sb67 Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Nice bit of soldering there JRB, very neat, the steps look good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post JSModels Posted January 11, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted January 11, 2020 Today was spent working on the first stages of the interior, namely, the lighting. For this, I've used some cheap but brilliant (no pun intended) Christmas lights. They're similar to the coloured ones I used for my Christmas layout, but this time just warm white. They consist of tiny surface-mount LEDs soldered between two laquered copper wires, with each sealed in a blob of resin. These came as a set of 30 LEDs with a small battery box attached. I identified the polarity, and then cut the lights into 4x strings of 7 LEDs, leaving just 2 spare. The strings were hot-glued onto the underside of each floor/ceiling: And here, wired temporarily to the battery box again: At the right-hand end, I made some cuts with a razor saw & pushed into these 2x 0.5mm brass wire (left over from doing the handrail on the steps) which act as a busbar: I figured this would be quicker, easier, and neater than using wire between the floors, and wouldn't look as obvious if seen through the windows! Rather than use the battery box, I'll wire these in to the built-in 12v supply of the layout. These need ~3V, so I'm using an adjustable DC-DC converter. These have an advantage over just using a resistor, in that the output voltage can be adjusted to vary the brightness required. Here it is wired temporarily; you can see the DC-DC converter in the bottom left corner: As you can see, this was at 2.8V, and they're still probably too bright so the ability to alter it later is very welcome (these pictures were taken with the layout lighting turned off, so do appear slightly brighter in the pictures than IRL). Then I decided it was time for some glazing, so I cut some strips of acetate sheet (OHP sheets) and glued then into the building with glue'n'glaze. A few of the windows at the RH end were frosted with matt clear varnish as these are where the toilets will be (soil pipes will be added to the outside at some point...) I forgot to take pictures with the glazing in place, so you'll need to wait for the next update to see that. Hopefully there'll be some progress on the interior fittings next time too. Here's the plan for the interiors: JRB 17 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechnicArrow Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Simple yet stunning! I would suggest adding a light outside over the doorway and steps, but that might not be easy with the LED's you've used so far. I can't wait to see it with the interiors, it should look fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke the train spotter Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Fantastic glow from the LEDs! Will make a big difference to see the interiors too. I wonder if you'll make a model of a model railway layout for the inside of the building. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium JSModels Posted January 12, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 12, 2020 (edited) 16 hours ago, luke the train spotter said: I wonder if you'll make a model of a model railway layout for the inside of the building. I already have, see earlier post Still needs finishing, and some more of them though! JRB Edited January 12, 2020 by jrb Added Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium JSModels Posted January 12, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 12, 2020 7 hours ago, TechnicArrow said: Simple yet stunning! I would suggest adding a light outside over the doorway and steps, but that might not be easy with the LED's you've used so far. I can't wait to see it with the interiors, it should look fantastic. Thanks for the kind words. A light over the door would look great, that's a definite possibility! JRB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post JSModels Posted January 13, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted January 13, 2020 (edited) I now have a lamp over the office door: JRB Edited January 15, 2020 by jrb 20 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ralf Posted January 14, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 14, 2020 On 13/01/2020 at 21:57, jrb said: I now have a lamp over the office door: A very nice lamp it looks too! Certainly looks the part and does the job! Ralf 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjcampbell Posted January 17, 2020 Share Posted January 17, 2020 Nice work on that mill. Regarding roofing, I've used the York slates. They are a little large, but at 4mm wide (12") they are not over-scale, at least for 19th century Welsh slates. In fact, I think the Wills slates are rather under-scale for that, being based on smaller (more modern?) slates for domestic properties. (Table from http://www.slateroof.co.uk/Slate_aristocracy.html) Here's some of my examples: 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium JSModels Posted January 17, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 17, 2020 I haven't been able to get down to the club since Monday, but yesterday this turned up: This morning, armed with just a scalpel and some extra-thin cement, I got these made up: The kit includes only what's pictured here (excluding the steel rule, obviously!); there are no figures, or even the stack of timber that is prominently featured on the box. But that's no big deal really. The machines themselves are very well done, and with more than enough detail (further detail could be added, but to be honest it would be too small to be seen, especially through the mill glazing). I'm looking forward to getting them installed in the mill now! JRB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium JSModels Posted January 17, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 17, 2020 11 minutes ago, mjcampbell said: Nice work on that mill. Regarding roofing, I've used the York slates. They are a little large, but at 4mm wide (12") they are not over-scale, at least for 19th century Welsh slates. In fact, I think the Wills slates are rather under-scale for that, being based on smaller (more modern?) slates for domestic properties. (Table from http://www.slateroof.co.uk/Slate_aristocracy.html) Thank you. Yes, that was the other point about the Wills slates, they're very small really. I think I've resigned myself to doing the mill slates in thick paper, cutting & applying them individually. I think I've seen that table before, but didn't have it saved anywhere so thanks for that. I think I'm going to go with the Duchesses, at 8x4mm. Although a quick calculation has revealed that I'm going to need to cut and appy approximately 1,900 individual tiles!!! That's 95 per row, and 20 rows, BTW....* *based on a vertical pitch of 3.5mm, which is probably about right for slates of this size and the roof pitch, and gives a headlap of 1mm, which equates to around 75mm/3" at full size. There's some quite useful info on how to slate a (full size) roof here, here, and here, for those who are interested in such things. JRB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 Faller and Kibri make some really nice detail sets. Hell, so do Auhagen. I'll keep an eye out for this workshop kit, I could do with a couple of them for my layouts. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diesel Do Nicely Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 The Mill building is excellent! With regard to the interior lighting, would it be beneficial to paint over or disconnect a couple of them randomly? Would it be the case that every room would be lit all at the same time? Sorry if you have already mentioned this. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium JSModels Posted January 19, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 19, 2020 16 hours ago, DanielB said: Faller and Kibri make some really nice detail sets. Hell, so do Auhagen. I'll keep an eye out for this workshop kit, I could do with a couple of them for my layouts. Thanks Daniel, I know of Faller & Kibri, but hadn't heard of Auhagen. I'll have to look them up. 3 hours ago, Diesel Do Nicely said: The Mill building is excellent! With regard to the interior lighting, would it be beneficial to paint over or disconnect a couple of them randomly? Would it be the case that every room would be lit all at the same time? Sorry if you have already mentioned this. Thanks Diesel! No, I haven't mentioned it, but I had thought about it; I think I'll blank off a couple of areas. JRB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 @jrb Auhagen make some really nice industrial detail packs, like dust filters, electrical boxes, fire escapes, travelling cranes, and a load of packs of cargo with forklifts and trolleys and the like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoxUnpopuli Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 12 hours ago, Diesel Do Nicely said: The Mill building is excellent! With regard to the interior lighting, would it be beneficial to paint over or disconnect a couple of them randomly? Would it be the case that every room would be lit all at the same time? Sorry if you have already mentioned this. 8 hours ago, jrb said: Thanks Diesel! No, I haven't mentioned it, but I had thought about it; I think I'll blank off a couple of areas. Alternatively or in addition, just put a wash over each of the LEDs to vary the brightness/colour. A straight wash would probably do it, but transparent acrylic (I used to use Tamiya) should do a better job - 'smoke' and orange, mixed down with a bit of clear, maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveyDee68 Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 Hi For industrial machinery, Anyscale Models (www.anyscalemodels.com) do various items such as pillar drills etc in resin. Although perhaps not as detailed as Faller, Auhagen etc they are at 1:72 (4mm/foot) rather than 1:87 (3.5mm/foot), plus quite a bit cheaper than the HO sets. He also does various other accessories - no connection, just a happy customer! Steve S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanielB Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 I used a lot of Anyscale models resin detail kits on a layout I'm building, and the castings seem very much overscale for OO gauge, which is a shame. So be wary of some of the cargo sets, like boxes, barrels etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemmy282 Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 As OO scale is 1:76 they will look overscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium JSModels Posted January 27, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted January 27, 2020 I've moved away from working on the mill for a while, instead concentrating on a little project to control the points. At present, the points are operated by slide switches on the front of the layout. Operating the layout was really satisfying, now that a) the loco is ultra-reliable (due to the large stay alive) and b) the remote uncoupling is working really well. Because of this, and the layout operating in a very 'hands-off' manner, reaching in to switch the points seemed a bit, well, wrong. Then I realised that the DCC controller has function buttons; since there's only one loco, I never need to change the loco address, so could I use the (currently unused) function buttons to switch the points? I asked the question in the DCC section, and to cut a long story short, the answer it seemed, was yes! So I bought a few bits... ...and set about designing a basic relay interface board. Basically, the function decoder duplicates the chip in the loco, and takes the commands from the function buttons. It uses those to switch relays on and off, which in turn switch the point motors. Earlier tonight I soldered the last bits on (I'd been waiting for some resistors to arrive) and wired it up to test the relays: Success! With that bit working, I wired in the point motors, and at this point the wind was knocked out of my sails. The relays were working, but the point motors weren't moving. A bit of investigative work later, and I discovered I'd made a schoolboy error with my circuit design; I'd assumed that the relay connections were the same as the last lot of similar relays I used a couple of years ago, instead of *actually* checking... I'd got the common and normally closed contacts mixed up, so the outputs weren't doing what I thought they were doing! It was easily resolved by changing two of the wire links on each channel; 10 minutes remedial work with the soldering iron & I was ready to go again: This time, all was well, and the MTB MP1 point motors worked as they should (they're brilliant, by the way. Much more compact & lower profile than any other slow-action point motor I've seen. They're only 18mm deep!). In the video they look to be moving quite fast; they take anywhere from 8 to 14V DC, and in the test I was running them at 13.8V. On a lower voltage they'll be a bit slower. F1 and F4 toggle the point motors; F2 will turn some of the building lights on and off; and F3 is currently spare. The next job is to take out the slide switches, fit the point motors, and wire all this in permanently. A job for next time!!! JRB 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium JSModels Posted February 1, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 1, 2020 (edited) I've now got the point motors & relay board installed under the layout, and it works really well, with one exception - when the point motors are moving, all the LED lights (the layout lights and the interior lights) dim! The point motors only draw 150mA, so I wasn't expecting that. A short investigation revealed that it's a voltage rectifier board that isn't beefy enough (it takes the 16vAC that powers the DCC system, and rectifies/reduces it to 12vDC, and this is used to power the layout lights, building lights, and now the point motors). It looks like I may have to abandon that, and use a dedicated separate PSU for these (I went this way so it was all powered off the one transformer, thus making it simple!) I still need to go & hunt out a suitable transformer from one of the many boxes dotted about everywhere. I know I'll have one, it's just finding it that's the problem... In the meantime I've been working on the layout from home, and by that I mean working on the design for the second mill. The initial draft has been altered quite a lot, as I was told (by an ex-screw) that it looked too much like a prison! Again, this will be laser-cut to my own design. I've been working on this for a couple of months (on and off) but it's finally getting near to the point where I can order it. Here's the 2D CAD drawing as it currently stands: And the 3D model: It's a pretty sizeable building, at 590mm wide and 315mm high (that's 23 1/2" by 12 1/2" in old money). Here's how it will look within the context of the layout: I've stuck with the idea of using some of the Wills girder sections to make a water tower at the top left, though these simply replace the frieze panels (I don't know what else to call them!) that are drawn, so I can use either. There simply isn't the internal depth to have any interiors in this one, but I will at least have some lights in it. I'm planning on having this building on the layout (though probably nowhere near finished) by our next club open day on the 5th April. Still to do: Sort out the steps up to the loading platform at the front left corner; Add all the vertical lines for the stonework (a VERY laborious task!); Draw up all the doors; And once all that's done, I can get it cut!!! JRB Edited February 1, 2020 by jrb 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coline33 Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 At least with a 'mill' you can have dirty windows to hide the fact that there are no interiors, even if you have lights! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Scott Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 Some nice buildings looking good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoxUnpopuli Posted February 2, 2020 Share Posted February 2, 2020 On the top floor, I'm not sure the transoms would (ideally) sit upon the arch of the openings below - for the other floors, there's a single row of bricks/blocks separating the arches from the transoms. Error/oversight? It's a wonderful looking building. As part of the Wyre Forest MRC, I was part of a very early 'industrial' layout, which was simply called 'industrial', and we exhibited it around the Midlands back in the early 90s. The mill reminds me of that layout - our main 'building' was probably three times as wide, but a floor lower, with a central wooden structure that covered a crane jib. I do wish I had some old photos of it, or indeed knew what happened to it... Of course, back then it was hardboard, brickpaper, scored plastic for the windows, and rows of slit paper painted a variety of dark greys with poster paint for all the tiles. A gentleman by the name of Ron did much of the work, and I remember him saying things along the lines of "that can't go on the layout like that, it's not filthy enough." I miss Ron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium JSModels Posted February 2, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 2, 2020 3 hours ago, FoxUnpopuli said: On the top floor, I'm not sure the transoms would (ideally) sit upon the arch of the openings below - for the other floors, there's a single row of bricks/blocks separating the arches from the transoms. Error/oversight? Not an error as such. The floor to ceiling height reduces as you go up the building (common in lots of Victorian buildings, not just mills) so on the upper levels there isn't room for the extra row or stone between the door openings. Yes, things are a lot different now with things such as 3D printing and laser cutting. If it weren't, I wouldn't be making this as the thought of cutting all the windows out by hand would definitely put me off! JRB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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