'O' gauge ? first tentative steps. Corrugated goods shed part 3: Painting and weathering

[Warspite]

Well you did suggest downsizing my plans in favour of something more 'achievable' ;-)

 

 

If you have a minute maybe you could run us through any differences between your use of foamboard and what I'm proposing? My little test-piece, whilst it has some merit in proving that the board faces of 'foamcore' could be waterproofed to resist warping, isn't really much use when it comes to testing any sound-deadening qualities...

 

David

 

The main difference is that my ‘baseboard’ is a foamboard shell made up of 5mm foamboard bases and supports, resting on a fixed row of cupboard units. So the whole thing is very lightweight but also hollow, hence the ‘booming’. A couple of photos in the early stages of construction attached. I think you are laying the foamboard base directly onto the MDF baseboard?

 

 

By the way, I'm fairly sure that 'foamcore' and 'foamboard' are the same although the density of the black board you are using (which I have also used in the past) seems denser than the white board. I used the white board on this layout as I had problems in a previous layout with the black board warping after painting and glueing scenery but I have also had some warping with the white board as well. I’ve just taken a couple of photos of the three foamboards I use – sorry about the quality, it was getting a bit dark! The close-up doesn’t really show it but there does seem to be more ‘air’ in the white board. You probably know far more than me in your professional capacity anyway!

 

 

Stephen

[N15class]

Stephen if I read correctly you made all the base board out of foam board, built up like a honeycomb. If you do it again you need to fill the spaces with something like glass fibre loft insulation. It will help stop the drumming, which is caused by air movement. Bubble wrap may do the same thing too.

[David Siddall]

The main difference is that my ‘baseboard’ is a foamboard shell made up of 5mm foamboard bases and supports, resting on a fixed row of cupboard units. So the whole thing is very lightweight but also hollow, hence the ‘booming’. A couple of photos in the early stages of construction attached. I think you are laying the foamboard base directly onto the MDF baseboard?

 

By the way, I'm fairly sure that 'foamcore' and 'foamboard' are the same

Stephen

 

Yup, I'm proposing to lay 5mm foamboard / foamcore board directly onto my MDF baseboard tops with 2" double-side tape.

 

And I'd certainly agree that there's probably no difference twixt foamboard and foamcore board apart from a little spelling and a space? I've always gone with 'foamcore board' because that's what our trade suppliers tend to call it - we've bought acres of the stuff over the years for exhibition display work.

 

From experience the moisture-proofing trick to prevent warping (and I've chosen the words 'moisture-proofing' carefully) is several very fine spray coats to both sides (without any delay between sides) if the board is effectively free-standing. It's only that, on the test piece, mine is taped down very securely to something solid and flat which appears to have allowed me to get away with sealing just the top surface.

 

D

[alant]

Hi David,

 

I got my hands on some old exhibition display panels a while back which consisted of a denser, grey coloured foam sandwiched between the two outer paper layers. This seemed to be more robust than the usual white offering from the stationers.

 

I wonder if this is referred to as "foamcore board"?

 

Alan.

 

PS Liking the look of the progress you are now making.

 

[David Siddall]

I got my hands on some old exhibition display panels a while back which consisted of a denser, grey coloured foam sandwiched between the two outer paper layers. This seemed to be more robust than the usual white offering from the stationers.

 

I wonder if this is referred to as "foamcore board"?

 

'Foamcore' isn't one to Google unless you've got a lot of time on your hands ;-) ....it's become a bit of a 'generic' (like Hoover perhaps?) but there are numerous suppliers/manufacturers some of whose references are subtly different. In the main they're selling/making the same thing. When it was invented it was called 'Fome-Core'.

 

The 'foamcore' we use in one of our professional capacities is white with a smooth-coated white card surface on both sides. It's card is quite thick – definitely not paper. We've got an awful lot of long off-cuts which is why I'm experimenting with it for trackbed.

 

'Blackcore' (as it's sometimes known) isn't something we use a lot of as it's surface tends to be matt, less resilient and more paper-like... I've certainly never seen it with the smooth satin/silk coating applied to 'foamcore's outer card – though I wouldn't put my hand on my heart and say there isn't a variant of 'blackcore' featuring a heavier coated card surface out there somewhere! All I can say with any conviction is that matt card tends to be more absorbent than 'coated' card.

 

I shall now stop boring for my country and retire clutching my coat!

 

D

[David Siddall]

I've just realised that, give or take a week or so, it's a year since I started this little epic! Progress to date has been exceedingly 'tentative' but has been made none the less. Two boards have been built and track-laying (to a much simplified track plan) has finally commenced with every last chair individually and patiently glued to ply sleepers in 60' panels (albeit I do sometimes wonder about my sanity!). And yes, that is a 'Combi' ...amazingly doing a sterling job of providing sufficient amps to shuffle the Hymek's rejuvenated all-wheel-drive chassis up and down all 9 completed feet until such time as I can divert the chancellor of the domestic exchequer's attention long enough to to get it a decent twin-motor-friendly decoder :-)

 

 

Yay...

 

D

[two tone green]

David, PM on its way to you which may be of interest.

 

TTG

[David Siddall]

Inter-baseboard, plug-in wiring connectors for the hard-of-soldering or those who's wiring might be prone to modification as layout construction progresses (e.g. me, in both cases :-)

 

Just received these plug and socket terminal connectors from Rapid Electronics of Colchester (www.rapidonline.com). £4.25 a pair inc VAT and delivery. 117mm long, chunky and robust. Dispatched same day as ordered on-line and arrived less than 24-hours later!

 

 

D

[two tone green]

Hi David,

 

A very nice and simple practical solution to connecting baseboard together.

 

A word of warning, be careful about just how you connect them and make doubly sure they mate up properly as there is no fool proofing on them and you could end up stuffing power down a data line or powering a feed back line if you get one pin out if you understand what I mean.

[David Siddall]

...you could end up stuffing power down a data line or powering a feed back line if you get one pin out if you understand what I mean.

 

Fortunately I happen to have a stock of different coloured wire on reels, all bought ridiculously cheaply at the end of shows over several years. I might think twice about using these connectors if I was modelling the approaches to Paddington but I don't think 'Little Shuffling on the Plank' will be too taxing. Can't solder to save my life but have successfully wired a house, two canal narrowboats and I've forgotten how many layouts... funny old world innit?

 

Pzzzt, fzzzzz, small cloud of blue smoke ;-)

 

D

[two tone green]

Yep, once the magic smoke escapes out of the wires it game over.

[Donw]

If you are trying to plug them in under a baseboard it might be less easy to see what you are doing. If you want fix one to the baseboard with a woodstrip either side to guide the other in. Alternatively have enough length of cable to pull them out and see what you are doing. A sucessful year I think David. I have enjoyed your posts.

Don

[Warspite]

A sucessful year I think David. I have enjoyed your posts.

Don

 

Me too.

 

I've learnt a considerable amount from this thread. Can't believe it's a year though.

 

Stephen

[David Siddall]

If you want fix one to the baseboard with a woodstrip either side to guide the other in...

 

That's a good thought Don... think I'll go with that :-)

 

 

I've learnt a considerable amount from this thread. Can't believe it's a year though.

 

Certainly is Stephen (the pace of my 7-mil progress is probably only slightly faster than continental drift!), and I'd put anything gained from this thread down to 'experiential learning by proxy'. Otherwise known as the opportunity to avoid my gaffs ;-)

 

Thanks both, kind comments much appreciated...

 

D

[David Siddall]

Oh the joys of modelling by proxy, pretty well all I can find time for at the moment twixt work and domestic responsibilities is to admire the progress of other rather more prolific modellers and to contribute the odd 'like' and comment.

 

Progress has slowed even by my standards but I have at least:

 

...built the frame for my third and final board - which (once I work out how to make it do the 'traversing' thing) will feature the layout's scenic break and fiddle yard

 

...worked out and applied a solution to beefing up track end security at baseboard joints... 5mm ramin strip to match my 5mm foamcore trackbed

 

...laid 9' of foamcore trackbed and started adding power feeds to the main tracks and their two points.

 

Not much over a couple of weeks I grant you but at least it's progress of sorts :-/

 

David

[TimC]

Oh the joys of modelling by proxy, pretty well all I can find time for at the moment twixt work and domestic responsibilities is to admire the progress of other rather more prolific modellers and to contribute the odd 'like' and comment.

 

David, I know the feeling. I came into the 'season' with a list of 'must do's' and have hardly touched anything.

[David Siddall]

Cheers for that Tim, I was beginning to think it was just me ;-)

 

David

[David Siddall]

Modelling opportunities may be scarce at the moment but at least I've been able to dedicate some time to on-line research resulting (finally) in a decision about what's going to activate my turnouts – and my choice is... DCC Concepts' 'Cobalt' turnout motors. I've gone for these mainly on the strength of good reviews and the fact that they're slightly more compact than the Tortoise. Oh, and I also rather like the fact that there's some attractive discount offers around at the moment, no soldering to do under the board and plenty of matched accessory packs. DCC-ing looks pretty straight-forward when the time comes too :-)

 

David

[two tone green]

Hi David,

 

I have found them to be very strong and reliable. I use them on my O gauge layout and about to order another half dozen. Bromsgrove Models used to do a nice deal on a pack of twelve which knocked the price down quite a bit. But I have used them all so need more.

 

Will have to dig around to find who is doing them as I need them soon.

[The Nth Degree]

Same problem with time here too David. I have a layout in progress, and apart from finding a top for one of my 3 boards, it is still at the stage it was a few months ago. I'm also building some wagons, which any respectable builder would have finished the same weekend they started!

 

Overall though, things are moving forward, and that's progress.

[3 link]

Hi Guys,

 

Have you given servo's any thought ? There is this firm that does them http://minxmicrodrives.com/ but personally I will build my own ( much cheaper ) using merg components, it's just that they are adjustable and very small. So much so that you can easily disguise them above board and use a small piece of wire in tube to act as the final drive.

 

Martyn.

[David Siddall]

Have you given servo's any thought ?

 

Indeed I have Martyn, to the point of having a pair stashed away (along with some bespoke electronic voodoo to drive them)... but I'm reserving them for the day I attempt to motorise my first ever 7-mil purchase...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVqOpOYikoo

 

...I so want to incorporate working ground signals in my layout. Indeed, this was the video that first convinced me I wanted to have a go at 7-mil all those months ago :-)

 

I've seen/heard of numerous examples of successful servo point control but decided to go with Cobalt turnout motors because they're reported to be so straight-forward to install that even I couldn't cock 'em up! I'll reserve the experimental stuff (at which I am legendarily inept) for something less critical than turnouts ;-)

 

D

[two tone green]

David,

 

I have ordered 6 more Cobalt point motors from here http://www.7mm.co/

 

Good price for 6.

 

I have used them a lot recently for all sorts of things and found them to be very very good.

[David Siddall]

Discovered the other day during a search for visual cues for the era I'm aiming to model, the 1969 BBC documentary 'Engines Must Not Enter the Potato Siding' – part of the 'The BBC Four Steam Railways Collection'. Nowhere near either part of the country I'm thinking of modelling but totally compelling once I started watching on iPlayer this evening – includes the first footage I've ever seen of Woodhead electrics in action on passenger services and loaded with inspirational period atmosphere :-)

 

David

[David Siddall]

Desperately trying to ignore Hornby's newly announced, imminently available and exquisite-looking 'OO' 2-BIL and to keep my mind focussed on my 7-mil aspirations!

 

Sorry... so far off topic it's on another planet! Perhaps I'd better head upstairs and thread a bag-full of rail chairs...?

 

David

 

PS: Whatever you do, don't check out the RMW News section and under no circumstances idly search YouTube for 'Hornby 2-BIL' :-/