FriedClams

Thanks so much for all the wonderful and generous comments - you folks are so kind. And as always, thank you for the likes and for stopping by. How do you know I'm not 3/4" tall? Interior lighting Prep Work This posting is a bit tedious - I apologize in advance. I put LED lighting on some but not all of my models. There has to be some justification for the effort and the subject needs to call for it. These little dioramas don't just call for it – they scream for it. But in the same way that bright colors can sometimes make small scale models look toy-like, so too can bright lights (or too many of them.) This diorama would be difficult to view without lighting and it will add greatly to the ambiance providing I don't botch it. There will also be “daytime” through-the-window” lighting which I'll explain in an upcoming post. In addition to the drop light under the vehicle, there will be four pendant lights hanging from the ceiling and a single bench lamp. The pendant lights hang off conduit that roughly scales to a little larger than 1” trade size pipe. The “pipe” is stainless tubing and has an inside diameter of .013”. As you can see in the image below it is quite small and yet if I had something smaller I would use it. The problem in using small tubing is that there are no prewired LEDs with fine enough wires that will fit through such tubing. Here is a prewired #0805 LED (the size I will be using) and clearly it will not fit down that tubing. So I solder my own using a simple process that makes soldering fine wires easy and almost enjoyable in a deranged sort of way. LEDs can be bought in strips that were cut from reels for literally a cent or two apiece, so when I smoke one, it doesn't bother me in the least. Here are the sizes I use. From left – 0402, 0603, 0805, 3528 and 5050. The 0402 is small enough that it could be used in an HO scale headlight. LED code numbers refer to the standard SMD (surface mount device) package dimensions and don't indicate a level of brightness. They were designed to be wave soldered onto printed circuit boards, not hand soldered. And confusingly, they are sold by both their metric measurements and their imperial measurements. So a metric #1608 (1.6mm x .08mm) references the same device as an imperial #0603 (.063” x .031”.) If that isn't confusing enough, there is a metric 0201 and an imperial 0201, but they are not the same device and have a completely different footprint. Same is true for 0402 and 0603. I can solder an imperial 0402, but it would take a wizard to hand solder a metric 0402. Point being – buyer beware. I use #39 magnet wire that has a .0038” diameter including insulation and is adequate for feeding a single LED. The insulation is an enamel coating and is better to burn off than to try and scrap off, which damages the underlying copper. With a ball of freshly applied solder on the tip of my iron (almost about to drip off), I quickly insert the wire into the drip before the all flux burns off. This burns off the coating and tins the copper in one step. So after cutting the wires to length, I burn off a 1/4” section about 1” back from the end. This 1/4” section is what gets soldered to the LED connection pads. I place the LED onto a strip of double sided tape and then position the wires over the top and stick them down to the tape on both sides of the LED. This keeps everything in place during soldering. I position the wires so the insulation comes right up to the LED on the right hand side as shown below. I don't care about the other end because those wires will be clipped flush. I then place a drop of “no-clean” electronic liquid flux on the LED followed by a split second touch with the iron in one hand and solder in the other applied simultaneously. No more than a second. One wire at a time with a cleaned iron tip and a fresh drop of liquid flux for each wire. I've had no luck going back to correct a bad solder joint because the solder becomes thick and clingy and the device can't survive the additional heat. It's a fast one shot thing – not difficult but takes a steady hand. I use Kester 951 no clean liquid flux, Kester 83-7145-0415 electronic silver solder (.02” dia.) and a Weller 25 watt pencil iron with 1/16” flat tip. This little 1/2oz. syringe type applicator is handy for the flux. First the desk lamp is made by annealing the stainless tubing and bending it into a gooseneck. The lamp shade is 3/16” diameter aluminum and the base is 1/8” dia. brass. The LED is a 0402 warm white. The pieces are assembled and the underside of the shade gets a drop of “crystal clear” Gallery Glass to insulate and hold the LED in place. It will dry clear and shrink down flush with the shade or close to it. The completed lamp is just over a 1/4” tall, 2 scale feet. I cut four lengths of the tubing for the pendants and work a tiny flange onto one end of each. This mushroomed end will hold the shades and was made by reaming/wallowing with tip of a dressmakers pin. The aluminum pendant shades are from Ngineering. I center drill the domes with a #77 drill bit which makes for a tight fit allowing the flange to hold onto the shade. The shades are primed in and out. The tubing is pushed through the shade and the 0805 LED wires slipped in. The LEDs were encapsulated with clear Gallery Glass after they were soldered and allowed to dry. This insulates the bare connections so I can push it back into the shade without fear of shorting it out. Then another drop of Gallery Glass to hold it firm. The shade tops are painted a heavy acrylic wash over rust colored primer. It looks like oxidized copper (serendipitous and not what I was aiming for, but I like it and must write that down.) Thanks for looking. Be safe and stay well. Gary

Hi Tom. Well I found this party just as the last ale was being swallowed. Sorry I missed it. But, what a salvage and transformation! She turned out a very handsome model. Well done! Gary

It’s only wasting your golden years if you dislike the work or would rather be doing something else. I’m guessing that you, like most of us, enjoy the physical act of modeling and not the completion of it. Gary

400 - 450 blocks, dang. They look great, like they belong there and have always been there. Nice progress Keith! Gary

Found your log a few days ago and I’ve been reading through it. Very nice model Mike and you’re doing a wonderful job. Terrific work on the PE - so small and intricate. Look forward to seeing more. Gary

I really like the way this model turned out Alan. Your camo and weathering are very convincing. Nice. Gary

Just went through your build log Chris and what a great model this is. Congratulations on its completion. Some of these card models (like yours) are so convincing and impressive in their overall look and feel, that one would never guess it is paper/card. Of course, it is always the modelers skill and care that determine the quality of the final result. You nailed it. Gary

It’s unfortunate that the liquid plexiglass didn’t work out as I too think that would have produced an excellent result. I’m happy to hear that you’re not nearing completion as I selfishly enjoy reading this log. Gary

Great to see your Tennessee log coming back to life Keith. Even though you were thinking through the rigging and building the model in your head, it can be therapeutic to step back from the physical building to give time for the cobwebs to clear. I’ve always enjoyed reading your log and look forward to seeing you work through the rigging. Your explanations are always clear and concise and I’m hoping to get a better understanding of what I refer to as “all those ropes”. Gary

I didn’t know about this either Ken - good to keep in mind. I wonder if spraying electronic contact cleaner on it would be cold enough to work? It would be almost instantaneous and with the nozzle straw you could pin point where to apply it. Gary

Isn’t that always the way it goes? Excellent recovery though Denis and like OC. stated the repair is unnoticeable. Nice save. Gary

Greetings all. Thank you for your comments, visits and likes. A little more progress to show. I added back the arbor press to the diorama and positioned it where the torch cart used to sit. I moved the drill to the front as far as possible to allow for more elbow room around the press. Moving on, I next populated the mezzanine with stuff. The tires, spoked wheels, fenders and front spring are salvaged from a Jordan model that went all wrong. Everything else is scratched. Corrugated boxes are a quick way to fill up space and are simply folded paper painted with water colors. I decided the mezzanine needed a hoisting rope. It is a piece of miniature rope that has been bleached and re-colored. The bleach removes that starch/sizing (or what ever it is that makes it stiff) and allows it to coil naturally. It was saturated with a water/PVA mix so it holds its shape and stays where placed. This close-up shows me I placed it crooked and needs a little straightening. The underside of the pit vehicle gets a downward facing warm white LED. It is attached with a generous blob of clear Gallery Glass. The stuff starts out opaque but dries crystal clear. It is non conductive, comes in different colors (which can be mixed) and dries translucent like stained glass. Handy. Here is one of the mechanics making an appeal to his Creator asking forgiveness for past sins and his constant use of coarse language. He offers a gift of what he claims is 25' of rubber jacketed electrical cord but is really just a piece of solder. Unmoved by this insincerity, the Creator instead drops a 29 Ford flatbed on his head. The brightness level of the LED will eventually be adjusted down quite low. I hope it will bring attention to the frame structure and keep the pit from becoming a black hole. Thanks for taking a look. Be safe and stay well. Gary

Really nice progress Dan. I admire your tenacity in getting the paint just the way you want it. It sure looks great to me. Gary

Very interesting model Denis - I look forward to following your progress. Gary

Nice to see your updates again Keith. Very fine modeling as always and I like your method for truing the masts. Clever. Gary

Splendid work - very tiny and very nice. Gary

I went through your log over a couple of sessions Craig and dang, what a model and how beautifully you have built her. You make that ultra tiny detail work look easy which of course we all know - it is not. Congratulations on a fine build. Gary

Just catching up on your beautiful model construction Grant. This is going to be a real show piece. First class job and terrific painting. Gary

Just catching up OC. Wonderful progress - you have been busy! And as always your figure painting is spectacular! Gary

Hello All - thanks for the likes and for stopping in to take a look. Hi Mark. More room would be nice and to do it over I would make it just a tad wider. Even just an inch or so would help, but then again, I'm really just trying to create an atmosphere and as you say more clutter may actually hurt the model. Yes – real world clutter is totally overwhelming and beyond my patience and abilities. It does seem like a matter time before someone drops a tire off the edge/end, but here's the inspiration photo. This looks like a staged or promotional photo for sure, but then again . . . Thanks for the comment Wefalck. Thanks CDW for the nice comment, it's good to hear the dio brings to mind a real place. To be honest Keith and as strange as it may sound, I don't know if there is a wall there. I've kind of left it up to the viewer to decide if what is shown is the whole shop or just a corner of it. Is the viewer standing in the middle of a larger garage with other service bays behind him, or as you say - looking through a wall? Hmmm. Either way, your suggestion is a good one and please don't be reluctant in offering your thoughts - I have always greatly valued your input. Reconsidering the arbor press, I may place it between the drill press and bench where the welding torch now sits. Because the torch is on wheels it could believably be placed anywhere. And something that has nagged at me is the knowledge that I placed it against the wall backwards. The torch kit would never sit the way I currently have it - with the tanks facing outward and the cart against the wall because you lean it back onto its wheels to roll it off. I'm going to move things around and see what I can come up with. Thanks for your suggestion and comment Keith. Hello Egilman. The problem in that back corner is that I have to keep it clear for the exterior door. I would have to move the barrel stand elsewhere because moving it much further to the left would pinch off the walking space between it and the pit safety railing. I am going to consider some repositioning of things. Thanks for the suggestion - more eyes and thoughts are always helpful. Hello TBlack. Thanks for looking in. The model railroading folks are the masters of modeling clutter – they do it so well! Thanks, Gary

Greetings fellow modelers. Thank you all for your wonderful comments and the “likes”. After a couple of months away from modeling this little diorama has called me back. Wall Details and General Clutter I have finished populating the back wall with things, stuff and junk. Or at least I think I'm finished. In subjects like this, it seems there is never enough detail – never enough stuff. More and more items keep coming to mind that really should be included but mercifully I have run out of room. In fact, the arbor press I made back on post #38 will be left out because there is just no good place for it. That's always a risk making details in advance instead of letting the model tell you what is needed as it progresses. Anyway, here is a short update. A storage unit with drawers is made of basswood that was pre-stained. The face frame for the drawers is paper. The drawer fronts are stuck down on double sided tape and tiny specks of CA are applied to each, then the unit is flipped on top. The drawer pulls are slices of painted half-round styrene. The problem with cubbies and shelves is that you can't leave them empty. Cans are a good way to fill some of the holes and they are easy to make. Printing onto tissue paper then gluing it to wood dowels and/or styrene rod produces a decent can. It doesn't really matter what the print says because no one will be able to read it anyway. Other little bits of things are glued on. The compressor against the back wall is a white metal casting from Durango Press. I added a start station and “black iron” pipe that feeds the air hose by the door. The hose is blackened solder. A basswood bench is made. The bench grinder is a Rio Grande Scale Models piece and the torch came out of my junk box and I don't recall who cast it. The image below shows the completed back wall (the mezzanine above is still empty.) The barrel stand was made previously on post #48 and the remainder of the items are a combination of scratch and modified castings. Some of the wall signs I printed while others are from JL Innovations. All were sanded on the back side to reduce thickness and then dirtied up with ink/alcohol. The pit rail is .022” phosphor/bronze wire that was soldered together and blackened. Thanks for swinging by to take a look. Gary

Thanks to everyone for the fine comments and suggestions - it is always so appreciated. And thanks for the likes and to those watching quietly. Not a bunch accomplished on the diorama in the last several weeks, but here's an update on what I have done. More Garage Equipment - Acetylene Torch I don't have any in-process photos to share with you on this torch. It was one of those constructions where I spent most of my time tossing things in the trash with nothing of value to show. In the end, I was happy just to get the thing finished, such as it is. I began by gathering materials - .005” brass shim stock, phosphor/bronze wire (.012” and .02” dia), assorted styrene rods, a scrap stick of white-metal that scaled to 9” dia., some chain, some insulated wire and a couple of injection molded wheels. The white-metal stick was cut into two lengths, chucked into my hand drill and worked with needle files until they resembled a pair of tanks. The cart is mostly brass and bronze soldered together. A brass wire axle was inserted through the cart and the wheels glued on. The tanks are colored with permanent markers for a translucent effect. Green oxygen and red acetylene are modern tank colors and probably not the standard in 1940. Conspicuous by its absence is the torch/nozzle itself, which I'm pretending is hanging behind the cart. So you may be wondering why I chose chain large enough to anchor a steamship for the tanks' safety chain. Actually, this chain is 40 LPI and I haven't found anything finer than this that still resembles actual link chain. Fine chain is so useful in modeling and if anyone knows a source please share. The hoses are also on the large side, but it's one of those strange eye/mind things where the proper size looked flimsy and wrong. Drill Press I need a piece of equipment to be positioned against the left wall and up front towards the shadowbox glass. Because it's right up front, it needs to be fairly detailed. I had originally intended for the arbor press to be placed there, but I now feel that in profile it isn't that interesting visually. And I wonder how many non-mechanical people would know what it is or what it's used for. So I decided on a floor drill press to fill the slot. It has an interesting shape and recognizable by most people. The arbor press will be stationed elsewhere. As a reference to build from I chose model #71 from Atlas Manufacturing that dates to 1933-36. Although it isn't mechanically complicated, it is of course the size that provides the challenge in making it. In 1:87 it is less that 7/8” (22mm) in height. It is a delicate little thing and a tad exasperating. I began with the spindle head which is simply two short sections of brass tubing wrapped in paper. The paper is the sticky part of a Post-It note and it holds things together long enough to saturate it with thin CA. You wouldn't know it by looking at the photo below, but the brass tube on the right is slightly larger than the one on the left as it accepts the main post. The lower part of the spindle is glued in and also the main post. The spindle is tapered to mimic a chuck and a thin wall brass tube is slid on over the top. I have a decent collection of fine brass and phosphor/bronze wire as well as a good selection of ultra fine tubing in brass, nickel and stainless. These materials proved to be very handy in making this drill press. I then made up the table/bracket from styrene and attached it to another section of tubing that will slide fit onto the main post. The base. I decided to leave out the spindle head pulley guard for two reasons. First, I wanted to show the pulleys and belt as a visual detail, and secondly (the honest reason) is that making a multi-dimensional cowl guard that is less than 1/8” in size would cause permanent psychological scarring. The pulleys are made by slide fitting brass tubing into one another and leaving an equal reveal between them. I soldered them together and cut off the pulley. The motor is made up and pulley added. This was simple to make because it's just pieces of round things fitting into other round things. The “bearings” are a single brass tube with a wire run through it which in turn slide fits into a piece of styrene tube. I added a band of paper around the center of the motor to suggest separate bearing bell housings. A second pulley was pushed onto a brass rod and glued into the spindle top. In the image below you can see a depth gauge has been added and a short horizontal tube that along with an identical one on the opposite side will hold the motor. Front view. Pushing two dress maker's pins through paper and into the motor mountings gave me the distance between the mounting rods which was then transferred to the motor base. The three spokes on the feed wheel are .008” phosphor/bronze chemically colored with Jax Flemish Gray. The ends of the wire were dipped into a craft product called Gallery Glass to create the knobs. The knobs will be painted black. The wheel center is styrene stretched to the diameter I wanted. Adjustment handles of different sizes were also made up. All that was left is to glue it together and add some paint. Touch ups are still needed as seen in the photo below, but I used enamel – silver, steel, gray and black. I added a styrene table face to the base. The belt is 8 lb. ice fishing jigging line and it has a sort of oval/flat cross section. Done. And both items are glued into place on the dio. Thanks for taking a look. Be safe and stay well. Gary

Very interesting project Grant and you're off to a great start. I agree with Denis that paint selection can be the most difficult decision in a model. It can make or break the model. I've pulled up a seat. Gary

Sorry to hear of your wife’s fall OC. I wish her a quick recovery. Nice progress on the diorama. Gary

Great work O.C. I always enjoy catching up on your progress. Thanks for explaining the moment in time the dio will depict. Fascinating history and a brutal scene. Gary