For our next operation session I’d like to contribute a few waggons of my own. In that way I will stick to my intentions, that is to focus on a complete train for the time being.
One better starts small. That’s why I’ve picked the construction of freight waggons, precisely: flatcars. The reasons are natural: most US freight waggons based on flatcars or were closely related to them. Furthermore they make the easiest waggons to model, apart from disconnects and skeletons.
Finishing the covering was another milestone for me and I was very confident that the maiden flight would turn out just fine.
Then the first complete assembly came along and with it some new challenges. Namely undercarriage and center of gravity.
Since my porter is serving as a working horse in the vicinity of a logging railroad, she’s burning wood, as one might tell by her tender. The original smokestack has only got a small diamond spark arrestor which doesn’t really fit to a wood burning loco.
Alright, you got me: I’m talking about more than just aerial photography, but about footage made from the ground, too. But first things first.
As I’ve already outlined, I’m an active R/C pilot again since august 2018 and I’ve started to scratch-build a biplane in 2019, too. I ‘ve managed to post about the latter over the last few months and I do hope that some readers had fun reading those posts and maybe could even learn something useful from it.
However, the flying season is about to kick off in earnest. Of course, I want to fly and at the latest after the biplane is finished, I (hopefully!) won’t spend much time in the workshop. So what to post about here?
It’s Gerd’s fault, again! 😉 Not long ago, he posted a beautiful video on one of his operation sessions in time lapse:
What excited me particularly was the use of a chain for shunting, at 0:38 and 5:18. So when a rainy afternoon forced me to stay in the work shop, I couldn’t resist. Within a few minutes a mini layout was patched together from snap track.
What ensued were three hour’s worth of pure shunting enjoyment. And yet another proof that fantasy and some improvasation can make up for a whole layout.
After the details are finished I can finally focus on the covering. Some model builders seem to regard covering as an irksome work and necesarry evil, but I actually enjoy it. To me it’s like a metamorphosis: the bare framing of the aicraft, as pretty as it is, equals a caterpillar, which is yet to become a butterfly.
Nonetheless it’s a lot of work all the more if one wants to get a creases-free result. In the process, I didn’t manage to take a lot of pictures, but I’d like to give an example and point out some crucial points.
By finishing the linkage the out-fitting has come to and end an I can take care of the last details. Those cover two areas: the fuselage and the wings.
The fuselage needs a couple of maintenance hatches in order to easily gain access to the drive unit, and the tailplane’s servos and fixture. The fuselages’ belly needs to get reinforced, too. And last but not least I’d like to add some details to the nose.
The wings need an additional strutting in order to stabilize the lower wings. And it will surely add to the good looks.
Due to well-known reasons I’ve been in home office for a couple of weeks. And since mixing private life and work is downright unhealthy, some office space had to be found in the workshop. That was the trigger to finally create some more storage area.
The most importent requirement which has to be met is a full metre of board-width in order to store raw materiels for modeling. Additionally, the lowest compartment is supposed to accomodate two pedestals which really come in handy while working but tend to be in the way in the meantime.
As I’ve already described, I’d like to build a consistent set of waggons to build a short train for my porter loco. Of course, that entails waggons. Which run on bogies. Turns out, it’s not that easy to find suitable bogies for Fn3 which stay in a reasonable pricing range. So during winter 2020, I started busying myself with the construction of a bogie prototype.
A particular “thank you” goes out to Gerd, AKA “Waldbahner”, who published a nice series of posts about 5” bogies on his website. I let myself wantonly inspire by those. Extra thanks to Gerd, who kindly allowed me to use some of his pictures of his own projects. …
Model making constantly requires drilling holes that are perpendicular to the work piece’s plane. To bore at right angles by eyesight doesn’t sound too difficult, but one has to observe two right angles at the same time and that tends to be a tad difficult with just two eyes.
Salvation comes in the shape of a drill press, or for those to be short a bob or two, a drill stand which guides the power drill. Alas, most of the latter don’t have a boring table, so bigger work pieces tend to wobble and one can’t fixate them either. And just maybe one would like to use a gauge or stop in order to facilitate repeated drilling? …
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