Hi all,
It's been an age since I last updated this blog!
Firstly, following a very enjoyable time at TINGS, I'd like to thank MikeJ and the North of England Line (NoEL) team for being most welcoming on the Sunday and letting play with some of my creations (no layout of my own again at present!).
As seems to be the case in recent years, my own modelling picks up when I know I've got somewhere to run locomotives (and occasionally stock but not on this occasion) and TINGS was no excepti
Hi all,
Well its been a really hectic couple of months with family members and friends in and out of hospital as well as some bumps in the road achieving the dreaded big 'D'. However, I have been able to get some more CAD work done (shame about the modelling in reality) and started on my promised 3MT tender locomotive body. I did also manage to get out to a couple of shows, St. Albans and Ally Pally and was lucky enough to catch up with some friends from here as well as meet some new people!
Hi all, I hope that everyone had a good Christmas!
Just before Christmas UPS delivered my latest consignment from Shapeways, five locomotive bodies. Only one of these was a Christmas present and from me not to me!
For the moment, I'll be concentrating on two of these as two of the others need suitable donor chassis to be identified and my new N2 is identical to the one covered previously.
I've collected several Dapol B1 locos and while these are out of period from my own layout, they
Well I've managed to just about complete another loco, the C12. This means that only the C1 (the most difficult!) remains.
Actually the C12's chassis is only a temporary solution based around the Dapol 14xx chassis. The 14xx was Dapol's first effort in N gauge and while mine runs reasonably well the wheelbase is a little too far out for my liking and those wheels! Just looking at those wheels remind me of the old Triang TT models! Still to be fair, I think that the N gauge 14xx marked the st
Finally, time and finances have allowed me to get some more models printed! I now have my revised C1 and N2 models - the D2 was also printed but unfortunately I'd made a mistake converting the file to an STL format which resulted in losing most of the resolution and detail.
So along with the C12 printed earlier I have 3 loco bodies going through the works. The prints have been cleaned up using 400-600 grit wet and dry paper mounted on small blocks of rubber. The usual prime, sand, prime,
It seems that periods between modelling anything are getting longer and longer as of late. Between work and the ongoing personal issues there just hasn't been much time for a great deal else. When time has been available I have experienced a distinct lack of motivation present.
However, the last couple of days have seen a bit of a break in the recent routine and I dragged myself to the computer to get some CAD work done. After a bit of a slow start, I got into the swing of things and as of t
Well 2012 wasn't the great year I was hoping it would be. I've now found myself single and managing the household bills that used to be covered by two salaries...
Needless to say that various projects have slipped and my modelling mojo was at an all time low.
Recently though I've started playing with CAD again and recently took delivery of several 3D printed bodies from Shapeways. These consisted of a C1, C12, J50 and N2 all produced in the FUD material.
Unfortunately, the
I know it's been awhile since my last post but life the universe (aka wife) and everying have managed to take priority over some real work!
Anyway, I've finished cleaning up the tender body for the K3 and have invested in some silicone rubber and casting resin to attempt to make some copies. I was lucky enough to catch Jon Hall doing a casting demonstration at the St. Albans exhibition a couple of years ago and by and large I have been trying to replicate his techniques. However I have still
I arrived home today to find two packages. The first contained an LNER Group Standard Tender printed using SLS - the steel K3 body will take a while longer yet. The second package contained my SLA prints of both the body and tender. For some reason the SLA tender body will not fit onto the Farish chassis while the SLS version fits perfectly (some modest filing needed here). The K3 body is absolutely great! A lovely surface finish which I'll prime sometime tomorrow - The SLS GST has already recie
With the K3 body order and due to be delivered any day now I've turned my attention to another locomotive body. This is to be based on the Farish 4F chassis with some minor modifications. Both the models shown have been designed using Isinglass Models drawings and photographic evidence from the RCTS green series of books. I've still got some work to do on the body and the condensing pipes to design but the bulk of the work is now complete - not bad for two days worth of work I think!
Following a period of building some loco bodies out of cardboard I've returned to my CAD work and have some models pending from the printers. I am hopeful that I will be able to successfully clean up the resultant prints (having spent a lot of time experimenting getting the best out of my existing prints - as well as making some BIG mistakes as well!). My current work is mainly concentrating on a K3 body which is designed to be a direct fit onto Farish V2 chassis (with rear pony removed!). I hav
