Some recent work on the In-ko-pah RR

[Hydrostat]

Ray,

those bakery pictures are marvellous. Especially the bread looks extremely realistic, How did you do it? I'd take one! I still think that lace trim is to coarse for that scale, but from a distance it sure looks good.
The mine cart track looks very good and so does the grate above the ore bin. Looking forward to your next creations!

Cheers,
Volker

[Ray Dunakin]

Ray,

those bakery pictures are marvellous. Especially the bread looks extremely realistic, How did you do it? I'd take one! I still think that lace trim is to coarse for that scale, but from a distance it sure looks good.
The mine cart track looks very good and so does the grate above the ore bin. Looking forward to your next creations!

Thanks. The bread, cookies, and rolls were made from Primo brand polyclay. I'm not very happy with the lace curtains either, but I haven't found a better solution.

[Ray Dunakin]

The Princess Shilo Mine needs an ore cart, so I built one. It was loosely modeled after this old ore cart in Goldfield, NV:







I started by cutting out the bottom, sides, and ends of the cart's "tub". Then I glued styrene angles to the inside bottom edges of the side panels:




I began to assembly it, first gluing the sides to the bottom panel:




Styrene strips were added to represent the iron straps. I simulated rivet heads by dipping the tip of a sharpened brass rod into some thick CA adhesive and dabbing it onto the model:




The prototype ore cart has a mechanism connecting the "tub" to the frame. This mechanism allows the tube to rotate and to tilt for dumping, and has a fairly complex shape. I didn't try to make an exact replica, just something that would look "close enough". I started by cutting a 3/8" wide section from the side of a 1" diameter styrene tube. Then I carved it into an approximate shape, added a bit of putty here and there as needed, and built up some details with styrene strips, etc:






At the rear end of the cart is a release lever that allows the tub to be titled for dumping. I cut this out of a sheet of .020" styrene:




The lever hooks onto a bracket at the end of the frame. I made the bracket by gluing a short piece of styrene angle to another section of angle, then sliced off a piece to the correct width:






I built the frame out of various styrene strips. I also built two axle bearings. These aren't prototypically accurate but they aren't really going to show, and I needed to keep them simple. The axle bearings won't be glued in place until after everything has been painted. I used HO scale train wheels for the cart's wheels:






The ore cart's tub, frame, and axle bearings were all painted separately, using Rustoleum paint/primer satin black. The tub was glued to the frame. Then the axles were lubed with a plastic-safe grease and inserted into the bearings. The bearings were then glued to the bottom of the frame. At this stage the ore cart is complete, but it looks brand new:






Of course I don't want it to look new. I want it to look like it's had several years of hard use. So I weathered it. Most of the weathering was done using Sophisticated Finishes brand "Iron" and "Rust Solution". I had a little trouble with the cast metal wheels -- whatever metal they were made of wasn't quite compatible with the rust solution chemicals. I ended up painting them with rust-colored acrylics.

To finish off the cart, I made a load of ore by carving a piece of pink insulating foam to fit into the tub, and glued crushed rocks to it. I also installed a small lead weight in the bottom of the cart, centered over the wheels, to give it a little heft and keep the center of gravity low. Here's how it turned out:













That's all for now. Eventually I will sculpt a miner figure to go with the cart.


.

[finescalerr]

That turned out very well. -- Russ

[Design-HSB]

I like masterfully.

[Bernhard]

That looks great, especially the weathering.

Bernhard

[Bill Gill]

Ray, your ore cart turned out really well.
How did you like making rivet heads out of thick CA?
I ask because I also have done the same in HO scale. Later, instead of thick CA I tried JB Weld epoxy and liked using it better.
It was thicker and stayed in place better without spreading out, has a longer working time and is easily wiped off when I make a mistake.
I also had good luck first making a tiny needle prick in the styrene sheet where each rivet would go. That helped in two ways by providing
an exact location for each rivet (one that didn't go away if I wiped off an errant head) and it also provide a spot for the epoxy to center on and adhere to.
If you get a chance in the future to try that, i think you'll like it.

[finescalerr]

Good tip, Bill. By the way, your coal silo in the current RMC is the best model in the magazine. -- Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Ray, your ore cart turned out really well.
How did you like making rivet heads out of thick CA?

Thanks! The stuff I used is Krazy Glue "No Run Gel". It was pretty easy to work with. It takes a surprisingly long time to cure on its own, so it was easy to wipe off any mistakes. When I was satisfied I just sprayed it with some "kicker" (Kwik-Set Activator) I had on hand.

[Ray Dunakin]

I have a couple more projects in the works and was hoping to put up some photos by now, but had a setback. Last Friday evening I was out speed-walking and tripped over a curb. I thought my right wrist was broken but it's "just" a severe sprain. Six days later it's still very painful. Can't get much modeling done without the use of that hand.

[finescalerr]

I'm really glad it isn't worse. Take care of the wrist. No rush on the photos. -- Russ

[Barney]

Very nice - hope you are not becoming a rivet counter
Barney

[Bill Gill]

Ray, Glad to hear it was "just" a SEVERE sprain, but take care of it
and sit back and enjoy others' photos for awhile

[1-32]

Great that you could share an update Ray before the injury, take care these sort of injuries can take a while to heal.
cheers

[Ray Dunakin]

Thanks. I still have to be very careful with it, but at least I was able to do a bit of model work this evening. Tomorrow I should be able to finish off this particular project and then I can work on getting some photos of it.