Category Archives: Publishing

1:48 (US O Scale 1/4"), Acrylics, My other sites, O Scale, Oils, Pastel Powder, Powders, Scales, Weathering, Web

Modelling diversions – and why they are needed

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Image courtesy of: http://www.airplaneboneyards.com

It’s been some time since I modelled anything other than railways or railway related stuff. A couple of years ago at the local scale modelling club’s Annual Show (full disclosure I am a board member there) I purchased a cheap and cheerful 1:48 scale F-111E for very little money from one of the club members who was looking to offload it.

It has been a frustrating, and yet a strangely enjoyable process to go through building an aircraft for the first time in over 30 years. That it happens to be in the same scale as my 0 scale railway endeavours doesn’t hurt.

Work on this has been one of the reasons why I’ve been so quiet here on the HVL and Andrew’s Trains. I got into a bit of a rut and realised that I needed a break away from modelling and making trains for a bit; the joy of modelling went stale.

If you’d like to follow along with that build process and all the frustrations and pitfalls I’ve met along the way head on over to my other modelling site for the build process and what I hope will be a unique model at the end of the Boneyard Build.

Here’s what I’m aiming for as a model and diorama (although not sure about the paint scheme yet).

Image courtesy of http://www.taringa.net/

There’s a lot of weathering on these aircraft that I’ve noticed as I researched. And that I am really looking forward to.

1:43.5 (7mm Scale), 1:48 (US O Scale 1/4"), Design Updates, HO Scale, O Scale, OO Scale (4mm:Foot), S Scale, Scales, Site seeing, Site Updates, This Site, Web

Site update: New modelling page

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Ballarat - May 2013
Ballarat – May 2013

I’m slowly working to catalogue and curate all of my railway and modelling related images. I’m doing this in part so that I can share them all with you here; also to allow me to find the photos I need for modelling when I need them.

Site update 1: Modelling Page: High Cube Shipping Containers

There are several useful resources available on the above link. These include:

  • A gallery of detail images of a 40′ HC container taken in 2013
  • A downloadable PDF for all HC containers sizes in metric and imperial should you wish to make your own (especially for the 3D printer)
  • Details of suppliers in most of the popular scales including some free through more paid resources

I hope that you find this useful for your modelling purposes. Drop me a line if you make use of any of the resources.

About, Acrylics, Ballarat Tramway, Museums, Oils, Pastel Powder, Powders, Site Updates, This Site, Weathering, Web

Site Update – 17 July 2016

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I’ve been quiet the last month; too much work and not enough time to focus on more enjoyable things in life such as modelling. Additionally the weather in Ballarat has been amazingly cold and that has put the brakes on any outdoor activities including spraying and other painting tasks that I have waiting to be done.

In the meantime I’ve been working on a couple of models and updating the site; adding several new pages and a new section and a gallery. Enough of the blather and let’s move onto what’s new on site.

Update 1: New section – Weathering

BLI Trackmobile weathering
BLI Trackmobile weathering

I’ve been asked by several people to show how I weather my railway models (at my local model club, and online) and I’ll be building up the information here about how I weather using weathering powders, pastel powders, graphite and acrylic and oil paints. For now there is a gallery of some of my HO cars fleet. There are other cars (in HO and O scale) not yet complete that I’ll add over time.

Update 2: New subsections in Ballarat Trams

IMG_1674_2&3 Road_Bergonia's Monday_In the morning LightAs a volunteer conductor on the Ballarat Tramway Museum I have unprecedented access to the trams, and the infrastructure of the tramway museum. Slowly but surely I am collecting tram and infrastructure photos of the tramway. Each tram and the tramway infrastructure have their own page. While mostly empty I’ll be filling each page with images taken over the last several years. Mostly my images were taken in the last 9 months and are representative of the current state of the museum fleet, grounds and infrastructure..

As always use the links on the menu at the page top to get around.

SUFE, This Site, Web

The Happy 18th (Big Girl) Birthday Post

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18 years ago today, we were lucky to be gifted with a wonderful little girl.

Southern Pacific NW-2E No. 1303
Southern Pacific NW-2E No. 1303 – Copyright Andrew Martin 2005

She’s not as little and has accomplished so much in her life this far. I am proud of her for the strength shown and the growth she has achieved. I am humbled by her achievements and resilience. Great way for a dad to feel.

So despite teenage angst, and troubles with tribbles, she’s still as much of a gift today as she was 18 years ago. Happy Birthday Bella!

(Note the obligatory railway content)

Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web, YouTube

Site seeing – June 19, 2016 – The big city edition

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Today’s site is a masterpiece. No more hyperbole, so let’s get straight to it.

Site 1: Industrial switching layout – City Limits

While the site is in French, using Google translate allowed me to get a better understanding of the content. Visually I find this layout a stunning, well thought out and executed ISL. I hope that you enjoy it too.

Site 2: YouTube – City Limits

Site 3: YouTube – City Limits 2

Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site Seeing – June 17, 2016 – The Tutorials edition

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My son Ewan got into Warhammer 40K 3 years ago, and while he has been slow to pick the game up we’ve worked together to complete the models and getting them ready for paint.

Among the things I’ve noticed is that gamers are great scratchbuilders. So today I have four outstanding tutorials for you to look at – all from the same site.

Site 1: Rob Hawkins’ Hobby Blog – Making Crates

A highly creative way to make light and sturdy crates of just about any size, using pink foam (or any foam you can get your hands on). A great tutorial on how to and why to make crates Rob’s way.

Site 2: Rob Hawkins’ Hobby Blog – Pipes

It is amazing what Rob can come up with. I’d not thought to use this technique to model the pipes so often associated with our model railroads. Another great tutorial  and relatively cheap to boot compared to some of the pipe kits I’ve seen available.

Site 3: Rob Hawkins’ Hobby Blog – Stairs

Another simple to do, but hard to imagine (at least for me) tutorial on how to make stairs. With a full step by step style Rob takes you through a start to finish on how to custom make and fit the stairs for the model.

Site 4: Rob Hawkins’ Hobby Blog – Flagstone Street

An innovative use for what normally I’d struggle to use, thick cardboard. What a great idea it turns out to be. I’m looking forward to using this on some new dioramas I have in mind and for a new layout idea I have in mind.

Site 5: Rob Hawkins’ Hobby Blog – Cornfield

This tutorial is a two-for, that is you get to learn how to make stone walls and assorted stone wall pieces and you get to model the corn field. Once again some really interesting techniques and outcomes. Highly useful for those of us modelling anywhere in the midwest, or even Texas.

Liked off site, Site seeing, Site Updates, Sites of interest, Web

Site seeing – Tueday 14 June 2016

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As you tool around the web you come across some interesting and useful sites. I’ve found it hard to have a simple to find and use repository since the end of basic HTML coding. I’ve bookmarked and so on but I wanted to have a better place to go.

So today I’ve added a new section for these resources.  I’ll add site links when I find them; adding information about the sites so that you decide their value before you visit them.

Visit the following two pages:

Enjoy

Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web, YouTube

Site Seeing – May 22 (the I needed some steam therapy post)

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I woke up this morning after dreaming about driving steam trains all night. Don’t know why, but there it is. So over a breakfast of toast and jam, and a cup of tea I got in some serious steam therapy and wanted to share my sense of serenity with you.

If you are in need of some steam therapy, consider the therapist ‘in’. Sit back, crank up the sound and enjoy.

Therapy session 1 – UP Challenger #3985 + 143 Freight Cars

While I understand why steam is no longer the king of the rails, doesn’t it make you wonder ‘what if’?

Therapy Session 2 – Steam Locomotives At Speed

While not as imposing as the UP Challenger, there is something cathartic and invigorating about seeing express locomotives ‘expressing’ themselves at high-speed; enjoy!

Therapy Session 3 – Steam trains at speed

I want to make sure that you are as revitalised as I am. So here is a little more therapy for a bleak, cool and windy Sunday (at least in Ballarat). Go get a coffee, or tea, or frothy beverage of choice, and relax into 45 minutes of enjoyment.

I hope that you got some value from our therapy session this morning. I think that we should see one another again soon. Let’s schedule another session in … well leave a comment, or like this post, and we’ll see when we can fit one another in eh?

Site Updates, This Site, Web

Site Update – May 21

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It’s been a rather busy month with the doing and the finding of new work. However, late last week I finally got around to updating and uploading images and new pages. Let’s get into what’s changed and what is new.

Galleries section

In the USA section (that’s been empty for far too long) I’ve added two new subsections, and galleries beneath each one. Of particular note are the Austin TX, and Kyle TX areas.

Kyle, Texas in particular had some great rail served classics from the long gone era of railroading when we first moved there in early 2001. Including a two spot Quonset hut for the local Co-Op. All gone now of course, but forever kept in posterity here.  It would make a great modelling challenge, and something that would work from the post-war (WW2) period through the late 80s to early 1990s period. There are also some other Co-Op related buildings in this new gallery too.

The Austin, TX gallery has two new subsections for review:

East Austin

  • TSE Boxcars – showing a set of detail images for Texas South-Eastern Railroad Company (reporting mark TSE) boxcars parked up near the HEB supermarket off East 7th Street.
  • Historic buildings – East Austin Ice Factory – shows an iconic med 20th century ice factory serving the East of Austin. Not a lot of photos but enough to draw inspiration and make a great model from.
  • Railroad infrastructure – shows a few shots of the area between 5th and 7th Street in the same area as the Ice Factory. And some fascinating track formations in the few photos that I have.

Bergstrom Lead

  • This is all of the photos from the article I wrote sometime ago on modelling the Bergstrom Lead in Austin’s South.
HO Scale, Large, Layout Design, Site seeing, Sites of interest, Web

Site Seeing – May 14 (the All American Model Railroad show issue)

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Thanks to Neil Cowie, a friend and former fellow member of the Essendon Model Railway club in Glenroy – Melbourne, I got invited down to his new club’s show today.

Site 1: US Model Railroad Club of Australia

The US Model Railroad Club of Australia are all US modellers (obviously) and model a variety of US prototype. You can find the club’s web presence on Facebook. Their show was open today, Saturday 14 May, and will be again tomorrow from 09:30 – 16:00 hours at 27 Talmage Street, Albion, Victoria. For locals it is Melways ref: 26 – F10.

The club has only been going for a relatively short time (a couple of years) but they’ve secured club rooms in an iconic (some might say landmark) building in suburban Melbourne and have made a solid start on a large HO scale club layout.

Based in the former Albion railway sub-station, one of several built around the Melbourne metropolitan railway system in the 1910s which housed large rotary converters to transform the 20,000V AC electric current supplied by the Victorian Railway’s Newport Power Station to 1500V DC to power Melbourne’s electric trains. Luckily that very building now allows them plenty of floor space.

If you get  chance tomorrow drop by and visit with Neil. Tell him that Andrew sent you. He’ll get a kick out of that I’m sure. Below is a work in progress shot of the layout.