Leaderboard

I've been working on a little project lately to produce model of an ARC/Hanson JHA (build code JH016D/JH017D). Not wishing to bite off more than I can chew, I've started with the LTF-25 bogie. If I never make the wagon, I can at least make a rake of National Power JMAs by re-bogying the Bachmann HHA (+ a little work) as these use a very similar bogie. First a little background on the prototype. Each bogie is different and non-symmetrical. One is hand-braked, the other isn't and the secondary dampers point inwards at the ends of the wagon. This means 4 different views: After much faff with Blender, the 3D model was ready to print. The handbraked bogie is shown on the left and the non-handbraked on the right. You'll notice several pieces missing. I am planning to use Colin Craig's excellent handbrake wheels for the handbraked bogie and the primary dampers will be constructed using Chris Wild's rubber o-rings and sequins technique. I'm also planning to use Colin's excellent wheels for the finished bogie. The blender file: And once uploaded to shapeways, their rendering of the file: More to follow, including pictures of the first test print results from Shapeways...

Been doin' some modelling... A couple of Tulis PAA Hoppers. Very nice kits too. The resin is cast particularly well. They're filled with lead so should have no problems staying on the track. Now Weston's gone to the convalescent home I'm starting to think about progressing Clevedon. May put the boards up at the weekend and have a good look at things. I've a couple of weeks off coming up and a little modelling time will be required. Also sprayed up the bubble car roof. Body next.

First of all I must apologise for the lack of pictures tonight. I have finished updating the etch artwork that was the subject of the last post. This has taken a little longer than I thought due to having issues with swelling of my right eye for no particular reason not helped by a misdiagnosis the first time I visited the doctors. After several days off due to pain and problematic vision I got about sorting out the issues identified in the test builds. I included a chassis with a sliding centre axle on the fret, rather than having to use a cleminson chassis, although it will still be possible to take this route if desired. I also thought again about other diagrams and it is apparent from any photograph of a milk train from the early 20th century that to be representative it should probably have vehicles of differing heights, widths, lengths and include several vans for the various cuts. I have already covered diagrams O2, O1, O3, and O4. O2 has a different end profile but these are all 6'8" body height. Diagram O5 is similar to O4, but with 7'6" body height to allow an extra layer of crates for fish to be loaded. This would provide for different height vehicles, so I have drawn this and will be adding it to the sheet. With an alternate set of ends I could provide for the O6, which is an O5 with end doors, like a Siphon H. I'll have to see what can be sensibly catered for in the space of the fret. It might be sensible to consider these as two separate items. I hope to be sending the revised sheet off for etching early next week and further hope that everything is right. I was also considering drawing a Siphon C (diagrams O8, and O9), but there is already a kit for this in the Scale Link or Shire Scenes range. I have seen a picture of the etch and whilst not perfect I think it should be possible to produce a decent model from it. The inside planking for the end doors is not on the fret, but it could be cut from planked plastic sheet, or scribed separately and inserted inside the end framing. It would seem a bit silly to duplicate effort, and in addition I don't fancy my chances of getting the louvres right first time. I believe that all the longer siphons are available from Ultima Models so that allows for plenty of choice for vehicle length within a train.

Hi all, It's been a while since my last entry due to may factors, namely work, a few shows with my DCC demo oh and a wedding later today. NOT mine i may add, but a good friend (congratulations Dave ) and not much has been done on the layout due to this BUT I now have the jigs, all 6 of them. 3 crossing V's and 3 filing jigs. Many thanks go's to Alan Smith who took some time out of his busy schedual to custom make my jigs for me. Now for those who are not aware or not had the chnace to read my other ramblings entries I am making a 2mmFS layout and through the association shop you can buy crossing and filing jigs in everything from 1:5 to 1:10 however my layout has 1:11, 1:13 & 1:14 so i had to have some made. Not cheap and it now means that if i make any more 2mmFS layouts (another one already i hear you say) i will have to make sure that i have the above points on it so i can make use of my new toys. Here they are, looking all new and unused, not for long i hope. Crossing jigs Filing jigs Also i have taken the chance to place my 24 and a couple of coaches on the layout so people can see what it may look like once it is done. please excuse the clutter in the picture and the poor camera work, not my strong point. Hope fully all things being well i should be able to make a start on the points in the next few days cheers Simon

Likewise. What is the Ultima underbody detail like?

Well its been a heck of a long time since i've done anything on this blog, spare time for modelling has been at a premium recently, though i have been tinkering with bits of brass and plastic to try to improve the bogies on the JMA's. All of the S kits bogies have now gone in the bin, as well as the wheelsets which have been replaced with some fine examples from Colin Craig, complete with the correct pattern brake discs. These are what i've come up with, yes just 1 pair! not an amazing acheivement but they do work and look something akin to the prototype. They are made from brass channel with the axles running in lengths of brass tube, another piece of brass channel was soldered under this as you can see above to make the main body of the bogie. The various other bits have been cobbled together out of what looked right based on measurements based on photos of these bogies. The large round dampers that sit in the middle are sequins and rubber o-rings, finding the right looking bits for this took a while, i'm sure you could resin-cast items like this, however i seem to find my own ways of doing these things. The idea was to build 1 pair of bogies to come up with a working representation of these bogies, having done this i can now make all the components fairly easily to build the bogies for the rest of the fleet. Once this is done i can then get on with finishing the rest of the wagons, i thought id paint and give an initial weathering to the bogies to see how they looked. I quite like the look of them with a bit of toning down, so then i gave it a quick spin round the ( very work in progress ) loft layout just to check everything runs ok! If i get on with the tedious chopping etc, and get these bogies finished, i can then get towards weathering the wagons, and finally look towards finishing them, finally! Chris