September Update

The month isn't over, but the first three weeks have been super busy, so I decided to do an update.

1. National Capital Model Soldier Society (NCMSS) Annual Show 

This was the 64th Annual show by the NCMSS. It was one of the most successful to date. This year had over 70 individual exhibitors in the competition with approximately 345 pieces on display, along with 179 general admission tickets sold. All  display categories were very well represented to include figures of all genres, ordnance, vehicles, aircraft, ships, Gundam and always impressive dioramas. 

 Highlights included the Judges’ Best of Show awarded to James Rice for his Fantasy Display and the People’s Choice Best of Show that went to Steve Pyle for the fourth year in a row. My brother and I received the show theme award "Celebrating 250 Years of the U.S. Military" for our "Train Busters" diorama. Jack Thompson won the Best Marine and Tony Stencil for the Best U.S. Infantryman. I entered several models and received 1 gold and 6 silver medals. 

I was busy as the chief judge for the ordanance category, so I did not participate in any of the clinics offered at the show. However, I did take the figure painting class offered by Jim Rice at the National Museum of of the US Army in the 2 days before the show.  In the class we worked on a bust of a Continental Infantry man. We focused on the skin and eye painting.  

I finished the figure after the class. I painted him as a member of the 1st Virginia Regiment at Valley Forge.

The class was very informative. I learned several lessons on using acrylic paint a figure especially on painting texture, and skin tones using verdaccio base coat. Jim has an award winning style. It was interesting to learn how he approaches achieves it. 

2. MARPM 2025

The next weekend was MARPM 2025. This is an event totally run by volunteers with me as the director. It was also a successful meet. The largest we have had yet. 

We had about 36 clinics, 10 open houses and 3 operation sessions. There were 3 layouts on display at the show including a large O scale layout organized by Dave Vaughn, and one medium size HO layout by John Drye, and several highly detailed models by Scot Wahl. There were several vendors on site and one manufacturer.  

The raffle was also a big hit.  It was a lot of fun, but there was little time to rest because the next weekend was...

3. ACWRRHS Annual Meet

Continuing the busy month, the American Civil War Railroad Historical Society held its annual meeting in northern Delaware on the 18-20th. The meet featured visits to the Hagley Museum, Fort Delaware, Old Town New Castle, several presentations at the hotel, and the inaugural op session on DC Cebula's Delaware Central layout. We capped off the weekend with a group dinner at the colonial era Jessup Tavern in New Castle. 

The Hagley Museum was truly amazing. I never fully realized how gun powder was made in the black powder era, so the visit was very informative for me. My main priority was to visit the operating machine shop at the museum. The docent there was very pleased to have visitors that were so interested in his presentation. We had a very detailed presentation on the tools in the shop.

On the next day we took a ferry over to Fort Delaware. This stone and brick fort was built before the Civil war to protect the Delaware River approach to Philadelphia. The fort was used was a prison for confederates during the civil war. It is now a state part that has been partially restored.   Many of the rooms were equipped with details from the civil war era. I took dozens of photos for detailing ideas.

The mail room at the fort

On the day we visited there were several volunteer docents in period uniforms to answer questions.  The volunteer at the left was very authentic looking. 

 

These trousers caught my eye. Note how dirty they are even after being laundered.

 It was well worth a visit. 

August Update

It has been whirlwind of activity since my last update. I have been traveling, birding, building models, and trying to stay healthy. Here is a summary of the modeling activity. My Facebook feed has more pictures of my travels if you are interested.

The Machine Shop

I finished the machine shop. I installed it on a portable base to take it to some shows before I install it on the layout. I took a few quick photos, but I plan do take more later after I get it installed on the layout. 

I brought it to the IPMS National Convention. They didn't have a category for models like this, so I entered it in the Miscellaneous Category. It did not get a National award, but it did get a couple peer awards.  

My favorite view looking into the line of machine tools

It will be on display at MARPM 2025 and the ACWRRHS Annual Meeting, both of which take place in September. 

Avenging Varus

This is a small diorama I worked on in the past few weeks.  These are the first figure models I have painted in several months. This diorama depicts a scene from the battle of Idistasvisto, 16AD, when the Roman Empire sought and achieved revenge on the German tribes that participated in the Teutoberger Wald battle.

All the figures are 3d prints that I made. The Romans are from Minormous and are about 75mm scale. The dying German warrior is a print from Reconquer  Designs that I scaled up from 28mm. I did a little bit of conversion work on the German to make his fit the scene better. 

I will be showing this at the National Capital Model Soldier Society Annual Show  next week. 

Lotus Diorama 

I built this diorama for the Lotus Club of Washington. They will auction it for charity. I started with a prepainted and assembled die cast model. 

I weathered it for a more realistic appearance. The road is a piece of foam covered with a thin layer of Durham’s Water Putty. 

Roger Sekera

I am saddened to report that Roger Sekera died while in hospice care. He suffered a stroke and heart stoppage while on a cruise in the Atlantic and could not recover.  It was just a few months ago that I spent a few days with he and his wife Sue.  I will miss him. 

News Update: US Army 250th Anniversary and New Location for the D-Day Exhibit

 US Army 250th Anniversary

I am steadily working on the Engine House and Machine shop. I have the windows built and am now adding the exterior planks. I hope to debut the model at the US Army 250th Anniversary Celebration at Joint Base Langley- Eustis on June 13th, 2025.  I will also have other civil war railroad models on display. 

The event is open to the public. You can find more information here.  The Military Railroad Society will be there with prototype and model train exhibits. The Army will have tours of their water vessels, other equipment of display, and lots of things for kids to do. 

Come check it out. 

D-Day Exhibit at 1st Infantry Division Museum 

The D-Day Exhibit with the dioramas we built, Keith Rooco's artwork and his collection of artifacts are now on exhibit at the First Division Museum in Wheaton, IL You can find more information at the link below.

https://www.fdmuseum.org/exhibit/d-day-omaha-beach/

Shafts, countershafts, pulleys, belts, and belt shifters

Side view of the machine shop

View looking through the machine shop. More weathering is required.

The boiler and steam engine were the final machines to add to the machine shop. The boiler is a kit from Crow River.  I used Vallejo Model Air Black Metallic paint on the boiler. It make a nice simulation of Russia Iron typically used on boiler shells.  

 The engine was a file I obtained from GrabCAD. That is a website oriented to engineers vice hobbyists. Still, there are lots of files on it that can be printed in a scale model application. 

I decided the steam engine needed a governor as that was a common feature in mill engines. The governor helps keep the steam engine at a constant speed as the load changes. That is key requirement  when cutting multiple machines are running at specified feed rates and powered from the same source. So I drew a governor, printed it, and added it to the machine.

I installed the boiler and steam engine in an extension to the left of the shop. That means the structure will no longer fit in the wye at Aquia Landing. So, Plan A is now out. 

With all the machines installed, I added the main shaft and countershafts. Some machines get power directly from the main shaft. Other machines use countershafts. 

Countershafts have to fulfill three functions. They may drive at one speed, or at two speeds, but in the same direction; or they may run at two speeds, one for driving, the other for reversal. There are different ways of effecting these movements. I opted for single-speed countershafts with machines that have stepped pulleys. I 3D printed stepped pulleys for these countershafts.

Looking through the roof at the machine shop

Typical belt shifter design

The belt shifters are essentially the on-off switches for the machines. To make them I soldered pieces of 0.032 inch phosphor bronze to the roughly correct shape. I curved the belt shifters slightly to follow the shape of the pulleys. I used extra hangers that I printed to install them except in a few locations where there wasn't room for the full hanger. In those cases I used blocks of wood.

The belt shifters don't spin in the hangers. They slide longitudinally to shift the belts from pulleys that are loose to pulleys that are firmly attached to the shaft.  Each belt shifter was a long, tapered wooden staff that extends about 6 feet above the shop floor.  Operators reach up to grab the wooden staff to engage the belt shifter. I cut those staffs using 1/32nd in birch plywood on my laser cutter. The linkage for the staffs required that I solder a short section of rod at 90˙ to the direction of the belt shifters. I used 1/8 inch square sections of strip wood to hold the belt shifters to the joists.

Belt shifter.

All the shafts, countershafts, pulleys, belts, and belt shifters create a nice complex look. Installing them was almost as tricky as rigging a sail ship model. The view looking down the length of the machine shop is really cool.

Machine Shop Progress

 

Machine shop at the EBT Railroad. It is amazing how many machines they crammed into those old shops.

I finished building most of the models of the  machines I will use in the shop. I have only finished painting and installing the wheel press. The rest need final painting and weathering.  Here is a list with status.

Planer 1    Wildwest kit     

A nice, but expensive, model based a planer in the Sierra Railroad shops. 

Planer 2     3D print from artwork that I modified from a file drawn by dansfoundry at printable.com.  

This model was based on a New Haven planer restored by Vintage Machinery on YouTube. 

Engine lathe  Wildwest kit 

This is the newer version with 3D printed parts

Bench lathe  Wildwest kit Not built yet.

Slotting machine  3D print from my artwork. 

I only had one view of the machine, so I had to make a lot of assumptions about the how it all works and fits together. 

Wheel press  
 3D print from my artwork. Thanks to Marty McGuirk for finding a set of plans from a book on the Sierra Railroad.

This one had the most fiddly parts as there is a very delicate saddle to hold the wheels set in place while pressing it and a chain hoist to help lift the axles.  

I decided to print a wheel set with  33 inch railroad wheels with the cooling fins on the back. I found a drawing of this type of wheel used by the UP. Those wheels were lightweight and discontinued as material gots better and trains got heavier.

While I was at it, I printed extra finned wheels to use as clutter around the shop. 

33" Finned wheel set based on a UP drawing

Dill press small Wildwest kit. This will be mounted on one of the posts in the shop.

Pedestal Grinder  Wildwest kit. A small grinder that can be used for general shop tasks.

Radial Drill Press  3D print from my artwork.  

I based this on the machine that Iron Jonesy is restoring on his Youtube channel. He provided enough information about the machine that I could make a pretty good model of it. The only issue was that he never provided dimensions, so I printed it in two sizes to see which worked better.

This is the artwork of the machine.

I had to thicken up some of the parts to survive  3D printing.

The wheel press is the first tool I installed. It will be in the middle of the shop. I plan to work out from it. 

I should have left some of the beams of the structure off to allow me to fit my hands inside more easily. But this should work.

 I decided to attach the belts to the machines first. Then I will install the line shafts once all the machines are in place and secure the belts to the pulleys on the line shafts. 

I am using 0.010 inch thick resin impregnated board for the belts. It is a bit stiffer than paper and is the right color.

I also printed a bunch of hanger and pulleys that I drew. I am not sure exact ly how many I will need as it depends of how many counter shafts I install.