Sanity survived

I did it! I've got a baseboard for the layout and I still have my sanity!
After about 45 minutes under the weights I carefully removed them and decided to screw the 2x1 to the frame.
Very carefully I compared the wood screws I had to my drill bits to find one the right size. I drilled holes in the frame, some were almost vertical some weren't so vertical. Then I screwed the pieces together. By hand mind you. I always, always strip the heads of screws when I try using an electric screwdriver. All of my other wooden baseboards are testament to this fact. So at long last I have learned my lesson and I have a serviceable baseboard. Now I can start to work on the good stuff...

The worst woodworker in the world reports from the frontline

The worst woodworker in the world, that's me. The boy who was in last place in woodwork class at school in his teenage years. Girls beat me.
OK so perhaps I'm not the worst. But my inabilities with wood do severely compromise my baseboard construction. That's why I so often choose foam for my baseboards. I can work with that.
That's one reason why I chose the noticeboard as a baseboard. Ready made. A convenient size so there would be no woodworking to be done. Just slap some foam on there and away we go.
Uh-uh. Not so fast. As I mentioned in my first post of the day. the board was twisted. No problem. I can cut some lengths of 2x1 and pull it straight. Cutting the wood went OK. I even remembered to cut the correct side of my line. Then I placed the wood against the frame and found that the board was narrower in the middle by 1/2" compared to the ends.
So I've slapped loads of glue onto the frame positioned the 2x1 under it and weighted it down as you can see from the photo above. Perhaps the glue will hold and I won't have to screw it together because that give me plenty of opportunity to mess things up by splitting the wood with some screws...

...And we're off...

Finding myself having the day off work. I have decided to start work on Gonou-Son of Hitsu. I will post blog entries through the day as I work on things and find myself with time on my hands as glue sets etc.
Hour zero then, the baseboard. A cork faced notice board bought from Menards. Size 3' x 2'. It is slightly warped. So the first task will be to flatten it out by bracing it with some lengths of 2 x 1.
Back shortly...

More fora...

Is that right? Or is it forums? Fora, forums. Scon or scone... You say to-may-to and I say to-mah-to... Getting way off the point here.
The point is that two more fora/forums for T gauge have appeared over the last few days.
T central station (which I have joined) and
Trainboard has a dedicated T scale list too.
Three fora for a specialist scale such as T? I'm amazed. The membership at Talking T gauge approches 100. We are well on the way to becoming mainstream...
Not really, not yet. But it does show that there really does appear to be quite the interest in T gauge that goes further than I thought it would when I ordered my first set about 6 months ago.

Another day...

... and more progress to log.
I have to admit, I think things are going really well with this. Much better than I expected, if I'm to be honest. I expected all kinds of trouble, sticking all these different thicknesses of styrene together. Such small pieces too. But everything has gone together with surprising ease. Of course I've really thought things through before I did everything and there has only been a couple of places in which I've redone something to improve things.
The fact that it isn't a slavishly accurate model helps. I only had one dimension to work with. The height of the tower is 10 metres. So everything was worked from that and I judged the proportions from photographs against sizes of evergreen styrene strip that I had to hand. So all I was doing was sticking different sized lengths of styrene strip together. They were all cut on my Northwest shortlines chopper so all the edges turned out square.
There were no special tools used at all. Just the chopper, a regular modelling knife and a pair of tweezers. So those of you who think that T gauge modelling is for the expert with a vast array of micro modelmaking tools, think again. Yes, I used a magnifier but I'd use that in any scale it makes the job so much easier.


Now, I'm started to get carried away. Its gone beyond a mere model building and into the realms of just how far can I go with this. It was when I was assembling the portico around the ground level door that I realised this fact. I was going to make up the guard rail on the roof level by adapting a plastic N gauge ladder that I had. I think it would have worked quite well. But in the end I decided to order some etched metal handrails in 1:450 scale from a ship modelling suppliers. At the same time I ordered some ladders for the outside of the tower too. These extra pieces should really help to set the model off. I did consider ordering a set of watertight doors so that I would be able to accurately model the door on the ground level. But I only needed one door. Not 20 or so like there is on the sheet. Handrails and ladders I have plenty of use for. Not so watertight doors.
Time is really flying by on this project. It doesn't seem like 3 days work. It hasn't been hard. On the contrary it's been a joy.

The story so far

A progress picture of construction to date. After 2 nights work. All it is is a simple assembly of various sizes and thicknesses of styrene strips. The tower is some 4.8mm tube. To give you an idea of size the tower stands 23mm tall.

The Lighthouse project

It was pretty easy to find out that the lighthouse featured in the background of the first picture on the Gonou line web page was Torii Saki lighthouse.
I found this out using Misty's Japanese lighthouse tour website. A pretty comprehensive listing of Japanese lighthouses with many, many photographs.
Torii Saki is a pretty unusual looking structure and initially I thought what a fantastic model it would make. Then I took a deep breath and remembered that we're talking T gauge here. This would barely be an inch tall.
So perhaps a rethink is in order. Begin with something a little simpler to construct. There are many to see on Misty's site.
I can't see how getting the light house to work would be that difficult. All it would take is a grain of wheat light bulb (or a white LED) hooked up to a simple flashing circuit. Placed atop a styrene tube tower to hide the wiring. Anyone with any other ideas is welcome to pop them into comment.
That then will be the first job for the layout. Build a working lighthouse on top of a small rocky island...