The 1919 ASEA engine running on the Thamshavnbanen
I have not given up neither the blog or the modelling, but more activity on the modelling front than the blogging one. It might change, but a nice postcard from the Thamshavnbanen is all you get this time.
Researching my last post, some very alarming material came to my attention. I found a very fine online scratchbuilding tutorial that among other things also shows pictures of wood siding treated with the Greenberg/Nash method. I hate to admit this, but it looks great. I have a sneaky feeling I did not read the NG&SL articles thoroughly enough, since it has escaped me that an over-stain with Flo-stain natural pine is central to the concept.
Hmm… Maybe the biggest myth really is the claim that Driftwood is an overrated product?
The professor is still out on that one, and he will hopefully be back with some research that can settle the dispute.
Check out the tutorial yourself. Even if you are not remotely interested in these Driftwood matters, the tutorial offer some very good building and painting tips. Among them –surprise, surprise, an alternative to the techniques involving flo-stains. The results look every bit as good.
No, this post is not a comment on the current financial crisis, it ia an followup to the post weathering wood .
One of the challenges when you use real wood and want that silvery, almost boney look is that untreated wood has a base color that is more yellow than white.
In a very rare inspired moment it struck met that maybe the thing is to bleach the wood before you stain it?
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In the video of my electric prototype engine a very prominent detail is missing:
The pantograph.
An electric engine without a pantograph is like a bald Hippie, Hagar the Horrible without a horned helmet or Dolly Parton without a… wig (didn´t you know?). Well, you get the point.
Problem as usual: Have never built one, dont know how it works, lack of prototype info etc.
All excuses aside, some progress has been made:
This is what it should look like:
I really don´t understand why I have pushed back on the building of the pant so long, it is after all *the* single most important detail on the engine.
It is the only detail that no other type of engine can boast of.
Actually, I do understand why I have avoided the challenge. It is a delicate contraption, has to work flawlessy, and involves a lot of tricky joints that need to be really solid.
Should be ready for the centennial jubilee in 2008! (as all my products should be, of course.)
If people is a bit skeptical to the claim that I have been able to assemble something that actually runs, I now can offer some proof.
Here is a short video of the engine in action (click on the picture):
The strange whisteling sound has thankfully disappeared after some more breaking in.
A small step for the hobby, a great step for this hobbyist!
A Proxxon 230D lathe is one of the recent additions to my workshop. It is so small that most engineers will consider it a toy.
There has at least been some progress since the “Paralysis by analysis” post.
The engine is now actually in running condition!
A great milepost for the project.
Those raw brass parts in the PBA post looked quite difficult to get together, but in the end I was able to assemble them into a functioning mechanism. As a self-trained model engineer I had to go real slowly. But even then I was not able to achieve standards anywhere close to professional engineers. But the rubber band drive is quite a good idea for amateurs. In theory, this is a very crude concept. But it is very forgiving to engineering sloppiness, so I think the engine runs far better than it would have done with a gear tower transmission.
The blogsphere is supposedly full of blogs of all kinds.
So why is it that I find so few MR-related blogs when I search for them on Google?
I would like to get tips on good (or even bad) MR-blogs. They just have to be out there somewhere, right?
Thinking about it, I would like tips on blogs dealing with all kinds of scale modelling.
Some oft the best modelling I have seen is by military modellers.
For instance, check out this site:
Missing Links
To balance thing out, here is a link to a photo-gallery of some of the greatest civilian modelling I have seen:
Chuck Doan´s photoalbum
Never mind that the greatest diorama on that site contains a barn and a fordson tractor. No trains…
Well, “modelling racism” is not my thing!
But here is a great model railroad link:
Railroad Line Forums is the best US discussion forum when it comes to MR.
But what do you think?
I´m probably one of the worlds slowest modeller (I am probably the worlds slowest student of architecture as well, but thats another story).
It takes time to get things done. That Westinghouse Engine (WE for short) was started some 15 yrs. ago. But the problem is not that I am an especially slow modeller.
The scary truth is: I See High Thresholds.
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