Rewanui - a 1940 West Coast NZ layout in 1:64

[finescalerr]

Satisfactory.

Want to rebuild my layout?

Russ

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

Satisfactory.

Want to rebuild my layout?

Russ

Have you got 20 years?

[Chuck Doan]

Wow, I am just catching up. Really excellent and inspiring work Lawrence!

[Ray Dunakin]

Fantastic! It's great to see such lush foliage modeled so well!

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

Chuck

It may not be obvious in the pic, but the telegraph poles have CD inspired cocktail stick knots in them.  Much better for it too :-)

L

[Peter_T1958]

Recently the was a diorama on the armorama forum called «The Road to Singapore». The modeler (I forgot his name) did a lot of research on vegetation of South East Asia and the result was about as convincing as your work.
BUT... that was just a small diorama and not an entire layout!!!
Phenomenal!

[Barney]

Inspiring work - so realistic -excellent
Barney

[WP Rayner]

That is possibly the best and most convincing layout landscape and foliage I have ever seen... superb work!

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

Given the new sizing allowance on pics and the general ease of use of the new forum software, I thought I'd attach a couple more progress pics at better resolution and see how they present.

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

Hmmm.

It looks like the software constrains the pics to the frame.  Which is generally quite adequate.  In Windows, right clicking and selecting 'open in new tab' gives you a better resolution view if it's available.

[finescalerr]

To confirm, I clicked on the images and they enlarged very nicely on my 27 inch, 4k monitor. Then I tried opening an image in a new tab and the size was larger than the enlarged view and clicking the magnifying glass icon showed an image almost twice what you get on the forum. Finally I downloaded the image and opened it on the computer and, while it may have been slightly larger, the difference is minimal.

I encourage everyone to enlarge Lawrence's hi-res images. You'll see things larger and more crisply and may notice things you couldn't see previously, such as the four spikes in every tie of the handlaid rails.

Altogether a rather satisfactory presentation.

Russ

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

Hi Russ good to hear it works for you.

It's a useful general thing though.  If you post Hi res images on the forum they'll display quite nicely in the forum BUT you can easily look at them at native resolution by opening in a new tab.  For the great modelling content here that is a real plus - but you need to appreciate the small dodge required to get there.

In terms of the track, it's actually a 3D print other than the rail.  You can see this in the attached - where one of the fixings has broken off due to rough assembly.  This was one of my first attempts at modelling woodgrain on the timbers.  It is a bit crude in close up, but works well from normal viewing distance - which is enforced on the layout as this form of track is towards the back.

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

It's been a while...

The prototype pic shows the scene that more or less will comprise the layout.  As can been seen this small terminus generated a relatively large amount of passenger traffic.  This was a place old cars went to die and these cars dating from the late 1800s/early 1900s will likely be written off when they are no longer adequate for this duty.

These wooden sheathed cars were originally built with open verandahs and no gates.  In the early C20 additional end railings and gates were fitted, and then the gates were extended to the condition shown here according to the 1916 drawing.

This is quite the modelling problem in 1:64 as the gate ought to be constructed from 0.5 x 0.1mm strip with 0.2mm diameter verticals.  In the mid-90s I did an etch for them, somewhat over scale and compromising by running the verticals through the gate to the extension rather than using strap.  This version had a number of guide tags that fitted an etched jig that needed filing off after construction. It worked, and pretty good at the time, but a task to be approached with trepidation.  More recently I produced some 3D printed jigs to simplify making them and to improve consistency. A major step forward, but the original guide tabs are now more hindrance than help.

Currently I'm in the middle of building all of these cars, and that's a lot of gates (38 in fact for the 9 cars under way, one of which is a centre entry so needs 6).  This focussed my attention on a) making them as slick to build as possible and b) wondering if 30 odd elapsed years allowed something with less compromise.

So this time around I etched the gates in 0.1mm material and drew the strapping at 0.6mm.  With the etching undercut, the resulting strap will be around 0.5mm.  The gate extension was drawn as a fold up as trying to gather multiple tiny pieces seemed like a step too hard. The jigs were reworked a bit to suit.  End result is a gate that is relatively easy to build, about as close to scale as really makes no difference, and reproducible to a close tolerance.

The third pic shows the printed jig, my mid-90s version gate and the latest version.  Then there's one on my finger for scale. The right hand side of the jig is used for initial shaping, the left is for final shaping and soldering up (It's a heat resistant resin)

Was it worth the effort?  Certainly the new version looks finer and it is easier to get a nice curve in the extension top.  The finer etch is easier to work with and by integrating the design with the printed jig the whole process is much simpler.  On looks alone I might not have bothered, but ease and consistency are a significant plus.

[finescalerr]

In the 30 years since the initial attempt, did an advance in metallurgy permit your current use of smaller diameter wire?

The revelation that you printed a heat resistant resin jig should be a headline. That little tip could help a lot of dreams come true.

By now it is abundantly clear to everyone that you have lost whatever may have remained of your mind but the results of your lunacy are certainly spectacular.

Russ

[Lawrence@NZFinescale]

No metallurgical advances.  The gates were my first project and I commissioned the artwork prior to learning to draw my own. So plenty of learning on my part.  Easier to get hard 0.2mm wire these days though.

Assembly jigs are great - the resin I use is good for vulcanised rubber moulds, but most of these resins are probably OK for at least one off use provided you are not trying to pump in too much heat. If this makes your dreams come true, I'm glad to be of assistance.

There are plenty of signs my mind is not what it once was...