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ok here is a video of the little dealextreme.com turbine i got. took the video sideways to keep the wind mill maxed in the frame. spins well in good light, but not much inside at all unless you put it right under and incandescent desk lamp, so that part is not much use! comes in a nice cardboard case with foam inserts like a japanese train!

 

 

picture below is the dealextreme one and the faller/model power side by side. its a bit beefier and a bit larger radius than the faller/model power model and the blades are much thicker. motor is in the turbine housing so a bit bigger housing than the faller/model power where the motor is under the foundation and driven thru a drive shaft up the support column.

 

its back in stock for $19.70 with free shipping at dealextreme.com

 

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/plastic-solar-power-windmills-52725

 

they also have a smaller one

 

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/plastic-solar-power-windmills-53317

 

i have one of the faller and two of the model power kits (they are the same kits except for packaging) so someday want to do a little wind farm.

 

would be fun to make some humpback whale fluke blades which are due to be the new rage in prop design for wind turbines as they have less drag and better air flow and better at low speeds. rough leading edge may look counter intuitive, but work!

 

cheers

 

jeff

post-25-13569928067694_thumb.jpg

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Nice! Height wise, they look very close. I'm sorely tempted to get some, but I don't think I'd have layout space for them...

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im looking at a sort of mountain against the wall on one end of my planned layout with shinkansen tunnels going in and out of it. then maybe 3 of the turbines on the ridge line in the back, bit of forced perspective.

 

cheers

 

jeff

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i think aaron actually had a 12v solar panel that he had from his days with bp solar that he was talking about doing something like this!

 

would not take a lot of power for most model rr layouts! room lighting would take up more amps than the trains.

 

ill work on picts tonight.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

Local Electric company is coming to our club to talk solar. Imagine that, our club will be feeding the city. I know long time to break even but, we don't use hot water so it's the AC that's eating the energy. Maybe I'll convert my hybrid to a plugin. LOL.

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Doh! i had the idea of having a wind turbine under construction as im always trying to come up with ideas to use all the cool tomytec cranes, but this is cool addition as i didnt think about having some blades delivered by truck somewhere else! there is the set of special load trucks (the one with the pipe and separate rear bogies comes to mind) which would be perfect! the truck can be off a ways coming to the site and tying together two different scenes!

 

awesome sauce, thanks!

 

jeff

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actually i will just use the blades from one of the models. maybe one blade mounted on one under construction and the other being lifted by a crane then the last on the truck on delivery. wasnt thinking of a convoy! the blades are pretty big and a bit different shaped than most model plane blades ive seen, but being stretched out and covered some on a transport you probably would never tell the difference. you could also make one easily from some 040 styrene cut to shape then twisted under some heat and then shaped. again if you had a few tarps over some sections it would never be noticeable. the big thing is will any of the crane extension be large enough. i think the large crane in the last kato batch will probably do it, should dig one out and make sure of the vertical reach.

 

jeff

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actually i will just use the blades from one of the models. maybe one blade mounted on one under construction and the other being lifted by a crane then the last on the truck on delivery. wasnt thinking of a convoy! the blades are pretty big and a bit different shaped than most model plane blades ive seen, but being stretched out and covered some on a transport you probably would never tell the difference. you could also make one easily from some 040 styrene cut to shape then twisted under some heat and then shaped. again if you had a few tarps over some sections it would never be noticeable. the big thing is will any of the crane extension be large enough. i think the large crane in the last kato batch will probably do it, should dig one out and make sure of the vertical reach.

 

jeff

 

Good suggestions! I was thinking of using medium size crane but large one will do it better.

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just noticed that the solar wind turbines are no longer on the dealextreme site. but did run across this model

 

http://www.kidwind.org/xcart/product.php?productid=112

 

does not run, but could probably be easily powered with a shaft and gears with a motor in the foundation.

 

not bad for $20 shipped

 

its about the size of a 0.75mw unit.

 

tomytec is a bit of an ouch at $34 but is powered, but is smaller at about 10" in dia.

 

jeff

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