Entry posted by Jon020
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Well... I did miss the members’ day today – I hope it went well for all! I did manage to get my two boys up to the Bluebell railway... and that was quite nice; what they’ve now done at Sheffield Park is good... an improvement, and we had a nice run with the Std 4 and a 6 coach train... and the E4 with the metro set (looking very smart). Only disappointment was the response I got when I bought a copy of Bradford Barton Diesels in action 4 at the Bulleid shop... when they said that they don’t dare mention diesels at the Bluebell – they're not accepted. Well.... I’m sorry, and I know that everyone is entitled to their own opinion... but I suspect that they are missing out on a whole sector of enthusiasts (and their money)... but that’s their choice – personally, I’d love to see something other than coal burners steam engines all day (as fantastic as they are)... I think the other railways have a better (more pragmatic) approach. Shame that. ‘twas still a nice day though... and it is a lovely line and well worth the visit every time. The boys were happy as they came home with a OO second hand coach each – for their trains... and very reasonable these were too. So, I missed Stafford, but the day wasn’t anywhere near a total loss.
Now... to the reason for this entry..... This is probably the final part of the initial “modelling†bit; the daunting task of painting the loco can probably now no longer be avoided... and I’ll have to find a time slot when I can get this started.
The last month or so has been spent working the fuel tanks... and this is a pt2 to my previous blog entry. Firstly, given that the depth of the fuel tanks was now more evident, I bulked these up a bit by adding some appropriately shaped plasticard strips on the inside... which once painted should give the appearance of the tanks sitting under the body. These couldn’t go too far in as I was leaving space for the speaker... but if no speaker was required, these areas could be fully built up. To allow the speaker to sit snugly (between the new plasticard fuel tank packers, I constructed a small rectangular frame that would occupy the remaining space in the void and “pin†the speaker to the other end... plasticard strips cut to shape and braced in the corners... with one end containing a cut out to accommodate the speaker wires... as shown in one of the final photos.
Then additional details were added... working in all cases to reference photos. I’ve added a few of mine to a thread on the Class 55 group page. I’ve linked to Brian Daniels flickr pages for the same... and Brian Hanson has agreed to let me post his deltic detail pictures on my flickr site... at least until he re-homes his from his fotopic site- but I’m only doing the Deltic ones – none of the others (there were quite a few!). Hopefully I’ll get around to doing this later in the week... for anyone interested. Again, there will be a link on the class 55 group page (when I’ve done it).
Tank details: I added tank end pipes using 0.4 and 0.6mm brass wire with pastic end fittings. Some of these were attached at the lower ends to bent brackets made from thinned spare etch fret – glued in place. The upper ends of the pipes were pushed through drilled holes, drilled at an appropriate angle to support the wire in the right direction. Having now done all of this, there isn’t much room left between these and the bogies, once fitted, to take the sanding pipes... but photos show these pushed out to the sides, so it should be ok... at least those gaping voids are now filled.
Between the tanks, pipe ends were added in a similar manner – holes drilled in to take the pipes, and a flange added to the upper (moulded) valve. As the body of the speaker is visible here, I added some wires to represent pipes to this too. These are not particularly accurate, buit they’re not recessed enough – they can’t be to accommodate the speaker (a compromise)but once painted they will add variety to the otherwise bland surface and break it up a bit.
The steam pipes were a bit of a fiddle. Manufactured from 1.0mm brass wire(and they’ll need painting white) - PLEASE IGNORE THE 0.6MM REF ON THE PHOTO - I REMEMBERED WRONG WHEN EDITING THIS - THEY ARE 1MM. I drilled a hole at the ends of the under side, just before it angles up.... and angled these holes at about 45 degrees to allow the pipes to bend up into them. The pipes are a continuous run on each side – but (from left to right) as it runs towards the centre of the two tanks it dips down out of sight (generally) and reappears near the right hand end of the right tank – so it can be made in two pieces... glued and secured at one end and behind the remaining tank brackets and then dropping from sight (cut off) after about 2†in length. The other end is shorter (about 1â€) and runs similarly... same for both sides. I hope the photos show this. A continuous run would be more accurate but it’s be difficult to fit (I think it’s be a real fiddle!) and there might not be space for the speaker. I’m happy with the end result.
Fuel tank gauges. Brian Hanson kindly sent me some old test etches he had for these. I drilled out the existing gauges... using a variety of drills and burr bits... to approximately a 5mm diameter hole. Then I attached at thin slither of 5mm plastic tube, thinned and then burred/sanded to leave the faintest of “lips†to this hole (weld seem)... then using a 3mm dia rod of about 1.3mm long, dropped this into... and stuck the gauge etch on top – to try to get the gauge flush. Some of the photos are a bit crude – and one clearly looks non-centric... but is looks reasonable in the flesh and I think that once painted it’ll be fine. These improve the look of the tanks no end
I’d replaced the fuel vent/fillers on the tanks with small rod sections, and corrected these on the “gauged tank†on the B side – I think it’s the B side – the side viewed with No. 1 end to the left... the tank at the no. 1 end – the vent covers are in the middle on all tanks (middle of 4 covers) on all but this one – it was a mod associated with decommissioning of the water tank – and increasing fuel capacity that was introduced in the early 1970s. So once I’d corrected these, I then used 0.3mm wire to represent the vent pipes on the right hand tanks (viewed from the side)... and again, once painted these should look ok.
Finally, to get the riveted look to the bottom of the tanks, I bought some of the Archer 3D transfers “rivets†to add to the tanks. These don’t adhere to plastic surfaces (apparently), so I’ll add these to a thin coat of primer once it’s been applied.
The intent here is to recognise that the Shawplan etches do wonders to the deltic’s body... and to not try to mimic this on the underframe would be ... well, I want to say a crime... but I know that Brain’s working on that area for the future – so, what I’ve set out to do is frame what can be done with the etches... with some balance... let’s hope that with a little paint I succeed.
On the painting bit – the article on painting the JLTRT Class 26 in this month’s MR suggested that to prevent paint bleed, spray some gloss varnish on once the areas are masked - this was done after application of the masking tape to the yellow areas prior to blue paint spraying. I’ve not heard of this idea before, and I can see the advantages. Does anyone else have any comments (pros/cons) or problems with this method... ‘cause otherwise I might give it a try. I did note that several coats of yellow were needed to get the correct effect – I plan to apply some white primer over the (Halfords) grey on the nose ends before spraying the yellow... which I thought was the better option. Any thoughts anyone?
Nearly all the photos are at the end of the entry this time - I hope they make sense.
As for the day's end... both boys now asleep - so a day out with the trains achieved one result at least... and the house is now quiet B)... a well earned beer is called for 
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