0 Gauge micro layout and wagon building

[Georgeham]

There is not a lot of progress to report recently, as work has been very busy.  I managed to get the tunnel painted and this is ready to glue onto the layout, although it ended up being much bigger than I originally anticipated.  The finish was mainly achieved with some dry brushing, followed by a little air brushing over the top. I have also finished a quick weathering of Dapol 12t van and built the small Peco brick hut, to place at the front of the layout.  Otherwise, I am just doing a bit of occasional wagon building, attempting to finish off some half built kits over the next few weeks, there is currently a vanwide, conflat and pill box brake van on my modelling desk.

 

[Baggies1961]

Is you tunnel mouth the Langley one? Mine was larger than Id wanted looks similar.

 

Looking really good nonetheless, love your weathering!

 

Regards

 

Julian.

[Georgeham]

20 hours ago, Baggies1961 said:

Is you tunnel mouth the Langley one? Mine was larger than Id wanted looks similar.

 

Looking really good nonetheless, love your weathering!

 

Regards

 

Julian.

Hi Julian,

hope all is well and thank you for the kind comment.

it is not the langley one - but one from invertrain.  It is a lot bigger than I originally anticipated - it barely fits on the board.  I might see if I can find a smaller tunnel entrance to make the landscaping at the layout exit a bit easier to do - not sure atm.

Chris

[Baggies1961]

6 hours ago, Georgeham said:

Hi Julian,

hope all is well and thank you for the kind comment.

it is not the langley one - but one from invertrain.  It is a lot bigger than I originally anticipated - it barely fits on the board.  I might see if I can find a smaller tunnel entrance to make the landscaping at the layout exit a bit easier to do - not sure atm.

Chris

Hi Chris,

 

Thanks, Im getting better after covid booster & flu jab knocked me off my feet over the weekend.

 

Interesting about the Invertrain one, I too wish Id got a smaller one.

[Georgeham]

14 hours ago, Baggies1961 said:

Hi Chris,

 

Thanks, Im getting better after covid booster & flu jab knocked me off my feet over the weekend.

 

Interesting about the Invertrain one, I too wish Id got a smaller one.

I hope you feel better soon

[Georgeham]

I have not had a lot of time for modelling over the last couple of weeks, but I did manage to find a little time to finish of the Slaters Vanwide kit.  This has now had a wash and is in the painting boxes.

 

[Hal Nail]

14 hours ago, Georgeham said:

Slaters Vanwide kit.

Nice and for me, Slaters vans have more subtle detailing than Dapol, so worth the effort. Admittedly the r-t-r stuff does run superbly.

[Georgeham]

On 24/10/2022 at 08:02, Hal Nail said:

Nice and for me, Slaters vans have more subtle detailing than Dapol, so worth the effort. Admittedly the r-t-r stuff does run superbly.

Thanks Hal - I found it a very enjoyable kit to build. I prefer building the rolling stock as to buying it, although this does mean that overall progress is a lot slower!

[Hal Nail]

1 minute ago, Georgeham said:

Thanks Hal - I found it a very enjoyable kit to build. I prefer building the rolling stock as to buying it, although this does mean that overall progress is a lot slower!

I much prefer painting to building so have a few I've bought built and then tarted up, but the aim is to replace them eventually. Mind you eBay prices have gone through the floor so might rethink this.

 

I bought some that had been fitted with home made rocking units in the style of Peco kits. I feel like i really should do this or some sort of springing to all of mine but thats merely meant the whole lot have dropped even further down the enormous list of things to finish!

[brossard]

6 hours ago, Georgeham said:

Thanks Hal - I found it a very enjoyable kit to build. I prefer building the rolling stock as to buying it, although this does mean that overall progress is a lot slower!

 

I tend to agree.  Most of my stock is kit built, plastic in the main but the odd etched kit.  So satisfying to do that.  The few RTR models I do have have been modified, usually underframe detailing.  I now have more wagons than I know what to do with but there are still wagon types that I have my eye on, such as the vanwide.

 

John

[Georgeham]

22 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

I much prefer painting to building so have a few I've bought built and then tarted up, but the aim is to replace them eventually. Mind you eBay prices have gone through the floor so might rethink this.

 

I bought some that had been fitted with home made rocking units in the style of Peco kits. I feel like i really should do this or some sort of springing to all of mine but thats merely meant the whole lot have dropped even further down the enormous list of things to finish!

The list of things to do seems to grow endlessly all the time - I wonder where the time goes!  I love painting wagons in O gauge, you can really spend the time to bring out the detail. 

[Georgeham]

16 hours ago, brossard said:

 

I tend to agree.  Most of my stock is kit built, plastic in the main but the odd etched kit.  So satisfying to do that.  The few RTR models I do have have been modified, usually underframe detailing.  I now have more wagons than I know what to do with but there are still wagon types that I have my eye on, such as the vanwide.

 

John

Hi John - that is exactly the way I am going with the rolling stock - mainly plastic but I hope to cut my teeth on a couple of etched kits soon. I am looking forward to the time when I have enough wagons to run the trains I want to run on the layout - but this will involve quite a lot of kit building - something I am definitely looking forward too! 

[Georgeham]

Well speaking of rolling stock - I have managed to finish another wagon.  When we moved house and I opened some long forgotten storage boxes, I found a Parkside Pipe wagon that I had built and forgotten about. So this year it has been painted and is ready for the layout. Next time I am definitely going to paint the wagon with the wheels left in - these are far too shiny! I will paint some wheels and replace these ones soon (not the best photograph!)

[brossard]

It is hard to remove wheels once the wagon is built.  I tend to paint wheels first with a grotty rust, brown, black mix.  You can use a Sharpie to make the tyres black before painting.  Then again, for the wagon above, wheels can still be painted after the fact by holding the brush still and rotating the wheels.

 

BTW the wagon looks really good.  Parkside are excellent.  One of my beefs is the white metal vacuum pipes that come with the kit.  These, to my eye, are oversize and rather crude.  My preference is to replace them with Slaters LWB and spring products.

 

John

[Georgeham]

14 hours ago, brossard said:

It is hard to remove wheels once the wagon is built.  I tend to paint wheels first with a grotty rust, brown, black mix.  You can use a Sharpie to make the tyres black before painting.  Then again, for the wagon above, wheels can still be painted after the fact by holding the brush still and rotating the wheels.

 

BTW the wagon looks really good.  Parkside are excellent.  One of my beefs is the white metal vacuum pipes that come with the kit.  These, to my eye, are oversize and rather crude.  My preference is to replace them with Slaters LWB and spring products.

 

John

HI John - yes I totally agree with you re the vacuum pipes on the Parkside kits - they are definitely on the chunky side.

 

I am building a SR Pill Box brake van atm - and have been looking at your excellent build of it as a reference. Can I ask what interior details you used - were they the Slaters ones? I will definitely be using some Slaters vacuum pipes on the brake van. 

[brossard]

Happy to know my thread is of use to you.  When I started building brakes (and I now have examples from all regions) I was determined to add interiors.  Some might say it is a waste of time because you can't see anything.

 

However, yes, the brake standard and stove came from Slaters.  The floor wood grain was made by dragging sandpaper in one direction.  Benches would be plastic card.

 

John

[Georgeham]

4 hours ago, brossard said:

Happy to know my thread is of use to you.  When I started building brakes (and I now have examples from all regions) I was determined to add interiors.  Some might say it is a waste of time because you can't see anything.

 

However, yes, the brake standard and stove came from Slaters.  The floor wood grain was made by dragging sandpaper in one direction.  Benches would be plastic card.

 

John

Great John - thanks - I will get these bits ordered!

[Hal Nail]

On 30/10/2022 at 06:58, Georgeham said:

 

We've just got a big one from the stash! Here's the vac pipe for scale.

Edited November 1, 2022 by Hal Nail

[brossard]

6 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

We've just got a big one from the stash! Here's the vac pipe for scale.

 

Nice pic Hal.  It should be noted that the pipe goes UNDER the buffer beam, not through as so many people do (including myself before I wised up).  Note too the lamp bracket.  In theory AVB fitted stock didn't need a brake van but the practice continued for some time (I think it had to do with union contracts).  Finally, interesting that the coupling is 3 link.  I would expect an AVB fitted wagon to at least have instanter.

 

John

[34006]

6 hours ago, brossard said:

 

Nice pic Hal.  It should be noted that the pipe goes UNDER the buffer beam, not through as so many people do (including myself before I wised up).  Note too the lamp bracket.  In theory AVB fitted stock didn't need a brake van but the practice continued for some time (I think it had to do with union contracts).  Finally, interesting that the coupling is 3 link.  I would expect an AVB fitted wagon to at least have instanter.

 

John

We have one or two at Chasewater,cant remember what couplings are on them.Pretty certain one is Instanter,the other screw.Will check next time I'm over again,a week next Sunday I think.

 

Phil

[Hal Nail]

7 hours ago, brossard said:

Finally, interesting that the coupling is 3 link.  I would expect an AVB fitted wagon to at least have instanter.

 

 

It is actually an instanter - just exactly sideways on.

I thought you'd be pleased to see we've modelled the safety loops though :)

[brossard]

23 minutes ago, Hal Nail said:

 

It is actually an instanter - just exactly sideways on.

I thought you'd be pleased to see we've modelled the safety loops though :)

 

I always thought the center instanter link was cast and thicker than the others.  Hard to tell though.

 

Ha ha, yes, glad to see safety loops.

 

Another detail to note is the bracket between the LH buffer and strut.  The intent was to be able to connect the last vacuum pipe in the train to this so as to maintain vacuum.  The Slaters LWB vacuum pipe set includes this.

 

John

[Georgeham]

On 01/11/2022 at 07:01, Hal Nail said:

We've just got a big one from the stash! Here's the vac pipe for scale.

Hi Hal - that is a really useful shot - thank you - shows the vac pipes on the Parkside kit to be a little on the chunky side!

 

[Georgeham]

With no time to detail the layout, I am still working on painting and building a few bits of rolling stock. I have nearly finished an SR brake van - although the interior needs to be added (thank you John for you help here) and I have started a Slaters conflat wagon.  Otherwise, progress is a bit slow, although the class 25 is starting to move through the paintshop - I am currently detailing (attacking!) the body, with the chassis finished.  Adding a DCC sound chip to this is now the next challenge!

 

 

[Georgeham]

Progress continues to be a little slow - not helped by getting distracted by some OO gauge modelling! Anyhow - I have finished building the SR Pillbox brake van - it only took me 10 years - where does the time go!  its great to see it finished - I will wash it today and get it in the paint boxes. The layout is now partially set up in anticipation of having some modelling time in the week before xmas - the ballasting and backscene really need to be added.