Black Sheep's workbench

[Black Sheep]

I've got quite a stack of things on my workbench and the shelves around it at the moment and thought I'd start a topic detailing the building up of stock as I start to have a go at kit building, kit bashing and scratch building in N

 

There might be one or two deviations from the norm and it's likely some items will be attended to in parallel, but we'll see what happens. 

 

Current items on there are; 

 

Langley streamlined duchess (which is admittedly featured in another thread) 

Selection of items for building a breakdown train

Oxford diecast Austin Allegro estate

1:72nd Short Sunderland

 

Watch this space!

[Black Sheep]

My parents used to own an Allegro estate to which they'd attach a ladder rack, onto which they'd fasten their kayaks and compete in slalom competitions, which all stopped when I was born (the kayaks were kept) and the car later written off by a lorry.

 

Having by chance come across an oxford die cast estate I've glued some paperclips to the roof.

 

Just waiting for some kayaks.

 

My attempt at modelling them didn't work as millieput is not strong enough so I've ordered some from Langley models.

 

 

 

I've also acquired everything I need for another project

[KalKat]

What! .... Milliput not strong enough?  Perhaps you didn't mix it well enough?

[Black Sheep]

slalom kayaks are 13.5 ft long while at the deepest, less than 1ft deep

 

The points at each end are breaking off when I try and smooth and shape it

[KalKat]

Strange that - I made a press mould to make rail chairs for  an ornament type thing. They were less tham 1.5mm at the base, all needed sanding for depth and squareness.

 

Mind you, they were left for a day or three.......

[Black Sheep]

 

Kayaks fitted just in time for Dad's birthday tomorrow

[Black Sheep]

It's been a while and the house renovation project has steadily moved forwards gaining me a new modelling desk that no one else piles stuff on so I might be able to get on with a bit of modelling soon. 

 

It's also the run up to christmas / my dad's birthday so I've got him this:

 

 

 

As you can see a little bit of detailing work has been undertaken which appears (from it's running) to include some work to the gearing or motor as it's a very smooth steady runner, ideal for my dad's dockside layout. 

 

The plan is to re-paint and make it a bit more of an industrial shunter belonging to a dockside company. 

[Black Sheep]

Been thinking and planning what changes to make, 

 

Dad's layout will (one day) include a dock that's partially served by the LMS but would most likely have been it's own entity and so perhaps had a couple of it's own locomotives so I think she's going to go matt black and be Alton Dock Co locomotive number 2 (to imply there being a couple of locos) named Eliza, named both after the street lived on for many years and his granddaughter 

 

I'm thinking of adding dumb buffers like on an L&Y pug and a ladder on one side for access to the top of the tank for filling - would welcome people's ideas and suggestions on this

 

also wondering about adding a bunker to the rear (making the small cab front bunkers look like toolboxes)

[Black Sheep]

body removed from the chassis a little too easily, some of the clips are missing / broke when removing so will have to look at options for attaching once completed

 

 

 

detail removed, it just easily pulled out and T-cut made short work of the decals

 

 

next stage is any body modifications and painting I guess - build up coats of primer, sand back gently and then top-colour?

 

As its smooth plastic is primer actually needed or will roughing the body slightly to key the paint enough?

 

Can 'crafty computer paper' be used on a black background with a black background or am I best using a different colour instead of trying to match printer & paint?

[Black Sheep]

So, after 3 years it finally has chassis and body together at last!

 

 

test running around a layout next followed by seeing if I can cure the lean the tender body appears to have. 

 

Then find the instructions and other bits followed by paint. 

[Black Sheep]

So, jumping scales again back to 00 and paint has been applied and dumb buffers created by building up filler around the existing buffers and painting it black. 

 

Need to get some laquer before doing the transfers on the side of the saddle tank, hopefully the name plates will arrive from narrow planet this week.

 

 

also got some crew to fit when I'm ready to re-attach the body. 

[Black Sheep]

Finished just in time, 

 

A bit of cracking on the transfers but was ok in the end. 

 

 

I grew up on Alton Way in number 14 hence the name and number. 

As previously mentioned it's named after my daughter (his granddaughter) Eliza

[Black Sheep]

New to my work bench, along with other projects (and the duchess) is this little chap:

 

 

Body from shapeways, chassis from Plazajapan on ebay, it's 4.5v so DCC conversion may be interesting 

 

Also building buildings in my lunch break at work:

 

 

Scalescenes high street which I started building Christmas 2014

 

(yes, the magic 8 ball is there for answering customer enquiries) 

 

Also adding loads to wagons and converting to Dapol couplings. 

[Black Sheep]

The buildings are plodding on above, one of the wider ones has it's roof on just waiting for it's chimneys and then shop detailing. 

 

back on the actual work bench I have a scalextric mini in bits in an effort to make it handle and go fast as slot car racing is another hobby of mine. 

On the railway part of the workbench I've loaded my macaw B which I think is the first piece of non LMS rolling stock but I couldn't get a war flat and added chain, not 100% certain if the chains are in the 'correct' place but they look correct. 

 

[Black Sheep]

So, detailing parts fitted (eg buffers) and a spot of filler in the mounting hole that's intended for building on a Minitrix Brittania chassis, sand it back and we're ready for paint! 

 

[Black Sheep]

The duchess is part way through the paintshop!

 

[Will J]

Excellent! Good luck with the stripes..... Any ideas on how you are going to tackle them?

[Black Sheep]

Fox transfers make a set of stripes that go on in one go (per side) 

 

I had a set but lost them, perhaps best to use a fresh set. 

 

back up plan is war-time black but it would be a shame to do so. 

[Black Sheep]

recent work on the workbench has been completion of the DCC system's brain and also lettering a 4F tender from BR to LMS to build up confidence to tackle the stripes on the Duchess

 

hopefully get that done within the next week or so, lacquer it, paint the remaining bits (buffer shanks, footplate, coal hole etc) and get it running!

Then convert it to DCC

 

 

The workbench queue at the moment, in no particular order:

Mercedes saloon slot car: body repair
Duchess: Stripes and finishing touches

DG couplings for test instead of Dapol knuckles

Letter and number Jinty, 3f (Donald) & 4F (Douglas)

Build Pug

Fit traction tyres to GF Black 5

Paint and adjust pickup on BRM F1 Slot Car

Test DCC system

 

probably something I've not listed

 

On the layout, still needing to complete the boards and build legs for them

[Black Sheep]

One side done of the Jinty - spot the Farish factory finished one

 

Both sides of the 4F tender done, need to number it

 

 

building up courage for the duchess' stripes...

[6029 King Stephen]

What chassis have you used for your streamlined duchess, assuming that you haven't used the Minitrix Britannia one?  I have the Langley Merchant Navy kit that uses the same Minitrix chassis but looking at the Britannia, I am wondering if it is perhaps a little too crude nowadays and perhaps I should look at getting a second hand Farish one? 

 

In 2009/10 I went through a phase of buying Hornby streamlined duchesses (before they became so expensive to buy second hand on ebay) and used Fox transfers and brass nameplates to have all the blue ones and the crimson ones up to and including the first non-streamlined one.  Sadly, in 2010 or 2011, the clutch went on my car and I needed to raise the £500 required which meant I had to sell them all.  I have since bought City of Birmingham which was the first of the crimson engines with a double chimney and want to get a blue one as I have been ordering and building the Coronation Scot train in OO using Comet kits.  I have been starting from the Brake Third Composite and am about a third of the way through.  I will be using the Fox transfers sheet for the whole train to provide the stripes.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Black Sheep]

What chassis have you used for your streamlined duchess, assuming that you haven't used the Minitrix Britannia one?  I have the Langley Merchant Navy kit that uses the same Minitrix chassis but looking at the Britannia, I am wondering if it is perhaps a little too crude nowadays and perhaps I should look at getting a second hand Farish one? 

 

Steve

 

The minitrix chassis is pretty much bomb proof if looked after, I'd expect a trix chassis to out live anything from Dapol or Farish from within the last decade or so. 

 

I've used a 1985 (got the warranty card included) GF Duchess chassis but had to sand the cylinders down for it to fit and make my own mountings (I can sort photos if you wish) 

 

The main reason I went with a duchess chassis is because the trailing bogie on the Duchess is a bit unique and for me, a design feature, that and I'd given up finding a trix Britannia 

[Black Sheep]

So, been to TINGS today and have things queueing up on my workbench far quicker than I'm finishing them! 

 

The wife gave me a budget, which would have actually allowed me to get a loco but the only one I considered was KOYLI Deltic in green, one trader had a second hand older tooling one in budget and others had newer ones that would have landed me in trouble. 

 

in the end I bought neither, here's the haul...

 

 

Clockwise from left:

Severn Models brass etched house kit

sprung tweezers to assist with building the above

 

Langley streamlined duchess on minitrix chassis (as per instructions) appears to be well built and does run and less than the cost of a new Farish loco unlike the ones seen on ebay! For some reason it's in Southern railway livery - going to re-paint, possibly wartime black as City of Coventry unless someone desperate for one persuades me to part with it. 

 

Below this is a set of Farish Tarmac tankers