truly astounding!
Thanks for the tips on bending the rods for this. Very helpful information!
The figurehead sculpture is very nice, good job!

Ray,
thank you. I'm glad you like both items. Getting the table working isn't that tricky as it seems, as you will see.

well blow me down it works-nice
kind regards kim

Volker, Excellent 'modellieren' on the figurehead. I used Fimo to make a truck load of apples for the back of one of the HO scale pickup trucks I did. I liked how it worked. Some colors of the Fimo were kneaded together completely to make a new shade of red and others to make a new shade of green, then those two were blended, but not completely. That way when rolled out to make the individual apples, they already had the mix of colors already and needed no painting. The paint on your figurehead looks like many I saw at the museum.

Bill,
I followed your SBS back then; it is much more difficult to sculpt in such a small scale and your results are all the more impressive. Your approach is very clever. For sure you would not have reached the same crisp result by painting sculpted apples afterwards.

What a great story about that ship model!
I just (unsuccessfully) attempted some sculpting on a model project myself, so I am even more impressed with your results! Very nice!

Christian,
thank you, but some other guys here have rather proven prowess on that. Indeed I dared to ask if they have a 3D scanner at the museum  .

That easel...that easel...that easel...Wow wow wow. Really beautiful Volker.

Narayan,
thank you. But please help me: What is the correct english word for that item? I thought an easel was rather a painter's scaffold?

Volker the working easel is very sharp..... Now you need to do another video doing a drawing on it
Michael

Don't call me out, Michael. This would end up with a lot of photoshopping and Russ sending me to the corner  .



The following pictures show the basic process for making the parallelogram work. Premise is using stainless steel for the etched parts (those are 0.2 mm thick) and brass rivets for connections. I take advantage of the stainless steel accepting solder only with special solder fluids, for example Griffon S39 RVS Inox, and brass accepting every kind of typical soldering fluids. First step is to tin the backside of the rear steel part using the Inox soldering fluid. After cleaning it under water the bores have to be redrilled, because they're filled with solder. A brass rivet serves to join front and rear part. Now the brass rivet is brushed with usual soldering fluid so the tin on the back part will connect with the brass rivet, but not with the front steel part. To avoid solder sticking to the front part which sometimes happens I use an edding to blacken it, which prevents any chemical reactions/oxidation. Then the protruding rivet rods have to be cut and the surface needs some sanding with the Dremel; one will not see this side later on.





The tinned steel part put together with brass rivet.





Brushing solder fluid to the brass rivets. Note: the lower middle part is not tinned at that bore!





Soldering.





Done and ...





... sanded.





Some parts need additional washers to create spacing for the rivet heads passing by.








The washers were etched from steel, too, but it is nearly impossible to remove the connecting stripes without remaining sharp edges. There's no way to hold them tightly. For me at least. But there's a simple trick: The washer bores have 0.4 mm. I soldered a broken 0.4 mm drill bit to a small brass tubing and lined a lot of washers up on it. The brass tubing is necessary, because the Dremel doesn't chuck 0.4 mm.





I use thin CA to fix the washers to the drill bit.





Using wet sandpaper prevents the parts from heating up to much and the CA to vaporize.








Heating up the assembly with a torch after sanding makes the CA vaporize and the washers can be removed easily.

Cheers,
Volker