October Update - the AI Invasion

Proto People

An example of prototype people I can 3D print for my layout

I have spent much of October involved in developing a range of figures suitable for the Aquia Line. This is because there are very few civil war era figures available in the market that are in non-combat poses. So I decided to make my own.

One of my long term objectives was to learn 3D sculpting software to sculpt and then print those figures for my railroad.  I considered Zbrush and Blender as possible software tools for this. Both have pretty steep learning curves so I delayed learning them. Zbrush is also very expensive, while Blender is free, open source. However, I learned about a new sculpting service called Meshy that greatly simplifies the process. Meshy uses AI functions to convert 2D images into STL files that can be 3D printed.  It is similar to the photogramatry process used in 3D scanning, but it uses AI to extrapolate a 2D image to 3D.  They charge a subscription fee, but it is not too expensive. 

The work flow is  as follows

•     Find an image that I want to use as inspiration for a figure or set of figures. 
•     Clean up the image in Photoshop. 
•     Import the 2D image to Meshy and create an STL.
•     Clean up and or repair the STL file in Blender and  Meshmixer.  For example, add an arm that the AI may have omitted, or fix the insignia or hat style on a figure. I also embellish the facial and other details. 
•     Export a final STL that I can use in Chitubox to create the sliced file that can be used on a 3D printer.

 I am not going to bother going into detail on any of those steps as there are thousands of websites and Youtube videos that explain them. The bottom line is that this work flow saves me a lot of time in the sculpting phase of the process.

With this I have been able to produce 3D prints of actual people that I find in images taken on the actual Aquia Line. I have developed a range of these figures that I sell on my Alkem scale models web site https://alkemscalemodels.biz/proto-people

Story Telling 

Another one of my long term objectives is to use the USMRR Aquia Line as a string and prop for telling stories in video or graphic novel format. I am not a big fan of  superhero graphic novels. But I do like more realistic and historical stories told in graphic format and they are fun to make. However, the possibility of making a video story has been enhanced with the use of some of the new AI video tools that are coming available. I have done a limited test of these and the results are promising, but not quite where they need to be yet to make a good video short. 

Here is a test video that I made using mostly Grok, but also some RunwayML. 

Unfortunately, RunwayML has been disappointing. Grok works better but has many limitations. So, for now, this objective will have to wait until the AI video generating software improves. 

NMRA MER Annual Convention

I attended the NMRA MER Annual convention in King of Prussia, PA, which is a suburb of Philadelphia, PA. The convention was fun, although a bit on the expensive side. The hotel was very nice and convenient to a lot of other attractions, such as the Audubon Center, where I went twice to bird watch.  I went to one op session, managed to attend one clinic and spent a good part of Saturday acting an an evaluator for the Model Contest.

The model contest was very well run. My team was very proficient and did a great job in evaluating the many models. I also entered a model in the contest, so I had to sit out that category.

I am happy to report that my model of the USMRR Machine shop won three awards,

•     First Place in On-Line Structure
•     The Charles Haldik Memorial Award for best model of a southern RR subject
•     Best in Show

I will be taking the machine shop to one more show, then I will be installing it on the USMRR Aquia Line. I should mention that I used figures from my new line to populate the model.

On my way home I stopped at 4 model railroad open houses. All were very nice. I met Bruce Friedman, who is an Alkem Scale Models customer and has an impressive modern prototype based railroad.  He was kind enough to demonstrate his contemporary US Army tank train on his layout. It is an amazing 70-car long train full of DODX cars hauling Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and a few other odds and ends.  

Bruce had this posted on the wall of his train room.

It was an interesting coincidence that his and my model railroads were featured in the same issue of Model Railroader. 

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.

The Sarlacc Pit?

 

Mock up of engine storage tracks

I was distracted for a few days by an interesting track plan assignment. So today, I started building the pit for the turntable. If you recall, I built this turntable for the Road Show several years ago. I saved the rotating wooden part, but not the pit. So I had to make a new pit. Note that this pit is a conical shape, like the Sarlacc Pit in Star Wars. Now I need Boba Fett figure for the turntable scene. 

I thought, "no problem, I have the files for the parts on my computer, I'll just cut an another set and glue them up." That went well enough for the main pit. But,... for some reason, the wedge-shaped pieces to make the surface of the pit were not the correct size. I must not have saved the final version of that file. So I had to redraw those parts. Now, they are tricky to design as I had to cut the parts in 2D but rotate up to make a 3D cone. It's kind of like trying to make a model of a building with hipped roof from 2D plans, except a bit trickier as this is a truncated cone or frustum.

I could have spent a few hours doing the math, but instead I got out my calipers, measured the required shape and cut the parts on the laser. It took a try or two but I got the parts I needed. I cut those parts from 0.032 in thick laser board. 

Plan B v2 with storage tracks

Now the decision is where to place the turntable. I am coalescing on a modified version of Plan B from my earlier post.  Note that I am adding two engine storage tracks to the design. I like how the parked engines look alongside the engine house. The storage tracks are needed as I have 6 engines, but we usually only use 2 or 3. 

I did a short video describing how the turntable could fit in the space. 

New Engine House and Machine Shop at Aquia Landing

 Work in Progress on the new engine house and machine shop

MYSTERY PROJECT REVEALED!

I have started work on a new engine house and machine shop. This project was inspired by a letter by Herman Haupt to General Burnside where he briefly described an engine shop at Aquia Landing. 

November 17, 1862-11 a.m.

Major-General BURNSIDE:
I have just returned from Aquia Creek. ....snip...
A machine-shop will be extemporized at Aquia by sending lathes, planer, portable, small tools, and shafting. Army forges will furnish smith-shops.
HAUPT.

From the machines and tools he described I assume that this would be a shop for light repairs and maintenance on locomotives and rolling stock.   

This project consists of three main phases, design and build the machine shop, build and add the tools,  install everything on the layout. These are somewhat iterative as the size of the machine shop needed will depend on how many machines are included.

1. Design and build the machine shop 

 I decided I wanted this to be a higher quality model than the existing engine house I built years ago for the Road Show. So I scrapped that structure saving the roof shingled sections. I plan to redo all the windows, so I removed the Tichy windows and put them in the spares box.

Engine house framing at City Point

 The  new single track engine house at Aquia Landing will be based on the one at City Point with just one stall instead of the 3 at that location.  The length will be 15 inches with the main posts on 10-foot centers.  The frame members will all be stick built with bass wood strips. Some I will cut on my laser for precise fit of the miters and tenons (yes they look like Lincoln Logs).  I used 3/16th inch wood as that scales out to 9 inches in O Scale. Heavier beams just didn't look right. 

Framing plan for new engine house

Engine house and machine shop
at City Point

At City Point, the machine shop was installed at right angles to the engine house. I opted to make my parallel to the engine house to maximize room inside for the machine tools and work benches. I have not decided where to place the boiler house with steam engine. That depends on where I install the engine house.

I initially planned to add the engine house and machine shop inside the wye and Aquia Landing where the current engine house is located. But several other plans came to my mind.

Alternative plans for location of new engine house and machine shop

Plan A is possibly the simplest (see lead photo). The engine house resides inside the wye. There would be no changes to the track plan. The drawback is that the location of the machine shop would make it hard to see all the cool detail inside. 

Plan B mock up

Plan B moves the engine house close to the aisle between Aquia Landing and Burnside Wharf. To accomplish that, the wye gets replaced by a turntable. I have an extra turntable leftover from the Road Show, so it would not be that much work to add it. The drawback here is that the turntable might be a little difficult to reach as it is deep in benchwork. The plus is that it gives the most flexibility as there would be two tracks to access the turntable. 

Plan C Mock up

Plan C has the turntable and the shop close to the aisle by placing it alongside the engine house. This is how they did it at City Point. Accessing the turntable would be easier here. But, there is only one track to access the turntable. 

I like how both B & C make getting to Burnside wharf seem a bit farther away than Plan A as crews can no longer back around the wye to get there, they have to go all the way back to the yard and them come down the back track. B & C also remove the wye track that was probably my least reliable piece of track. It worked well most of the times, but sometimes trains derailed on the wye, especially when backing. 

The location of the boiler house and steam engine to power the tools would change depending on which plan I pick. In  Plans A & B, the boiler house is parallel to the shop. In Plan C the boiler house is perpendicular to the engine house.  In all those cases, the steam engine pulley would be parallel to the main line shaft.  

What are your thoughts? Comment below. 

2. Building the Tools

I am just about done making the tools for the machine shop. I am using some kits from Wildwest Models plus models that I am drawing in Fusion 360 and then printing.  So far I have the following:

1. Planer 1    Wildwest kit
2. Planer 2     3D print
3. Engine lathe  Wildwest kit
4. Bench lathe  Wildwest kit
5. Slotting machine  3D print
6. Wheel press  3D Print
7. Dill press small Wildwest kit
8. Grinder small Wildwest kit
9. Shaper   TBD
10. Borer   TBD

Mock up of tools in the shop

I will do a more detailed report on the tools when I get them installed.