It looks like you are capturing the spirit of the Mik by making cool stuff out of ordinary items.
Keep up the good work.
Todd Haskins said:
It looks like you are capturing the spirit of the Mik by making cool stuff out of ordinary items.
Keep up the good work.
This has been fun from that aspect. The only commercially made pieces are the steam gauge robbed of something, the brake hand wheel is off a Big Hauler tender, and the Johnson Bar is of a Big Hauler. I think thats it. Everything else has been crafted from stock materiel.
For the first time I think I may come in on time. Its starting to look like a steam crane.
This is a start of the boom lifting rigging. I made two of these , they will attach to the roof mounts. The chain was a Walmart find. I found a while back that the cheap costume jewelry the sell for 5 bucks usually has a pretty nice scale chain and some of the designs come with a lot of it. Well I wandered through the beading section as I have a tendency to do and found this chain. Is like 4 feet long maybe longer and was like 3 bucks or something. I think its a pretty nice size chain.
Devon, I can’t put my finger on it, but the car the crane sits on is missing something (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)
The crane looks fantastic and the chain is spot on.
Yes, interesting you notice that Dan!!! And I cant mount the couplers or the coupler pockets until those certain missing items are installed.
If only I knew where I could drum up some trucks.
Well, I can’t help you there Devon, but for the right price, I know a guy who knows a guy who knows …(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
One last picture before bed. I painted the crane rigging with a mix of 50/50 silver and black to give a gun metal sort of color. I have always liked that color. and then attached them to the roof.
The roof sure looks glossy under the flash. It doesn’t under regular light. It is a mix of raw umber, raw sienna, and burnt umber oil paints. To me the oil add texture, this is stippled one with a sponge brush, and has a rusty, greasy, grimy sort of look. A little more sienna (well a lot more actually) will give it more of a red. Less and you get more of a grease.The paint on the rest of the cab frame is dirtied up with the same mix dabbed on the dry brushed to smear it around.
Now Devon, you can’t have an old rusty crane with brand new chains and pulleys (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)Get some rust on those things. You do a good job with your rusting techniques. Carry on.
Dan Hilyer said:
Devon, I can’t put my finger on it, but the car the crane sits on is missing something (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)
The crane looks fantastic and the chain is spot on.
Leave it to Devon to try and reinvent the wheel
Sean, thanks for that post. I needed a good laugh this morning.
Sean McGillicuddy said:
Dan Hilyer said:
Devon, I can’t put my finger on it, but the car the crane sits on is missing something (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)
The crane looks fantastic and the chain is spot on.
Leave it to Devon to try and reinvent the wheel
Sean,
If you only knew. A little teaser since we are getting close and we are already kinda letting the cat out of the bag. I have been keeping an ace in the hole on this project. The trucks are definitely a case of reinventing the wheel, more or less. I have been working with Dan on a secret 3D printing project for this build and all the other cars in this consist. I have already made the prototype, and believe I have what will work. And Dan has designed them and printed them for me and they are in the mail. What I am after is a functional wood bolster archbar truck. I found these prototype pictures on Cumberland’s website
and really liked the idea. So I came up with my own that I was going to make from Bachmann arch bar side frames. With much bashing on the side frame removing all the bolster detail this is what I came up with
I am using springs from ball point pins. While I am not sold on the NEED for actual working sprung trucks, I don’t think anything looks better. Sure I could just glue it all up and not have it operation and it would look the same, but when do I ever do anything easy and without overthinking it. So this prototype is a working model. Some how I got Dan involved and he is printing me a side frame that is a little better suited for this task and saves me having to bash the bachmann frames. I think when said and done this will really be sharp looking and unique.
Talking about letting the cat out of the bag, heck, I was just letting him get a little air so the poor thing wouldn’t suffocate over the next few days (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)This was all Devon’s idea and he twisted my arm until I agreed to help him on this clandestine project (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)He’ll have the end product in a few days and I believe it will be worth the wait. We’ve had a good time working on this and I have learned a great deal from Devon.
Sean McGillicuddy said:
Why not just get these .
Because those are not working wood bolster trucks. The are imitation metal bolster trucks. I have a gillion trucks in my scrap box. Its not an issue of having trucks to use. Its an issue of not having an over thought, over designed, over engineered, working (even though it does not need to be) truck that I basically made from scratch. Like I said when do I ever do anything the easy way. You should see how long it took me to get the springs into the prototype, lol.
Dan has been awesome and yes we have had some fun in the background. I think we have sent 100-150 emails a day discussing this and various other world saving topics (like which album is better Hysteria or Pyromania, and whether or not cold fusion is the answer to warp capability). Oh yeah and we both like the movie “cocktail” but only because re can relate tot he line “light dawns on marble head”.
How many pens did you buy. a pack of 1,000 … (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Dan Hilyer said:
I have learned a great deal from Devon.
You don’t hear that enough …
No of course not Sean. That would have blown the budget. I stole them from work like any self-respecting scrounger would do. Someone brought in some of them cheap promotional pens and none of us like them so they were just sitting in a cupboard. Now they are siting in my parts box. It takes two pens per truck.
Sean McGillicuddy said:
Dan Hilyer said:
I have learned a great deal from Devon.
You don’t here that enough …
yeah but its WHAT he learned from me. I got an email from his wife asking me to please refrain from teaching her husband new dirty words and she has tried to convince him that bourbon is not the new health drink craze.
Maybe you could try to get him to finish his pizza oven …I’m sure his wife would like that…