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

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

I got stuck with the cable for the runners. This is 1 mm silicone line. For now I didn't put any more work into that than fixing it at the runners with CA, having it loosely lying/with no or low tension on the table.



Maybe rubber line would work better, but it tends to embrittle after some time. The silicone line has too much internal tension to dangle somewhat prototypically. Any ideas whether about other suitable materials or how to preserve rubber or making the silicone softer? Any advice would be much appreciated.


Cheers,
Volker

Does the crane move in practice?  If fixed you could use solder or lead wire (or solder wire inside teflon/silicon tube).  Maybe fishing line, heated to get it to drape?

[Bill Gill]

Berkshire Junction has EZ Line, an elastic polymer, in two diameters and 5 colors.
It probably isn't large enough for your model, but I wonder if someone else offers the same material in more sizes?
Some model railroaders like it for power or telephone lines because it hangs in a natural catenary curve.

Here's some basic info on their website:http://berkshirejunction.com/subdirectory/ez-line/

[lab-dad]

What about fly fishing line?
Martin

[WP Rayner]

Cotter pins in castle nuts... eeesh, where does it end! Excellent work as always. I'll follow up Lawrence's suggestion of using a fine solder for the lines. With care, it can be easily formed into natural looking droops.

[Hydrostat]

Thanks a lot for your suggestions. Indeed i forgot to mention that I wan't to have the crane movable for more photographic options, so solder isn't the way to go, but you're right for sure, that it is very well suited for a static model. I'll add some waterhoses at one wall made from solder. At Buntbahn someone came up with the idea to use a snake chain, which seems to be the way to go.

[Hydrostat]

What can I say - snake chain works well. This is 0.9 mm stainless steel, annealed and then airbrushed - it keeps the crane movable and mostly takes the desired shape by itself.




The beam hoist trolley is done. I added a cable entry made from some drilled out brass tube. The trumpet shaped end is made with a triangular scraper.




The cypher got some red color from a lacquer pen.




The pushbutton switch (is that the right word in english?) pends on a side arm.




Again it is drilled out brass tube to achieve a believable swage. This is what it looked like before drilling out:




Frithjof milled the t-shaped part from nickel silver - thanks a lot!







The walls needed some apertures for the fans,




to connect to the air ducts inside




and to the fans outside. Many thanks to Marcel for putting the fans' etching drawings at my disposal and to frithjof for sandblasting! As you may see they suffer from the acid environment.




All the fake wiring is done, too.










Besides I added two hoses of different diameters made from tin and some brass parts.







Cheers,
Volker

[Ray Dunakin]

Magnificent! The vent fans are a great addition.

[finescalerr]

Extraordinary. -- Russ

[TRAINS1941]

Excellent!!

Jerry

[WP Rayner]

Outstanding work as always...

[Bill Gill]

Excellent!
In the two photos with the fake wiring, what is the thin, bent line hanging down in the middle of the doorway?

[Hydrostat]

Ray, Russ, Jerry, Paul, Bill - thank you.

In the two photos with the fake wiring, what is the thin, bent line hanging down in the middle of the doorway?

This is the wire crossing through the wall to serve an outdoor lamp above the gate to come. I'm not sure where exactly it will positioned so I have the wires a bit longer. 

[Hydrostat]

It is that quite at the forum - everything alright out there?

A year ago I started work at the gates. They are made from pear wood, laminated 1 mm strips on a 2.5 mm core.




After sawing and sanding them to the right dimensions the grooves for suspension brackets and angel strengtheners needed to be milled.




A first wash with diluted brown and black water color takes away the fresh cut appearance of the wood.



Suspnsion brackets are made from milled nickle silver, brass rollers and some screws and rivets. Some plastics from SanJuan Detail and rivets serve for detailing.







Grasp is made from brass wire with washers soldered to it.




I covered evrything with a coat of mixed Revell blue 51 and white 5.




As with a good wine everything depends on age. Well, it takes some time to dry - so what.







I dampened the wood a bit before applying the enamels and so I could rip them of at some places with adhesive tape. Water color green, brown and black tones served for furthermore weathering.







When I test mounted the gates to the rails I noticed the huge gaps resulting from this kind of construction. Unfortunately this doesn't fit to a pickling shop at all, where they rather didn't want to have disturbing air circulation. So the gaps had to be filled with wooden bars at top and side of the door openings.  







The lower end needed some kind of a guiding rail to have the gate sliding in. I made it from two brass angle sections soldered to each other.




Lateral gate closed and opened - and some details:













Front doors from outside and inside:










Inner latch. So the building is accessable via the lateral gate with a padlock and front doors are lockable from inside:




I took all the picture with my new smartphone and am still struggling with the camera. Not yet exactly where I want to go.

Cheers,
Volker

[Lawton Maner]

Please tell us that you are a mere mortal and that the fan does not work.  This work is so good that it is frightening!!

[Ray Dunakin]

Absolutely phenomenal work!

I think perhaps many of us are catching up on other things now that we are no located so restricted as we were during the pandemic.