Rob's 7mm Rolling Stock Workbench

[jazz]

Rob, your ingenuity never fails to amaze me.  Lovely signs. And came just at the right times I was considering doing similar for my new layout. i.e using the web and reaching them.

 

Looking forward to seeing more.

[Mike Boucher]

 

The sign bug seems to have bitten....

 

No business of old is complete without a few enamel signs.

 

 

They started as images downloaded from the web, resized and printed on my laserjet.

 

Then they were cut out and stuck with pva, to some offcuts of 20 thou styrene sheet. I have an old washing up bowl under the table where my Silhouette is into which I place offcuts. Besides being a tight Yorkshireman, such is the ability with Silhouette Studio to place the object on the cutting mat where you like, you can do test cuts on the smallest of pieces.

 

Once dry, having cut them out and stuck them last night, I then stuck a strip of sellotape over them as being simpler than messing about varnish something so small. I then trimmed the excess sellotape and cut the signs from the strip that I had stuck them to. 

 

Finally I really wanted them to show their age a bit, because one of the signs has a date of 1911 on it so by grouping they would have been around a while.

 

The aging was done with the aid of a strong light, a magnifier and a very fine brush along with an enlarged online image of a battered enamel sign as a guide. - My eyes still ache...

 

 

 

I scanned them again including a ruler to show just how small they are.

 

And finally I scanned them a third time at a lower resolution to give an idea of how they will look from normal viewing distances.

 

 

There really needs to be a "WOW" button for posts like this.  Fantastic piece of work.

[Rob Pulham]

Rob, your ingenuity never fails to amaze me.  Lovely signs. And came just at the right times I was considering doing similar for my new layout. i.e using the web and reaching them.

 

Looking forward to seeing more.

 

Thanks Ken, 

 

I am glad you found the description useful.

There really needs to be a "WOW" button for posts like this.  Fantastic piece of work.

 

Thanks Mike,  it's very kind of you to say so

[Rob Pulham]

Late last week I managed to get all the Signs in situ, her's where we are at.

 

 

[Rob Pulham]

A few posts back Dave mentioned ghost writing. I liked the idea but then thought that during my modelling period the ghosts would still be alive.

 

So an image search on't tinterweb later had me a wall with a white painted advert for a long defunct local brewery. The image I found was taken at a slight angle so the image was manipulated with GIMP, sized and then printed onto a sheet of standard office paper. To get the image onto the brick work I coated the back using some "chalk" marker pens that I picked up in the stationary section in Boyes with chalk marks on wagons in mind. They are marketed as being for writing adverts on windows and blackboards.

 

Once the back was thoroughly coated I then drew over the image side with a pencil leaving an impression much like using tracing paper. This was then carefully painted in and a slight shadow painted around some of the letters as in the original. I am really rather pleased with the result.

 

[Deano747]

Yet another need for the "WOW" button!!! 

 

Regards, Deano.

[Rob Pulham]

A few posts back I showed some veteran cars that I had acquired. While browsing the bring and buy stall at Keighley I spied a couple of Matchbox models of Yesteryear trucks at a quid a piece. One was a 1927 Talbot van which was is a rather grim yellow bakery livery and the other was a 1918 Crossley in a red coal and coke merchant livery. 

 

Both looked very toy like so I thought that they would be ideal to practice painting and glazing on without much loss if my efforts went south. They are supposedly 1:48 scale but to be honest when compared to the Danbury Mint vehicles they don't look smaller.

 

I still have to paint the canvas tilt and the moulded sacks of coal for the load in the back. The latter may get binned if I can't make them look a bit more realistic than they do at present.

 

Paints are from the various Vallejo ranges varnished with several coats of Johnsons Klear (the original version - I think that I managed to get what's probably a lifetimes supply before it disappeared from supermarket shelves)

 

 

 

 

 

Next is the Danbury Mint MG SS/100

 

 

 

 

 

The eagle eyed amongst you will note that the MG isn't glazed, sadly the glazing sheets that I had to hand (courtesy of Adrian Cherry, thanks again Adrian) was too thick because the MG has windscreen wipers and what I take to be a rear view mirror. Which mean that whatever glazing is used will need to be pretty thin.

 

I have also noticed that I haven't picked out the dials etc on the dashboard after painting it to represent the walnut etc. that they used for such things in the past.

 

More on the other cars to follow.

[Mikkel]

Hi Rob, I've just been marvelling at your arches workshops and all the signage. Apart from the adverts, the name boards were of interest as I need one for a local jam manufacturer. Thanks again for all the inspiration.

[Rob Pulham]

Veteran Cars part two. - 

1936 Jaguar SS/100

 

 

 

 

1909 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost

 

 

 

 

These are again painted with Vallejo acrylics. The silver on the "Silver Ghost" is "Chain Mail" metallic silver, which was let down for spraying using Vallejo's own thinners, and once prepared it sprayed beautifully.

[Rob Pulham]

Further progress on the Crossley truck sees it just needing a number plate and a further mucky wash over the coal sacks.

 

 

 

 

I have to say that although you don't get much for a quid these days this particular quid has been value for money

 

I am undecided as to whether to add some sort of business name transfers to the sides of the body.

[N15class]

Very good. To me the sacks need to be brown with a hint of black.

One of my jobs was washing coal sacks (not to clean them but to make them go stiff. Easier to carry) on a Saturday morning for my father. Not nice on day when you had to break the ice in drum first.

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Peter,

 

All I can remember is the gleam from the coal dust which seemed to make the sacks sparkle.

[Mikkel]

That does looks excellent. If you're up for it, I personally think a business name along the sides would add the final touch. 

[Rob Pulham]

That does looks excellent. If you're up for it, I personally think a business name along the sides would add the final touch. 

 

I have to agree with you Mikkel,  I will give it a bit of thought.

[Rob Pulham]

As alluded to on the Silhouette cutter thread, the last couple of weekends have seen some more scratch building going on.

 

Having painted up my cars I need something to carry them on and Open Carriage Trucks fit the bill as being a little more in keeping than machinery wagons or Lowmac's. A look through my trust Historic Carriage volumes gave me examples of GNR and NER so I made start on a couple of GNR examples.

First the 21' version whose Diagram number I cannot recall and I left my book up north.

 

 

Followed by the earlier and shorter (18') Diagram 375

 

 

 

 

I have another 21 footer started too. All the hinges and details were drawing in Inkscape and cut on the Cameo.

[Rob Pulham]

And finally, to bring things right up to date I also seemed to have found the time to have built four Parkside van kits almost to completion.

 

 

Left to right - LNER 12 ton unfitted van, LNER Fish van (the later type that were ultimately rebuilt into the ones that became known as Blue Spot) and an LMS 12 Ton Van (Diag. D1664). What's missing from the line up is an LMS Beer Van (Diag. D1817 ). All are mostly out of the box builds and just need grab handles and guard irons on the underframe fittings etc. except the LNER unfitted van

 

 

 

I have on the go an EX NER van which had the external sliding end hatches that I still need to make up. Reading through Vol 4a of Tatlow led me to some of the earlier versions of the later LNER van having them too before they moved to having internal hatches that the kit portrays so I decided to have a go at making them. These are done by hand without the aid of the Cameo but now I know what I am about I will draw some up for other examples that needs them.

 

[brossard]

Nice to see these Rob.  I have a Slaters Std BR van and Parkside LNER van on the go at the moment.

 

John

[coachmann]

Enjoyed going through this thread. Time I started thinking about building some wagons.

[Rob Pulham]

Nice to see these Rob.  I have a Slaters Std BR van and Parkside LNER van on the go at the moment.

 

John

Hi John, 

I do like both ranges albeit the Slaters opens take a bit more work than the Parkside examples to bring them fully up to the level of internal detail that I like. It's a shame that unlike Parkside they haven't added to the range in recent years (to my knowledge that is).

[Rob Pulham]

Enjoyed going through this thread. Time I started thinking about building some wagons.

 

Thanks Larry, I am enjoying your 7mm threads too. 

 

I look forward to your take on wagons, I must admit that they are my favourite items of stock to build, so much variety.

[brossard]

Hi John, 

I do like both ranges albeit the Slaters opens take a bit more work than the Parkside examples to bring them fully up to the level of internal detail that I like. It's a shame that unlike Parkside they haven't added to the range in recent years (to my knowledge that is).

 

Ah yes, I've read articles in MRJ that complain a bit about the lack of internal detail of Slaters wagons, so you have to do that yourself.  I'm still new to this game, but new kits do seem to be slow in coming.  Mind you I'm planning a small layout so I don't need a lot of stock.  Then again our needs and wants can be two different things. 

 

John

[LaScala]

 

Veteran Cars part two. - 

1936 Jaguar SS/100

 

 

 

 

1909 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost

 

 

 

 

These are again painted with Vallejo acrylics. The silver on the "Silver Ghost" is "Chain Mail" metallic silver, which was let down for spraying using Vallejo's own thinners, and once prepared it sprayed beautifully.

 

Rob,

 

Love the Ghost and the MG but what happened to the SS100?  Looks like it ran up the back of the Crossley.  One of the most beautiful cars of all time made to look like a bad 70's kit car.

 

I too have use the Vallejo paints and been very happy.  The Ghost does look very good.

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Hugh,

 

Re the SS100,  you are not on your own with the view that it's a bit scrunched up. The good news for me is that we generally view such things from above and from above it doesn't look as bad.

[Rob Pulham]

Then again our needs and wants can be two different things. 

 

John

 

That's one of the reasons that I got the Silhouette cutter, I want so many wagons that kits don't exist for so now I can produce my own. Another plus for Parkside is that they will sell sprues from their kits (so keep your instructions so you know what's on each sprue) and they are very reasonable - the last ones that I bought worked out at £1.30 per sprue but that might depend on how many you buy (I had just over £60 worth in that lot). 

 

As an example the longer of the two GNR OCT's back up the thread have Parkside W Iron with J hangers from the PD LNER Horsebox Kit I have sprues for the brake gear to add when I get to it too.

[brossard]

That's very good to know Rob.  The underframe details are difficult to reproduce when scratchbuilding.  As far as I can tell, the sprues tend to be standard to cover most kits.

 

Must look into this cutter business, but for now I have plenty of kits to do.

 

John