'Good Moaning'

[Daniel]

Good day everybody.

Thank you for accepting me here.

I am Daniel Caso, a 70 years old Argentine living in the Netherlands since de late seventies who has been modelling since 1955.
I have very little to say if anything and also nothing to tell except that after a life building all kinds of things in a range of scales from N to 1/20 and if next year a -now temporarily delayed- surgery in both my eyes goes well I will be able to keep building in 1/32 scale which I love the most.

I have been a fanatic narrow gauge modeller for decades but the last couple of years -probably because my eyes limitations- my workbenches have seen more scenery work than trains.
I thought that would be sad but. surprisingly, I enjoy it a lot more than building models.
Nevertheless I have been building recently an imposible (500mm gauge!) freelanced 'ROWAN' (...) steam railcar that may be running before Covid-19 stops bothering mankind'.
In the photo you see it as is now, still without the roof complete and in place and no details but it gives an idea:

IMG_0037 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

Oh, yes, it is (+/-) 1/32 scale on 16,5mm track representing (+/-) 500mm gauge line in an imaginary French island during the period 1890/1930.
Of course it is all a pile of nonsense but who cares about sense? It is all a dancing mountain of joy where time doesn't exists.

Anyway these days I am doing a third try to model a mangrove area on my five meters long diorama and today I am making several trees:

IMG_0029 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

IMG_0035 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

IMG_0036 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

IMG_0031 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

IMG_0027 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

IMG_0025 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

IMG_0023 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

IMG_0022 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

IMG_0020 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

IMG_0019 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

The foliage will come as all armatures are done but to give an idea, here the 'mangrove'so far:

IMG_0014 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

It still need about 4 or 5 millimeters 'water' to be cast and modelled so the 'roots' look properly and the water ... whatever, but that is all future stuff.


Daniel

[Daniel]

Oh, yes, : how must I do to get notifications when someone post a message here?

(Please, keep in mind this: every moening, when I enter the room, even before I start it, the computer starts to laugh loud, very loud. It finds funny my cxocktail of ageing memory with a innate ignorance about computers.)

Daniel

[Bigmet]

Daniel,

I have sent a test 'private message' to you. There should be a '1' in the little box to the right of the toolbar under the ''search' box. Click on the envelope icon to open.

Love the effect of the loose tram roof. Considering that it is operating in a climate where mangroves grow, it might well have had the once common hot climate double roof arrangement, where there was a top roof with an air gap above the inner roof/ceiling of the passenger compartment, allowing some air cooling between them when the vehicle was moving.

[Ex-Pat]

Welcome to the Forum Daniel and I hope your eye surgery goes well.

Those trees are so realistic. I'm sure members would welcome a "blow by blow" account of your methods in the Scenery section.

[Daniel]

Thank you Bigmet.

The roof is the third (or fourth?) intent because I had made a nicecondensator system before but even if seen fromn the side was looking great, seen from the front or the rear was ridiculous tall for 500mm gauge. It seemed taller than the Crochat at the CFTT.
So I am doing my best to make it look lower.
Anyway one of the the real versions with the Decauville look had really just a smooth curved roof.
And regarding the place of the island: well, it has been moving all the time until now and with the climate changes location means less and less.

Daniel

[Daniel]

Welcome to the Forum Daniel and I hope your eye surgery goes well.

Those trees are so realistic. I'm sure members would welcome a "blow by blow" account of your methods in the Scenery section.

Thank you Ex-Pat for the welcome and also for the good wishes.

When I explain how are those tree armatures made it seems a joke: they are a cocktail of real tree branches from India, branches from many places in Amsterdam and a lot of branches from the tomatos bunches I buy at the supermarket with added sea-foam for the finest twigs. Those are all very smooth so I make de bark with Schmincke 'krakle effect paint' (+ black pigment for the colour) and using the hot air gun for enancing and accelerating the krakle. The rest is spraycans + soft pastels. It is a lot easier than it sounds.

Daniel

[Stainsacre]

Welcome aboard Daniel

[Bufferstop]

Welcome to the forum Daniel, you are obviously an accomplished modeller. As well as the notification for a private message, the "Quick links" just above the Home button include a very useful link to "New Posts" this will deliver you links to all of the posts which have come in since you last visited, It's the easiest way to keep up with multiple topics. Your mangrove trees are impressive, I look forward to seeing more of your work.
John W
aka. Bufferstop

[Ex-Pat]

, branches from many places in Amsterdam

Daniel

- not "magic" branches by any chance?!

[Dad-1]

Welcome aboard Daniel,

Eye problems so young !
I will admit that I find 'N' beyond me now (78)

You're obviously an accomplished modeller I like that building
A great' Haunted House'

Geoff T.

[Daniel]

Welcome aboard Daniel

Thank you Dave

Daniel

[Daniel]

Welcome to the forum Daniel, you are obviously an accomplished modeller. As well as the notification for a private message, the "Quick links" just above the Home button include a very useful link to "New Posts" this will deliver you links to all of the posts which have come in since you last visited, It's the easiest way to keep up with multiple topics. Your mangrove trees are impressive, I look forward to seeing more of your work.
John W
aka. Bufferstop

Thank you John for your kind words.

For some for me unknown reason it happens often that people think I know or can something which is not the case.
It is actually just a cocktail of attention, good luck, passion and healthy ignorance.

The mangrove is still at a sketchy stage but slowly I am getting a bit the feeling for it. It is an small area about 40cm X 40cm which is part of a 2,75m X 1m section of the layout.

In next two photos you can see the main theme of the section but, again, still just at a sketchy stage.
If you look carefully you'll notice that none of the trees is properly in place, the terrain is not elaborated yet, neither the water and some trees are pinned in place but not even touching the ground.
The river is approx. 20cm wide and 2,20m long and the intention is that once all trees are in place and with their foliages an a bit credible green canopy will create a very tranquile spot and will be reflected on the water surface:

P1110349 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

P1120369 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

At the right of the mangrove area there is a second small stream coming from the river to the foreground and is what you see in next photo in an a bit more elaborated sketch:

P1130618 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

P1130619 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

Thank you also for the tip about the "NEW POSTS" links.

Daniel

[Daniel]

, branches from many places in Amsterdam

Daniel

- not "magic" branches by any chance?!

Well, I live in the center of Amsterdam and those magic branches are sold just everywhere.
I have been smoking them for years. But one day I discovered meditation and lost all interest in drugs.

Daniel

[Daniel]

Welcome aboard Daniel,

Eye problems so young !
I will admit that I find 'N' beyond me now (78)

You're obviously an accomplished modeller I like that building
A great' Haunted House'

Geoff T.

Thank you Geoff.

Indeed. I assumed I could be getting such issues when reaching 120, but not at 70!

None of the buildings (or anything else) you see in my photos is already completted.
I seem to be developing a kind os 'non-strategy' strategy as we had when we were small kids: carefully arranging a scene with our toys where scales and such mental complications just weren't; then letting it there until Mom ordered to order the room and everything went back to de toys box. Next day, with a 100% renovated freedom a totally different scene would emerge from the same box.
In other words: you will recognize plenty of my trees, buildings and all the rest in totally different situations.

Now I am making some sketches to build a steam operated portable sawmill (dummy, of course) in the area between the river and the background:

P1170165 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

P1170112 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

and this is the first sketch for the 'locomobile':

IMG_0002 (3) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

As you may notice, the drawing is 2D but the wheels are already 3D, ready to be sent to Shapeways for 3D print.

And here the prototype for the portable saw:

P1190638 (2) by Daniel Osvaldo Caso, on Flickr

Daniel

[captrees]

Brilliant stuff. Inspirational.

(Memo to self... Ditch some of those horrible trees and make some more realistic ones....)