19th century lineside bits

[Rhys]

First thread here (well, 2mm thread).

 

I've yet to do any 2mm modeling but have been doing a fair bit of research.

As my interests are late 19th century I've been looking at what is avalable for the lineside scene.

A wider seacrh of the 10mm wargaming figures turned up the following.

(just as a note, wargaming fgures tend to be measured from foot to eye rather than foot to top of head for some odd reason).

 

http://www.thoroughb...m/EagleTens.htm

 

I've just recieved 2 packets tonight (72 figures in 12 different poses) for $7 US each (not counting postage). The castings are all as shown in the website photo with minimal moulding flash. I'm going to attempt to take some photos when I have some paint on (digital camera macro functions are not that crash hot).

[backofanenvelope]

Hey Rhys, welcome to the wonderful world of 2FS, have followed your blog for some time.. hope the war wound gets better soon..

Tom

[Etched Pixels]

For Aeonian Hills (which is N rather than 2mm and decidedly not 'fs') I used mostly Langley figures from the funeral, wedding and hunting sets which are of course the modern times we dress up like victorians. I think it works fairly well for toffs. For the working class figures I used various Presier working men figures intended for older German period models. These are also 1:160 which has the nice effect of the people being a more appropriate size for the time.

 

The residual pile of coffins came in useful for other things.

 

Alan

[Gareth Collier]

Greetings,

I carried out similar research and not only are the Thoroughbred figures exceptionaly good they are pretty much the only option. Although in theory a little small people tended to be smaller in the 19th century.

I've got the same set and they paint up very nicely. Pity the set doesn't include a few more 'working class'.

Gareth

[Rhys]

They do some civil war sailors, and the american navys of this period didn't tend to go too much for uniforms.

Its a pity that there are no pictures of these packets on teh website.

[Chrislock]

I have also aquired the Langley wedding and funeral sets with a view to using them. And don't overlook their beach donkey set which has a very passable working man and a child!

The other figures which are ok are the model power Steam Era People( 1343) - Exquisite, but very wild west and expensive - especially with the postage from the US. They can be adapted to Edwardian though without too much difficulty.

Regards,

Chris

[Rhys]

Well, after an awfull long time sitting on the workbench, I finaly picked up a paintbrush and tossed some paint on some of these figures. In my defence I have not painted anything this big for quite a while (Normally its 6mm wargaming figures) and I really don't like painting 10 or 15mm figures (its easier to paint 6mm and 25mm).

They take paint nicely. I do like the older gentleman in the hat. The woman in retrospect I should not have painted white as when you do a shading wash it just comes out looking dirty. a bit of drybrushing perks it up though. (Just expanded up the photo, and my god they look rough...)

 

There are only 10 poses but with different colours and careful positioning (plus using some of the other figure ranges) they are a usefull addition. The sculpting is certainly up to it (even compared to 15mm scale figures).

 

Now, if I could get hold of some of the Shirescenes wagons I could look at doing some vignettes.

[The Nth Degree]

Great work Rhys, these are the sort of thing I'll be after at some point.

[Rhys]

As another update to this topic, I've received another package from Eagle tens miniatures. this time it was 2 packets of their 1850-90 navel crew. I was wondering if any of the figures could be used for workers.

 

 

Unfortunately I couldn't fit all figures in one picture. I have made some simple modifications, mainly removing the swords and scabbards from the belts, and some ammo pouches. The caps could be altered and the navel uniforms seem to be not too bad for civilians.These have been fairly straightforward as they are not cast in pweter, which is a ###### to work with. Give me good old lead alloys any day.

Cost wise, again they are dirt cheap, with the cost being about 10 pounds in our local peso (which is 3 pints of real ale?) for 2 packets of 36 figures.

[Rhys]

Hmm, been a while since I posted anything here.

I must admit I have not been doing my 2mm modeling of late, while working on my TT layout. On30 has been getting a look in as well (its just so cheap buying non-sound models at the moment)

However since I've sent the lady of the house back to work, the cashflow situation has improved somewhat, and so I've had a chance to go shopping online again.

 

I have always looked at the Shirescenes etched models with some interest, and so it was time to get hold of one and see how it went.

The model I choose was the trap SN23.

 

This is where we get to the review part of the post.

 

 

The etch turned up on my doorstep,and I imediately wondered how I was going to assemble anything quite so small.

It was going to be a struggle, but the size was not going to be the problem.

 

I decided to assemble the kit using carrs 188 solder paste (the only type I have). I didn't trust superglue to hold well (and long) on such small joints.

The pieces on the etch all have numbers. The instructions do not refer to any numbers. Hmmmm.

 

First up we are told to fold the body to shape. At least thats easy to follow. This all makes sense.

Then we have to fold up the seat and attach the drivers squab. this is where things started to hit the skids. I cut back the tabs on the etch (as i always have) and then discovered that I should not have (another look at the above photo suggests that it would not have made much difference). A note in the instructions would have been useful. I managed to get it all together, and then discovered that if I 'droped it into the body' it was far too low. I found a piece of etch tab that I ran across the body at the 'correctish' height, and soldered the seat to it. I left the lights (I didn't seem to get any bezels in the kit) and the wip till later.

 

Then we wend downhill to the chassis. I folded the 1/2 etched shaft over the shaft. Now this appeared to result in the shaft bending the wrong way compared to the tiny photo on the front of the packet. There was no way I could see how this could be made to work as described but, assuming I was just being thick, I soldered the 2 pieces together.

(in retrospect looking at the above photo I still can't see how its suppose to work)

 

I'll edit the story at this point but attempts to do something about this the long way resulted in breaking off one of the springs.this was reattached using some other parts of the etch that I wasn't using. the axle piece was then used to hold it all together. I should have just put the opposite bend in the first place. I mistakenly assumed that the etch designer knew what he was doing.

 

So, to finish, a couple of photos sans wheels so that I can paint things easier.

 

The 'good' side.

 

The side with all the bracing.

 

In summary, I was happy that I managed to rescue the model, but i don't feel I should have been put into the postion in the first place. Obviously 30 years of modeling  (making my own track, soldering brass kits etc) didn't prepare me adequately to deal with a model like this. That said, 'if' I do another Shirescenes kit I will be better prepared and treat it as a scratch aid.

 

If anyone from Shirescenes comes across this, can you please have a look at your instructions again, and possibly print them out on a larger sheet of paper. The 7.5cm by 6cm is just not good enough to convey enough information to the modeler to be able to assemble it to look like the 4cm square photo on the front.

[Gareth Collier]

Greetings,

I've built most of Shirescenes 2mm offerings and have to agree re the instructions and small photo. I've found it best to disregard them altogether as they are so vague they create more problems than they solve. I sit and study the etch and devise my own way of constructing it especially around folds as they don't always seem to be etched as you would expect. Superglue is hopeless as everything is so small so I use normal solder and a fine tip. Of course if you do try Superglue first then give up and turn to solder make sure you get all the glue off first as a soldering iron and Superglue create some stunning fumes ;o)

Gareth

[Southernboy]

Congratulations on making such a good job of a very tricky kit - it's coming together nicely.

 

I'm a little relieved to hear you found assembly difficult ... I recently tried a Shirescenes kit and thought I was just being incredibly stupid when things didn't seem to go according to plan. The instructions were miniscule and totally illegible even under a strong magnifying glass.

 

Anyway - hopefully in time you'll post pictures of the finished trap.

[Rhys]

Rather than coming together nicely, I personally think of it as a bit of a canines Hors d'oeuvre.

 

I did a reasonably intensive search (well, 10 minutes but...) to see if I could find anyones notes on assembling these models. Beyond the fact that they produce nice models and they are very fiddly I came up with nothing on the web.

Thus I thought I would post my experiences as I have a fair track record of displaying my modeling process online, warts and all, in the hope that some other poor fool could go into building these kits with a bit more knoledge than me.

 

The model has had a dip in sodium bicarb to neutralise the leftover flux, and is now having a soak in vinegar to clean up any grease off the surface. A good rinse in water, drying in a warm spot, and I'll get some paint onto it in the next couple of days.

[Rhys]

Over the last couple of evenigs I have been getting some painting done. This is a slow process as its not overly warm out in the Man-sion, and water based paint takes a while to dry.

 

 

I started with a basic coat of Valejo US tan. I then painted the seats Valejo leather and the metal parts were picked out using Tamiya flat black.

I then painted the model with a wash of a 50/50 mix of Tamiya smoke and water (with a little flat base mixed in to take the gloss out). The wash sinks into the crevices, adding shadows and smoothing out the poor lining. Finally I fixed the wheels on with super glue.

 

It needs a bit of touching up, but basically its done. It does look much better with the paint on, But I still think I can do better.

(I added the ruler to scale the model, as it is very small. maybe too small)

[Rhys]

Today I have a bit of a question. A while ago I built a Ratio goods shed for my planned turn of the century GWR layout.

 

(Hmmm, stilll needs a bit of shading...)

I have always thought it looked a large building,

Tonight I measures the height of the loading dock from the ground, and discovered that it was 6'6". That realy sounds way too high for me for the time period (though an 18 wheeler could back up no problem).

Is this building supposed to be buried into the ground a bit, or is the height off the ground a standard thing?

(In this country a standard loading dock is/was about 3' off the ground)

[Nick Holliday]

Without knowing the specific prototype, I would however suggest that the plain band at the bottom is intended to be buried below your road surface, as the stone plinth is all you might expect to see.  I suspect that you may need to lose a bit more.  It would seem that you are using finescale 2mm track, whereas I suspect the kit was designed with the orginal Peco N gauge track in mind.  I wouldn't be surprised if the loading dock came half-way up any wagon shunted into the shed, whereas it should be around 3' 6" above rail level - approximately at the floor level.  (There seems to be a large clearance gap between the doors and the rail head too)  SInce the platform would be level, and the road surface would be around sleeper level, that would give an external platform level around 4' above ground, and certainly not 6' 6"!

[Nick Holliday]

Having looked at an OPC book on GWR Road Vehicles, it would appear that the height above ground of a flatbed trailer was anything between 3' 3" and 4'.  I suppose the tail board or some planks would accommodate any differences in level if items were on a wheeeled trolley.

I would be inclined to get rid of the external loading dock anyway.  Most prototype sheds seem to manage without one, and it does mean that the canopy can actually protect the items all the way on to the waiting wagon, whilst leaving the yard unobstructed.  Often the internal platform was recessed to allow the road vehicle to back up to the platform and conduct all loading operations inside the building, without threat from the weather.

[Izzy]

The general height of platforms above rail head level was 3', (although some very early built ones were lower), and I would tend to think this was also the height normally used for loading banks, cattle docks etc. Slightly lower than wagon floor level. Most kits and buildings for N gauge will be quite a bit in excess of this figure because of the need to allow for the height of N gauge track. Think of the oft used code 80 with it's thick sleepers and huge high rail. I don't have any to measure, but it must be at least 1-2mm higher than Easitrac or code 40 on c/c sleepers, perhaps more.

 

On the baseboard/track base surface the height of the platform should thus be around 6mm above rail height. Easitrac is 2.2mm deep, sleeper base to rail height, so around 8mm if your using track like this, i.e. nearer scale size.

 

Izzy

[Rhys]

Thanks very much for the discussion chaps. I'll have to sort out a base of some sort possibly 4mm MDF.

[MarkAustin]

Goods platforms tended go be just below the height of the top of the solebar, so that covered goods wagon doors could be opened without fouling, but there wasn't too much of a slope when the door of an open goods wagon was used as a ramp. Given that the height to the centre of a wagon buffer (unloaded) was 3ft 5-1/2in or thereabouts, I would take this as an absolute maximum. The one exception (for some reason) was fish platforms at the docks, which were higher. This was why the GWR fish covered goods wagons had sliding doors.

[mike morley]

Moving back a subject, I have just finished the Shirescenes HO farm tip cart so know exactly what you mean about the instructions.  They are beyond all shadow of a doubt the worst instructions I have ever encountered - surpassing even those of Falcon Brass!

 

I could not have built the kit without frequent reference to a book on agricultural vehicles and a trip to a local open-air museum and I'm still not entirely sure I've built it the way its intended.

The trap looks far more complicated and, as the 3.5 farm cart was tiny, must be absolutely microscopic, making you doubly deserving of hearty congratulations!

[Rhys]

Well, its been awfuly cold here over the last couple of nights, so not much drive to get out to the Man-sion.

I did get out long enough to finish up the trap. The horse from the Shirescenes range is awfully close to a clydesdale in looks.Just what you would want for an afternoon jaunt in your sports trap.

I had a look through quite a few military websites and could not find anything that would service in the 10mm ranges. The might be something out there but its awfully hard to tell with the terrible photos on their web sites. As well, as the horse, I added in the seated couple from the Throughbred miniatures civillians set. These were painted and then shaded with the Tamiya smoke wash from above. This tends to hide a mulitude of sins.

To join the 2 up I put a piece of brass rod through the hole in the middle of the horse, and soldered the trap to it. I then added the wip with superglue.

 

 

Using digital camers to take close ups is awfully cruel, it shows up stuff that you miss with normal eyesite. And no, I refuse to use an optivisor, they just don't work for me.

I can see some areas that I need to touch up.

 

Overall not bad for a first attempt, I'll do better next time. I have a 2mm maintanence barrow to have a go at this weekend.

[Rhys]

Well, things got in the way of having a go at the maintanence barrow 3 weeks ago. However today I found time to head out to the Man-sion and fire up the soldering iron.

First up a photo of the etch.

 

 

First up, I threw the instructions away(after a cursory read), thereby elimination a few problems with the build.

Again, it wasn't all plain sailing with some of the small etch folds proving almost impossible to force over. Once again I snapped one of the folds, forcing me to have to solder one end on after I had completed the rest of the wagon. I also could not get the wheels onto the axle slot, so in the end just soldered them on as is. It seems to have worked. I relented towards the end and used super glue to attach to 2 main subassemblies and also the axle.

And the finished article next to a ruler.

 

 

I also sized it up with some of the figures I will be using in the scene.

 

 

They look about the correct size, if a little small again. The next step will be a bit of paint thrown round and a base of some sort.

 

[JimF51]

Rhys, I won't use a optivisor, either, just doesn't work for me. What I have, is inexpensive reading glasses, bought at a drug store (chemists). Much easier to work with and more comfortable. The ones with the smaller lens size allows you to look over the top of the lens, for normal vision. Just a thought. Excellent work, btw.

[Rhys]

I'm starting to think that I might need some sort of magnification, but I'm too young surely.

I'm not 50 yet!