Excellent news! I'm wishing you a speedy and complete recovery. 

Morning all,

My better half gets bummed out when I watch movies about WWII. She watched "Nuremburg" with me a few weeks ago and said it was a very good movie, one that everyone should watch, however she doesn't want to watch it a second time. It's too depressing she said. Earlier this week I watched "The Forgotten Battle" on Netflix. She was home when I was watching it. I didn't think she was paying attention, but she said it was a good movie however it too, was also very depressing.

I started a small FOS kit yesterday and made a fair amount of progress on it. I hope to get farther along today. Tomorrow morning, we hit the road for our two week adventure. I'm hoping my back and hip don't act up too much. They've been a little better, of late, but I haven't been very active. I anticipate a lot of walking over the course of this trip. The Doc gave me something that should help if needed.

Happy to hear you'll be joining the ranks of the retired folks, Raymo! 

Have a great one!

Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on June 05, 2026, 11:27:10 AMNeat little details.  Well done as usual.

Jeff

They sure are neat little details, Jeff! I remember these being all over the place when I was young. You need some for the Empire. 

Quote from: friscomike on June 05, 2026, 11:14:29 AMHowdy Bob, that's excellent work and a terrific tutorial. Thank you!  Have fun, mike

Thank you, Mike! I had a lot of fun with this one. It's a neat little kit. 

Quote from: Philip on June 04, 2026, 06:53:44 PM Great job!

Thank you, Philip!  I think Darryl did all the hard work. I just did the fun part. 

Quote from: ACL1504 on June 04, 2026, 06:08:44 PMBob,

Great builds. I never get tired of your threads.

Have a fun trip to the Pennsy area and hopefully we can get together when you return.

Tom

Thanks, Tom!  

First trip will be two weeks in Europe. We begin in Lucerne, Switzerland where we'll spend a couple of nights before we board our ship in Basel. Then we'll sail the Rhine and Main rivers until we end up in Nuremburg. After that we come home for a week or two before we fly up to Pennsylvania to visit family and friends. We'll be busy for a spell. When we return from those trips, I'll start physical therapy for my back and hips, but we definitely need to get together at some point.

Quote from: Ensign on June 04, 2026, 04:30:43 PMBob, well this turned out really cool!
Thanks for taking the time to show us your steps.

Greg

Thank you, Greg, and you're quite welcome!  I had fun building this one over the span of three days. Others might have completed it it less time but I'm in no rush.

Quote from: Jerry on June 04, 2026, 03:50:30 PMGreat job Bob and a very nice tutorial.
Now you have ice to take with you on the trip!! 

Jerry

Thank you, Jerry!  This was a neat little detail kit my better half got me for X-Mas.

Good morning all,

I just picked out a small FOS kit (the Lucky Seven Tavern) to work on. Given it's one that, the now happily retired, Dr. Jeff has already documented in an excellent build thread on I won't bother documenting the build. I promise I'll do a thread on whatever comes afterwards. 

Dave, you're making me realize how lucky I was when I got my eyes done. I had no issues. Good luck with eye number two.

We leave for out Sunday morning. Orlando to Chicago and then on to Zurich. We'll get there on Monday. That's the worst part of the trip. I can't wait to get there but I'm not looking forward to the travel part of the trip. The first day, of course, will involve getting settled into the hotel and recovering from jet lag and time zone changes. If last year's trip is any indication that won't be too bad. It was bad when we returned home. I guess the excitement of starting a new adventure helps overcome any weariness at the front end of the trip.

Have a great one!

Applying decals isn't really my thing but I managed to get them in place, and hopefully reasonably lined up.



Finally, the doors were glued in place.



Afterwards, I hit the ice machines with a spray of Dullcoat to hide the edges of the decals.

I didn't take a picture of adding the rust streaks and failed to mention when I did it. I added them prior to adding the decals and I used just a tiny bit of Burnt Sienna oil paint followed by a wash of odorless mineral spirits. I wanted just a hint of rust (probably overdid it). This method is very forgiving. If you get too much on, simply wash it off with the mineral spirits. It takes a fair amount of time for oil paints to set.

And there you have it. Two neat little ice machines to keep our HO Scale Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi chilled.



Thanks for following along! 

I then glued the two sides, front and top that make up the small, ventilated cabinet at top of the ice machine.



I cut out the decals that cover the doors using a small steel ruler and a sharp X-Acto blade.



After soaking the decals in some water, I applied them to the doors.



Then, I used some Panel Line Accent Color (Black) to make the vents 'pop'. Just a tiny bit goes a long way.



After the decals set, on the doors, I punched a hole through the decals where there's a hole in the doors. Then I carefully added the teeny, tiny, door handles. Thankfully extras are included in the kit since one decided to escape from my tweezers and launch himself into oblivion.



Now it's time to add the remaining decals. Again, these were cut out using a steel ruler and sharp knife. There are enough decals include for three ice machines, so some spares are available if I mess up.



More in a moment....

The top piece was glued in place next. The front side of this piece has an outline etched in it to help line up the doors later on.



Then the bottom half of the front was glue in place.



I added some glue (Canopy Glue) to the seam where the two front pieces meet. I'm using this as filler.



While the glue dried, I went ahead and painted the remaining parts using some Aluminum colored paint.



After glue had dried, I went ahead and smoothed that edge using an emery board. I also did the same with the other joints. Trying to eliminate any obvious seam or overhang (there was very little).



After using the emery board on the cabinet some touch up of the white paint was necessary so out came the sponge and white paint.



More in a moment (or two)...

After removing some of the pieces from the thinner sheet of parts, those that don't get painted white, I painted the remaining parts white using a makeup sponge and Vallejo White paint. This isn't my normal way of doing things. Typically, I remove the parts from the carrier sheet before I paint them. But I thought I'd follow along with the way the video depicts building this one.



I applied glue to the end of the base/rear piece.



Then I added the side walls to the base/rear piece. Once again, trying to make sure everything was in the right position and lined up correctly.



Next, the top piece was glued in place.



I used an emery board to bevel the front edge of the top piece.



I wanted to make sure the two parts that make up the front of the ice machine would sit tight against the side, top and bottom so I continued to use the emery board to make minor tweaks.



More in a moment...

Here's another mini build thread of a rather neat little detail that might be at home in a number of places on a layout. This one's for the Ice Machine kit from Interaction Hobbies. 

Alternately, you can spare yourself from perusing my thread and simply watch the instructional YouTube video Darryl created for this gem. 


Here's the package, which includes two Ice Machines.



And here are the contents of the package.



I began by removing the base and rear pieces from the thicker sheet components.



After removing these components, I smoothed the edges out using an emery board.



A little glue was then applied to the bottom edge of the rear piece. This sits on top of the base piece, as pointed out in the instructions and the video.



I tried to make sure everything was square and properly lined up.



More in a moment...

Morning all,

The Empire will look great with the new backdrops, Jeff.

Getting ready for our big trip. We leave Sunday afternoon and will be gone for the better part of two weeks. I'm not looking forward to the long flights but, once we get there it'll be great.

Finished one micro project yesterday and need to find another to work on.

Have a great one!