An Afternoon In The Shop

My daughter has strep throat, so most of our normal Easter plans were cancelled as I missed church this morning in order to sit in a doctor's office. Luckily its not too bad. But that means...she is in bed watching movies and I can work in the shop!

Today I finally got around to painting. The airbrush needed some work, so I've been putting it off. Today I disasembled my Paashe VLS airbrush completely and cleaned it inside and out. Then I downloaded the VLS PDF manual and began debugging the parts. The needle (VLN 1, 3 or 5) has to be replaced and some other parts are worn, so its a trip to the train shop for me this week. I got it working well enough to paint the back walls, though and I'll proceed until I can lay in a supply of change parts.


Using Floquil SP Lark Dark Grey, I painted all the inside walls of the Slaughterhouse and the backs of all the windows. I've used black like many people do for the inside, but black has a tendency to catch your eye and I've found that dark gray is more of a "shadow" color and more natural to the eye. It took a while to get so much plastic painted so I watched "A Fistful of Dollars" while I paited. I keep forgetting to put on old clothes on paint day so I ruined another shirt. I'm out of paint so I added it to my shopping list along with the parts. The ultrasonic cleaner does a great job on cleaning the brush.



The next project while the paint was drying was to work on the benchwork. I've cordoned off a section of the layout that is a bit over 60 square feet. This is because I want to claim its construction for my NMRA AP program and my friends aren't allowed to help me. This is completely backward from the spirit of the hobby, but it is what it is. I constructed the gurney.


I wasn't going to build it until last, but I realized that I really needed to build its nesting fram AFTER I build the gurney, not before. After buying some 1x3 poplar stock lumber, I made the frame. Actually, I had a big mess on my hands because the 1x3 poplar lumber is really 3/4" x 2 1/2". Bastards. Why don't they label it that way! So the plywood I cut wouldn't work with it. This forced me to buy some more which caused an argument with the hog that was at the cash register. Jerk. Oh well.


This is about where the gurney will line up with the layout.

I wanted to make sure the gurney was strong and didn't warp or change shape, so I made it a little stronger than I woulr have normally. The poplar is nice would and notches well. It is also very light so I can easily lift this section by myself. It still needs a top cover of plywood.

That's all for today. Next time I head to the Homeless Despot, I'll carry a tape measure.