Dioramas: Buildings & Ruins
Ruined buildings and city scenes.
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ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Saturday, November 19, 2016 - 07:32 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Dave,
Sorry to hear about the course. Hopefully it will get turned around for you, or a better opportunity will present itself.

Brave man indeed for hacking into your beautiful church. I know the results will be spectacular though, and illuminating.

Take care,
Zon



Thanks Zon!

The 2 most frustrating situations I've been in several years....

Four years of being nickel and dimed daily, and expected to keep up a champagne and caviar branding on a beer and nachos budget. The worst of it is these guys have enough business savvy to be very successful in many ventures, yet refuse to pay even the smallest of bills related to the course, or put a dollar back into its upkeep!

And these Lights!!!

I'm not ready to throw in the towel, but I may be fighting another loosing battle with adding another level of realism to this church scene.

I've done just about everything to make this work, and just as it seems I have made some headway, another bulb burns out and or a circuit shorts out.....💣

The hardest part is that it's such a small scale. Wire, and lights are very finicky at 22 gauge and smaller, and nothing is easily accessible. And having to solder everything to ensure continuity, makes it a real pain in the butt when that bulb fails... at no fault but the bulbs!!! Grrrrrr!!

I have not and will not give up though, although I'm close.... it's been very, very frustrating!

But thanks for the vote of confidence, I will figure something out.

Take care as well, Dave out.
Namabiiru
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Posted: Saturday, November 19, 2016 - 04:46 PM UTC
Hang in there, Dave! I'm sure things will turn around on both fronts!

ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Saturday, November 19, 2016 - 11:03 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Hang in there, Dave! I'm sure things will turn around on both fronts!




Thanks Mark. First time in awhile be had to look for winter work, but I'm more frustrated with the lights right now! My hobby is supposed to be a diversion from the day to day, not an extension of it

But you're right, this too shall pass. Just sitting in a real church right now, being reminded of just that.
justsendit
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Posted: Tuesday, November 22, 2016 - 04:46 AM UTC
Hi Dave,
I hope things begin to look brighter for you, and of course your brilliant church build. … Holy crap! ... think I may have just punned the hell out of that one! 🤔

Just keep your Canadian sense of humor and all will be well … eh!

Cheers!🍺
—mike
ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Tuesday, November 22, 2016 - 05:51 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hi Dave,
I hope things begin to look brighter for you, and of course your brilliant church build. … Holy crap! ... think I may have just punned the hell out of that one! 🤔

Just keep your Canadian sense of humor and all will be well … eh!

Cheers!🍺
—mike



Indeed, a very punny commentary Mike!

I'll be sure to keep my Canuck wits aboot me too.

Sorry if it seems like I'm being a hoser, I'm just still a bit peeved about the whole situation....

Cheers bacon at you, I'm gonna take off and get a donut, a large double double, and get my skates sharpened so I can go play hockey down at the pond!

kurnuy
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Posted: Saturday, December 03, 2016 - 11:14 PM UTC
Ow no Dave this will be a happy ending story! Take your time to fix all the problems and keep us posted ! Even if it's only for a little Belgian not knowing what he's talking about !!

I'm sure you'll find a way to amaze us ! You're a winner !

Kurt
ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Sunday, December 04, 2016 - 06:41 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Ow no Dave this will be a happy ending story! Take your time to fix all the problems and keep us posted ! Even if it's only for a little Belgian not knowing what he's talking about !!

I'm sure you'll find a way to amaze us ! You're a winner !

Kurt



Thanks Kurt! I appreciate you taking the time to look in, haven't been able to find the gumption to work on it since the demolition. Been a little bit down over the real life drama going on... but it will come back I'm sure.

Stay tuned. And good luck on your next build!
pnance26
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Posted: Sunday, December 04, 2016 - 10:25 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

Dave,
Sorry to hear about the course. Hopefully it will get turned around for you, or a better opportunity will present itself.

Brave man indeed for hacking into your beautiful church. I know the results will be spectacular though, and illuminating.

Take care,
Zon



Thanks Zon!

The 2 most frustrating situations I've been in several years....

Four years of being nickel and dimed daily, and expected to keep up a champagne and caviar branding on a beer and nachos budget. The worst of it is these guys have enough business savvy to be very successful in many ventures, yet refuse to pay even the smallest of bills related to the course, or put a dollar back into its upkeep!

And these Lights!!!

I'm not ready to throw in the towel, but I may be fighting another loosing battle with adding another level of realism to this church scene.

I've done just about everything to make this work, and just as it seems I have made some headway, another bulb burns out and or a circuit shorts out.....💣

The hardest part is that it's such a small scale. Wire, and lights are very finicky at 22 gauge and smaller, and nothing is easily accessible. And having to solder everything to ensure continuity, makes it a real pain in the butt when that bulb fails... at no fault but the bulbs!!! Grrrrrr!!

I have not and will not give up though, although I'm close.... it's been very, very frustrating!

But thanks for the vote of confidence, I will figure something out.

Take care as well, Dave out.



Dave, in the MicroMark catalogue there is a type of shrink wrap to go around your soldered joints at 22 gauge. It helps keep them together. Don't know if you have tried this. I used shrink wrap on some electrical lines when I was doing 1/12th F-1 and the result was always good.
ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Monday, December 05, 2016 - 04:51 AM UTC

Dave, in the MicroMark catalogue there is a type of shrink wrap to go around your soldered joints at 22 gauge. It helps keep them together. Don't know if you have tried this. I used shrink wrap on some electrical lines when I was doing 1/12th F-1 and the result was always good.
[/quote]

Thanks Patrick, I have used the aforementioned shrink tape on most of the connection points during this whole process. It does give a level of rigidity to the connections, however it also adds a non scale thickness and look that to me is not acceptable. I am more concerned though with the seemingly endless instances where the bulbs have burned out

I am currently fiddling around with LED's, and am having a modicum of success with them. They require a bit more thought and knowledge of electronic theory, but are much more stable and hold up to more fiddling than their grain of wheat, incandescent counterparts!

Fear not though, as I am beginning to get to the point where I will be able to start soldering, and reattaching the wall sections etc...

All for now, and thanks for the comments Patrick.
ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 04:50 AM UTC
Wow! First of all, has anyone else been having slow and stuttered issues with photobucket... man it is annoying the daylights out of me right now

And speaking of lights... I will have a smallish update as soon as I figure out this photobucket malarkey....

ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 05:01 AM UTC
A test of the system to see if it's working....



Crossing my fingers
ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 05:02 AM UTC

Quoted Text

A test of the system to see if it's working....



Crossing my fingers



Hooray....
ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 06:29 AM UTC
Ok.

Here is what I've been able to get done since my post a few weeks ago. I've pulled my hair out, and snapped a few club shafts I had laying around... but I've made some progress.

I will say that it has been a bit sporadic, some of this has been done for awhile, and some I just finished today. Some of it is the 3rd or 4th attempt, and some of it was simple...while some of it was not so

I would have been done sooner, but I have to admit that being payed off sent me for a bit of a loop, and left me unable, or at least unmotivated to do much of anything. Most of all trying to tackle my seemingly insurmountable lighting issues

But, having perseverance and a strong will, I have tackled the task at hand with a satisfying feeling of accomplishment.

Please feel free to comment gents and ladies... I've got tough skin!

This is the result of my choice to go rugged, and long lasting. LED Strip lighting. It came in a four foot strip, which could be cut in 3 light lengths, or a factor there of. I have used the minimum 3 strand section, which I simply cut on the line provided. Solder two lead wires.... that's lead, not lead...you read it anyway you want. Lol. These are 12 volt LED's, which mean I'm probably going to have to hard wire some kind of plug doohickey to supply the power. For now I have used an old laptop power adapter and spliced connectors on the end of the cable....


I'm only using one of the 3 lights, but it seemed the easiest way to accomplish my wall sconce needs....

ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 06:48 AM UTC


Because I'm a little bit gun shy now, I decided not to permanently glue things down, but rather make the whole thing a wee bit more easily undone if things went wrong again... you know, an ounce of prevention type of a thing

Painters tape will hold everything in place behind the scenes, it's kinda the less tacky duct tape you know! I've always said... if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy

Each of the 3 walls I am putting sconces on got pried off, and the individual sections of now wired LED's, are taped into their places on the backside of each section.

ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 06:55 AM UTC


Fully taped and wired up. An added bonus of the painters tape is it hides any light from the other 2 lights on the length, some of which I noticed leaked out along some joints that aren't perfectly sealed in the walls of the church.

My next issue to tackle was the actual business end of the sconce lights.

Look closely and you can see some of the next items on the update plate just lying around...
ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 07:34 AM UTC
The evolution of the wall sconce 101.



In this shot you can see the remnants of the first attempt, and the second. And the beginning of the 3rd iteration. The first was a store bought model, LED lit, and had a wall mounting bracket. It looked the part, came in a two pack, and was prewired. Unfortunately, it was made for model railroad settings, and as such, it was meant to be wired into a light box type delio.

25 bucks for just the 2 lights, and another 30 for the control box, and 35 for the power supply...NO THANK YOU!!!!

I did manage to get them both to work without all the added stuff, but one burned out quickly, and the second one also burned out... probably from all the various loads I put on them during my power trials.

I even went so far as to drill them out and replace the tiny LED's with the grain of wheat lights. These too failed. Which brings us to wall sconce 2.0



Don't tell my 6 year old daughter, but this is from her light brite set....

I sorta stumbled on these little beauties while experimenting with acrylic rods, and other things.

More to come
ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 08:37 AM UTC
I started with a clear round lite-brite peg, after the failed acrylic rod attempts. There were several, just so you know. Edison and the light bulb, me with the scale sconces....it's the upper left as viewed.



I cut the peg in half lengthwise, which would render me 2 sconces. I really liked the look of the rounder, slightly more traditional looking...look. Then I cut it down to a size which was about 1 foot scale. This gave me a roughly 4 or five inch rounded glass piece, and the rest of the fixture which would presumably house the wiring and the mounting hardware.

I used a black sharpie marker to "paint" the bracket area of the sconce. It fit well on the wall, and the only reasons I think I balked on using them were these. Firstly the light from the LED was way too bright. I tried to fix it by glazing the bulb itself with transparent yellow, but it was still too bright. Secondly I thought that even with its scale size being of average size for wall sconces, that it just looked too small.

More to come....

ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 09:14 AM UTC
The other two pieces are a square peg from the kidlet' stash... I wondered if the fact it is already yellow would help tone down the overall brightness.

Here's another angle...



I cut this peg so the dimensions of this sconce would be around nine inches square, and about six inches deep. Again, a sharpie marker was used to give the impression of the metal case that would house the glass panels of the sconce.

At first trial on this type, I found that too much light came through. I decided to roughen up the surface with some fine grit sandpaper. It looks way better, in my humble opinion. I used the end of the peg closest to the end you stick in the board, as it has a small lip, which further helps in replicating a wall mounted sconce.

My next posting will be less wordy, I'll let the pictures do the talking... and answer any questions that may result from the viewing...

ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 09:28 AM UTC






Namabiiru
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#399
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 05:27 PM UTC
Those look great, Dave! Perseverance and good old-fashioned know how win the day (along with a dash of pilferage from the toy-box)!



jrutman
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 07:37 PM UTC
There is nothing quite like a simple yet elegant solution is there?
J
ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 07:51 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Those look great, Dave! Perseverance and good old-fashioned know how win the day (along with a dash of pilferage from the toy-box)!




Thanks Mark! Whatever works sometimes eh? Listen to me, all Canadian like...eh? Reminds me of the old school kiss....Keep It Simple Stupid. Works every time.

ahandykindaguy
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 07:54 PM UTC

Quoted Text

There is nothing quite like a simple yet elegant solution is there?
J



Elegant maybe, but simple for sure....except for all the prying, and pulling, and crimping, and soldering, and digging, and....

Thanks Jerry. Merry Christmas good and faithful.
jrutman
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Posted: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 - 09:19 PM UTC

Quoted Text


Quoted Text

There is nothing quite like a simple yet elegant solution is there?
J



Elegant maybe, but simple for sure....except for all the prying, and pulling, and crimping, and soldering, and digging, and....

Thanks Jerry. Merry Christmas good and faithful.




And to you as well kind Sir.
J
justsendit
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Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2016 - 01:41 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Painters tape will hold everything in place behind the scenes, it's kinda the less tacky duct tape you know! I've always said... if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy


What! ... no Duct Tape!!! Oh jeez ... guess we'll let it slide since you got the lights on in time for Christmas! Nicely done!

Happy Holidays!🎄

—mike