hartleymartin

I started spraying the tippers black but my cordless airbrush broke and I returned it. I'll be getting a compressor and better quality airbrush soon. I have gone on a bit of a shopping spree again. Bought some more Bachmann locos, also obtained a Haskell NA Class in the Canadian Red Livery. I also obtained a couple of the Ixion Hudswell Clarke locomotives. Finally managed to score a Forest Green one too! What the heck... I now own six of them. I stopped buying the "collectable" livery Bachmann moguls, but if they turn up stupidly cheap I will grab them. Perhaps keep a couple of spares to pass on to the next generation of model enthusiast.

I acquired four Plymouth shunters. There will be shunter bashes!

Has interest waned? Perhaps. But I got into On30 in a big way starting in 2022, mostly from buying the Hawthorne Village promotional sets. I now own five moguls in liveries branded as Budweiser, Moonlight Express, Spirit of America, M&Ms, MacDonald's, and the vehicles further include Kinkade's Christmas. In any case, it finally gave me the impetus to learn how to use an airbrush and repaint all these models. I even start kit-bashing them by adding different stacks and domes. Heck, I even managed to get the inside-framed 4-4-0, three Porters and I am eyeing off consolidations and ten-wheelers! Managed to get all of them for pretty darned good prices, all second-hand on eBay of all places.

I now have a rake of five trix tippers in grey primer. Question now is what colour(s) to paint them. Was thinking of flat black/nato black for the chassis and the skip perhaps in red oxide or brown? The 54 cubic foot types I refer to are listed in Hudson's catalogue for 30" gauge. I'll have to dig it up some time. But the skip dimensions are close to the specification for the 54cu.ft. size.

I have just discovered the Hudson made 54 cubic foot skips with overall dimensions similar to these Trix Tippers. The standard design seems to be inside-framed, but one might imagine that these were a customized design to suit the particular requirements of a particular railway. So the size is realistic, if a bit bigger than the more usual iconic 27cu.ft. Hudson Rugga skips.

It seems I am in the habit of bringing back threads from the beyond! Such a shame the photos went missing from the original posts. I still have the loco. I fixed up a balance problem by adding some lead under the hood section - otherwise it had a bit of a tendency to do wheelies!

The Cronulla (NSW, Australia) Tramway had a balloon loop at Shelley Park, Cronulla. The line was changed to a suburban electric railway in the 1930s and continues to operate today. https://localhistory.sutherlandshire.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/533

A lot of trams would have used a balloon loop to allow continuous running. It is still done today. Avoids the need for the driver to secure the vehicle, walk up the other end and then throw points to switch over to the opposite track.

What started out as a colourful toy tipper wagon from Trix is now starting to look like a "serious" model. The original Trix wheels were swapped out for some 8-spoke Dapol wheels and the headstocks were modified to take kadee type couplings. I think this particular one has some Bachmann EZ-mate couplers left over from my upgrades to my Bachmann On30 stuff. In 7mm scale they are about 10'9" over headstocks, 5'4" wheelbase, 6'6" tall above rail height. The bucket is about 8'0" long and 5'6" wide at the top. As to what capacity this would be as a scale model, I have no idea. I suspect these would be more appropriate 10mm scale, or perhaps 1:32 or 1:35 scale models. I should obtain some of the Bachmann skip wagons to compare them. The long term plan is to have a small diorama where these are used to load some standard gauge 7mm wagons. Speaking of which, a previous post shows a collection of wagons recently gifted by a friend and I suspect that these will be involved.

I will be picking up this project again in the future. Currently considering the possibility of getting my own small laser-cutter.

Any chance you remember what spare item it was, or if it is something I can get through Peters Spares?

Paint the underframe *before* you assemble the kit. It will be much easier. I have a feeling that the previous owner assembled them without any painting to get something up and running. The hard or tedious part will be picking out the black ironwork. I like the midland railway kits because the wagons are all over grey, but black below the sole bars. a much simpler proposition and since the grey varied over time, you can mix up a different shade for each wagon and get the prototypical variation.

I'll be adding side handles. The case is heavy enough when empty and I think the top handle is just for getting it out of the cardboard box it ships in. I also have to add some rubber feed or furniture slides to the bottom.

Today I decanted some Tamiya TS-33 into a couple of jars. I am waiting for them to off-gas the dissolved propellant and tomorrow I'll be priming and painting a couple of Bachmann On30 passenger cars bodies. I am also working on a high-sided gondola. I'll be trying a technique I have seen from military modellers. I primed it in grey this evening, and when that was dry I gave it a coat of matt black. I'll be using some white to highlight sections so when the colour coat goes on we get that variation. Part of the theory behind this method is that if you don't put quite enough paint down, the black becomes part of the shading and you don't end up doing heavy coats trying to cover up the primer grey. I'll take photos when it is done!

Oh no, the images are gone from this thread! I was hoping to use them now I am in a position to do something about this project, despite being nearly a decade later!

Decided it was high time I acquired some decent hobby tool storage. I have lots of tool boxes and tool bags for business use, so now a good toolbox for all my hobby tools. Better than rummaging around through tupperware containers.

You know you have a friend who knows you well, when they go to a model train market day and pick up a whole stack of O gauge wagons from a deceased estate. How much of a bargain was it? Well, I also got a big storage container, but the final price was less than buying wheels for the same number of wagons. The W. H. Thane wagon was the first one to get major work done. The underframe had been assembled unpainted, so that got a coat of Tamiya XF1 Flat Black via an airbrush. The corners had all separated, so were glued back together and received some tamiya putty, sanded down and some more XF1 Flat black applied. I think gave the whole wagon a very light dusting with the flat black just to tone down the colour and make it look a little grimey. I've never weathered with an airbrush before so I am now researching and learning the basics. I also discovered it is possible to use the airbrush to paint the wagon wheels and get very little left on the treads. I am thoroughly a convert for airbrushing now. The camera is a bit cruel on close-up. It is far more subtle in real life.

I have been thinking about going with Dinghams, but my choice of prototype complicates matters. NSW Government Railways had a combination of 3-link and automatic knuckle couplers with transition links. (Set of rules regarding what could and could not be coupled too!) so I am inclined to head toward kadee couplers or the evolution coupler from San Juan Car Co - though non have the provision for a transition link.

I am half-way through my trade certification as a furniture maker and I just acquired a thicknesser. I am thinking of making some really nice up-market boxes for my models.

How did it go? I have been looking at those kits for years and wondered about them. 41mm gauge would be scale for standard gauge, or Gauge 1 at 44.5mm gauge would be so close as doesn't matter for Russian 1524mm gauge - only 1mm over.

It depends where your interests lay. I am an endless tinkerer and I love to build wagon kits and I have even started painting them! The small industrial locos that interested me so much were just not around when I started in O gauge nearly 20 years ago. In fact anyone who did industrial basically had J94s, L&Y 21 Pugs, Terriers and J72s - maybe the odd Pannier because little industrial 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 locos were just not a thing. Now that we have the Hattons Barclay, Hornby Peckett, etc it is a different proposition. But I find that O scale gives me more "play value" because I am less likely to blow my money on a new wagon or carriage every week at the local hobby shop, but I built the wagon, kit-bash, paint, modify, etc. Just remember Rule #1 - My trains, my rules! - The only person who has to be happy is yourself, so do what you enjoy.

I wonder what type of foam is most suitable for storing locomotives. I would like to stop having to unwrap the bubble wrap around my locos.

You will never regret going to O gauge. It is also a great scale for building wagon kits as they can be had relatively cheaply. It has never been such a good time for O gauge now that we have relatively affordable RTR locomotives and a huge trade supply of kits and parts. Keep an eye out for the Hudswell Clarke locomotive made by Ixion a number of years back. They turn up on the second hand market and are a great option. I own three of them now!

I might point out that whilst the original purchase of On30 was a bit of a trainset impulse purchase, I started looking at Australian narrow gauge prototypes. The 2-6-0 is extremely close to a South Australian Railways X Class: I did start a kit-bash to make an X Class, but I couldn't get the two differently-sized fluted domes. The ones that I ended up with are direct replacements on the Bachmann model and don't look right to me, but I continued with the bash, including making new cabsides in styrene, which came out a lot cruder than I am happy with. I may find a way of improving it - mostly by making the windows which will cover up some of my miscalculations! The 4-4-0 is very close to a Queensland Railways Class A10 Baldwin 4-4-0. QR coded locomotives by number of driving axles and cylinder diameter, so several different locomotives were "A10 Class." These were all 3'6" Gauge, whilst my models are 2'6" Gauge, so I am not taking it all too seriously. I have quite a few Bachmann Carriages and goods wagons, and I plan on dressing them up a little to resemble Australian prototypes a little more. Just about every state railway system in Australia had some form of American style railway carriages with end platforms. Quite a few also had ones with similar clerestory roofs. South Australia had a fleet of "Short Tom" Carriages, whilst different in appearance, are actually very close in scale dimensions to the Bachmann carriages. I think a repaint is all they need, though I have spotted some alternate roofs available via shapeways. It seems silly to spend so much money on a new roof considering how little I paid for these carriages to start with. Maybe I'll sell off some of my excess stock to fund those purchases: Tamiya Grey Primer followed by TS33 "Dull Red" for the carbody and TS82 "Rubber Black" for the roof and the underframe. I think the TS82 makes for a good weathered/faded black colour. I am trying out some Tamiya Acrylics in an airbrush and I have heard that some people use the military colours. XF85 is also "Rubber Black" and I am thinking of trying out XF69 "NATO Black". I have tried out XF1 "Flat Black" but it seems just a little too black to me.

Something else which happened earlier this year - I got into American On30. I spotted this set on eBay, and thought it would be amusing. Including the shipping it was less than what one might pay for a basic Hornby trainset these days, so I thought it may amuse me for a bit. And then I spotted this (came with a couple more passenger cars too) And then this turned up for a stupidly cheap price: And then a number of freight cars, a couple of Porter Locos, some Trix Tipper wagons, a Fleischmann Magic Train "Personenwagen" another Mogul and a rather lovely 4-4-0 turned up at prices I couldn't pass by. So, after a single impulse purchase earlier this year, I am now into American On30, but with a twist. I am modding them to resemble Australian prototypes and I also have several other kit-bashes lined up. I acquired an airbrush and I have started learning how to strip down and repaint models. I got so many wagons and carriages cheaply that I am practicing on them, developing my skills before I start repainting the locomotives. I now own five 2-6-0s, one 4-4-0, and one each of the 0-4-0 and 0-4-2 Porters. I own close to 20 passenger carriages of various types and about a dozen freight vehicles. All, need paint work, so I will be doing more of that (I had better stock up before Christmas shut-down!) I am now thinking of doing some sort of exchange yard, perhaps getting the Tipper wagons from the narrow gauge to load coal into standard gauge wagons.