sumo Posted October 16, 2021 Share Posted October 16, 2021 (edited) Saw the layout today at Uckfield. Absolutely stunning. Best 2mm effort I have seen - the rolling stock is out of this world. Edited October 16, 2021 by sumo 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Donw Posted October 17, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 17, 2021 Brilliant work on the Horse and cart I love the sort of nonchalant way you refer to re-sculpting the horse. The drive looks good two. Just a little detail but so well done. Don 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trewisin Posted October 18, 2021 Share Posted October 18, 2021 Hi Ian,well we managed to meet at the Ukfield show and i must say it was truely worth it .Your model diarama what ever you wish to call it was amazing . I still cant think how you can write this blog page and do the amount of really excellent modelling into the time that you have between the models and articles . The Locos are a true art from start to the finished item.Nice to chat to you even it was for a short time considering you were very busy.Look forward to seeing you and Modbury in the future. Best regards Ray. Ps Thanks to your 2mm members helping out at Ukfield over the weekend the show was very good and it now shows that things are returning a little back to normal. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted October 18, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 18, 2021 I too had the pleasure of seeing the layout at Uckfield. I was impressed by how small everything is: from the amount of detail apparent in photos and videos, one might expect it to be 7 mm scale... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Smith Posted October 18, 2021 Author Share Posted October 18, 2021 6 hours ago, Compound2632 said: I too had the pleasure of seeing the layout at Uckfield. I was impressed by how small everything is: from the amount of detail apparent in photos and videos, one might expect it to be 7 mm scale... Stephen, It was very nice to meet you at last and put a mask to a name Thank you for the kind comments, I hope you enjoyed Modbury (and Sherton Abbas, Wadebridge, et al). You are not the first to comment that virtually the stock and layout have a "bigger" presence Ian 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Ian Smith Posted October 27, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2021 (edited) Following the Uckfield exhibition, I decided that before I reassembled Modbury in my lounge that I would take a few photos of the scenic boards from the non-viewing side, effectively from the break between the two boards. What follows are a few of the 30-odd photos I took - all with a DSLR using only f-stopping to get a half reasonable depth of field (no stacking here). For lighting, a LED tube was used (which isn't exactly the same as the normal layout lighting used at exhibitions (or for that matter at home!)) A sheet of blue card was blue-tac'd to the layout fascia to focus attention on the layout rather than the rest of my kitchen!! I hope that you enjoy these images that are simply not possible when the layout is fully assembled. 517 Class (number 551) draws into Modbury with a pick-up goods (it is just about possible to see the 3-lamp head-code on the bunker - my lamps have short pieces of 0.3mm wire projecting from their bases which engage in the lamp sockets of my locos allowing me to alter the head-codes accordingly). A view of the pick-up goods arriving into Modbury from a slightly more elevated position up the hillside. A view across the yard at a quiet Modbury, hopefully showing that I have modelled even the non-viewing side of everything. The lane along the back of the layout (to our right in this view) will one day become the A379. A closer inspection of the buildings at Modbury, the waiting room building on the Down platform is probably my favourite of all those I've built for Modbury. The couple waiting on that platform run a small market gardening business, and have some of their produce on the trolley close by. Another view across the yard at Modbury, this time with wagons awaiting collection in the Goods shed. The local coal merchant engages in conversation with a customer outside his disused van office while a couple of his employees are filling a few sacks from the coal piles at the end of the long back siding. A "Brian Monaghan view" of Modbury as 517 Class, 551, draws into the station with a Down pick-up goods. A somewhat less elevated view of the Down pick-up goods drawing into the station. The Station Master is hopeful that an award might be forthcoming this year for the platform gardens! Finally, a view of 551 shunting wagons in the yard. The cattle pen water troughs have been filled from the stand-pipe between the two pens, and the hose pipe has been left draped over the rail fence. Thank you for looking, and I hope that being able to see Modbury from the "back" has been of interest. Ian Edited April 3, 2022 by Ian Smith reinstated the photos 32 1 1 7 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mikkel Posted October 29, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 29, 2021 (edited) Excellent views, Ian. I have noticed before that photos from the "wrong" side can be just as good or even better than the normal ones. I wonder if it's because the angles are less "designed" and therefore in fact seem more natural. Anyway, that hose over the rail fence is a nice touch, haven't seen that before. I've enjoyed watching the layout in videos from Uckfield too, sounds like it went well. Edited October 29, 2021 by Mikkel Typo 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard i Posted October 29, 2021 Share Posted October 29, 2021 Great pictures from the other side of this 7mm layout.……wait what! It is 2mm! looks superb. richard 1 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Smith Posted October 31, 2021 Author Share Posted October 31, 2021 On 29/10/2021 at 14:37, Mikkel said: Excellent views, Ian. I have noticed before that photos from the "wrong" side can be just as good or even better than the normal ones. I wonder if it's because the angles are less "designed" and therefore in fact seem more natural. Anyway, that hose over the rail fence is a nice touch, haven't seen that before. I've enjoyed watching the layout in videos from Uckfield too, sounds like it went well. I quite agree about “non-normal” viewing angles. Some weeks ago I casually thought about turning Modbury around, and adding 6” to what is currently the front of the layout, so that it would be viewed from the yard side - I quickly discarded the thought as madness The Uckfield exhibition was very enjoyable, it was really nice to have a degree of normality back, and to see old friends again. Modbury for the most part behaved itself, there was an odd derailment coming onto/off the train table fiddle yards, and the occasional problem with the DG couplings used. All of the locos performed well (including the steam railmotor). Ian 3 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trewisin Posted November 2, 2021 Share Posted November 2, 2021 Hi Ian, I agree it does make your layout look different taking photos from the other side, it shows that you have not skimped on the buildings that you can shown either way round. Yes as I said at Uckfield I wish I had a liittle more time that Sunday afternoon , we may have a bit more to to have a chinwag about railways and modelling. Best regards Ray. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Ian Smith Posted November 24, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 24, 2021 (edited) I've done very little modelling recently, but have the following photo to share : This shows (what hopefully looks like) a couple of brick loads for a pair of my open wagons. On the real Yealmpton Branch there was a brick works at Steer Point. My imaginary line through Modbury would have followed the course of that said branch once it reached Yealmpton and hence would also have served the brick works at Steer Point. I have had a mind to produce some brick loads for quite some time but kept putting it off because I couldn't actually find any (clear) photos to illustrate how such a load would have been carried - was it packed with straw? Were the bricks on some form of pallet? Etc. Quite by chance, a few weeks ago someone posted a link to a video elsewhere on RMweb (the "Pre-Grouping Wagons in 4mm - the D299 appreciation thread") which showed bricks being loaded into open wagons (https://www.ampthill.tv/playvideo.html?id=94&fbclid=IwAR3eZd3oo2SmzR3lPCLlZFnI0z2UhhIrzBpa1gesRaXH8i5pKFLCL8hqur0) - the loading of wagons starts about 8:40. Although a 1920's film, I felt that the evidence that bricks were just stacked in the wagons was enough to allow me to try to create a couple of representative loads. A piece of 0.020" plasticard was scribed with a grid of bricks (1.5mm x 0.6mm - about 9" x 4"), then that was cut up and layered to provide a bit of "interest" to the loads. Once dry, I ended up painting the whole lot a brick colour then picking out individual bricks in slightly different shades before filling the scribed grooves with a very thin wash of dark brown track colour to try to "separate" the bricks. I should add that each load has a small patch of 0.020" steel shim glued to the underside so that the loads can be removed easily with a magnet. Ian Edited April 3, 2022 by Ian Smith reinstated the photo 12 1 1 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Collier Posted November 24, 2021 Share Posted November 24, 2021 What a daunting task filling a wagon up with bricks by hand and having to collect them by the barrow load as you go. Must have taken ages! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted November 24, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 24, 2021 40 minutes ago, Gareth Collier said: Must have taken ages! If you watch the linked film clip, you'll see that loading at least was pretty swift. Of course nowadays it would be faster with pallets but how do the bricks get onto the pallets in the first place? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuncanFogg Posted November 25, 2021 Share Posted November 25, 2021 The other thing I noted was the huge variety of different wagons. Even though it is a whole train from a single starting point, wagons seem to come from just about everywhere. Prototypical justification for modellers building an assortment of wagons! Duncan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted November 25, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 25, 2021 13 minutes ago, DuncanFogg said: The other thing I noted was the huge variety of different wagons. Even though it is a whole train from a single starting point, wagons seem to come from just about everywhere. Prototypical justification for modellers building an assortment of wagons! This is a natural consequence of the pooling arrangements for ordinary opens and vans introduced during the Great War. In Modbury's time period, any foreign wagon would have been returned promptly to its home system (along with any sheets and ropes), by the same route it had arrived by. So one has to be a little careful. But for the modeller of the inter-war period, you are right, wagons from pretty much any company could be seen anywhere, although of course one should weight towards the largest companies and, to some extent, the home company. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Ian Morgan Posted November 25, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 25, 2021 (edited) I really liked the pyramid stack of bricks on the low sided wagon. Edited April 5, 2022 by Ian Morgan Image reposted 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Smith Posted November 25, 2021 Author Share Posted November 25, 2021 2 minutes ago, Ian Morgan said: I really liked the pyramid stack of bricks on the low sided wagon. Ian, I too like the pyramid way of loading the single plank wagon, although I think if you did that on a model it would raise a few eyebrows so you might need to keep the “still” from the film handy to satisfy the non-believers 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted November 25, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 25, 2021 2 hours ago, Ian Smith said: Ian, I too like the pyramid way of loading the single plank wagon, although I think if you did that on a model it would raise a few eyebrows so you might need to keep the “still” from the film handy to satisfy the non-believers Over on my wagon-building thread, Simon @Regularity posted a sketch of how the pyramid stacking is done: Looking again at the still, I think the edging bricks are standing on their ends. An even more labour-intensive way of loading than the hand-stacking seen elsewhere in the film! Another point discussed there was the density of the load and hence how full the wagon can be. (A general consideration not confined to bricks, and which works both ways as the volumetric capacity of the wagon can often be the limiting factor.) Density of brick varies with type; the Fletton bricks are, I think, one of the less dense types. I think Ian's got it right; noting that the depth of the load looks greater in the 10 ton 4-plank wagon than the 8 ton 3-plank. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Donw Posted November 26, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 26, 2021 When an apprentice at 16 (1965) I was with a Pipe Watcher (supervisor of the contractors laying ducts and building joint boxes. More bricks were need and I was sent to assist the lorry driver. We pulled into the yard next to a stack of bricks . One of us would throw 4 bricks at a time for the other to catch and stack. After the first throw when the 4 bricks all managed to hit different parts of the driver I was the catcher. I did have thick gloves on but I suspect H&S would have a fit these days. It didn't take that long to load 500 bricks. One way bricks were judged was by the amount of water they coud absorb. Weigh a brick empty and then drop it in a pail of water and once it had time to absorb the water again re weigh the bricks. Don 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Intraclast Posted November 27, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 27, 2021 Hi Ian, Thank you for posting the link to that video. It's really useful for me as I am planning a small layout based around a 1900-1910 brickworks. Your brick wagon loads have given me some inspiration too. Thanks! Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Smith Posted December 8, 2021 Author Share Posted December 8, 2021 (edited) I'm kind of in a quandary as to where to post this particular update - here, in the "3D Printing" thread or the "On My Workbench", - but in the end it's for Modbury so here it is ... Some time ago, I shared the STL files for the Outside Framed Van and 3 GWR Cattle Wagons (W1/5, W2, and W3 diagrams) that I'd drawn up and had printed by Shapeways with Richard Brummitt. In exchange for this, Richard very kindly printed 2 of each on his home printer for me (which I regret to say I've not as yet done anything with!). However, Richard also very kindly included a "surprise" among the 3D prints - a pair of Iron Mink (diagram V6) bodies. This post relates to the first of these. Among the wagons I have running on Modbury are 3 Iron Mink built from Association kits, in fact 2 of them date back to my first (aborted) venture in 2mm Finescale modelling in the 1980's. They were both originally fitted with compensated Colin Waite W Irons (which I eventually glued up solid with packers as I feel that better running can be had in 2FS with fixed underframe on short 4 wheel underframes - there just isn't enough mass to allow the compensation to work properly). All 3 of my existing Iron Mink have been modified / back-dated by replacing the kit wooden doors with the steel doors of the early vans, but all 3 also suffer from the major faults in the 2mm Association kit (primarily that they are too long, and that the vertical stanchions are too wide, meaning that the panels are slightly narrow which is a bit of a pain when trying to fit the 25" G W in but the fact that the vans are nearly 2mm too long actually helps in this regard!) At the time I drew up the artwork for the Cattle Wagons and Outside Framed Van I also started on a true to scale Iron Mink of my own but shelved it because of the layered effect noticeable on the Shapeways prints - you can almost get away with it on wooden planked bodies as it is possible to convince oneself that the layering looks like wood grain but on an all metal slab sided body like an Iron Mink I felt that it wasn't worth the effort. Anyway, back to the "surprise" that Richard had provided me with ... The two bodies were printed in a creamy coloured resin, and the only noticeable layering that I could detect is on the vents on the ends of each wagon - I decided that I would deal with that at the painting stage. One of the bodies that Richard provided me with. The layering/stepping is just about visible on the vent on the body, as is the lip that Richard has designed inside the body to allow the body to seat down level on an underframe. Richard had kindly cleaned all of the support material from the 3D print, but there were just one or two places that needed the merest dressing with a very fine file where the roof would fit. I had no idea whether Richard had designed the model with any specific 2mm Association underframe in mind, but I elected to use a 2-324 SNCF 9'0" wheelbase Mineral wagon one as I have a couple in my gloat box. I only wanted the floor with the fold down inner sole bar and W Irons anyway, once fitted with bearings, the V hanger was removed from one side and the W Iron stays were removed from between the W Irons and cleaned up. Because the Iron Mink is only 16'6" over headstocks, it is necessary to remove about 1mm from each end of the floor (after the etched bend-down headstocks have been removed from the etch by bending back and forth along the half etched line). Once the underframe was a snug fit within the body, a couple of pairs of wheels were dropped in so that I could check the running height - it transpired that some packing would be required between the underframe and the lip within the body to raise the body a little - I used a piece of 0.010" plastic sheet but could probably have used 0.015" really (clearly my Iron Mink has a heavy load inside making it sit down on its suspension). I decided to fit this first Iron Mink with Grease Axleboxes, so made up a set of 2-318 MR Grease Axlebox/Spring, and then employed a file to try to get a slope to the top and generally square the axle boxes up a bit to look more like a GWR version. The springs needed tweaking a bit to minimise the gap between them and the bottom edge of the solebar, but I'm pretty happy with the result. Brake gear is just one side of the 2-324 set, the brake handle being fitted after underframe and body were united permanently as this needs to be fixed into a hole drilled into the resin solebar. Prior to permanently uniting the body and underframe, I did a couple of things. The first was to drill the horse hook holes in the solebars (which I also transferred to the etched underframe where I drilled slightly larger holes so that the inner etched sole bar couldn't be seen through the holes in the solebar proper). The other thing was to fit a roof, fitted before uniting body and underframe so that I could get to the underside of the roof to apply drops of superglue. The roof itself was formed from a piece of 0.008" tinned steel - in a moment of madness I had thought about soldering on thin strips of shim to represent the re-inforcing strips across the roof - in the end sanity prevailed and I simply glued on narrow strips of 0.005" plastic sheet after the roof was fitted!!! Once the body and underframe were finally glued together, the brake handle was soldered at the V hanger end and glued in place in a hole in the solebar at the other. A set of 2-072 buffers completed the build. The completed Iron Mink ready for the paint shops. And posed alongside a contemporary Outside Framed Van which was a similar size and one of my 2mm Association Iron Mink (with back-dated doors) still with unfinished lettering/numbering. I think posing Richard's rendition alongside the Association offering illustrates the slight size difference, in fact the Association model might do well as a Taff Vale Railway Iron Mink as they were 17'4" over the headstocks!! It is now my intention to build up the other Iron Mink that Richard provided, but this will be fitted with OK Oil Axleboxes as it is my intention to paint the first Red and the second Grey (probably with identification plates rather than 25" G W) - somewhat contentious I know as there is still (and always will be) debate as to what colour the wagons were when fitted with plates! However, I placed my stick in the sand several years ago when I scratch built my first 4 plank open (that's grey with plates), my view is that there are photos of grey wagons with 25" lettering but still carrying their numbers on plates, and that brake vans with plates were also grey (yeah, I know they were always grey even when everything else was red! ) However, it's my train set and I want my plate carrying wagons to be grey, so there!! Thanks for looking Ian Edited April 3, 2022 by Ian Smith reinstated the photos 11 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted December 8, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 8, 2021 30 minutes ago, Ian Smith said: It is now my intention to build up the other Iron Mink that Richard provided, but this will be fitted with OK Oil Axleboxes as it is my intention to paint the first Red and the second Grey (probably with identification plates rather than 25" G W) - somewhat contentious I know as there is still (and always will be) debate as to what colour the wagons were when fitted with plates! However, I placed my stick in the sand several years ago when I scratch built my first 4 plank open (that's grey with plates), my view is that there are photos of grey wagons with 25" lettering but still carrying their numbers on plates, and that brake vans with plates were also grey (yeah, I know they were always grey even when everything else was red! ) However, it's my train set and I want my plate carrying wagons to be grey, so there!! At least the plates get you out of the To Carry 9 Tons and Tare X-X-X between the stanchions! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caley Jim Posted December 8, 2021 Share Posted December 8, 2021 Just to be cheeky (and with no disrespect to Ian), some years ago I 'improved' the Association iron mink by turning it into a CR Dia 78 7T gunpowder van, for which it was exactly the correct length! Jim 11 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold queensquare Posted December 9, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 9, 2021 With apologies to Ian, I think there could be a bit of a theme developing here Jim! Jerry 11 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
meil Posted December 9, 2021 Share Posted December 9, 2021 On 27/11/2021 at 20:15, Intraclast said: Hi Ian, Thank you for posting the link to that video. It's really useful for me as I am planning a small layout based around a 1900-1910 brickworks. Your brick wagon loads have given me some inspiration too. Thanks! Mark You may care to look here: https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=4339&hilit=brick+works 1 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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