Shelf Marshes (first attempt at a cameo layout)

[Allegheny1600]

I have to agree with Anna, about the long haul bit anyway, as for the other part - I couldn't possibly comment!!!

Hmmm, I don't recall how many parts or sprues are in my Trix Dammtor kit but that comes in two HUGE boxes and apparently takes around a hundred hours to build! I need to be relaxed in Mediterranean sunshine before tackling that one (thereby proving that I'm probably even more bonkers!).

John.

[47137]

On 20/04/2020 at 18:36, Allegheny1600 said:

I have to agree with Anna, about the long haul bit anyway, as for the other part - I couldn't possibly comment!!!

Hmmm, I don't recall how many parts or sprues are in my Trix Dammtor kit but that comes in two HUGE boxes and apparently takes around a hundred hours to build! I need to be relaxed in Mediterranean sunshine before tackling that one (thereby proving that I'm probably even more bonkers!).

John.

 

I've had six sessions at the kit now, about an hour at a time. I am dipping into the instructions to build a selection of subassemblies, mostly the larger tanks and other cylindrical parts. I've worked my way through through about 120 parts, so about 20 parts / hour so far, before I begin any painting. I suppose, my total build time might be 40 or 50 hours including painting.

 

I need to ease off a bit and try to treat this as a hobby not a job. It should be a pleasure not a slog.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

I have an idea of how the left end of the layout will look:

 

I think it is reasonable to have an industrial line curving 90 degrees around a chemical plant. There may even be a prototype for this. Conversely it would be a bit odd to see a chemical plant the size of two large houses and their gardens, or a class 66 going round a 2-chain curve ... but somehow the overall effect here seems ok.

 

This makes me think about building the same layout rather larger – up to 7 ft x 2ft 6 in. This would make for a more sprawling appearance for the model, but it would be quite intrusive in the hobby room. It would need a mirror image of the plan I’m working to.

 

I have plenty of time to ponder this while I build the chemical plant.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

By way of a progress report, I have now built 30 subassemblies for the chemical plant, and painted 29 of them (the dark grey steelwork parts are still in primer):

 

These have taken me 16 sessions, near enough 16 hours including the painting.

 

I reckon, the estimated build times we see bandied about for these larger kits are for unpainted models.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

Eight hours on (24 hours in all now) I have forty or so subassemblies built and painted, and twenty-five more sprues and individual parts painted as well:

 

Slightly worryingly, I still have a pile of 45 or so sprues containing hundreds of untouched parts. This includes the hand rails, of which there are dozens.

 

A mate has given me an offcut of MDF board so I have a base to start building the model onto. The photo here should be the last one of a pile of bits before the model begins to take shape :-)

 

- Richard.

[Ian Simpson]

That kit looks ... well, terrifying, to be honest.

I'm incredibly impressed.

[47137]

5 hours ago, Ian Simpson said:

That kit looks ... well, terrifying, to be honest.

I'm incredibly impressed.

 

I've put a smile against your comment because it made me smile - certainly, the kit needs a strong constitution! Thank goodness for spray cans - if I had to paint this with brushes I would be near despair.

 

- Richard.

Edited April 29, 2020 by 47137

[47137]

5 hours ago, Ian Simpson said:

That kit looks ... well, terrifying, to be honest.

I'm incredibly impressed.

 

I've just set about breaking every joint in the steel frames. I got them square in two planes but not the third one, and having everything leaning one way will spoil the whole model.

 

The kit has no base and I have no baseboard, so I've "made" a base from sandpaper glued onto thick card, this tacked onto a square of MDF, and I'll try to build the model onto this. With a try-square for every vertical.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

The gloves are off. You would think, with the base flat and all the parts so precisely made then you need to get just one upright truly vertical and the rest will follow along. This is not so - the plastic parts have the tiniest amounts of warp in them. Just enough to see if you hold them to the light against a steel rule.

 

So my solution is to make something which looks as good as possible from all four sides and from above. The view from above being the least important because the floor panels will hide any 89.5 or similar degree corners.

 

I have reinforced the joins between the six outer legs and the base with scraps of Peco track pins, all then set in PVA and disguised with bird sand. Then popped solvent into the 20 joints for 10 horizontal girders. The last two girders can go back when this lot is set solid.

 

If this holds, then all I have to do now is to stick on the other bits and it will be finished! If it doesn't hold, maybe I need a large sheet of styrene for the base.

 

- Richard.

 

 

[47137]

Sadly, this did not work. The PVA dissolved the sandpaper, and pretty clearly nothing would ever hold.

 

I am looking at adding some small dowels onto the feet of the framework, and plugging these into holes in a different base. I will report back :-)

 

- Richard.

[47137]

The "steel framework" and the decks are proving terribly difficult to assemble and I do not believe anyone at Faller has ever built the model using their instructions. Because of this, I've rewound a bit on the construction ... I now know what the model is meant to look like and I'll put these parts together my way.

 

Like Arnie, I'll be back.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

The model lacks a "core" - it doesn't have a backbone equivalent to a chassis, a hull or a fuselage.

 

So I am going to try to make the first floor into a fairly rigid item. Then hang the outer frame of steelwork from this, downwards and upwards. Well - it's got two chances :-)

 

To try to remedy this, I have assembled the four panels of the first floor deck onto a sheet of styrene so this deck is one solid piece. I have also attached some small pegs onto the legs of the steel framework, these are an easy fit into mating holes drilled in the temporary base.

 

I have a new sheet of sandpaper to make the photos presentable. This is lightly taped onto the base and will be my drilling template when I have my baseboard.

 

All this went together with loads of clamps, some weights, and a small screwdriver adding a bit of fine adjustment while everything set.

 

- Richard.

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by 47137
Continuity

[47137]

I am most of 30 hours into the build and at last, I have the beginnings of the model, something to build on.

 

The structural steelwork is tricky and I think Faller could have made for a better kit by making the outer parts of the steelwork in fewer pieces, like four "walls" instead of the 17 (seventeen) parts so far here.

 

The large vertical pipe and the detail assembly underneath are both standing loose on the base here (and crooked), they have to go into the build now. I can glue them down when the model is on its final resting place.

 

- Richard.

 

[47137]

I have had a small fuel tank on the go since I finished the tank farm:

 

This model is finally finished, and I've given it a write-up on my blog

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/23543-storage-tank-for-loco-fuel-reasonably-anonymous/

 

The refuelling point to go with this is also underway. The idea at the time was to have something to do whilst waiting for parts of the chemical plant to dry or set or whatever, but really the chemical plant is turning into six or so models in one which happen to join up at the end. It is all a somewhat consuming build and I'm taking a day off from it today :-)

 

- Richard.

[47137]

I am now 37 hours into the build of the chemical plant, not counting the time spent backtracking to make a workable base. The second deck went on yesterday, and the model is now much more sturdy. This deck is also reinforced with sheet styrene underneath (like the first deck underneath it), I left nothing to chance while the solvent set:

 

I've had a tidy up this morning. The various subassemblies have coalesced into some models and a handful of pipes:

 

My next few days look to be set in adding the many dozens of handrails and ladders, and two more decks.

 

- Richard.

Edited May 4, 2020 by 47137

[47137]

Yesterday I cut up lengths of railings and painted them. Almost every length of railing has to be cut to size. I barely built anything at all.

 

This morning I've realised I can do a better mock-up so here it is:

 

I've include the pencil to complete the primary circuit of the plant and keep the chemical engineers happy, and the loose ladder for the elfin safety people 

 

The whole thing should hide the Setrack point quite nicely, I don't want a Setrack point but I need it to fit everything in to the length available. Ideally I will build a new point to replace it:

 

I could ponder extending the plant across the track at the back, maybe some kind of gantry, but before buying any more Faller kits I'd better apply myself to these railings :-)

 

- Richard.

 

 

[Ian Simpson]

That looks amazing!

I wonder if you will be the first person to ever finish that kit?

[47137]

3 minutes ago, Ian Simpson said:

That looks amazing!

I wonder if you will be the first person to ever finish that kit?

 

I want to finish the kit, but it won't be quite the same as Faller intended.

 

I have spent this morning rebuilding the pipe to go in the place of the pencil in the last photo above. The pipe in the kit is a bit short (and very convoluted), and forces you put the retort tower(?) quite close to the main structure. I want to spread things out a bit to fill the space on the layout.

 

Making this pipe has proved to be just like looking for Hornby Setrack shows - loads of spare curves and never enough straights!

 

- Richard.

[Ben B]

On 17/04/2020 at 10:55, 47137 said:

Of course!

 

The engine is running on the chassis from the Underground Ernie inspection car (Bachmann), and it has a Lenz Standard+ V2 decoder coupled up to a DCC concepts stay alive tucked inside:

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/18275-mb-24-no-5-matchbox-Bachmann/

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/136888-underground-ernie-inspection-car-chassis-dcc-fitting/

 

I sometime feel embarrassed including it in photos because its not a "scale model" but it is still running very well. It's a bit too old for my layout (freelance or not), it would be better on a 1960s or 70s setting and taking it through to 2010s is pushing things a bit.

 

Cheers for the info (sorry it took so long to respond!) and the interesting links- I wouldn't feel at all embarrassed, it's a characterful little loco and a project like that is a good easy step up from buying RTR for modellers.  I've loved those Matchbox shunters since I got one as a child, and they're remarkably versatile; I've seen them bashed into models in 00, HO, TT and 009.  And I wouldn't necessarily say it's out of the time period, isn't there still a works somewhere near the ECML that has an immaculately-kept Fowler shunter, one of those nice vaguely art-deco, domed-bonnet models?  You could always say it's a private loco, and the depot pet of the works.

[47137]

19 hours ago, Ben B said:

 

Cheers for the info (sorry it took so long to respond!) and the interesting links- I wouldn't feel at all embarrassed, it's a characterful little loco and a project like that is a good easy step up from buying RTR for modellers.  I've loved those Matchbox shunters since I got one as a child, and they're remarkably versatile; I've seen them bashed into models in 00, HO, TT and 009.  And I wouldn't necessarily say it's out of the time period, isn't there still a works somewhere near the ECML that has an immaculately-kept Fowler shunter, one of those nice vaguely art-deco, domed-bonnet models?  You could always say it's a private loco, and the depot pet of the works.

 

Yes of course. It belongs to the chairman of the Shelf Island Railway Preservation Society, and it's on loan to the railway while their class 11 is in the workshop. Solved.

 

I am still pleased with this loco as a model. It runs incredibly well for something built onto a child's toy. It's main limitation now is its couplers, the Kadees went in rather neatly but I've switched across to Roco universal couplers for most of my stock.

 

- Richard.

[Ben B]

2 hours ago, 47137 said:

 

Yes of course. It belongs to the chairman of the Shelf Island Railway Preservation Society, and it's on loan to the railway while their class 11 is in the workshop. Solved.

 

I am still pleased with this loco as a model. It runs incredibly well for something built onto a child's toy. It's main limitation now is its couplers, the Kadees went in rather neatly but I've switched across to Roco universal couplers for most of my stock.

 

- Richard.

 

Found the location I was looking for- if you google 'Fowler Shunter, Plasmoor' you'll see some images of the immaculate Fowler in industrial service at Great Heck on the ECML. Reported to be the last such loco by that manufacturer in industrial service, and would give your similarly vintage-styled Matchbox an excuse to still be running

[47137]

17 minutes ago, Ben B said:

 

Found the location I was looking for- if you google 'Fowler Shunter, Plasmoor' you'll see some images of the immaculate Fowler in industrial service at Great Heck on the ECML. Reported to be the last such loco by that manufacturer in industrial service, and would give your similarly vintage-styled Matchbox an excuse to still be running

 

I suppose, my Matchbox model represents a diesel-electric (no side rods) while the Plasmoor one has a mechanical gearbox. 

 

Useful photo: https://flic.kr/p/cvctW1

 

- Richard.

[BernardTPM]

Could be chain drive like the smaller Sentinels.

[47137]

21 hours ago, BernardTPM said:

Could be chain drive like the smaller Sentinels.

 

I need to chew on this. Looking at the girth of the machine at its lower regions, I think it could be a diesel-electric. The hefty side frames being needed to hold its traction motors.

 

- Richard.

[47137]

Back to my Tower of Babel, deck 3 has gone on at lunch time today. My notes say I'm 47 hours into the build:

 

The railings are driving me mad but there's no point in whingeing about them here. I chose the buy the d*mned kit.

 

- Richard.