I am finishing up the Tichy HO scale 100K/125K water tank for my loco service terminal and I'm trying to figure out how to proceed with the eight 0.01" wires that need to be painted/installed onto the tower support legs. I want the (copper) wires to be black so I'm wondering if it would be better to paint them (how?) and then cut/bend/install them, or would it be better to cut/bend/install them and then paint them (how?) ?
Thanks.
Here's Tichy's photo of the finished kit showing the two wires that connect each pair of support legs.
The current state of my water tower kit:
The eight copper wires in question that I need to paint black and install:
Modeling an HO gauge freelance version of the Union Pacific Oregon Short Line and the Utah Railway around 1957 in a world where Pirates from the Great Salt Lake founded Ogden, UT.
- Photo album of layout construction -
It's been some time since I built one of those (for a friend, so it's not here for me to take a look).
The wire is actually phosphor-bronze (Tichy offers it in various sizes for doing scratchbuilding and detail work). The best way, in my opinion, for doing the wires is to grasp each near one end using pliers, then draw the wire through a folded bit of fairly fine wet/dry sandpaper. Flip the wire around, grasping the opposite end and repeat. You can then use a blackening agent to permanently blacken the wire (A-West's "Blacken-It" works well). The trip through the sandpaper removes the oxidation from the wire, allowing the blackener to work more effectively. If you can't find Blacken-It, gun blue works well, too.
By the looks of your under-construction photos, it appears as if you'll be painting the tower after it's built, likely using an airbrush or ratttle can. If that's the case, the wires will be painted at the same time. The reason for the blackening treatment is that if the paint chips off, the wire won't look shiny. If you're painting the tower black, you won't have to worry about whether the wires get painted or not.To install the wires, drill suitably-sized holes in the gusset plate at the top of each support column, as shown in your first photo, and a similar or slightly larger hole at the base of each column. Make a right-angle bend in the top of each wire (an eighth of an inch is plenty) then measure the distance from the upper hole to its corresponding hole in the base of the adjacent columns, then cut the wire longer, by up to 1/4", than the measurement. The wire may need to be shortened or the lower holes drilled deeper, but the idea is to insert the lower end of the wire into the hole, then press the bent portion at the top into its hole and secure the top with just a touch of ca at the backside of the gusset plate. The lower end of the wire doesn't need (and shouldn't) be glued at all - it simply "floats" in the hole, expanding or contract as your layout room conditions allow. This prevents the wires from becoming distorted. I used the same procedure with the piano wire members on my Central Valley truss bridge, with only the tops glued, the bottom ends simply resting in the latticework...
Wayne
Great shots of Do Not Enter symbols in the OP...
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
Brunton Great shots of Do Not Enter symbols in the OP...
Can you see the images now?
OnewolfCan you see the images now?
BruntonGreat shots of Do Not Enter symbols in the OP...
Brunton is refering — I think — to symbols (%&"#@) in the title. For some reason the forum software converts them to a kind of html code. It shows up in the title as amp&,&o — or something like that.
IF you go back and RE-edit the title it works fine. It only messes up every time you edit the original post.
Same as Wayne, I completed my Tichy water tank years ago. I simply airbrushed the whole thing with Pollyscale grimy black. The wires never chipped but some of them did pull out of the very thin gusset plates, only because I bumped them before I had a permanent location for the tank.
It is a beautiful model.
If I click on one of the photo place-holders I'm taken to a site where I see a four-colored pinwheel.
Regards, Ed
OnewolfHere's Tichy's photo of the finished kit showing the two wires that connect each pair of support legs. The current state of my water tower kit: The eight copper wires in question that I need to paint black and install:
I believe that the first time through this thread the pictures were there.
Not there now. (5:14pm DST)
I'm not getting the pictures either.
I guess! The first time I looked at his thread, there were pictures of the tower, and of the wire he is referring to.
Now there is nothing. 5:48 CDST
Mike.
My You Tube
His pics, which I saw earlier, are now links to his google pictures. I don't understand why there were visible earlier without a .jpg extension.
Anyway it was a modern looking water tower and the wires he refered to where long criss cross affairs extend from just below the tank to the foot of the leg.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
BigDaddyAnyway it was a modern looking water tower and the wires he refered to where long criss cross affairs extend from just below the tank to the foot of the leg.
Like this —
https://www.tichytraingroup.com/Shop/tabid/91/p/7012/Default.aspx
And a detail of the upper wire attachment:
Tichtank1 by Edmund, on Flickr
Thank You,
Ed
The pictures were visible to me when I first replied, and any time I stopped in to read other replies, and are still visible now.
they don't show for me and if i click on the x it wants me to sign in to a google account , that might be the reason there a no show for me.
j. c. they don't show for me and if i click on the x it wants me to sign in to a google account , that might be the reason there a no show for me.
In Chrome I am signed in to my Google photo account and still, all I get is a round sign with a minus symbol in it.
In Microsoft Edge I get the same minus sign but it occupies a larger space in the thread reply. Every kind of copying/pasting still doesn't bring up OneWolf's photos but I can see every photo in his signature photo album, ie layout construction/roundhouse/machine shop. If he posted the photos there perhaps we would be able to see them there?
This is an application that, back in the day, I would have used selenium black for. You clean the wire with very fine abrasive followed by mineral spirits or a similar cleaner to remove oil from the surface. Wear rubber gloves and rinse any surface that the material comes in contact with, and work in a well-ventilated space.
There appears to be quite a range of alternative products in the brave new 21st Century. A useful reference page is:
https://jaxchemical.com/shop/?id=61
Some chemical companies (EPI in Wisconsin is one) will send or sell you 'evaluation quantities' of their products and solutions. I have not priced these to see if they are cheaper than LHS commercial quantities, but I suspect what they send you would be adequate for years, and could be parceled out and shared.