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Jack's Present Day Workbench - Coaches of Many Colours


Jack374
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Looking good Jack!

 

For the question on moulding on top of an existing mould, all is good as long as you add a touch of Vaseline in between! Otherwise you’ve got an even bigger solid bit of rubber with a casting trapped inside! :lol:

 

Cheers,

James

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On 15/06/2020 at 20:36, Jack374 said:

Thanks all for the comments/ratings, much appreciated!
 

As Phil cheekily eluded to, the other half has moved in now for a bit and modelling time has been reduced somewhat! Actually that’s not the reason, I’ve been out and about 'spotting' while I can and listing lots of surplus models on eBay, which has taken away most of the modelling time. I’ve been plodding on however....

 

So, in terms of the Meridian, I’m now happy with the cab and fairings (FINALLY!), so I’ve now got to start casting them. The cab might actually be easier to cast than the fairings, I’ll have to experiment. Below are some photos last time I put the bits together. The cab had some more fine sanding and last coat of primer after this:

9217F41D-B1D5-412E-BE71-30B6E6DDF08B.jpeg.b7517df70359d3e3af8c8c5bcc117520.jpeg
36B8CB00-9370-4146-8E81-ECA1A9B639FB.jpeg.e50ba2d4f812ce05b91cf5c4b59914ed.jpeg

B15259A2-83C7-4794-B86F-723C0A4F4655.jpeg.79b5c829be5fce205a36681867cb5fed.jpeg

 

The fairings looked good until I discovered a small hole, which is where I’d sanded too much material off and gone through the other side! This was present on both, so a small plastic blank was glued behind and then the hole filled, sanded and primed once more. I’ll go into more detail about the other things I’ve done on the fairings when I cast them:

96408E06-A987-4622-AEE8-3BC701FF02A3.jpeg.e2f530f296f2d19157ae56f7ed132e87.jpeg

AEC0E8DD-B637-42A7-9E22-55C572E9B5E0.jpeg.25e2fca29c16b0d472eb53da0af07d62.jpeg

 

One question I have about casting (Mick/James?) is can you pour rubber cast solution over an already-cured mould, and will these separate without issue? I ask as both cab and fairings will have to be 2 part moulds, so I was going to add plastic sheet to blank one half off, pour the first half, remove plastic blanks and simply pour second half over the first and the master - which seems too easy to be true.

 

On the signals front, I’ve wired them all up now but it’s not exciting, simply some 2 and 3-way plugs soldered to the wire ends, with a resistor on the common negative as only 1 aspect will be lit at once - the signal-mounted PL has a separate resistor to its main aspect. The last 3-aspect signal arrived from CR Signals and was reduced in height by twisting the base until the glue broke then sliding it up the post - complex engineering! The ladder was removed, tidied up and cut down then re-attached, with an anti-climb board added from thin styrene sheet as it’ll be going at the end of a platform. Halfords grey primer was sprayed over the whole signal bar the main aspect face and lenses, and a no climb sign was added that was printed from a picture I had in my collection: I knew it’d be useful some day!

8A12DFEA-673D-468C-AE77-37AF9F0BF7C3.jpeg.83cee5dd608cc7aed7b77ffc3dc0b628.jpeg

 

Then I took (another) backwards step, and found I had a short on my post-mounted PL. It transpired that the enamel wires had lost their enamel after rubbing on the inside of the brass rod, so I had to pull the whole lot apart, de-solder the wires and make a new base and pole from scratch as I broke the old one! At least the whole head was salvaged. A small piece of cable insulation was placed around the wires and inside the tube as shown below, and was then sealed up properly with heat shrink and hot glue, as were the rest of the signals to prevent any movement:

AB141F0A-6048-489A-AAA0-88ECB249A43A.jpeg.2454fac31f52188b3b9ebe68160d3ad8.jpeg

 

This has been sprayed then the SPT and ID plate will be re-affixed and all signals are done :danced: just need to wire them to the board now, but I’ll detail this in the Fordley thread.

 

The final (for now...) project on the go is the container rake. Compare the next picture with the last post and I think the filling and sanding was worth it. New buffers were built from styrene tube and sheet...the larger diameter is actually a roll of paper, cut to the correct width then glued at one end, rolled around until the desired(ish!) diameter is reached then glued at the end. I find it far easier than drilling another tube:

6B33B74A-438C-4F08-90A8-723D8E80490F.jpeg.40da05c5a93f25fcedfb6dd5c88add5d.jpeg
 

These were painted with a mix of frame dirt and Freightliner green, but once dried (below photo is when wet) it dried a bit too green, but nay bother I’ll just weather it down a bit more. The cracks in the deck and another couple of rough areas were also painted:

B4550925-16C6-4E4F-A355-448CDF348241.jpeg.668838d95e350f71c8bff94968202d24.jpeg

 

Final weathering and details to be picked out then they’ll be done.

 

I started the next wagon too, which I was keen to do. The Dapol KTA/KQA model is of a unique prototype which can often be seen running in Freightliner rakes (saw half a dozen today on their way from Leeds to Southampton), but Dapol’s model is lack lustre in some places. I also (annoyingly) noticed the bogies looked out of place compared to the real thing, and when I looked they’re actually the wrong type. Giveaway for me was the lack of any brake shoes or cross-members on the ends of the model. But I’ve decided it’d be too much work, though I’ll most certainly end up doing it.... :rolleyes:

 

To begin, I decided my prototype would be this graffitied example:

D42F0CCA-FFA5-44E8-A17C-57C40C20A318.jpeg.cbce4211f062b400916a00a26bc4c436.jpeg

 

I ordered a couple of things off eBay for the project which are on their way, so I set about the graffiti. Humbrol 64 matt grey was painted first, after the outline was drawn on in pencil. This is a rough first go as the outline is white/black so I can refine with later colours:

80EB7DB3-8341-4901-881E-5D58213F099C.jpeg.236175300d5f912b3a9bdcde38323621.jpeg

 

It certainly makes it more interesting! Other improvements will include replacement brass handbrake wheels, new scale buffers and maybe new bogies. There weren’t any handbrake wheels when I got it from Hattons' pre-owned for less than £30, which I thought was a lot but I couldn’t find any others despite wanting a couple. It turns out one sold for £45 the other day, so I doubt I’ll be getting another soon...the RevolutioN FWA twin and C=Rail FSA set are also future contenders for additions to my Freightliner 20'/40' container rake. The whole rake and containers will be weathered properly once these wagons are finished.

 

More soon if I remember! Stay safe and I hope you’re all well :good:

 

Thanks,

Jack.

We said you where mad thinking about doing a 222! So above pictures of unit confirms you are mad....but talented and mad....it goes back to 1980s modeling when modelers made 26 or 27s out of a lime 33....proper modeling! no shake the box stuff for jack!

 

Signals and wagons look well too

Well done

G

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Thanks for the comments guys...and thanks James for the tip about Vaseline......never thought I’d say that!! :blink: In a purely RESIN CASTING context...

 

Anyway, suppose I’d better share the castings. Firstly, the Lego outer shell is shown, and I made a piece of styrene sheet to glue the master fairings to, which created half the mould. This created the back side, with the 'buffer' and mounting spigots. Any gaps were sealed with PVA and parcel tape, which worked really well. The extra material I added to the masters (eluded to in last post) was added behind the buffers to aid the casting process by removing the unnecessary cavity on the original - visible in white below.

 

07032A48-10BE-4F43-901A-049CCA36411F.jpeg.4e4d6b650a0ffbe702dfcf6c66316258.jpeg

 

And the moulding kit used (minus Vaseline)...the small digital scales were found on eBay for just over a fiver, and do the job nicely. The actual casting kit; containing silicone moulding compound (2 part), resin (2 part), plastic cups, gloves and spatulas; was obtained from MB Fibreglass online and comes as a complete starter kit. Baby powder was used to ensure easy release for each cast, with a quick dusting (excess blown off) which works well:

 

D3D8230E-5C5A-4876-81C3-503FF9FE909F.jpeg.022aa2721923be112c9040a7106a0ec0.jpeg
 

The 10:1 silicone rubber mould was poured, with no issues at all: all the air bubbles came to the surface and popped and there were none left when the silicone hardened. This is after the first half was poured, the masters were extracted from the styrene mount and then replaced in the silicone then Vaseline added all over before the second half was poured.

 

5302DE75-5C4C-4C9F-95A8-99A2C4E4A358.jpeg.d39e8cda055865ed9ee73c1737c1ea4d.jpeg

 

And after the full mould was made. They separated very easily! One thing I forgot when I poured (and thankfully remembered minutes after) was to add two holes with styrene tube to pour the resin into! With a 30 minute pot time, this allowed me to just push them in as the mould had only been left for about ten mins - phew!

 

CE93BFF2-A195-40AB-B035-9A5238F5C8C7.jpeg.82bffdbca0d12970b24741340b36d079.jpeg

 

Finally, here are the results as of now. Some have huge air bubbles and some are near perfect. I’m getting it down to a tee now though, so I’ll keep going. Only 3g of resin is needed for each pair, so I can afford to cast a few!

 

4B97BF5A-E9B3-48F6-A16E-6EC5F2B007E2.jpeg.3bbd7924c8b2d5df15dfb1415896a7f8.jpeg

 

Lessons learned so far are for the next mould: 1. Add an extra air hole for air to escape, with one dedicated to adding resin. 2. Any holes should’ve been on the other half so the air bubbles rose against the back side not the front! And because there’s no air hole, I have to overflow the bottom half then slap the top half on top, which reduces the air bubbles - within 2 minutes! Good fun.

 

Other previous projects are coming along; the KTA/KQA pocket wagon has had graffiti finished, using Humbrol enamels applied with brushes and a cocktail stick as required. It’s not 100% accurate but it’ll do for me. It’ll be sealed and further weathering will be done as and when.

 

The original:

E933E580-D537-4DDC-BC55-0326F9AEFCD4.jpeg.13ab348e61d6c20e50967e690b817144.jpeg

 

And my representation:

838C9B9D-1380-4AB7-AF10-E21A5A7FDC3E.jpeg.3c746b634bb3ed9f375a8c643c68e5b6.jpeg

 

It was surprisingly good fun! :no: Brass handbrake wheels have arrived and so too have some replacement bogies, so these will be fitted in due course.

 

And signals. After the post mounted PL was rebuilt, I then blew the SMDs by pumping 9V through them. So after TWO rebuilds, third time lucky and they’re all done. Any SPTs were made from plastic strip filed to shape and painted, and the post-mounted telephone had some 1mm steel wire added for the post.

 

FD5CEA63-D6EA-48C4-91BC-55F6B662D2DC.jpeg.13f61e4e502e0021490068b16639f487.jpeg

 

The ID plates were added from printouts I drew up, representing Preston PSB-controlled signals. These will now reside on Fordley, so any further updates on these will be there.

 

Next jobs on the workbench are more 222 fairing castings until I have enough I’m happy with, and work has started on making the cab 'casting friendly'; more on this next time. Also I need to butcher surfsup's donor coach to cast the roof, so this will be done at some point too.

 

My layout mojo has returned, so a Fordley update will follow at some point.

 

I hope you’re all well, and happy modelling! :senile:

 

Jack.

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Hi Jack,

 

probably a bit late for this casting, but for the future it might be worth seeing if you can plan having the mould on a slight slope when you cast it, with the resin running into the cavity at the bottom, and a riser at the top of the cavity, to help the air escape, rather than casting it on the level.

 

cheers,

Phil.

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On 26/06/2020 at 23:13, Phil Mc said:

...for the future it might be worth seeing if you can plan having the mould on a slight slope when you cast it...


Thanks Phil, I’ll give this a go when I cast the next lot. The first half (ribbed) of the roof section I cut out was cast today but I’ll show this and explain when done.

 

I thought I’d post this tonight as I’ve done a fair bit on the rest of the container rake. To start, I’ve decided all couplings that have NEM pockets will be magnetic. This is mainly for ease and also because some buffers - even after I’d changed tension locks to the shortest Bachmann ones - were still miles apart. So after tests on medium radius Peco points on Fordley, I set about making some.
 

I’d toyed with magnets a few years ago but with the Hunt Couplings taking the model railway world by storm I thought the fatal phrase: "how hard can it be?". I also wasn’t keen on having the wagons one way around or in a fixed formation, which seems necessary with Hunts as they’re a single magnet, although having never tried them I’d welcome anyone to tell me I’m wrong.

 

Using some 2mm diameter by 1mm deep magnets off eBay I bought for something else, I simply glued two to a piece of plastic and threaded some wire between. The other end is threaded through a hole made in an NEM coupling (Dapol ones as I don’t like them) with the loop cut off to leave a surface to drill into. Pictures will explain better:

 

0700F69F-70E5-452E-8908-252C96C2FCA0.jpeg.830cfaa5cf0ecc14cd5a4ec83a517d5b.jpeg
E03FC587-7DEA-4652-80F8-DF69503D8190.jpeg.4f78d82f67bf8534d1ac217220e302ec.jpeg

 

Quite simple really. They’ll be reinforced with more glue around the magnets then painted and tidied up. For my piece of mind, I tested them with my 'Megafret' Dapol pair (with pickups), which have a monumental rolling resistance. I also loaded them with some chunks of steel, and the whole lot weighed in at 2.4kg. The magnets worked well, with only a sudden jolt breaking them. I weighed the whole container rake and it’s currently 1.8kg, so I’m happy they’ll be fine. If not, I’ll just take them out and put tension locks back in. A test on a certain Derby-based roundy-roundy will be the real proof though! :yes:

 

Also my 2 FEAs with resin headstocks will be treated the same, which required adding coupling pockets. These came from the Flangeway 'ploughs originally, and I swear they’re exactly the same as Dapol's, so they fit perfectly with minor filing of the resin and a plastic tube piece acting as a washer:

 

BBA93AFF-A53A-423B-9287-C925CB9F7137.jpeg.8c21602fd9967a9252b30a249ba30939.jpeg

 

They don’t move but this is fine with the magnetic couplings.

 

Finally for wagons, I’ve replaced the 3 coupling bars between my twin wagon sets. This was done with some 2mm brass tube (1mm inside dia) and some roughly 0.9mm steel florist's wire. the wire at one end was bent to a simple loop and the other was bent to form almost two loops before the end was bent over the middle of the loop. The tube bulks out the centre of the bar. A 2mm hole was drilled and another 2mm magnet as used before was glued into the screw hole:

 

253375F0-B610-49AF-9489-D4087A80C906.jpeg.a2a4446b91b4909e510fe1289d7429c6.jpeg

1A9A6CF0-ACEE-43DC-8AE4-4333E7DE10D9.jpeg.744056e1e46172ebfe6da4268c0043d8.jpeg

A4A9875E-A77B-49AA-9B91-7B522A4E571A.jpeg.146783bc73217ee1daa689e19fbe6cc9.jpeg

 

The magnet simply holds the loop in place, with the actual load bearing taken by the wire bar against the screw peg. This is so much easier to connect and works very well. The same was done on the FEA sets:

 

100DE26C-66EE-42BE-8915-BBD8C50054C8.jpeg.9d6708e01a5aa90edfc976929c4567a7.jpeg

12014940-0B79-46C9-9FC3-39BE56ABFBC4.jpeg.c069959a272bc340a2b0f10c422c6ed3.jpeg

 

And the bars ready for painting. I’ll possibly wrap them in clear sellotape for protection as they scratch easily; as seen from the megafret bar!

 

9BAB030D-2C84-4F3B-8755-33DCA31AB49B.jpeg.87175106f4eb5b1731c092fdc619df6b.jpeg

 

I've also thought about mounting the containers. For Stafford Ex (and would have been Ally Pally) on Deadman's Lane I just stuck the containers on with blu-tack and didn’t weather the decks of the wagons, which worked very well as a quick fix. More permanently, I’ll use the supplied spigots (twist locks), so today I did the tedious task of drilling out all of the container bottom holes. They were drilled to fit the Hornby KFA, with its cast twist locks. The set on the KFA which wasn’t required for a 40' and 20' container was filed off, and the remaining sets were tidied up a bit. They’ll be painted yellow in due course:

 

400E7D43-4207-494E-8C03-FEA3EA352939.jpeg.ed668f35231611cdf3c10630029b3efa.jpeg

 

The idea being that now all the containers are (hopefully) the same, the remaining twist locks to be installed can be gauged from any container, although I’m using the Hornby ones a master guides. The first wagon to be done was the Megafret pair, with just 4 each in the supplied holes to accept a 40 footer each:

 

0A28243C-2DF0-479E-A5C5-58D14A24FA4B.jpeg.9dc79708d849bdc0feb9c1f7a51c8dbb.jpeg

 

I've toyed with the idea of magnets on the wagons and boxes but it wouldn’t be strong enough, would take ages to do, and may lead to lifting the boxes then the wagon beneath falling off - not ideal. So for now they’re completely separate which will allow anything from an empty train of fresh air to a fully-laden service, and anything in between, to be run.

 

Next jobs are to finish any wagons which need attention/modifying (KQA etc), fitting the remaining twist locks then lots of grime! :good:The containers are yet to receive specific weathering too, once a couple have been repainted. Speaking of containers, here is the full assortment which will fill the rake completely if desired. They're a mix of Bachmann/Hornby and mostly C=Rail present-day liveries which I see regularly on the line near me.
 

BE928881-2981-4DB8-AC8D-6A0DE353786B.jpeg.c59b5fe09826f6d9ad15ee60be6bb225.jpeg

 

I tried to make a colourful set! One of the two ‘China Shipping' turquoise 20 footers and the ONE white with pink lettering 20' will be repainted.

 

I'm quite looking forward to this finished rake, and there may be more additions as more current-day wagons are released...and my wallet allows. :nono:

 

More soon,

Jack.

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Love the Thread Jack and seeing all your mods and creations, some great inspiration.  I so need to weather my container train!!

 

On the magnetic coupling front, Hunt Couplings have just launched a new version which now allows individual items of rolling stock the be in either orientation, see https://www.westhillwagonworks.co.uk/couplings-new-c-2/hunt-couplings-elite-oo-gauge-new-c-21/ 

 

 

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  • Jack374 changed the title to Jack's Present Day Workbench...EMR Class 222 & Freightliner Container Rake

Looks brilliant mate! Have you considered doing Stagecoach EMT livery instead? All your craftsmanship to build Is wasted on that purple! 

Joking aside, really impressive.

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Many thanks Phil, David, Surfsup and Swifty...I'm in two minds as to which livery to do Tom as the purple is a little lack-lustre, but it’s their new corporate branding so is bang up to date. It’s a question of whether I have an easy paint job and need to find/make transfers (purple); or have a tougher masking and painting job but with few/available transfers for the Ice cream coloured ex-EMT units. I’ll ponder some more...hopefully someone will draw up transfer for the purple 170 and I can butcher these to suit.

 

This update will show the cabs, specifically the process of moulding them. As it took so much work and time to get the first cab looking right, I decided the only option would be to cast this one. The only issue being, it’s attached to the body! To begin, the cab was made "mould ready" by filling in any unwanted recesses, particularly around the windows and the light clusters, mainly inside the cab. This was achieved with plastic strip, Squadron Products filler and any holes I forgot or those which filler fell out of were plugged with Blu-Tack. The windscreen and windows/other holes were filled with styrene sheet/Blu-Tack respectively, angled to provide easy removal of the cast from the mould when done:

 

8EC6E162-139B-4356-8C37-BAAD6DA13B47.jpeg.9207bf6a5aee018d7a1b7bb31a583902.jpeg

 

Then the mould shape was built up around the body, first using styrene sheet cut roughly to shape and filled with Blu-Tack:

 

C4E46FEE-6F5C-4F1E-A06A-962F73CC2EA4.jpeg.0c6f2a6ac7f15eb8c2b144e017d9e01a.jpeg

 

Then Lego was used to build a box around the cab, with parcel tape and Blu-Tack again used to seal everything. I used a Philips jeweller's screwdriver to push the Blu-Tack into place...can you tell?!

 

810F03E8-D56F-4247-A6C5-B1DC5C556873.jpeg.bb19ac2460d6cc2ce6c721b0a63c9138.jpeg

 

When all was deemed water-tight, the outer mould was poured. Again, this went very well with no evident porosity. After 24hrs, the body was extracted leaving a perfect mould. The body was replaced in the mould after cleaning, and some more styrene/Blu-Tack used to separate the cab from the rest of the body for the inner mould. Some wire shapes were bent to provide a support for the mould when casting, which was set into the mould:

 

96FF9FAF-C12D-4FAC-9F3D-6B4402953BFB.jpeg.daa227c7a912520152aee38214d27703.jpeg

 

And there we have it!

 

D832B5F3-780E-4732-AA5C-B9EDA32CAFB3.jpeg.3fbeced1e260407b82db1a66a3715f36.jpeg

 

The edges aren’t the tidiest but then they needn’t be...it’ll only mean excess resin, and despite all the casting in the last few weeks I’ve still got a lot left!

 

The first cast came out very well but with a lot of leakage; again no bother as I’d wildly overestimated the resin weight needed at 30g...the cab and fairings together weigh 6.5g...oops. The leakage came from me not sealing the back of the mould with the styrene piece in place (see below). The pic shows the cab and fairings shortly after pouring. I’ve now done 24 fairings so can pick the best of them as they're never perfect!

 

A435357C-E544-4721-B677-04CEEE2E9D45.jpeg.55b013c4736ed57a933557a8bd6c8c74.jpeg

 

In the above photo I sealed the styrene piece to the cab mould with sellotape...I didn’t originally as the silicone is quite difficult to stick to, but I found out there was talc residue on the mould hence not sticking. This method is best, as there is no leakage and no mould deformation from over-tight elastic bands.

 

Below shows the casts so far. The first (LHS) cast went well with lots of leakage, but the second (middle) went poorly with thin walls (visible as slightly transparent) and a slightly deformed shape after I clamped the plastic tightly with rubber bands. The RHS casting was produced using sellotape (as pictured above), which is the best so far and I’ll keep as the master as I don’t want to ever mould from the full body again! :no:

 

F848897E-3857-42DE-AF80-B81CD4EBF977.jpeg.22a9f9796f847683e875c6d7f585edfd.jpeg

 

I cut the Voyager cab off the other driving vehicle to check the casts were the correct width and the mould hadn’t been squished, which was the case in the middle cast. The nearest LH cast will be the one grafted onto my model, which is the next step.

 

166B6B99-BA57-4403-AF88-E893FCA5E5F1.jpeg.9e682369c88294371d3f46f6e12f4662.jpeg

 

And you’re up to date now. So far a very fun project and I’ve learned a lot about resin casting, which I hope I’ve documented here. Once the second cab is in place I’ll do a first fill of all the roofs/cab/unwanted body side grilles etc, then spray with primer and might assemble the set for a photo, we'll see... :senile:

 

I'm plodding on with the container rake and Fordley when I can be bothered so maybe some kind of update on those is due soon.

 

I hope you’re well and can find time for some modelling!

 

Thanks,

Jack.

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10 hours ago, Jack374 said:

Many thanks Phil, David, Surfsup and Swifty...I'm in two minds as to which livery to do Tom as the purple is a little lack-lustre, but it’s their new corporate branding so is bang up to date. It’s a question of whether I have an easy paint job and need to find/make transfers (purple); or have a tougher masking and painting job but with few/available transfers for the Ice cream coloured ex-EMT units. I’ll ponder some more...hopefully someone will draw up transfer for the purple 170 and I can butcher these to suit.

 

This update will show the cabs, specifically the process of moulding them. As it took so much work and time to get the first cab looking right, I decided the only option would be to cast this one. The only issue being, it’s attached to the body! To begin, the cab was made "mould ready" by filling in any unwanted recesses, particularly around the windows and the light clusters, mainly inside the cab. This was achieved with plastic strip, Squadron Products filler and any holes I forgot or those which filler fell out of were plugged with Blu-Tack. The windscreen and windows/other holes were filled with styrene sheet/Blu-Tack respectively, angled to provide easy removal of the cast from the mould when done:

 

8EC6E162-139B-4356-8C37-BAAD6DA13B47.jpeg.9207bf6a5aee018d7a1b7bb31a583902.jpeg

 

Then the mould shape was built up around the body, first using styrene sheet cut roughly to shape and filled with Blu-Tack:

 

C4E46FEE-6F5C-4F1E-A06A-962F73CC2EA4.jpeg.0c6f2a6ac7f15eb8c2b144e017d9e01a.jpeg

 

Then Lego was used to build a box around the cab, with parcel tape and Blu-Tack again used to seal everything. I used a Philips jeweller's screwdriver to push the Blu-Tack into place...can you tell?!

 

810F03E8-D56F-4247-A6C5-B1DC5C556873.jpeg.bb19ac2460d6cc2ce6c721b0a63c9138.jpeg

 

When all was deemed water-tight, the outer mould was poured. Again, this went very well with no evident porosity. After 24hrs, the body was extracted leaving a perfect mould. The body was replaced in the mould after cleaning, and some more styrene/Blu-Tack used to separate the cab from the rest of the body for the inner mould. Some wire shapes were bent to provide a support for the mould when casting, which was set into the mould:

 

96FF9FAF-C12D-4FAC-9F3D-6B4402953BFB.jpeg.daa227c7a912520152aee38214d27703.jpeg

 

And there we have it!

 

D832B5F3-780E-4732-AA5C-B9EDA32CAFB3.jpeg.3fbeced1e260407b82db1a66a3715f36.jpeg

 

The edges aren’t the tidiest but then they needn’t be...it’ll only mean excess resin, and despite all the casting in the last few weeks I’ve still got a lot left!

 

The first cast came out very well but with a lot of leakage; again no bother as I’d wildly overestimated the resin weight needed at 30g...the cab and fairings together weigh 6.5g...oops. The leakage came from me not sealing the back of the mould with the styrene piece in place (see below). The pic shows the cab and fairings shortly after pouring. I’ve now done 24 fairings so can pick the best of them as they're never perfect!

 

A435357C-E544-4721-B677-04CEEE2E9D45.jpeg.55b013c4736ed57a933557a8bd6c8c74.jpeg

 

In the above photo I sealed the styrene piece to the cab mould with sellotape...I didn’t originally as the silicone is quite difficult to stick to, but I found out there was talc residue on the mould hence not sticking. This method is best, as there is no leakage and no mould deformation from over-tight elastic bands.

 

Below shows the casts so far. The first (LHS) cast went well with lots of leakage, but the second (middle) went poorly with thin walls (visible as slightly transparent) and a slightly deformed shape after I clamped the plastic tightly with rubber bands. The RHS casting was produced using sellotape (as pictured above), which is the best so far and I’ll keep as the master as I don’t want to ever mould from the full body again! :no:

 

F848897E-3857-42DE-AF80-B81CD4EBF977.jpeg.22a9f9796f847683e875c6d7f585edfd.jpeg

 

I cut the Voyager cab off the other driving vehicle to check the casts were the correct width and the mould hadn’t been squished, which was the case in the middle cast. The nearest LH cast will be the one grafted onto my model, which is the next step.

 

166B6B99-BA57-4403-AF88-E893FCA5E5F1.jpeg.9e682369c88294371d3f46f6e12f4662.jpeg

 

And you’re up to date now. So far a very fun project and I’ve learned a lot about resin casting, which I hope I’ve documented here. Once the second cab is in place I’ll do a first fill of all the roofs/cab/unwanted body side grilles etc, then spray with primer and might assemble the set for a photo, we'll see... :senile:

 

I'm plodding on with the container rake and Fordley when I can be bothered so maybe some kind of update on those is due soon.

 

I hope you’re well and can find time for some modelling!

 

Thanks,

Jack.

Clever clever clever.....well done jack.

If there us a on line vote to livery...purple EMT for me..

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Wow, Jack this is amazing work!!! Resin casting, butchery at this level...eeeeeeeeek!!!:swoon::swoon:

Good luck with this one, mate!

 

Jules

 

PS, I think you should paint them in ex Stagecoach EMT livery, it would be challenging but it'll be the icing on the cake for this model!!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/07/2020 at 00:13, newbryford said:

EMT gets my vote - especially if you do 60163......

 


Not meaning to be a party pooper but that unit is a 7 car, so send me 3 more Voyager centre coaches and you’re on!

 

After much deliberation, I’ve decided to do a Stagecoach ex-East Midlands Trains livery unit, as there are far more of them IRL and more readily-available transfers. Purple Peril no more!

 

Firstly, no progress has happened for a while due to house re-arrangement, but this has allowed me to have a room all to myself for railway things! Oh...and the other half's desk, and wardrobe....maybe not all mine after all. :no:

 

So after nearly 2 years with the 'bench in my box bedroom, I now have

s  p  a  c  e 

 

A8EDC5BB-02CE-4EE2-A011-5E56B1783ADE.jpeg.d573c7f113096952111958969b736a57.jpeg

I’ll savour the above photo as it won’t be this clean again!....at least for another couple of years...
 

And for the first time, space to set up 2 boards of Fordley, so watch out for an update in the coming weeks:

 

3EB0D54E-9889-4F26-AD9D-DA33E500CD65.jpeg.3656b43fc455b683bbc22e896773f703.jpeg

 

Before I show the 222, I’ve started a new project (I know, I know; but it should be quick and easy) which is a ViTrains 47, previously WCRC 47787 with double flush fronts. The only modification work was to remove the boiler blanking plate, add a Shawplan Extreme Etchings roof fan and grille, and remove the countless mould lines such as on the cab roof, cab sides and some which I’ve missed (on the to-do list) around the cant rail area:

 

D0122CD9-B10A-4E5B-990D-92ECE3087CFD.jpeg.756daf65f0109b91f4c99a3fe99536a2.jpeg

 

The prototype has woven grilles, which I had in the stash so applied them, then within half an hour I’d managed to stick a digit through one so they ended up in the bin...

 

2FB04E84-AC9D-4A21-8130-9BF8E449BFDC.jpeg.640f2da668944ffa723061b984666d59.jpeg

 

I've used Brian's woven mesh before, and I’ve broken it before too! So from now on I’ll use the welded mesh (where there’s a choice), and thankfully I had a pack in stock so all is now well minus the extra hour wasted. Printing was rubbed down and a first primer coat has highlighted areas needing work:

 

7743B550-0B94-4679-AD35-6CFC0F2FD7F8.jpeg.943cee5f3599b61b8191d9e710ed8a81.jpeg

 

Can you tell where the boiler blank was?

 

1513E3DC-7793-468B-9388-0B6445239BCB.jpeg.3a0265ebce4084964af9b5f0c5a3cad6.jpeg

(All photos in this post are first pass of primer so issues highlighted like glue residue and seams will be fixed next)

 

The whole body in primer:
 

C3CAA239-3F3D-488E-8960-32D6ACEDC6D4.jpeg.00b15fb20168cad9ea8bd4b299cfcd31.jpeg

 

A88A715C-BB6B-4C50-8D3D-964665174763.jpeg.a1f9dce627a9b8dbd10afcba1a210e08.jpeg

 

So for a bit of audience participation, which prototype am I portraying? The loco is still working today - that’s the only clue I'm giving! Answers can be sent on the back of a tenner addressed to The Poor Modeller's Fund.......
 

Now the 222. All efforts in the last few weeks have been centred around priming the whole unit, to give me some hope! This entailed removing the Virgin diagonal stripes on all the doors. In hindsight, stripping the bodies would’ve been best but I found a fibreglass pencil worked well, taking the stripes back to either all over black or silver or bare grey plastic. Even after primer I’ll still need to go over them to make them disappear completely:

 

D5BC17B7-4AC1-4ACA-AAFD-CAD83706DF35.jpeg.e35ea772cc74929fd86bda4d8742de8b.jpeg

 

Also the roof vents/aerials were created using plastic strip, cut and glued to make a representation of the prototype:

 

0A8E40D6-9773-4158-BC24-0B21B54E16C1.jpeg.c56f06a37d696f84afcb0a5c5fb08acb.jpeg

 

On the DMF (first class driver), the NRN Aerial mounts were made from scrap etch bits. The NRN pods have been removed from all the units, and I suppose since I’ve done it one end I should follow suit on the other end...more grafting of roof bits!

 

1393D2A2-6111-45E5-AF99-912EEF826566.jpeg.d7a6a36cf730d054ca2ca94caf13a702.jpeg

 

And below are the rest of the photos of the unit in primer. As I said above, these are very much work in progress shots but shows where I’m at. The inner ends and obstacle deflectors (behind the fairings) will be painted separately.

 

BEBC1993-96E6-45FD-AE5E-87B5CC61FF0C.jpeg.d96704fed514b99622b5777e573b2b39.jpeg


DMF with moulded cab:

 

D9185F29-246A-45F0-B27F-01A72A4B30B9.jpeg.cbde9ca16d94228e09616728cd117af8.jpeg

 

Original (right) and moulded (left) cabs together for the first time:

 

E71F4761-F610-4306-BF0E-C4487ED42351.jpeg.dfec0a20563d5e714e635be4b522187f.jpeg

 

DC214FFD-B615-4233-98F6-246ACAEC36DB.jpeg.2c99fdd52c267114c5363638a0584ff6.jpeg

 

DD538B39-6F05-4A88-96CB-7E40CD65DEF5.jpeg.88d42f9a54e646494353929c88d5836c.jpeg

 

05309C04-E11E-4454-8FE1-FA10DFAC2ADE.jpeg.bf734c5e2aeb2ee2b6d01c13aff92ab1.jpeg


And just for fun!

 

54120AB6-A8F9-4413-ACCF-5CFA5A51F624.jpeg.6d1b64684ae44ac3b88e784ef1afab51.jpeg
 

We're getting there! Plenty of blemishes on the 47 and 222 to attend to though before colours are sprayed. No more work has been done on the container rake which I need to finish...thankfully I’ve now got a unit, loco and wagon project on the go as well as Fordley so I can pick one to work on depending on where my mojo is! :senile:

 

As usual, I hope you’re well and can get some modelling done. Thanks for dropping by!

 

Jack.

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23 minutes ago, Jack374 said:


 

 

 

A88A715C-BB6B-4C50-8D3D-964665174763.jpeg.a1f9dce627a9b8dbd10afcba1a210e08.jpeg

 

So for a bit of audience participation, which prototype am I portraying? The loco is still working today - that’s the only clue I'm giving! Answers can be sent on the back of a tenner addressed to The Poor Modeller's Fund.......
 

 

 

 

 

 

47813? (It'll need different rad grilles though).

 

Or another one for my WCRC rake.....

Edited by newbryford
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8 hours ago, Jack374 said:


Not meaning to be a party pooper but that unit is a 7 car, so send me 3 more Voyager centre coaches and you’re on!

 

After much deliberation, I’ve decided to do a Stagecoach ex-East Midlands Trains livery unit, as there are far more of them IRL and more readily-available transfers. Purple Peril no more!

 

Firstly, no progress has happened for a while due to house re-arrangement, but this has allowed me to have a room all to myself for railway things! Oh...and the other half's desk, and wardrobe....maybe not all mine after all. :no:

 

So after nearly 2 years with the 'bench in my box bedroom, I now have

s  p  a  c  e 

 

A8EDC5BB-02CE-4EE2-A011-5E56B1783ADE.jpeg.d573c7f113096952111958969b736a57.jpeg

I’ll savour the above photo as it won’t be this clean again!....at least for another couple of years...
 

And for the first time, space to set up 2 boards of Fordley, so watch out for an update in the coming weeks:

 

3EB0D54E-9889-4F26-AD9D-DA33E500CD65.jpeg.3656b43fc455b683bbc22e896773f703.jpeg

 

Before I show the 222, I’ve started a new project (I know, I know; but it should be quick and easy) which is a ViTrains 47, previously WCRC 47787 with double flush fronts. The only modification work was to remove the boiler blanking plate, add a Shawplan Extreme Etchings roof fan and grille, and remove the countless mould lines such as on the cab roof, cab sides and some which I’ve missed (on the to-do list) around the cant rail area:

 

D0122CD9-B10A-4E5B-990D-92ECE3087CFD.jpeg.756daf65f0109b91f4c99a3fe99536a2.jpeg

 

The prototype has woven grilles, which I had in the stash so applied them, then within half an hour I’d managed to stick a digit through one so they ended up in the bin...

 

2FB04E84-AC9D-4A21-8130-9BF8E449BFDC.jpeg.640f2da668944ffa723061b984666d59.jpeg

 

I've used Brian's woven mesh before, and I’ve broken it before too! So from now on I’ll use the welded mesh (where there’s a choice), and thankfully I had a pack in stock so all is now well minus the extra hour wasted. Printing was rubbed down and a first primer coat has highlighted areas needing work:

 

7743B550-0B94-4679-AD35-6CFC0F2FD7F8.jpeg.943cee5f3599b61b8191d9e710ed8a81.jpeg

 

Can you tell where the boiler blank was?

 

1513E3DC-7793-468B-9388-0B6445239BCB.jpeg.3a0265ebce4084964af9b5f0c5a3cad6.jpeg

(All photos in this post are first pass of primer so issues highlighted like glue residue and seams will be fixed next)

 

The whole body in primer:
 

C3CAA239-3F3D-488E-8960-32D6ACEDC6D4.jpeg.00b15fb20168cad9ea8bd4b299cfcd31.jpeg

 

A88A715C-BB6B-4C50-8D3D-964665174763.jpeg.a1f9dce627a9b8dbd10afcba1a210e08.jpeg

 

So for a bit of audience participation, which prototype am I portraying? The loco is still working today - that’s the only clue I'm giving! Answers can be sent on the back of a tenner addressed to The Poor Modeller's Fund.......
 

Now the 222. All efforts in the last few weeks have been centred around priming the whole unit, to give me some hope! This entailed removing the Virgin diagonal stripes on all the doors. In hindsight, stripping the bodies would’ve been best but I found a fibreglass pencil worked well, taking the stripes back to either all over black or silver or bare grey plastic. Even after primer I’ll still need to go over them to make them disappear completely:

 

D5BC17B7-4AC1-4ACA-AAFD-CAD83706DF35.jpeg.e35ea772cc74929fd86bda4d8742de8b.jpeg

 

Also the roof vents/aerials were created using plastic strip, cut and glued to make a representation of the prototype:

 

0A8E40D6-9773-4158-BC24-0B21B54E16C1.jpeg.c56f06a37d696f84afcb0a5c5fb08acb.jpeg

 

On the DMF (first class driver), the NRN Aerial mounts were made from scrap etch bits. The NRN pods have been removed from all the units, and I suppose since I’ve done it one end I should follow suit on the other end...more grafting of roof bits!

 

1393D2A2-6111-45E5-AF99-912EEF826566.jpeg.d7a6a36cf730d054ca2ca94caf13a702.jpeg

 

And below are the rest of the photos of the unit in primer. As I said above, these are very much work in progress shots but shows where I’m at. The inner ends and obstacle deflectors (behind the fairings) will be painted separately.

 

BEBC1993-96E6-45FD-AE5E-87B5CC61FF0C.jpeg.d96704fed514b99622b5777e573b2b39.jpeg


DMF with moulded cab:

 

D9185F29-246A-45F0-B27F-01A72A4B30B9.jpeg.cbde9ca16d94228e09616728cd117af8.jpeg

 

Original (right) and moulded (left) cabs together for the first time:

 

E71F4761-F610-4306-BF0E-C4487ED42351.jpeg.dfec0a20563d5e714e635be4b522187f.jpeg

 

DC214FFD-B615-4233-98F6-246ACAEC36DB.jpeg.2c99fdd52c267114c5363638a0584ff6.jpeg

 

DD538B39-6F05-4A88-96CB-7E40CD65DEF5.jpeg.88d42f9a54e646494353929c88d5836c.jpeg

 

05309C04-E11E-4454-8FE1-FA10DFAC2ADE.jpeg.bf734c5e2aeb2ee2b6d01c13aff92ab1.jpeg


And just for fun!

 

54120AB6-A8F9-4413-ACCF-5CFA5A51F624.jpeg.6d1b64684ae44ac3b88e784ef1afab51.jpeg
 

We're getting there! Plenty of blemishes on the 47 and 222 to attend to though before colours are sprayed. No more work has been done on the container rake which I need to finish...thankfully I’ve now got a unit, loco and wagon project on the go as well as Fordley so I can pick one to work on depending on where my mojo is! :senile:

 

As usual, I hope you’re well and can get some modelling done. Thanks for dropping by!

 

Jack.

It's about now that Bachmann will announce new tooling for class 222 for 2021!

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  • 1 month later...
On 29/07/2020 at 15:34, newbryford said:

47813? (It'll need different rad grilles though).

 

Or another one for my WCRC rake.....


Yup, too easy! I’ll give less clues in future...another is in the pipeline...but not drab maroon!

 

On 29/07/2020 at 23:26, bradfordbuffer said:

It's about now that Bachmann will announce new tooling for class 222 for 2021!

 

On 30/07/2020 at 10:46, Swifty11 said:

What's the betting Bachmann announce a retool voyager and a meridian on Tuesday now? 

 


Thankfully not...yet.......

 

On 30/07/2020 at 10:58, Southwich said:

Stunning work as usual Jack! That 222 is awesome. 47 looks great too.


Cheers Will :good:

 

I must confess progress on the 'bench has been slowed due to concentrating on Fordley, but I’m feeling a shift in mojo once more - luckily I’ve got a layout and currently one each of loco(s), wagons and unit project to crack on with.

 

The 222 has had a bit of filler applied but is still in first primer coat in a drawer. I just need to fill and prime the final blemishes then painting can begin.

 

The container rake has been completed bar weathering. This entailed adding the rest of the many locking spigots using the Dapol originals supplied with the FEA flat pairs. They were cut into better shapes and glued in place, in 20'/40' deck configuration as observed from the real things that pass many times a day at the end of the road! My single Hattons FEA was configured to have 3x 20' containers on deck due to the spigot recesses being modelled as empty on the model, i.e. all spigots should be out. Interestingly Dapol modelled the recesses with spigots in them i.e. no spigots out...I did drill a couple out then stopped to preserve some sanity...


3899636C-B4D2-40B7-84D8-0E8661944F44.jpeg.f5a0eb7c495693b781c67d3b958a369c.jpeg

9C9BF603-FAC0-4FA6-A8F4-41B7DB06CC12.jpeg.3322def30318599d1c758b0afc2f630c.jpeg

 

The couple of broken handbrake wheels were glued back on and one missing one was added from a Wizard/51L very fine brass etch:

 

AECE079F-30C7-425F-BFEB-DD93989FE9E3.jpeg.890b7f7911310d53479f2bd1d6b08c75.jpeg

 

And finally for now, I started weathering the KTA/KQA 'pocket' wagon, which has some very wacky weathering in real life caused by containers being dropped into place and scraping some paint off. Below is the first layer of blue, which has since been tidied up. I’ll detail the mods to this wagon properly once I’ve remembered to photograph it...

 

FEC88A02-D51C-416C-8F3F-B52322A8DD14.jpeg.f0d53d57bf18a40f664620e402516e82.jpeg

 

And as weathering is imminent, I needed to remove the wheels (which need cleaning and a couple need painting). This will be fun.

 

AD3CC537-0E7D-4BF0-8D24-C71DD7BEFE01.jpeg.519a2de525285196943f7acb437eb2d2.jpeg

 

Onto 47813. Yellow, Oxford Blue (ish) and black were sprayed from my preferred Halfords rattle cans in shades I’ve documented before in this thread...and the names of which escape me now!

 

6F83AE0A-0363-49E5-8321-C08F1FD34A61.jpeg.3068b8a6b154480ea86613a8c76eb74e.jpeg

 

Also the buffer head backs and bufferbeams were sprayed red ready for detailing. One buffer was missing so has been replaced with one from a Bachmann 20 which is the same diameter.

 

44798AF6-F6D8-4C81-BD44-4D8532453CA3.jpeg.c1bc544876097567b2b9eea72799dbc4.jpeg

 

The chassis I’ll use is from my Northern Belle pair, which are now out of date but I’ll keep because they look very smart IMO. I couldn’t let the sound fitted chassis waste away though! One job I’ve been itching to do is replace the slab-sided 14mm ViTrains originals with some Bachmann 15mm discs (from their 47s/57s) I acquired from an EM gauge modeller who had re-wheeled a couple and had them spare. I think the difference is well worth changing them. Tyre slip marks were painted on (carefully):

 

42764BF5-7FA7-40E9-B773-A4D0BF3406BC.jpeg.640a2515ef1b62090e34b0f49d82a43b.jpeg

 

Lastly a shot showing the loco now, with buffers and beams borrowed from the NB pair...

 

6D06E82B-815E-47C1-8326-F746A6DEC33E.jpeg.1a1fb75c3588622b49eef4319f8b3b97.jpeg

 

I might start the next 47 soon and will plod on with weathering the container flats. I need to get the 222 to paint soon as well and finish the damn thing before Bachmann announce a new one! :no:

 

As ever, thanks for reading and I hope you’re well and have chance to do some modelling :senile:

 

Thanks,

Jack.

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Yesterday I remembered to take photos after I finished the KTA, so here’s a mini update on that.

 

The weathering was tackled first, which I based on this wagon I 'photted, although all pocket wagons exhibit similar marks...

 

E456B4C1-7131-487A-98BE-60EF2E95B98B.jpeg.7795c1a6e7289c382d189828cee52fe5.jpeg

 

As can be seen, a light blue-ish colour makes up the main wall effect, which was mixed from BR Blue and White from Precision/Humbrol and roughly applied as I showed in the last post. After this, various enamels were applied including Humbrol white, Railmatch Warning Yellow (for locking spigots), Frame Dirt and Dark Rust. A final wash with thinned white tones everything down. Pretty happy with the result! This and the other wagons will receive an airbrush mist of dirt as well to lock everything in:

 

CA14C5B5-A193-4023-872E-606AE6E0C155.jpeg.bc43f264716ff8253332b8cbde34da05.jpeg

A6A1E907-7D82-495D-A00F-79CB141AF4CE.jpeg.86218057163c70cdc7e997ea00bd17f7.jpeg

 

Handbrake wheels were replaced with much finer 51L/Wizard ones as mentioned last post, soldered to some 0.5mm steel wire for strength. We’ll see how long these last!

 

80FFCB4C-B50A-44EB-8B41-5F2B1C9741C9.jpeg.86f8292cc166b6957239c602ec47d244.jpeg

 

Finally, new buffers were made from plastic tube and strip, with paper rolled over the tube and glued in place to create the larger diameter - my new favoured way to make buffers rather than faffing with multiple diameters of tube. Another point I forgot to mention was all container wagons have now had my dual-magnet couplings fitted as seen below:

 

49412871-E92E-4D0F-AC27-197CD1264FEE.jpeg.08c7e96df68610db1a71ba78159f3f7d.jpeg

 

There we have it: very happy with this one. I might expand the rake at some point and would like another KTA but depends what’s available. For now, the rake just needs weathering along with the containers.

 

Have a nice weekend - get some modelling done if you can! :yes:
 

Jack.

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