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Showing content with the highest reputation on 27/07/12 in all areas

  1. More work on the horsebox. I had hoped to make some more progress but it has been too hot and sticky to spend time upstairs in front of a window that looks west on an evening! I did manage to get some of my UPOs (un-painted objects) undercoated as a result of the hot weather allowing access to the garden without fear of disaster so it's not all bad. The end steps were added next. I thinned down some styrene angle to something like the correct dimensions so that steps could be cut uniformly to length from this modified section. I used styrene because a good bond could be made easily to the end due to the identical materials being easily bonded. A paper template was made to help with alignment, which flips over for the other side. The eagle eyed will probably notice the lower step on the left side. The drawing shows it the right way up but pictures show it fitted this y. After asking on the GWSG the answer came that this is a result of the GWR using 3 tail lamps in their early years and the fitting of the lower step was necessary to allow the lamp to be carried on a lamp iron fixed in this area just above the buffer beam. I'm not sure I'll be making too much effort to adapt the brass coach kits I have stashed that should probably also have this feature. It's likely that they match the drawings quite nicely, but not photographs. The ventilators above the doors have been added, along with those on the roof. These vehicles had lamp tops for roof ventilators so they look just like the lamp tops. I create lamp tops from PECO track pins with the head filed flatter and a sliver of stripped insulation, a method described by Frank Lax in some inspirational articles in RM from my youth. There might be a better way but they look quite acceptable when painted. Some spares are shown in the foreground of the photo above. Here's a 3/4 view with poor depth of field :oops: The chassis is substantially complete. This has been built up from an assortment of components, scrap, and surplus parts scrounged from other kits in a manner not dissimilar to that described for the Beetle B chassis here. The buffer beams are the most obvious thing remaining to be added, although there are other minor parts to go on. I am not looking forward to adding the lower foot steps because they will require soldering after the spring and axle box castings, which are whitemetal! A final photograph of the other horseboxes under construction. The bodies are from David Eveleigh kits with additional parts where required. The chassis are from the same 'source' as my other NPCS under frame constructions i.e. cobbled together from surplus. I did make some etches for a 10' chassis for 7mm wheels. It is a simple one part affair that comprises of fold down W irons that they brakes fold in from however I sold most of them to friends and other 2mm scale association members and left myself short. Never mind. Those eagle eyed people mentioned earlier might also be able to spot some other otems clogging the workbench: A GER passenger cattle box (This probably needs a better home), and an Ultima O11 Siphon G that haven't got very far with.
    7 points
  2. and with it time to complete the ballasting and adding some sculptamold to flat bits and slopey bits alike, with the opportunity of getting in some good quality drying time. Ballasting. Aaarrgg!! What IS it about Easitrac and getting effective ballasting! i know now, I've worked it out. The sleepers at an accurate 0.82mm are too shallow to hold the ballast well. By comparison, Code 55 is easy to get to look good., being a whopping overscale 1 foot 6 inches deep - and so holds the ballast well! In the past I have used dilute PVA + w/u liquid on N ballast; Copydex and w/u on ballast and ash; and finally I tried a spray of surgical spirit as a wetting agent followed by PVA, but using fine sand as the ballast, as it is supposed to sit better between the sleepers than the angular rock variety. This is the second layout where I think the track has looked worse rather than better after ballasting - and believe me I was careful. It's not just the colour - it has gone patchy in places. Indeed, I would say that Easitrac would lend itself well to a ballast patterned underlay, if one were available. I'll just have to hope that a few washes improves things and that it will be less obvious once landscape colour is applied. Sculptamold. What could go wrong? Used it before in some tricky situations, also gone on well. Well this time it has dried quite lumpy. This is not a major problem, but just another job to - sand smooth when dry. I do wonder if it was a result of sticking the board outside to dry in the sun? While adding the scupatamold, I took the opportunity of adding sites for TWO canal bridges!! I realised that a barge horse wouldn't in fact be able to cross the lock gates to access the tow path on the other side!! So a bridge by the lock is required, but that's ok cos I like bridges... Lock Keeper's Cottage. A quick search of t'net revealed that the old GF (?) cottage is no longer available, though I found oneon ebay for thirty quid! So, it was down to do it yourself once more. I spent an hour or so trying to find acottage on the Cromford, with no success. One ruined cottage, too run down to see much at all. So I had to widen my search and found this one near Wigan: and then this, location unknown, but looking pretty convincingly Derbyshire stone: So I decided to combine the two and came up with this: which is still in need of gutters, drainpipes and flashing - and of course, painting and weathering. I considered trying to locate some etched windows, but then using thin plasticard strips is not that gruelling, and I think the overall look ofthe windows is ok. There is no interior - I don't do interiors in 2mm - well only in railway buildings anyway. I hope that this time I do not lose all of this entry and have to type it out a third time!!! Regards, Chris
    3 points
  3. Been off line for a while as the veg patch and garden have had to come first. Mind you, given the awful wet weather here it has been a bit of a waste of time. I've returned to the model for a bit of light relief and decided to hack off a couple of inches from the back scene as I was disappointed with the look of it when it was first attached. I only ever wanted gentle rolling hills in the distance and not the mountains of the previous version. This is part of the build process I suppose - not actually knowing how something will turn out till you've tried it first. The first pic shows how the perspective works a lot better I think. The Hornby Dean Single - does anyone have any suggestions about how to make that awful leading bogie look better? I just bought the August issue of Railway Modeller with the free GWR supplement - it has some really good time line pictures of the trains and logo development. Really is worth a read. Time for a few well placed trees and to complete the loading dock now I think.
    2 points
  4. Good morning all, just a few photos to show the progress over the last few days. I've started to build the platform and installed the new Dapol signal. I'll probably replace this with a MSE signal in the future but for the time begin I think these signals look very much the part. The platform needs a good weathering and I still need to add brickwork. I've completed the track weathering, just want to add a bit more detail by painting some sleepers as if they had been recently replaced and maybe hint at moss growing on some. I've brought MSE point rodding, which I've started to construct and want to lay before I begin ballasting. I have a plan of where these are going thanks to Beast66606. Does anyone have any examples of how they have modelled point rodding? My next thing to think about is the ground covering. I'm considering the Green-Scene textured paint as I've seen some good results. Any suggestions? I'll use the Das Clay method for the sidings. Would you suggest sorting the ground covering first then laying ballast, or would it not matter? Many thanks, hope everyones enjoying the sun. I'm off to see a new arrival at Bridgnorth...
    2 points
  5. I've spent the last weeks modelling time building my first 7mm point. It's being constructed using C & L components along with their timbertracks sleeper bases. I'm using 31.5mm gauges, supplied by Debs and really like appearance of the reduced flangeways on the point. Its not finished quite yet, but my test wagon seems to trundle through O.K. so, so far so good! I'll post some pics of the finished result when i get there. Since its been over a week since I've posted anything, here's a couple of pictures of a GWR match truck and load that I built a couple of months ago. The wagon is built from a Coopercraft Kit, with the buffers replaced with parts from Slaters Plastikard. The load was an etched brass and white metal kit, of unknown heratige that I picked up at a show years ago. It was quite a nice little thing to build and is a shame I can't credit the manufacturer! GWR Match Truck and Load Dave
    1 point
  6. O.K. So here it is, my first 7mm point! Constructed using C & L plastic 2 bolt chairs, Nickel Silver rail and a Timbertracks B6 sleeper base. I also used a pre-soldered crossing vee and machined switchblades from the same supplier. The cost involved in buying pre made vees and switches is money well spent in my opinion, saving a lot of time laboriously filing and shaping lengths of rail. The machining seems very accurate and I found the switch rails sat really flush against the stock rail with very little adjustment. I found Iain Rice's book on finescale track construction invaluable, it contains loads of useful information, which although aimed at 4mm modellers most of the information is applicable to those of us working in a larger scale. Initially I was concerned about the bond that would be achieved between the plastic chairs and the wooden sleeper bases, so I strengthened the crossing vee/wing rail assembly using some etched brass fret waste. I'm not convinced that this is entirely necessary now that I have seen how good the plastic bond is. The timbertrack bases have a small V shaped mark formed into the plywood, to give an indication as to where the crossing vee should be located. When I used this guide to locate my crossing vee, I found the stock rail, when gauged from this position was to far to the right. This resulted in me having to move the previously glued crossing, which is how I found out how good a bond is achieved between plastic and plywood! Once the crossing vee was positioned correctly the rest of the point's construction progressed without any further problems, using the 31.5mm gauges to hold the rail in position while the glue was drying. I wasn't happy with the wooden webs between the sleepers, so once everything had set, I used a scalpel to remove them. I'm still undecided about the best method to use for making the tie bar. In my 4mm days I used the "moving sleeper" technique, but feel this larger scale needs something a bit more realistic. I'm planning on using wire droppers off the end of each switchblade, throuh the baseboard and into a "below baseboard actuator" for the function of the point. I would welcome peoples views on ways to get a good cosmetic tie bar that won't try my patience too much! Despite the need to remove the webbing between the sleepers and the crossing v positioning guide not appearing to be in the right place, I'm pleased with the end result. I've still got four more points and a double slip to build for my project, so those nice people at C&L can expect a further order in the next day or so! Thanks for reading Best wishes Dave Overall view of 7mm point Close up of crossing V and gauges Crossing V and wagon What to do for a tiebar!
    1 point
  7. Evening all, I've been considering starting a blog on here for a while and Wenlock's enthusiasm to see photo's of my Siphon G has propmted me to start. My workbench thread will continue to document my larger builds and this blog I plan to use to show my small and past builds. The Siphon G was pretty simple to put together, just a bit time consuming because the sides are made up from several overlays. The olny change I made to the standard kit was to replace the corridor connectors with those from JLTRT. I just didn't like the folded bits of paper. Firstly in primer: Completed, with the weathering started: FInally lined up next to my WEP Fruit D: Since taking the last photo's I've finished the weathering, so there will probably be another photo in the future.
    1 point
  8. The ends of these were not lettered GW. Some were lettered for fish traffic only. There is an excellent photo of this lettering in plate 26 of the HMRS book on a vehicle that is being loaded with milk churns. This vehicle happens to be dual braked and so bears the legend Westinghouse brake on it's end also. Incidentally some of this diagram had destination board brackets. I deliberately numbered one of the models I built accordingly so that I could model this feature.
    1 point
  9. That definitely looks interesting, and very promising. Are you prepared to consider offering N1 prints to other modellers?
    1 point
  10. Looks very nice, Dave. Got a thing for brown vehicles as well...
    1 point
  11. No, none have come this way yet, though I could very easily be tempted by a Buffalo or the 645/655 saddle tanks, and the J8 and J9 single bolsters would be useful. However, there are plenty of threads on here which show Scorpio kits being built such as here, here, here and here. With this last one, the best thing to do is open the thread, then in the search field on the top right change the drop down list to 'this thread' then type in scorpio and hit the search button - you'll get a long list of individual posts from Ken's thread highlighting wherever Scorpio is mentioned. You'll see Ken likes them very much, but you'll also find comments about certain kits within the range which need more fettling and work than others.
    1 point
  12. The plastic structure of the bridge is now complete - parapets clad, capping stones added, etc and I've sprayed it with Halfords grey plastic primer in preparation for painting the stone surfaces. Whilst most of the local buildings, including the station and coal drops are millstone grit, my colour photos of the actual bridge show it to be made of a grey coloured stone. I'm not sure whether to try to replicate this or adopt a similar colour to the other stone-work, for a more consistent appearance, especially as I've moved the bridge much nearer to the station features than the real thing. Two shots from the Greenfield side..... ...and one from the station side. The short extension at ground level is a small retaining wall at the bottom of the cutting. Next job is to paint and ballast the track through the bridge, which has already been primed, so it can be permanently fixed to the base-board.
    1 point
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