Making Do

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

To prove that I can finally finish some models, this picture was taken in the same position as post #17 back in  2011.

The layout has come on a bit too, particularly the low relief back scene.  Thomas has just been finished and is ready for service. The green saddle tank number 3E was finished  before Christmas, it has not got brake hoses because this is a back street industrial railway, running unfitted trains, Thomas is of course visiting from the outside, he runs trip goods and a local passenger service from the "main line" into Arkwright Mills yard.

 

These are both examples of what can be done with the Bachmann Thomas chassis and other plastic toy bodies

[ColinK]

Great work, nice to see some real modelling. I'm currently attacking a Model Rail sentinal.

[relaxinghobby]

It was a British Railways goods brake,I've sanded off the lookouts and cut up the chassis.

 

Upgrading H0 models to make small 4mm models, usually, gives something suitable in size for a pre-grouping

era model

 

This photo should show upside down view of brake chassis and sides of prepared van

 

Basically using the original Lima model as a properly square cuboid to glue new layers onto, some how the

brake cabin is the correct length for my model, I can expand it's skinny H0 body into the correct 4mm width

by sticking thicker sides onto it.

 

Using Greenscene siding, a one millimetre thick styrene sheet with perfectly made groves into to represent

planks. The trouble with this Greenscene stuff ( I mean Evergreen ) is that it is made for the American

market and they model in H0, three and a half millimetre to the foot, not four mill' so often some of their

Evergreen stuff is not suitable for the usual British modeller. I don't know why I bought this sheet, it

was long a go and I've never found a use for it until now, it's planking width is about right for this

little van and this is about right for my about right standards of modelling. Is the chassis right

enough? The buffers are about a millimetre too close together after I dissected the chassis and removed

the unwanted middle bit, fitted it with brass wheel bearings and Dapol wagon wheels, this brings the

buffers up to the correct height, my usual simple way of 4 millimeterisng H0 stock into the right hieght

But the two outer haves are too still too close to gether. If I had been clever and thoughtfull I would

not have drilled the bearing holes so deep witth a basic 2mm drill from Willkinsons, so allowing the

two halves to be further apart when the wheels are in place. I may redo the chassis, best to get the basic

dimensions looking right then the over all impressions of the model will work and look right.

 

The body will be built up by sticking more bits of plastic to the outside until it has reached the correst

size.

 

I'm working from this drawing http://www.brucehunt.co.uk/PDSWJR%20Goods%20stock.html

 

A small and cute vheicle, I have far more models of brakes than I need but they are my favourite type of

rolling stock, I can't resist a cute little van. And this one is ideal for an obscure light railway like

mine.

[relaxinghobby]

 

Brake van continued.

 

This stage I find tricky, gluing on the frame detail using the ready cut Evergreen sections, in this case, 1 X 1 millimeter. The trick is to get them straight and square. Not enough space to get the square end of the set square in so I used a trusty of bit of wood as a miniature set square. One that I know is also cut square. This small section of Evergreen strip can bend while being glued so also I use the straight edge of the wood to push the plastic into place and check all is true. See photos for how well I have done.

 

After third re-gluing of the chassis sections, I am finally satisfied with the width and the wheels running true and the buffer beams lining up so I am now gluing in reinforcing scraps of styrene bit by bit, waiting for the glue to harden between each time, say every evening. Next I'll build up the faces of the beams.

 

Modified Curtain walls re-glued inside the van, these had to be trimmed down to allow room for the false ceiling. At one end one wall is set back, this is to allow for a brake operating wheel, the black slab is the start of the roof, a false ceiling, I cut curved shaped pieces and add them to it to form the profile of the roof, which is a very flat curve on this prototype.

 

[relaxinghobby]

 

Some work done on the little brake, preparing stuff for the roof and veranda ends, hot weather at the moment

which means I rather be in the garden. Maybe drinking too much wine but with this one, a Spanish red, you get a free

cow. One of those big dangerous ones they like to fight. The wine was called Torres and el Toro stands 19mm tall at the

shoulder, is that too big for a 4mm bull?

[relaxinghobby]

 

Away visiting at the moment, this is my traveling kit, a compartmentalized box which was a free gift from British Railway Modelling a few years ago. Something similar could be found in Wilkinsons, a fishing tackle shop or maybe B&M stores, the people who took over our local Woolworths.

 

A few scraps of plastic and components, the little block of wood makes for a little set square. The blue and yellow circle cutter is a great tall, I'm using it to cut little plastic arcs to form the roof.  The tender top is going to be marked out and cut up to make tanks for a loco

project, I'm still agonising over the loco drawing, nor sure what the exact size the tanks are yet.

[relaxinghobby]

 

Little progress to report or rather nothing successfully done.

I'm on my third roof, here is the sub-structure, a false ceiling made from 1mm plastic card

then some curved ribs.Then a curved roof piece is stuck onto it.

This roof is a very shallow curve which seems to make it difficult for this method to work. The picture below

is of the heat treatment process to form the curve in the roof. A piece of p-card is sellotaped to a

suitably rounded heatproof former, a large tin in this case, it's held tight by wrapping a crepe

bandage around it, then boiling water form the kettle poured over it.

This has worked but gluing it to the lower part without it all going wonky has defeated me so far.

 

[Spitfire2865]

Try making the roof as the prototype, but with strips of plasticcard.  Then either weld and file smooth or cover with tissue.

[Fat Controller]

P1010176a.JPG

 

Some work done on the little brake, preparing stuff for the roof and veranda ends, hot weather at the moment

which means I rather be in the garden. Maybe drinking too much wine but with this one, a Spanish red, you get a free

cow. One of those big dangerous ones they like to fight. The wine was called Torres and el Toro stands 19mm tall at the

shoulder, is that too big for a 4mm bull?

19mm comes out at about 4'9", which isn't that tall for a bull.

[scots region]

19mm comes out at about 4'9", which isn't that tall for a bull.

 

If anything its rather small. 

[kevinklein]

Size isn`t everything..... 

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

Brake van wheels where too tall and lift the buffers up to high, I think they are Dapol wheels, I've swapped

them for slightly smaller Romford wagon wheels.

 

Why is there a slight difference in diameter between different makes of wheel when they are meant to be the same?

 

Now I have gotten the buffers right I can then set the coupling height with layers of styrene sheet.

 

This roof method is similar to Spitfire's suggestion.

Roof number three done without any hot water. I scoured parallel groves about 1.5mm apart in some

20 thou ( 0.5 mill ) styrene and then cut a roof-sized rectangle, this curved easily due to the slight distortion caused by cutting the groves. The groves are on top so will have to be filled in later, along with

a depression caused by too much glue at one spot which had softened the plastic.

I used my squawker tool to cut the groves dragging the strange shape triangular cutting edge through the

plastic like a miniature plough.

[relaxinghobby]

 

Grooves filled and roof detail added, that's rain strips and a chimney.

I've been using dome Revell filler, a fine gritty material, could be plaster.

The tube has dried out so before I use and it has to be dug out from the nozel

with a small screwdriver and mixed with some solvent.

 

 

The framing is complete, the next step is to add bracket detail. A long process of

cutting out thin strips of plastic and gluing on tiny lumps of plastic to represent

bolt heads.

 

The frame around the veranda and has turned out to be much stronger than

I hoped, If I can I try to make the roof detachable to make painting easier, so

leaving the Evergreen strips as part of the body and not stuck to the roof was a big

deal at the planning stage, I thought it would be very fragile but its turned out to

be really quite robust.

 

If the strips are cut at a perfect right angle a strong joint can be made

with solvent glue.

[relaxinghobby]

At this stage on any particular model, progress tends to slow down for me.

Once I've got the basic shape done, it's up on its wheels and running straight.

The couplings are there and at the right height. It can join a train on the layout.

It sort of looks OK.

Major details are in place, the outline is there so that you can recognize it, at

this point my interest wanes a bit. The next stage is the small details, which are

of less interest to me if you have to peer closely at the prototype drawing or photograph

to find them, is the object too small to model?

 

 

 

So here I'm sticking on strapping and bolt head detail using plastic strip and tiny

chunks of plastic card. The black is from the very thin parts of a coffee take away lid;

cut,dunked in glue and put in place with the point of a scalpel blade. The strips are either

made from the same thin plastic lids or from some ancient pre-embossed strip form the

defunct Ken Line accessories, I got from a club second-hand sales stand. Once that is used

up I will have to make my own.

 

Is such fine detail worth it or will it disappear during the painting.

Another way is to make some of this sort of fine detail over sized to show up better through the paint?

If you can't see it at normal viewing distances on the layout when it is moving do I need to model it?

 

 

 

Straping detail very indistinguishable in the light of this photo.

Also at this angle you can see the brake wheels and set back screen just like th e prototype.

 

Next step....

 

 

Hand rails are definitely in the big enough to see so get modelled category. For this model I have to

drill tiny holes for the wire in the narrow timber frame strips, the pint of the drill can slip off.

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

Details of the other side stuck on the tags sticking out at the bottom will be trimmed

when the glue has hardened.

 

This photo takes advantage of the sunshine to try and show the very thin strip material used

to represent the strapping detail.

[Edwardian]

Very nice job indeed

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

Final details, handrails and brake pipes added.

Handrails from Eileen's 0.45 mm brass wire pipes from unknown sources, just in my bits box.

 

When the glue has completely hardened I can paint it along with a guard figure on the veranda.

[relaxinghobby]

A comparison of small brake vans.

 

 

This new model of a Plymouth and Devonport brake van is almost a proper scale model for me.

Using or adapting a Lima van means at least the model comes out square.