My 1/32 E adventure

[Daniel O. Caso]

I´ve made a little experiment at getting a print of the galss texture in Das clay.

I did it in a small piece so to try and learn. It worked perfecvt so I´ll try to get the full plate done same way and see.


DSC09277 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09278 by d.caso, on Flickr

This pannel is about 5mm thick but I´m sure I can get it in 2,5 to 3mm thickness.


DSC09280 by d.caso, on Flickr

I would like to simulate both, the smal, regular ripple structure causen on the water surface by a gentle wind and some of the bigger but also gently waves caused by the movements of big objects as ships and boats. So I came to this idea


DSC09286 by d.caso, on Flickr

Now I can´t wait to get all the water areas in the layout done!

Daniel

[Glen A]

Wow that looks good!
How many paint layers are there to get it looking like that? Two? or more?
Once you get some gloss on top its going to look stunning.
Great idea with that large rolling wave effect.

[Daniel O. Caso]

Glen

Thank you.

I sprayed two different blues from opposite sides so to accentuate the texture. Of course that won´t be the colours of the water in my layout.
That was simply a try to see if the material is responding to my expectations. And sure it is!

To the real plate (380mm X 540mm) I will give a thick layer of very hard gloss varnish (normaly used for floors), then do the paint work and then a coating of gloss varnish spray.

But before that I must do a lot of work.

First I need one complete plate and another three smaller ones that will come from a second forming.
They will have all the basic glass pattern and two of them own bigger waves.
Then I must let them dry and just then see to cut off the openings for the ship at the harbour, the two boats at the beach and the boat at the Cooperative.
So as you see, it will take several days to be done. But that´s fun.

Daniel

[Daniel O. Caso]

To make a long story short let's the photos tell.

In case you want the step by step story you may join the NGRM Online forum where I have a loooong thread about this layout

http://ngrm-online.com/forums/index.php ... le-layout/

Here the photos


DSC09556 by d.caso, on Flickr


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DSC09576 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09577 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09578 by d.caso, on Flickr

The 'water'plate is not glued yet. I've painted it with a two colour base but will paint it witk brush and acrylics once is really dry (it is not yet)

I hope this plate will noit schrin much more. That is the only disadventage of DAS clay: in some cases can schrink down to 10&.
I did cut the piece a bit bigger than the pattern, as you've seen at the photos, but may be I should have let twice as much material.

Daniel

[Bilco]

Hi Daniel,

The effect of the ripples is very good. Are you able to press the hull of the boat into the DAS before it dries - that will set it into the water. Does the paint affect the drying timer or characteristics - shrinkage and so on? I've used DAS to cover buildings, and set it on a thin coat of glue, so that I didn't get any shrinkage problems.

[Daniel O. Caso]

Bilco

I am having a problem with Flickr at the moment and refuse to upload my pictures. May be it is overload because many people is trying to upload at once, I will try later again. but I have some photos toi show you.
The opening for the boats to get through the water survace was already cut in the baseboard.
When I lied the half dry and painted piece of textured Das in place I also cut brom below, trough the opening in the basebvoard, more or less the shape of the boat. Then I pressed it in place and it formed the edges pretty good if you think it is biuldt with imm thickl balsa.

Anyway the bad news are I won't be using the Das clay for the water.
I would if I had not a serious issue at another point. I will exp[lain once I succeed at uploading the photos.

More on this later.

Now, about the shrinkage problem.

I knew Das may shrink up to 10% but was confident that being so thin would dryu very fast and shrink less. I did cut the shapes with about 4 to 5mm extra arround thinking on that.
They did shrink. Not terribly but enough to know I must keep giving it 5 or a bit more mm for shrinkage.

I worked a bit with das befoire and noticed that when glued with white glue on a piece of ply the shrinkage was a lot less, almost none. But just reading your message I learn that a coat of white glue reduce the problem.
Actually I thought it was the wood what helped, not the glue.
Never too late to learn. Thank you for that.


More later


Daniel

[Daniel O. Caso]

Here the photos.

The boat, as said is already through the water surface


DSC09585 by d.caso, on Flickr

DSC09586 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09587 by d.caso, on Flickr

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos


Next photoi show the opening in the base4board

DSC09590 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09591 by d.caso, on Flickr

Next show the hull of the boat out of the water


DSC09592 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09585 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09586 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09587 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09589 by d.caso, on Flickr



More in next message

[Daniel O. Caso]

This is the serious problem and the reason why I am going to cast the water surfaces in clear resin instead ofusing DAS


DSC09588 by d.caso, on Flickr

The'beach'is sand and the water shoul get more and more shalow as goin on the sand until desapperar.

No way I can make Das clear.

So what I am going to do is thois:

I'll cast two panels of the glass surface in clear resin and about 3mm thick.

Once dry I will remobve it from the mpould and cut it to fit the shapes of the watter surfaces as I'\ve done withj the clay but will let it about 25mm over the sand.

Then i will turn it up-side-down and file or sand a slope under the are that will be supeposed to the sand. with a gradually progressionj from the full thicknes of the casting to the thinnes I can get.
Once this is done I will polish the surface os the slope until getting it as clear as the rest of the casting.

Then I will glue sand covering the whole slop and glue the whole casting in place.
Once that is done I will work out the sand area ensuring enough sand will get also in progression above the upper survace (above the sklope).

I hope to get that way a good effect of the water vanishing progresively in the sand.

We'll see if in reality works as good as in theory.

Daniel

[Daniel O. Caso]

Since I decided to go for the clear resin castings I thought it would be nice to play withj the discarded DAS water surfaces.
The onkly thing I did was to play during about one minute each time with dry pastels.
Being the clay a bit porous, pastels work very nicely.
But none of the colours will be used on the castings.
THIS WAS JUST TO PLAY


1st round


DSC09593 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09595 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09596 by d.caso, on Flickr


2nd round


DSC09597 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09598 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09599 by d.caso, on Flickr

Pastels won<t work on the smooth surface of the clear resin casting.
Doesn´t matter if above or under. So I will use simply brushes and, in principle, acrylic paint...Or, may be I go for the big box full of oil paints I have been saving since I left painting about 15 years ago.
Oil paint may be the best for this. We´ll see.
I am going to make two castings and need only one and a half to cover all four water surfaces. That means I will still have half casting to learn.

Daniel

[Daniel O. Caso]

I decided to go for the clear resin casting so took the glass, cleaned it properly from all clay rests and buit arround a good frame which I also carefully sealed.

Took all precaution about the toxic dangers wearing appropiate clothes, globes, a mask and glasses.

Carefully niveled the mould ensureing it was perfecdtly horizontal in all directions and with all attention prepared the mix adding 1% hardener to the 700ml resin.
With a wooden stick mixed it good and carefully poured the resin into the mould until if was filled to the edge which would deliver a 4mm thick casting.

I noticed the resin was reaching good all edges and corners so left the room which was already starting to smell terribly.I closed the door and decided to go for something else to give the casting enough time to dry properly.

A couple of hours later I realised I totaly forgot to use the demoulder!

So tomorrow I´ll see if the casting and the glass will release each other or I mmust strat from scratch buying another piece of glass.

Here a photo of the mould a moment before casting.


DSC09603 by d.caso, on Flickr


Sometimes one learn the hard way.

Dniel

[Daniel O. Caso]

Well, ´The day after`.

Believe me, you don´t want to see any photos of what is left of themould, the glass and the casting.

Aniway I´ve learnt a couple of very important things±

1) Before doing any casting make a list with eqach step and remove one by
one only when already done.

2) At least the type of resin I´ve used has the strange property of not
getting a flat surface at the top but echoeing instead the shape of the
mould´s bottom.)loosing, of corse, a lot of relieve)

3) Last but certainly not least, Resin casting is something absolutely not
Daniel friendly so I shouldn´t try it again.


I know, most of the times preseverance is a characteristic of the wise. But some times a characteristic of the idiot.

To put it in less angered words: I have learnt not to force myself and avoid every job where passion or enthousiasm are not driving.
The casting experience was no fun at all, it was in termns of health absolutely not clever to do, it was expensive, has left my workplace with a smell that after more than 24 hours ventilation is not gone yet and, anyway, I still must solve the water surfaces issue for my layout.

Of course I am playing a bit theatre. A mix of Spanish, Italian and Argentine blood aloud me to take such a licence.
The reality is I don´t care much about.
My only worry could be I must wait until tomorrow to be able to get another piece of glass and some Das clay. But since worrying I still would be forced to wait I better go for some fun. After all there is Always plenty to do in a layout.

Daniel

[Daniel O. Caso]

After reading my postings at the NGRM, my friend Ian Hodgkiss came up with the idee of looking for Polycarbonate plates which comes with several textures simnilar to glass´.
I will look for that tomorrow as the shops are open again but just in case I´ve found that filling the groves caused by detergent in the plaster caswtings was very easy with ... plaster"!
So I made a try and just to see what I´ve got played a bit with colour pastels on it.
Please keep in mind that these will not be the final colours.
It is just a preventive excersice for the case I don´t find a convenient Polycarbonate plate.

This is the plate after filling the grooves same way as we usualy paint the mortar lines in a brick wall: spreading the paint (in this case plaster) and rubbing with a cloth the excess away


DSC09796 by d.caso, on Flickr


The small grains are caused by a bad spray can.


DSC09799 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09804 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09809 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09811 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC09812 by d.caso, on Flickr

More on this tomorrow, hopely with the Polycarbonate stuff.

Daniel

[Daniel O. Caso]

The 3D printed Decauville point lever parts arrived today from Shapeways.

The CAD drawings was done by our fellow Alan Brack this time. And he did wonderful work indeed.

I will post photos of the completted lever later but the photos below will give you an idea.

The pasrts are printed in FUD which is perfect if you want the levers to be only cosmetic as I did.
But now, seeing they will make perfect working models I will make the weight collar and the rectangular pivoting piece in brass when using these paarts for my next layout. And then there will be no Zeep motors & noise and also no wires. Just hand working levers. As the real thing.


DSC09850 by d.caso, on Flickr


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DSC09862 by d.caso, on Flickr

I must wait until tomorrow to buy 0,5mm X 1,5mm brass strip for making the weight´s arm and the will paint it.

Daniel

[Glen A]

Wow, those levers look good.
And the great thing about gn15 is you don't normally have large junctions with multi arrays of points that all need changing at once, so you can do it by hand.

[Daniel O. Caso]

Glen

Yes. that is why I asked Alan to design the parts so that the lever and weight arm can be done in messing.
He will have these point levers for sale at his Shapeways shop.

I will try to complete and paint the two levers today so I can post photos here.

Daniel

[Simon Andrews]

The levers look good. I will be interested to see if you are able to make them functional in future.

Simon.

[Daniel O. Caso]

Well, they are already functional. Just I won´t make them working on this layout simpkly because all points have already their Zeep machine and are also already wired.
But no doubt the next layout will have these levers workibg inbstead of motors.
I must say the Decauville design makes the miniature still excellent for commanding the switches.

With Peco switches one have already the bnhuilt in spring, but for not springed switches -I´ve been playing a bit with these levers last night- one can simply curve a little the throw bar so it makes a little upwards pressure
on the pivoting piece. That makes the two outer positions the only places where the lever will be able to rest so it fall there authomaticaly.
I have no idea if this was the intention of Alan at designing but it works that way.

Personaly I preffer to replace the collar because then I´ll be able to solder a n also brass weight arm that seems less vulnerablke than a 0,5mm X 1,5mm FUD one. May be I will also replace the weight by home cast lead ones.
I have the intention of replacing also the pivoting lever by a brass one.

The FUD parts can take the work effort, but since these layouts must be ready for shows andf to be sold, I want to avoid as much as possible too delicate parts.

Once I´ve tried the FUD weights I will see if it is necesary to replace them by a heavier one. I supoise it won´t have any importance with Peco or other springed switches but my have if the switches are not springed.


Daniel

[Daniel O. Caso]

Glen

I´m sorry I didn´t notice before you are the genius behind the Stamping Ground.
My friends and me have been enjoying a lot your work which is astonishing inspiring.
Chapeau !


Daniel

[Glen A]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for those very kind comments. I am astonished at the quality of your work. Its first class! Those water textures are so good. And the speed you get things built... Almost every day I log on there is another great update from you. Keep them coming

Glen.

[Daniel O. Caso]

Hi Glen

Thank YOU!!!

An honour for me to meet the genius.

Well, to be honest the speed of my work vary a lot but basically it rests on a slow recovery process after some serious health issues.

I must say during this year and a half I´ve been working on this project modelling has show me it´s best effects as therapeutic middle.

Are you also at the NGRM Online forum?



Daniel

[Daniel O. Caso]

Not much news today.
Only prepared the new Das water.
I bought an alternative clay from the brand Darwi. It looks the same but once at work it is incredibly sticky and therefore not apt for forming on the glass. Not even using mould release spray. So I brought back the not open packets ato the shop and bought Das. Of course it worked as good as Always.


DSC00172 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC00173 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC00174 by d.caso, on Flickr

Don't panic> those colours are just a base to seal the porosity of the clay and to give a base for the paint to be done later.

Also the last bunch of crates came from Shapeways and they 've got a base colour and some touches of pastel just for the photos. Later they will be painted properly.


DSC00177-001 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC00179 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC00180 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC00182 by d.caso, on Flickr

And that was it for today.

Daniel

[Daniel O. Caso]

Finaly all four modelled water areas have been glued in place.
THE COLOURS ARE NOT THE FINAL ONES I just spread a bit of white pastel on the blue sprayed surface so to get some acceptable efect for the photos.

Next step will be to fill in all the gaps arround the edges so to get neat jpoints.
Then colaour work and several varnish layers will follow. but these photos will give an idea


DSC00417 by d.caso, on Flickr


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More later.


Daniel

[Daniel O. Caso]

DSC00436-001 by d.caso, on Flickr


DSC00438 by d.caso, on Flickr

[Glen A]

The whole harbour scene is coming together nicely.
It will be a true masterpiece.
The concrete abutment on the end of the bridge is great, complete with the steel rebar out one side and the green stain on it. Excellent work!

DSC00427 by d.caso, on Flickr

I am interested in this nice detail you put into the fence.
What do you have planned here?
I understand why the bottom wires would be pushed up (so maybe you can slide something under them), but I do not understand why the top wire would be pulled down as well. I'm just interested to know. Thanks.

p.s. in answer to your earlier question; no, you will only find me on this group.

[Daniel O. Caso]

Glen

Thank you for your kind words.

Now the wires: at the beach there will be one, possibly two small boats beside the yard´s wall. Behind the boats there will be two ladies (1920-1930!) taking a sun bath. At the yard, also if it is forbiden to get in for anybody not belonging to the railway´s staff, there will be a couple of kids spying hoping to see ´more´ of the ladies. They simply tied the wires with a piece of cord they found and one of them found the board and ensured eventualy they will get an easy access to the beach...


I don´t know. Make your own story and will be even good.




Daniel