Steel cable transmission

[Peter_T1958]

Thanks guys, I am encouraged by your responses. No 3 is the last trial. As you may notice too, I receive never the same effect again, althoug I am writing down each step of the process.



That is, what prevented me from painting the abutement right now.
I hope, i will soon be able to control the process and reproduce each shade precisely,

Btw ...did you know, that such old gearwheels had wooden teeth? Here a great discovery on a weekend trip:






Cheers, Peter

[NE Brownstone]

All three of those stone samples work for me.  Honestly, they all look most real to me and would have thought so if it weren't for you telling us otherwise.  A+

I wonder if they used wood teeth so that they could shear off if something got in a bind?

[Peter_T1958]

Hello

After some initial hesitations, I have taken heart again and made my first painting attempts on the abutement. Some layers of HS and paint later it looks like this. This is only the first paintig step, more will follow at a later stage (i.e. washes and discoloration due to water, weather, efflorescence etc.)






But now I returned to the workbench (specifically my desk  ) to start with the first master for the pulley supports (?). It's a long way to go, but this is the work I really like!




Cheers,
Peter

[Ray Dunakin]

Very nice! Is that styrene?

[EZnKY]

I'm impressed you can use "efflorescence" correctly!
The abutment looks great by the way.

[Ray Dunakin]

...And I learned a new word.   

[marc_reusser]

Both are really lovely. Always great to see an update.

Very clean styrene work. Did you use putty and a radiused tool to create the cast steel fillet/radius?

I like the spotting and dark streaking on the abutments. What paints did you use?

[finescalerr]

Ditto. Even at this relatively unfinished stage the abutment looks far better than most such modeling I've seen. -- Russ

[Max Corey]

Very nice.  How did you do the raised lettering on the support casting?

Looking forward to more.

[Hydrostat]

The stones look absolutely real. I would like to know how you did the lettering, too.

Volker

[Peter_T1958]

Hi gents

Thank you for your interest in my project. Here some answers:

Did you use putty and a radiused tool to create the cast steel fillet/radius?

That is exactly what I did. Here an "in progres" view from my desk.



I used styrene strips shaped around wooden cores. Tamiya putty was used to fill up the corners. This is not without problems, as thick layers of putty can melt the plastic ...

I like the spotting and dark streaking on the abutments. What paints did you use?

Vallejo colors simply flaked away during the "Windex" chipping process. Tamiya acrylics worked much better, but I had still some problems in controlling the process.

How did you do the raised lettering on the support casting?

These are Slaters 1.5mm high Plastic Letters & Numerals. The size of these letters went to the outermost limit of my vision. You can probably get them from good railway modellers shops in the UK.

Peter

[Peter_T1958]

Trying to follow Arno's tracks  - a master for the bearing blocks.



Ok, ok,  you surely have noticed I currently have to enjoy the little things in life, now that one of the bigger challenges in this project have failed after several attempts up to now:  
Although I have quite some experience in kit-bashing and scratch scratch-building since more then 30 years - I am now confronted with a problem I have no solution in sight.
Here the problem child:


Diameter in scale 1/50 = 9 cm


cross-section of the rim

I made repeated attempts to form this difficult shape of the outher rim out of a styrene disc clamped in a slow moving drill  - it simply melted under the cutting-tool. Needless to say that the result was far away of the desired precision either.

Maybe I have to mention, that I do not own either a late, nor a milling machine ... my desk is my workbench (Cheers, Arno  )

A good idea is needed now ....

[Gordon Ferguson]

Now that is an interesting and challenging shape.

Completely theoretical idea coming up ........ Why not try it the same way the original was probably made , a mould made in casting sand. Only in your case a mould made out of an expoxy putty,  Milliput or similar.

Looking at your first drawing , wheel appears in to be two halves bolted together, so that's a help to start. Then if you split your cross section vertically then you only have to make a mould for one half of a half of a wheel , I know there is a better way of describing this but I can't think of it now, and cast in resin 4 copies..

I would first of all glue on to some plastic card two strips forming the outer and inner diameter of the rim , these strips will in the shape of a semi-circle. Leave these to harden and cut, say from brass the the external profile of one half of the rim ( the cross section halved vertically) attach the brass profile to a rod ...... This rod should fit into the axle hole the correct distance away from the two plastic strips. Fill the space between the strips with epoxy putty, if you use Milliput you soften it down with some water ..... Then turn rod/ profile piece around to form the shape of the rim.

When hardened off remove plastic strips and build the spokes from axle hole out to rim , you can use more Milliput to blend the end of the spoke into rim, a silicone mould from this and cast up 4 copies in resin. Clean up and glue together then sand true by spinning in your drill.

This would still leave you having to form the inner groove for the pulley, not sorted that bit out in my head yet.

As I said completely theoretical but maybe some of my rambling might help

[marc_reusser]

This is where I would use that solution/aproach derided as cheating/non-modeling,........and have it printed in 3D.

Marc

[Chuck Doan]

Peter, do you have another view of that wheel. like how the spokes join the rim?