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Dave's Coaster Model Progress (page 3)

Progress, December 6, 1997 - December 29-1997

 

DATE	TIME	TOTAL TIME	PROGRESS
Saturday, December 6, 1997	4:00 - 5:00PM (1.0 hour)	17.50 hours	page 23 (almost finished with first "run section")

 

 It's now the start of the third month working on the model. I'm almost finished with the first run section, having completed 38 of the 44 sections. I also glued the end of the track to the back of the loading platform. I had to carefully cut off about 2 inches of extra track and made sure that there was a slight amount of springy tension when putting the end of the track to the platform. A little bit of glue does the trick!
 

It only took a few minutes to finish gluing the run section on the rest of the track. I had about 10 inches of run section left over. I carefully started gluing the run section onto the raised 'rail' in the loading platform, then snipped the run section so that it lay even with the start of the section (as shown on page 24 of the book -- no sense waiting until later!

It took almost 2 1/2 hours to lay the right run section. Hopefully it will take a little less for the left side due to experience (and not impatience). I finished 15 of the 44 sections. Not too bad; it should only take 1 1/2 hours to finish.
 

 FINISHED WITH THE TRACK! That feels good, because it was the most boring part of the model building so far. It took 8.25 hours to do, which is a little less than I expected, but still substantial. Theoretically I could now run the train on the track, but I'll wait a bit more.
 

 The decal work was actually easier than I had expected. I had even read on a newsgroup that "you WILL make mistakes your first time". As far as I could tell, I didn't make any mistakes here. The train looks GREAT!

HINT: Here's my method:  Use X-acto blade to cut decal from sheet. Use tiny tweezers to dip the decal in water. Hold underwater for about 10 seconds. Remove from water, wait another 10 seconds for water to finish saturating the paper. Put the decal, label-side UP on your forefinger. Use your thumb with some sliding pressure to slide the decal off the paper. Your goal is to have the decal resting on your thumb. Press the decal against the train in the desired position with your thumb.

 OK, with the train completed I did a test run. The train fell off the track on the first drop. After some adjusting, the train didn't fall off the track, but didn't make it up the second hill all the way. Later on the track the train either stopped or fell off. I guess I'll need to make lots of adjustments at some point!

This part of the model was easy again -- building a box to house one existant and one nonexistant motor, assembling a decaled decoration, and assembling one of three pointy decorations.

The pointy decorations were a pain. There are 16 tiny splints to insert into a ring-shaped holder. Each splint is not rigid when glued, but rather can be put into many positions. After all 16 were in place, I managed to get the splints to be roughly equally spaced apart. Not too easy.

HINT: Try to put all 16 splints in place quickly. That way the glue has not set 100% and you can reshape for evenness. It's easy to reshape if you turn the thing upside-down on a flat surface.

 

 I finished the other two "pointy decorations". However, I am NOT going to glue them on the main model because I'm sure that I'll knock them over at least a few times.

I glued the 4 sections of the maintenance staircase together. Unlike the instruction booklet, I think it'll be easy to put together as one piece.
 

A big work day. I haven't worked on the model for 2 hours straight since the second day I worked on it in October!

I am having MAJOR trouble with the staircase. First, I can't get the piece to stay glued to the "10/1" stair -- it keeps twisting off. Then, I kept breaking one of the pieces that it is supposed to be glued onto. Third, there is *NO WAY* to attach clothespegs like the diagram shows -- it just isn't possible! I managed to glue the stairs to ONE support, leaving three more (including the broken one) and the bottom stairs. I hope it'll work out.

The other work, putting the tiny (tiny!) station gates into place was pretty easy, since there are premade holes for them to slide into. Lastly, I started the canopy for the station house. More "normal" model-building work.
 

Some good progress today. I finished the canopy over the loading station and put together more of the gauze-filled fencing.
That's it for December...Happy New Year everyone!

THIRD MONTH SUMMARY!

OK, time for the summary of Month #3 of this project:

• 26.5 hours spent so far, with a solid 10 hours this month. December is too cold to wander around Philadelphia, but not snowy enough to wander around Philly in the snow (got it?).
• I'm on page 33 of 44, so I can claim to be about 3/4 done.!
• The rest of the work is decorative, with dozens of Gauze-filled Fences and a Cashier's booth

[on to PART 4]

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