Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Atlantic 3279]

An aside from modelling, which I hope will be forgiven or at least tolerated:

Those who have suffered my droning-on for the last two or three years, both here and previously on RMweb, may have noted that I've occasionally moaned about the battery appetite of my digital camera, much as I like its image quality and its other features which were (nearly) great value. In fact, I've entirely given up trying to use it on batteries, so it is now confined to home use on a mains power adapter, which keeps it completely happy. Out of idle curiosity, I've just looked at some reviews of this now obsolete camera on the web, all written after I bought mine. Every one of them seems to complain that the battery life possible in a Samsung A7 camera is dire, especially when the camera is no longer brand new and/or when the original Samsung batteries, no longer available as replacements, have died! I also get the impression from those reviews that Samsung simply don't want to have anything to do with dissapointed customers who have experienced this problem. Potential Samsung purchasers please bear in mind caveat emptor .

[mick b]

In addition to that NEVER buy ones that use AA Batteries. My Canon lovely pictures etc eats them like no tomorrow. Always go for Li-ion versions much better , my Nikon takes 300 shots to a charge

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

I have a Samsung D75 wot eats batteries on the close-up setting. 7 piccies on a set of batts when using the flash!

'Bout 40 on a set in daylight.

Incidentally, Asda are selling 16 Duracells for £6! Cheaper than the £ shop!

[S.A.C. Martin]

I use a Casio Exilim Z76. Good picture quality and battery life is excellent. All of the digital Casios are good cameras, particularly for film I find.

[Atlantic 3279]

If only our local Asda were more conveniently located, as I would find it helpful to be able to use the offending camera away from home tomorrow!

I'm tempted to think, by the way, in hindsight, that the trouble all stems from power-wasting aspects of the design: The LCD screen is "on" by default every time you start up the camera, you have to turn it "off" if you don't want it. Also, in a silly attempt to combine a decent length of optical system with a gimicky compact "carrying" size for the camera, the objective lens is motor-wound out of the camera on every start up, and back in on every shut-down. This process becomes noticeably more laboured as batteries age (even freshly recharged high capacity NiCd or NiMH hybrid) and as the camera ages (even with new, top-notch batteries). I presume the mechanism gets stiffer. It can reach the point where the thing shuts down due to inadequate battery power half-way through start-up, even on brand new batteries!Combine that burden with an integral flash facility, drawing power from the same batteries, and I feel it not unreasonable to summarise the designers' ideas on power supply and utilisation in this camera as ridiculously optimistic!

[Robpulham]

Admittedly not a compact, I have a Canon 350D which has a top notch battery life albeit that in the 5 or more years that I have had it I am on my 3rd battery. But they can be bought for about £7 from eBay. As Graeme describes, the LCD screen is on all the time and it has auto focus. It helps that I have a fairly short time out set for non use which does come back to life quite quickly if you press the focus button.

[wehf100]

I know for every 100 people who pass by you'd receive 100 different recommendations, but I have a Panasonic 'Lumix' TZ series camera. I've had two from this series now (currently on a TZ20), and I can vouch for the long battery life. You can easily exceed the manufacturers estimate of 260 photos from one charge.

happy modelling.
Will

[giner]

I'll agree with you on that, Will. I have a Lumix DMZ series point-and-shoot and it's a real miser on battery power - challenge BB's wallet anyday.

[Horsetan]

I've had few battery problems with my Fuji S304 and S1600. Both seem to give good picture quantities before the Ni-mH batteries need a charge.

[Atlantic 3279]

Back to modelling.....

Congrats must be firstly due to Richard by the way, for avoiding too much forum down-time over the weekend, but also for creaqting the opportunity for me to spend around six hours (plus unproductive messing around) on starting the second A1/1, the "proper" build with all the resin parts available from square-one:

From the raw resin castings (actually shown fettled-up in this image) and the out-of-the-box loco

To this loose assembly, compared in this composite image with "the one I did earlier".

[will5210]

Those resin parts look very neat!

[Atlantic 3279]

Thanks Will,

I must emphasize that the castings are not as neat as that straight out of the moulds. Flash and feeds, for instance around the back edges of the smoke deflectors, around the middles of the cylinder wrappers, and particularly around the angles and underside of the front running plate piece has to be carefully and thoroughly cleaned off before the castings are ready for use. Even where the flash/feeds are quite heavy though, the stuff yields very readily to a selection of files or other cutting tools - but any users of these castings (or my others such as the A2/3 parts) would have to be prepared to do the cleaning up for themselves, as I don't normally have time to fettle-up the castings for others.

Now that I've got this far with the dry-run assembly of the cast resin versions of the parts, I can safely write a workable assembly sequence.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

Wonderful as always, Graeme.

[Atlantic 3279]

I was going to post this stuff last night, but by the time I was ready I found myself unable to connect to the forum. Was it "down" for a while?

Anyway, after a long absence my "outsourced" second Toad E conversion has appeared in basic form, along with return of the prototype. still a lot of handrails, brakes, buffers, couplings, roof and so on to add, plus a small matter of livery when I can get around to it......

And here's how I've joined the sections of running plate for the A1/1 this time. No need to allow for dismantling and possible later adjustments now that I'm not feeling my way through a prototype conversion, so a shim of 5 thou plastikard to level the joint, and a rectangle of well abraded 10 thou brass, in both cases super-glued to well cleaned, abraded, dusted off areas of the resin, was my method of choice. I did consider less brittle adhesives that set more slowly, but I couldn't find a convenient way to clamp the joint in perfect alignment during the setting period. There's no problem of "oozed out" glue on the model to deal with when using a well judged amount of super glue either, and I reckoned the area of joint, and its location, would mean that suoper glue was good enough for the job. A file and then fine abrasive paper run over the top side of the finished joint produced a nice result.

[Atlantic 3279]

Primer and some black top coat at a convenient early stage:

I'd forgotten one aspect of the prototype build but was soon reminded. A bit of corrective filing is need to the rear of the smokebox base, and LIGHTLY over the curved mating surfaces in the saddle, in order to get the front end of the loco to "come together" without gaps under the smokebox and with buffers at the right height. Also the added plastikard block under the modified front of the running plate probably need only be 40 thou thick or a little more, not 80 thou as I originally applied:

All at the right levels now......