inglenook Frost's Mill

[Locksley]

26 minutes ago, col_kilgore said:

Hi ,

 

Some fantastic prints on show , can I ask which model printer you have please as I'm seriously thinking of splurging out on one .

 

I know its an Anycubic photon ( a brand I have seen recommended on many youtube videos ) but I have seen two different models on Amazon and am not sure which one would be best ?

 

Is yours the Photon S or Photon Zero ?

 

Hi,

 

So my printer is just the original Photon (no letters after the name).

The Photon S has a dual z-axis rail which gives cleaner prints, as well as an upgraded light array which means slightly faster prints.

There's also the Photon Zero as you mentioned, which I think is a budget version that's just recently been released, I haven't really seen much about it, but tbh what I have seen has been generally good.

 

I did upgrade my Photon with a £90 dual z-axis rail that essentially brings it roughly on par with the Photon S, minus the light array upgrade. General consensus is that the Photon S is barely worth the extra cash over the non-S, and for around £40 less (looking at current Amazon prices) plus a bit of Allen key wielding you can end up with something 99% as good.

 

If you do decide to go for any of them I'd highly reccommend buying from Amazon as you have their customer support behind you plus Prime if you have it. They also do the odd flash sale too which nets £30 or so off. From what I've seen on FB and forums, buying direct from Anycubic can be a nightmare and their customer support is poop.

 

All in all though I'd say go for it! It's one of the best 'tools' I've ever bought.

[ELTEL]

2 hours ago, johnd said:

 

Have you looked at the Peco website I sure ive seen some on there .

Thanks

I am after the individual levers as used in the engine shed or goods area by the shunter. 
 I’ll probably make my own

Terry 

[Locksley]

Clay work all done, plus a few bits and bobs added. I was in two minds about putting the tin shack there but I think it works quite well. Hopefully start getting some paint on tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

I've also been playing around with DCC a little more recently. I bought one of Bill Cuthbert's Arduino based DIY DCC kits last year and got it up and running, but never ended up chipping any of my locos except for popping a cheap Laisdcc chip in my Bachmann Class 57 which worked quite nicely.

 

Since then I've been fancying fitting something with a stayalive, just to see how much difference they actually make, so I plumped for a small 6pin DCC Concepts chip with included stayalive and hardwired it into my old Dapol/Hornby J94. While it worked, the loco would move forward but then stutter a few times before smoothing out again. This was so regular I presumed I must have knocked the quartering out or something so spent the next couple of days faffing with it to try and solve it. In the end I gave up and as a last resort I tried the same chip in my Class 57. Lo and behold it does exactly the same thing. Tried resetting the chip, changing CVs, nothing seems to affect the stuttering issue so I've chalked it up to bad luck. Aside from that the included stayalive did very little/almost nothing but having since read up a bit more about them I suspect it simply wasn't juicy enough to really do much.

 

As a result I put in an order for the parts to make my own as outlined by the DCC Guy's website. This consists of five 1 Farad super capacitors, a humongous step up from the two 0.000470 Farad caps in the DCC Concepts one. I knocked one up in a few mins with a soldering iron and after some googling decided to pair it with a Zimo MX600R. I cannot even tell you the difference after sticking it on my Janus chassis, just absolute night and day. The Janus now absolutely crawls over even my crappy permanent way without so much as a stutter, and the wheels will keep turning for a good 5-10 seconds after lifting off the track. So impressed was I that I've ordered a Zimo MX617N for my 48DS and put together a second stayalive, arranged in such a way that it just fits into the cab. I'm hoping this will give me an incredibly reliable loco that will have no issues negotiating the Insulfrogs on Frost's Mill.

 

 

 

[Kevin Johnson]

Some really nice modelling Alex. I have been really impressed with your builds on the forum.

[Locksley]

9 hours ago, Kevin Johnson said:

Some really nice modelling Alex. I have been really impressed with your builds on the forum.

 

Thanks Kevin

[Locksley]

Another decent chunk of work done last night. I ran around the entire layout with the Vallejo putty just to fill in any holes or cracks that had appeared (luckily very few) and gave the thing a sweep with some Hycote grey primer, followed by matt black, and then a further mist of grey.

 

 

Once happy I then airbrushed the trackwork with various rust tones, followed by some gloss black oil stains, then went over the railheads with a sanding stick before the primer etc had chance to properly cure. Quite pleased with tthe progress so far, I'm not too bothered about spending ages on this bit as a majority will be covered with grass.

 

 

Typically once I'd done all that, I only then decided I needed something in the back left corner just to try to camoflage the scenic break a little, so I found a nice little coach on Thingiverse that I added some boarded windows to and modified to sit on sleepers. I'll have to put another thin layer of Das down for it to sit on but it should just add a little something to that bare corner.

 

 

I also added some Smith 3 links to the 48DS and Sentinel while waiting for the Zimo chip to arrive. The original plastic hooks, even when slightly opened up, are a bit of a pain to hook up to, so this should make operating a bit easier. There's something oddly satisfying about adding proper couplings to stuff.

 

 

[Kevin Johnson]

Nice work with the air brush Alex, really nice weathering.

[SteveyDee68]

Waiting for your most recent photos - the Facebook group was fine, but get to see so much more on this forum!

 

(To anyone who hasn't seen Alex's most recent photos, you are in for a treat!)

 

Steve S

Edited May 4, 2020 by SteveyDee68
Typo!

[Locksley]

30 minutes ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Waiting for your most recent photos - the Facebook group was fine, but get to see so much more on this forum!

 

(To anyone who hasn't seen Al x's most recent photos, you are in for a treat!)

 

Steve S

 

Thanks Steve! Hope these were worth the wait haha

 

So after a bit of trial and error, and a few false starts I finally ended up with a painting method I was happy with. This mostly consists of blocking in main colours in a slight haphazard fasion using either the airbrush or ratte cans where appropriate, followed by some lighter drybrushing and a final wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade. That's pretty much it really

 

 

 

 

 

I also got a bit of the grass down, it's a little flourescent at the mo but will be toned down lol

 

 

 

The rest of the mill finished printing on Sunday morning so glued most of that together and tried it out for size!

 

 

And mostly painted up!

 

 

Still a bit to do but very nearly there.

 

I then had the really stupid idea of fitting LEDs to the 48DS.

 

 

Plus I printed out a few accessories just to add a little something to it.

 

 

Unfortunately after having a few issues hardwiring the chip I caused a short and the magic smoke escaped luckily I already have another on order as i was going to fit one to my Sentinel but that'll have to wait for a bit lol.

[Kevin Johnson]

Brilliant paintwork and weathering Alex, look forward to seeing more.

[Si36]

Alex, those buildings are looking great.  The flour mill is very nicely done and the corrugated iron store (left in the first picture) is really beautifully weathered - captures urban and slightly decrepit perfectly!

 

Cheers

 

Simon 

[SteveyDee68]

Wow!

 

Wow!

 

And WOW again!

 

ABSOLUTELY worth the wait, Alex!

 

I now want to scrap everything I've done and simply copy your layout!

 

Saying that, I have the same reaction every single time I see something I want to emulate! 

 

I can't wait to see what else you add.  And what colour you go for when you paint the canal!

 

Lastly, I fell foul of my soldering iron after managing to solder just one power dropper to a scrap piece of track, so it is slightly comforting when someone far more skilled reports a hiccup using the Wand of Scorching Electrickery!

 

Steve S

Edited May 4, 2020 by SteveyDee68
Accidentally deleted a paragraph!

[SteveyDee68]

Oh boy!

 

I am so nicking borrowing the design of your corrugated warehouse at the left hand end of your layout!  My revamped track layout on Woodhey Quay has led me to rearrange the dock walls, creating just the spot for a small, functional building like that!

 

Having said that, my (poor) attempt at copying the double door shed at the other end of your layout is one of the reasons I ended up changing my track layout! 

 

Steve S

[sb67]

Fantastic looking layout Alex, the buildings are just stunning. You've done well with the track, do you have any problems with buffer locking on the layout? 

[NHY 581]

Just caught up with this little gem, Alex. 

 

Top stuff.

 

Rob. 

[mega_mort]

Wow....... That's amazing.... 

[brossard]

Just discovered this.  Your methods might justify the description of revolutionary.  My card models are put to shame.

 

John

[Locksley]

13 hours ago, sb67 said:

Fantastic looking layout Alex, the buildings are just stunning. You've done well with the track, do you have any problems with buffer locking on the layout? 

 

Thanks! I find my Sentinel and 48DS are fine, probably due to them having slightly larger buffers.

[maq1988]

Wow, this is some great stuff. I hadn't realised 3D printing had come on quite so far.

 

A nice little scene that fits together nicely - love the tin shack and the mill.

[Locksley]

Rest of the Day-Glo grass applied last night, still needs a good hoover. I'll then run over it all with the airbrush to tone everything down.

 

[Locksley]

Had a bit more of a play around with my cheapo static grass applicator last night. It's just a Chinese made one from Hobby King that's simply one of those mosquito swatters (it literally says 'Mosquito Swatter' on the side) with a tub on the end but I liked the look of it as it was very similar to the WWS one that I've previously borrowed off a workmate and was around £15 so it was just about worth it over making my own.

 

As it comes it's pretty much useless. It takes 2 'D' Cell batteries giving it a measly output of 3v, so I took it apart and wired in a 9v battery connector which tbh has given me a tool that's every bit as good as the more expensive ones (it still baffles me just how expensive they are). The Day-Glo grass was also a Hobby King purchase, something like £2.50 for a MASSIVE bag, and aside from the dodgy colour it's excellent.

 

The first layer was vacuumed off, then I gave it a pass from above with the airbrush using a few different shades of brown. I then did a more targetted application aiming to fill in any gaps I'd missed. Again, once that was hoovered off I misted with the AB, then this time I essentially drybrushed the grass with PVA and applied another layer. I repeated this another 3 times until I was happy with before a final pass with a slightly lighter brown from the AB. I found it gives a wonderful layered, overgrown effect to the grass.

 

This all but finishes off the layout, I'm just awaiting a delivery with an ID backscene and a couple of Oxford vehicles to pose.

 

 

I also had a play around with my Sentinel while the 48DS is in the workshop. I decided to take the MX600R and squeeze that hardwired into the cab along with a stayalive. It works about as well as it's ever going to but it's never been the best runner. I need to do a little more pruning around the track as I'm finding the grass is affecting running a little. Incidentally the grass looks even better from eye-level

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kevin Johnson]

Alex the grass looks a lot better once you went over it with the airbrush. Your sentinel always looks awesome mate.

[SteveyDee68]

Really looking the bees knees, Alex!

 

Can I ask - is there another warehouse at the left hand end of the layout or a gateway? Difficult to tell but in this photo I can just make out a door/gate behind the small building at the left hand end.  Assuming that closes off the "exit" that makes the layout a true Inglenook being self contained, does it not?  Or does the door/gate open to allow trains to run "off stage"?

 

Steve S

 

 

 

[Locksley]

1 hour ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Really looking the bees knees, Alex!

 

Can I ask - is there another warehouse at the left hand end of the layout or a gateway? Difficult to tell but in this photo I can just make out a door/gate behind the small building at the left hand end.  Assuming that closes off the "exit" that makes the layout a true Inglenook being self contained, does it not?  Or does the door/gate open to allow trains to run "off stage"?

 

Steve S

 

Cheers Steve! Well spotted my plan is to make a small optional extension piece/fiddle road to stick on the far left end which would allow me to use larger locos and/or more rolling stock. The gate is removable to act as a blocking piece for the hole in the backscene (when it eventually arrives).

[Locksley]

My new MX617F chip arrived earlier so I got that hardwired into the 48DS, successfully this time The headlamps make a massive difference, though do need dimming a tad, and a blob of black paint to block some light bleed behind. Runs sweet as a dime other than that, although I do need to do some grass cutting to stop it fouling in a few spots.