Gee, I missed your last posts. Looking for more when you finish up the Kwai River bridge. 

I hope you are fairing well in what I hear is something of a record heatwave down in Oz.

Peter ;

 Now you know  why I don't like computer stuff . I animate using mechanical servos and cams . The mechanical servos are pirated from old mechanical units for model rail-roads . Never had any break .Turn on and after three full cycles a cam turns and shuts it off .

Hello Peter!

I know things like that can get complicated very fast. I sure wish I could help you some with this. Unfortunately I don't know the details of your technical solution, but I think if I was to tackle this from the start I would take a chip like the PIC and try to implement a state machine on it. This really helps to bring the structure into the program.

Good luck with your ambitious project and have a nice day

Paweł

Currently starting to have a mental meltdown with the electronics and operating sequencing. There is so much happening because of a boat that automatically traverses under a bridge. I planned to get a haircut tomorrow, but I don't have to now...it's all pulled out

Quite a few drawings had to be overhauled. It makes me wonder why I did not foresee this earlier. Or perhaps it's just me losing the plot (again). What I hate about all this is I spend a few days sorting out several steps to discover that an earlier step is in error, which makes all the following ones in error too.

Getting older does not help. Retaining info . . . I just forgot what I was going to say.

Anyway, I need to step outside regularly within a day. Sometimes it actually helps. Othertimes it makes it worse, because I forgotten what I was retaining in my head. Now I write everything down, which helps some what.

So far, I am halfway through the 14 steps. Each step contains more information because they compound on future steps. Example, vessel traffic lights on bridge span, and boat navigational lights, change depending on boat direction of travel. All this just for the few seconds it takes the boat to travel a short way. I must sound like I am whinging, but I am not. It's just that I am not that smart, and find it hard to figure it all out.

So, while I am headbanging away, I will post some updates on something I was working on last month, The Bridge on the River Kwai. It too is on hold until this bridge gets finished. I plan to have this finished by New Year. Then I will go back and finish the Bridge on the River Kwai project.

Will post a link here, to the other bridge build, soon....

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/19/t/180522.aspx

Gamera

Am looking forward to the completed photos!!! 

Good luck with getting her all finished up on time. 

 

Thank you Gamera for your understanding.

Am looking forward to the completed photos!!! 

Good luck with getting her all finished up on time. 

After completing the water features, it has been full on mechanical and electronic experimentation and construction. Nothing of interest to the modeller. It's all under the table stuff.

I am working day and night to have this model finished by New Year. Well, at least the display will be at the museum. May take longer to have it all working.

Will return here to update with photos of how the display model looks when museum ready.

As a sort of update, this project is still undreway.

Peter has decided to only publish his builds over at modelshipworld.

This one has advanced a bit.  Also, he's been at a Bridge Over the River Kwai, too.

Ewww, that turned out really nice looking 

PF

Dang, that really looks nice! You've just convinced me that I don't need to pour resin in order to make a good representatin of a muddy river in Vietnam! Thanks a lot and good luck finishing your build, have a nice day

Paweł

After three coats of gloss:

Mac, when I was in the RAAF, lower NCOs had to do guard duty, and help in the Mess, one week per year. Soon discovered that anyone who complained to the cook got seved with spit on their plate. I never ruffled the cook. In fact I became good friends with them. Was always able to raid the stores for midnight snack after visiting the wet canteen.

PeterPan

You realize that since you've mentioned food, I've put on weight. If I sat on my bike now, the tires would blow.

Sorry about that.

In my foolish youth, I spend the better part of a year coming up with menus for 45 covers a day, five days a week, week i nand week out.  Which means I have a very learned ability to speak, and write, of food with emotion, yet dispassionately.

Perversely, it's something I cannot seem to do with ship models--if I see something not shipshap or seamanlike, it causes this reflex to go find the Deparrment Head responsible and have a Pointed Conversation with that worthy.  Hard to shake the habits of 24 years, I suppose.

Sealed the arcylic paint with PVA glue.

After it dried . . .

Tomorrow I will start applying a few coats of enamel gloss.

Gamera

Oh wow love the marine life!!!

All the talk about Kraken and food makes me hungry for ojino bokkum (fried squid in Korean hot sauce) though...

I like squid too, but have a hard time chewing octopus, which the Kraken is.

Best squid I ate was in Barcelona. The sack was filled with paella.

CapnMac82

The colors and finsih are really coming together.  It really is starting to look wet. . . 

Thanks Mac. You realize that since you've mentioned food, I've put on weight. If I sat on my bike now, the tires would blow. 

modelcrazy

...You may want to add that treatment to the wood pilings as well.

Decided against that idea. These piers, I believe, are from Turpentine timber, which no barnacle would want to live on.

Oh wow love the marine life!!!

All the talk about Kraken and food makes me hungry for ojino bokkum (fried squid in Korean hot sauce) though...

Oh ! Peter ! 

 You are kickin it man ! That thing is killer . How will you ever let it go ? It looks like you put your heart and soul in there . I have a problem I have to share with you . When I do builds for the Rail Museum I almost hate to part with them , but no room here at home . 

 You are an artist sir . It is not easy to translate what the eye sees into believable miniature size .You have that gift in Spades . Good On You , Mate   T.B.

CapnMac82 ! 

 Hey ! quit yammerin about TEXAS chow ! We all know it's the best ! Besides you're making Me Hongry ! I kinda favor Mesquite and Oak wood for my  " Q " Still haven't learned how to make it myself though .  T.B.       There's a place close by that still serves it that way ! Besides I love Texas food of all types ! One look at me would confirm that !

The colors and finsih are really coming together.  It really is starting to look wet.

The filling all the spaces with tidbits is a classic Disney practice.  Not only does it fill the visual field in ways we humans scant notice, but, it also helps provide a sense of wonder, of finding something no one else has--key items for a museum.

BTW, in Texas, our barbecue tradition comes from German immigrants who settled here largely in 1840-1850.  They moved to our Hill Country and settledinto the cattle & meat business.  In those days before refrigeration, smoke curing was a handy substitute.  Oak was plentiful, so, that's what the pits were stoked with.  By the early 1900s almost all the meat markets in Central Texas had an attached smoker.  Often, this was a way to slow cook low-value cuts, like brisket.  About the time of WWI, the shops started carrying side dishes for those not buying entire primals, or to-order cuts.  To this day, the "classic" form is to get meat on butcher paper with some bread and your choice of side dishes (beans, potato salad, cole slaw, etc.)  It was only after WWII that sit-down restaurants started featuring plated versions of the meals grabed as take-aways.

Texas being the wee sort of place that it is (800x800mi, call it 1000kmx1000km), differnt woods became regional preferences.  So, there can be disputes among Texans about the wood used. 

Looks really great Peter  The acrylic varnish (several coats) will take care of the reflections. The footings look sweet with the barnacles. You may want to add that treatment to the wood pilings as well.

Thanks T.B. for funny response. It sure does not look safe to use your toes for bait. Even the fish are swimming away for their lives.

___________________________

Was not too happy with the footings, so I visited our Missingham bridge to make observations. These footings had some barnacles on it. Also studied the reflections of the pier on the water.

Decided to follow this example. I avoided using a flood brown colour on the footings, for it would have a strong colour contrast with the bluish waters. So I used various shades of grey to neutralize colour comparisons. Exagerated the barnacles to make it look like barnacles at such a small scale.

Cleaned up the wharf. Added another submerged tentacle to the kraken (near side). With the gangway in place, the kraken will be partly hidden (a sneaky fellow). Painted the fish and jellyfish swimming away from the kraken.

Geez Louize !

 Peter , You are going to make me go Bonkers . Not that I am the far from it anyway ! Build ships for over sixty years and you begin to see strange things . I used to have a lifestyle similar to you , after the first Missus passed .

 Turned out to be the best fish chef in the Bethel Island  California ,area . But here in the Great State of texas . I leave Q and Tex-mex to the pros . Because of dietary restrictions there are certain Q places I have to avoid .

I am the same way about sports too . When I was younger I would root for my favorite team . But , I never got caught up in it enough to make my house look like a team Gift Shop ! I know those who do though . Crazy I say !

 Are you going to leave anyplace safe for this old man to twiddle his toes in the water ? I have to say , The shallow water effect is just primo , mate !

Not much to see here. Just a few touch-ups is all I had time for today. I was too tired after riding a 25 mile race. All the way I did not see one rider in front of me.

Played around with the bridge footings at water level. Tried to give a better impression than just cement and coloured water.

Then decided to add other sea creatures besides the kraken.

May get the kids to count how many jellyfish there are.

Greg

My Gosh you are talented.

I'm pretty much speechless, which is rare......

My Gosh you are talented.

I'm pretty much speechless, which is rare......