These pictures just look a lot better in their giant size, but I'm taking pity today on the person who is on dial-up, you KNOW who you are! Click the image to visit my Zooomr page for the BIGGER images.
I chopped off a couple of the sunflowers as they were dried up. I found that the stalks are hollow inside. Who knew?
and lastly, back lit spectacularity! Is that a word?
Now for the trains!
I'm making a "track cleaning" car to keep the rails shiny. It consists of a piece of hardboard mounted on two nails that slides along under a car, scraping the crud off the tracks. Yesterday I ran Attempt I for a half-hour. It kept catching on stuff, as it was too wide.
Attempt I on the right, Attempt II on the left.
Actually, Attempt I should be Attempt .5, because initially it was too narrow, then it was too wide, AND too thick.
I messed up on Attempt II and spaced the nails too far apart. This shows the holes that the nails are SUPPOSED to be aiming at. But see how neatly I counter-sunkted the nails heads?
A fairly pointless pic showing the coupler boxes being fastened back on. Also showing that I forgot to paint the plastic coupler box spacers!
Oh, you probably want to know what it looks like mounted under the car. Here you go!
No, those are not the stock wheel sets! Yes, I will clip the nails and add a load. Patience!
So I decided to drill new holes, probably properly spaced. This would be Attempt 2.5, I guess.
By the way, I used the Harbor Freight el cheapo miniature table saw to cut the sucker nice and square. Very dusty, however, my lung capacity will be diminished for a while!
Yes, I HAVE a cutting mat, I just don't USE it! I need a smaller one for to fit on this, my second-favorite cutting space.
So, where are we? The epoxy is curing, I will test it tomorrow. I hope I've the width right this time, too. It seems fairly critical. Too narrow, falls between the rails on curves. Too wide, catches on stuff like switch machines and other trackside details!
During all this I noticed the black boxcar has a coupler height problem. It was catching on rails on turnouts! Using the trusty Kadee coupler height gauge, I can see that the height is incorrect, and the coupler is DROOPING! Yikes!
This pic, utilizing the flash, shoes us the gauge on the RIGHT, the boxcar is on the LEFT.
I tried to edit out that vertical line in the background, but gave up and left it alone. This pic demonstrates the importance of good lighting technique...
Now THIS pic is without flash, just the natural light. Too bad it it didn't forcus on the foreground!
Also by the way, if you go to the big pics, notice the difference in detail between the silver gondola and the boxcar. The boxcar is too delicate to really handle, but the gondola can be banged around quite a bit, and has been!
I should probably start a new blog, the Compleat Idiot's Guide To Bad Model Railroading!
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