new kid on the block!

QUOTE (sig @ 25 Sep 2009, 21:45) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>thanks for the great feedback folks! / ... / this afternoon i found ancient plans of a bridge designed by a disciple of telford, who happened to live just down the road from here, those plans just happened to be in dxf format on my computer, ready for laser cutting...strange...now how did that get there!!!
time to spend a few dollars at woodlands scenics methinks, in the meantime i might start working on the hermitage ..
Uh-oh .. by Engaging Infinite Improbability Drive .. it's been built-in in every W s OS since second WW. Hit any key and you never know what happens. Never fails ..

Eeeh .. about the concept. Scenic Elements! .. Meaning the track runs seamlessly through different kind of scenarios/scenes. Through a spanish village square /top right. Next, over the bridge into brittish rural countryside /over bridge to bottom right. A cottage, low stone walls, gates and stuff, a windmill .. Perhaps later past the heremit in his cave /the cutting at bottom level where a car is parked .. Then up-hill the Rocky Mountains in US /left ..

-- ron --

QUOTE (sig @ 28 Sep 2009, 21:51) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>/ ... / brad...rivets!, i've been thinking too..theres a concept they taught me in architecture which i have always liked, its called a negative joint, basically instead of taking a lot of effort joining one material to another, the idea is to leave a gap and leave the joint in shadow. a good example would be trying to butt up wood to a stone wall, instead of cutting the wood around every stone, you just leave a slightly larger gap and leave a recess in shadow, giving a much cleaner and easier joint!.I explain this because what if instead of externally placed rivets with tiny pin heads, they were indented. still giving a shadow and point of detail but in reverse. i could go along with my centre punch and make hundreds of rivet dents, in the steel like a type of etching, it would be loads easier and quicker and drive me much less insane. then maybe a dark grey wash over the steel to highlight (or rather low light ) the detailing. / ... /
Sorry to butt in again .. but I find this fascinating! It's plain silly to try and replicate all of the rivets, if any. Perhaps only those that are visually notable?

You might get good result by 'dotting', small drops of thick paint or even glue. A syrenge or the sharp end of a pin could work. Or get a bag of small/short brass nails with rounded heads. If working on wood, that is. Model shipbuilders use a lot of such stuff.
These below >> look interesting! Sheating plates out of thin copper. Found them Here >>



This Guy >> .. uses split peas!!

Btw. part reason for me interest .. I live in a town that was renown for the industrial manufacturing of cast iron bridges, countless of them, every canal here had half-a-dozen of them. Also, railings for those, lamposts, household items etc. From late 1800-century to today .. And shipyards, from way back ages ago. Boats that were held togeteher with rivets!

-- ron --

This had me grinning all over Great story, thanx! [there should be a pinned topic for this kind of things?!]

-- ron --

The speed of how this layout evolves or develops is simply amazing! And at very good result too.

In case you need some *short-cuts* .. here's a linky I found a while ago .. FCalvModels>> .. Don't know where they are located or if these are in production yet, but they sure look nice. Wooden & cast iron benches in 1:32 --





Also, if you want graffiti, check out cgtextures>> /Signs//Graffiti Big resp. Tags. They are all free to download, [although restricted to max. some Mb files per day] comes in couple of different sizes and .dpi. Photos of the real thing.

5 Flying Fortress'es .. ?? Hmm, how's doing the fuselages as vac-forms? As you don't need much details ..

-- ron --

QUOTE (sig @ 30 Oct 2009, 21:19) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>fantastic web sites ron thanks a lot i'll definatly be using the textures one for sure, but might just laser cut my own bench, ought to be a bit cheaper

heres a tag on the web site that tickled my fancy...no argueing with the guy there.....

Ah .. quite, I forgot you got your own machinery for that ..

Hmm .. mr H. should have had another hobby, I think. Just like his *friend* mr. Göring .. who liked more playing with a Model Railroad instead of *playing war* .. but on the other hand, history tells us how bad also that turned out.

ps. Yes, I've seen the lights previously somewhere else .. that's a great idea! Looks good, too!

-- ron --

Jeez .. ! The video is amazing .. the plane, the bike & the car in same frame .. pure art. Fascinating stuff.

Sig .. it's synchronicity! [Jung, not Sting]

Also .. we start as individuals, by upbringing, education and social behaving patterns we always end up copying ang being like copies of somebody else ..

*Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY!
You've got to think for your selves! You're ALL individuals!
The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals!
Brian: You're all different!
The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different!
Man in crowd: I'm not...
The Crowd: Sch! ..*

-- ron [I think .. but I'm not sure] --

Oy .. that's almost like my avatar, which [I believe] was drawn up a couple of thousand years ago .. everything is recycled! .. But the cars do cope with that .. not too tight?

Reg. 1:43, sig .. The SCX guideflags are different than 1:32, I think. Very, very thin and with regular braids. But I'm not fond of how the F1's I've got ride, as they are very light weight so the braids push the frontwheels about 3-4 mm up in the air. I'd like to tinker with them a bit, but still unsure about how. Although they've run [fronts in the air] on Scaley track without any problem.

CarreraGO!!! has no moveable guide, only a pin/keel, and a braidsystem like the bigger scale Carreras. Brushes/braids in the pressed brass fittings. Look into Mini-Slots section .. There's been some postings, I think, about how to improve their running. But both makes seem to lack a lot in torgue.

There's also a very interesting posting about 1:43sd slot cars .. with a linky to custom made chassies>> ..

@Graham .. out-of-the-box into the circle? That's innovative! There was a record lable in the 70'ies [?], Vertigo, was it not, with a bit similar *swirl*..

-- ron --

QUOTE (sig @ 10 Nov 2009, 18:01) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>wow...santa masmojo claus....can't wait to see what you come up with...i saw the carrera pickup today at 1:43 which could be interesting and they also have the block style subaru no? / ... /
and why do they all insist on putting black windscreens in, can't stand it!, does the motor fill the cockpit?
Sig .. here below is a photo of pair of CarreraGO!!! cars from the 007-set.



As you can see, the motor is very small, and lacks some torgue. I've added a bit of weight, a metal washer, under the sticker, some 10 gr. maybe, I'm not sure. Car runs a bit more stable. Had no photo of a blue Subaru [I've given all this stuff away as pressies] but I seem to recal I had to stick the weight on underside of the hood .. instead of the floor. Had a run with it a few weeks ago, it works still ..

As you can also see in the picture, the white *thingy* is the guide pin/keel. Hard, oval profile, plastic one, snaps in place. And the braids .. well, the work. Could be better .. You get a couple of extra of those in a set or with a car.

The black window is snapped/bonded in situ, ought to be easy to remove [?] although I've not tried it. But then you'd have to make an interior .. and have a miniature driver?

-- ron --

Yet another intriqueing idea, sig!

Just throwing in a couple of ideas .. How's a secret testing facility close to the Polar Circle way up North/Lapland?

There's at least two I know of, Arjeplog [Sweden*] and Rovaniemi [Wabco-Finland] .. I'm not sure of their officially labeled names.

But anyhow, you could also throw in some scenicly interesting features, like The Icehotel at Jukkasjärvi. Totally built of ICE!
A Saami village nearby, with cottages. Reindeers, sledges, perhaps even races with Ski-doos ..
A piece of terrain track with icebridges, snow-hangs and lots of other "naturally sculpted" items.
As background, when turning lights down low in evenings -- Northern Lights/Aurora Borealis glistening in the night.

The possebilities are endless ..

*I believe Beemer has their own, very tightly guarded area at Arjeplog. But all brands, Audi to Alfa, Bentley to Beemer, Ferrari to Ford, whatever visit the facilities at some instance I think. Perhaps with their brand new vehicles .. So the cars on a such could be anything and everything!?

-- ron --

Edit: Btw. There's also an international SpaceRocket testing site at Esrange, northern Sweden. Just a snowballs throw from Jukkasjärvi. Could provide an interesting, scenic background