Exhill Works and other adventures in 7/8ths

[Keith Addenbrooke]

2 hours ago, John Besley said:

With the lettering now done the PW coach had its paintwork faded by washing on a thin coat of light green, ready for the next stage of lettering for its change of identity, this is shown alongside the guard coach to show the difference

 

 

Interesting - I particularly like the way the lettering on the Departmental coach is in its ‘original’ position to emphasise the change of use (I’d not doubt have centred it without thinking).  Could I ask how you did the fading of the paint - clearly a very effective technique?  Just wondered.  Thanks, Keith.

 

 

[John Besley]

Hello Keith

8 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

 

Interesting - I particularly like the way the lettering on the Departmental coach is in its ‘original’ position to emphasise the change of use (I’d not doubt have centred it without thinking).  Could I ask how you did the fading of the paint - clearly a very effective technique?  Just wondered.  Thanks, Keith.

 

 

Many thanks, I particularly wanted to emphasis the origin of the PW workman's conveyance as a modified coach body, so made sure that the lettering was in its original position, this was then satin varnished as the coaches.

 

Once dry for a couple days useing a wide flat brush washed on thinned Humdrol light green this was simply washed on making sure the brush lines where vertical, to give the sun bleached look of green paint that has started to fade thus losing its original lustre.

 

I shall review this in a day or so and go over it again to lighten it further.

 

Watch this space

 

 

Edited March 23 by John Besley
Schpelling

[John Besley]

Gave the PW coach a second wash over with thinned green paint this had the effect of degrading the Exhill transfers somewhat as a bonus when I started to wipe off the thinners so all good so far, painted the floors of all the caches slate grey mixed with earth tones as well.

 

 

[John Besley]

Gave the PW coach a covering of gloss varnish first thing then in the evening added some rust streaks over the lettering ready for more varnish to seal this.

 

Next set about making up 7 sets of vac pipes out of the castings these where silver soldered together so a bracket could be fabricated and soft soldered to the vertical pipework.

 

The vac pipe hose is made from 0.45mm steel wire spun in then lathe around a brass rod and cut to length -  a 36” (920mm)length of wire will give two of 1.1/4” (30mm) of hose pipe ... I did discover that the lamp bracket on the guards coach is now in the wrong place so was unceremoniously levered orf’ and will be replaced with a new one the other side.

 

 

 

 

[John Besley]

With the varnish dry the PW DEPARTMENT lettering and DS No was applied once this was dry the coach was sprayed in matt acrylic varnish – more by accident than design this seemed to affect the enamel paint causing some of it to ‘craze’ which is fine as far as I am concerned as this only seemed to affect the edges of the side panels, when I faded the green I made sure that this was much more pronounced on the top surfaces as these would be bleached by the sun and rain more than the sides which I graduated.

 

 

The solebars and coach ends where repainted in a grey black to match the faded look I was after and the rust steaks on the sides are more apparent now as these go under the new fresh looking lettering. The vac pipes are now in satin black as is the new lamp bracket ready to be fitted shortly.

[ColinK]

Great work, I do like the latest photo which looks like the bodies are supported by brickss.  Suggests someone has nicked the wheels,; is your workshop in Liverpool?

[John Besley]

22 hours ago, ColinK said:

Great work, I do like the latest photo which looks like the bodies are supported by brickss.  Suggests someone has nicked the wheels,; is your workshop in Liverpool?

 

Actually the supports are from a unwanted kids puzzle game of wooden shapes that slotted together .... I see what you mean about bricks 

 

Edited March 28 by John Besley

[John Besley]

The vac pipes have now all been fitted minus the hoses for the moment, and some additional paintwork on the PW coach dealt with last night. 

 

Exhill Works is closed for Easter ... normal service will resume shortly - please do not ajust your set

[DLT]

Stunning work John,

Dave.

[John Besley]

Spray matt varnished the coach ends with acrylic over the enamel which crazed some of the paintwork nicely to scale then, carried out further weathering, adding in panel line dirt and fitted the door handles along with the seat bases and backs...

 

Couldn’t resist a sitting these on the track to see what they looked like so far... more weathering required for wear and tear on the inside before I permanently fit the chassis to the bodies...

 

 

 

[Fishplate]

Very nice 👍

[John Besley]

 

[John Besley]

Umm ive just listed my first Exhill video, please let me have your comment good or bad so I can improve, I will remove this one in due cource as we go along

[Fishplate]

8 hours ago, John Besley said:

my first Exhill video,

 

Brilliant !

[Gedward]

 

Quite brilliant old boy!

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Very enjoyable, and well presented too.  On video some of the details really stand out - even found myself thinking, “I hope those chickens don’t stray onto the track when the train is coming!”  Thanks for sharing it here, Keith.

[Pete Haitch]

Brilliant - thank you for sharing - loved it.

[John Besley]

Thank you, was the intro too long, boring, too loud, etc. how did it look on your devices.

 

Be honest as this is a learning curve.

 

I will create more covering how I've built details, made rolling stock in addition to Exhill I'll also be loading Uskin Models build videos (when I've made them) etc

 

 

Edited April 5 by John Besley

[Keith Addenbrooke]

1 hour ago, John Besley said:

Thank you, was the intro too long, boring, too loud, etc. how did it look on your devices.

Having got to the point where I was watching too many videos on YouTube, sufficient for me to actually give it up for Lent in order to have a break, I’d say there is no one perfect way to present a video - certainly not to satisfy everybody.  Personally, I liked the backstory introduction, especially as this is the first video (so no prior knowledge should be assumed).

 

The film was not too long, the camera was steady, and there was no repetitive talking over the pictures, so I was able to enjoy the film.  Videos explaining builds can be harder to make, based on what I’ve seen, and may need more practice,but as an appetiser for a new channel I thought this was fine, Keith.

[Pete Haitch]

2 hours ago, John Besley said:

Thank you, was the intro too long, boring, too loud, etc. how did it look on your devices.

 

Be honest as this is a learning curve.

 

I will create more covering how I've built details, made rolling stock in addition to Exhill I'll also be loading Uskin Models build videos (when I've made them) etc

 

 

 

I enjoyed the intro as it gave a chance to catch up on the back story.  It looked and sounded great on my laptop. I also enjoyed finding the Uskin Models site - wow. Looking forward to more as when your time and mojo permit.

[John Besley]

Thank you for the comments, this was shot when running on DC, with DCC I expect to have better speed control and will cut out a spot of camera shake when I paused it, this was shot on my phone mounted on a tripod bracket.

 

The introductory sounds where pulled from a video I shot at Swanage and edited of 34070 Manston ... 

 

I have watched countless military modelling videos and some are put over better than others, so will be picking up ideas from them, I also will aim to keep the books video to around 10 to 15 min so as not to get boring, rather short snappy shots of how something was built rather than a long yawn 🥱 will proberly use text instead of voice overs, although I could add these in on top.

 

 

Edited April 5 by John Besley
Schpelling

[John Besley]

In between working on a Uskin video as part of this, painted up a batch of tools for the PW gang ready to be loaded aboard once some other details are completed.

 

 

 

Edited April 9 by John Besley
Correction

[Fishplate]

Very, very nice. 

 

Probably not enough verys to be fair . . . .

[John Besley]

 

and heres how we did this...

[John Besley]

While making a start on the next Exhill Works video this gave me the opitunity to have a good play run and realised the limitations on the small sector plate the otherside of the workshop with the additonal stock now built I had a storage or shunting problem, namly where do I park them up to stop cluttering up the yard.

 

Well the original plan was to extend through the 'hole in the wall' and use that as a additonal yard, when I laid the track in the Exhill Works yard itself id alrady thought this through (that was good) and prewired along flying lead to conect the two section up. a while ago I set up the levels in the partion wall so they where level and made a start on a screen for the plasterboard to give it some depth, I never did progress this further as we put our house on the market a year ago expecting to move ASAP - well were still here... 

 

At the same time I'd chopped up a scrap Mamod traction engine to use the smokebox mounting this on a length of plastic pipe and making a dummy firebox out of plywood, this was to be hidden in the inside of the stud walling as if this was anther workshop.

 

So today I dug out a short radius point picked up a couple of lengths of Peco 100 streamline from Becra in Newton Abbot and set this up, glued a short link section of track inside the studwall cavity and fitted the other track to this for a two road fiddle yard....

 

 

 

Tested this and soldered up the fishplates as I am not fixing the track down it will just float on the board untill it come up when we hopefully sell.  made up another dummy workshop wall and set this up to be fitted inside the stud walling - all of this is a bit of behind the scenes stagework - not quite what if seems, but if it gives the illusion then thats a result

 

 

 

Edited April 13 by John Besley
Photo corrections