Thirdstone - Ep01 - A New Beginning, A New Layout

Looks like I've been bitten hard by the model train bug, as a year after I began my first attempts at a layout I've just started my third,  I am calling it Thirdstone.

I have a hobby room where I keep all my 3D Printers, technically it is a 2nd bedroom but only when I come to sell the house.  Two of the walls are inaccessible due to the double bed, but I think it should have a model railway in N gauge of course.

Thirdstone Section One

I have already begun building the first section of the layout using what remnants of second hand track I have left since building layout number two, the Inglenook shunting puzzle layout Worfside. 

The MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard) baseboard is an off-cut from the full sheet I used for the first layout Upper Carrom and measures 30" x 48".  I have already laid most of the track for section one which has dictated how the rest of the layout will look.

Basically this is a dog bone shaped layout with a circle at each end forming a loop with double track running over sections 2 & 3 connecting the two ends together.

As you can see from the plan of section 1 above, this is a self contained working model railway layout in its own right.  Two loops of track are independently controlled via the PWM controllers (bottom left) and a third manages shunting operations on the goods yard with a switchbox containing all the isolation switches.  This setup is a bit cobbled together and will be completely overhauled when the layout is permanently fixed to the wall.  

Pictured top and bottom, exiting to the right, are the two lines which form the mainline double track connecting section 1 to section 2, 3 & 4.  Isolation joiners are fitted to each pair of points allowing trains to move from the mainline outer loop to the branch line inner loop and then on to access the goods yard and what will be the turntable and roundhouse.

I am currently designing the modular roundhouse which is a 20 degree version allowing for 18 tracks to enter and exit.  I don't have the space for 18 but I might manage 4 plus the double engine shed on the East side of the layout.  Sadly my DF200 will not fit in any of the engine sheds so that will have to stay at Upper Carrom.

I have not decided how high up this layout will be, but I am leaning towards having it at about 4.5 feet up so that the bed can remain useable...ish.  The main wall is a timber partition so will need to have some fairly substantial braces to keep the layout level. and I have yet to decide if I am going to hinge section one to allow me to access the wiring without moving the bed.

This is my first attempt at a layout of this size so there are plenty of challenges coming down the pipeline, first of which is going to be framework.  

Obligatory Running Video

As is customary here is a video of trains running round the new layout.  Please like, subscribe and comment.

Improved Judge Dredd H-Wagon

It's hard to believe that I made my original Judge Dredd H-Wagon over 5 years ago.

With my upcoming Savage Dredd game I thought it was high time I fixed some of the issues with model and gave it a bit of a revamp.

This, as always, is a work in progress and with that intent I have made the build a little bit more modular.  I assume that the Justice Department buys these in based on a standard pattern and then adds on whatever gizmos it needs as the circumstances dictate.  

The main H-Wagon body is now longer with thrusters underneath and I added a central recess for a magnetised weapon hardpoint such as the included riot foam cannon turret.  A sonic cannon is in the works as we speak.  The two gunner cupolas are now printed as seperate files with little recesses for them to fit into.  

The whole front of the H-Wagon is printed as a separate piece allowing the model to be printed without supports.  The entire model has been rescaled to fit my 15mm Judges (aka laserburn lawmen)

I have plans for a different front end to make the H-Wagon even longer with a stylized eagle.

I'm making this available for download exclusively on Cults 3D for the meagre sum of 3 Euros (God, I sound like the Mighty Boosh)

Enjoy 

Judge Dredd 15mm Block Buildings

The internet never fails to amaze me and after 15 or so years of writing this blog and essentially shouting into the void...

the void shouted back.

Facebook 15mm Dredd Wargaming Community

As I was doom scrolling through facebook I chanced upon a picture posted by the very talented sculptor  Nikki Chatwin of Sprue Goblin Games.  Nikki had posted some pics of his latest project 15mm Fatties and authentic looking fatties are one of those minis that I struggle to find.

Nikki is also behind the Megacity 15 Facebook group dedicated to 15mm Judge Dredd wargaming. After reaching out it seems that Nikki had seen some of my posts and played a small part in his obsession with 15mm scale Judge Dredd wargaming,  So at least one person reads this blog.

I honestly can't wait for Nikki to finish those fatty sculpts but in the meantime some of her work is available for sale via Ramshackle Games.  I love her sulpts so picked myself up some Chaos Judicars and Sector NG15 Civilians.

2mm Modular Foamboard Connectors - thing:7120315 

With my new Judge Dredd campaign slated for October I really need to get a wiggle on writing it and building some interesting terrain pieces for the players to interact with.  The objective is to create some lightweight flat packable buildings which can be easily transported to my regular Friday game group at  Dragons Keep Roleplay Club. 

I was inspired by these nifty Parametric foamcore connectors which I found on Thingiverse, but I wanted something that would work with my material of choice, 2mm ABS board, be very low profile and have a dark gothic style.  So I designed these 90 degree, T junction and X Junction connectors.

These are quite small prints so I recommend printing them out on a resin 3D printer, However, being so small you can absolutely fill a build plate and you are pretty much done.  I've made a separate file of larger 5mm Foam Core Connectors if you want to make buildings in a larger scale

15mm Flatpack Building Facades - SVG File

I also designed a few building facades as vector files which can be sent to my laser cutter for etching.  If you don't have a laser cutter these can be easily knocked up by hand with a sharp knife and a steel ruler.  Once I have perfected them I will offer them as a download here.

PROG UPDATE

As with everything I do on this blog it is a work in progress.  I spent a morning finishing up the first of the building SVG files (hopefully more to come) and you can download the file for free below:

• Mega City One Flatpack Building Facades 001 

I you find the connectors or the facades useful please share links to photos and comment, subscribe etc.

Floating Shelf Budget Model Railway Challenge - Part 3 - The Chinese Fat Controllers Arrive

The continuing escapades of building a model railway which fits on a 60cm floating shelf.

Once the track was laid the urge to play with the layout was strong, but I needed power and control.

As is the Budget Model Railway way this comes in the shape of a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) motor controller from eBay.  I found a bevy of them on AliExpress for a mere £2 each.  They come with a potentiometer to control the speed of the loco and a 3 way rocker switch to control the loco's direction (forward - off - back).

Everything is prewired and you just need to screw the wires into the terminal blocks.  This is where the fun begins as there were no instructions on whihc wire goes where.  The circuit board has some gobledigook on it both in Chinese characters and electronic symbols (which might as well have been Chinese).  Fortunately just a brief googleing brings up a photo of a very similar circuit which explains where all the wires go.

Power from a 12v DC phone charger wallwart (or similar) is screwed into the Positive and Negative terminals at the top of the board.  The connection to the track is screwed into M1 / M2.  The four wires from the rocker switch connect to the terminal block on the left and finally the potentiometer is plugged into the white JST connector.  Easy peasy.

First Running

The initial runs on the track were a whole lot of troubleshooting as usual.  I wired my track feed to the middle "mainline" which meant I had a dead section of track with the topmost fiddle line when the points were switched to the top siding.  This was rectified by adding a second set of power lines.  The routing for this is a little bit sketchy and snakes out of the layout and off the front of the shelf.  This is most unacceptable for a display layout and I will resolve this later.  

Having played with the layout for some hours, I also want to add in a couple of on/off isolating switches, this will mean that if I want to I can isolate a loco on either of the fiddle lines and bring another loco out unimpeded.  This will create a go around.  Currently the loco can only pick up on the left and move to the right, a second loco which operates from right to left will dramatically improve operational potential and allow me to stage rakes on the fiddle yard.

YouTube Shorts

Around this time I also discovered the joys of unedited YouTube shorts.  This has enabled me to make lots of videos of both this layout and my Coffee Table Layout Upper Carrom.  Frankly this has been quite addictive and I should probably check myself into the Betty Ford Clinic.

Obligatory Running Video

 

N Gauge Model Railway - Episode 14 - More Lights, Cobblestones and a Retaining Wall

This week I mostly added more lights to the layout.  I started up a little production line making the small circuit boards to distribute the power to each of the buildings and soldering in all the streetlights.

I also finished the remodelling of the cobblestone yard in front of Woods Brothers in the South West corner of the layout.  

Funky Foam to the Rescue

I had tried a couple of different techniques to get a decent looking cobbled area but finally hit on this top tip.

Once you have created your template of the area you wish to cover with cobblestones, transfer the shape to 1mm cardboard or similar.  Glue a sheet of Funky Foam (1mm XPS foam) which you can get in Hobby Craft (12 sheets for £4) and then trim to your card.

Take a pyrograve pen or soldering Iron with a knife blade tip and carve your lines into the foam.  This produces pretty good looking cobblestone sets. 

After some painting and weathering using the sponging method, I'm really pleased with how they look.  Uniform enough but also random enough to pass muster.

As is customary I actually started this blog post at the beginning of May but got massively sidetracked by the 60cm Floating Shelf Layout Challenge.  I even made an instructional video on How to Make Cheap and Easy Cobblestones whilst this blog post was languishing in developmental Hell. 

Building a Retaining Wall 

I then needed to sort out the horrible mess I had made of the curved section of track which forms Loop C, specifically tying this into the layout yet providing necessary seperation between track and cobbled area.  This was simply a section of 2mm thick ABS foam Board jammed in the gap and then I ran a pencil atop a wagon to replicate the rise of the track onto the wall.  

A strip of foam board makes excellent capstones and this was all painted with a range of browns and greys just like the walls of the Palethorpes Sausage Factory building I made a few weeks ago.  The gap between the track and the wall was then filled with my go-to gap filler Poundland Polyfilla although this remains to be painted and foliage added.  

Finally I cut half of the branches off one of my chinese plastic tress and clued in to a traingle of foamboard before jamming it in the gap between the long workshop and the derelict warehouse.

Obligatory Running Video

I also received a long awaited depressed center wagon from eBay which now serves as the official Carrom Track Inspection Camera Car for making driver's eye videos.  Enjoy...