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nebnoswal

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  1. nebnoswal

    Update 2

    By nebnoswal,

    The last couple of months has seen me trying to finish of some the many UFO's. On the list were some LMS 6 wheeled CCT's. These are brass etches made by Etched Pixels, which glue on to a 3D print body, which in turn fits onto a NGS 6 wheels chassis from the stove R.

    These were quite simple to build. I opted to solder the sides together and then glue the body. The body's come with or without rainstrip. While the printed strip is a bit thick, added brass wire and shaping was a tad difficult

    Roof and end painting occurred today, now they just need decals. That is another story, for another time.

  2. nebnoswal

    3D Patriot

    By nebnoswal,

    Last year I received an email from ATSO CAD about a new 3D printed loco body for an Fowler Patriot, designed to fit onto a Farish Jubilee chassis.

    For a bit more authenticity I decided to power it with a Union Mills Fowler tender, a spare one I just had lying around.

    The first task was to clean-up the body, to start with I gave a good session in the ultra-sonic cleaner to clear of any residue left-over form printing. Following that I set to the body in an attempt to reduce the raised stippling, a feature of 3D printing. I tried several methods, including sanding sticks, paper, cloth etc. As much as I could, I was trying not to loose too much of the detail, so a compromise was made.
    I then removed the buffers, and replaced with brass ones. I also took the back of the cab wall with the Dremel, so it would sit flat and firmly on the Jub chassis. Then it was another sonic wash.
    Once dry, it was time for the under coat.
    With some paint, this clearly showed-up where the stippling was, and was still quite bad. I gave it another under coat, in the hope that maybe this might fill-up some of the raised lines. While this helped, it was wasn't the best. So next it was time for Mr Surfacer. This a paint filler, in this case I use the 1000 grit. I applied in several areas and once dry I used a cotton bud, dipped in metho, to re-distribute into the areas required. This appeared to improve it.

    Happy with this, I then completed a 3rd and 4th undercoat

  3. nebnoswal

    Out of the cave

    By nebnoswal,

    Well it looks like winter is about to come to an end, so its about time to come out of hibernation. I've got some Worsley Works MR Celestory coach kits a couple of years ago, but it wasn't until last week that I finally got the Chris Higgs roofs. Being a bit unsure on the how's of soldering with sides with tumblehome, I took one of the etches with me to the Caulfield model train show and got some hints, tips + advice from one of Ixion team.

    After a one hour lesson, I got stuck into 1 coach today, in between playing hide and seek, jumping on the bouncing castle and pushing Master Douglas around the backyard in his pink (originally red, but now sun fadded) car.

    Next thing to do, the chassis, and to extend the roof by 3mm.
  4. nebnoswal
    Not so much a modeling update, but goods news. With the release of the Farish production list for 2011, I thought I'd better check on the loco numbers of the proposed Std 5MT. A quick search promptly told me that 372-725 5MT 73068 was sheded at Bath Green Park, 71G, and it was its last before being removed and scrapped. I then did a quick flick through some Ivo Peters books, hoping to find a photo of said loco. It then dawned on me that I had purchased a 35mm slide on eBay several years ago of a 5MT passing through Sturminster. I dug it up, and as luck would have it, it is 73068. Definitely one loco I won't have to re-number.

  5. nebnoswal
    I know I set myself a week to finish this one, but ................. I blame valentine's day, a long story, for another time.
     

     
    While not completely finished, they still need further weathering, I’m happy with the result so far. All I need now is to finish the warwells and warflats and order some more warwells, plus find some bogies I've got hidden in a box, somewhere!
     
    On a side note, whilst at happy hour last week in the Sergeants mess, the topic got around to me and my model trains and what I was up. I had mentioned to a mate how I was making a gun battery load. This drew the attention of my RSM, who was full of enquiring questions. I thought nothing of this. Come Monday morning I arrived at work and logged on to the computer and first thing in the inbox was an email from my RSM, with the dreaded phrase, 'come see me in my office'. This is a summons from god, and not to be ignored. I left straight away, wracking my brain as to what I may have or haven’t done to draw the attention of the RSM. I knocked on his door and was quickly given permission to enter.
     
    "Come around here, Sergeant, and tell me what's wrong with this picture?" he ordered. I made my way to his side of the desk and had a look at his monitor. There, on the RSM's screen was my RMWeb blog page, on building the quads and 25 lbs.
     
    "How many guns in a Bty? Sergeant," he asked.
     
    "6, sir" I replied.
     
    "Are you sure?"
     
    "Not now†I responded.
     
    "I suggest you go away and do some more research and get back to me. I will see you at morno's." And so I was dismissed from the RSM's office, slapped over the knuckles for getting my hobby wrong! A quick bit of googling and checking some books in my office and I quickly learnt that in WW2, 25 lbs batteries consisted of 8 guns, 2 troops of 4. I jumped the gun, and to escape any embarrassment in front of my colleagues, I quickly emailed my answer to the RSM. Within a minute he responded and asked how I was going to fix my problem of being 'under –gunned'. I replied that I was now modelling a resupply train, hence the variety of vehicles, that Rule No.1 was applied and I didn’t think I had a loco strong enough, of WW2 era, to pull 12 warwells/flats with heavy whitemetal loads. He hasn't replied, I may have confused him with Rule No.1. Mind you, now that he has found my blog, after posting this, I think I may be on his mat again in the morning!



     
     
  6. nebnoswal

    Saturday paint bench

    By nebnoswal,

    well believe it or not, but I did get some more done today, amazing.

    There are signifcant and varying detail in the 2 variants of Quad/limbers/25 lbs I have. The Gramodel is alot finer, but the gun is lacking, whereas the Pithead is a bit rough in places, but the gun has more prescene. I really like the shovel and drag ropes molded onto the gun sheild. Considering they will be sitting on some warflats, they won't be static long enough for the rivet counters to .............

    They still need some more touching up, hopefully tomorrow. Maybe I might get lucky and Oxford diecast will bring them out in N . Whilst had the airbrush out, I put a second coat on some bauxite wagons and...

    I had a go at doing the lining for my VR B Class. Even with carefully application of tamiya masking tape, I still managed to get some bleeding. Windows still need a clean-up, and next it will be the decals.
  7. nebnoswal

    Friday night workbench

    By nebnoswal,

    Have set myself a deadline this week. I recieved some military whitemetal kits on Tue, and I going to try and have them finished within a week. Its now Friday and they are finally put together. Undercoat first thing in the morning, and hopefully a 1st coat of OD sat nite. Maybe, just maybe they will be finished within a week, stay tuned.

  8. nebnoswal

    Chrsitmas workbench

    By nebnoswal,

    Well for a 6 week break, I really don't have much to show for it. Mainly it was just little odd and ends, which today are still sitting unfinished on the work bench. I did manage to get access to an ALPS printer, so I did get some new wagon transfers. Another dozen or so wagons have been finished off. Work on the layout is at a very slow pace. The backscene is still only 50% finished. Hopefully the remainder of the goods building will be ready in the next few weeks.
     

     
    I made a start on an Ultima LMS 42' bogie CCT. Fairly simply, but I have made one of these before. I also had a crack at a 57' LMS P1 full brake. Can't remember where I got this from. Painting and lining will be a challenge.
     

     
    The only blue diesel's I will every own, are those of my childhood, in this case Victorian Railways/VicRail/VR. I've had this B class sitting in the UFO pile for a very long time now. Having gotten a compressor from my good lady wife for my birthday, I decided it was time to have a start and give it a spray. So far, so good, but just as I type this, the Aussie RTR manufacturer has just emailed me to say his RTR B class will be ready in the next month or so! Isn't that always the way.
     
     
  9. nebnoswal

    Sausage Van and Mojo

    By nebnoswal,

    It's been awhile, almost as if I've been hibernating over winter, yes that's right we do have winter here down under. I went to the annual state railway modelling show over the weekend, and did some shopping. I also had a visit from 1/3 of the Ixion management, and after these long discussion, I think my mojo is back. Some new irons are in the fire, and hopefully at Christmas I will be having a date with the a 3d laser cutter.
     

     
    Whilst I’ve been absent in model making, it hasn't stopped me from shopping. The UFO pile continues to grow. I recent got some of the Mill Lane siding kits for a Palethorpes Sausage van to go onto the NGS 6 wheeled chassis from the Stove R. The main parts of the kit are made from Rowmark. It's a harder plastic which enable it to go through a laser cutter and not melting, I guess that is handy. But it needs stronger glue.
     

     
    The roof is thick card which needs to be rolled. The actual sides are printed photos with the door detail on them, similar to the 4 wheeled sausage van from MLS. I need to fit the end steps and paint the ends and roof prior to fitting the sides. Overall a quite simple kit, and it adds some variety, and great use of the new NGS 6 wheeled chassis.
     

     
    I also pick-up another laser cut wood kit from Aussie manufacturer Spirit Design, this time the ubiquitous Victorian Railways Z van. This kit gives you 2 different variants, detailed instructions, colour reference photos and transfers. All I need to do now is source some Peco brake van chassis to make up a 4 and 6 wheeled chassis. It was quite simple to build.
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  11. nebnoswal
    Forgive my multiple posts, but I can't get the advanced uploader to work, so its 1 photo per entry
     
    15 months after construction start and where am I up too. By the end of November 2008 we had the all the track laid and all the electrics in place and working. This quick deadline was in place due my impending marriage and a work relate move of 1600km. Believe it or not, on the nite of my wedding we even stole some time to go to the shed and run some trains, with the consent of the newly name Mrs Noswal. The layout survived the 1600km road move and I had set-up again by January. The extreme hot weather in Jan-Feb was not conducive to working in the garage, added to this having to fulfil my childhood fantasy as volunteer fire fighter and fighting the devastating fires that hit Victoria on black Saturday Feb 7th 2009.

    The above photo was taken from approximately 6m above ground and shows the entire layout. The left-hand end connects to the traverser when at exhibitions or to the 1.4m run around board when I have it set up at home. The maze of tracks at the top of picture is my fiddle yard, I can have 3 major trains (9 coaches plus or 30-40 coal wagons) plus 2 smaller trains (2-3 coaches) in each direction. You can kind of make out the black line indicating where the backscene was to be installed.
  12. nebnoswal
    I managed to find some time to week to resume work on the luggage van. After several phone calls to the Sithlord up in Longreach, I made an attempt on the roof. With no previous experience with rolling brass, I was a bit hesitant to start with. To get the main curve of the roof I used a piece of 20mm diameter steel pipe and rolled it on a computer mouse mat. For the edges, I clamped it 1mm in from the edge in the hold-n-fold and then used a 3mm diameter brass rod to turn-up the ends. After a couple of trial fits and fettling I glued the brass roof detail on to the plastic former. Once it had set I drilled out the holes and fitted the ventilators. From there it was a couple coats of under coat and then a spray of grey for the roof.

    It turns out that the Sithlord has over taken me. In the space of 1 week he has made-up his luggage van, painted it and fitted the window grills. http://sithlordsrail...01_archive.html
    My only saving grace being that I’ve fitted bogies to mine and run it on my layout.

    Whilst waiting for all the paint to dry, I dove into the box of UFO's to see what I could find to finish-off. What I found was a partially built Ultima 42' LMS bogie CCT. I cleaned it up, added the under frame detail, cut the roof to size and fitted the ventilators. I still need to fit the following:

    handrails on the other side strips on the roof grills on the window This kit is currently being upgraded by Ultima and it should hopefully be a fold-up kit and do away with the whitemetal ends.

     
  13. nebnoswal

    Luggage painting

    By nebnoswal,

    Another weekend over and where did all the time go? With no outstanding husband work due (lawn mowing, gutter cleaning etc) apart from baby minding and nappy changing I resolved to get some modelling done. On Friday night I put together a shopping list for a model shop tour the next day. My Saturday departure was delayed by an unannounced visit by a doting grandma and aunty to see young Dougie. Leaving 3 hours later than expected I commenced my 300km round trip. Yes, 300km! I could have waited and just ordered the stuff over the phone and internet, but occasionally wandering the isles of good model shop brings an added reward.
    I spent a good few hours rubbing the luggage van with the fibreglass brush, getting a bit of a shine to it. It struck me them, must be all that army training, that to polish brass to use brasso. So I did, I gave it a good soak and then a good scrub and rinse in hot soapy water. I let it sit over night in an air tight container, to make sure nothing reacted to it. First thing Sunday morning I gave its first undercoat and let sit in the sun. With the warm weather I reapplied the undercoat over lunch.

     
    While waiting for the paint to dry, I moved onto the Vic Rail AE coach. I had painted the sides and ends the night before, after having sprayed the undercoat during the week. The instruction suggested that the window frames be painted prior to assembly, to assist in this it came with a sheet of 'quickmask', an adhesive vinyl which had all the window recesses cut-out. This I did, but still managed to get some of the paint to seep , probably because I brushed painted as opposed to the recommend air-brushing. This will need some more touching up. After allowing it to dry I assembled one side of the coach with some quickset PVA. So far so good.

     
    5 hours later I moved back to the luggage van. Next coat to go on was the green. Now its starting to look good. Some minor touching-up is still required and the solebar and underframe have only had one pass of the paint-brush. Thanks to Etched Pixels, I re-read the instructions and realised the plastic roof supplied is meant to have the brass etch attached to it.
     

     
  14. nebnoswal

    Van on the rails

    By nebnoswal,

    Two weeks on and the luggage van has hit the rails. I finally finished a majority of the detailing bits. It had its first run around the layout on an old set of Minitrix Mk1 bogies, with no problems. Even the steps on the solebar cleared the platforms at Stur. All that is left are the cables on the ends, the inside window grills and the next major obstacle; the roof! So a question to all your blog readers out there, how do I shape the roof to the right profile, without having to buy specialist equipment? And a second question while I'm at it, about cleaning-up the brass. I've given it several scrubs in hot soapy water with a toothbrush, a good going over with a fibreglass brush and also with a wire wheel on the dremel. But I still I can't get it cleaned-up. Any suggestions?

    Whilst this has been my first attempt at soldering a brass kit, I learnt some valuable lessons:
    · Even though I read the instructions, always go back to them.
    · Learn your railway terminology; find out what is a rubbing plate, solebar etc....
    · As per any making or building project, measure/fit twice – cut once
    · Unlike plastic kits, brass is forgiving and can allow you to fix some mistakes (like the underframe truss soldered upside-down on the solebar )
    · A good soldering iron is very helpful.
     
     
  15. nebnoswal

    Luggage Van

    By nebnoswal,

    Well I've dived off into the deep end today! After yesterdays playing with the forthcoming Manor, it was straight out to the garage today, in between nappies and bathing and burping. I recently purchased a kit for a Maunsell 51ft SR bogie gangway luggage (GBL) van from Ultima Models for inclusion in my Pines Express. I've never fully attempted a brass etch kit, but you have to have a go some time, especially considering I've been stockpiling them for the last couple of years.

    So here is the result of one evenings work. I got all the ventilation vents fitted as well as the chalk boards. The side-walls and ends folded-up and soldered, and they are nearly square! I've attached the battery boxes, one panel of timber bracing and started on the solebar. All this and I only burnt myself once.

    So what did I learn? I need a new soldering-iron for starters. Hopefully tomorrow I don't buy anything at the Sandown train show and my train-fund can purchase a temperature-controlled iron on my way home. I also need a decent tip cleaner and some metal clamps (plastic melts) to hold things in place, either that or become an octopus!

    It hasn't scared me off, yet, so I will continue. There is some finer detail to add, including numerous vertical ribbing strips that look like being a bit of a challenge.
  16. nebnoswal

    Shopping and Van

    By nebnoswal,

    Well I managed to save some money at the train show, so a new soldering iron was purchased. Temperature controlled and a ceramic heating element, hopefully this will help me to improve my skills with the hot wand. The wooden pegs as suggested in previous comments is a great tip, apart from the fact all the pegs in our peg bag are plastic! Looks like I'm off to the shops, again.

    Managed to do some more on the luggage van today. Both solebars are fitted now, even after I put the frame on upside down on the first attempt. I've added the other set of strapping and the sliding doors and a few more of the vertical ribs, all with the new iron. I did misplace one of the buffers and spent a good 10 minutes looking for it, this turned out to be a good thing as I found some coupling springs and drill bits which had escaped the workbench.

    Back onto the topic of Laser cutting, I picked a couple of kits at the show. One was for a VicRail permanent way good shed. This will fit in quite well as the gangers trolley shed situated next the signal box at Sturminster. Only 6 parts, it went together really easy.


    The second was for a VicRail AE 1st class passenger car on 6 wheel bogies. It looks pretty straight forward; I just forgot to get the paint for it at the time. The wood panel detail is pretty good. Both of these kits are produced by Spirit Design based here down under. They do custom work, so I will be contacting them about some little jobs i'd like done.

     
  17. nebnoswal
    Have been fortunate enough to have 1/3 of the Ixion management staying with me this evening, on the way to the Sandown Model train show here in Oz. Luckily he had some Manors with him, both the polite ones and 4-6-0 variants. I was given the opportunity to put a Manor through its paces on my Sturminster layout. This Manor is the third EP (Engineering Prototype), rather than an actual production-run Manor

    Let me first start by saying that I'm most impressed, and my loyalty has a strong Stanier bias. It is very well moulded and hardly a seam to be found, the rivet detail is excellent. I was shown one of the rejected bodies due to the rivets being too big, but I could hardly notice, the rivets on the final approved body were very fine. The water scoop on the tender stood out to me as something unique, can't remember seeing one on an N gauge model before. The add-on details are endless, but I was most impressed with the etched fire irons.

    We carried out a load test, a proper one since it hadn't been done before. The Manor was running around a 5m oval, consisting of both Peco Code 55 + 80 track with 15 inch curves; one which has a 1 in 75 incline, the other with a reverse 12 in curve leading into it. It successfully passed though code 55 long radius points and double-slips. In the whole 1 hour of running it only derailed once, whilst entering a medium radius code 80 insulfrog point. The super creep, 50-1 motor, really does super creep. We started with 5 Dapol Collets, with no trouble. We then added 9 Dapol Gresley's, still no issues. To this we added 16 Farish Stanier coaches.

    Still the Manor did not struggle, even when we stopped it on the curved incline. A further 3 Staniers and 3 Farish Mk1's were added, bringing the total load to 36 bogie coaches, and only then was some slight slippage notice as the Manor tried to take off from the stationary. Considering a Farish Royal Scot, with traction tyres on 2 axles, was struggling with the same load, the Manor can more than adequately pull a load.

    Delivery I'm assured is very ,very soon, and you won't be disappointed when it arrives. I would just to add that I am not a Ixion employee (if I was all there locos would be painted crimson), just a happy future customer.

    Videos are on youtube, here:

     

     

  18. nebnoswal

    UFO works

    By nebnoswal,

    Well I was warned. This whole having a baby thing seriously cramps your model train time. Douglas is fast approaching 7 weeks old, but he still can't put N gauge rolling stock on the track.

    In between all the old chores and new responsibilities that come with being a new father, I’m still trying to find some time to get out into the garage and ‘do some trains’. I dug up the boxes containing UFO’s (Un Finished Objects), with the intent to try and finish some of them off. I was doing really well until tonite when I finally run out of transfers.

     
     
    So I’ve just sent off a new order to the NGS, so far I’ve managed to complete 11 wagons, averaging about 1 every 2 nights, a bit slow I know, but dirty nappies won’t wait for anyone! There is a mixture of Chivers, Parkwood and NGS wagon kits. Now that I’ve taken the photos of them, it really shows up some the blemishes, so still some more touch-up work required! Bigger pictures are in my gallery.

    Half way through this unfinished exercise I realised I was going to need some loads to put in the open wagons. Flicking through a pile of books showed there was variety of items that could be moved by rail. What did take my fancy was a Crab hauling a dozen bogie bolsters with cable drum reels. Having a look at what was available on the current market place; neither the plastic or whitemetal versions were to my liking. A bit of a search of the internut and I found just what I was looking for. Some lasercut kits for cable drums from the US, the scale maybe a bit out I think they look a lot better, just need to chain them down.


    Lasercut and laser-etch appear to be giving the modelling fraternity a whole new direction for kit-building. There are quite a few members here who have been exploring this option, with some wonderful results. Here down under there is a company making exclusive wooden N scale kits from lasercut. They give a good finish, especially considering a majority of them are kits of wooden wagons and coaches. I've had a bit of a dabble with them, and am seriously considering commissioning some work.
    http://www.rmweb.co....8_661_29163.jpg
  19. nebnoswal
    Whilst playing trains this evening, I had a little bit of a mishap! I looked away from 5682 Trafalgar with 8 bogies Staniers in tow to attend to 46106 Gordon Highlander. Next thing I know there is a loud 'clunk' and when I look over Trafalgar is lying on its side. This is strange, I thought, nothing has ever come off in that area of track, a rather straight stretch about 200' from the Sturminster down platform. This is what I found!

     
    I made some measurements of the beetle, it was a scale 6' long, 4' high and 4' at its widest point. I was unable to get a weight as I didn't have scales that measured under 1 gram. It's too short to be a hippo, so what animal in nature could have this affect on a real train?
  21. nebnoswal

    Melbourne Cup day

    By nebnoswal,

    Its been over a year since I last made an entry, where has the time gone? With a couple of days off work due to the big horse race, I decided to try and finish some outstanding UFO's.

    This work included adding to decals to some Spirit Design VR "Aircon" passanger kits of the AE/BE/BG. I painted these last christmas, so it was high time they were finished prior to the big move at the end of the year. I have six in total, so only 2 to go.

    Next was to make a start on new Ultima LMS 6 wheeled CCT's. These are quite simple, some brass etches laid over a shell, in this case one produced by 3d printing (Shapeways).

    This then fits over the top of the NGS 6 wheeled chassis from the Stove R.

    I managed to get some undercoat down, so hopefully some crimson on tomorrow. But will need to tidy up the chassis.

  22. nebnoswal

    Update 1

    By nebnoswal,

    I'd start by apologising, it has been quite sometime since I add to/ updated this blog. Over the spanning time the modelling mojo has ebbed and flowed. I've been encouraged by Sithlord to get my act together and post some updates.
    Work on the Patriot has continued, ever so slowly. Applying the lining decals has been an experience

    Just as I was about to order some nameplates, the NGS shop closed, so now just awaiting the modelmaster section to be updated to order some plates.
     

    The lining in the tender needs some attention. Using microset/sol and mr softner have had average results. Even consulting Phil Badger (1/3 of Ixion), still couldn't improve them.
  23. nebnoswal
    I picked-up some more Spirit Design laser etch coach kits the other week at the Caulfield show.

    With the ability to come home at lunch time, and with the early burst of spring, I was able to get the undercoat and 1st top coat of "VR Passanger Car Red" on.

    Tonite I manged to get 2 of them, 1 x ZLP bogie brake van and 1 x CW guards van, mostly put together. I will need to order some bogies soon. the next fiddley bit will be the roof's. And it looks like I'll have a new T class to haul them by the end of next week.

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