Weekend Update 4/19/20

[craigolio1]

I made some good progress on my Lake Cowichan modules this week. I also decided to ad a third short module to the set so I could model a ballasted deck pile trestle that’s always fascinated me. That was built this week.



Complete details in the built thread.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=49229.15

Thanks for checking in. Stay safe.

Craig.

[johnb]

How can you tell those are not three car trains?
Otto K.

You ask a PE nut this question.. 

[Frank Amato]

Coming in hot, I hooked up my first DCC Specialties frog-AR unit; super-easy installation and is working great!



  Frank

[up1950s]

I don’t model N scale anymore, but I think I’ve posted enough in the past to warrant a guest-post of my HO work....

The Weekend Update IS for ALL SCALES , even fish , spring , and climbing . BTW great shot !

[pjm20]

Got the main build finished for the HGLW kit. Now I need to do the electronics, detail, and then paint to finish this project off.

[robert3985]

WOW!!  Nice!
With Helicon focus you could also get the background in focus, but that might actually not be desirable in this situation.

@peteski  Peter, what HF allows you to do is choose which photos to include in the stack to combine.  Which means that if you don't want the background in focus, then you leave the focused background images out of the stack...and so the background is not in focus when the stack finishes combining the photos.

Simple.

Photo (1) - Long Centennial photo using HF but omitting shots that had the background in focus.  This is a product shot used for an eBay sale, so product isolation was paramount:


Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[peteski]

@peteski  Peter, what HF allows you to do is choose which photos to include in the stack to combine.  Which means that if you don't want the background in focus, then you leave the focused background images out of the stack...and so the background is not in focus when the stack finishes combining the photos.

Simple.

Yes of course Bob - that is true. I should have worded my post a bit differently.  I'm familiar with selecting stack photos to be combined. I have been using HF since version 4 (in 2006) which still runs well on my Windows 98SE machine.  Luckily for me, I bought a full license at that time.   

One  problem that exists in that photo is those telephone poles - they will have halos around them after stacking, because of insufficient focused data is available in the other photos in the stack.  Maybe the newest version of HF automatically interpolates that info and gets rid of the halos??

[robert3985]

Yes of course Bob - that is true. I should have worded my post a bit differently.  I'm familiar with selecting stack photos to be combined. I have been using HF since version 4 (in 2006) which still runs well on my Windows 98SE machine.  Luckily for me, I bought a full license at that time.   

One  problem that exists in that photo is those telephone poles - they will have halos around them after stacking, because of insufficient focused data is available in the other photos in the stack.  Maybe the newest version of HF automatically interpolates that info and gets rid of the halos??

@peteski  Peter, Win98???  Time to come into the modern world my boy!  I won't talk about how cheaply you can build a Win10 machine nowadays, but I have little doubt that it is worth it after finally giving up Win7 Pro and building my dream machine last year.  I'm still getting used to Win10 Pro, but frankly I haven't spent any extra time attempting to do so...just glad to have my Adobe subscription programs being able to run now!

As to the photo, I think that in this case, the telephone poles, crossarms and insulators, being in the foreground will cleanly separate from the blurry background without halos or other HF artifacts.  I don't know for sure, but if I were taking this shot with my old Google Pixel 2 XL using the Open Camera app and setting my furthest focal point a bit beyond the furthest car in the train, there aren't going to be any grossly out-of-focus telephone poles for HF to interpolate.  Sure, they'll be some that are not focused, but no huge blurry blobs as they would be if focused far background shots were included in the stack.

I would also try focusing on the evergreens in the background and see what happens. That might cause an HF artifact problem to appear, but in my experience, ya never know for sure until you try it.   For this shot, to make it look less model-like, having the trees in focus too might make the shot look more prototypical even with the industry out of focus since it's at least recognizable.

Yup.  I bought the full license too for HF years ago.  Much cheaper to do it now than then! But, I never regretted it.  One of the best investments I've made for my model railroad photography.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[peteski]

@peteski  Peter, Win98???  Time to come into the modern world my boy!  I won't talk about how cheaply you can build a Win10 machine nowadays, but I have little doubt that it is worth it after finally giving up Win7 Pro and building my dream machine last year.  I'm still getting used to Win10 Pro, but frankly I haven't spent any extra time attempting to do so...just glad to have my Adobe subscription programs being able to run now!

Thanks for the lecture Bob. 
I use Win 10 at work, and have couple Win 7 PRO computers. Then I also have an old AMD Athlon desktop that has dual boot: XP, and Win98SE.  That one is used to run my hobby tools, such as Alps printer , Corel Draw, and Helicon Focus.  It is networked on my internal network for file transfers and network printing.  I'm quite happy with that setup, and have no plans to upgrade my old workhorse.  That is my dream machine! 

And even after using it 40 hours a week, for 2 years now (or probably longer), I still don't care for Windows 10!

[pmpexpress]

And even after using it 40 hours a week, for 2 years now (or probably longer), I still don't care for Windows 10!

+2

[robert3985]

Thanks for the lecture Bob. 
I use Win 10 at work, and have couple Win 7 PRO computers. Then I also have an old AMD Athlon desktop that has dual boot: XP, and Win98SE.  That one is used to run my hobby tools, such as Alps printer , Corel Draw, and Helicon Focus.  It is networked on my internal network for file transfers and network printing.  I'm quite happy with that setup, and have no plans to upgrade my old workhorse.  That is my dream machine! 

And even after using it 40 hours a week, for 2 years now (or probably longer), I still don't care for Windows 10!

@peteski  Haha!  You think THAT was a lecture??? 

+3...I don't like Win10 Pro either...at least compared to Win7 Pro, but after I got rid of all the bloatware and intrusive apps wanting to get into my life, it, along with my new build, putting along at 4200 MHz (not overclocked), with dual M.2 SSD's, 8Tb of storage and USB 3.1 Gen2...my work flow is exponentially faster than with my old Win7 AMD 6 core machine.  Working with photo files that often exceed 300Mb, old programs, old hardware and an old OS were slowing me waaaay down.

I was quite happy with Win7 Pro...and with my old computer, and the waiting that huge files demanded since I was used to all of it, but....when programs that I used all the time started not working on the old workhorse, it was time to modernize, and I had a lot of fun doing it!

So, even not liking Win10 Pro, the benefits it gives me are too many to not use it...even though I prefer the way Win7 Pro feels and looks....and yeah yeah, I know I can make Win10 look and feel almost exactly like Win7.

I am almost certain that come September this year, I'll be doing another computer build to take advantage of AMD's resurgence and inevitable domination of Intel...because my "new" build will be two years old by then...and building my new computers is a lot of fun for this old geek!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Tuesday is a good time to talk about what you did last weekend, right?

I spent time working on some vehicles.

First a 75 Buick Regal from @Rasputen . The color is pretty close to an actual stock color.



Next I worked on some Shapeways Grumman trucks. Conrail had a bunch of these in MoW service. One of them had a better print than the other. I also need to clean up some of the painting (like the tires), add some details and some decals.



I really need to find my Micro Crystal Clear.

Next up I tried painting the step wells on one of my PC commuter cars. I need to re-do the treads in black. I'm also not thrilled with the color.



And finally, on Sunday, I snuck out of the house to get some fresh air and tried out those new Pirellis. So far so good!

http://railfanning.kapuscinski.net/2020/04/escaping-quarantine-to-catch-y134-at-locust-point/

It was a fun mix of old and new. Who would've thought that a YN2 AC4400 would've been considered a good catch? But then again, 2020 is weird.



And then the trailing unit was one of the new Tier 4 SD70 Bricks. I don't think I like these.

[wm3798]

Blowing the dust off of some more rust.  Obtained over the weekend at Lee's Locomotive Rescue... ConCor Rivarossi Heavy Pacific in B&O blue/gray.  Handsomely hauling the Royal Blue today.


All the best!
Lee

[mu26aeh]

The crews don't like them much either Ed. 

[Tom L]

I’ve been working on three more SW1s to go with the one I had done previously.
These four units represent the first group to receive MU capabilities that were assigned to Milwaukee’s Austin, MN - Lacrosse, WI line.
The “donkeys” were used because of the light bridges on the line.

I also tried some outdoor photography for the first time.

(Attachment Link)

Jim

Just saw this on EBay and instantly thought of your post

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Tom L