Jimbo's layout

[cteno4]

Hey good start Jimbo! Soldering like that is practice, practice, practice! 
 

always best to pre tin (solder) each piece so joining them is just a quick melt of both sides and fusion. Much better control of where the solder goes than trying to solder the joint all at once. Most all the time one of the sides of the joint behave differently on how the solder initially takes the solder on so you end up keeping it hot much longer trying to get both happy at once
 

one trick to hold wires next to pieces is to tape a piece of blue painters masking tape sticky side up to the bench. Then stick the parts next to each other so the solder joints are touching on the tape and then solder. The tape singes some but the painters tape adhesive doesn’t tend to melt.

 

if you want more that the two clamp fingers you can make your own easily. Just get some 14g solid core wire at home despot (or strip apart some old romex house wire if you have it) and Cut into like 6” lengths. Then you can strip a small bit of insulation off one end and solder/crimp on alligator clamps of any kind (they make some with flat jaws, small ones, big ones etc). Then take a chunk of 3/4” plywood or board and drill a grid of holes (just the size of the wire with insulation to fit snuggly into) in it going about 90% (not all the way thru) thru the board. You can then stick little bendable clamp fingers where you want them and use multiple ones if you need to support thing better. If you can’t get the drill size to make the wire fit snuggly you can try some heat shrink on the wire insulation to find a snug combo.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

lol I hate painting track!!   I have a airbrush, The compressor drives the dogs nuts,, so been doing it by hand yes with a brush, 

[Jimbo]

some more work done today,, plus Tomix corner stores.. an my MicroAce that didn't like to run but now does well on the outer circuit ?? an two new wagons for my rock train,,

[Jimbo]

couple of new buildings, an lighted now, I need to figure out something for sidewalks??   I know I made some mistakes,, stations not on the main line an such, after watching enough vids,, I knew I was wrong, ,oh well,,, thanks

[cteno4]

020 or 040 styrene works well for sidewalks, you can get fancy and score some paving lines into it if you want to. The craft 1mm “fun foam” also works pretty well and is easy to cut with scissors, but you can’t really score pavement lines into it but you can paint it with craft acrylics and press down on it a little later and create cracks in your sidewalks!
 

no worries Jimbo there’s a prototype for everything in japan somewhere!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

21 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

020 or 040 styrene works well for sidewalks, you can get fancy and score some paving lines into it if you want to. The craft 1mm “fun foam” also works pretty well and is easy to cut with scissors, but you can’t really score pavement lines into it but you can paint it with craft acrylics and press down on it a little later and create cracks in your sidewalks!
 

no worries Jimbo there’s a prototype for everything in japan somewhere!

 

cheers

 

jeff

I got thinking out side the box an just laid down a paint stir stick,,, you know its about the right width an thickness?? fairly easy to cut an shape hum ?? 

[cteno4]

Curbs are usually 4-6” 8 or 10” are super high ones. 6” scale is 1mm.

 

sidewalks are one of those odd scenery things at times you have to fudge a bit as we are use to looking at them pretty close in and like 50’ away max, that’s what’s in our memory. But on a layout you are looking at things like 300’ plus away in most cases and 1mm at 2 or 3 feet away kind of disappears in the vertical. Some exaggerate the height to make it look better but then figures near the curb can have the sidewalk be a jump to get up. Coloring the sidewalk a different color from the road helps then doing the curb edge a tad darker to give some shading contrast can help a prototype 1mm high sidewalk look a bit taller.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

Jeff the stir stick wont work lol it makes it about a two foot drop to the building in scale,,   But the width is good an just what I was looking for,,   So I will check out your suggestion an go from there, Thanks

[cteno4]

if you have a local craft store try the 1mm fun foam cheap and easily cut.

 

pm me your mailing address and i can pop some in an envelope to you to play with.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

tried to install the yellow lines on the platform,, didn't look right, didn't work out so just painted the edges yellow, not correct but what the heck,, waiting on the lights,, some pics latter,,

[Cat]

'Close enough' gets model railroads up and running, and that is a very good thing.

[Jimbo]

[Jimbo]

i like to experiment with different track also

[Jimbo]

station has light now!!  its kind of bright but?????    I also had this street scene show up over the weekend,,  not sure if I want it where it sits now or someplace else?? I'm re doing one station for one of the EMUs new lights an some paint Thanks I forgot  Im using led strips,, the station has 4, 6 inch long ones,,they are pre wired  an the wire gage is something I can work with my hands an fingers are not so good now  so it helps me out  a lot!!

Edited April 7, 2020 by Jimbo
didnt finish

[cteno4]

Jim

 

if you want you can replace the resistors on the strips with higher value  ones to dim the lights or even use little SMD variable pots to trim them. Let me know if you want me to get you want to order for resistors or pots, they are pretty cheap, just a wait to get them.

 

but is a little fiddly soldering as they are SMD leds, but some practice and gets easy. You probably have a lot of led strips to practice on.

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

thanks Jeff the seller I got the light strips from has dimmers an such,, I guess what  he's said he makes all the light set ups he sells??  Ill keep you posted ha I may have just over thought how much light I wanted??   The station I'm re doing I'm going to use a different approach  only two lights in it!! an see what kind of effect that has??  wont know until I try right!!

[cteno4]

Doh! thats a good way, they have some little strip Pwm dimmers that are just a couple of bucks on ebay.

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

jeff I finished the other station re do, I know stations should be bright but ha!  I guess I need to get the dimmers!!

[cteno4]

Jimbo, 

 

im a huge fan of dimming leds for the layout. They are just way too intensely bright and glow like mini suns. My motto is more dimmer to be more realistic. Structures rarely have all rooms lit up so better to wall the structure off into a few areas internally and dimly light them and leaves one dark room(s) with just a little light leaking in (like an internal door is open to a lit room.) I mainly use little variable resistors to set led lighting as once in place with other structures around it you may want to change one and it’s a lot easier to turn a pot that replace a soldered in fixed resistor.

 

when I was young I did a lot of exhibit models that we would light and do photo shoots on (folks would look at the pictures and swear it was real place!) and a couple of times we had professional lighting folks come in to help with the shoots. They were amazing and small tweaks in the amount of light here or there or adding some shadowed areas (they would make these kookalorises out of ripped up tissue held in place by wire and tape to throw random and diffuse shadows areas) and the world would totally change thru the lens. Taught me to think subtle with lighting and play with it and not just stick a grain of wheat bulb in a building as I did as a kid (at least then I drove all the lights off the dc of an old power pack so I could set the overall level of structure lighting!)
 

My ultimate goal is to write a little arduino program for one of the $1 arduino boards to randomly turn on and off 3 or 4 leds so structures could come a live with some lights turning on and off again! Some buildings can get special routines to fit their occupants. Another is using one of those votive candle leds in a room with some bluish covering to mimic a TV set playing in a dark room.

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

just some random pics re done some track, changed this an that, couple of new buildings, a couple of new locomotives, an wagons, more trees lol

[Jimbo]

ive tried something different saw these un manned  stations an got to thinking!! they look good,  So ive been changing some thinks around, an so far its to my liking, oh yes those are real rocks you see!!