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Freight only micro layout: for sale


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Hi all, 

 

Bit of progress with the Class 31. After many failed attempts, and the several hours spent bending different gauge wire, I've now replaced all the grab rails on both cab fronts. It makes a huge difference. 

 

IMG_20210420_231006_351.jpg.f9518942894952ae9149e4ccd2b06ba0.jpg

 

Note the headlight is fixed in place with blutac here! 

 

Next I need to replace all the roof grab handles...I'm leaving that for another day. 

 

IMG_20210420_230240_524.jpg.0189f7b7aa9101cae349238b2f08496f.jpg

As I'm waiting for a delivery of some bits and pieces before I can make any further progress with the track, so in the meantime I've knocked up this small building which'll be placed in front of the track, so that trains run behind and in front of the various structures. 

 

Screenshot_20210420_231224.jpg.126a9bc4ca6de4c48926f4b57fba99fa.jpg

 

It'll be painted to represent a rusting, shabby store building. 

 

Thanks for looking! 

 

 

 

Edited by Enfys_Rainbow
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4 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

image.png.d873e42784ee146ffdcee48fe1a31395.png

 

I don't know of the prototype you're modelling, but you might have missed the door retaining clips off the handrails, although you are far braver than me in regard to the roof panel handles, I'm still deliberating!

 

Mike.

 

That looks excellent Mike. I don't believe I've noticed the retaining clips on any of the photos I've seen, however I think we're doing different sub classes. 

 

2 hours ago, Southwich said:

Awesome work Matt that looks superb! Looking forward to seeing some more progress!

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

 

Thanks Will, let's see how it goes... 

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8 minutes ago, 37114 said:

Nice work, I do think the Lima 31 was one of their best models. I have done the roof handrails on both of mine, not as bad or tedious as you think and definitely worth the effort.

 

Definitely. The roof handrails are underway, I just get really bored doing this kind of thing! 

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7 hours ago, 37114 said:

Nice work, I do think the Lima 31 was one of their best models. I have done the roof handrails on both of mine, not as bad or tedious as you think and definitely worth the effort.

 

6 hours ago, Enfys_Rainbow said:

 

Definitely. The roof handrails are underway, I just get really bored doing this kind of thing! 

 

OK, OK, I give in, I'll do mine!

 

Mike.

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13 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

 

OK, OK, I give in, I'll do mine!

 

Mike.

 

OK good, I look forward to seeing it! 

 

Bit more progress with the corrugated building. I've tried to represent the ramshackle nature of some structures like this, with a less than perfect roof. Note the cladding is incomplete above the window and door. 

 

IMG_20210422_083322.jpg.daf56bab6a27be6e121818eaa60d5d96.jpg

 

I'm not a huge fan of any of the embossed corrugated plastic sheets, this is SE Finecast (I think), as its really hard to represent the edges of the roof convincingly as the thickness of the sheets give it away, or where pieces butt up to one another. 

 

For the roof edge, the best compromise I could come up with was to sand the edges to approx 45 degrees so it gives the impression they're thinner than they actually are. The foil visible here is my attempt to represent overlaid sheets. 

 

IMG_20210422_083311.jpg.11a78f90fe5579fb0f39e31a1c7dd120.jpg

 

See how it all looks after being painted! 

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I'm still waiting for some bits to enable me to complete the trackwork, and until I get them, progress has pretty much ground to a halt. 

 

I find that whenever I'm at a loose end modelling wise, I keep coming back to the humble 16t mineral wagon. 

 

About 6 months ago I picked up 4 old Dapol kits from eBay - the wagon in the previous post was one of these. Despite the softness of the plastic and the often warped pieces, I enjoy building these (and the original, and crisper Airfix ones) as much as those by Parkside. 

 

The scruffy but retro packaging:

 

Screenshot_20210427_203243.jpg.75161e4a3133cd36bb3be0025f395142.jpg

 

And the contents - note the amount of flash on the side pieces in particular!:

 

Screenshot_20210427_203306.jpg.2ea30f663f0d16609ea9f4d0f68c5b8d.jpg

 

The plan is to base this on a photo on the Bartlett website. 

 

Thanks for looking! 

Edited by Enfys_Rainbow
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3 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Personal opinion I know, but I won't touch a non original Airfix kit, the Dapol manifestations are too poor quality in comparison, but you're making a decent fist of them, long may it continue!

 

Mike.

 

It's a good point Mike, the Airfix ones are better - the plastic itself is far superior. The loose packed bags Dapol use don't help things stay flat either. 

 

Either way, I still enjoy building them, and with a bit of care they still build up well most of the time. 

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Hope people don't mind me documenting this build. I'm sure most people have built an Airfix/Dapol mineral wagon in their time, but I thought I'd make an effort to do it in stages. 

 

The first step for me is to file off the raised numbers moulded into that back of all the body sections. Not entirely necessary as they're hidden by any load, but I always do it anyway! 

 

After that, I turned my attention to the solebars. I make 2 small adjustments here. The first is drilling a hole in each of the w-irons - this makes a big difference to the appearance once everything is painted and weathered. 

 

Screenshot_20210427_220031.jpg.8e60403476337a9449fff701e542efbd.jpg

 

The second is to fill the hole in the solebar itself where the kit brake lever is mounted. I do this because I prefer to use brake levers from Parkside. I glued stretched sprue into the holes, but any rod would also work. 

 

Screenshot_20210427_220055.jpg.a9766fbebedd066e458e15e7ae767493.jpg

 

Once trimmed and painted, its all but invisible. 

Edited by Enfys_Rainbow
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On the subject of Dapol 16 tonners- I found that on some of the ones I attempted to build that the baseplate had warped, probably due to the age of the mould. Simple answer- bang a Red Panda chassis under it and voila a vac-fitted 16 tonner! Use the old Airfix moulding for the unfitted stuff as the Span Yard man implied!

 

Disgusting of Market Harborough

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1 hour ago, Bungus the Fogeyman said:

On the subject of Dapol 16 tonners- I found that on some of the ones I attempted to build that the baseplate had warped, probably due to the age of the mould. Simple answer- bang a Red Panda chassis under it and voila a vac-fitted 16 tonner! Use the old Airfix moulding for the unfitted stuff as the Span Yard man implied!

 

Disgusting of Market Harborough

 

The solebars had significantly warped on the last one I did. This time though, all in all, its been pretty good. I do appreciate you can improve the underframe by using Red Panda or Parkside chassis, but I also quite like the original! 

 

Anyway, some more progress to share. The wagon body has now been assembled and the underframe attached. Minor tweaks include replacing the badly misshapen bufferbeams with some plastic channel and substituting the brake levers and brakes with some spare Parkside bits. 

 

Screenshot_20210430_234350.jpg.085ac360925c343876a473d5ae78cc0d.jpg

 

Screenshot_20210430_234407.jpg.ac90231ce3b9d8b361ab401615652e0c.jpg

All that really remains now are the buffers themselves and then I can start thinking about the painting. 

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If I may point out a slight error, whilst using the Parkside brake levers is an excellent idea, you seem have perpetuated the fault of the original Airfix kit by not having a clutch fitted lever on the non brake shoe side, unless it's my screen reproduction, in which case apologies.

 

Mike.

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Just now, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

If I may point out a slight error, whilst using the Parkside brake levers is an excellent idea, you seem have perpetuated the fault of the original Airfix kit by not having a clutch fitted lever on the non brake shoe side, unless it's my screen reproduction, in which case apologies.

 

Mike.

No you are correct Mike. I just don't have any levers with a clutch. I can live with the error as I can barely see it anyway! 

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4 minutes ago, Enfys_Rainbow said:

No you are correct Mike. I just don't have any levers with a clutch. I can live with the error as I can barely see it anyway! 

 

Now, if only someone could 3D print the correct brake levers?!!

I'd have a couple of hundred at least. (That's the number of "incorrect" built and unbuilt Airfix minerals I have!)

 

Mike.

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3 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Now, if only someone could 3D print the correct brake levers?!!

I'd have a couple of hundred at least. (That's the number of "incorrect" built and unbuilt Airfix minerals I have!)

 

Mike.

That's a pretty good idea - I'm surprised no one has done it yet! 

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1 minute ago, Enfys_Rainbow said:

That's a pretty good idea - I'm surprised no one has done it yet! 

 

I'm just a visionary with no computer skills or else I'd be in there, along with many other useful bits and bobs, if I had someone with the necessary skills I'd even buy them a printer!

 

Mike.

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2 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

I'm just a visionary with no computer skills or else I'd be in there, along with many other useful bits and bobs, if I had someone with the necessary skills I'd even buy them a printer!

 

Mike.

I have no experience with 3D printed parts of any kind. But looking at some of the bits made by people like Modelu (for example) it must be possible to do it and probably wouldn't be much less fragile than plastic parts. 

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Improving Peco Code 75 points:

 

Hi all, 

 

Anyone who has been following this thread will have seen that I'm using Peco Bullhead track, with Code 75 points. A couple of posts ago, I showed some simple modifications I'd made to the toe end/tie bar to visually improve the look. 

 

I've decided to take this a step further and there's a couple of other threads where similar modifications have been carried out. 

 

First, an unmodified point:

 

Screenshot_20210503_115229.jpg.e3b986a07bc37bb75e41e91772060b1a.jpg

 

Screenshot_20210503_115244.jpg.1caf537985ced69a48540055bb2e17a2.jpg

 

And now my modified point:

 

Screenshot_20210503_115258.jpg.c61f0403a5c8ab161e2c49b36ffd5838.jpg

 

Screenshot_20210503_115312.jpg.0ed3c315223c9f4432655647bd1f7341.jpg

 

I've replaced the chairs with those from C&L and removed the original sleepers either side of the tiebar and replaced them with some spare ones taken from some offcuts of the Bullhead track. Obviously there has to be some compromises to ensure stock continues to run smoothly, but overall I think the appearance is vastly improved. 

 

Note that I've only replaced those on the viewable side of the track. From a low level, I think it's definitely worthwhile. 

 

Screenshot_20210503_115328.jpg.c03b79a5e80a77acdd0b0520da3601a5.jpg

 

Fiddly, time consuming but far easier than building my own track! 

Edited by Enfys_Rainbow
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Yes, that does make quite a difference, nice idea.

 

It also solves the problem when you reach a buffer stop like those from Lanarkshire models, which require chairs to be added. It then looks odd next to RTP track with a different kind of chairs.

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Thanks Mikkel, I actually have a Lanarkshire bufferstop awaiting construction and you're right, it will help the overall appearance. 

 

Tonight marks an important landmark for me and this layout: the track is now glued down - this is the furthest I've made it with any layout in the last 10 years! 

 

Next up is to get the track tidied up by adding missing sleepers at the joints etc. 

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