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Southern Railway Modelling - Miscellaneous Project work


Jack P
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On 03/07/2019 at 19:36, Tony Teague said:

You are not alone!:rolleyes:

 

It's made even worse, because often i'm left waiting for things to arrive, and so something gets pushed back and something new started, Rinse and repeat! Not to mention when it's something like the LN, it becomes a pet project and jumps up the list a little bit and thus sees completion in a little under a week!

 

I've been trying to clear a few wagons off the workbench. My David Geen kits turned up t'other night, I had a quick look at them and then quickly put them in a box with some other stock that is yet to be started/opened.

 

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Please excuse the poor photo. I need my camera back! Hopefully this illustrates the amount of lettering these little blighters have. I had to cut individual letters for the 'Tons' because there wan't one in the right size on the HMRS sheet. I know the stanchions are incorrect - I thought it wouldn't bother me but it really does. I'll remove them and add some brass or plastic rod to represent them correctly - I'm currently trying to figure out what will look the best, and once i've figured it out, the bo-rail needs all 16 of its stanchions replaced too!

 

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This photo is a little better, and hopefully shows the deck weathering off, I'm still undecided if I should fit it with a load or not. I don't want it to look rubbish - I've ordered some shackles and some fine chain and will experiment when it arrives. Maybe i'll just leave them on the decking. 

 

Jumping back to things that have jumped the Queue, I managed to pick up locally and seriously cheap, (£50 for all 3 inc postage) 3 Centre coaches for the Brighton Belle, 2 were the later silver roof versions, 'GWEN' and 'MONA' and one was the 1934 version 'Third class Car #86'. I've ordered some transfers to re-do the number on this one to 85, and another set of power cars are now winging their way to me from Hattons, these will need to be renumbered too, but I'll have a proper full 10 car set after that!

 

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I had the airbrush out and tried to match the colour as best I could, It's not perfect, but it's suitably 'off-white' for me. The rear coach roof is Hornby's version, and the front two are my own colour. These were given a night near the heater to cure and have been put back into their boxes this morning and put away, detailing and weathering of the entire set will be dealt with later on. 

 

I've been reading Mike Trice's thread on painting a more realistic 'Teak finish' and am seriously considering stripping my full brake!

 

That's all for now. 

 

 

 

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Started a new role at my job, so I've been a bit busy lately. Did manage to get these shots last night though

 

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Really happy with how the pipework turned out after a black wash. The draincocks still need to be toned down with a wash

 

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Still needs a decent weathering to unite the finish properly. But it's all together, and all in one piece!

Edited by Jack P
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  • 4 weeks later...

Nearly a month on.. 

 

I have not been dormant! I've been working on another black loco, this one was picked because it was damaged, however it was painted with a rattle can, and as you can see there is some orange peel on the tender. I plan to hide this under a heavy weathering though. 

 

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Still plenty left to do, all of the pipework needs toning down, and I don't think the gold colour is strictly correct for the under-footplate pipes. Heavy weathering should save me here again though! I think the only appropriate number for this one is 901 (or is it 909?), which was still black in 1947. I'll definitely make sure, to make sure before it gets transfer though!

 

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I've also finished off this! However. Looking at it, i'm really not happy with the quality of the transfers, the 9's seem to have a very prominent black line and the numbers either side don't. The southern lettering looks like it's peeling off, HMRS - what's going on?! I may have to look at other avenues, having previously used Fox transfers on my gate stock, I might see if they do something appropriate. I have 5 more of these to repaint, along with all of my other coaching stock and parcels stock, so It's no small undertaking, and I really don't want the finish to be let down by the transfers!

 

Finally, I came across this:

 

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It's called a Coffman Clamp, as you might be able to see here, it's got some heat resistant foam pads on the legs. This means it can be used to square up plastic and metal kits (while soldering) I'm hoping that this will help massively with making sure all of my kit built stock will be square. Not super expensive at approx £36 delivered, but well worth it, and probably useful for more than just kits! 

 

 

 

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49 minutes ago, Nick C said:

That clamp looks very useful! Where did you get it from? Looking on the Coffman site delivery to the UK is US$25, making the whole thing about £45.

Look on the Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine website for a lot of other ideas on building clamps including recent article on using clothespins and Lego blocks. 

 

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2 hours ago, Nick C said:

That clamp looks very useful! Where did you get it from? Looking on the Coffman site delivery to the UK is US$25, making the whole thing about £45.

 

Nick, I grabbed mine from Ebay, much cheaper than other retailers, you might find there are some kicking around there still!

 

I appreciate that the Coffman clamp is not the only right angle securing device on the market. Personally I was tempted by its solid construction, heat resistant pads and the face that the padding means it should still be effective over uneven surfaces!

 

On a side note; Why can't I have more space? As time goes on i'm longing more and more for a layout, I would absolutely love a few meters of open countryside for express passenger trains to blast through, and slow goods to trundle through... 

 

A boy can dream!

 

Maybe one day :rolleyes:

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Thanks guys, The Coffman Clamp is still unused, as I have vowed to clear the backlog of unfinished projects before I start any new ones! (This hasn't stopped me buying any new ones though.. )

 

On 10/08/2019 at 11:36, Corbs said:

I think 853 in black looks incredibly handsome, Jack. Lovely stuff.

 

Cheers mate! I was a little apprehensive about going with black instead of green, especially for such a large engine, but I'm very happy with the final result. Here's a quick video I took of it on the club layout, it's an extremely smooth runner, and has quite a bit of tractive effort, despite being very light.

 

 

At the same time I ran both of my Brighton Belle sets. Sadly I haven't figured out a way of coupling the units yet, so you can see daylight between the buffers when they leave the tunnel. Regardless, I think they do look impressive together! 

 

 

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34 minutes ago, AVS1998 said:

 

Jack, the Belle units used hook and screwlink couplings, so in theory you ought to be safe fitting paper concertinas at the ends of the Hornby gangways. Interestingly, for modern safety standards, the restored (rebuilt?) unit is having to be fitted with conventional Pullman gangways and buckeyes at the ends of its cars. 

 

I hope this is a satisfactory solution- I know typically the paper cartridge gangways look a bit 'naff', but I'm sure that if sprung properly and fitted nicely, weathered in, they'd look grand. You'll easily do them justice. 

 

- Alex 


Hey Alex, 

 

Thanks for that, I think I will stick with a screw coupling, my tried and true Method of two Roxey hooks soldered together should suffice. 

 

The driving ends of the BB cars don't have corridor connections though, so I'm lucky there. Paper gangways between the cars in the sets will probably be the best course of action though. I'm in a bit of a bind because up until now i've been appeasing my stock so that it runs nicely on my club layout, but the issue is that when I eventually have my own, I plan to use code 75, and have much wider radius curves, and the solution for that may be a little finer than the solution for my current problem, so for now i'll probably leave them as is. 

 

On a side note, No. #18 Kadees are perfect for Maunsell coaches, the gangways touch on straight track, but they have enough swing in the coupling pocket to work on corners. If only the older Belle was fitted with NEM pockets, and not just the new releases!

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On 16/08/2019 at 19:38, KeithHC said:

Did I see the second unit close up a big gap after it came out of the tunnel.

 

Keith

 

Sure did, I might've been a bit unclear when I was talking about coupling. As the buffers are not sprung on these units i need to find an appropriate way of coupling the two 5 car sets to each other!

 

12 hours ago, Bulleidnutter said:

Slightly off topic but your distant peg is backwards..... It is rather impressive seeing a full 10 car unit. Somehow a 5 car doesnt look right. 

 

 

Excuse the ignorance, distant peg??

 

Yes! I was lucky to pick up a second set of centre cars cheaply. Transfers have arrived to renumber them correctly, but i'm trying to be diligent and clear my bench before I start new projects.

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Just a quick update today.

 

I wanted to post about panel line washes, this is a technique i've only somewhat recently adopted, but i'm really happy with the results. For those not familiar with what 'Panel line washes' are, they're just a very thin, enamel or acrylic paint, designed to flow via capillary action into the grooves, and into and around details on a model. I've become a very big fan of this method, mainly because I think it produces a nice subtle effect that really brings details to life.

 

 

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Here's an example, the right hand side has been treated, the left is as is (post repainting). I've found that cleanup is actually very relaxing, I usually apply the wash with a 00 brush, and then use a 000 brush moistened with thinner to clean and blend the wash as needed. For larger areas you can use a cottonbud. 

 

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Here's the other side. Still needs details picked out like door handles and the chalk panels, and transfers. The wash will flow a lot nicer if there is a gloss or semi gloss surface for it to run into, and from my experience the wash needs to be opposite to the base paint for obvious reasons. This Van C is a Railmatch acrylic base, with Tamiya enamel wash (no varnishing) but you could do an enamel base, followed by an acrylic varnish, and then enamel wash and it should result in something satisfactory. I am still experimenting, so if anyone is interested, I can report back on my findings. I'm not a professional or anything close, but I thought i'd share this technique just in-case it's useful to someone!

 

Finally, here's another long term project that is tantalizingly close to leaving the workbench.  A malachite green 2-Hal

 

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To be honest, I started this project before even checking if any of these ended up in malachite. If anyone is more knowledgeable than I, please let me know. I do have some books to read through but have not found the time yet. I also ordered an Olive green 2-Bil with the intention of updating it into malachite also - if anyone would like to warn be to not proceed before I do this, speak now!

 

I would also like to slide a quick thank you in here; To all the patrons, contributors and lurkers of this thread, those who offer advice and critique, both on the thread and via pm. Thank you all! I'm a better modeller for it.

 

Also a call to arms - if anyone sees anything  glaringly obvious or incorrect, please let me know, I am always open to learning something new or having my current way of thinking challenged!

 

 

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Nice explanation about  the panel line washes, they are perfect for bringing out detail in models.  I've found you can get different effects if using them over a matt surface as they don't flow quite the same and the surface holds the colour a bit. Will you try an acrylic wash? I've made and tried a few, using screen wash or acrylic thinner, but found they're yet to flow the same as enamel although with a bit of work you can get some good results.

I'll look forward to seeing more of your experiments.

Steve.

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48 minutes ago, sb67 said:

Nice explanation about  the panel line washes, they are perfect for bringing out detail in models.  I've found you can get different effects if using them over a matt surface as they don't flow quite the same and the surface holds the colour a bit. Will you try an acrylic wash? I've made and tried a few, using screen wash or acrylic thinner, but found they're yet to flow the same as enamel although with a bit of work you can get some good results.

I'll look forward to seeing more of your experiments.

Steve.

 

Hey Steve,

 

I certainly think so, I don't think it's the be all, end all of weathering techniques, but it's certainly a useful one! The van you can see here has a matte surface and the enamel wash stains slightly, with some careful brush application you can streak this - direction is important because as you say it holds the colour. I agree about the acrylic washes, I've used games workshop, the 2-Hal was done with acrylic wash over enamel clear coat, I find that instead of capillary action you need to load the brush and run it along the grove, or panel line and then clean up afterwards. I've also found the acrylic wash, or at-least the GW stuff makes the finish on enamels a bit cloudy.

 

 

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11 hours ago, sem34090 said:

Interesting...

 

I've just been painting all my NPCS into Olive. Half of it was in that hideous Malashite Green colour. :P 

 

Where's the angry react! 

 

I've actually bought a tin of olive myself.. just for a little bit of variety! 

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12 minutes ago, Jack P said:

I've actually bought a tin of olive myself.. just for a little bit of variety! 

We will win, some day. The Men in Malachite will fall.

 

And the combined masses of the Men in Umber and the Men in Olive, and perhaps even a Woman in Umber-and-Cream (No one in particular coming to mind here...) will see them crushed, and when that day comes you will see the true light. 

 

( :P )

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On 19/08/2019 at 09:33, sem34090 said:

Interesting...

 

I've just been painting all my NPCS into Olive. Half of it was in that hideous Malashite Green colour. :P 

 

Looks like you may be tuned in to the wrong channel - malachite only here! :rolleyes:

 

Personally, I favour a more integrated, all-encompassing and tolerant approach - olive, lined and unlined, Maunsell black, wartime black with sunshine lettering, and of course, malachite. After all without malachite one cannot enjoy a spam can or two! :)

 

Tony

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On 19/08/2019 at 03:40, Jack P said:

I wanted to post about panel line washes, this is a technique i've only somewhat recently adopted, but i'm really happy with the results.

 

On 19/08/2019 at 05:34, sb67 said:

Nice explanation about  the panel line washes, they are perfect for bringing out detail in models.

 

Slightly late response, but this is a technique that I also use; I acquired, along with lots of other useful stuff, it on the Missenden Abbey weathering course with Mick Bonwick.

 

I mainly use "Black Night" Panel Line Wash from Ammo by Mig and "Black Smoke Wash" from Wilder Nitro Line, applied with a rigger brush in the corner of whatever is the object; the wash runs along the moulding lines as you have each described and enhances the moulding considerably.

 

Here are some Kent coalfild wagons on which I used this approach - amongst others!

 

SJPP713004102180713.jpg.5e917a171d6c03923201cded919e02f9.jpg

 

Tony

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