2016/05/15

2016_05_16 So thats the best I can do!

2016_05_16  This is about where you walk away :(

Whether it be that you just can't recover a damaged sheet, meaning we will have more success if we try to fit a new sheet?  But I think I am over this. My background wishes are pretty much history today.



without flash, just room light


Flash shows what it really looks like


Pulling it off wall with heat, and re applying glue, takes the large crease out.
heating it up also takes it out.
But two hours later it is right back again.
We used a new craft type spray adhesive, spraying both surfaces as well as leaving go tacky.
I was a horror to put on, because you had to glue it to a line, which meant pulling it away to keep it straight.
All pictures taken one after the other and the room temperature was 14C at 51% humidity.
Cheers
Rod

2016/05/14

2016_05_14 More Back Scenes!

2016_05_14 Graeme must be a masochist ;)

At about 9.30 he is banging on the door again and so we had our wake up coffee. Retired folk don't need to get up at these early hours do we?
Ha Ha I was ready for him, actually and already had  removed the sheets and started to remove the glue of the wall.
We found some sugar soap and scrubbed it clean and I used a dry cloth to rub the rubber of the sheets. They came up very well, with only one small tear.
Some pictures  just after dark that night follow.


This was taken with flash, and so at first look, we might have done it?




Some of the original creases have reappeared :(
But we were worried about them from the start, and so no real surprise. I think a new sheet might go on far better than these sheets that have already been pulled off the wall.

So I heated up the paper with a hand held heat gun, and all of the creases disappeared as before and the glue seemed to be still sticky, so I rolled them flat once more, and sprayed the whole sheet with clear matt medium to see if I could stiffen it up . It appeared to work


Rolled flat painted with clear matt (and no flash this time!)
I guess if it sets like this we will have achieved our goal?

Cheers
Rod

2016/05/13

2016_05_13 (part2) SDS Sill less GY's

2016_05_13    Well look at that,Steve's long awaited G and GY vehicles finally arrived.

SDS Models




Pretty model with good proportions except for  the fact that they feel light. They may be ok, almost certainly are, however the Orient Models Productions OBF weighs almost exactly the same, and does need a metal weight that is placed on the floor (neat fit) of an unloaded wagon, it is painted to hide it away. I will let you know how these go without the extra weight. 


Interestingly I started to compare the Auscision GY to the SDS one and got a fright when I saw the difference in the leaf spring suspension, but as usual Steve and the fellas at SDS got it right.. See here..  EDIT: The Auscision GY leaf springs are also correct and match the version of the GY they modeled. I did not realize the springs varied over the different series of wagons.


from SDS pages.







Love these, next pay I will buy a few more :)
Cheers
Rod

2016_05_13 Home! (with goodies :)

2016_05_13 Went shopping in Albury the other day, came home empty handed apart from some insulated rail joiners and body filler from Albury Hobby shop. The Art shop had closed down, so all I did was waste time looking for it.

However I headed for Bendigo to visit Tony and one of Victoria's best hobby shops and came home with bags of goodies. Cost $55 for Diesel, but sadly Wodonga and local businesses just don't cut it, and missed out on over $500 in sales. :(

Bendigo Model Railway Shop




Home at last with three parcels. Made the mistake of going back to hobby shop on Thursday, didn't I ;)




Not much here, just some fences, cork and peco pits for the  engine shed. large gates (and "OO" large at that :(


But I did notice that SDS sill less GY's were in stock. Really nice models (more later) Got some nice coal that is very regular looking, and I will load into some of those G's and see if they look like briquettes?

 The Bendigo Art store was easy to find, unlike the Albury one, had great authorative staff and had what I needed as well.

Pity about not being able to help out the locals at home, but they don't seem to care, do they?

Cheers
Rod


2016/05/10

2016_05_10 Change of Pace

2016_05_10  Spent the day on wiring :) A change!

Had some droppers hanging that needed connecting in. Also found some redundant cables that could be removed. Also as this Railway has 5 Digitrax Command Stations, I altered the outputs to better reflect the power progression around the layout. Found the reason for the loss of power to the branch line, and started setting out the new points in Trentham.

It was rather productive.  :)

Al had glued some waste back scene down before he departed Sunday, and it has remained in place without wrinkling up. So it might be a win for us.

Heading for Bendigo tonight, not expected to return home till Saturday. So it will be quiet here for a while. Looking to pick up some SDS Gy's tomorrow at the Hobby Shop

Cheers
Rod

2016/05/08

2016_05_08 (con) a few hours later!

2016_05_08  Still raining and had visitors from Corowa........

We probably solved the back scene problem?  Goes a bit like this  (Read the instructions)   :D
I think I share a problem with most people. How many of us read the small print?

The instructions say spray or brush the adhesive on, but further down (the part we obviously did not read) it adds a few extra important bits, that may have caused all the problems.

The spray adhesive we first used, was a commercial product for trades folk and the instructions were minimal. However the craft shop adhesive (which we did not use actually explained how to use it properly.
The same with Elmers glue.


This can of craft adhesive says clearly that you can have temporary bonds and permanent bonds.


This one the 3M pro product says apply whilst tacky, which we did.


Elmer's Glue says the same as the craft adhesive coat both surfaces for permanent fix, or one side for temporary fix.

It seems to me that Terry and Al may have solved our problem.
What do you think Graeme?
Cheers
Rod

2016_05_08 iIt rains, in fact its pouring.

2016_05_08 Humidity 54% inside 13C outside 14C

And I am walking away from this for a while. Going to concentrate on laying track. It has beaten me for now.


Its very damp outside. I sealed up all the aircon vents and closed all the windows, and when I looked in this morning, it did not seem too bad. However close inspection showed that ......



Nothing has changed.....

Only thing I can do now, is find out if a water proofing treatment for paper is available.....
or how much it would cost to copy the scenes onto adhesive backed vinyl? or even a thicker paper?
This stuff might work all right in a house or perhaps even in England, but its a real handful in a shed.
My friend Colin in NSW cut the 5 foot lengths into halves and used a smaller height sheet, and did not have these problems.
...................   But its time to change directions for a while and finish off the bench work and start laying track. :)
Cheers
Rod

2016/05/07

2016_05_07 The battle heats up!

2016_05_07  The war cabinet has planned the battle, and the troops have been sent in.....

The first sortie at 1030 am was delayed by bulging in the landscape which was to be suspected.


And so the heavy guns were brought in to soften up the battle field


The hand held heat gun was used to counter spot incursions and the 200 watt heated artillery was brought to bear to soften things up.


And wasnt too long before the countryside was pacified and the battle of the bulge was called a Victory.  The troops mopped up and fixed the edges back down using Elmer once again. The heat gun sorted out a few local problems along the way.



Unfortunately the camera was not used to record the pacification treatment, when we sprayed the battle ground with clear matt  to fix the scene and allow the Army to move on.


The damage was well contained, just a slight gap here (behind the silos)


After the clear sealer was applied the heater was again used to make sure the spray did not alter the shape of the paper before drying and sealing.


And as I write the heat is kept up to make sure it is thoroughly pacified.


oops Elmer has let go a little on the edges. The hand held heat gun seems to fix that problem.
As the Army march off for a victory drink at the wet canteen, we can only wait to see what happens overnight. It has to be that the paper is absorbing moisture. Humidity has been mid range for a few weeks. Will the land remain pacified? We will have to wait and see :D
This is battle group Charlie Tango 345 signing out!
Cheers
Rod Young 

2016/05/06

2016_05_06 Life gets in the way.

2016_05_06 Trying to update some temporary wiring....

In between household chores, doctors appointments and other distractions.
Got screamed at by the Dietician (Hi Janet :)
And they are still trying to get me to eat like a Rabbit :(
Today I picked up a nice little laptop for the shed (JMRI etc) which will hopefully help lighten the load where my Medion note pad is so damn slow.

As well I got this...


Supposed to be safe on photographs and paper? Not supposed to yellow and allows the painted surface to be wiped with a damp cloth.


No changes out here though! At 8.30am on the 5th May.


 at midday!


and at about 4.00pm

Cheers
Rod

2016/05/03

2016_05_03 Day 3 evening news

2016_05_03 Day 3.... continues
Spent the day in Albury attending Eye specialist. Had to have an injection to control macular degeneration of one eye. Felt like crap rest of day. But spent some time tonight playing with background sheets.
This is what I found..


Slightly lifted on edges, however it was almost smooth, the wrinkles were almost completely gone.
Temperature had been about 16C most of day, but wind chill was gone. Its about 14C now..


I should beable to glue down the edges ok


What small defects I did find, simply rolled out with this paint roller!


I am thinking I might spray over the top with satin clear and see if I can seal it and stop the wrinkles reappearing. This is confounding and completely unexpected.
Going to be interesting to see it in the morning...Day 4
Cheers
Rod

2016_05_03 Day 3 of...

2016_05_03 At about 8 am

Its alive ;)
it moved a little over night once again. As others are suggesting is it a matter of the plaster wall and paper moving at different speeds? That is temperature in shed drops to about 5 C during night, and rises to about 20C during day.
Thanks for the suggestions in comments people.


cheers
Rod

2016/05/02

2016_05_02 (continues)

2016_05_02  After staring at it all day,
 I decided to risk pulling it off wall. The latex glue was holding it firmly, but it allowed me to remove a third of the sheet, and probably I could have removed the whole sheet.
The result was that I got the sheet to sit down again.  Did not continue, because it is a two person job to get it back up properly, I think.


Seems it might be fixable, which is good news.
Wonder if the latex should be let sit a while, before fixing the paper on the wall. It appeared to go back on well, without extra glue.
Cheers
Rod

2016_05_02 :(

 2016_05_02 So do I dare look at the "back sheets" ?
Visited this layout a couple years ago, with Graeme Schultz and it was another inspiration for me.

This site is well worth a visit.

The battle to fix up another wall continues:

The night was cold and I wonder if that has anything to do with this fiasco. But this is what I found this morning.

First look, not so bad, just the ends and join slightly lifted.

But when you get closer!   The flash on camera shows another failure :(




When we left it yesterday, it was flat and fixed. I hate to blame the product, but we have tried many different ways to glue this down, and we have failed to get it on the wall. Over $200 invested thus far.
The instructions are clear.  We followed them, and then we modified them, Now I think it might be time to cut our losses and move on.

So is that what I do next?

Cheers
Rod