Havenhouse - the reboot

[JCL]

I wonder how oiled stencil board would cut on the laser. It sounds as if it should be ok: http://www.cutlasercut.com/laser-cutting-materials-laser-engraving-materials/laser-cutting-manilla-stencil-card

Is it me, or has this site stopped stocking it?

 

Edited to say that it's on sale here - and cheaper than the MDF.

 

https://www.amazon.ca/15pt-Board-Stencil-Blanks-17-5/dp/B01M9F1M43/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1514687361&sr=8-3&keywords=Stencil+board

 

It doesn't smoke nearly as much as the MDF, and it seems that it can be glued with PVA - http://modelshop.co.uk/Shop/Raw-Materials/Card/Item/Oiled-manilla-510-405mm-natural/ITM6636

 

Some pointers from David Neat, a commercial modelmaker - his whole website is worth going through.

 

Introduction: https://davidneat.wordpress.com/materials/constructing/working-with-stencil-card/

Staining: https://davidneat.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/making-a-panelled-door-in-stencil-card/

Quality: https://davidneat.wordpress.com/2016/03/27/poor-substitute-stencil-card/

 

...and then you start to get to really interesting websites https://www.handover.co.uk

 

Finally, a hipster/steampunk smartphone: https://www.uline.ca/Product/Detail/H-259/Stencils/Stencil-Machine-1?pricode=YA807&gadtype=pla&id=H-259Q&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqJ-J3dSz2AIVDcRkCh3drQwFEAQYASABEgJzsfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Edited December 31, 2017 by JCL

[chris p bacon]

I've never seen or heard of this before, are you able to get this in Canada or are you still in 1879 . . yeeeeeeeeeehaaaaa.

[MikeTrice]

Sounds promising. Glad parcel arrived quickly.

 

I think you can get it Stateside in different thicknesses and in bulk. This company have at least one branch in Canada (from memory): http://www.hillas.com/Categories/Marsh-Oiled-Stencil-Board-015-Thickness/MARSH-OBC15-24X36-50-Oiled-Stencil-Board-24-in-x-36-in-015-thickness-Canary-Yellow-104-Sheets.html

 

Might also be the better quality version that David mentions.

[JCL]

Happy new year everyone, I hope you all have a healthy and successful one.

 

You might have remembered me doing the seats for the Barnum last time. Reusing the file I made at the time I've inserted some slots into the drawings that will allow me to create the seats. If you have Inkscape or some other drawing program I've uploaded the file for you to look at.

 

Barnum - repurposed 26 seats.svg

 

It looks like this - this test was done in 1mm "butter board" used by architects over here:

 

 

The odd shapes at the bottom, first row are:

single seat, back, double seat x 2, back, single seat, back

table upright, back, double seat, table upright x 3, back

 

The slots mean that I can slide the seat cushion for the back-to-back seats slide through the back. Erm, maybe this will help. They were quickly slotted together to make sure it all works, so I'll need to do a better job of getting everything square.

 

 

Here it is in the MDF - I'm not 100% sure I'm going to paint the wooden ends, but I've read the fabric was red, so that will definitely have to be done.

 

 

The seats are a tight fit, but because they flex slightly, they do slip into the coach.

 

[gr.king]

I can remember cutting all of those seat ends out by hand for the interiors of my two Barnums.

[JCL]

I can well imagine Graeme - I didn't quite get the cutting power right on one trial and ended up with a knife - and I had the score line to help me. Next up will be cutting all but the sides in 1mm and 1.5mm mdf. I'm going to wait for a sunny day as the cutter will be outside - there's far too much smoke to leave it inside with that stuff.

 

Here's a very interesting document on the Barnums - unfortunately it seems that the gcr-rollingstocktrust.co.uk site isn't up at the moment. I've contacted them at gcrrollingstocktrust@live.co.uk to let them know. Here's Google's version of the PDF: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://gcr-rollingstocktrust.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Barnum-research-history.pdf&gws_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=SWhMWtKAJZb8jwP4gZe4AQ

 

Graeme, going by the document, I do hope you are swapping your upholstered seats out in the summer for rattan cane ones.

[JCL]

Well, it's been a good few days of moving lines around in the Inkscape drawing program, but I've practically finished the drawing side of things. The only bits I've not tested now are bogies and roof. Anyway, I'm starting the build, so there will be a flurry of photos over the next few days.

 

The materials I'm using at 1.5mm MDF, 1mm MDF and some of the original oiled board that Mike sent me (thanks again Mike). Here's the first set of photos.

 

The complete set of cross-coach parts in the correct order from end to end. Apparently the interiors of the Barnums were pretty spartan when they arrived at the GCR, but a photo I have shows the design above the door. As the coach was 3rd class, it seems they had to make do with a mahogany(!) interior.

 

Most of the parts cut and checked.

 

(This one is a test piece)

 

Parts in primer

 

I also cut the parts for the sides in the oiled board. Some tests on the board shows that it takes really well the Rustoleum primer that I'm using. No flaking or blotchiness at all. The vent covers are really fiddly, partly because the bond of the glue isn't as sturdy as I'd like on these tiny parts (the two layers making the side are really well bonded). Because of this I put them all on a sprue as per below. If I was to do this again, I'd make the tabs connecting the vent covers to the sprue a lot thinner.

 

Now that I've watched all of series 3 of The Detectorists, tomorrow I'll start construction.

 

cheers

 

Jason

[chris p bacon]

Now that I've watched all of series 3 of The Detectorists, tomorrow I'll start construction.

 

 

Which one are you....Simon or Garfunkel?

[JCL]

To be honest, I worry sometimes that I'm a combination of all of them.

 

I think Mackenzie Crook was initially going to do just the two series, but there was a lot of chatter about unfinished storylines and the need to finish it off. The last one in series 3 certainly brought everything to a close. I think I spent 2 hours last night finishing it.

 

Don't drink the lemonade.

Edited January 11, 2018 by JCL

[JCL]

Painting and seats today - four banks of them.

 

 

I'm going to use the Vallejo paints over white primer as normal, so the inner walls are are mahogany, the floor, well I've taken a complete guess with a mid brown, and the red seat fabric is Fire Red. The 1.5mm thick MDF base takes a lot of paint! The last thing I saw this absorbent I was wiping down the kitchen surfaces with it!

 

 

The seats are a bit fiddly, but a lot of it is just a case of slotting the bits together. The middle seats are in two parts that make a cross, and the end seats are put together on their backs with a square to keep everything right (the whole lot is done on oven grease proof paper). You can see a couple of the slotted parts in the top left of the first photo - and a bit better in the prototype version above. I've found that it's better not to make the slots too tight as the laser cutter diode isn't at exactly 90 degrees, so the cut it makes is ever so slightly off. I was in full squint last night - a sight to behold.

 

 

I've cheated a bit by not putting proper legs on the seats, but nobody will notice. On the other hand, one corner I almost, but didn't cut was the raised beading. Initially I was going to use 1mm mdf for the seat ends and just score the raised edging, but in the end I couldn't go there, so I used the oiled board and cut the beading as a separate layer to the main part.

Edited January 12, 2018 by JCL

[richard i]

You seem to have backdated the sides from your original plastic one you made. Was this to do with a change of material or a modeling era?

[JCL]

Hi Richard, it was for two reasons - the sides without the sliding windows are stronger, but also, the backdated sides fit in with the layout as I'm aiming for sometime in the 1910's. That said, I'm of the opinion that the oiled board sides are stiffer than the styrene ones.

 

Should I come into some money, one of those D11's in GCR livery to go with it (or if this goes well, with them) would be marvellous.

Edited January 12, 2018 by JCL

[richard i]

Thank you for your explaination. There are many who follow others because they can buy nice train sets, i follow your thread because i find it inspirational and it pushes me to develop my self-reliance. Your work on cutting and shuttting coaches, casting wagons, loco scratch building and this really gets me thinking. I wish you well in your endevour to make this work as i use it as a how it might work for me.......oh and i too like Barnums/ need them to run in GCR era trains. 

Any thought to doing the brake version if this one works?

[JCL]

Thanks Richard - although it's Dave (Chris P) who's wagon casting by the hundred at the moment.

 

The drawing took a lot of time because I wasn't as organised at the beginning as I could be. If everything fits together properly, and I can't think why they wont, then I'll be doing the brake. To be honest it's half completed already because half of the brake is the same as the 3rd open.

 

 

The cross-walls painted and floor undercoated.

 

Roll-bars fitted At this point it's starting to stiffen up

 

And a quick close-up of the end - you can see the notches in the lower-side strengtheners that help me keep everything square. The upper strengthener helps make sure that the ends are perfectly vertical.

[JCL]

Here's where I'm at today. I've finished putting the main body together and painted the outside with a first layer of the Vallejo Light Orange (I'll be using Mike's teaking instructions, so I'm not worried about the orange being blotchy in places), and finished the inside with the Mahogany.

 

 

 

I definitely need to do something with the area above the vent covers. Good news is that the covers seem to be staying put.

 

 

 

I did try the grey undercoat, but it gave the orange a weird greenish tone, so I've stuck with the white. There were a couple of gotchas on the way as some of the parts are pretty tight, and the layer of paint was the difference between fitting and not fitting. And I should have painted the inside of the sides before I glued them to the frame - it was a lot more difficult afterwards!

 

Next up is the roof, and I'm looking at Cardboard Rolling Stock and How to Build It by E. Rankine Gray (more than a couple of years ago) and uploaded on the Card Structure Modelling Forum by Scottish Modeller - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/47662-card-rolling-stock/?p=2281897

Edited January 13, 2018 by JCL

[uax6]

Looking very good Jason. I presume that you are going to be cutting out the toilet pans from MDF as well?

 

Andy G

[JCL]

hahaha, I was just thinking about them - you know me too well. I think though that the toilet will follow Thai practice.

[uax6]

Or a nice 3D one, may I suggest in Platinum, to match the décor sir?

 

Andy G

[JCL]

Hmm, it's 3rd though... it'd have to be silver, tops.

[richard i]

This looks great.

Slight care needs taking as they were a darker colour than the varnished teak of Gresley stock. Perhaps mike's method of teaking will need a slight tweak. I was going to start with dull teak then a wash of black.

[Synch]

My only question is what would it take to be able to buy a couple!

[JCL]

This looks great.

Slight care needs taking as they were a darker colour than the varnished teak of Gresley stock. Perhaps mike's method of teaking will need a slight tweak. I was going to start with dull teak then a wash of black.

 

You might have saved me from doing something stupid there. Although I've backdated the coach, I was looking at the LNER style of finish on it like this one http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/2092-great-central-barnum-coaches/ by Dave T. I did think that the sides were pretty dark in the photo below:

 

 

My only question is what would it take to be able to buy a couple!

 

I'm afraid not as it's a lot of work, but I've mentioned to a couple of people that after I get this done and have a file I am happy with, I'm going to upload it onto here.

[chris p bacon]

My only question is what would it take to be able to buy a couple!

 

 

Some 'personal' favours ....

[gr.king]

This looks great.

Slight care needs taking as they were a darker colour than the varnished teak of Gresley stock. Perhaps mike's method of teaking will need a slight tweak. I was going to start with dull teak then a wash of black.

 

I believe a body of strong evidence is required before that statement is accepted as fact. Many standard Gresley and Howlden teak panelled coaches look extremely dark in certain vintage photographs, I suspect very much depending on the type of photographic emulsion used. A single coach in a photograph produced from an unknown emulsion type, or very limited numbers of pictures showing both kinds of coaches but not necessarily equally clean or well maintained would not really amount to proof that the Barnums were darker. Is there comprehensive evidence?

[richard i]

Can we ever be comprehensive for an era non of us are likely to remember and only have black and white images for?

I took it from chats I have had with john quick. What he has not Researched on the GC is probably not worth knowing. He had done his barnum in a darker shade. I should dig out a photo I have of it. Have to find it first. I can not claim to have delved deeper than that and am happy to be proved wrong. ........before I build and paint mine!

Richard