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 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 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 (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.

Bogong & Geehi Railway

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

2016_05_01 Back sheets...holding breath ;)

2016_05_01  Revisiting an old problem and using Elmer to help?

Perfect!!      Now we hold our breath :)
Cheers
Rod

2016_04_30 playing with hide-a-ways?

2016_04_30

Just trying to see how to preserve the branchline appearance here. I have to hide the main line from this view. I thought a low wall would keep it hidden, and yet allow for derailments.

Curved foam board painted and temporarily held in position. That should do it :)

Added another foam board to cover the window. Paint that blue and the corner should look ok.

To be continued :D

2016_04_28 Grr Painting walls....

2016_04_28 Roll roll the paint.....  (all over the place?)

Need something to finish off the points so had no choice, but to revisit the wall.....

Wipe everything down and start moving garbage already accumulating on new benches :(
And roll it on. Hope it dries less patchy than it looks now. Might need a second coat.
Hate painting. It takes longer to clean up after than it does to apply it, doesn't it? :(

Ok its done, now some wall paper :D
Yesterday I received a heap of trackrite underlay, as well as another GM Loco This one will be renumbered 31 if I can find the decals
Cheers
Rod

2016_04_26 Point? Paint? or SAR Tarps?

2016_04_26
Still cannot find that screw driver ;)
But noticed the Branch goods waiting restoration of the points, and saw these wagons and remembered that I had a heap of GY tarps left over, so got distracted once again :(

The picture without tarp did not focus, so this will have to do. These were built by our n scale mate Rob Carpenter, and fortunately I have a lot left over. They are a little thick and too small to fit these SAR open wagons. But you can easily thin them down with a sharp modelling knife. About 10 minutes work, I think.

Carefully scrape the blade back and forwards and remove swaff  in large amounts as you go. Be careful and stop before you get too thin.

Do the same for the ends and carefully remove a little for the handbrake mechanism (behind the wheel)

You can see the improvement already

Ok that's done :)  Soldering iron should be nice and hot! Back to the points.....

Cheers
Rod

2016_04_25 Anzac Day Lest we Forget

2016_04_25  Anzac Day.
Remember Ray and Jethro and  others who died in our mine field. and many more infantry soldiers and engineers who found our mines in later years after the Viet Cong moved them

First Field Squadron RAE

my troop had the job of laying the minefield. I was relieved from arming mines, and sat down with the radio. I was making routine tests when an explosion right in front of me made me look up, and watch in horror as Jethro came apart in the air above me. Jethro survived, however others up to 20 m away didn't.. I was just 6 m away and did not receive a wound, even though my webbing was cut and my greens were holed. My ears took 30 minutes to recover. I am one lucky bastard.

Today is an emotional day. So much so, that as always on this day, I remain inside. I cant bring myself to attend the Services, i just weep there and I do it for the stupidity of the war and the stinking Politicians who cause these things without having to foot the bill, rather they take their filthy profits and leave the people they are supposed to serve, in agony and despair.


Model Railways saved me, I think :D

Up bright and early, so lets do some more painting :)

Damn paint has been sitting there for 4 days! Won't paint itself, I guess. Now where is a screw driver?

Hold on a minute. Diver of  L252 is on the radio. Almost derailed on a broken point blade!

The fireman raced up the single line and placed detonators, and stood ready to stop any trains, because J515 was only 15 minutes away off the branch.
The train was stopped in time. But an emergency call out is bringing everyone available in to fix the points.

The throw rod was found to be in a bad way when examined, and the blade was unable to be reattached.
Damn! Its a major rebuild, and the point needs to be removed. Oh well at least its not painting  :D

Cheers
Rod Young

2016_04_20 Running Session, should be painting :(

2016_04_22 Contrans in the 70's

The driver releases the brakes, pops the whistle and starts to drag the heavy load up the 1.5% grade. The train is barely moving, and the engine is already in notch 8.  The WAGR L Class just keeps slugging on till it relaxes at the top.

Soon after X32 comes out of the loop and starts its long train of wheat hoppers down the same grade.
Was busy enough today to get a few shots.
Hope you enjoy the dynamic brake screaming down the grade.

Cheers
Rod

2016_04_20 Table top training

 Check out some history 7 years ago....

2016_04_20  Two old farts trying to out cough each other :)

But despite all that we did an awesome amount of work today. And it is all square all level and firmly attached.  Which is a bit of a change for me. Usually Al is here helping me fix stuff :D

Thanks Al. we make a good team.

Some pictures are in order

Some glue and screws and form the L girders.

Add the cross pieces and screw it all together

Check the levels both ways and screw it to the wall when both edges are level.

Cut the two 5 ply sheets in half, trim a  2.4m offcut making 5 lengths, and we have a 12m by 0.6m table top!
Now this was going to be a SG storage loop. But I decided that we could put a large station in here. It should have been Albury, but Albury would require a huge space. So it will look a bit like Albury and will be sceniced more than originally planned. Albury is almost dead flat anyway :D

And I get my large SG storage sidings as well as a few BG ones to meet its dual gauge heritage.

This is a big plus, especially as we had to give up on South Grafton.  The layout just will not fit in the space we have left. The layout is much too old to modify, and is built on a huge slab of chipboard, that is so heavy.    I am hoping to build something narrower in the space left, perhaps even recover the track from S Grafton and use that if at all possible.
Cheers
Rod

2016_04_19 Influenza!

2016_04_19    not right to go :(

Got hit hard this week with the flu. Graeme turned up Saturday and applied the finishing coat of plaster to the wall.  Had no breath, and asthma type symptoms , barely had the energy to sit outside the infection zone and watch him do it. Went back to bed as soon as Graeme left.
Got up this morning feeling better and sanded down the joins, so will attempt to get the undercoat on, and prepare for Wednesday, when Al and I will finish the 12 m of bench's, and hopefully secure it all to the wall.
Might get some blue background colour on before we do that.
Wish us luck  :D

Extra finishing plaster applied, and just a light sand. All smooth to the hand anyway ;)


SEDUM

In October I was visiting Col Hussey in Sydney and  was given three Sedum cuttings which I placed in this pot.
I am wondering how large these "flowers" will grow, but they look much nicer in this size than the ones I saw at the Florist.
Of course their are thousands of varieties, and fortunately they are very hardy, attested by their growth here after being left in the boot for a week ;)

 

Cheers

Rod

EDIT

Two hours on. Managed to get undercoat on, but heavy congestion is still affecting my breathing. That's all for today