Saturday, June 24, 2017

A Holiday Observation and Other Things

Well, the sheep finally got tired of watching the trains go by and decided to have some lunch.

Train watching
Time for lunch
On our recent caravaning holiday to South Australia, it became obvious as we saw paddock after paddock, that 99% or more of the sheep were busy head down, grazing and I realised that I had to do something about it.

Once back home I fired up the computer and turned to my latest favourite modelling tool (as if you haven't noticed). I spent some time 'converting' a standing, head up sheep to a grazing one. It is just lucky that the sheep couldn't feel anything as I cut its head and neck off at the shoulders and swung it downwards. That was the easy part, I then had to fill in the gap caused and some hours later it was done.

Once the trial print sprue of 64 White Strong and Flexible sheep arrived from Shapeways I sprayed them with my dirty sheep colour, Tamiya XF57 Buff. This was followed up with Model Master Skin Tone - Tint Base for the face and the lower legs (below the knees as the wool doesn't grow there). At this stage I snipped the sheep from the sprue so that I could more easily paint their rear end with Model master Dark Tan (either observe or think about it). Now both Model Master paints were thinned with some acrylic solvent so that the colour would not be so strong and would flow and blend with the base colour. I make my acrylic solvent with about 70% methylated spirits and 30% window cleaner.

While the last two colours can be seen with the naked eye they haven't shown up in the above photo so perhaps I was being a little too subtle.

Anyway I am very happy with them and have ordered another sprue of 64 grazing sheep and they are now available from my Shapeways Signals Branch shop.

What about the heads up sheep? Well they will be going into the stock race yards when I build them as there is nothing to eat in the yards.

More Brass Signals

Since my last news about the brass signals I have been busy and now have 15 brass signals on my shop along with the appropriate White Strong and Flexible bases that the signals plug into.

I have listed them them here but please go to my shop to see them.

  • 16 ft post signal with 1 Siding Arm and other detail parts

  • 18 ft post signal with 1 30 inch Arm and other detail parts

  • 18 ft post signal with 1 30 inch Arm + 1 Siding Arm and other detail parts

  • 23 ft post signal with 1 36 inch Arm and other detail parts

  • 23 ft post signal with 2 Siding Arms and other detail parts

  • 23 ft post signal with 3 Siding Arms and other detail parts

  • 27 ft post signal with 1 39 inch Arm and other detail parts

  • 27 ft post Distant signal with 1 Distant Arm and other detail parts 

  • 27 ft post Home and Distant signal with 1 Home and 1 Distant Arm and other detail parts

  • Left Hand Offset Bracket  signal with 1 36 inch Arm and other detail parts

  • Right Hand Offset Bracket  signal with 1 36 inch Arm and other detail parts

  • Left Hand Bracket  signal with 1 39 inch + 1 30 inch Arm and other detail parts

  • Right Hand Bracket  signal with 1 39 inch + 1 30 inch Arm and other detail parts

  • Inverted or Underslung Bracket  signal with 1 39 inch Arm and other detail parts

  • Scarborough Siding Bracket signal - no Siding arms.

  • Sprue or 4 Siding arms, 2 Calling On arms, 2 Shunt Ahead Arms and 2 Wrong Road Arms.

I have just ordered an Inverted Bracket in Brass for my layout as the train drivers will have a sighting problem under a road bridge at Cox's Gap if a normal starter signal is used. I also wanted to get an order in before this GST change started for online overseas orders on 1 July 2017. I don't know how Shapeways will handle this although they do apply VAT on British orders.

If ordering the bracket signals then be careful as the view that the Shapeways system has put up is from the rear so the left bracket looks like a right and vice versa. Read and go by the model name. I have tried to change this but all I can do is change the orientation of the view that you get on the next web page once you have clicked on it.

As may have been noticed, there is one 'odd ball' signal among the fifteen and that is a bracket signal that was in the sidings at Scarborough on the Illawarra line. This signal was done for a friend and has been made available on the 1 in 1000 chance that someone else would want/need it. The bracket is unusual as it has two dolly posts and no main post above the landing, one dolly post is in the usual position on the outer end of the landing and the other is in the middle of the landing, very strange.

I will be doing the small brackets that held the small centrally pivoted siding signals that were attached below the main signals and these will be in brass. There seems to have been three variations of the brackets, an early McKenzie and Holland somersault type, a cast iron one of the Byles type and a fabricated one. I will do all three and probably put multiples of brackets and arms of each type on a sprue of each type. These will be done with a peg that will allow them to be mounted on White Strong and Flexible (WSF), Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD) and Brass signal posts by drilling a hole in the post where required and glueing or soldering them in place. These will be operational but the operating rod will be bent in a 'Z' shape as there is no way that the actual mechanism could be workable, too small. If you aren't sure what I mean by a Z shape then turn it on its side (sort of).

Of course I still have to draw up some more steel post signals including bracket signals, does it never end?

It is lucky that I enjoy the creative process as another form of modelling.

Oh, yes, here is something I did for a friend, a funnel for a H Class 17 Class Post 1924 re-classification). Something else that will have only limited appeal.

I have made it available in Frosted Ultra Detail, Frosted Extreme Detail and Raw Brass, I suggest that the brass version although more expensive will be the one to go for as the top of the early funnels were polished brass.

Ok, that's all for now.





Monday, June 12, 2017

Signals Branch Pricing Update

Well, after waiting for a couple of weeks on tenterhooks it seems that about 95% of my signals and other items on my Signals Branch Shapeways shop are cheaper!

We were away on holidays in our caravan when the pricing was updated by Shapeways (see previous post) so I wasn't able to have a really close look until we returned. I spent all last week going through things item by item and re-drawing several to reduce the price.

Several items went up but even those mostly weren't too bad. The largest price hike was US$30 for the set of 18 Werris Creek Station Awning Posts and Brackets in Frosted Ultra Detail. The pricing change as outlined last post related to Shapeways pricing in the waxy support material used in the FUD printing process to support any cantilevered parts. Of course the posts with brackets look like palm trees so a lot of support material would be used from the printer base upwards to the brackets, etc.

The answer was to turn them upside down and remove the supporting sprues on the bases of the posts, unfortunately, while the price dropped it was still too expensive. Strangely by doing the same to the set of 6 posts and brackets that are also available they worked out very well and as a result I have removed the set of 18 from sale as 3 lots of 6 works out only about US$5 more than the original price of the set of 18.

I hope all that makes sense and I give this information here to show some of the re-adjusting caused by the re-pricing. Incidentally, I had actually sold two lots of the 18 posts and brackets prior to the re-pricing which was nice as I wasn't sure if the Werris Creek bits would hold too much interest.

Also re-priced was the Precious Metals of which Raw Brass is a part. I was quite worried by this and had calculated that the two brass signals I had just added to the shop would go up by AU$7 - AU$8.

It seems however that I got the calculation wrong as the signals have dropped.

On the Signals Branch shop the 23' timber post signal and details bits was US$49.95 and is now US$44.50 while the 23' steel round post signal and parts was US$45.95 and is now US$39.95.

At the current exchange rate the two signals with the White Strong and Flexible (WSF) base mechanisms and FUD ladders work out at AU$79.50 for the 23' timber signal and AU$73.40 for the 23' steel signal (less brass).

There is always a 'fly in the ointment' though'.

Although not on the shop as yet, the Werris Creek platform starter bracket signal Raw Brass printing price went up by US$11.00!

If I can, some careful design investigation to try to keep the price down will be required for the other steel bracket signals.

The brass C32 tall 1907 sand boxes went down in price by US$4.95.

The brass counterweight levers and bracket signal bell cranks also dropped.

I have to stop here as there are too many to list, so go and have a look at the new prices.

Of course I have stated the US$ prices here mostly as the designers only get to work in US$ and the AU$ price varies with the conversion rate.

Incidentally, Shapeways only adjust the conversion rate once a month but I don't know when.