The open coach I built a while back has died somewhat so it seemed to be time to build something more robust, and perhaps a little less "garden railway" looking. The body is a narrow gauge coach off Shapeways which has been slightly anglicised by paint job and then fitted on a scratch built chassis using T scale parts to run on 3.1mm soldered track.
The weight may need adjusting - with a vehicle that size on 15" track the weight needs to be low but at the same time the mechanisms can't haul
Things have been a little slow owing to a number of deliveries for other railway lines and the continued bad weather keeping the paint shop closed. It wasn't helped today when the works closed for the cricket.
Another Nightstar sleeper has however joined the formation, which leaves two more to do to build the full rake.
and while tidying up the scratch etches I decided this slighty faulty horsebox could be rescued even if not sold. Its now waiting some filling and the paint shop,
Bernard (TPM) did some very nice sides for the K40 full brake that abused a Dapol B set as a donor. This build instead uses a generic 3D printed shell with etched trussing and the usual white metal detail. Given the underframe of the B set needs major work and the roof would need redoing anyway I think its an easier way to do the build (It doesn't really work for the BTK as that re-used the Dapol recessed door)
Sides are just tacked on for the moment as I'll need to take them back off for sp
One reject old NSprays/Heritage N body shell (99p)
Some filing and filling
Some old white metal ventilators from the scrap box
Four buffers
Some bent wire
An old Poole Farish GWR railcar chassis
Two DMU bogie outers
Couple of old BHE DMU underframe castings I had handy
Dapol it ain't but everything came from the junk box so quite a saving. No need for a sound chip either, it sounds like a DMU already !
Picked up one of these from Plaza Japan to play with and to maybe replace the scratchbuilt chassis in the WCPR 'Flying Matchbox' at the moment. The 3D print/scratchbuilt one isn't very reliable to say the least.
The Tsugawa wheelbase is a bit long and it'll need a resistor or two as it is meant for 4.5v max.
The design is interesting as the chassis block is produced using a long gear chain that consists of identical gears held in places with pins from each side, and at the end by wh
The Dapol chassis block was about the right size but the motor is held in place by the body, and also in the wrong place. With a lot of careful packing and the motor turned the other way it all fits into the longboiler and can be held in place by a pair of screws drilled and tapped each end of the chassis block.
That way around even the NEM pocket for the front end is in the right spot.
I guess I should have used a black terrier... paintbrush time to follow.
Now what to do with
I'm particularly pleased with the backscene.
The figure bluetacked on the left for scale is an N scale chap. A few spots to touch up and the cross pieces to get under the magnifier and glue in their proper place.
I have no idea what I'll use it for or where it's going but it was fun to build
This took a bit of squeezing. It's the Zimo MX648R and a Dapol M7 chassis with a tidied up Highfield G5 body kit on top modified to fit. The speaker and decoder just about fit in the back of the loco although it's a very tight squeeze.
Pardon the lousy camera work
http://vimeo.com/36930371
Its that time of the year again and another freebie to print and fold up in card or photo paper. For best results print the tiff one at 1200dpi, but there is a jpeg as well. For larger scales either adjust the DPI or scale it in a print program accordingly.
In N this fits the Peco 15' wagon chassis (or brake van if you think Santa needs footboards)
Alan
Some times it seems the instructions take longer to produce than the kit, and then you just know nearly everyone throws them away 8-P
Anyway tis done and the kit is up on the Ultima web site.
And then suddenly it's August and hardly any modelling time has happened.
The last couple of weeks I have had a bit of time however and got the Thompson BZ kit design done. This needs a few adjustments (making the roof extend over the ends a spot, moving the steps) but I'm pretty happy with the test run other than that. It rolls beautifully and it'll handle 9" curves.
Having built a test body I've been assembling the second revision of the coach. Some end detail left to add and then it needs the sides and roof fitting.
The main structure is a piece of H shaped plastruct beam with extra material over the top sides to provide a key to shape for the body sides and then everything else glued onto it..
After the bogie coach I thought I'd try something a bit smaller and more complex. The main problem with T scale wheels is that they are designed to be held in bogies and the bogies have points that go into the wheels not pinpoints on wheels. They are also of course very small.
For this wagon I drilled 0.4mm holes into the centre of each wheel (down the existing dip) and superglued fine wire. The next problem was bearings. After about five failed experiments I hit upon the answer- N gauge han
One pair of bogies an some plasticard later...
The first coach for the 18" N scale branch line awaits the paint shop. The vehicle behind it for scale is a N gauge class 121
Last night I realised that it would be a lot stronger if the ends had tabs that folded round and could be glued down the middle of the sides (as a sort of 3 layer sandwich). The goings on in the corners will be hidden by the overlay bits anyway.
So here is rev 2. I've also added an explicit creative commons license to it so people know it can be reused and how
The previous one will work on thin card, this one won't as the thickness is only going to work for paper. If you are using thin c
I've been meaning to draw up some templates for making paper wagons for the Peco chassis for a while as its a great way to knock up all kinds of fun wagons, and if you overlay the strapping with black painted plasticard etc can look really good.
This one is just a paper build on a Peco 10ft chassis
If you want to make your own then the artwork is below, print at 600dpi and have fun. The tiff one is the best quality and most likely going to just print right, the jpeg is there too jus
Some more modelling done despite the weather. The SR USA tank now has glazed front side windows and the buffer beam corrected, the next Balloon trailer is under way (and in SR green this time) and I started building a Bain Clerestory. This latter one is a shrink from a 4mm PC models etch so a bit fiddly. It also has sides with folded in solebars and overlays that join to separate ends and various cross pieces for the buffer beam and underframe bits.
In the end I assembled the ends, buffer be
Think I need to do the roof out of something other than stainless as its a bit of a ... to shape.
After this one I have a giant to follow (although there is something ironic about a T scale giant)
Still having to do a bit of thinking about the floor - I have the trussing fine and a bit of plastic rod will do the tanks, but getting the solebars right is going to need some experimentation. Thank goodness Peco sell large packs of T scale round buffers in packets labelled 'track pins'
For the bridge and valley at the left hand end of the new layout I've been pondering what to use for the narrow gauge line I fancied running over it. Z is a possibility and the little known remainder of the 3' Cornish mineral railways but another obvious option is to lay something in NN15 (or NN18 to be exact). Unfortunately the out of the box T scale track isn't really suitable for narrow gauge so it was time to try the obvious plan B
NN15 track - the soldered way. This is with code 40 flat
The empty space in front of the headshunt has now gone from foam to landscape and been walled and vegetated. I've used a couple of different ground colous at different level to try and suggest stratification. Still not sure about the left hand wall so that isn't stuck down or painted up yet. I'm torn between the modern concrete wall, brick wall or having a go at modelling a wall with a large hole in it (as if someone at some point put some heavy machinery through it) and fencing.
The sheep a
