"Shoo-Fly" Free-moN Module (2'x6')

[DKS]

You did a great job with the ground throw (and everything else, naturally!). It's the first one I've seen "in the wild." So, how was it to assemble?

[Dave Schneider]

MC,

How about an open gate where the wire meets the edge? Maybe a bit of muddy path or a rancher walking through?

Thanks for another informative thread. You work so fast it is like watching a video .
Best wishes, Dave

[Coxy]

MC, how will that fine oak tree hold up to transport? Would it be an option to have it removable while the module is being moved? I could imagine it could work it's way loose while being transported. Thoughts?

Coxy

[wm3798]

He made it out of copper wire...  If you flood it with solder after twisting it into shape, it will outlive the cockroaches.

Lee

[wazzou]

MC - this what I would do about the fence/layout edge.  I'm sure you've seen where a dirt or asphalt road goes through ranch land, intersecting a fence, there are closely spaced steel slats or sometimes really light rail buried in the road about 4 feet wide that seem to prohibit livestock from going AWOL.  I've even seen it on Railroad ROW.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Thanks for both slogging through the video and for all the suggestions for ending the fence at the fascia.
 Right now I'm hesitant to put a gate, post, bush or climb-over right at the edge, as things get knocked off pretty quick during transport, set-up & take-down.
 So I just clipped the wires at the last post and I'll let the viewer's imagination extend them off-module.
 The anti-cattle crossing gate could work on one end, I'll just have to mock it up and see how I feel about it.
 I'd rather not draw too much attention to the edge.
 
The oak tree is, of course, a mighty oak, and is firmly rooted in it's beloved Northern California soil (i.e. between Aileen's super tacky and the diluted glue for the dirt it's pretty firmly planted & really not going anywhere anytime soon on its own).
 
Now that the fence is up, the cattle rancher has release a few more heads from his herd into the pasture:
 








Thanks, Joe Fugate, for the corner-post brace idea.
 Its little details like that that are easy to do, add some realism and break up the pattern of purely vertical posts.
 
I'll redo the cow pond near the end and add more cows, but otherwise the cow pasture is pretty much hunkey dory for me.
 Thanks for looking, and for sharing all your thoughts & suggestions.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

You did a great job with the ground throw (and everything else, naturally!). It's the first one I've seen "in the wild." So, how was it to assemble?

Very small parts, but I found it fairly easy to assemble.
I spray painted the throws grimy black, mounted the plate on two long ties, slipped the ties in place on both sides of the throwbar, and glued it down.
After attaching the signals & backsaver, I CA'ed it to the plate.

I forgot to check clearances before gluing, so I had to pop off the plate and all and re-CA a little farther back.
I'm thinking of attaching a wire to the throwbar that'd disappear under the throw, but you'd only see that if you look straight down.
With the modules at 50" high, your throw does a good job of hiding the pc board throwbar.

I love the detail and have already received enthusiastic comments about it (especially the holes in the signal).
I knocked it only once while doing the fence, so next time I'll probably wait until all scenery is complete around the area before installing.

Thanks, DKS, for a great detail!
(and for including a bunch of spare parts!)

[towl1996]

Don't knock the video, I really enjoyed it. I would like to see more of 'em. Excellent work. Thanks

[M.C. Fujiwara]

So I finally figured out how to use my iPhone & iMovie, so I've posted a three-part step-by-step video series on how to make the N scale twisted-wire oak trees to my YouTube Channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/mcfujiwara925/videos
 
[sorry the first one's not in HD: casualty of the learning process]
 
Don't have 30 minutes to spare?
 Don't want to listen to me ramble for a 1/2 hour?
 Don't blame you!
 
Here's a SIX-MINUTE "abridged" video: All the Oak, 1/5th the Fillibuster!
 

I'll be uploading more "how to" videos to my YouTube channel as I make them.
 The good news it that it took me a few "takes" to get the videos right, so I should have about 4 more oaks planted by the end of the weekend.
 
Enjoy the weekend!

[M.C. Fujiwara]

After making a couple more, I've learned what NOT to do:
 When spray painting the polyfill, just shoot from underneath, leaving the tops green.
 On this recent batch, I sprayed Grimy Black from the top, too, and it didn't turn out so well:
 


The newer tree on the left looks more toy-ish & blobby, while the first tree (sprayed only from the bottom) has a better blended look.
 It also helps to spread the polyfill out a bit more horizontally, rather than clump like q-tip heads around the wire branches.
 
Here's the "wrong" tree:
 


And here's the first one that turned out better, IMHO:
 


The other two I made the same "wrong" way turned out a little better, and I planted on the hill.
 A couple more smaller oaks will help blend the scene better, so I'll post some picts when I get those built & planted.
 
Thanks for looking.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

As for the cow pasture and the fence ends, perhaps I need to model this story (it's even in the right area):
 
Cows break out of pasture, die on road
Two cows went to the dairy in the sky when they were hit by a delivery van
early Tuesday near Santa Rosa.
 
The black-and-white Holsteins were among 30 to 40 cows that escaped from a
pasture through a hole in the fence sometime around 3:20 a.m., said Officer
Jonathan Sloat of the California Highway Patrol. Officers found a “chaotic
scene” when they arrived at River Road near Olivet Road, with the animals mooing
and several drivers trying to help.
 
CHP officers determined that a man in a delivery van had struck the cows
before leaving the scene.
 
The driver later contacted the CHP and won’t face charges “because it was in
the middle of the night and there was nobody to report it to,” Sloat said. Had
the driver not reported the accident, it would have been a hit-and-run because
cows are considered property.
 
Forestville firefighters and Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies helped to herd
the cows back to their pasture near Woolsey Road. The county Roads Department
used a loader to remove the dead carcasses.
 
“They’re heavy,” Sloat said.
 
The CHP got another call at 9 a.m. Tuesday after three cows escaped yet again
from the same location. They were mooved back to their pasture. Authorities are
having trouble finding their owner, Sloat said.
 
The CHP doesn’t have a position as to whether it’s safer to hit cows head-on
as opposed to swerving around them, although the cows might.
 
“You just do what is safe, whatever you think is the safest thing to do,”
Sloat said.

It's a brilliantly written article, too boot.
No, I didn't make this one up: http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2012/03/27/cows-break-out-of-pasture-die-on-road/?tsp=1
 (At least they didn't use dynamite to remove the cows like they did the dead whale back in '70:

[C855B]

No worse than the overturned beef cattle truck in Omaha four years ago. The runaways shut down a major freeway interchange. A Nebraska Highway Patrol officer who refused to wait for the wranglers tried to down one with a shotgun. 10-12 cartridges later, it was still walking, albeit sort of hamburger-on-the-hoof.

I work in the Omaha NHP office occasionally, and the incident still elicits howls of laughter.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Spent the week making about 4-5 more oaks, planting them, and adding some bushes and the ubiquitus yellow flowers that flow over the Northern California coastal hillsides in Spring:
 




And here's some pull-back shots to show how the hill fits in with the rest of the module:


 


Still have one more oak on the workbench that will be mixed in with the lighter deciduous tree along the creek, and one "fallen" trunk to be placed up on the hill when it's all dry.
 
Next up: the "in-progress" abutments, some workers, a bulldozer, replacement ties & rails, and an old barn.
 But the show is a week from today (Friday), so we'll see how much I can get done.
 The vineyard is just not going to make it, I'm guessing, as I still have to redo the leg assembly and build the travel / storage box.
 
Thanks for looking.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Finished a big project this morning, so I used a lovely 70 deg day to cut some wood outside of the garage (still managed to make a mess inside, though).
 Cut all the pieces to build the carry / storage crate, but I'll assemble that tomorrow.
 Today I rebuilt the legs with some sturdy plates up at top:
 


This is much better than the previous bolts-through-legs set up.
 The module is actually resting on the legs.
 It's a little wobbly, but when connected to other modules I hope it'll be fine and not Free-moN Dominos.
 
And since it was such a nice day, I just carried it out into the sun for a few photos:
 






In terms of new stuff: there's one more oak down among the light-green deciduous (you can see it in the back-middle of the first of three photos) which helps balance and mix things up.
 And then there's the fallen oak trunk, which turnout out better than I thought but not as good as I hoped (knowwattaimean?)
 
So tomorrow's the travel box, and I'm still trying to carve an abutment from pink foam but it's just not happening.
 Maybe tomorrow.
 
Thanks for looking.

[DKS]

Really marvelous--and seldom modeled--detail. Outstanding.