Now that the weather is warmer all the yard jobs have been getting in the way of the modelling pursuits. However the 'endless' spring list seems to be a little shorter now so I can get back to the modelling bench.
The station building at Black Mountain has a great light on the end of it, as I've mentioned in previous posts. So it is the first job on the to do list. I've used some .080" brass tube for the light support post and a couple of pieces of wire (.040") some brass strip, a tichy train group light fixture, and some magnet wire. The photos tell the story so far.
The Tichy Train Group light is a great moulding and just the size I was after, I hollowed it out a little bit as it's moulded solid with a bulb protruding to paint. Then drilled out the centre .080" to allow it to thread onto the brass tube. The bend was done around my pin vice giving about a 2 foot diameter to it. 
Here you can see the universal jig (blue tac ;-)) that I use to solder on the two mounting wires to the back of the tube. You can see the brass strip on the RHS already drilled out, and under the wires are two lines that are the distance apart that the holes in the strip are.
Another technical jig in use for this one as well. I just had to make sure the balsa was thicker than the distance on the model between the wall and the outside of the roofing.
Here's all the brass bits together, a trial fit before painting. The last job is to trim the mounting wires so that they don't foul the 'inner' wall on the inside of this outer shell. It's all had a bit of undercoat , including the magnet wire so that it looks the part disappearing into the woodwork on the building. I have a mini LED to attach once this is all dry, then it will be mounted.
Naming boards on the station building are the next job. Ages ago Mike gave me an article he'd written about how to print a black background with white lettering using 'word'. I've used it several times, even for making up wagon codes when there wasn't a decal suitable. The jist of it is that you do a background shading of whatever level you like. Obviously for a black background you make it 100%, then make the lettering white in colour, simple really and it works a treat!
Font, size, etc are all that you need to play around with, even bold comes in handy, especially if you get down to a font size of 4. (you can highlight the font size and type over it to get lower than the default settings) If your doing a wagon I found printing the 'decals' in several colours or levels of shading enabled you to match the colour to what ever colour of grey your wagons are coloured in. If you have some matt spray, or artist fixative it's worth giving the paper a hit before cutting and gluing to the boards so that the black doesn't smudge.
That'll do for now, I'll bore you with some photos when it's all together,
Ooroo, Geoff.
Following on from earlier todays post, I've hooked up some electricity to the station to see how it goes for brightness. This shot has the internal and external lights on, and don't the locals love it!
I was a little concerned that the LED was a little large for this application, however when it's on it seems ok. None of the layout lights are on, so I imagine that when they are, it will be less obvious. 
The 9 volt battery is not to scale! Just getting in first with that one, anyway that'll do, 
