Jo's N gauge wagon works - building, painting and weathering

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Jo

 

I use Corel Draw for etch artwork and once you get used to the basic ideas of minimum line thicknesses, and get the hang of creating basic shapes, it's pretty straightforward.

 

I think that the quality of the models you are producing almost demands finishing with etched details - certainly handrails, walkways and ladders are almost impossible to produce in any other way to give a sufficiently fine appearance - and I'm sure learning the basics of etch artwork will be a valuable addition to your modelling "skill-set."

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Steadfast]

Thank you for the etching comments guys, definitely food for thought! I downloaded DraftSight, a free 2D cad application a while ago, but struggled to even fathom out what did what before getting fed up with it. I'll give Inkscape a go, which as a 'drawing' software rather than a CAD software may work better with my brain. Etching is something I've wanted to try for a long time, but never got around to it. So many little bits here and there, or to add detail to a 3D print it'd be a useful tool to have available. Hmmm best get downloading!

 

jo

[Steadfast]

A quick bit of progress on an older project - the IIA! I've managed to get the blue and yellow on. All that remains is the grey solebar then it's transfer and weathering time.

Also as this is likely my last update of content on the thread before TINGS at Leamington on Saturday, here's a sneak peak of what will make up part of the DEMU stand. I'll have the IIA and TDAs with me if anyone fancies a closer look. Please say hello if you're passing! I've still not decided what to actually model on Saturday, yet, though...

 

jo

[MrSimon]

Shame you're only there on Saturday would be good to get a closer look at the tanks

 

Cheers

 

Simon

[Steadfast]

Hi Simon,

Sadly it's a bit far for me to be able to afford to do both days, and one day is tiring enough!

 

jo

[lyneux]

IIA looking good Jo! How about a rake?

[Steadfast]

Hi all, it's been a while since the last update. A little progress to show, first, a game of spot the difference with the IIA photo further up the page. It looks a lot more complete with the grey solebar, its now ready for transfers and weathering.

Secondly, I've actually finished something! Well I think its finished, anyway, maybe needs a thin wash of brown...hmmmm

Transfers are homebrew in Photoshop, emailed off and printed for me on an ALPS printer, as usual by Kelvin at Red Firecracker.

The all over grey, well, grubby brown, TDA that I expected to be finished first, is actually lagging behind somewhat! It's getting there though.

One thing these photos do show up is the roughness of some of my masking....

 

jo

Edited November 19, 2012 by ewsjo

[Rods_of_Revolution]

Very nice! You've put the TDA 3D model I knocked up to good use! Just need a 1:148 Westerleigh to go with it now!

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

[Steadfast]

Cheers Jack. Funny how we get that feeling every time we go to Westerleigh lol!

I must get cracking with the other TDA, now...1 down, 28 to go haha

 

jo

 

 

[Steadfast]

Only three months later, here's another update. Both TDAs are just about finished, it was as I was processing the image in Photoshop that I realised I need to attach Hazchem boards to the grey one, but that should take all of 30 seconds to sort. There's another photo of the red and blue one for comparison between the two. The whole model was first sprayed brown (Railmatch sleeper grime I think), before having the ribs masked to allow grey to be drybrushed on top. Once the tape was removed, more grey could be drybrushed onto the rest of the body. Once this was dry, various brown and black washes were added. The red patches on the solebar are applied over the brown, despite the fact I'd already painted it red before the brown went on, it was easier to do this than to remove the brown in places. Johnson's Klear was used to give a high gloss in the areas to get transfers, before an overall coat of matt varnish, and a dusting of brown from the airbrush to blend everything in. It's nice to have this pair finished now! Here's hoping Bachmann announce the modern VTG TEA tanks in this year's announcements in a few weeks time. Or maybe next years, or the next....

The IIA is progressing slowly forward too, with a painted out Cemex logo and OLE warning flashes. I need to get the transfers I've drawn up printed soon. The KPA is from the N Gauge Society kit, and will drop into the same rake of RMC hoppers as the IIA. Once transfers are on, most of the blue will be lost under brown and stone dust, so it's just quick coat to give a base colour.

Finally a TTA I'm working on, a bit of a test of how easily the Farish weathered models can be made to look more convincing. There's still a bit more to do, and it's come out grubbier looking than I wanted, but as a test bed I'm quite happy so far with how it's going. A black wash around the underframe to add some relief and some Klear over the oily bits should help it come along. The brown spray used in the Chinese factory is a bit of a pain to shift evenly, clinging just where you don't want it to normally, and care is needed to not damage the factory printing in places.

 

jo

[Rods_of_Revolution]

The weathering on the gray TDA especially is spot on!

 

The TTA looks much better than a standard Bachmann job; will look perfect in the back road of Baby Laira!

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

[Steadfast]

Cheers, gotta get the others weathered to match now, with a clean one or two as well. That and some magnetic couplers so we can shunt them properly at Plymouth!

 

jo

[MrSimon]

The tankers look excellent - well done!  What did you use for the weathering?

 

Cheers

 

Simon

[Steadfast]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the interest, the weathering is a mix of paints, which type depending on my mood!

The red Murco tank is very thin washes of Railmatch black enamel in white spirits, adding subtle black tints with each layer.

The grey/brown TDA and TTA both use Games Workshop acrylic black, drybrushed on at first, with thicker layers applied on top.

The scabby brown - grey finish on the TDA is sprayed Railmatch sleeper grime enamel. Games Workshop Codex Grey acrylic was then drybrushed on top, with patches being painted in with smaller brushes and blended with drybrushing. The red patches are Railmatch enamel as I could soften the edges with white spirit once to make it look like wiped clean patches, acrylic dries too quick for this.

The bogies on the TDAs are painted with various browns over a base coat of Halfords primer and black. The Halfords sprays were used to help the top coats grip the bogies. Both TDAs then received a light dusting of the sleeper grime over the bogies and undersides to blend it all together.

Hope this helps

 

jo

[Steadfast]

Dust a few cobwebs off this thread!

First things first, the IIA now has all it's transfers in place. I'm not 100% happy how they've come out, but should be ok once weathered.

Second up is a recent 3D print, by Rods_of_Revolution, which I believe is available from his shapeways shop (Rail 3D prints). It is a BLA, which is a BBA that has had coil cradles added. I plan to use some fabricated Y25 bogies that I have in stock for this, as a representation of the FBT6 type fitted to these.

 

jo

Edited April 18, 2015 by Steadfast

[Glorious NSE]

That's nice, I presume properly 'see through' from above like the real thing?

[Steadfast]

Aye :-D

Apologies for naff quality tablet camera

 

jo

[Steadfast]

Nearly 4 years after this thread started, we jump back to the future. No that's not right, these wagons can't make 88 mph. Anyway, post 1 covered the beginnings of the IIA conversion. Now it's de called up, today I managed to paint in the last few details and add the hand brake wheels.

The brake wheels are soldered to brass wire and glued into holes from the original HHA brake wheels. The red levers for the ICD and goods/pass lever are simply red paint. Applied in vaguely the right shape, the excess was then cut back with a white spirit dampened brush to leave the narrow strips representing the handles. This adds a splash of colour I think as well as some accuracy, with the goods/pass level is in goods as the wagon is running in a rake of 60mph JGAs

Now how heavily to weather it...

 

jo

[Steadfast]

It's only taken another couple of months, but I think I can just about call the IIA finished.

The weathering on the sides is Mig Europe Dust weathering powder for the overspill dust streaks and Railmatch dark rust stippled on to the upper sides to show the wear and tear that these wagons sustain in everyday use. Spilled aggregate can build up on the ends, because the end door slides on these wagons, the lower of the two doors has the greater buildup as it sits against the edge of the higher door. This was recreated with some real stone aggregate, sieved to remove the finest material which is then attached to the model using matt enamel varnish. I brush this on in the shape I want the spill to be, then sprinkle the stone on. A sprayed coat of matt varnish seals the entire wagon, including weathering powders and the product spills on the ends. I need to bring my RMC set up to scratch now really. It'd be nice if someone does an RTR HOA, as this would make modelling these DBS resourced stone trains much easier, with a mix of RMC JGAs, HOAs and IIAs. Whilst my set is inspired by 6M20 from Whatley, these wagons are seen country wide.

Finally a quick update on the BLA, it's had several coats of primer and a bit of time to clean it up. The frustrating thing with FUD is that one may print and need next to no cleanup, the next one may print in a totally different orientation and need loads of clean up of the ridged surface. Anyway, it's getting there, I've chosen a prototype to model and I have a cunning plan of how to model the heat staining on the ends of the cradles

More soon

 

jo

[Steadfast]

Where's my Mr Sheen? Time to dust off the thread folks. OK, so this one isn't technically a wagon, but in terms of marshalling it into a train it basically is! I've long wanted to model the high output ballast cleaner, but it's a heck of a project with the multi part machine and all the MFS wagons. So I settled on the medium output ballast cleaner ,or MOBC. This is only a two part machine and often travels in the engineers trip workings without any associated MFS wagons. It's big enough on its own, the finished unit will be nearly a foot long. I managed to get a load of detail pictures of this machine stabled in the yard at work before it headed out on one of the trips to get it north. The model is all scratchbuilt from plastic sheet (0.5 and 0.25mm), designed and cut on my silhouette cutter. I'll end this post here as I'm posting via a flaky 3G connection on my phone. I'll post some pictures up in a subsequent post very shortly

 

Jo

[Steadfast]

Right , managed to make the last post without accidentally deleting all the text as I aimed for the post button, so let's try some pictures!

First things first, here's the sheet from the silhouette, with pencil rubbed over to highlight the cuts. I started with the cabs as they were simple enough and meant I didn't waste too much time if the project didn't progress. 

The two cabs are identical, but the chassis are slightly different. The C channel shape is achieved with layers of plastic, the outer two being wider to give the overhangs.

Finally for this post, here's belly of the machine, the simpler of the two vehicles which I believe is the power vehicle. You can also see how the chassis under the cab this end is different as it narrows to fit into the belly section.

More in the next post, I'll also try to post a screen shot of the design file when I'm next on the computer. 

 

Jo

Edited May 28, 2018 by Steadfast

[Steadfast]

The various modules test fitted together.

It was after this point that I realised the tanks at the non driving end weren't quite right...There's a belt rubs between them. Cue mk2! At least being modular meant it wasn't a major redesign.

The belt sides are laminations of quarter mm plastic to give depth and relief

Another dry fit

One side has lots of pipework. This is soldered up from wire off the model then glued on

 

Jo

[Steadfast]

Onto the complicated part, the machine half of the vehicle. Branded by Plasser as an RM 95 RT, the MOBC digs the old ballast out, sends poor quality product to spoil and relays the ballast with new added to the material suitable for reuse. The belts on top of the power vehicle allow spoil to be discharged to either MFS wagons or the lineside. Anyway, here's cab number two 

There's also a small cab near the machinery

The digging booms, until glued on, could be prototypically lowered to below rail head height. Although it serves no practical purpose on the model, it proves the design. 

And glued into the stowed position.

The side view shows the cross over of various components that are characteristic of the prototype. 

The belts between the two halves align quite nicely. I've had to allow a little extra travel to allow for vertical movement over track joints.

A general view of the two parts together whilst on display on the DEMU stand at Thornbury at the beginning of May. 

Finally a test print of the decals. The yellow on the worn Plasser and Theurer logos needs toning down but the concept is proven

There's been a bit more progress lately, which I'll document soon

 

Jo

[Steadfast]

Thanks for all the likes etc so far guys. Here's the final piece in the puzzle so far, the files for cutting. Well, one file with many, many layers! Generally speaking, red is a cut line, green and blue are scores and yellow is a secondary cut to allow windows etc to be easily pushed out. I say generally, because I'm not the most consistent of people! The project started September 2017, with the cabs being cut and built at the Eastcombe show in Stroud last October. Helpfully, Plasser and Theurer have a side projection drawing on their site at the bottom of this page https://www.plasser.co.uk/en/machines/rm95rt.htm which although lacking some details, has proven very useful to trace to give the correct outline to the parts. This combined with the photos I have means there weren't too many blanks to fill or guesses to make.

This first screenshot is relatively simple to understand, it's the flat pack pieces that make up the cab. I'm not sure why I labelled the front of the roof as 'windscreens', surely 'front' would've sufficed...

The second screenshot shows the parts that make up the complex machinery side of the MOBC. Not only is there the distinctive side profile, when viewed from the above the frame work also narrows for the centre section. I also printed these on paper so I once the parts were popped out from the sheet I could still work out what went where! There's lots of laminations to add relief and build up a more 3D profile where it's required.

 

Jo

[Steadfast]

A brief update. First a photo I missed last time, showing a printout of the file, used to test that the conveyor fits the parts already made, important with the shape of the cab roof particularly.

Second, all the assemblies together, ready for a good coat of yellow

Finally it's all yellow, ex works colour and very bright! Next step, fading will begin.

 

Jo