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Dave's Coaster Model Progress (page 2)

Progress, November 6 - 30, 1997

 

DATE	TIME	TOTAL TIME	PROGRESS
Thursday, November 6 1997	2:45PM - 3:00 PM (.25 hour)	11.50 hour	page 13 part 'Q', page 14 part 'M'

 

 I'm home sick with the flu, but I was already sick of being sick so I worked on my model for 15 minutes. All I did was glue the two 'gauze' pieces on part 'Q', which is a straight piece of track before the first drop. Then I glued the three decorative pieces called 'M' onto the upright structures. Then I went back to being ill on the couch and watching TV.

HINT: I found this out the hard way. Wait with the 'M' pieces until after you finish gluing the run sections on page 23. I kept on knocking over and ungluing the 'M' pieces while trying to navigate in tight spaces while laying the run sections.

 

 I married my wife Sarah one year ago today! No coaster model progress today, that's for sure :-) I bought some flowers, we exchanged presents, and went to Brasserie Perrier, a very good restaurant here in Philadelphia.
 

 I'm really excited, and perhaps a bit nervous. The next 9 pages in the book are for laying the track, and I'm sure it will be a time-consuming, painful, and detailed process. But onward!

As per the instructions, I used the X-acto knife to cut diagonal guides onto the "section parts". I also shaved a diagonal bezel onto the pink track section.

CAUTION: The "section strips" are NOT symmetrical. Looking at it head-on, it looks like an upside-down 'U', with one tip lower than the other. Make sure you try pressing it onto the track to see where it goes BEFORE you start cutting!

 
Next it was time to glue the section strips to the track. This was much less painful than I expected. Make sure you use the super-glue as the directions say "FALLER Expert Rapid" which is the CA glue.

HINT: Lay the track in the "expected" position starting at the left end of the station platform and curving to the right as it goes up the lift hill. Because you are gluing a relatively stiff plastic to the relatively flexible track, you want the track to be in the "correct" position as you glue.

 
The "section strip" glueing was not too bad. Next, on page 17, we have the first appearance of the pink coiled "running section." I separated the coil into two halves and proceeded to glue it to the end of the track. Make sure you use REGULAR cement for this stuff! This part was a ROYAL PAIN to start, becuase the running section (basically a U-shaped plastic strip) is quite spring-loaded and takes a LOT of pressure to put onto the edges of the track! The directions say "slight counterpressure", but that's a bit of an understatement.

HINT: Hold the "running section" STRAIGHT and with the groove downward for at least a few inches beyond where you're going to glue.Apply the glue to the track for a couple of inches and then press the running section into place, starting at sections that have already been laid. Wait a couple of minutes for the glue to set before continuing.

 

 

Sunday, November 16 1997

5:15 - 5:45PM (0.5 hours)

13.50 hours

Pages 18-19 (Driving spiral and motor assembly)

 

I should have glued the track to the loading platform yesterday, because now I have to glue it and wait for 10 minutes for it to set and dry before I can put the driving spiral in.

HINT: The "running section" that projects for 8 cm beyond the start of the track helps in keeping the track level while gluing to the platform. Just lay the running sections onto the platform like the picture on page 18 shows.

 
Next was the assembly of the motor. This was trivial, with two screws to put in and one glue joint. Sliding the driving spiral up the lift hill was easy (I used a toothpick to lift the end of the spiral through the slot in the platform). After super-gluing the driving shaft to the motor shaft I was done for the day.
 

 Now it was time for "part 1" of the major track-laying exercise. This involves using the superglue to attach the track to the various C-shaped support clamps which are attached to the upright supports. There are 29 of these pieces that the track is glued to. I'm using a paper clip to transfer glue from the bottle to the support clamps, since each drop from the bottle is way too much.
 

HINT: Although the instruction book shows doing this exersize in sections, with the unused track still coiled up, I found it just fine to thread the track through the entire layout before starting to glue. I used some of the clothespins to help keep the track from falling in some parts.

 
The hard part of this exersize is figuring out how much tension to put in the track. Too little tension and the track sags with just a tiny weight. Too much tension makes the track nice and stiff, but perhaps strains it too much? Already one report of someone's model self-destructing is on the newsgroups, with the track disintegrating into tiny pieces. I do *not* want that to happen! I settle for a reasonable amount of tension to make the track stiff, but not taut.

I'm able to progress through 15 of the 44 supports, about one-third. I guess this means it should take 2 more hours to complete.
 

 I was able to finish the rest of the support gluing in only one hour instead of two. I think I "got the hang of it" the previous Tuesday, so the remainder was easy.
One minor mishap: I accidentially broke off one of the "M" pieces from the support lattice, but it only took a few seconds to glue it back. I'm expecting to be somewhat clumsy in the detail work, but I hopefully won't break anything more!
 

Hey, I'm officially past half done, at least going by the fact that I'm on page 23 of the 44 page book. This part of the model-building is going to be LONG, TEDIOUS, and DIFFICULT. It involves gluing a flexible nylon "C"-shaped channel onto the 17-foot-long track that's already laid on the supports. And when I finish the RIGHT "run section" I get to repeat it with the LEFT one. All in all, about 35 feet of gluing.

This first part isn't so bad. I'm applying glue to about 6 or 7 track "tick marks", then pressing the nylon run section down. It takes a considerable amount of force to "snap" the run section on, but it got easier as I went along.

I was able to finish 9 of 44 sections (each section being between two upright supports) in the 1/2 hour. At this pace, it should take 5 hours to finish both lanes!

HINT: Make sure that the run section is not twisted. It is quite easy to push onto the track if you hold it with some tension (i.e. pull the nylon "ahead" of where you are gluing it).

 

WHAT A PAIN! Not only is this run-section-laying boring, but it is pretty difficult. I've knocked over one of the 'M' pieces, and it is pretty difficult in some places to get the glue onto the track or to press the run section onto the track. On reflection, it isn't TOO difficult, but it is tedious. I've now finished 21 of 44 sections on the right-side run section.

SECOND MONTH SUMMARY!

OK, time for the summary of Month #2 of this project:

• 16 1/2 hours spent so far, but only about 5 hours this month. Sarah & I were playing Riven quite a bit this month, so that cut into prime modeling time.
• I've finished half the booklet, and am in the middle of laying the track. After the trackwork is done, the rest of the model is decorative!
• Hopefully I'll be able to spend more than 5 hours on the model in December!
• I can't wait to get past the boring part of track run section laying!

[on to PART 3]

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