Phil Mc's workbench

[bradfordbuffer]

6 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Dad - "that layout must be nearly finished by now?"

 

Me (Phil) - Haven't started it yet"

 

Me (phil)? Thought you where mick? have you been inhaling solder fumes again 

[Phil Mc]

7 hours ago, newbryford said:

 

Dad - "that layout must be nearly finished by now?"

 

Me (Phil) - Haven't started it yet"

 

 

If renumbering is "only a 10 minute job"

& weathering is "only a 10 minute job"

He might give me half an hour to build a layout !! 

 

More from last night-

Dad- " I thought you only had to swap the bogies....... "

 

When I told him I was repainting the whole thing, but into the same livery it started in, that just blew his mind !!!

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[Phil Mc]

Bit of work done with the under-chassis lights.

To allow for the bogie swing with the LED's fitted, it looks like I'll be fitting Kadee's at both ends !!

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[Phil Mc]

Gave the chassis a test run last night, to make sure the couplings I've fitted work ok, which they did.

 

I've gone for a Bachmann E-Z mate, because they have a loop to put the mounting screw through.

 

I glued an appropriate depth block of plastic to the chassis, so the coupling works out at the correct height above the track, and drilled a hole right through it into the coach chassis.

A slot was cut into the bufferbeam, wide enough to allow coupling swing.

I left the 'ears' on the coupling, these sit in the slot to give a self-centring action.

A self-tapping screw went through the washer, bush, coupling and mounting block, right into the chassis to be strong enough to withstand the forces of hauling a rake.

 

Cheers,

Phil.

 

 

[Phil Mc]

Plodding on with the coach.

Got the transfers on and varnished, and started detailing the coach ends.

Need to build some under-chassis boxes and a fuel tank next !

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[Phil Mc]

Most of the build work is complete.

Just need to fit some pick-ups to the bogies, then put it all back together !!

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[Phil Mc]

A couple of modelling sessions over the weekend has seen pick-ups fitted to the bogies, the whole thing wired up, and rebuilt. ( I could have done with 3 pairs of hands !!)

Yesterday saw some very light weathering applied to the chassis.

So now it's ready to go into service.

 

White/Red bi-colour lights in the 'passenger' end.

 

 

Internal lights.

 

 

Under-chassis lights.

 

 

The full compliment lit !

 

 

And could this be a certain Cheshire based GBRf driver doing a spot of moonlighting on his rest-days ??

Hope he took his boots of before putting his feet on the seats !!

 

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[Jack374]

Excellent work Phil, great use of lights...it'll stand out from the rest for sure.

 

Not seen anyone else try this on Tornado's support coach either.

 

Jack.

[Phil Mc]

2 hours ago, Eddie R v2.0 said:

Don't know how I've missed this thread till now! Excellent inspiration for me to have a go at doing each rake of stock to a higher standard- still got about 25 pages to go through but sadly work calls!

 

Cheers

 

Eddie

 

Hi,

 

Welcome aboard, hope you find something useful in my ramblings !!

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[bradfordbuffer]

13 hours ago, Phil Mc said:

A couple of modelling sessions over the weekend has seen pick-ups fitted to the bogies, the whole thing wired up, and rebuilt. ( I could have done with 3 pairs of hands !!)

Yesterday saw some very light weathering applied to the chassis.

So now it's ready to go into service.

 

White/Red bi-colour lights in the 'passenger' end.

 

 

Internal lights.

 

 

Under-chassis lights.

 

 

The full compliment lit !

 

 

And could this be a certain Cheshire based GBRf driver doing a spot of moonlighting on his rest-days ??

Hope he took his boots of before putting his feet on the seats !!

 

 

Cheers,

Phil.

Outstanding work.....

[37114]

Excellent thread,  some lovely models, love the Mk1 coach and good attention to detail.

[Phil Mc]

18 hours ago, bradfordbuffer said:

Outstanding work.....

Thanks !

 

If the authorities allow, you’ll maybe get the chance to crash something into it sometime !  

 

cheers,

Phil.

 

[newbryford]

2 hours ago, Phil Mc said:

Thanks !

 

If the authorities allow, you’ll maybe get the chance to crash something into it sometime !  

 

cheers,

Phil.

 

 

Track access duly granted....................

[Phil Mc]

Last week, Jack decided it was time for the layout to go 'retro'.

So the next few projects may be catching up with weathering some stock for that era.....

 

...starting with these little beauties.

 

I ordered these when they were first announced ( I'm a sucker for a 4-wheel wagon!! ) and they just about fit with our chosen timescale.

I knew I wanted to use powders to weather them, so a few various colours had already been acquired.

First job though is a coat of Matt varnish, so the powder would stick !

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[Phil Mc]

After the varnish coat, I had a play with the powders.

The colours used were chosen by just looking at the colour, rather than taking any notice of their names, and hoping they turned out as I imagined !

These were the materials used & the brushes used to apply them.

The red handled brush has quite stiff bristles, the other 2 are quite soft.

 

I did one wagon as a tester, before completing the other three.

 

The method used was-

Holding the wagon so the side being worked on is vertical, using the soft flat brush, 'dark earth' powder was dabbed onto the top edge of the bodyside ribs.

Then the wagon was turned over and the process repeated.

Wagon then turned back to a horizontal position.

With quite a vigorous side-to-side scrubbing motion across the entire side, the powder was spread around.

This left darker areas around the side ribs, but cleaner areas toward the centre of each side panel between the ribs.

Each side was worked on in turn, it was a bit awkward doing the ends around the platform and steps, but the brush was soft enough to not damage any of detail.

 

Next the stiff brush was used to work the 'light earth' powder into each side of the ridge along the centre of the roof, before dragging powder from there down the red roof panels.

The small soft brush was then used to add 'light earth' to the chassis area (everywhere that's Black on these versions) including the ends.

 

The same brush was used to add 'white' powder in random patches to the roof, sides, and especially the end platforms of the chassis. (that's how they appear to me in the prototype pics I'm working from)

At this point the 'white' looks quite stark, but I knew it would darken when the next coat of varnish was applied.

 

That's the stage I was at when these comparison pics of it with a clean one were taken.

 

I worked over a sheet of A4 paper, so all the excess powder could be tipped back in its jar, between each colour change.

There seems to be more powder on the paper than on the wagon.

 

 

Cheers,

Phil.

 

 

[Phil Mc]

Being quite happy with the result of the first wagon, I carried on and did the other three.

 

A coat of Matt varnish was applied to all four.

This was applied very gently, to try to preserve some of the texture of the powders.

It had the unwanted effect that the powder on the roof sections seemed to disappear, making the roof sections look more Red than I wanted.

So after a quick blast with the hairdryer to get the varnish 'touch' dry, I used the same method as previously to add more powder to the Red areas.

 

The final result is-

 

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[Phil Mc]

I’ve got a box containing 4 claytigers and 5 polybulk wagons now sitting under my workbench.

But a big ol’ banger blue loco has taken up residence ON the bench......

 

cheers,

Phil.

[bradfordbuffer]

1 hour ago, Phil Mc said:

I’ve got a box containing 4 claytigers and 5 polybulk wagons now sitting under my workbench.

But a big ol’ banger blue loco has taken up residence ON the bench......

 

cheers,

Phil.

Cant beat a bit of banger blue and some weathered wagons .....ohoooo .

you have made the under frames stand out more than the un weathered versions.

 

G

[Phil Mc]

So, I'm after some help !!

 

I took the support coach to Dads yesterday.

This is the controller used on the DCC layout.

 

 

Put the coach on the track and sorted out the address as shown, with chip address as 21.

Tried the Red/White directional lights, which worked as expected with the 'lights' button and dial to change direction.

So far so good.

Function 1 controlled the internal lights as expected.

So far so good.

Press function 2,.....no external chassis lights come on.

Figured I must have dislodged a wire or done some other damage, so took the coach home.

 

At home, with my cheap-as-chips Hornby Select controller I use for testing, on address 21.

Everything works as expected, including the chassis lights !!

 

Back down to Dads, on the layout and same again, nothing doing with Function 2 !

 

I'd taken my controller and length of test track with me.

Coach works fine on there but not on the layout. I swapped from on to the other about half a dozen times, all with the same result !

 

Maybe I'm being a bit thick, but I thought the function buttons were effectively just on/off switches for different operations of the chip ?

 

Anyone any idea what's going on ??!!

 

Cheers,

Phil.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Phil Mc

[Jack374]

Now I’m sure Mick will be along with more knowledge, but I’d heard some DCC systems have F2 as momentary (I think that’s what it’s called) in the controller instead of latching, so it’ll turn the output on and off quickly whereas what you want is constantly on (with the F2 key pressed of course). IIRC it’s to do with F2 always being the horn/bell sound.

 

Hopefully this is the issue and nothing more sinister, but if it works on another DCC system then this might be the cause.

 

Jack.

[Phil Mc]

Hi Jack,

 

That would make sense !

 

I've only ever used one AUX output on a chip before, for cab lights etc, this is the first time I've used AUX 2 for anything.

 

Question now is, what can I do about it ?

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[Jack374]

Not a clue, the Multimaus instructions say a long press may be required so I’d maybe have a play? I couldn’t find any reference to F2 in the instructions from a very quick skim read. I reckon Mick will know more.

 

Jack.

[Phil Mc]

I'll take it back down next time I go to Dads.

Don't think I held the button in when I was trying it !

 

Anyway, I'm now going to attempt to paint a Snail......

 

Cheers,

Phil.

[Phil Mc]

It turns out that the Snail I was going to paint is actually a Hare !!

 

This is what I'm talking about-

 

 

45036, the last of the type in use that hadn't had the flush front treatment.

It was withdrawn in '86, so just squeezes into our retro era.

 

Working from prototype pics, progress so far has been-

The builders plates have been removed, a depot sticker has gone from one side, and just the outer square of the other depot sticker is remaining.

The driver has migrated to the other cab, so the 'leading' end (even though this loco will keep couplings at both ends!) has silvered surrounds to the outer cab windows, which it looks like I've made a shonky attempt at painting, but that's how the pics I'm working from look, honestly.

One of the light lenses, and it's backing piece, have been turned around to give the wonky look to the front.

And the aforementioned Hare has been painted on one side. I never did very well at 'Art', so it isn't too fabulous !!

 

 

Cheers,

Phil.

 

 

[bradfordbuffer]

4 hours ago, Phil Mc said:

It turns out that the Snail I was going to paint is actually a Hare !!

 

This is what I'm talking about-

 

 

45036, the last of the type in use that hadn't had the flush front treatment.

It was withdrawn in '86, so just squeezes into our retro era.

 

Working from prototype pics, progress so far has been-

The builders plates have been removed, a depot sticker has gone from one side, and just the outer square of the other depot sticker is remaining.

The driver has migrated to the other cab, so the 'leading' end (even though this loco will keep couplings at both ends!) has silvered surrounds to the outer cab windows, which it looks like I've made a shonky attempt at painting, but that's how the pics I'm working from look, honestly.

One of the light lenses, and it's backing piece, have been turned around to give the wonky look to the front.

And the aforementioned Hare has been painted on one side. I never did very well at 'Art', so it isn't too fabulous !!

 

 

Cheers,

Phil.

 

 

That's NOT a hare!.....its a BEAST....

Think you need to post proof of 12 inch to foot shoddy paint surrounds to windows! Bad painting is difficult to scale to a model as much as mass and noise....as for hare....at a scale 80mph at 3 foot from model the only difference between a hare and a rabbit is about 1mm!!! Who cares ....its banger blue it's all good!

Is it going to get the Phil Mac full Monty weathering treatment?

G