Monthly Archives: May 2007

Kimberton Report

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Well, it’s Monday morning. Kimberton has passed. And, we survived…

In reality, things, I think, went really, really well. Especially well, when you consider that the modules present had never been connected together before. Two sets (mine and Charlie’s) had never even been to a public display before!

You can view pictures or a slide show from the weekend.

So, here’s where I get to brag a little. Using the IKEA Ivar shelving system for module supports worked perfectly. Setup was blazingly fast — I was in, up and leveled in a little over an hour! We had a great time running trains (at least I did), and if I’d had time to get the yard switcher built, the yard would have functioned exactly as it was planned to.  In any case, we were able to make-up trains, send them down the line, come back to the yard and break them down again. And, locos could be turned for the next trip.

David’s Bachmann-bash outside-frame 2-8-0 was a hit of the show, drawing comments from everyone who saw it. In this shot, it’s just coming off the bridge on his return-loop module set.

One issue that we did have was leveling at several of the module joints. While all of the joints on my modules worked very well, in a couple of cases, we’re going to have to go in and perform some surgery on the modules.

I ended up buying a lot of toys — more than I had really planned, actually. I picked up a few things specifically for the modules: A Banta Alna Center station kit, and some parts for the engine house. I also bought another one of those lovely Bachmann outside-frame 2-4-4 Forneys, as well as two throttles for my DCC system, and a really nice looking side-door caboose body to ride on a Bachmann caboose frame.

Last, but not least, there was a great laying-on of hands by the assembled baronship, and John (Unca Weigley) Weigel was anointed as the newest Rail Baron. John is now known as the Rail Baron of Green Boxes.

So, that’s the report for the weekend. Today, I get to clean up the basement some, and bring the modules back inside. I’ll begin the process of tying them into the layout over the next few days, and then get back to work on them — there’s still so much to do! Our next planned outing for the modules will be at the Great Scale Model Train Show in Timonium in October. By then, I should be well on my way to completing this module set, and have at least one of the 45° curve modules built. If everyone who committed to building one gets it done, along well as the other modules people are planning, we’ll have a really nice setup going.

Down to the Wire

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Last night, with Donna’s help, I designed a rack to carry the three modules in the van. I originally wanted to build what would amount to a rolling cabinet, but the thought of storing the thing had me scratching my head. What we came up with was a rack that will be built out of 1 1/4″ PVC piping, with a whole bunch of “T” fittings. It will be built in such a way that, when not being used, it can be stored nearly flat. Tonight, I’ll try to build it, and we’ll see how well it actually works…

Yes, I’m still working …

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For those who might have been wondering, there is some progress on the modules. Which is a good thing, since Kimberton’s rapidly approaching!

Here, the turntable module is attached to the end of the yard. The black area will be the foundation for a small engine house.

The turntable is, for now, an “armstrong” affair. I have some minor issues with it wanting to bind up as it’s turned. I think it’s because the bearing point for the pivot is cast from a fairly soft metal, and it’s gotten slightly out-of-round — a problem I’m not going to worry about for the moment. I’ll deal with that when I motorize it.

I ordered some materials from Paper Creek for the engine house, but found out today that there’s no way that they’ll be here in time to get the thing even started. The way I look at it, all the “unfinished business” just gives people something to look forward to the next time the modules come “out to play.”

For now, I’m moving on to things like electrical inter-connects and legs. Once they’re nailed down, if there’s time, I’ll move back to scenery and such.

Shootin’ With the Bees

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Our Alien Bees B400 monolights arrived yesterday, and I’m spending a couple of hours this morning working with them, just to get some idea of how they’re going to perform. So far, I’m pretty pleased.

This image is a difficult one, and it’s what I decided to attempt first — a mostly black subject with lots of detail against a blown-out white background.

 Our muslin backgrounds are anything but flat. In fact, they’re really, really wrinkled, and don’t really hang all that well. In this case, it’s also been flipped up onto the posing bench to act as the “base” for the model. So, I really, really wanted it to go away.

Template Copyright © 2006 Kevin Kurtz So, here’s the lighting setup:

  • The locomotive is set a few feet in front of the background, and is primarily lit only with one strobe and a shoot-through umbrella, from about 3 feet above and to the left of the model. It’s at 1/2 power.
  • The background is blown out with the second light, again about 3 feet above the model, aimed so the “hot spot” is directly behind the locomotive, and set at 3/4 power.
  • The exposure is in manual mode, of course, 1/80th second at f/9.0 to maintain sharpness for the entire length of the model, which is at about a 30 degree angle to the camera. The ISO is set to 100.

This was all set up without the aid of a flash meter. I’m not 100% sure that it would have sped the process up any for this lighting setup, though maybe it would have. I guess it would have more easily allowed me to figure the exposure for the model, and how much more light I would need to blow out the background, by manually “popping” the flashes. In the long run, I probably will want one. There’s certainly no going “P for Professional” in this kind of rig.