What's on my desk 2 Electric Boogaloo.

Hi!

Here's what I've been up to:

The Mercedes interior has received its second coat of oil paint. The colour is a mix of Raw Sienna, Van Dyck Brown and Burnt Umber. I paint it in a thin layer and then stipple with a large soft brush to get the leather effect.

Here's the difference between one layer and two:

Here's the interior just about complete. I might give it a final varnish.

On to the San Francisco tram:

This is turning out to be a lot of fun. The wood is soft and easy to work with. The metal parts are nicely cast, but need a good sanding to remove the seam line. Instructions are okay-ish, the pictures do clear up the text quite a bit.

The floor of the tram is composed of only three parts and requires painting in black. Levers are installed at both sides.

I was curious and looked up what they're for. Turns out the San Francisco trams do not have an engine on board. They're propelled by a continuously moving cable that the driver has to latch on to (and let go of when stopping). That's the middle lever.

The black lever is a track brake. A wooden block is pushed onto the track to stop. The pedal is a wheel brake. Another wooden block is pushed against the wheels to slow down.

The red lever is the emergency brake. This works by jamming a block into the track. When this one is used, the transport company has to come and cut away the block to get the tram moving again.

Next up were the benches next to the driver's station. Here's the preshaped parts next to the floor:

The parts form the structure of the seats. OcCre provides a bundle of strips to build up the seating area and supports. When built, it looks like this:

They need to be positioned next to the levers. Like so:

The benches need to be sanded down and painted/varnished. I got a bunch of woodworking tools yesterday (especially a good sanding block) so that's the next step.

See you next week!