Ratio; why do I bother?

[The Johnster]

The perpetrator here is a Ratio Nissen Hut, which I thought might make a good drinking club to fill a space on Cwmdimbath.  Now, I've moaned here before about Ratio kits, so I really ought to know better; platform lamp swan necks were so fragile that half of them fell apart before I'd assembled them and out of a dozen lamps in the pack 3 are fully assembled successfully (I'll do it properly next time with brass wire), the windows on my signal box were next to impossible to assemble due to poor instructions, and the surface didn't want to take paint, and the 4 wheel coaches have flimsy underframes, but I knew that 45 years ago...

 

The Nissen is in some ways a good little pack, enough to make 1 long or up to 3 shorter huts, but what idiot designed it?  The only deatailed polystryrene plastic parts are the end pieces, which are nice enough mouldings, but the structure of the thing is very ropey, relying on side pieces which do not maintain a rigid framework along the building and do not even form a right angle support for the end pieces and the roof is a complete joke, very thin plastic which is barely capable of supporting it's own negligible weight, never mind form a structure as the only part that runs the entire length of the building.  It is thin enough to let daylight through.  It will probably resist taking paint as well.

 

I have half built the little bu**er and will glue the roof on tomorrow; the pub is beckoning now!  You have to cut the roof to size/shape and hold it in place against it's natural springiness while the poly goes off; good grief!  I think I can make a reasonably successful model out of it, with some potentially useful parts like doors left over, but why o why do I persist in buying this rubbish.  I keep saying I'll never do it again but my 4 wheelers need a brake 3rd when I can get around to it.

 

Rant over.  For now...

[gobbler]

Just wondering.......

 

With all your painting and gluing problems.......

 

Do you wash your plastic kits in washing up liquid and let them dry thoroughly before assembly?

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[Phil Traxson]

Just wondering.......

 

With all your painting and gluing problems.......

 

Do you wash your plastic kits in washing up liquid and let them dry thoroughly before assembly?

 

Cheers

 

Scott

 

If he does they are probably contaminated with lanolin from the washing up liquid, the magic additive that keeps your hands soft when you do the dishes, it takes neither glue or paint.

 

Phil t.

[DCB]

The Nissen Hut  is not an easy thing to make a kit of.  The curved roof has to be supplied flat so has to be thin.    The full size Nissen hut is a great picece of kit ideal for emergencies where people lose their homes, Charities send tents which last a month or two. Nissen Huts last 70 years.    The hut consists of curved ribs which support the corrugated galvanised steel sheet and the clever bit is the base of the ribs are tensioned by galvanised steel wires under the floor forming a D shape. The ends are not structural. nor does it need foundations.   Totally ideal for earthquake areas. I helped preserve one a few years ago, it came from Chedworth Airfield and was used as an open ended farm store for 60 years.   

Maybe the Ratio roof over a proper structure of ribs made from Z gauge rail would work.  

Maybe the corrugated plastic from the mints we consumed in vast quantities at Christmas would work as a roof and forget involving Ratio at all.

[olivegreen]

If he does they are probably contaminated with lanolin from the washing up liquid, the magic additive that keeps your hands soft when you do the dishes, it takes neither glue or paint.

 

Phil t.

 

True.

I use Barkeeper's Friend sparingly. I know it contains a soapy substance, too, but with good rinsing it has never caused me a problem.

[brossard]

I tend to use window cleaner, called Windex here, for cleaning parts.  It's the blue stuff.  I've always primed things before painting.  Gives a good key and evens out the underlying colour.  I would use aerosol white paint on signal box windows.  I've built Ratio signal boxes and windows are a devil to get right.  You can get etched brass windows.

 

I'm with you on the fragility of lamps.  I have a bunch of WM swanneck lamps which break if you look at them.  Brass wire would be so much better.

 

John

[The Johnster]

Washing kit parts before assembly has never occurred to me, but will now, lanolin or not.  I have finished the kit as 2 buildings, one of which will be Cwmdimbath Non-Political Club (overthrow of capitalism discussed on a nightly basis) and a smaller one will be the store for it.  The kit was awkward but not difficult, and bending the corrugated iron was not as faffy as I thought it would be.  I have started painting them and am happy to retract my comment about it taking paint; a coat of acrylic matt black has gone on easily enough and is going off as I type!  But long pieces of angled plastic to support the roof and that the internal supports could slot into, which could be cut to the desired length, would be far easier and structurally better than the separate pieces supplied, and would fit in the box!

 

The store has the double doors facing the same way on both ends so that one end opens outwards and the other inwards, if that makes sense.  I've been looking at online images and many huts seem to have had pipework or trunking to the side of the door frame sticking up; telephone connection perhaps, or even a stench pipe for a latrine.  Presumably my club will need some sort of heating, a cast iron stove probably, and ventilators, not to mention mains water and sewage/drainage outlets, not to mention possible overhead poles for the electricity supply.  This is the sort of thing that can lead to a lot of minor detail modelling; maybe a sack truck left outside the store, and bins at the back.  It needs a board proclaiming it's identity and specifying member's only, and fire exit signs as well.  There will be drawn curtains in the windows; this is the sort of place that does lock ins!

Edited January 29, 2018 by The Johnster

[spikey]

Just found this thread, on the very day that I've vowed to never buy another Ratio kit.  This comes after realising that one half of each sprue of the GWR platform fencing is out, so that if all four lengths are assembled with the tops level, the bottoms aren't.  That, and the fact that even these mouldings exhibit the Ratio trademark of extraneous raised cylindrical bits. 

 

These spurious projections are caused by what the moulding trade refers to as sunk ejector pins, which is ultimately down to running a mould well past the point at which it should have been pulled for rectification.  A good example is the 0.25" diameter projections on the inside of the engine shed walls, either side of all 8 windows.  Admittedly you can't normally see those once the kit's built, but you can definitely see the ones on the platform fencing!

 

I guess this bugs me more than it would most folk on account of my toolmaking/moulding shop background, but I've had it with Ratio now.  Anybody want a new and unused 513 Provender/Goods Store and/or a 525 Coal/Builders Merchants at a good price?

Edited January 30, 2018 by spikey

[Captain Kernow]

I have started painting them and am happy to retract my comment about it taking paint; a coat of acrylic matt black has gone on easily enough and is going off as I type! 

Would it help the top coat(s) to adhere even better, if you were to spray the completed structure with some Halfords aerosol grey or red oxide primer first?

[Wheatley]

These spurious projections are caused by what the moulding trade refers to as sunk ejector pins, which is ultimately down to running a mould well past the point at which it should have been pulled for rectification. 

 

Not necessarily an ancient mould problem, I've just finished removing a load from a 2016-tooled Airfix kit (Lanc bombay doors).

[Castle]

Would it help the top coat(s) to adhere even better, if you were to spray the completed structure with some Halfords aerosol grey or red oxide primer first?

Hi All,

 

I agree with the Captain here - take it one stage further and use the same company’s matt black afterwards too, inside and out and that will stop any light bleeding through.

 

I hope this helps!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[spikey]

Not necessarily an ancient mould problem, I've just finished removing a load from a 2016-tooled Airfix kit (Lanc bombay doors).

It's not the age of the tooling per se that matters, just the state in which it's allowed to still run.  I've known brand-new tooling develop the same issue only a matter of hours after commissioning, because of nothing more than incompetent setup and want of proper supervision.

 

In this as in most things, though, manufacturers will get away with whatever they can, and I'd bet that for every punter who moans about this problem, there's at least 50 who say nowt and keep on buying the kits.

[The Johnster]

Well, if nothing else this thread has taught me more than I knew about tooling and mounding issues!  I am away for a few days now, and have not progressed the Nissens beyond a coat of matt black acrylics for the roofs; I need to go shopping for brick colour before continuing.  I sloshed the black on fairly thick, and it covers admirably, though should I decide to put lighting in at any time in the future it'll no doubt need another coat or two; at the moment light bleed is not an issue.  I also have to scenic up the bare site that they are going to sit on; it is a piece of thick card packing that forms a sort of fillet between the angle of two baseboards and has been sealed with pva in preparation.

 

As land ownership has been an issue in the British Isles since the early Bronze Age and particularly since the Norman invasion, a fencing project will have to delineate the plot from railway land.  I will try to avoid Ratio fencing this time...

[Reorte]

If he does they are probably contaminated with lanolin from the washing up liquid, the magic additive that keeps your hands soft when you do the dishes, it takes neither glue or paint.

 

Phil t.

AIUI cheap own brand supermarket washing up liquid might be free of it.

[PatB]

AIUI cheap own brand supermarket washing up liquid might be free of it.

 

Or use something like washing soda (sodium carbonate, soda ash) instead, followed by a thorough rinse under the hot (but not too hot)  tap.

[olebut]

I have just bought a Ratio Nissen hut kit as I wanted a larger one than the Metcalfe one of which I have just built 2 .

 

Reading the comments I am minded to think I wish I had bought 2 Metcalfe and modified them 

 

but have the Ratio now so I guess its see where we go with it 

 

Why do you wash them yes OK thick question probably thank you 

[Stubby47]

I made my own.

 

 

[Steamport Southport]

5 hours ago, olebut said:

I have just bought a Ratio Nissen hut kit as I wanted a larger one than the Metcalfe one of which I have just built 2 .

 

Reading the comments I am minded to think I wish I had bought 2 Metcalfe and modified them 

 

but have the Ratio now so I guess its see where we go with it 

 

Why do you wash them yes OK thick question probably thank you 

 

Why do you wash plastic kits?

 

Because when they are made they have a type of oil which is used to release them from the moulds and often it remains on the kits. Its a bit greasy and sometimes makes it difficult to glue or paint.

 

You just need to wash the sprues in a tiny bit of washing up liquid and lukewarm water. Rinse off with water and leave to dry.

 

It's even now recommended in Airfix kit instructions.

 

 

Jason

[MartinWales]

Phew! Thought it was just me!

Some of their wagon kits, in particular the SR 12 T Ply Side Vans, ain't easy to do.....

[The Evil Bus Driver]

On 31/01/2018 at 14:42, The Johnster said:

Well, if nothing else this thread has taught me more than I knew about tooling and mounding issues!  I am away for a few days now, and have not progressed the Nissens beyond a coat of matt black acrylics for the roofs; I need to go shopping for brick colour before continuing.  I sloshed the black on fairly thick, and it covers admirably, though should I decide to put lighting in at any time in the future it'll no doubt need another coat or two; at the moment light bleed is not an issue.  I also have to scenic up the bare site that they are going to sit on; it is a piece of thick card packing that forms a sort of fillet between the angle of two baseboards and has been sealed with pva in preparation.

 

As land ownership has been an issue in the British Isles since the early Bronze Age and particularly since the Norman invasion, a fencing project will have to delineate the plot from railway land.  I will try to avoid Ratio fencing this time...

Did you try using a rubber band to  hold it in place? That's what I'd possibly do although I don't know if I'll need one on the layout I'm planning.

 

Btw If you're from Cardiff last time I was there we stopped off in Chippy Lane on the way back to the station after the rugby. The one that does the onion bhjajis the size of cricket balls. Yum.

 

Actually I've just thought of an idea for a Nissen hut...

Edited May 19, 2020 by The Evil Bus Driver

[The Johnster]

On 28/04/2020 at 16:25, MartinWales said:

Phew! Thought it was just me!

Some of their wagon kits, in particular the SR 12 T Ply Side Vans, ain't easy to do.....

I think I'd be adapting the body to fit on a Baccy or even Parky chassis.  A plywood Ashford is something I'd rather like...

[MartinWales]

2 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

I think I'd be adapting the body to fit on a Baccy or even Parky chassis.  A plywood Ashford is something I'd rather like...

Well,it's funny you should say that........

[The Johnster]

10 hours ago, The Evil Bus Driver said:

Did you try using a rubber band to  hold it in place? That's what I'd possibly do although I don't know if I'll need one on the layout I'm planning.

 

Btw If you're from Cardiff last time I was there we stopped off in Chippy Lane on the way back to the station after the rugby. The one that does the onion bhjajis the size of cricket balls. Yum.

 

Actually I've just thought of an idea for a Nissen hut...

Chippy Lane always makes me think of a radio interview with Charlotte Church some time ago shortly after she'd 'got together' with Gavin Henson.  Henson had just virtually singlehandedly smashed England to pieces in a perfect day of rugby, it was 2am, Chippy Lane was crowded and our girl was walking down it with some mates, curry and chips in hand when Gavin came out of the Charleston steak house at the St Mary Street end.  In her own words, and with delightfully brutal Canton girl honesty, she 'said to myself, I'm 'aavin' that'!.  As good as her word, chwarae teg nawr innit...

[The Evil Bus Driver]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

Chippy Lane always makes me think of a radio interview with Charlotte Church some time ago shortly after she'd 'got together' with Gavin Henson.  Henson had just virtually singlehandedly smashed England to pieces in a perfect day of rugby, it was 2am, Chippy Lane was crowded and our girl was walking down it with some mates, curry and chips in hand when Gavin came out of the Charleston steak house at the St Mary Street end.  In her own words, and with delightfully brutal Canton girl honesty, she 'said to myself, I'm 'aavin' that'!.  As good as her word, chwarae teg nawr innit...

Heh and the rest, as they say, is history. She seems the kind if girl who gets what she wants. she managed to turn from an angel, very high brow and wholesome into, well, something else (Bit like Miley Cyrus. Imagine those two out on the town). And revealed herself to have a mean right hook too. He was a brilliant long range kicker. If Stephen Jones wasn't sure, Henson would get it and nail it every time.

 

Did you try pre-rolling the roof? That might help.

Edited May 19, 2020 by The Evil Bus Driver

[The Johnster]

I can't remember what I did now, but the Nissens are complete and form the bar and storeroom of the Cwmdimbath Non-political Sports and Social club, where the overthrow of capitalism is plotted on a nightly basis but nothing ever done about it.  Lock ins are frequent, and you can probably drink 'on the gate' like a pub I frequented in my railway career in the 70s, the Craddock, long gone now, Canton Shed's very own pub.  

 

The gate was a system of tick, credit.  You wanted a beer and had no money, so you asked to go on the gate.  Your beer was served, and your name put up on a blackboard behind the bar, and a line chalked.  Another beer, another line, until there were 5, and and then another 2 for the uprights at each end.  But the next one, that was the diagonal and you got no more beer until you'd paid for the 7 you owed.  It was fair, open, publicly shameful, and very useful on the day before pay day...  I never saw or heard of it anywhere else except the Swan in Eastbrook, where the Craddock's landord went afterwards.