So, things have been moving along, although not at a particularly fast pace.
First, the loco coal wagon from the last post.
It is not done yet, I've added a bit of rust and wear.
The excellent pictures from Mikkel's blog (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/11531-detail-hunting-at-didcot/) were invaluable for reference.
It is all still a bit raw, it needs a wash of general grime to tone things down a bit. I'm reasonably happy with how it is coming
Progress has been slower than I thought, but a start has been made.
I've decided to solder the main components (body sides, front and back, boiler and tank top, tank front and front footplate/boiler barrel) together, and superglue the smaller details to the assembly. I have also decided not to use the spectacle plate part supplied and make a new one out of plasticard. The one supplied in the older style seen on the GVT engines Dennis and Sir Theodore, I'll go for a more enclosed type similar
Things on the loco front are going less than ideally.
It turns out the primer I used is unsuitable for metal, and basically hasn't stuck much, a light scrape with a fingernail is enough to scrape the paint off. When I removed the masking tape I had applied, quite a lot of paint peeled off with it, including a large chunk on the rear buffer beam (or maybe I should say the front, I'm not entirely sure with these engines, all the photos I've seen appear to have them running cab first). Here is
Look at that, two posts less than a year apart!
The crane is now very very nearly finished. As I hope you can see, I've added the jib retaining chain and fashioned a hook for it with a piece of guitar string a and a tiny scrap of plasticard. The chain is not quite as long as I would have hoped, but not so short as to cause problems running (as far as I can tell using the three bashed up pieces of old Lima track I have at hand). I managed to damage the match truck's S&W coupling,
Well, another few years have gone by since the last post.
The Lydney station project has ground to a halt, but the general plan has remained the same: I'm trying to work on smaller projects I can manage with the space and money available. I've decided to focus on Forest of Dean and roughly 1920s as a time period.
I have braved the customs of the post-Brexit world and ordered some bits and bobs from Wizard and Cambrian, some of which have turned up.
The Cambri
Well, that was rather a long break.
I had started preparing some old baseboards for my planned Forest of Dean inspired layout, but work ground to a halt a few years ago. The boards are still there, but I haven't got the space to work on them any more.
In the intervening years, I have been to the read Forest of Dean as a working volunteer on the DFR, so have had a chance to look around and be inspired.
What I've decided to do is build a few FoD inspired structures, bo
Well, December got a bit hectic, I didn't get much modelling done.
However, progress is being made:
The lettering on this wagon was much more of a challenge than the Cannop wagon, but from a distance it looks ok, I think. Close up it is a bit of a mess, but I hope that weathering will make it less obvious.
The tiny curly lettering unfortunately spells "Empty to/ Uorgreens Colliery/ Forest of Dean" on one side, as the tinyness and the curlyness made it rather har
After a mere seven months later, I have almost finished the first of the two PO wagons.
The lettering on the side was not too difficult, although one side took two goes. I had real trouble getting nice sharp corners on the letters, especially the wagon number, but I think it looks all right from normal viewing distances. The spacing and shape of some letters is a bit wobbly, but looking at the photos in the S&W books, the lettering on various wagons with nominally t
So, not a whole lot going on again.
I've primed my Peco Dennis, ready for base coats which will hopefully go on in the next few days. I'm going to keep the same black and blue colour scheme I had decided on.
I was recently in the UK, so I visited K S Models in Stevenage (which is an excellent little shop) so I stocked up on some plasticard and bought these
the Cambian Models 6 ton GWR crane, 1 plank PO wagon and GWR N30 loco coal wagon. They went together well, but the crane is rather f
After some years of inactivity after having made an attempt ad a trainset-on-a-plank style layout, I have decided to start modelling again.
The long term goal is a BLT set in an alternative version of the the Forest of Dean in which the tramways have been modernized in to a steam hauled narrow gauge network. The initial planning was discussed here:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/43485-gwr-forest-of-dean-and-narrow-gauge-oo-layout-planning/
As I have a degree and o
I'm back!
...with little progress to show for the past months (on the modelling front anyway, other things have changed, such as deciding to go for luthiery rather physics). What I have done in the last week or so is stripped the paint off my GVT Dennis, so I can refinish it with something else. It turns out there was about half a ton of paint on the model, covering a lot of fine detail. Next time I'll try being gentler with the airbrush. It currently look like this:
As
I still haven't had time to go and get some thinner, so I haven't made any progress there.
I have been thinking of point control circuits that also switch the frog polarity, as I said in the last post. Here is what I have come up with:
Using a standard DPDT switch:
S1 is a normal (non momentary) DPDT. The top half is connected to the 12V DC auxiliary output of my Gaugemaster controller and powers one of the two transistors (Q1 or Q2) through an RC (R1 and C1 or R2 and C2) networ
Blimey, it's been a long time.
Progress has been slower than ever. I ordered a few things from Gaugemaster: solder, flux, more track work, and an extra wagon (GVT mineral wagon). I discovered I can't have Railmatch paints or poly cement sent to Italy, so I've used Humbrol enamels as I can get them locally.
The rolling stock all went together well, and I decided to attempt weathering.
As you can see, the wagons are rather heavily weathered, while the brake van in just a bit dirty.
I've taken a brake from the tram loco, pending the arrival of the solder, paints etc., so I've built the freelance mineral wagon and guard's van kits form Parkside Dundas.
The mineral wagon went together fine, I'm still getting used to how small these things are.
I decided to modify the guard's van to turn it into something more brake van like. I took inspiration from an L & B van that has a similar arrangement of central window on one end and duckets (I thinks that is the r
So, things have been trundling on.
The basic body is now assembled: I have persevered in my wicked ways as regards the solder used (still the electrical stuff I had lying around) but I have ordered some 100° solder and some appropriate flux, which should get to me eventually (I ordered some humbrol paints as well, but it turns out you can't send them by air, so I'll have to arrange things differently). I have also managed to make a hole in the tank front with my soldering iron. I will have t
First of all, new modelling bench! We've been rearranging things about the house after our flatmate left and left a Black & Decker-style workbench behind. I promptly commandeered it and made a work surface which is held in the vice using a piece of MDF and various left over bits of wood, mainly from Ikea shelving. The lamp was salvaged from the cupboard of disgrace in my violin making workshop. Overall I'm pretty happy, it certainly beats the small table I was using before. (If you are wonde
My last post featured two Coopercraft wagons which were looking a bit sad after about a decade sitting on a shelf. I decided it was time to reassemble and repaint them, and make some improvements along the way.
The first thing I did was disassemble them as much as possible without causing damage and removing some of the old paint. The open wagon body came apart completely without much fuss, while the mink's roof came off, but the rest of it stayed together, which made removing the pa
Life, as ever, gets in the way of the serious stuff. This time it was, in rough chrinological order, a new job, a trip to Korea, a subsequent move to Düsseldorf, and marriage. However, things have now settled down a bit, and I have got back to modelling, although, alas, I had to get rid of the nice workbench I had made.
Since my last post, the brakevan had progressed to the point depicted in the photo, when I was forced to stop due to the lack of handrail wire and an appropriate tube
