Now, the latest challenge, thanks to the shop at the Chasewater railway and my mouth. Fit a DCC decoder into the Bachman wickham trolley. It has to be invisible and having dismantled the offending item, I decided it would be better under the floor of the trolley (saved interfering with the motor on the trailer). I also decided to keep the electrics as original as possible, to save issues. So...
First, modify the PCB in the trolley chassis, removing the capacitors and chokes, plus
Here’s my quick, easy and dirty way to get plastic to look more like wood. Here were attacking the interior of three wagons, two Hornby and one Bachman. Most of the ideas were nicked off various YouTube tutorials and demonstrations of various products. One important thing is that this will give a grain to the finish, so identify which way this is running (usually along the length of a plank) and your brushstrokes should be in that direction.
First, here’s what we start with. Th
Right mates, I’ve been upgrading the facilities. First, a bit of history. 11 years ago I bought a garage with a house attached. The garage got equipped quite rapidly as a workshop. 4 years later, due to a difference of opinion between my then boss and me, it started to look like the plan B for a wage involved the contents of said garage and me using them. I then got a new job. Fast forward a few years and my rentry to the hobby. There was some space in the garage, with the departure of s
Following on from the TE20, I’ve picked up one of Oxfords efforts at the ‘big brother’, the MF 135. Produced between 1964-75, after Ferguson and Massey-Harris had amalgamated into Massey Ferguson, the 45hp 135 was a very sucesfull tractor. Still in use on a lot of farms as a reserve machine, I felt I could get away with it in the present day (plus I spent some of my teens driving one turning hay and worked on several in a summer job).
Onto the model, and it’s rather damned nice. T
This is one of those things that doesn’t fit anywhere, so it might as well go here. The grey fergie (or to give it its proper title ‘Tractor, England, 20hp’) and breathing on the oxford offering.
A bit of history, the fergie came out of the fertile mind of Harry Ferguson (aka. ‘The mad mechanic of Belfast’). Ferguson was an inventor and developer, his tractors were first built by David Brown, then Ford, then the Standard Motor Co. The fundamental idea of the Ferguson system was to
Something a little different, insinuating a chip into a Dapol pug. This little beastie is actually the first brand new loco I bought with my own money (in 199-something, in a long closed model shop in Penrith). It’s spent the last 15 years in a box, so let’s see if it can be resurrected.
First up, chip location. I don’t want it in the cab, plus we’re using a Hornby chip. Saddle tank? Offer it up. Yes, it’ll fit with a bit out of the ballast weight.
So attack that wi
So, the saga continues! Off we go. Practice, practice, juggle air pressure, paint viscosity, clogs. Slowly getting there, just about got it sorted.....sort of, in the right light...if you don’t look too closely. Really taken with it for track weathering, gives a lovely effect.
Owain
I’ve fancied a decent airbrush since me teens. So when I was offered a brand new Paasche talon at a very good price, I couldn’t resist.
So, there’s already a compressor lurking in the garage (just slight overkill, 2hp 3 phase motor, 30l tank, supplies 8cfm, so that should keep up with the brush)
Next, an air regulator and water trap. Got one of those too, just need to adapt the output down to 1/8”BSP. So rummage the box of random air fitting
As my previous entry mentioned, I’m playing with plasticote’s textured spray paint, as a method for modelling tarmac or similar. First up, how does it behave over different colours and will it take washes?
So, our first photograph in the middle we have the unadulterated, to the right it’s had a wash of Payne’s grey over it, the texture survives but a lot of the colour is overwhelmed. Not far off new tarmac, methinks. On the left (and the photo doesn’t do it justice, there’s a lovely varia
One of the reasons for my returning interest in the hobby developing into actual model making, was the discovery of Kathy Millat’s tutorials on youtube. One of hers concerned modelling tarmac using textured spray paint. Whilst browsing hobby crafts selection (actually looking for something to match railmatch’s sleeper grime, which turned out to be plasticote’s Matt chocolate) I found a tin of this (1). Plasticote’s textured paint, in stone. Time for a play.
So, this is what I’m aiming fo
Following on from my first offering, a few more thoughts. First up, the airfix mounting and working round/with them. First option - remove the whole lot, mount a No. 5 at bufferbeam height and jobs done (1). Second option, the mounting is at near-as-blow it the height of an NEM pocket. So is it possible to insinuate (remove the central pin, slot in the coupler, secure with superglue) a NEM fitted kaydee with the cranked shank? Yep, it seems to work (2). On to Dapol. They continued the air
Right. Having returned to the hobby(blame a younger cousin, it’s all his fault), I’ve started a layout topic (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/135595-sedbergh-as-a-preserved-railway/) and here’s some of the other adventures that didn’t fit in there.
So, my methods of fitting kaydees to UK wagons (note, these are not the ‘correct’ methods, they just work for me. Couplings I think are one of those things (like religion or CAD/CAM software) where everyone’s got their own an
