https://www.ebay.com/itm/333987229860?hash=item4dc330b0a4:g:6XEAAOSwb0ZgkIGD

Bottom quarter of a beer can for the turret.

GMorrison

https://www.ebay.com/itm/333987229860?hash=item4dc330b0a4:g:6XEAAOSwb0ZgkIGD

Bottom quarter of a beer can for the turret.

 

littletimmy

I had to send you an e-mail.... Apparently, the private messaging no longer works for me.  let me know if those will wor

Yeah not sure PM is working for me either. And I got your email. If the scale is right, those could work nicely.

Bakster

 

 

GMorrison

https://www.ebay.com/itm/333987229860?hash=item4dc330b0a4:g:6XEAAOSwb0ZgkIGD

Bottom quarter of a beer can for the turret.

 

 

 

 

This is cool too but I like the turret idea best. I can see Nemo adding a defense like that. I think it would look awesome on the roof! May have to find or build one. 

 

 

On second thought a Gatling gun could be mounted to the roof too. Or, if I want to get really crazy. I could make the rear doors open and have the gun slide out on a rack. So many possibilities to chew on. Thanks Bill.

Stack Crowns?

    Okay here's a tip. You can get stack crowns in many sizes. Just find a Chotschke store( That's what I call them) that sells Home decorating and Miniature items Only.Not H.L., Micheal's or Jo-ann's!. Not necessarily Doll House items. And they  will have little Kerosene lamps. On those lamps are the sockets, Or( Crowns) that hold the glass lamp chimneys. That's where you'll find Chimneys held in place by these very ornate ( Crowns) they were springy, therefore held the glass firmly but gently!

      They do come in all sizes, BUT, be warned some of the smaller ones are Embossed and then Painted on the base of the clear plastic Chimney.Those you want to avoid!

Oh I like the gatling gun!

Not so sure about the auger, she's starting to sound like a Japanese SF submarine...

Cool Sub, Gam. I like it.

Tanker-Builder

Stack Crowns?

    Okay here's a tip. You can get stack crowns in many sizes. Just find a Chotschke store( That's what I call them) that sells Home decorating and Miniature items Only.Not H.L., Micheal's or Jo-ann's!. Not necessarily Doll House items. And they  will have little Kerosene lamps. On those lamps are the sockets, Or( Crowns) that hold the glass lamp chimneys. That's where you'll find Chimneys held in place by these very ornate ( Crowns) they were springy, therefore held the glass firmly but gently!

      They do come in all sizes, BUT, be warned some of the smaller ones are Embossed and then Painted on the base of the clear plastic Chimney.Those you want to avoid!

 

Hey TB, good tip. I searched on-line and I see what your are talking about. Those look pretty good. I will nose around and see what I can find. 

You guys are a great help to this project. 

Baxter: 

         IF they are still available.There may be photos from when the Little Rock Convention Center and Hotel opened. If there is, If, and I say If! They took photos of the Entrance to the Edgewater Lounge and the Model steamboat there. I built that and used the 1/4 sized kerosene lamps for the crowns. There may also be a photo of a very sickly looking guy in the photo annals of The Arkansas Legislative Library standing by a boat done in Multimedia( Cardboard, Draftsmans Border Tape, Balsa and Plastic.) Those crowns came from Very Cheap versions.

TB... I was not able to find the images. That is too bad, I would have liked to see your work.

I will nose around at local stores but I am guessing that in the end, I will scratch build to get the proper scale. It shouldn't be that hard to make.

I had some rare workweek time, made some progress tonight. I drilled portholes into the block, then cut and fit brass sleeves that will go into them. I will post an image in the days ahead. The power plant is starting to look like something.

Yeah:

       I wasn't sure if they even existed anymore. So much work so few remnants, Oh Well, such is life!

Bakster

 

 

Bakster

 

 

GMorrison

https://www.ebay.com/itm/333987229860?hash=item4dc330b0a4:g:6XEAAOSwb0ZgkIGD

Bottom quarter of a beer can for the turret.

 

 

 

 

This is cool too but I like the turret idea best. I can see Nemo adding a defense like that. I think it would look awesome on the roof! May have to find or build one. 

 

 

 

 

 

On second thought a Gatling gun could be mounted to the roof too. Or, if I want to get really crazy. I could make the rear doors open and have the gun slide out on a rack. So many possibilities to chew on. Thanks Bill.

 

The end result for my attempt...

Sorry for the mediocre cell phone pic. Hmmm looks like I need to do some dusting as well, the dust is definitely getting way out of scale!

There are probably simpler and better ways to do this and sorry for the clutter if this is not useful.

Can't wait to see the reactor lit up! Hope you have lots of lead foil for your workbench

Bakster

It just occurred to me that sheet styrene might work. I think it would fit all those requirements

To use a TB idea--go browse the DIY ornament section at HL.  The brass caps for the ornaments are suitably filigréed and very thin.  Bendy, even.

And inexpensive, too.

CapnMac82

 

 

Bakster

It just occurred to me that sheet styrene might work. I think it would fit all those requirements

 

 

To use a TB idea--go browse the DIY ornament section at HL.  The brass caps for the ornaments are suitably filigréed and very thin.  Bendy, even.

And inexpensive, too.

 

Ornament caps, also a good idea and those are around the correct size. I will check that as well. Might need to ride over this weekend.

Thanks Capn.

Back to the bench

 

 

Bakster

 

 

Bakster

 

 

GMorrison

https://www.ebay.com/itm/333987229860?hash=item4dc330b0a4:g:6XEAAOSwb0ZgkIGD

Bottom quarter of a beer can for the turret.

 

 

 

 

This is cool too but I like the turret idea best. I can see Nemo adding a defense like that. I think it would look awesome on the roof! May have to find or build one. 

 

 

 

 

 

On second thought a Gatling gun could be mounted to the roof too. Or, if I want to get really crazy. I could make the rear doors open and have the gun slide out on a rack. So many possibilities to chew on. Thanks Bill.

 

 

 

 

 

For what it is worth when I decided to use a gatling gun on my "Car Wars" post apocalyptic project I ended up scratch building it. I was a bit intimidated at building the barrel assembly but found an online tool that greatly simplified the process. It is a bolt circle calculation tool (lots of them out there) for machinists. I just entered the appropriate info for the number and size of the barrels etc. then cut and pasted the resulting image into PPT and scaled it to be 1:1 on my printer. I used that printed image as a pattern/template to drill holes in sheet styrene to make the spacer disks for the barrels. The barrels are just K&S aluminum tubing. I suspect most CAD packages have a circle array function but I did not have such a tool at my disposal. Here is a link to one of the online calculators...

http://theoreticalmachinist.com/BoltCircleCalc

 

The end result for my attempt...

Sorry for the mediocre cell phone pic. Hmmm looks like I need to do some dusting as well, the dust is definitely getting way out of scale!

There are probably simpler and better ways to do this and sorry for the clutter if this is not useful.

Can't wait to see the reactor lit up! Hope you have lots of lead foil for your workbench

 

 

 

 

Wow! That is an awesome gatling gun! That is some really nice work. I like what you did scratch building it and how you did it. I have a bunch of that KS tubing. Maybe I will explore doing the same if I go with adding the gun. Thanks for posting this.. Very cool.

Here is where I am so far. Most of the pieces are not attached, just placed for photo. 

This weekend I will cut and fit the acrylic inserts. I may get to cutting and fitting the fiberoptic too. I also need to sort out wire routing and of course how best to locate the LED. My hope is 1 LED will do it and that I won't need to do anything special in terms of placement. It is a small space and 1 LED ought to blaze away in the space it's in.

Stopping light leaks could be a challenge. The whole powerplant may glow. That, I wouldn't mind so much. The nuclear reaction is so intence that it's light penetrates the casing. LOL.   

Oh that looks awesome!! Looking forward to seeing it all lighted up!

And I love Gil's gatling gun!!!

Just please don't make Clapper into a radioactive atomic monkey. He's dangerous enough already.

Gamera

Looking forward to seeing it all lighted up!

Me too.

Gamera

And I love Gil's gatling gun!!!

So do I. 

Gamera

Just please don't make Clapper into a radioactive atomic monkey. He's dangerous enough already.

Can't make any promises. He's always clapping around my bench when I am working. Kind of annoying. But like my cat-- he usually comes around when he's hungry. I tell him, "Dude! There are a bunch of bananas in the kitchen! Go get yourself some!" To which he grunts and claps upstairs. Like my cat--always holding out for something better. 

What does it all mean?

At noon break I went downstairs and headed out for a quick walk. As I exit the house I see a package on the stoop. My first thought was, "What the beep!"

Why did I think that? Because in big bold letters, facing up as if to make a point, the box is marked, Baxster.  People often call me Baxster when they post. Maybe a spell check thing.

So I am thinking, who is the smart guy. I thought maybe it was Timmy. He's sending me some stuff for this build. Then it hit me. No. This was an ebay package I am expecting and for whatever reason the box has Baxster on it. Probably the maker of the cardboard box!

Phew. It was a Twilight Zone moment. Maybe it's all that radiation from the powerplant doing me in. And Gam is worried about Clapper. I see how I rate. lol 

Monkey business aside for a moment. You fellow sci-fi people...check out this guys collection. He has a cool collection and he has made some stunning builds. 

https://youtu.be/knuMiwog4yo

Gamera

atomic monkey

The billboard at the 40Watt said "2niTe Only:  Atomic Monkeys/Bring Your Own Cover"

I saw, recently, a brass widget, for some other use, of a par of concentric hoops with a series of cricles around the circumference.  And, my first thought was that they'd make a great start for a steampunk gatling.  Dang it, back to the search--magpies and monkeys are likely to blame.

Sounds like a good idea on that glowing powerplant.

mustang1989

Sounds like a good idea on that glowing powerplant.

 

I installed and tested the LED today.  Not surprising that with no paint on the casing--it glowed big time. It will be interesting to see if light bleeds through after I primer and paint. I did not blackout the interior of the piece, so there may be some.

Btw. The light effect coming through the portholes is as good as I imagined. Tomorrow, I will work on the fiber optics. 

So far, so good.

Fiber optics are installed and covers glued down. A few things I can note about all this.

1. The LED is epoxied into the bottom of the oil pan, and centered as best as possible. I bent the leads at a right angle to facilate fitting.

2. The LED required a 300 ohm current limiting resister. Not having a 300 ohm, I used two 150 ohm resisters in series. I was able to fit them within the assembly.

3. I decided to route the wiring through the transmission. Going through the front would be difficult hiding wires within the front assembly. Also--the front of the assembly rests on the frame and wiring may only complicate things later. Going through the transmission seemed the lesser of two evils.

4. Once past the engine block I formed each fiber optic strand so that they rest on the brightest portion of the LED. That being the top. That gives the maximum light transference.

5. Each strand was positioned then glued at the engine heads.

6. With each strand secured I fed them through the valve covers, and then glued the covers down. 

7. I kept the strands long so I could clip them to the length I want after.

8. I decided to exit them as nubs, sort of like a light plug. I nixed the idea of running them like sparkplug wires because that made it too much like a conventional engine. That I don't want, and in the end, I don't think it would have been as visually interesting. The brightest part of the optic is at its cross section, not at it's side.

9. Once clipped, I sanded and polished the ends. 

10. I used Pledge Floor Care Finish to coat the acrylic light ports. It always amazes me how effective that is to clarify. The difference was stunning. It really made them pop and it provided a deep clarity.

11. The light ports are not secured yet. When they are secured, I will position them deeper into the block. I didn't want to position them that way for the photo because they are tight fit, and I'd risk damaging my work later. I still need them out.

12. I tested the lighting after all this, and I feel it looks pretty darn cool. I will image it for you as I get further along.

What's left? I need to fill some joins, mount the light ports, mount the front voltage converter assembly, do a final clean up, then it's into paint. 

End of update

The power plant is in the final stage before painting. By the weekend I should be spraying it.

While that process finishes out, I started assembly of the box. It's funny how some of the questions I had as a kid crop up now. See piece O28 below. The directions don't make it clear how to install that piece. The diagram gives a rough idea but ... that is about it. I solved the problem by gluing the rear and side panels first, then fit O28 to the underside of the panels. That gets it exactly where it needs to be. As a kid I tried to estimate by the diagram and attach it to O29. That did not work out so well for me.

In an earlier post I mentioned I won't be using the finials. So, I must fill those divots. There might be a better way to do this but here is how I am doing it:

You can see that I filled one of them using plastic from the kit. I got the plastic by cutting the bottom off of the kit provided finial. I then filed it to correct thickness and glued it in place. I am imagining this will give me an overall better contour and at the same time reduce the amount of filler needed, giving a more solid piece. I will mostly need to fill the gap surrounding the finial disks.

Doing this is a fair amount of work but I think worth it. I could spend just as much time trying to contour filler and I suspect with not as good a result. At least that being the case for me. Shaping large areas of filler is not my best talent. Maybe someday. 

This piece will require a lot of work. I plan to have the cover removeable. Not sure yet what I will do to dress up the underside. It's pretty sad looking. I'd be doing myself a favor by not making it removeable. I also need to construct the stack and I am seriously considering a monitor like turret gun. (Thanks GM, great idea.) This bullion carriage needs some sort of protection from robbers. I like too the idea of a high- pressure hose to release ore from rock and gravels. On the fence about that. I am still considering an augar or something. Maybe something like a cone shaped screw.

Speaking of finials. It would be an interesting study to learn about them and the history of these funeral carriages. I recently watched a video on old mining towns of the west and there one sat, finials and all. It looked in too good a shape to be an actual relic though. I suspect it was a tourist gimmick. But --maybe there is some historic fact to it.

GM? 

Ah;

 Therin lies the tale. If a person was wealthy they rode in one to their final resting place. If they weren't, the Funeral Home ( Undertaker) would rent it to families so their loved one went to his or her, resting place with dignity and respect. You see, when the funeral coach went by, the ladies would lower their eyes and men would remove their hats as a show of respect as well.

     The finials were patterned after the funeral lamps from a looong time ago, that would burn for the first thirty days after a person's passing.To light their way home.

Tanker-Builder

Ah;

 Therin lies the tale. If a person was wealthy they rode in one to their final resting place. If they weren't, the Funeral Home ( Undertaker) would rent it to families so their loved one went to his or her, resting place with dignity and respect. You see, when the funeral coach went by, the ladies would lower their eyes and men would remove their hats as a show of respect as well.

     The finials were patterned after the funeral lamps from a looong time ago, that would burn for the first thirty days after a person's passing.To light their way home.

 

That is pretty interesting TB. I want one for when I pass. I want lights to guide me home too! Lol.

Thanks for sharing that. Very interesting.

She's lookin' good!!! Looking forward to seeing how she looks with everything together.

Gamera

She's lookin' good!!! Looking forward to seeing how she looks with everything together.

 

Thanks Gam. It should be cool when done and with what I have planned for it.  A long road in front of me, still. Should be quicker than the Icarus though! I hope.

I am enjoying the build.

Bakster

I installed and tested the LED today.  Not surprising that with no paint on the casing--it glowed big time. It will be interesting to see if light bleeds through after I primer and paint. I did not blackout the interior of the piece, so there may be some.

Bill