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snitzl

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  1. snitzl

    Kimberley Left Overs

    By snitzl,


    Kimberley
    Here's a collection of Kimberley builds that were incomplete and includes the bridge on  Main St, Kimberley.
     
    I nearly deleted the images for this blog, they were left overs from the kimberley project  that were found on an old backup hard drive, but because the bridge was such a challenge for me at that time,  they are included here with a couple of quickie projects. The stone work technique  used on the bridge is covered in the Random Stone Walls blog so please refer to that blog for details.
     
    Built for Ilkeston Woodside MRC's 00 / 4mm layout of Kimberley ( G.N.R. / L.N.E.R. / Midland Railway ).
     
















     
    Snitzl.
     
  2. snitzl

    Kimberley Signal Box.

    By snitzl,


    Kimberley
    Kimberley - Signal Box.
     
    Built for Ilkeston Woodside MRC's 00 / 4mm layout of Kimberley ( G.N.R. / L.N.E.R. / Midland Railway ).
     
    Just a few illustrations following the construction of this Great Northern Signal Box. Construction of the model was initially similar to the small timber station building posted previously, however, the interior of this building has been partially modelled so that furnishings can be added when required. The roof has been made detachable for this reason. Construction is mainly 0.5mm and 1.0mm styrene sheet with a little 10 thou brass for the walkway brackets.
     
    Area's of construction that lack detail are covered comprehensively in other blogs  and this will be the format for future blogs.
     














     
    Snitzl.
     
  3. snitzl

    Small Station Building.

    By snitzl,


    Kimberley
    Kimberley - Small Timber Station Building.
     
    Built for Ilkeston Woodside MRC's 00 / 4mm layout of Kimberley ( G.N.R. / L.N.E.R. / Midland Railway ).
     
    Here are a few illustrations following the construction of this part timber station building. The original building was constructed by the Great Northern Railway in 1876 and early photographs  show wood panels down to ground level, later pics show bricks had replaced the timber from below  the windows. Construction of the model involved accurate marking and cutting of mainly 0.5mm  styrene sheet with the aid of a rule and digital vernier. The timber front panel is a little out  of square, which I blame on an engineers square bought at a car boot sale. The error was only noticed when window and timber layers were glued together and I decided to live with it. Area's of construction that lack detail are covered comprehensively in other blogs and this will be the  format for future blogs. I must point out that my blogs are a record for myself of how I have created models for kimberley or Snitzl and its a added bonus when other modellers find them of interest.
     














     
    Snitzl.
     
  4. snitzl

    Timber Goods Shed.

    By snitzl,


    Kimberley
    Timber Goods Shed for Kimberley.
     
    Built for Ilkeston Woodside MRC's 00 / 4mm layout of Kimberley ( G.N.R./ Midland Railway ).
     
    Here are a few illustrations following the construction of this timber goods shed and  adjoining goods office. A small amount of Will's flexible brick sheet was used for a  small area of brickwork in the office section of this building, the remainder was constructed from plain 0.5 and 1.0mm styrene sheet. Two photo's of the original building were available  and alot ass-u-me's were taken during construction. It became clear with the addition of a third photo that an error was made on the chimney brickwork and images of this modification  are included.
     












     
    Snitzl.
     
  5. snitzl

    Three Buildings for Kimberley.

    By snitzl,


    Kimberley
    Three Buildings for Kimberley.
     
    Built for Ilkeston Woodside MRC's 00 / 4mm layout of Kimberley ( G.N.R./ Midland Railway ). Here are a few illustrations following the construction of two small weighbridge buildings  and a small goods shed. Laminations of 0.5mm plain styrene sheet and Slaters embossed plastic  were used for the body shells, while electrical wire was used for the downpipes and brackets.  Special focus is given to the lintels and step by step illustrations as to how reasonable lintels can be created without reverting to milling and dividing heads.
     















     
    Snitzl'
     
  6. snitzl

    Houses for Chapel St.

    By snitzl,


    Kimberley
    More houses, this time Chapel St, Kimberley.
     
    Last of the houses for kimberley build it series, hurray, I hear you cry or thank somebody for that.
     
    Again, a step by step build without comments for newbies of a house on Chapel St, Kimberley.
     
    I quite like this one, don't know why.
     





     
    Snitzl.
     
  7. snitzl

    Houses for Newdigate St.

    By snitzl,


    Kimberley
    Modelling houses on Newdigate St for Kimberley.
     
    Step by step guide for newbies.
     
    These builds are so similar to the large brick semi of Newdicate st, that I was in a  'do I, don't I' post situation. What the hell, its only 2 megs and some of the pics might  help clarrify what wasn't to clear in the earlier post. Illustrated below - A small semi and the school mistress house for Newdigate St, Kimberley.
     
    Again, the front of these buildings are only seen by the operator.
     
     











     
    Snitzl.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  8. snitzl

    Kimberley - Roads, Walls & Fence.

    By snitzl,


    Kimberley
    Modelling the roads, walls and fence for Kimberley.
     
    The houses for Newdigate Street are constructed as modules, each with its own garden  plinth. Garden walls and fences are sandwiched between these plinths and the roadway is constructed in the same manner. Plinths are bolted together with 4mm screws and the complete assembly fits a snug recess in the landscape.
     
    Constructed from styrene sheet ( mainly 1mm and 0.5mm ).
     








     
    Snitzl.
     
  9. snitzl

    Kimberley - Large Brick Semi.

    By snitzl,


    Kimberley
    Construction of a Large Brick Semi for Kimberley.
     
    Using more traditional modeling methods, here is a beginners step by step guide to building  a fairly typical semi-detached structure, based on houses on Newdigate St, Kimberley, Nottingham. Constructed for a layout of Kimberley Station, three models were made, one having the front sliced, due to the back scene. The front of these buildings are only seen  by the operator, which is a shame.
     













     
    Snitzl.
     
  10. snitzl

    Lining with Decals.

    By snitzl,


    Misc
    An experiment with full panel decals as an alternative to traditional lining methods.
     
    The idea for this experimental blog came after a second attempt at lining the Beattie Well Tank.
     I've often heard it said that lining rolling stock takes practice, practice practice, but I didn't want to spend the rest of my life re-spraying and lining a Beattie Well Tank, I'd sooner spend that time building, building, building, also the Beattie Well Tank required bespoke graphics that would be impossible for me to achieve with a ruling pen or brush. Commercial screen printed / tampo printed decals have been around for a very long time and in my mind provide an acceptable alternative for the likes of me that lacks the skill of the pen, but that wouldn't overcome the issue of bespoke graphics. A short while ago, attempts  to produce decals with an ink jet printer with replacement cartridges gave unacceptable results and the cost of original cartridges was enough to put a stop to investigating further. Recently, I made a purchase on the bay for a second hand HP laser jet Pro 300 colour printer  with non original toners, which will be used to produce decals in this experimental blog for  a variety of models, first of which will be the Beattie Well Tank.

     Artwork.
    It is intended to produce the artworks for the decals in the same resolution as the printer,  the printer is 600 dots per inch ( DPI ), so initial artworks will be 600 pixels per inch,  if in practice, this resolution is to low, then the resolution will be doubled to 1200 pixels per inch. It is hoped that doubling the size of the artwork can be avoided, because scaling algorithms can produce unwanted dithering effects, for instance a line that is 3 pixels in  width does not divide by two, so pixel colours are substituted to give the impression of  correct width. Using Adobe Photoshop, presuming that 600 pixels per inch is fine for the artwork masters, with an image loaded, select 'image' > 'image size' to open the dialog,  deselect 'Resample Image' flag and set the 'Resolution' to 600 pixels / inch, the image will now print to the correct scale, another tool used when creating rads and curves was the pen along with one of its associates, 'Add Anchor Point'.
     
    Two types of decal papers for use with a laser printer were purchased, one of these was clear  water slide ( transparent ) and the other was white backed water slide. Both types of paper  have a white backing sheet so at a glance, they look identical. The reason for the white  backed decal paper is that most printers do not print white, if the colour white is required  in your decal design, then white backed decal paper would be required unless you paint certain  areas of your model white. It became apparent during the initial decal printouts that by selecting different print paper  types in the printer options dialog box, it was possible to alter the amount of heat used to  fuse the toner to the print media, if not enough heat is applied, then the toner has less  adhesion, two much heat and discolouration of the toner is visible. 'Colour Laser Transparency'  paper type option was selected for the clear decal paper which turned the black borders of the  decal a dark brown, adhesion was very good, while 'envelope' paper type option was selected for  the white decal paper and although the colours were very good, adhesion was poor and toner could easily be removed with a finger nail. After a little trial and error, acceptable adhesion  and colours were obtained with 'Opaque Film' paper type, the full settings were, Paper Size > Envelope No 10, Paper Type > Opaque Film, Orientation > Landscape and under  the colour tab : Colours Themes > PhotoS.

    Some Weeks Later : With the Beattie and Coffee Pot complete as regards to this experiment,  an idea of lining the printed decals sprung to mind, using the existing artwork as a test,  thin yellow lines were drawn in Humbrol Gloss 7 using a ruling pen over the artwork printed  on clear decal paper. This worked out better than expected, being able to draw lines on a  flat surface with the aid of a rule helped a lot, corners were cleaned up with a small brush  dampened with white spirit, the paint took to the printed surface very well and did not  smudge or damage the underlying artwork, with this method, multiple copies of the panels could be included in the artwork, in case of mistakes. Another option that might be worth  considering is to spray the decal paper in the required livery and then laser print panel  guide lines / borders for cutting and lining, this is an idea that I may try in the near future.  Next in line came an incomplete scratchbuilt Manning Wardle 0:6:0 loco which needed a few minor  modeling details adding before it could become the next victim for these trials. A decision  was taken to be a little more adventurous with the artwork and add quite a few full panel  decals for the boiler, sandbox's, tool box, bunker sides and back, cab sides and saddle tank.  As before, artwork was first printed out on plane paper, the decals cutout and checked against  the model before printing the actual decals on white backed decal paper. One problem that became evident when fitting the decals was that if a decal was cut slightly oversize, it would  not sit tight in the corners, so checking the actual decal with the model prior to fitting is  also important.
     
     Colour matching.
    A simple test was done using a scratchbuilt sign board from a previous layout of Wool Station,  the sign board was first sprayed in white primer followed by a coat of Revell 56 matt blue. The camera was set for internal lighting and the resulting photograph was imported into adobe  photoshop were the medium tones of the image were sampled with the eyedropper tool. A second  colour sample was obtained by searching google for Revell 56 matt blue and the third sample was a colour used on the Charles Rhodes horse drawn cabs, which when making comparisons between  the printed decal and the newly printed sign board, looked pretty close. The three sign board artworks were added to the Charles Rhodes cab artwork and labeled 'EYEDROPPER', 'REVELL SAMPLE' and 'LOOKS CLOSE'.
     
    Final Thoughts.
    Although the results obtained were satisfactory, there are a few points worth mentioning, the  printer used in this experiment had a 600 dpi resolution and pixelation was slightly noticeable  to the naked eye and very apparent with a magnifying glass, there's no doubt that the latest  printers with typical resolutions of 1200 dpi would make pixelation less obvious, for me,  the second downside was the lack of strength or vividness to the colours. That aside, I will continue to experiment along these lines and blog anything that might be of interest.
     














     
    Snitzl.
     
  11. snitzl

    Walls Traverser Cover - Part 2.

    By snitzl,


    Misc
    Walls Traverser Cover - Part 2.
     
    This is part two of the 'Walls Traverser Cover' which was started last February and  has taken at least 1260 hours to construct. Details of construction covered in part  one are not repeated in this blog so illustrations move on rapidly. The model is virtually a micro, multi layered layout modelled in styrene. This blog also covers details of the traverser with its extruded aluminium tracks, mechanical switch and end of board track protection.
     


















     
    Snitzl.
     
  12. snitzl
    Walls Traverser Cover - Part 1.
     
    It was only last February that I thought to myself that Snitzl Town only required a  traverser and transportation rack to finish, then I could get on with some rolling stock  modelling. Thinking about the traverser, instead of using two pieces of plywood to hide the traverse sidings from the viewing public, what about an actual model of stone walls  and walkways. Searching the internet for ideas with search terms such as ' fantasy  castle ', ' stone walkways ' revealed little, but I did discover a few pictures of Bramhope Tunnel , Leeds, which became the starting point for the 'Walls Traverser Cover'.
     
    Don't know how many Blogs this traverser Cover will take, here is Part 1.
     


















     
    Snitzl.
     
  13. snitzl

    Cranes for Snitzl Town.

    By snitzl,


    Misc
    Harbour Cranes for Snitzl Town.
     
    Detailing continues for Snitzl with the addition of two types of yard crane and  a warehouse pole crane. Images of these types of crane were collected from the web by searching google images. The model types chosen were Ratio's Yard Crane, Mikes Models GWR  yard crane and a real world warehouse pole crane. A majority of the work was done by hand  but a few components required lathe turning, milling, dividing head and bench drilling.
     


















     
    Snitzl.
     
  14. snitzl

    Boat Warehouse Scene

    By snitzl,


    Misc
    The Boat Warehouse Scene.
     
    The boat warehouse scene covers construction of two simplified boats, packing cases, warehouse  crane, timber fence and a couple of items covered in previous blogs. The water is still receiving  repeated coats of varnish and PVA, as suggested in the RMWEB forums. Further attempts were made  at moulding street lamps as covered in the 'Cab Shelter Scene' blog which resulted in one more  street lamp for this scene. Its worth a mention that the water clear resin used for this purpose  has not hardened as expected and retains a certain amount of flexibility somewhat similar to  liquorice.
     


















     
    Snitzl.
     
  15. snitzl

    Cab Shelter Scene.

    By snitzl,


    Misc
    Cab Shelter Scene.
     
    This blog features a horse drawn cabbies shelter, stone paving, winter tree's, shrubs, street lamp and a little more. In particular, the street lamp has been a bit of a problem.  Initially, I wanted to mould the lamp in water clear resin with fibre optic running through  the base and stand but found it impossible to fill the mould completely. Moulding one street  lamp per day, cutting the feed deeper and thinking, might have to addopt an alternative approach.
     
















     
    Snitzl.
     
  16. snitzl

    Lineside Odds and Sods.

    By snitzl,


    Misc
    Lineside Odds and Sods
     
    Here we have a collection of small modelling projects that have kept me busy for the past few  weeks. Most of these projects were inspired by a series of articles found in Model Railways  Magazine by Nelson Twells, Roy Anderson and Gregory Fox.
     
    Included are :
    LMS Lamp Hut - February 1977.
    LMS Mileposts - March 1977.
    LMS/BR Concrete Lineside Bin - April 1977.
    LMS Sandbox - May 1977.
    LMS Sidings Gates - October 1977.
     
    also
     
    LMSR Time-table and Poster Boards - November 1970 - Model Railway Constructor
    - V.R.Anderson and of unknown origin : buffer stops and loading gauge.
     


















     
    Snitzl.
     
  17. snitzl

    Snitzl Towns -Market Stalls.

    By snitzl,


    Misc
    Here is yet another illustrated guide through the construction methods used on Snitzl's  market stalls.
     
    In all, ten similar stalls were built and modelled in styrene with bread, pies, flowers,  biscuits, meat, books, dishes and vegetables made from various materials. A simple brass injection mould tool made years ago was used for wheel production and the small empty crates  are modelled in 10 thou brass.
     
    Construction of the simple brass mould tool will be covered in a future blog.
     
    Inspired by photographs from the real world and a product sold as 'SS37 Market Stalls' by Will's.
     


















     
    Snitzl.
     
  18. snitzl

    The Little People.

    By snitzl,


    Misc
    The little people in 4mm scale.
     
    Creating figures in 4mm scale is a bit of a hit and miss affair for me. When sculpting the face, some figures turn out great, while others turn into real monsters. The initial  sculpting is done in dental plaster or chalk from which a silicone rubber mould is created.  From this mould is cast a white metal figure which is further detailed to become a 'master figure'. If multiple copies of the same figure are required, then a second silicone rubber mould is made from the 'master figure', and multiple copies taken from this.
     
    A process is also illustrated on how to make a silicone rubber multi cavity production  tool for use with the centrifuge casting method. Most, if not all of the components  used in this process are either home made or modified from other components, for  instance, two parts of the centrifuge were actually once part of a mini alternator.
     










     
    Snitzl.
     
  19. snitzl

    Ballasting and Wiring Tracks.

    By snitzl,


    Trackwork
    Construction for Snitzl - Track Ballasting and Baseboard Wiring.
     
    Cork tiles are cut into strips and glued with a latex based glue. The cork  tiles are also ground in an electric coffee grinder for the ballast. Discarded milk  containers make great cable ties and dental floss is used to loom the wires.
     
    Other than that, pretty conventional stuff.
     






     
    Snitzl.
     
  20. snitzl

    Point Mechansim and Fitting.

    By snitzl,


    Trackwork
    Construction for Snitzl - Point Mechanism and Fitting.
     
    Track work is made up from Protofour components bought back in the early 1980's and  that point motor mechanism mentioned previously, well some of those components are being  used for now. I did look at using servos, but couldn't resolve a problem with servo twitch,  which happened as soon as the throttle was turned. So at the present time, I'm using some  vintage Lemaco I had lying around, which are also very noisy.
     
    The illustrations below, show the point motor mechanism, its assembly, soldering the point  blades, and hiding the holes required for point mechanism operation.
     





     
    Snitzl.
     
  21. snitzl

    Snitzl Investigates Pentroller.

    By snitzl,


    Electrics
    An investigation into Stewart Hines Pentroller.
     
    This blog investigates Stuart Hines Pentroller and presents a layout of the board, identifies  components, includes schematics and presents various oscilloscope captures of the pulse width  modulation and timimg pulses in an effort to understand the function of the design. Last night,  I was a pleasantly surprised to receive a telephone call from Stuart, granting permission for  details of Pentroller to be presented in this blog, however, during our conversation, it became obvious that I had made quite a major error in my thinking with regards to the function of the pulse presented in the ' Experimentroller Blog ', for this I apologise, the blog has now  been deleted, modified, and included here.
     
    Back in the late 1980's when Stuart Hine was technical boffin at Pendon, it was realised that the life of the coreless portescap motors could be shortened drastically with extreme  slow running with conventional pulse type controllers. Stuart Hine consulted with the manufacturers of Portescap motors and discovered that the pulse generated by a conventional  pulse controller was such that the coreless motor would continually start and stop, iron  core motors on the other hand had enough inertia for continual running. It was also discovered  that the maximum current a motor was allowed to draw was a problem and also that the non  replaceable brushes in the coreless motors lasted only about 200 hours or so before becoming  erratic when used with a conventional pulse controller, thought to be mainly due to the number  of stop / starts when slow running. Before we begin, I must mention that I'm no electronics wiz kid, the aim of this project is to  make a study of Stuart Hine's Pentroller, an analog controller from the 1990's, learn just  enough about electronics to understand the circuit, make an experimental controller and maybe  later in another blog, create a new analog controller baised on Pentroller. The idea behind this experimental controller is to have a controller that functions in the same way as Pentroller,  but gives a certain amount of control of the back EMF sample time, length of DC period, set  current limiting and adjust the amount of feedback so that ideal settings can be found by experimentation through use of the controller, note that although these variables alter the motor speed, actual speed adjustment on the Pentroller is controlled by a variable amplitude  DC generated by the SG3527 pulse width modulator control circuit and controlled by the throttle  and back EMF circuit. First of all, the new experimental controller replaces the LM393 comparator  timing circuit with an alternative NE555 integrated circuit which allows adjustment of the sample  time period from 140uSec to 1.8mSec and also allows adjustment of the DC ON period from 2.1mSec  to 11.4mSec, the potentiometer positions have been high lighted in one of the illustrations below.  The next alteration to the original circuit was to replace the virtually obsolete SG3527 pulse width modulator ic with its more common and extremely cheap SG3525, the only difference between these two chips is that when the SG3527 chip is shut down via pin 10, the outputs are high, were  as on the SG3525, outputs are low, for this reason, an LM393 comparator was set up as an inverter  and is connected to the PWM outputs of the SG3525.
     
     Testing and Trials.
    Although the experimental controller was intended to run from a 16VAC supply, the SG3525 pulse  width modulation chip got far hot for my liking, therefore the controller was tested from a regulated 12 volts supply under which conditions the chip was warm to the touch. I found that  the torque generated by both coreless and iron core motors with the original 2.2ohm resistor to be far to weak for my taste and substituted this resistor for a 0.33ohm 1/2watt value. Under the suggested settings, coreless motors ran cool, had plenty of torque and ran very nice indeed,  on the other hand, iron core motors, had a cogging effect that could be controlled to some extend by reducing the current control.
     
    I must thank Stuart Hine for getting in touch and allowing this blog to procede.
     

















     
    Snitzl.
     
  22. snitzl

    Snitzlspeed Controller.

    By snitzl,


    Electrics
    Using a laser printer to create printed circuit boards ?.
     
    Stumbled across the method of using a laser printer to create printed circuit boards on the  internet and thought I'd present my experiences with this method as a blog. Not having the appropriate software for creating circuit board artworks, I actually photographed the trackside  of a now discontinued controller from the 1990's, made a few alterations, coloured the track  in black, mirrored the artwork and then printed nine copies of the artwork onto a piece of  A4 gloss photo paper. Having cut out one of the circuit board artworks, a piece of single  sided copper clad board is cut to size, rubbed with fine emery paper and given a scrub  with hot water and Vim, when dry, the artwork is then placed face down onto the copper  surface and ironed with a clothes iron on a full heat setting. It turns out that the print produced by laser printers and photocopiers, is styrene, the same plastic stuff that most of our buildings are made of, therefore the clothes iron generates enough heat  to actually melt the plastic which then adheres to the copper surface. Next, the circuit  board and artwork are given a bath in warm soapy water, and after a few mintues, the photo  paper can be pealed away. The first circuit board attempt turned out well and needed no further work, however, the second board showed signs of artwork movement during the ironing stage and on the third attempt, three tool makers clamps were used to hold the artwork firmly  in place. Another noticeable problem was that tiny areas of gloss laquer from the gloss photo paper had also adhered to the copper surface, these were easily removed with a gentle rub with  a soft cloth and T-Cut.
     
    Other thoughts : Not tried this yet, but the same method of artwork heat transfer might  be possible with a controller facia, with the facia in aluminium.
     




     
    Snitzl.
     
  23. snitzl

    Servo Mod Point Motor

    By snitzl,


    Electrics
    Servo Mod Point Motor.
     
    Following on from my previous episode with radio controlled servos as point motors, it did eventually dawn on me that there might be a way of using servo's without the electronic drive and sensing circuitry. A stripped down servo is made up of three main components :-  
     
    5volt dc motor.  
    Precision spur gear box.
    Small PCB with electronics and sensor.
     
    By discarding the electronics and sensor, it should then be possible to utilise both the motor and gearbox in a point motor design.
     
    Why use a Servo ?.
    Servo's have been around in Radio Control for a long time and there are plenty of 2nd hand on ebay.  The motors come in 3 pole, 5 pole, 7 pole and coreless with spur gears in metal or plastic that are precise with next to / or zero backlash. Gearbox and motor are fully enclosed with very little noise in operation and they come in different sizes.
     
















     
    Snitzl.
     
  24. snitzl

    Servos - Not Yet.

    By snitzl,


    Electrics
    Servo Point Motors, yet another Snitzl Failure.
     
    Here's my short interlude with servos as point motors.
     
    Found a simple circuit on the internet and did a little research on servos and within days  I was able to flick a switch and watch a servo move from one position to another, and whats more, the positions were adjustable. I know that there are control circuits available  commercially, but I had to do this myself, using analog as apposed to digital. Re-wired what was necessary on the control panel and baseboard, made 10 servo circuits, installed them and initially everything worked perfect with super silence.
     
    Next ,turn up the controller and as soon as a loco moves, servos dancing / twitch. Put the relco unit on and all hell breaks loose, so its probably an interference thingymebob.
     
    If anyone has any suggestions as to what the causes might be, then please comment, it may help others that wish to go down this route, for me, I'll leave it a while.
     
    The illustrations below show construction for a servo bracket, the electronics and wiring.
     







     
    Snitzl.
     
  25. snitzl

    Controller & Power Supplies.

    By snitzl,


    Electrics
    Constructing the Controller and Power Supplies for Snitzl Town.
     
    The Snitzl control panel, controllers and power supplies are combined into a single  unit with interconnections made at the rear. The case for each unit being made by  laminating multiple sheets of black and white styrene sheet. The units are then mounted  inside a wooden frame which is protected on the corners by aluminium extrusion.
     








     
    Snitzl.
     
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