Weekend Photos - June 2024

[healey36]

And now for something completely different, sorta...Wayne, I know you have a knack for running stuff like this down. Spotted this insect on the inside of my screened porch this AM; it looks sorta like a dragonfly holding four semaphore flags:



If you look closely, you'll see it actually has two pair of fairly conventional very fine lace wings, the "flags" just being markings. Probably 3.5-4.0 inches, wingtip to wingtip. I scooped it up in a bit of rolled up newspaper and tossed it outside (similar to your method for handling black-widow spiders found in your shed, Wayne, as I recall).

What the heck is it?

It's June!!!

[webenda]

It is a common Whitetail Skimmer Dragonfly (Plathemis lydia.)

It is a male, probably immature because you did not mention the color of its tail. When they get ready to mate they sport a strikingly brilliant white tail. I never saw this species in the Sonoran Desert but they were plentiful at my old house here in Kentucky because I had two streams running past the house at that location.

[healey36]

Your old house? Did you move to a new place?

Thanks for the info. We have many dragonflies here, but I guess I never noticed the wing pattern before. We’ve had a fair bit of rain the last couple weeks, and with the rain the mosquito population rises. The dragonflies must be moving in, attracted by the mosquito population.

[healey36]

A project that continues, albeit glacially, is the refurbishment of a 1098 set from the mid-late 1920s. The 253 loco was in really rough shape, so that was stripped, soldered back together (with Sarge's assistance), then repainted with a dark green (Scalecoat BNSF green 1079) that didn't quite match the original. After that was done (it still requires its pick-up roller assembly's replacement, but I'm deferring that), I moved onto the three cars (610/610/612). First up was the well-used 612 observation. We soldered the platform railing back into place, replaced a broken latch coupler, then stripped the badly rusted roof for repainting. We did not repaint anything else, as I didn't want to give up the faint New York Central markings. Further search for a perfect paint match proved futile, but I eventually settled on Train Enamel's 428 Dark Green:



As you can see, It's still off, but we'll go with this until something "better" turns up. The expectation that one might exactly match 95 year-old paint is likely greatly misplaced. You might look at this and think "Why'd you bother?"; it actually doesn't look too bad without a bright light shining on it

[healey36]

Up to Cresson this week for a few days of R&R (hey wait, I'm retired ). Just sit on the Station Inn's porch and watch stuff roll by on the old Pennsy mainline:



Cresson at dusk (a bit grainy).

[gregj410]

I had this variant of a dragonfly show up while I was painting some chairs. I can remember on 2 different occasions while I was painting outside these dragonflies kept showing up. Could be coincidence or maybe the paint fumes?

[webenda]

Why is that thing smiling at you?

Nice photo, Greg, the focus is just right.

[healey36]

I've had a rusty/battered four-wheel Flyer 3013 sand car in the under-the-workbench parts box for years. Rather than "restore" it or gut it for parts, I've decided I want to make a stakeless flat car out of it...we'll call it a 301X. A pretty simple exercise, but I want to make a load for it as well, which will be a bit more complicated.

First step was to remove the body from the frame. Pretty easy, just straighten up eight tabs and lift it off. Unlike the Lionel 902, the brake-wheel and stanchion on the 3013 is attached to the body only and doesn't pass through the frame. I'll save the body in case I decide at some point to reassemble the car. I have a source for a replacement brake-wheel should I decide to do that.

Next step was to remove the the bits from the frame. Wheels, axles, and journals are easy enough. The wheels and axles come out with just a minor flex of the frame. I used the Dremel and a wire wheel to polish off the coating of rust and shine them up a bit, then set them aside. The journals are each attached with a pair of tabs...just bend the bottom one straight and they are easily removed. I have an old can of Brasso that I used to shine them up. That and a buffing wheel on the Dremel has them looking pretty smart.



The tab/slot couplers are a different matter. Both are missing their tabs, whether they broke off sometime in the last 90 years or someone purposely removed them, not sure (although I don't know why someone would purposely remove them). I couldn't find replacements (didn't try too hard, I'll admit). No worries, I'm feeling lazy and slot-only will work as long as the next car in the string still has its tab(s). The other thing is these are riveted in, so you'd have to drill them out and re-rivet them to get them back on. Initially I intended to repaint the frame, but the original paint is in nice shape with just a few scratches so I'm going to leave that be. I used the Dremel and wire-wheel to polish up the couplers in place as best as I could.

The last step in this initial phase was to drill one additional hole for possible use in mounting the load. Easy enough; once that was done, I polished the frame with a bit of Turtle Wax polishing compound, then a bit of Meguiar's cleaning wax. Once that was done, I reinstalled the journals, wheels, and axles.



I ordered a number of 3D-printed items from a printer I've used a number of times for other stuff; any one of them could serve as a load. Have to decide how intricate I want to make it given the prewar "tinplate" theme". More pics to follow.

[healey36]

Assembled one of the 3D-printed kits and gave it a paint job. At 1/56-scale, it's slightly small for O-gauge, but it's tinplate, so who cares:



A French FT-17, it probably should have some serial numbers on it, and maybe one of the playing-card platoon/section markings. I might go back and give it an overspray of Tamiya clear gloss...that might make it a bit more attuned to the tinplate look. Or just leave it be...

[webenda]

Those tanks were little things. The width of a Renault FT was 4 feet 10 inches (according to a Google AI search.) If the model sits on top of the rails without falling though, it might be 1:48 scale.



AI Overview

Here are some specifications for the French Renault FT-17 light tank, which was used in World War I:
Weight: 7.2 tons
Length: 16.4 ft
Width: 4.8 ft
Height: 7 ft
Armor: 8–22 mm
Main armament: Puteaux SA 1918 37 mm gun or 8 mm Hotchkiss machine gun
Engine: 4-cylinder, 4.5 liter, thermo-siphon water-cooled Renault engine with 39 horsepower at 1500 rpm
Transmission: Sliding gear with four forward speeds and one reverse
Suspension: Vertical springs
Fuel capacity: 95 liters, which is enough for about 8 hours
Operational range: 60 km (37 miles)
Maximum speed: 7 km/h (4.3 mph)


The FT was 5 feet 9 inches wide according to Wikipedia. Wiki also gives 1.74 meter as the width (1.74 meter = 5.7 feet.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_F ... skiego.jpg

Who should we believe, AI or Wiki? Maybe both. The width may have changed with different model numbers. Or some measures may be wheel-to-wheel width and others track outside width.

More: https://americangimuseum.org/tanks-in-wwi/

[gregj410]

Who should we believe, AI or Wiki? Maybe both

Both are dependent on the input of the people. Depends, can you trust the people?

[healey36]

When it comes to this kind of stuff, I'll take a well-aired reference book over Google and the Wik every day of the week. On matters of armor, I start with Peter Chamberlain's/Chris Ellis' Tanks of the World: 1915-1945 published in 1972. Google, given its propensity for trying to make a buck on everything, is editorially suspect IMHO, and the Wik is great for references but rife with errors (as evidenced by a family friend who was declared dead in Wikipedia many years before his actual demise, not to mention the herculean effort required to get the error corrected).

The FT (Faible Tonnage) series of tanks, as described by Chamberlain/Ellis, was pretty revolutionary at its introduction (one design feature being its all-round traverse turret, notably the first in the world). It first appeared in battle at the Forest of Retz in May 1918 (Second Battle of the Marne). The FT17 and FT18 served throughout the interwar years, and a significant number were still in service in May 1940 (although hopelessly obsolete by this time). The German captured large numbers of them and used them primarily for internal security. The Germans also used FT turrets for observation cupolas along sections of the Atlantic Wall (where they were encountered by the Allied invasion force). I hazily recall reading somewhere that the Allies also encountered a few up-gunned versions fielded by Vichy forces during the Torch landings in 1942...a hazy recollection, so I wouldn't hang my hat on it.

Putting aside doctrinal issues, one of the biggest problems with French tanks was the notional design of the one-man turret. This was a problem not only with the FT series, but many of the other tanks fielded by the French in the early going of WWII. Basically the guy in the turret was not only the vehicle commander (and possibly the section commander), he was also the gunner and loader for the turret's armament. One had to be an epic multi-tasker to handle all that.

The Americans built a bunch of the FT17 type under license (M1917), but I think they rather quickly moved on from the design. They probably saw some use as a training vehicle during the 1920's, but that's about it.

[E7]

Who should we believe, AI or Wiki? Maybe both

Both are dependent on the input of the people. Depends, can you trust the people?

As my old Daddy used to say, "Don't believe anything you hear, and about 1/2 of what you see, and you'll probably be OK.

The OLD Man made it to 91, so he must have knew what he was doing! Miss ya Pop!

Rich

[healey36]

Epic advice these days.

[webenda]

epic
noun
ep·​ic ˈe-pik
: a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds of a legendary or historical hero
the Iliad and the Odyssey are epics
Healey's long list of restorations shown on MTJ are epic.