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About this blog

A brief summary each day of the often limited modelling I've been up to in the last 24 hours. Keeping light hearted and hopefully keeping myself amused!

Entries in this blog

Day 7: livery help request

Not much modelling done today - busy running the printer and packing up kits in the hope that I can get outside tomorrow to the Post Office. Planning to tie it in with a food run and picking stuff up from the office.   So instead, a request for help. I'm trying to decide on a livery for my freelance coal wagons and have done a few in slightly different styles. Personally, I think I prefer no. 21 so far, I think it suits the 1910-ish time period best. Any comments? Think I should probab

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 79: SER brake progress (at last)

I've finally managed to print an SER brake without too much warping - there's still a bit, but much less noticable now. So here it is in primer. I've already broken off and re-attached one of the buffers, so I'll have to be more careful with the rest of it. Next job is to fit all the handrails, which is not going to be fun as there are a lot of them...  

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 91: Ford Railbus finally finished

This mostly completed railbus has been sat around on my workbench for absolutely ages, just waiting for figures to add to the interior. Painting people is another task I don't particularly enjoy, so I did a whole batch in one go for this and two other locos. Then stuck the roof on, which is loaded up with lead to try and keep the unpowered front wheels turning. This works on the whole, so I'm happy to call it done and it can take it's place on the layout (once the layout is eventually done) as t

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 88: which SE&CR wagon livery is correct?

So, no big question then. I've been struggling for a while to find a decent colour for the early SECR wagon livery - I've previously been using the darker grey here (though it looks a bit darker than it is in reality). However, the Illustrated History of Southern Wagons III suggests the shade was lighter earlier, before being made darker with the switch to the later Wainwright lettering. Other sources don't acknowledge a colour change at all, so it's all a bit confusing! The lighter shade I've u

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 59: Shunting puzzle thoughts

I didn't do any actual modelling as such yesterday (it was too hot for anything involving moving about and soldering), instead I had a think about some of the challenges I can do on my layout.   The main challenge is the classic inglenook, using the headshunt at position 1 (that fits 5 wagons) and the sidings at 2 and the through line at 3. The sidings at 2 can hold up to 4 wagons, possible 5 small ones if I want to increase the difficulty that way. Then additional challenges can be ad

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 77: Bagnall modding underway

I've realised that adding handrails might be one of my least favourite modelling jobs - but at least it's over now, and I'll admit it does add a lot to the visual effect of the loco. I've also added replacement steps and buffers, which I managed to attach without gumming up the spring this time! I doubt that the springyness will survive painting though...  

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 49: SER brake van CAD complete

The CAD drawing stage of this project is over, and it's ready to go to print! Before anyone points it out, there are brakes, I just haven't bothered to add them to the virtual assembly! I'll need to do a bit of maintenance on my printer first to try and make it behave itself.   Is there anything else I'm missing off this model? I hope not, the number of features and rivets etc. is making it run in the lowest graphic settings possible, and my processor still feels like it might melt!

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 85: scary jobs

I've come to the conclusion that the job I hate the most while modelling is removing lead weight from previously finished locos. It's difficult, potentially poisonous and there's a big risk of breaking the loco, as the lead/glue is often stronger than the loco itself. So far, I've had to attempt this with three locos - the only one that's survived is this one, so maybe I'm getting better at it.    Incidentally, the reason for doing this is that I'm fitting a new chassis to a different

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 21: Trying to decide controller specification

More progress on the controller, I've managed to put some code together to make the controller respond to a potentiometer, operating as a centre-off (as I prefer that to having a reversing switch). Experimenting with throttle curves and various amounts of dead zone in the centre too, so it buzzes less and has nice smooth control at lower speeds.  So the next part is to make this all into a nice neat PCB. I've started on the schematic in KiCAD (free PCB design software), and so far I have

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 56: tiny Hunslet 22hp 4wDM 'Sweet Pea', only done properly this time

Some may remember a while ago I made a kit for Hunslet 22hp 4wDM 1786, also known as 'Courage' or 'Sweet Pea'. However, the Mk1 was a bit too fast to really be usable, and eventually got broken while trying to modify it to reduce the speed. Now I've worked up the 'Courage' to have another go at it (sorry), and the Mk2 is underway, and works! The pickups are a bit crude, but work, and it's much slower than last time, although I've only managed to test it with a 9v battery so far. Time to get the

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 100: finished (ish) projects and wrapping up the blog

Right, that'll do. Enough of this blogging nonsense! Finishing the Bagnall (for now) feels like a good place to stop. It needs varnish and weathering, but those will wait until the name and numberplates turn up. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with it, the modified bits have worked well, so I'll probably do something similar for more locos in the future.    Another project that's come up every now and then over the course of this blog is the AEC shunter, which now runs! Needs a flywheel ad

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 3: Wagon liveries

Just some wagon painting and transfers this time, on a couple of kits that I've had lying around for a while. The paint is Halfords Ford Polar Grey, and don't tell anyone this, but I've cheated with the ironwork and coloured it in with a Sharpie. I'm still trying to work out a final 'Kent Coal' livery, hence why all the wagons are a little bit different! Hopefully for tomorrow, I'll have the wagons fully painted and the rest of the transfers done.     Stats: Pasta stock

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 93: Bagnall progress

The Bagnall 16" takes another step forward - the majority of the painting is done now, the cab interior added, the chassis finished. I'm hardly the best painter in the business, but it's passable from 30cm away, and weathering should hide a few sins. Next jobs are to make the cab roof, add a whistle, and then wait a few months for the nameplates that are on order! I'm quite excited to get a coat of matt on this, which should make it look a lot better, then weathering, but I'll have to wait until

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 87: trying Revell paints

Some experimenting with Revell paints this time - and overall, it's pretty positive. I've been using the enamels for the black on the Bagnall and the grey, brown and black on the ballast wagon (though the ironwork is done with a Sharpie!). All done with a brush, I don't own an airbrush. The paints seem fairly thin, but give good coverage, everything here has one coat only, though I need to recoat the black in a few areas where the primer got oversprayed with the main body blue. The next one to t

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 86: production printing (+issues)

I'm in the middle of trying to print batches of wagons for people, and I'm getting some good results, but the printer is still trying to fight me! I'm still only at about an 70% success rate, which is slowing me down, and doing long days at work doesn't help, but we're getting there. I've been thinking about upgrading the printer for a while now, but I'm still well away from having the financial clout to do so - there's the very cheap hobby end of the market (about £300), the expensive pro stuff

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 78: Bagnall primed for action

I love primer - it makes a model look so much more finished! It's also shown up a couple of areas I need to fill, or remains of support material I need to get rid of. The main bit being at the back, where one of the buffer holes cracked out when I was drilling it out for the buffers, leaving a big hole in the bufferbeam. I swapped to a needle file to do the rest after this!    

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 71: railway artwork/track planning

I live in a tiny flat, where the walls are all plain white, which coupled with the grey carpet made the place feel a little... sterile, maybe? Possibly not the right word, but certainly not very homely. So I've finally got round to getting some pictures on the walls, which of course are railway-themed. The main one is the 1907 OS map of a certain harbour (internet points available if you can ID it) - which leads me on to the point I actually wanted to make in this blog post, which is that I've f

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 67: weathering buildings - advice needed

I've had a go at weathering this building on one of the non-visible sides, and none of the approaches I've used so far are really viable. I've tried a black wash (makes the mortar lines far too dark), a brown wash (ditto), black weathering powder (just turned all the bricks black, no matter how lightly I tried to apply it) and brown weathering powder (the only semi-success, as I've used it around the bottom of the building to look like rising damp).   I'm happy with the roof, which was

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 53: compound geared 0-4-0 (video)

Well, it sort of works...   I think I've got a bit more adjustment to do on this, it runs well in one direction, but is a bit chattery and vibrate-y in the other direction (are those real words?). I don't really know the reason for this at the moment, but it might be something to do with the meshing of the gears - they're 3d printed, so nowhere near as precisely made as proper hobbed brass or plastic ones. I hope to address this once lockdown is over, and get a source of better ones.

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 45: slow progress

I finally plucked up the courage to paint the footplate and other black sections of this loco by hand - it's come out alright, I suppose. I had to go back over some of the lower frames to cover up the overpainting, but hopefully that will hide behind some weathering later on. It'll probably be another couple of weeks before I can face doing that!   I need to pick an appropriate colour for the dumb buffers too - any suggestions?  

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 44: compound gears = slower?

Following on from yesterday, I've assembled the mount and motor unit, with the new compound gear. The previous version had a 3:1 gear ratio, multiplied by whatever the original Hornby gear ratio is. The revised version is 4.6:1, so it should make a noticable difference. This motor also has a rear shaft for a flywheel! Now I need to find a loco to put it in...  

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 43: Hornby 0-4-0 regearing test

So a few days ago, I mentioned how the original version of this mod wasn't working properly... well, now it is! Having tightened everything up, and given it a bit of oil, it's working. It's not hugely slower than the original, but it will get tamed when the heavier bodywork is put back on, the plastic chassis is very light on its own. But you can see from the old motor mount just how much smaller this motor is, which will allow me to build some less chunky locos on it. Now the question is, do I

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 33: things to do with O gauge that are difficult in OO

With that rather unwieldy title looming over this post, I thought I'd revisit the O gauge plan from a few days ago, copied again below. Why would I bother making this layout as a minimum space O gauge, if I could fit more in the same space in OO? This question was nagging me, so I thought about what I could add that would increase the reliability, interest and fun factor of the layout.  Firstly, I love tiny locos. Manning Wardle Class B/C, small Rustons, Planets etc. Short, fixed wheelba

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 11: rediscovering half-finished projects

My modelling workbench chair is one of those cheap office chairs, with a gas strut providing the lifting mechanism. I've got a sinking feeling that the gas strut has a leak...   I rediscovered a couple of old projects (while looking for bits for another project), the NER Class H (later Y7) and the AEC shunter. Cue some faffing about curing intermittent pickup issues, and a short while later, the H is running happily up and down the test track on a 9v battery (video below). Nice and slo

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

Day 5: Coaling

Done some more work on the wagons, finished the painting, and added coal. I added some lead in the bottom of the wagon, covered it in a sheet of thick card, then added the coal over that - unfortunately I forgot that lead and PVA don't mix well, and now I have some authentically bowed-out wagon sides. Oh well...     And the Hudswell contractors loco got coaled too.  

TurboSnail

TurboSnail

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