The other day I was browsing the blogs seeking inspiration and stumbled across SNCF Stephen's excellent litte 3D printed Drasine project. This got me thinking about a small is beautiful approach to N gauge modelling. After all, 3D printing costs depend purely on cubic centimeters of 'stuff' used rather than complexity....
...so a small, fiddly model seems to offer the best value!
A while ago I bought three Dapol Terriers with an eye to using the chassis for some unspecific project, at so
Evening All...
not sure what is best to do here, as it feels odd to post things in three parts of RMWeb, so I have decided to keep my T gauge stuff in the T Gauge group forum, leaving the blog primarily for my N/2mm ponderings and occasional modellings.
I will put the odd update on the really small stuff in the blog, but the main content can be found here:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/38664-t-gauge-class-37-on-short-19m-chassis/page__gopid__437716#entry437716
A quick update tonight, following on from the scenic work over the weekend, the blobs of sand have set nicely into foliage-ish 'clumps' which, with the sand soil toned down and the protruding lumpy bits dry brushed green to represent nettles and the like, will sit nicely among the final layer of static grass.
For now, the sandy protrusions have been drybrushed green 'virtually' to give an idea of what I am looking to do!
To create more of these 'plants', dry sand with a small
Tales from the Riverbank #1
(You may want to read this with your internal train of thought set to 'Alan Bennett-voice mode' for extra effect )
After several kind people gave me a gentle nudge at the Member's day, here is a bit of a kick-start to the scenic work on Victoria Bridge. It has been sat on the shelf for too long!
The basic scenery had been encased in a bandage layer, so first job tonight was to fill in all of the rather obvious weave which made the ground look like it was
Excitement, I had an email today letting my know that my latest couple of orders from Shapeways are now in production. Soon I hope to be able to show pics of the 'printed' N gauge Class 139 People Mover...
...and also, here is a teaser of my latest tiny T gauge project: (as seen first in the T gauge group B) )
Note that the sides are smooth, as I figured that at this scale it would be wise to combine the wrap around livery, and grille details, into a single decal! The tiny Class 37 w
Not much to report on the bridge diorama, other than some painting has occured and the scene is beginning to come together. The bridge itself has suffered with countless assemblies, straighening out attempts, re-gluings and other unpleasantness... so I really need to re laser cut a new 'fascia' of detail for the front face.. (the picture is kind to it, it is actually a bit of a mess, but it is all part of the learning process!)
45110 heads for Bewdley, must get around to painting a sunny blu
Hi All,
the usual apology for the recent 'radio silence' on the blog. I have much to report on from recent weeks, including progress on the N Victoria Bridge and my ramblings in T gauge.
But let's revisit the N gauge Class 139 Parry People Movers hybrid railcar. When we last saw it, some success had been had in creating resin cast transparent bodies for the Kato chassis, and the model had been enjoying itself roaming Wyre Forest MRC's Kinlet Wharf layout at the Blackburn and Stoneleigh s
Hi All,
it has been a while since I posted a thing here, but due to an unusually quiet weekend.... some progress!
Firstly, Victoria Bridge in N....
Using a pillar drill with a 2mm drill bit, I finally got around to creating the precision holes for the structural toothpicks...
However, the holes have turned out rather too precise, the toothpicks fit too snugly into the holes and make it impossible to slide the bridge parts to the right spacing... or at least not wit
Evening All,
right, no modelling as such tonight, but a bit of three dimensional pondering, which might be of interest.
You will recall my N gauge Victoria Brige diorama, this is making quiet progress, note that the beginnings of an abutment is beginning to appear. I spent a chilly afternoon at the weekend walking to the Northern Abutment (I'm used to cycling past on the Southern bank) getting detail pictures and generally observing and sussing things out.
But what has this to
A bit more progress in the world of the absurdly small! I have had a go at creating a purely cosmetic arrangement of plasticard bits to resemble a Great Western 0-4-2 to run as part of an 'Autotrain', propelled by a carriage. I have learned a fair bit from this project, hopefully the next one will be an improvement!
Compared to an N gauge Dapol 'Terrier'.
I have also been having a go at the 2-4-0 'Well Tank', could be a useful model for my T Gauge vaguely South Western theme...
A brief update, just a little experiment in printing sides, it does come out rather small
(The looming mass of N gauge in the background is another of my weathered Dapol teaks, they do respond well to a dash of dark wash, it transforms them from an excellent plastic model to something that appears to have been carved intricately from a tiny tree!)
Careful.. don't sneeze!
If anybody is at the Leamington & Warwick show tomorrow, I will be pretending to know what I'm doing
Introducing the Mark IV, or was it Mark III (er... anyway) version of my quest to make an N Gauge People Mover, or Class 139 to give it its full title! I have been very much inspired by Missy's Flying Banana model, I suppose I just need to decide on a shorter fruit with more green and grey bits for a nickname, answers on a postcard......
It will be appearing, complete with side graphics that I must get and print... on Wyre Forest MRC's 'Kinlet Wharf' layout at the Leamington and Warwick
A brief update tonight, having spent a fabulous day on the 1:1 scale Severn Valley Railway. There are few places in the world these days where one Manor class will take you uphill in the morning and another one comes to fetch you in the afternoon. Superb!
Here is the mini Victoria Bridge in situ, a fantastic advert for N gauge as it fits in all this space to run a realistic length train ( eight carriages and a loco just fit!) and yet can be carried around under one arm.
...that is just the
Evening All,
spent a productive evening on the dining room table last night, enjoying 'Father Ted Night' and butchering some lumps of foam into scenic shapes. It was a good time to be doing it, as all of the Christmas decorations came down today, which would have called upon some extreme hoovering anyway, so a dusting of foam debris on the floor was not such an inconvenience!
The foam blocks help to put the 'monorail' track into some sort of context, as the pieces grew, the proportions o
Right, no more apologising about poor quality photos on the blog, have invested in a posh new camera of sufficient complexity to see me running, uncharateristically, to the instruction manual!
Anyhow, back to the trains...
'Modern Image N gauge Steam'
Severn Valley Railway Preserved Locos and Stock
The most succesful of my recent experiments has been the conversion of a blood and custard Dapol Gresley carriage to a reasonable representation of the Great Northern Railway carriage b
Real progess is happening on project Victoria Bridge. The laser cut bridge now has a home, a wooden baseboard/box that is both portable, and can exist as a nice, vaguely functional diorama on my wall! It is following the plan I cooked up a while ago to have the backscene deeper than the 'depth' of the baseboard itself, if you see what I mean... a layout 'painted' vertically rather than 'mapped out' horizontally.. (the baseboard is 6" deep and the back 'wall' is 12" high)
This is a nice depar
Just time to duck out of a busy schedule of pre Christmas DIY, wrapping and stuffing mixing to wish all at RMWeb a merry christmas and a happy new year of modelling and vaguely related banter
Remember my post in the summer about those 16mm scale battery locos,well, Santa and Rudolph have put one of them to use around the base of our tree at home... pardon the slightly indistinct 'phone pictures! The 'tramway' is two routed circles cut into a baseboard under the tree, approximately O gauge.
Hi All,
sorry for the lack of updates recently, this will change as I am planning one of my occasional bursts of modelling activity (which have to fit around my commitments to a 1:1 scale house, 1:1 scale aeroplanes and not least, a small fleet of 1:1 scale trains (the last one is 'work'!).
Woodwork has begun on the shelf 'box' for Victoria Bridge in N. This will allow the 'layout' (if you can call a single track passing through a wooden box a layout..) to live on my office wall as a dec
Hi everyone,
just a short update...
..my blog updates are suffering a little as both household cameras had suffered seperate unpleasantnesses involving broken lenses...
The PPM60 (class 139) prototypes will be on show on the Wyre Forest MRC stand at Warley this weekend. I'm afraid I won't be there apart from a whistle stop tour on Sunday. Also sharing the stand will be my revitalised Ivatt 2-6-0 (from humble Minitrix origins), the laser cut Victoria Bridge components and some experim
Quick update, well a couple of pictures. I'm about to go for some etching to embellish the model, the etched areas are black (against light grey) on the real thing, so having them as additional etched parts will save some tricky masking! This sort of thing is best done on a trial and error basis to get the tiny parts fitting correctly!
Right, actual progress, a second try at making a properly-shaped People Mover. This one is much crisper, is narrowed a little to almost scale width (as narrow as it can be and still fit around the Kato chassis) and unlike the first attempt on the left, does not look like it has been crafted by Salvador Dali with a dessert spoon...
The side details are looking better...
The next step is to make a set of etchings to add a splash of detail, window frames, wipers, couplings and d
Hot on the heels of my people mover scooting around Kinlet Wharf, I have been working on some vehicles for the roads beneath the bridges.
Naturally, I have to remind you that I am not responsible for the excellent scenics that these cars sit in, but I am enjoying adding some little, subtle, embellishments to it.
The question of modern N gauge cars, in a 'local' 1:148 scale sense, is a tricky one. Until recently, I would have followed the usual habit of importing a pocket full of Ger
Hi all,
as is often the case with my blog, no real progress (but watch this space B) )... but for now here is the first prototype (solid, non transparent resin body, slightly rushed paintwork!) in its new habitat, the branch line to the rear of Wyre Forest MRC's Kinlet Wharf.
It seems the Looe Branch is a hot topic around here at the moment. I now know why, having had a lovely ride last month, getting tantalisingly close to Coombe Junction, only for it to dissapear into the mist leaving the train with no choice but to reverse and set off to Looe. Maybe one day I will reach this semi-mythical destination ...
Anyway, enough of my Coombe/Brigadoon analogy....
Inspired by the layouts among the blogs, and beyond, based on the line, I was wondering about a diffe
It has been a fair while since I posted progress on this particularly fiddly little project!
Wooden prototypes are getting closer to capturing the shape of the real thing, next step is to perfect casting versions in clear resin, to fit around the four wheel Kato Pocket Line chassis.
You might have seen this recently in Hornby magazine, who have kindly printed a short news story on the project. A nice touch was that the image in the corner of the news page was printed almost exactly to f
