The Daily Moose

[ginzokid]

Here is a link to Bar Mills Models on-line newspaper and information station. Art has 4 new on-line videos that you might find interesting. The first two are about Bar Mills Models itself. The next two are instructive videos. One on different types of glues and their use and the other on the new Bar Mills weathering powders. There are also pictures of some of the kits available. Enjoy. http://barmillsmodels.com/dailymoose_05A_05.html

[ginzokid]

It has been quiet here of late. Guess we are all busy with Christmas prep.

Nasty winter storms in some places. Central NF was nailed this past week and some people still are without power. So far so good on the Avalon.

[dl85vette]

No just lazy.  Haven't begun with christmas yet.

I need to get get at some of my RR structures. Have a number on the layout in variious stages. SOme are just the wall glued so I have an idea of footprint and what it would basically look like in its location.

I might get rid of a brick warehouse I scratchbuilt for  loading boxcars at cement plant and put the track back so I have 2 tracks for covered hoppers.

  (built the warehouse for bagged cement -boxcar loading for freightcar variety.) It's just a rectangular brick bldg that could always be used elsewhere. Put a closed garage door on it and just be a static structure (no RR switching to it) 

  Need to build a dump house, storage bldg needs the 'metal siding' on it.  Some more conveyors to be built. rotary kiln yet to be built. _ that I want to take time at as I would like to make it motorized having the kiln pipe turn.

That doesn't even cover the indust park for structures.

[ginzokid]

So many projects and so little time. I think you have too many projects going at the same time and that can be frustrating. I suggest you just pick one and stick to it until it is finished.

[taz-of-boyds]

Around here (besides getting ready for Thanksgiving is a couple days) I have been really busy with the bathroom rebuild.  It has ended up being an almost total to the framing clean-out.  All new fixtures and finish except for the one piece fiberglass shower stall (that is is good shape).  All new plumbing except for the the 4" sewer PVC pipe protruding from the floor.  The existing drain-waste-vent was a mixture of PVC and ABS that did not seem to be very well glued, and was as not in a proper arrangement for drain and vent.  Though it was working, and it was the only part of the house drain with venting.  It does make an interesting project doing all the different stuff.

All the best,

Charles

[barrysfp45]

Dave I think we all suffer the same affliction, you get so far with something and get not exactly bored but almost frustrated then you start something else and it strikes again and you move onto the next thing you want to see done, I have a whole heap of nearly finished cars and trains but the next thing keeps coming up, I do eventually get back to the start of the line and finish that off, the only time I actually start and finish the thing I am building is when I have every part I want to use on hand, often with the cars I get to the stage where I am almost finished then decide I want to fit different wheels then it is back to ebay and search, this is the time the car is usually shelved till I can get the wheels I want, or maybe I see a different motor to the one I have and that has to be aquired, often with my train building it is bits of brass that put an end to that build until I can get it, remember Pete you got me some brass wire I just could not get anywhere else, so don't feel bad about the amount of projects, we all have them LOL.

[taz-of-boyds]

I have tons of projects, a lot backed up from my regular work (I really like being retired!).  Some I have to finish to help keep the family sanity.  Here are before and after for the (still in progress) bathroom rebuild.  You may notice the PVC glued with black ABS cement (the purple primer makes a dark ring on the new work, not black though...).

Old (euwwuu yech, the shower drain connection also leaked...):

New (ooo aah, I hope I got it all right...):

All the best,

Charles

[ginzokid]

From the looks of that joist next to the trap you had a leak for quite a while. I hope to never attempt plumbing by myself, thank you. More power to you Charles.

[dl85vette]

I'll do easy plumbing like sink toilet hook uo dishwasher. Butbeyond that I don't know the proper rules on angles of bends or how much you can bend ,etc.  I had a retired military buddy that used to be a plumber before aircraft days so I trade him services with my truck for his plumbing, plus cost of materials.  I wouldn't take money from him when picking up drywall so we exchange services.

[ginzokid]

Only house construction I want to do is my models.

[dl85vette]

Good luck with your bathroom Charles. The only part I enjoyed was assembling the base cabinet and calling a business into take measurements for the granite countertop, and I really liked doing the tiling. Grouting is a bit more labourous and tedious. Still got to do window trim in my kitchen before I can finish the backsplash. Hope to be healthy enough over the holidays to get that done.  I'm off for like 16 days as squadron shuts down for 2 weeks except for skeleton standby crew.  So I gotta work 4 days/week for 3 weeks in order to get my 12 days in.  Can't afford a 9 day paycheck.

[dl85vette]

I hear you on that one Pete.  I can only hope for a furnished villa with no snow to shovel and no grass to cut.  Only construction would be a shelf layout.

[ginzokid]

Last sumer I was kiling myself pushing that stupid lawn mower around the yard. So, this year I have contracted with my usual lawn care people to cut the grass for me. $52 per cut and they do it about once every ten days, more or less as needed. So this will run me about $500 for the cutting season figuring two cuts +/- per month. I'll save that much by not having to go to PT twice a week. What the heck am I saving my money for any way? We are comfortable and well fed and I have nobody to leave the money to either. So we are spending it on ourselves.

[dl85vette]

After 2 weeks of procrastination, I fonally got stuff listed on ebay minus 1 or 2 locomotives that I need to pull out decoder and put in original light board. Decoder is more valuable to me than what it would add to loco for value.  I might afterall keep my UP SD70ACe in the Rio Grand scheme. It is 1 of 6 locos UP painted up of the fallen flags. Perhaps one day I might see it in the states then kick my butt for selling it.   So probably the one I will sell is a B32-8 LMX unit that BN leased a fleet of in the 80's and got rid of them by early 90's. As unique it is, I sort of have my modelling era zoomed into mid 90's to present. That way I can still run SD40-2 in BN livery and or move up the calendar and run BNSF pumpkins.

Waiting for stuff to all sell so I can buy new projects. Need a couple big rigs so I can make an Oil Field winch truck someday.

Still would like a third BN SD40-2 and couple GP30.

One thing I learned, if a kit or accessory comes out, buy it!! Nothing worse than 3 years later start a project that you thought you could wait on, only to not get the kit or decals, etc anymore.

[ginzokid]

Exactly my thought on the last FSM kit which I just received. I know a bunch of guys who will buy more than one just to sit on them and sell them for a huge profit down the road. This kit is limited to 600, so you know the scalpers will be out there. I buy my stuff to build, not sit on the shelf like a bank deposit hoping to earn interest.

[dl85vette]

It is really a gamble buying spares in hopes of making a profit years later. o guarrantee a person will make extra. It's only worth as much as someone is willing to pay.  However I have seen years ago on ebay, when walthers discontinued Vulcan Manufacturing and the Medusa Cement kit, they were hard to find and people were paying upwards to 50 bucks.  They must be reissued as I see them now for $28+.

Late 90's I saw aftermarket decals for Bill Elliott's Monopoly and Thunderbat Nascar paint schemes. I said, Oh I'll get them later. I forgot and then couple years later they don't exist. In the last couple years I managed to get a set of thunderbat decals, and they shattered once in the water. Tried clear coating the rest of the sheet and that was the end of $20 decals. Too old. Hard to say how they were stored for last 10 years before I bought them. So that kit is a junker.

I don't mind stocking up on different walters,etc structure kits. I may want to have a different industry in the future or kitbash it into somehting else.  I have the western coal flood loader silo/convyor and beings it takes up too much room for a realistic loading looptrack, I am using it with my cement plant.   I had 2 refinery kits but they take up a lot of room to look realistic when you need other bldgs and numerrous oil tanks so I sold one. If I did it again, I would buy couple kits and beings the fraction towers are in halves, it makes it easy to have a low relief industry and have twice as many towers.