u/BarelyHumaning

The Flash Freeze was designed as a stealth bomber centred around a unique shape that would keep it nimble and hard to detect with a low thermal signature through the use of cold thrusters rather than traditional fuel.

This created a ship with the twitchy handling of a dogfighter with the slow responses of a cargo ship.

The ship was designed to allow the cockpit to be ejected as an escape pod however in practice, pilots would describe this function as a "self burial" rather than as a meaningful life preservation option due to the life support and communication array being left behind in the main ship.

In terms of armament, the Flash Freeze was equipped with two twin point defense turrets, one on each side mainly to act as anti-missile defence and to avoid becoming a sitting duck to fighters.

Its main weapon, a retractable tubo cannon for taking out heavy targets with long range precision.

"You have my sword"

"My bow"

"My Axe"

"And my heavy Assault Mech with long range Anti-Armour Gatling sniper cannon, devestator missile system and shield using the door from Bag End."

Do you need to walk the one ring from one end of middle earth to the other while being attacked by any number of orcs, goblins, wraiths, spiders and Balrogs? Then Bag Endgame is the weapons platform for you!

Featuring seating for one ring bearer, one best friend and one unimpressed wizard. (Soot from the engine stained Gandalf hat black)

Alas, I didn't notice the picture of the front was missing from the post and I can't add photos after the fact: Front Image

The Firebird is a personal utility vessel designed for inter-station transportation within asteroid mines. As a result it features a standing cockpit, twin turrets for protecting the ship from asteroids and other debris.

The B-RAS is a bi-mode mech that functions as a rapid response assault cannon that can re-deploy into a Sentry mech for survey or light defence work.

This design was largely considered a failure as it presented the high maintenance cost of a mech with the limited firepower of a tank. They did find use in Guerrilla warfare where their ability to serve as their own lookout allowed them to operate as independent search and destroy units.

I wanted to try and make a transforming mech, overall there are individual bits of this I like but I don't think it works overall but I thought I'd post anyway in case it serves as inspiration for someone else.

I decided to treat myself to a new Lord Nielson class 4-6-0. Running it in revealed another bit of dodgy track work that I knew had a problem, just not what problem. Turns out a kink in the joint between two pieces in an aquard spot.

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So with running in finally complete after that repair it was time to rub some trains!

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Alas, my little Terrier running up the incline started to struggle and limped to a stop, not to move again. Opening it up revealed that one of the sprung contacts had lost its spring and was fully recessed and so not making contact.

Testing the loco while upside down with the base keeper plate off revealed that that wasn't its only gremlin. It is my only dcc fitted loco, and the chip had also died after a short life of only running on dc. I ended up soldering the wires from the chip together and removing it. Then I added a ball of solder to the recessed contact so that it would make contact again.

This has gotten the loco running again where I will be keeping an eye on it.

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I was planning on moving to dcc next year but as that loco(and therefore chip) was only 2 1/2 years old, did I just get unlucky or how is the reliability of dcc chips something I need to consider?

After finally getting the line for the 5th platform down I found a kink between 2 points that caused a derailment when I tested it.

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After much procrastination I bit the bullet, packed the trains away and ripped up the whole junction. Once it was up I spotted that my station lines weren't straight so I pulled them up as well. So what was supposed to be a small fix to 1 point and 1 piece of track has ended up being a huge job.

I have had to shift the whole junction and inch and a half closer to the station and my platforms will end up that much shorter when I eventually get to the stage of making them.

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A lot of work but it's satisfying to see the improvements and have trains running again and regular service returning to Quakerton 🦆

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I got the main two loops finished at the end of March, just in time for my 6 and 4 year old niece and nephew to visit from overseas.

They were mesmerized by the two trains going round so I dusted off my old Hornby starter trains and let them have free reign, they loved it. They used some enamel ducks as passengers and would hurry the trains up the hill to reach the station on time. Of course they would also take great joy in sending them off the tracks going too fast downhill but that's all part of the fun at that age.

Since they left I got the turntable in with it wired up for power. It's controlled by the HOG (Hand of God) at the moment as are all the points. I will motorize them all at some point but that's a long way off.

I unfortunately need to pull up the big junction as I discovered that I have introduced some nasty kinks between the branch line and the main lines that needs sorting. At the same time I will straighten out the little bow in the middle lines so they are tighter to the placeholder platform.

The locos running are a A1x pulling a couple of particularly draggy coaches and a A2/3