Best Of Polar Express build

[Lemosteam]

Peteski, great tip!

Nick, its pretty tight going in.  It certainly will not fall out of the car is turned over.  i'm fairly certain it will be a robust connection. thinking about using a little di-electric greas there, maybe to help it go in and out. 

Max, thanks, coming from you that's a very high compliment.  wish the magnet wires in the front of the roof would have come out a little nice, but I guess function is all i care about at that joint.

had a thought, though, do you guys think i should add a really thin white styrene (what is the thinnest?) ceiling panel as a diffuser for the LED's, or clear sandblasted plastic to represent this:

[peteski]

Diffuser would work, but it will still have hot spots in it (since the LEDs are so close to it.  Make sure to paint everything inside the roof (except for LEDs) flat white for the most even light distribution.  Don't even think of using silver paint (which seems a most obvious choice since it seems to reflect light).

0.005" white styrene will work better than a clear sandblasted styrene (it will create more diffused light).  But it will also cut down on the overall brightness.

[BeastofTheEast]

Thats amazing smoothness of the putty on the round end of the car.

[Lemosteam]

First, thanks for the kind words BeastoftheEast!

Installment six... Snowy roof, proof of concept

I wanted to see if I could simulate a snowy roof like the cars in the movie.  I was deterred by the fact that I did not want to attempt a vacuum molding device that uses the roof as the mold for the vacuum form. But another thought crossed my mind- what if I used shrink tubing over the roof and shrunk it to fit then trimmed away the excess? Well here are the results.at the bottom of the first image you see a roof inside a one inch shrink tube cut beyond the end of the roof. In the middle is an attempt that has been trimmed. At the top you see a painted first attempt on my sleeper roof casting. The second image shows the roof installed in the sleeper she'll.





Also a small strip of thin sheet metal will be glued to the underside, and a small rare earth magnet glued up inside the roof. This will allow snow covered and normal running.

It is hard to see in the pics but there is some ridge definition at the clerestory corner and along the edges.

Would love your opinions on the idea as I perfect the idea. Not sure if I should add baking soda while the paint is still wet?

Also I must warn you that if you attempt this, it is very easy to soften the roof casting sides and as the shrink wrap shrinks it can warp the extreme outer corners a bit.

Next up- paint this weekend! I am praying that I practiced enough with my airbrush!

[Jeff AKA St0rm]

Looking great. Only 6 days to finish it 

[Lemosteam]

Thanks Jeff!  Pressure's on eh?

[tom mann]

The hobo on the roof with a flickering LED for his fire will be a most excellent addition.  Something that Lionel would dream about.

[Lemosteam]

Tom, already got the hobo!      

I might have to tap into peteski again for the fire flicker.  I think they sell a pre-made circuit?

I could add that to the snowpack and make electrical connections with magnets! 

Ok. Stop, gather myself... gotta paint this thing!

[peteski]

The cheapest flicker generator is one of the Christmas LED candles.  The LED itself usually has a flicker circuit built-in. Those usually run from 3V so if you power it off the rectified output on your lighting circuits, it will need a resistor. Of course when powered by DC off the track, the brightness will be reduced until the the voltage on the track is high enough.

Or you can buy just the flicker LED itself from Electronic Goldmine. Here is a page with several to choose from. http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/products.asp?dept=1245

If you don't like the color (or the LED is too big), wire another LED in series with the flickering one and hide the flicker LED in the roof.  Both LEDs will flicker (although not as well as the flicker LED alone). This sure beats the expensive (and bulky) custom made model RR fire flicker simulators.  But then again, Ngineering makes a nice and compact one: http://www.ngineering.com/lghting%20effects%20for%20the%20railroad.htm

[PROPULDUDE]

Very nice work, Electroluminescent light strips would work well in the interiors instead of leds if  you could get the  power supply to fit.

[tom mann]

Ok. Stop, gather myself... gotta paint this thing!

You also don't want to finish in June.

[peteski]

Very nice work, Electroluminescent light strips would work well in the interiors instead of leds if  you could get the  power supply to fit.

I was all gung-ho for those in the 1990s. But since inexpensive white LEDs became available I abandoned those.

Too many negatives. They need fairly large high voltage converter. They have very limited life. The hobby-grade EL panels only last few hundred hours. I had them fade away in my models.  Aiso the light intensity is rather low compared to LEDs.  No more EL lighting for me.

[jmarley76]

Very cool! I'm looking forward to the next update...

[Lemosteam]

Installment seven... Tuscan Christmas Tree

First, thanks for the comments links and ideas! And should I infer that you guys like the white "snow" or does it look dumb?

Laid down the Tuscan for the window band. Found this really cool foam product used for storing finger rings at a local place called The Foam Factory for $2.  An exacto right down the middle of the groove produces nine strips ten inch long that fit nicely into a shell and then a stick makes a painting Popsicle. This place is just a few miles from me and they have every type of foam you can think of.





Short visit this time.

BTW- How long should I let that floquil Tuscan (thanks again for the color tip Jeff) dry before taping it off to apply the custom blue Tamiya acrylic paint?

Next up- Polar Express Blue!

[peteski]

Ah, the old school Floquil!  I usually put painted bodies in a dehydrator for 24 hours or so.  At room temperature I would let it dry for at least couple of days.  That paint keeps degassing for weeks (the smell of solvent remains very long).

But I usually do not like to paint cars with straight Floquil. The finish is too flat.   For paining car bodies I pretty much use AccuPaint (or now TruColor) paints since they have semi-gloss finish (better for masking and decaling) and they dry quickly.  When I did use Floquil for painting cars, I used to mix the color with glaze.  That would give me a less flat finish.