Monday, June 28, 2021

Untergroeningen Outbuilding (4)

[ part 3 ]

With the core of the building done, I cut and applied styrene brick sheets to get the texture I need. These sheets are from The N-Scale Architect. Despite the name, the company makes the sheets in HO and O scales as well. This is English bond brick sheet, which technically is not quite accurate for my needs, but much closer to the brickwork pattern used in Untergroeningen than the American bond or Flemish bond patterns. The German Wikipedia page about brick patterns calls the English bond "Blockverband", while what I need for Untergroeningen would be "Kreuzverband". I have not been able to find the "Kreuzverband" pattern as brick sheet. Thankfully, the two patterns are very similar, and most people won't notice the difference anyways, so the sheets I have are an acceptable substitute.

After laminating the brick sheet to the core, I continued with representing the timbers of the wooden support structure of the prototype. I'm using 0.010" x 0.040" Evergreen styrene strips laminated on top of the brick sheet. This is a compromise between accuracy and ease of building. The wood timbers should be inside the wall, not laminated on top. There's some shadow effect visible in the lead photo of this post. Once painted this should be less obvious.

[ part 5 ]

Saturday, June 19, 2021

Untergroeningen Outbuilding (3)

 [ Untergroeningen posts ]


[ part 2 ]

With the drawings done and checked, it's time to go to the workbench and pull out the styrene. I first had to take care of and clean up a couple other projects that collected dust there. Once that was out of the way, I started with building the core of the outbuilding.


The NWSL True Sander is very useful to get the edges straight and at ninety degree angle. Working on a glass tile helps with keeping the pieces aligned.


[ part 4 ]

Friday, June 18, 2021

Untergroeningen Outbuilding (2)

 [ Untergroeningen posts ]


[ part 1 ]

I finished the outbuilding drawing from yesterday, made copies and built a paper mock-up to verify appearance and scale. The proportions are slightly off from the original, but close enough that I'm not going to worry about it. I like how the building is coming together.


I tested placement on the module. When I compared the photo below to photos from the prototype, the placement is a bit too close to the station building. However, there's enough space on the module to move the outbuilding a bit further away and still have plenty of space for the wooden shed from the prototype.

[ part 3 ]

Solar System Check-In


Back in March I mused that summer production with the new inverter should produce a nice rounded curve with the sun higher up in the sky. And indeed it does.

After months of waiting, the Tesla Gateway has finally arrived. As much as I dislike the Tesla app, and Tesla's decision to make the app the only place where one can access the solar system's data, it is nice to check in on production from the comfort of the couch.

Thursday, June 17, 2021

Untergroeningen Outbuilding

 [ Untergroeningen posts ]


My next project is scratch-building the outbuilding at Untergroeningen station. As was common for lines built before and around the turn of the 19th century, the public restrooms were in a building separate from the main station building. In Untergroeningen, the building also includes what looks like a garage, or storage room.

Vergessene Bahnen has several photos of the Untergroeningen station area and its author shared additional photos with me. Thank you, Herr Schruft! I'm using the photos to draw up plans for the building. The guiding idea here is to get the scale right in relation to the HO figure, and approximate the building outline and features as closely as possible. I have clear photos of three building sides. The right hand side is hidden in the shadows of the tree next to the building, so there's some guesswork involved.


Next up is making copies of the drawings, putting together a paper prototype to put on the module, and checking scale in relation to the other buildings.
[ part 2 ]