Harumi Cement

[cteno4]

Charles,

 

hey great to see the project is still humming along! the bridge looks nice! have you been following the threads with discussions on the silhouette cutter? might be a toy to do some of the detail work for the bridge cross pieces and such. folks have made some very nice X bracing from card stock and thin styrene from it.

 

Ha did you faint when you opened the water bus and saw the something like 138 masks to apply to all the windows to paint the mullions?! it is daunting! i tried to do one with paint on masking material and cut out the window shape and it did not work so well. But the new idea that just came back to me now that we had talked about at the time the bus came out is to use the silhouette to cut those masks out! the cool thing the cutter has is the ability to take an image in the software, autotrace it and create the cut layer for it. then just cut it out of the supplied tamya masking sheet or theres lots of vinyl sheet material out there for doing just this thing! Ill be setting mine up this weekend and can see if it can cut tiny enough to do this!

 

yeah i think i have another hobie in me. the other one was fun to build and now know how to make them... hardest thing is getting the sail printed on two sides and lined up! maybe ill try doing a transparent sail. can the hobie get into the scene past the bridges?

 

jeff

[velotrain]

Hi Jeff -  Well, hardly humming, but not dormant either.  My current priority is to build my tram terminal module and an interim downtown module for the East Penn meet.  Last night I took the woodshop test at Artisan's Asylum - http://artisansasylum.com/ - bought a 5-day pass, and plan to build the module frames there early next week.  I'll be using a Homasote top to reduce vibration noise, and adding removable 18" legs to the corners, as I don't like looking down on trains - especially tiny ones.  This will give a ~4' track height when mounted on the 30" high standard convention tables, with possible future height variations.

 

I have all the track, and roadbed for the flex sections.  What I've been procrastinating is painting and building the structures for the terminal - I want to paint them all the same colors to give a company look.  The downtown module will likely be typical Japanese-style temporary set-up for now, although there is a complex 3-way junction on it just outside the terminal throat.  I'll probably solder that up to provide more continuous track current.  The terminal is all Tomix, and flex for the straights, while downtown will largely be Unitram for now, with a lot of Tomix in the junction.

 

I think I'm in a bridge funk.  Keitaro had mentioned he liked the Inuyama bridge when it was road-rail, and after looking at a bunch of photos I'm gotten interested also.  I've just ordered three of the Tomix long truss bridges in the pale green as a start - I really wish they were kits instead of RTR so I wouldn't have to cut them up.  The biggest issue will be how and how much to widen it.

 

I haven't opened the water bus box yet, as I already have more than enough distractions.  As Oscar Wilde said, "I can resist anything except temptation" - which is also why I've stayed away from the silhouette cutter.   That, and not wishing to learn any new software.  Although - the last time I did that may well have been COBOL / JCL.  ;-)

[cteno4]

Great, sounds like you have a good path here! 

 

The silhouette cutter looks to be perfect to make something like a custom bridge like this! 

 

yes i know the problem of too many disractions. I am hoping the silhouette is something that can be a great source of making a lot of things possible and easier! hopefully cutting the masks will work, that will make painting those window mullions much much easier!

 

software on the silhouette is pretty simple and easy to use 2D cad. its designed for scrapbookers so its not a hacker head stuff! This is why im so excited bout it as it seems a great combo of price, features, software, quality, versatility, etc for doing a lot of custom projects!

 

cheers

 

jeff