Sailing Ships

[Graeme Dunbar]

Rhobart,

I've not seen all the videos but I believe the modeller models US prototypes in H0 predominantly. In one video he said he tried out an animation in 7 mm and then re-did it in H0 when he worked out what needed to be done.

It is a whole different slant on modelling and can end up being kitsch if overdone. When the animations are constant and appear to be on a very short loop it destroys the whole effect. Some of the best I've seen you spot out of the corner of your eye, then have to wait for them to occur again and when your eye moves on the animation is not so distracting that it stops you enjoying other parts of the model.

[rhobat bryn]

I must have missed the reference to HO when mentioned so thanks for the correction on that.  Still its good to know that it's possible.  I shall have to get working on my 4mm guard with his green flag!

I agree with you totally when you say that the danger is of its looking kitsch and you're spot on in describing the best use of animation.  So finding that I'm in complete agreement with you, it only remains for me to wish you a Merry Christmas.

Rhobat

[duttonbay]

I've not seen all the videos but I believe the modeller models US prototypes in H0 predominantly. In one video he said he tried out an animation in 7 mm and then re-did it in H0 when he worked out what needed to be done

Yes, Laurie McLean models US prototype in HOn3. It's not so different from OO9, the rails are 1.5mm further apart, and of course the horses, bulls, people, etc, are (in theory) smaller than if they were in 4mm scale.

[Graeme Dunbar]

There are some interesting Dutch layouts that incorporate animation. One I know is on YouTube somewhere that has a bicycle but the one I saw "in the flesh" at the Glasgow exhibition was called something like "Petershausen" (except that's German, not Dutch and I can't recall the proper name). Depending on your point of view it was way, way OTT (something approaching 100 animations on quite a small layout).

Some were definitely silly (priest/monk going up and down on the church bell rope) but the overall standard of modelling was high and you really had to look hard for some of the animations (the priest was only just visible through the open church door) that nothing dominated the overall scene. In broken Dutch/English we established that the builder hand-scribed all the building stonework on "gypsum" (plaster board with one paper surface removed) so the attention to detail was excellent throughout. Other animations included a pile-driver and JCB lowering/raising a pipe into/out of a trench. I think it is accepted that "what goes up must come down" as part of the animation conceit, but if there is sufficient pause then it does not look like aimless repetition.

Some people definitely "have it" and even grouping static figures can tell a story so the scene looks animated even though it isn't. The obvious one is the wedding party, but some modellers seem to find the right pairing or grouping of figures that look like they are interacting or have some common purpose and not in random snapshot positions.

[pilotfriend]

Generally speaking  I find animation pretty awful. Several layouts seen in Dortman were covered in them (along with hundreds of LED lights). Jerky and worse than Victorian automata. In many ways, some automation highlights the fact that other parts of the layout are 'frozen'.

That said, I have a small cameo of automated figures planned on Cliffhanger and the effort to make it look real is considerable. In the Cliffhanger case, the effect is intended to raise a smile.

One 009 layout had the Viessmann 'horizontal jogging' scene inside a house. Despite the fact that it was not visible unless a light was switched on, personally, I found it in bad taste in public exhibition.

Some of the best animations are to be found on a layout by Chelmsford MRC. These include swans swimming in a pond.

The automation of the docking of a sailing ship would be hard IMO and TedP describes the procedure very well. I think it would be easier to automate the docking of a steam/motor ship. If real water was desired, the bottom of the 'pond' would be best modelled using glass, (painted, of course). Beneath the glass, a guided magnet could be used to move the ship above. With real water, the movement would be less jerky, BTW as the water would act as a lubricant.

JdF

[rhobat bryn]

Animation needs to be used judiciously and your point about freezing the rest of the layout is particularly apt.

I wanted to upload and post an animation I came across on Youtube but am not sure how to go about it.  Could somebody please advise?

[pilotfriend]

You can just post the link inside the internet icon. Rhobat, I am enjoying your fresh views on 009 BTW.

[rhobat bryn]

I came across this animation on Youtube in my travels; I think it comes into the raising a smile category.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5adv8PgrJww

[pilotfriend]

That is remarkably well done. One guy some time ago was animating horses for his trams. I never saw an animation of it though.

[Graeme Dunbar]

Then there is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDPLoJv3tTo

I saw it at Glasgow. I think the maker said there are 90 odd animations on it!

[rhobat bryn]

Many thanks, pilotfriend for your comments regarding the movement of ships in real water.  I think the idea of using a magnet is an excellent idea especially as you say it would be far less jerky than a direct connection which would destroy the illusion completely.  I envisage that it would be possible for a sailing ship to approach the harbour, topsails raised only, and on approaching the dockside, the topsails would be lowered by means of radio electronic trickery.  The mooring would have to be left to the imagination of the viewer.  Accepting your point about the docking of a steamship, my preference is for sail since it is my third love (after my wife and narrow gauge railways) but it also represents a period when West Welsh ports were at there busiest and most productive.  It's the atmosphere of that period which I would like to evoke.

Coming back to your point about the magnet, is there a danger of the power of the magnet and its connection with the ship being lost between the glass and the water?

[Graeme Dunbar]

My only every visit to one of those Disney things was in 1980 at the original where they grubbed up an orange grove I believe. It was decidedly down-trodden and the "boat" ran on wheels on a railway track in shallow water. There is no need for waterproofing, just make sure the motor is above the water line and protected from splashes. The track was visible, but fish pond dye could cure that.

[Cambridge Paul]

Some years ago I saw a New York rail yard layout that was only connected to the man lines by a "car flat" service. In this case the dock and un-docking of the barge was featured as it formed a necessary part of the operation. I remember reading in one of the late, great C J Freezer's books about the concept of a fiddle yard/ferry built on a tea trolley that could be wheeled up to the dock/end of layout. Great in 7mm coarse scale ~ not so sure about 009?

As a matter of aesthetics, I would say animations per se are in the same category as garden gnomes. One may be a permissible folly, if kept discretely. A quantity makes one think of Parkstone or Frinton and the run screaming for the hills.

[rhobat bryn]

I received an e-mail from the Curator of the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea today regarding the loading and unloading of sailing ships in Welsh ports.

Firstly he explains that the reasons for the holds being so small is that it reduced the risk of leakage presented during storms and waves washing across the decks, and that structurally they weakened the integrity of the ship.

With regards the loading of coal, this was done by tipping the wagons so that the coal went into a chute that was directed towards the hatch.  Once the coal had been loaded into the hold, men were sent in, called 'trimmers', to distribute the coal more evenly so that it did not move during the voyage.  To unload, rigging was attached to the 'discharging gaff', itself attached to the main mast, with a pulley to lift the coal in caskets.  This was the swung over the side of the ship onto the quay, as Ted has previously suggested.

Limestone was loaded and unloaded by hand.  Slates were loaded by placing a plank from quayside into the hold, the plank would be greased and the slates (about 6 to 8 at a time) were then slid along the plank when they would then be placed in the hold by hand due to their fragility.

I realise that this is one for the sailing ship anoraks (or should that be waterproofs) but I thought it might be of some interest.  I have been recommended two books:

The Merchant Schooners by Basil Greenhill; and
Maritime Heritage by J Geraint Jenkins.

So I'm off to the library for a forage.

[Tigger]

Rhobat - that steaming lorry is excellent!  I tend to feel that some animations are gimmicky but others are quite permissible.  Subtlety is the key to this and possibly also the appropriateness to the operation of the railway.  A signalman who leans out to hand-flag a train past, for instance.  That said, I just loved the animations which Dave and Shirley Rowe  built into their layouts.  Sounds are another emotive subject.  As an exhibitor I have often been consumed with a compelling desire to rip out things from adjacent layouts such as crossing bells or perhaps shoot those damn' seagulls or crows!!  Once again subtlety is the secret.