S7 scratch building

[Western Star]

I feel so sorry for you after reading about your recent painting trials.

 

For what it is worth, might help you in the future:-

 

1/ Phoenix Precision paints has a range of paint removers and amongst them is one for enamel which is safe on Slater's plastic kits (my own experience).  If you wish I shall sort out the product and let you know the name.

 

2/ I use Citadel paints from Games workshop / Warhammer - both paint in a pot and paint in a can.  There are white / black / grey rattle cans that are decent primers - fine pigment, lays well, dries within ten minutes.

 

regards, Graham

[MarcD]

Ouch!

I stopped using aerosols for that reason. I bought myself a decent airbrush and a compressor. I've also to a greater extent stopped using enamels as they are a pain in the bum to clean up.  

Marc

[Western Star]

Mike,

 

If I am reading the label on the Citadel paint correctly then I am not surprised that you say that the paint did not cover well - the label says that paint is a "layer" paint and those are a) thinner than normal and b) intended as a highlight for a darker colour (which can be a primer paint).

 

I suggest that you look on the Warhammer website for information on how to use the different paint types and then choose a "base" paint of a colour that is close to your chosen "layer" paint.

[airnimal]

Today we took 2 of our grandsons to Astley Green traction engine rally.  The weather was warm and sunny and we had a pleasant day out. 

Amongst the usual exhibits was a breakdown crane with a LNWR 6 wheel runner wagon to hold the jib. It was in a terrible state but what interesting was the running gear had all the original parts still in place. The brake shoes had the company initials stamp in them from 1908. 

[Compound2632]

9 hours ago, airnimal said:

 

Interesting that those No. 2 grease axleboxes were still being made in 1907, by which time new wagons were being given oil axleboxes. I suppose older wagons passing through the works were not necessarily upgraded to oil boxes so it must have been necessary to have a supply of grease boxes to replace damaged or worn-out ones.

[airnimal]

I was more surprised at the brake blocks still being original.  I would have thought that they would have been replaced by the LMS long ago. Perhaps these brake down trains didn't do large amount of miles unlike ordinary wagons. 

[Dave Hunt]

I’ve just received some sad news; Ken Cottle, who can really be regarded as the father of S7, died last Friday May 19th. I don’t have any details of funeral arrangements but will post them in due course.

 

Dave

[airnimal]

 A gentleman of many talents who pushed the hobby forward. 

Edited May 26, 2023 by airnimal

[airnimal]

I have decided that rather than start something new I would finish a few of my self queens. 

I first built a Dia 33 van from one of ABS kits that I did the master for many years ago. I was unhappy with my rendition of the running gear so this wagon sat in a box for a long time awaiting my mojo to return. 

So with new W-irons and a new brake block along with a new brake rack and handle it has returned to the fold. There are still a few things that need inproving like a line of rivets on the doors runners. 

The weathering is a bit overdone and the new running gear will need toning down to match the bodywork. I trimmed the back of the plastic wheels  to make them look a bit more worn. These Slaters were of the old variety that didn't have the notch that prevents the tyre coming loose. I had to glue the tyre back on and regauge using my home made back to back gauge.

 

With this new lease of life I also started to add new running gear to a Dia 32 van that had being hanging about for a few years. There is still a bit more work on this one but it's going in the right direction.  

 

Our youngest daughter has announced that she is getting married in August and she has booked the venue without asking anyone if that time is suitable for everyone.  That has thrown her sister's into a panic because one lives in Australia with her partner and children and one lives in Swindon and her eldest has got his exam results on the day in question. The grooms brother is also on holiday in Australia on the same day as well. I am not sure how this will all pan out but I fear that there will be lots tears over the next couple of months. There has being nothing mentioned about costs and what I am expected to pay but when our eldest daughter got married I contributed half the cost that time. 

 

Oh well I am going to the GOG meeting on Saturday at Barnsley to take my mind of the mayhem to come. 

[airnimal]

I had a pleasant run out today going to the GOG show at Barnsley.  Because of the train strike I had to drive there going over Woodhead in the sunshine. Probably spent about £80 on bits as well as picking up the S7 wagon wheels from Sam ( Sir Douglas ) .  With a bit of elbow grease I have managed to bring them back to near perfect condition. I will trim the webbing from the back and use Carrs chemical black to preserve the finish and prevent the rust from returning.  I gave Sam a box of bits that I am never going to use rather than have them hang about in my workshop doing nothing.  If Sam doesn't have any use for them he can always put the bits on the bring and buy stand for somebody else to use. Like a lot of people of my age I realise that I am never going to live long enough to utilise the large amount of material that somehow have found there way into my workshop.  

 

Books and magazines are another item that are being pruned but unfortunately the bottom has dropped out of the second hand market on most of these things. I remember about 20 years ago that some second hand books were hard to find and when they were available the price was way above the original price. 

I noted today that once rare books are now available at much lower prices.  

 

[Compound2632]

On 31/05/2023 at 17:13, airnimal said:

 

Empty to Burton of course.

[Simond]

Well, it would be if the Folkestone boys got hold of it :)

[wagonman]

4 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Empty to Burton of course.

 

Actually it says "Buxton" but never mind, eh? Should've gone to Specsavers...    😀

Edited June 3, 2023 by wagonman

[Compound2632]

8 hours ago, wagonman said:

Actually it says "Buxton" but never mind, eh? Should've gone to Specsavers...    😀

 

Ah well, I daresay it got sent to Burton by mistake...

[Western Star]

50 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Ah well, I daresay it got sent to Burton by mistake...

Ah...  well...   let us drink to that!

Edited June 4, 2023 by Western Star

[sir douglas]

And again gave me way more than i expected, and will eventually work out what some of these axle boxes are supposed to be for. I think the only parts i will have no use for are the carriage bogie etches

[airnimal]

Sam, I hope some of the parts are useful to you but if not you can give them to club members. It's pointless me keeping them because they will only go in the skip when I pop my clogs. I don't know anyone in my neck of the woods who I could give them to and I always enjoy you scratch building.  It reminds me of myself about 40 years ago. 

 

I cleaned up the wheels Sam gave me and did a bit more on the Dia 32 van just needing the axleboxes and springs painting along with the lettering.  I still have another one to do but with the nice weather that we are enjoying there also lots of outside activities to fulfil. 

[airnimal]

I have been trying to finish half completed models and refurbish some old ones rather than start anything new. This old model of a Dia 33 van I made over 20 years ago and I didn't put any rivets on that hold down the door runners on the roof. When it sat next to newer models they were noticeable by there absence.  

So new brass strip was drilled and turned down brass pins were produced. I will put them in the Birchwood black before glueing them on. The van will need some of the paintwork touching up and new number plates added.

[kitpw]

27 minutes ago, airnimal said:

So new brass strip was drilled and turned down brass pins were produced. I will put them in the Birchwood black before glueing them on. The van will need some of the paintwork touching up and new number plates added.

...nice job!

 

[airnimal]

I have nearly finished the pair of vans  with just one requiring a pair of numberplates.  I thought I had the necessary plates but I was mistaken.  Despite turning over my workshop looking for the missing plates I realised I had already used them on a previous build. 

So continuing the theme of finishing models already built will be a pair of bolster wagons requiring the load fixing down and numberplates adding.  I am not sure how to fix this tree trunk securely so that it won't cause problems when  it is running in the middle of a train.  The bolsters are very free to move so I tried to use a hot glue gun to stick it to them before adding the chains and shackles. The hot glue gun didn't work as well as I wanted, so I have used Evostick which seems to have worked. Only time will tell.

Trying to secure the chains is proving more difficult than I expected.  So at present it is work in progress. 

[airnimal]

I have managed to chain down the tree trunk to the bolsters.  This was quite fiddly job trying to keep the chains from being loose so they look like they are doing the job properly. I have drilled a couple of holes underneath the log and pinned the start of the chain before rapping it around the log and pinning it back to the same place. Looking at photographs I realised I have missed off a couple of large bolts on the headstock. Do I have the will to go back and put them on which would involve more painting which I hate or ignore them. I don't know how I missed them as well as a second label clip. I must admit that as I get older I don't have the necessary desire to have 100% accuracy as I used to have. Standards are probably slipping !

 

I still need to do the numberplates and the tare weights and tone down the paintwork before it is finished.

[railtec-models]

On 03/05/2023 at 13:52, ian@stenochs said:

 

Here is an example, big nuts and bolts on the smokebox saddle and frames and smaller ones on the cylinder head and buffer body.  All look different to the rivets on the buffer plank.

 

Just to update this tangent, I mentioned that I would run some tests for nuts and bolts. I've made a first test, photo below, which I think shows some promise (it was taken on a phone so excuse some areas of the image being out of focus). Using a magnifying glass for the majority, all but the final element on the very far right are distinguishable enough in my opinion from rivets. Even with magnification on the very last element, there just isn't enough of a distinction between a hex bolt with a "knob" and a rivet, but that last one is only 0.4mm diam across the flats and the knob is a mere 0.29mm diam. It really is microscopic and the laptop keyboard is shown for context. Element M is 0.48mm across the flats on the hex bolt, so anything that diam and above I think are worthwhile.

 

I've Googled to some extent to see if I can get the correct terminology for these, and I'm still little the wiser. I understand the bolt (male) is threaded into the nut (female), but is there a better description for these other than "nuts and bolts"?

 

Also:

- I'll be releasing these both as hex bolts and square bolts;

- These could be made such that the orientation of the nuts(?!) is different, but would that be more commonplace than all uniform?

 

On a related note the catalog of 3d rivets has just been galvanised with another 135 new items in the shape of catalogs for 2mm, HO, 1:35 and 1:16 scales ( @Gopher you can maybe see where I'm going with this).

 

https://www.railtec-models.com/rivets/

 

 

Disclaimer: I know there are a large number of people waiting on other projects to be progressed / receive a response on. Things do move in tandem as I typically have multiple projects on-the-go in parallel.

 

 

[Compound2632]

18 minutes ago, railtec-models said:

"nuts and bolts"

 

... seems to be the correct technical terminology!

[airnimal]

I had a day to myself so I cracked on with the numbers and tare weights. It is only when you look at photographs do you see that not ever thing is lined up perfectly.  There is just a bit of weathering to finally finish this pair. Am I happy with them ?  I am not sure. I can't blame anyone else for the missed bits or inaccuracies because most of it from my own hand. 

[MarcD]

Are you bring them on Saturday?

 

Marc