You gotta love a southpaw!
Watching with interest.
For the light house you could use one of these;
Red Circular Electronic LED Flash Circuit Light DIY Kit 12Pcs Production | eBay
Just swap the red LEDs for white ones
GAP,
This would’ve saved us a bit of money! We had already ordered the rotating solar powered one Eric Schade pointed out, though, so I’ll pocket this idea for some other project.
Eric
Eric Mueller said:
GAP,
This would’ve saved us a bit of money! We had already ordered the rotating solar powered one Eric Schade pointed out, though, so I’ll pocket this idea for some other project.
Eric
Saving money is my main focus in this hobby, like you I have limited funds and resources (no Local Hobby Shop) so everything has to be done online with the inherent postage charge.
An example of what I face is I contacted Bachmann about the postage rates for $3.00 worth of screws (10) and was told that the $21.60 was the best they could do as they do not set the rate the freight company does. No wonder people look to China with their free postage for options.
When I walk through shops I look at things through my “how can I make that fit the railway?” eyes, probably similar thinking to the person Mik whom the challenge is named after.
I have no idea who he was or his history but obviously he was an inspiration to many modelers here.
I look forward to seeing the results of the challenge and who knows I may even enter it one day in the future.
Hope the solar one works out! Looks like a good time is bei g had by all.
@GAP and Eric: Thanks to you both! Part of the fun of this project is the matching of materials, skills, budget, and vision to Dave’s theme. Everyone on this site is up against a different level of constraints within their self-defined goals, and it really is cool to see how they actualize the project in a way that fits their world! I hate mail order, as I get raked over the coals, but sometimes it just makes sense. This purchase, even if it fails open, will look good, and it will let me steer folks to what they most enjoy, which is making it looks like it belongs on the Triple O! The crew actually look forward to this competition every year. Let the good times roll while they may!
Meanwhile, as I sit philosophizing, I thought I should show some progress! The boys and Y.D. finished up the “masonry…”
…as O.D. continued to layer on the concrete patch…
We are discussing how she wants to finish this, to include a final layer with scribed stonework or painted stonework. Her call. She is old enough, however, I can send her to the hardware store for supplies. $6 more into our budget, as she came home with more patch! Yesterday, I actually heard her say with some pride that it is starting to look right.
Y.D. and Kid-zilla, meanwhile, added the first coat of paint to the light tower:
I gave it another coat today. It is a real challenge to get paint into all the interstices. I am not sure how to handle that, to be honest, as I doubt a wash would do more than just puddle at the base. I added a second coat today, and I fixed much of it with the “jam the brush in the hole method.”
I also spent $3 on Friday for some strip styrene for the window and door frames. Usually, we use craftsticks. I really liked the ease of styrene, however, during the construction of our sugar mill, so I decided to experiment a bit more. The project is a family affair, but I do use it for personal learning! The boys and I undertook some scribing and snapping (Kid-zilla insisted upon snapping!" to make the parts for two doors and five windows, all cleverly traced to the outline of a gift card:
Pete Lassen had sent us some clear plastic with a “CARE Package” last summer, which will be our “glass.” The original plan was to have the girls paint on curtains, cats, whatever, then paint the back black. I forgot the original plan, went straight to the Spray Coconut Tree, and painted the plastic back:
The girls will now paint curtains, cats, whatever on this, which will be affixed to the clear plastic glued to the actual frame. Speaking of frame, we had the devil to glue styrene to this stuff, ultimately using CA. Naturally, the tube burst on my hands. I even tried to get fancy with mullions. The result of the first window is here:
The keeper’s house will get five, one on each face. There will be a door at the base, of course, and one near the top. The latter will allow access to a platform from which the keeper can climb up and service the light. That is, of course, if I can figure out how to make that platform!
I went diving, we all went to the beach, and, of course, we had some other chores around the house, but I think the last few days have kept us on track! For reasons not clear, “But first the Mik!” does not get me out of those chores!
Happy Building!
Eric
@GAP and Eric: Thanks to you both! Part of the fun of this project is the matching of materials, skills, budget, and vision to Dave’s theme. Everyone on this site is up against a different level of constraints within their self-defined goals, and it really is cool to see how they actualize the project in a way that fits their world! I hate mail order, as I get raked over the coals, but sometimes it just makes sense. This purchase, even if it fails open, will look good, and it will let me steer folks to what they most enjoy, which is making it looks like it belongs on the Triple O! The crew actually look forward to this competition every year. Let the good times roll while they may!
Meanwhile, as I sit philosophizing, I thought I should show some progress! The boys and Y.D. finished up the “masonry…”
…as O.D. continued to layer on the concrete patch…
We are discussing how she wants to finish this, to include a final layer with scribed stonework or painted stonework. Her call. She is old enough, however, I can send her to the hardware store for supplies. $6 more into our budget, as she came home with more patch! Yesterday, I actually heard her say with some pride that it is starting to look right.
Y.D. and Kid-zilla, meanwhile, added the first coat of paint to the light tower:
I gave it another coat today. It is a real challenge to get paint into all the interstices. I am not sure how to handle that, to be honest, as I doubt a wash would do more than just puddle at the base. I added a second coat today, and I fixed much of it with the “jam the brush in the hole method.”
I also spent $3 on Friday for some strip styrene for the window and door frames. Usually, we use craftsticks. I really liked the ease of styrene, however, during the construction of our sugar mill, so I decided to experiment a bit more. The project is a family affair, but I do use it for personal learning! The boys and I undertook some scribing and snapping (Kid-zilla insisted upon snapping!" to make the parts for two doors and five windows, all cleverly traced to the outline of a gift card:
Pete Lassen had sent us some clear plastic with a “CARE Package” last summer, which will be our “glass.” The original plan was to have the girls paint on curtains, cats, whatever, then paint the back black. I forgot the original plan, went straight to the Spray Coconut Tree, and painted the plastic back:
The girls will now paint curtains, cats, whatever on this, which will be affixed to the clear plastic glued to the actual frame. Speaking of frame, we had the devil to glue styrene to this stuff, ultimately using CA. Naturally, the tube burst on my hands. I even tried to get fancy with mullions. The result of the first window is here:
The keeper’s house will get five, one on each face. There will be a door at the base, of course, and one near the top. The latter will allow access to a platform from which the keeper can climb up and service the light. That is, of course, if I can figure out how to make that platform!
I went diving, we all went to the beach, and, of course, we had some other chores around the house, but I think the last few days have kept us on track! For reasons not clear, “But first the Mik!” does not get me out of those chores!
Happy Building!
Eric
well…I also managed to (briefly) glue my fingers together today…
That is coming along well. I love the use of foam trays yet again this year. That really is clever and seeing it done it makes for great stone work. And could easily be scribed for brick.
The crew is doing a fine job on the lighthouse. Can’t wait to see it light up.
Good to know the plastic is being used on this project.I’m very impressed at how well this family is building and the skill levels of everyone is improving every day. Cannot wait to see a nighttime video of the lighthouse warning ships approaching the railroad! If I was the age of your crew and my brothers were , dad would be cleaning up from arguments and wrestling over design and who does what!
@Tim: The entire right side of my hand was encrusted with CA glue. I have a love / hate relationship with the stuff. If I get it in a bottle, it tends to dry up before I use it up. If I get it in the squeeze tubes, it tends to blow up. Sometimes, though, even the “second best glue for everything,” E6000, just won’t do.
@Devon: Thank you. All credit to Jack Verducci and his book for the idea!
@Pete: Nothing on the Triple O goes to waste! It only awaits a project. Like GAP and Tim have said, it is expensive being on the far end of the supply chain! Bill Barnwell and a few others here have been really key in learning to see projects in “junk.” The key to cooperation seems to be to find elements of the project to which each crew member naturally gravitates. I also try to make sure they can each see their contribution in the final product. It’s a balancing act that is not always successful.
All that being said, the second weekend came to an end with the main construction done! Yay! O.D. polished off the keeper’s house:
…while O.S. took a crack at the doors for the keeper’s house and access to the light:
We switched to contact cement for the mullions which worked better, even if it is a bit messier. Oh, and it was in the 60-s today, which, for the crew, is Arctic conditions! I polished off the windows. I used a stationery cutter - the type that moves left to right - to make 1/8" styrene strips for the mullions. We acquired guillotine style cutter late last year, and I used that to cut the panes. Man, did that make things easy! I still had to dress things up despite my use of a pattern and jig. Still, doors and windows are ready for finishing and placement. The end of the second weekend finds us here:
Goals for the week:
- Cut the blackened window backing for the girls to decorate and affix it to the back of the windows.
- Frame to doors and dress up the edges of their windows.
- Mask the tower and paint a spiraling blue stripe…
- Deck the roof of the keeper’s house.
- Mount the windows and doors.
- Decide how to simulate masonry on the keeper’s house. Scribe another layer of patch? Or paint on the stones?
- Figure out how to make that platform for the keeper to maintain the light. I had originally planned to glue a plastic sheet between the two topmost cans to serve as a base for the decking. Guess I forgot that. We are weighing an external frame, especially since we had considered external buttressing to begin with. Heaven help us, as this may require me to do battle with Sabre Saw!
Have a Great Week & Happy Building!
Eric
The light house is coming along and the team looks to be working well together. Keep up the good work.
I am pleased to report we made progress towards most of the week’s goals. Yesterday, I masked and hand painted the spiraling blue stripe up the tower:
Not perfect, but Kid-zilla approved when he saw it this morning! He and I also needed to address the hollow bit between the tower and the wooden strips that will represent our roof endbeams. I had thought of laying additional strips of wood across and then planking over the roof, but that would’ve left space for water - and mosquito larvae - to accumulate. Instead, Kid-zilla and I traced, cut, and fit a piece of foam into that space and learned how quickly styrene cement eats foam:
O.S., who had been finishing the door last night, got a quick lecture about properly closing bottles!
We paused for a few hours to visit family on the Waianae coast. You can still see OR&L tracks poke through in places, as the last of the right of way remained in operation into the '70-s as a Navy line connecting Pearl Harbor to the Lualualei weapons dump. Up to the end in 1947, Mikados pulling sugar to the docks dominated the line. This is a view west, about 50 yards seaward of the right of way.
Beyond the moron (me) trying to fly a kite is Makaha. Trains proceeded past for a while before conducting a hairpin on the western tip of the island, Kaeana, and heading for plantations on the North Shore. Waianae had a 30" gauge plantation system, making it the only cane operation along the OR&L right of way that could not directly interface with the 36" gauge OR&L. In the “grand do over,” I think I would’ve based our layout on this plantation, due to its small size and relatively easy to emulate terrain.
Back to the build…We got home and puttered along in fits and starts. O.D. took a hot knife to our foam filler on the keeper’s house…
…while I cleared our work area and puttered with our doors and windows. Y.D. was hard at work painting the windows to give the house an “interior.” Then, O.D. and I turned to her special wish for the project, external buttresses. I had stripped 1/2" x 1/2" lumber last summer for our work train project. We cut them to size, and O.D. and Kid-zilla took turns placing and evaluating them.
To better secure the buttresses in place, we pounded small nails into their feet, then pressed the heads into the foam core. We loaded it down with TiteBond III after that and, to make it all fast, set a plastic can over the peak:
We may make a simulated iron band around the top of the buttresses just to keep things all together and to hide the fact they do not embed into the “stones.” The lighthouse topper should arrive this week, which will inform us how to proceed for the topmost deck which will set atop the cans and buttress.
After some discussion, we agreed to paint the keeper’s house white and call it “stucco” rather than try to simulate stonework. I tried my hand at masking the windows to allow us to paint the frames blue like the tower stripe. I have construction cement and white silicon in the shed, which will allow us to affix the door and windows and seal any gaps between the frames and the concrete patch. The deck will be made from craft sticks. I bought for cotter pins ($6; I am at about $20 now against the budget, not including shipping) to make a safety railing on the deck. We are going to leave the wood in its natural color, though I plan to coat it in TiteBond III to seal it. That is an easy and great trick I learned from somebody on this site!
We have entered that phase of the project where the excitement of a new Mik has worn off and the panic of the end of the contest has not settled in. I am going to lose a week for work, so I am trying to knock out the tedious stuff (window frames, masking, measuring, etc.) to encourage the crew to work on the creative stuff. It’s all part of the game!
More to follow as progress dictates!
Eric
Looking Good…This does start the “Dooldrum Week” of the build…
Looks like you guys are having fun as well as making great progress!
it just keeps getting better with every update! great progress Eric , D’s and S’s!!!
Thanks, everyone, for the kind words!
We finished the weekend a bit behind. I’d hoped to have the doors and windows mounted, but I didn’t have the right spray paints. I sent O.D. off on a mission, only to find out later they won’t sell spray paint to minors. Oops… I owe her and her girlfriends a frup-a-loopa-mocha for that one. In the meantime, the promise of getting messy brought out Y.D., Kid-zilla, and “Flat Neighbor” to paint the keeper’s house:
“Flat Neighbor” gets to spend a week with Kid-zilla. Then he goes home with a photo album where Kid-zilla’s very 3D buddy will convert it all into a storybook.
We let this dry over lunch, then I asked who wanted to carefully measure and cut craft sticks to deck the roof? Suddenly, I felt like I was single again. In the end, Kid-zilla came out, we fired up the railroad, and I set to work. After experimenting with a couple different layouts, I decided on the pattern below, cutting “boards” to minimize waste:
Given more time and more room in the budget to account for mistakes, I might have tried to cut the appropriate angles to make each side align with face of the keeper’s house. I did finish covering the roof after nightfall. As the week goes on, I’ll make small frames around the buttresses to hide the gap and do something similar where the tower comes out of the keeper’s house. There is also some Dremel work ahead to make the boards flush with the walls and to tap holes for the cotter pins that will hold the safety chain. Oh, and I have to make a hatch for roof access.
Kid-zilla had no interest in this part of the project, which, frankly, was probably just as well. He wanted to make a garden railroad inside today with fake plants, but couldn’t find a sister to make fake plants for him. Instead, he dragged the box-o’-tracks outside, and had at it:
I had to help him with the shape at one point, but, other than that, this was his railroad. I was especially impressed that he thought to bridge a small divot in the yard, thoughtfully running power chord to the Triple O underneath:
Pretty sophisticated civil engineering for a guy not quite five! The little guy even remembered he’d have to run battery power on this one! The force is strong with this one. Good…Goooooood…We’ll let this field railway stand for a couple days.
That’s it for now! Have a great week!
Eric
Quick update…
I finished the deck on the keeper’s house, the girls finished the window “backers,” and all the frames are in paint. I drilled holes and inserted the cotter pins that’ll serve as the safety barrier on the roof of the keeper’s house, and I made a little hatch so the keeper can get in and out. The lighthouse topper came yesterday. It is very cool. Thank you Eric S. for the tip! O.D. and I think we have a way to mount it. I am going to sleep on it.
We are theoretically at final assembly, sealing, weathering, and placing. All would be well, but a renovation of a quarter of the house (naturally, the quarter where the girls live) begins on Monday, I have a serious work obligation beginning Sunday that will last through next weekend, and CINCHOUSE has laid out a few non-Mik activities! We’ll be beating hard into the wind to get this one done on time!
I am really, really enjoying the builds this year. It has been amazing the amount of creativity a simple object unlocked. Even more impressive were the variety of methods folks either celebrated the can or meshed its seamlessly in their 7/8, Fn2, F, G, 1:20.3, 1:24, 1:29, 1:32 (am I missing any?) worlds! Anyway, I want to extend an early thanks to Dave T. for hosting again this year!
Eric