A snapshot in time. A glimpse of the Plettenberger Kleinbahn in 1/22.5 scale.

[Bill Gill]

Nicely designed and fabricated sign. Looks good Volker.

[Bernhard]

Another excellent example of your modeling skills! How long do you work on such a detail?

Bernhard

[Hydrostat]

How long do you work on such a detail?

Bernhard,

hard to say. First of all research takes a lot of time. The prototype pics mostly aren't sufficient enough regarding sharpness and so on to realize all details or in this case words on a sign. It helps a lot, if you find a similar preserved item (which in this case I did online). Based on that I was able to create the artwork. I made a successful attempt in bending the frame from 1x1 mm brass angle section, but then thankfully accepted Frithjofs offer to mill the frames including the brackets from nickle silver, which makes it much more stable. This means I had to do a complete 3D construction of all parts for milling and etching purposes, which takes some time, too. Assembling is another point and I find it rather difficult if there's a mixture of delicate surfaces (the printout, the 0.25 mm panes the 0.15 mm enameled copper wire and so on) and some essential force to mount the pieces. Most time first attempt isn't good enough so I redo it at least once. I think it took a week or so all in all.

That brings us to the next topic:

The frame parts of the Dugena neon sign are printed from a dental plastic that is significantly more stable than the usual resin parts. In the original, the frame consists of a wide support frame into which the smaller, protruding pane frames are inserted. On one side I combined them into one printed part so that I only have to insert the two frames on one side. As a precaution, I had the pane frames printed twice.






Those pane frames should protrude just as far as the printed ones. So I had to grind them evenly down to a certain size. I attached them to a board with double-sided adhesive tape and then worked on them on the sanding board.




Since the support frame offers enough space, I was able to use neodymium magnets to attach it to the house wall.




The M 0.8 screws are attached because they are not depicted finely enough in the print.




While the color scheme of the motif was easy to clarify, the framing was a bit more difficult. It was probably painted gold.




I had the motifs plotted out by a foil label maker. The white and red foil are translucent, the black one is not.




The hands are etched and placed on a 0.3 mm shaft.




The Dugena clock - like the Zeiss advertisement shown previously - has a Plexiglass core, into which this time circumferential grooves are milled to accommodate the tubes. A metal core with a 0.3 mm hole is inserted in the middle. When the lighting is switched on, it is visible as the clockwork of the original clock and carries the shaft for the hands.




When it comes to the wordmark, I don't need a core. There is only a tube inserted here to hold the light source. This time I used LED light sticks.






A total of four tubes illuminate the whole thing.




For the connection I used a two-row 3-pin pin strip, which together with the magnets ensures a firm hold.




A drilling and cutting jig helped me when attaching it to the house wall, because the magnets and the dose have to correspond exactly to the situation on the neon sign.








Cheers,
Volker

[Bill Gill]

You did that in about a week???!!!
Amazing!

[Hydrostat]

With 8 hours a day ...

[finescalerr]

You should move to Switzerland and make limited production designer watches! -- Russ

[Bernhard]

Really amazing. The smaller the parts, the more time it takes to produce them.

Bernhard

[Ray Dunakin]

Those signs are blowing my mind! Absolutely fantastic!

[Hydrostat]

You should move to Switzerland and make limited production designer watches! -- Russ

Russ,

oh well, just for not wanting to ignore your remark:







There are some vases to come for the top shelf, I'm awaiting the prints. Looks like one of three shopwindows is nearing completion.

Cheers,
Volker

[1-32]

Lovely ,lovely Volker but that sign !!

[Ray Dunakin]

Stunning!

[Hydrostat]

The Zeiss neon sign still lacked flat iron strips to attach it to the facade. Two brass strips were provided with the corresponding T-shaped recesses and holes for the screws. In order to be able to attach the holders in a clamping and removable manner, I inserted M0.8 threaded pieces with attached washers and nuts through the strips and soldered an MS tube with the corresponding inside diameter to the threads on the back. I then glued the strip to the profiles of the sign using Loctite 648.




A jig helped with drilling holes in the facade. The slightly larger boreholes compared to the tubes in conjunction with the tubes not being aligned exactly at right angles, enable the desired clamping installation. There's still missing a 3D printed junction box to accommodate the electrical plug connection.




The facade of the building was decorated with a number of traffic signs on the corner of 'Wilhelmstrasse' and 'Umlauf', some of which have already been implemented here. I made them from prints on photo glossy paper with self adhesive copper foil at the back side.




An interesting detail there was a crankcase left over from the former street lighting with a torn steel cable, which I put together from various leftover plastic and imitation screws.




The salt technique helped to achieve the somewhat rotten look.






Cheers,
Volker

[finescalerr]

No criticism. An adequate addition. -- Russ

[Barney]

Very Nice
Barney

[Hydrostat]

Thanks Russ and Barney,

No criticism.

I'm not sure: the crankcase screws are off-center and seem a bit undersized to me  .