Havenhouse - the reboot

[JCL]

No Christmas Baileys for me last night, so I splashed out on some Christmas Twinings tea - how much? This is because I was experimenting with duckets. I've started the last vehicle sides, the diagram 303 brake, and duckets are an immovable object in the way to eventually completing the rake. I was wondering if the 1mm thickness of the MDF coupled with its stiffness would help me to fairly easily (I say that...) put together a ducket. Now, unfortunately the cutter has the shakes at the moment and is cutting bumpy lines, and as this is an experiment, I'm afraid I didn't take due care and attention with the glue, so I'm afraid the resulting model looks a bit mucky. Hope you get the gist though.

 

First of all the parts. The MDF on the left, and the 110lb card from Staples on the right. After I took the photo I realised that I hadn't done the cut out for the ducket in the other two layers, so it was out with the ruler and knife.

 

 

The sides, top and bracing of the ducket were put together first with Elmer's tacky PVA. From the top picture you can see that the sides had tabs. I made sure that the tabs were placed where the sides were at their weakest - the bottom and next to the window. I also scribed the sides and added the holes for the grab rails.

 

You can also see the top layer of packing. Until now, on the other test builds of the toilet 1st I've been adding this after the MDF carcass has been put together, but it makes more sense to do it at this stage.

 

 

Next, the bottom spacers have been added, and the layers have been glued, aligned and held firmly with bulldog clips. If I was doing it properly, I'd use a strip of card under the clips to stop the layers from being creased (you can see this creasing in the penultimate photo).

 

 

Another foldup! It's a little time consuming to get the front of the ducket on square, so I made this a foldup item as once it's square, the second layer, being folded up, must be square - or squareabouts. It was glued, and then held in position with a bulldog clip and my thumb to keep the profile correct until the glue had dried. I'm catching up on Sherlock at the moment, so I had something to do while otherwise incapacitated.

 

 

The side before being undercoated, and with the excess cut off the bottom of the ducket - it's still a little too long, so I could shave a bit more off the bottom - it is in line with the thickness of the rest of the side though. You can see full horror of the glue and the soot mixing!

 

 

The back showing the ducket sides in the slots. The tabs are the exact thickness of the slots to make it easy to see that they are all the way in.

 

 

With a first undercoat ready for painting.

 

 

I will have to tweak it a little bit and of course, I need to glue up properly, but it's absolutely solid.

 

cheers

 

Jason

Edited December 19, 2016 by JCL

[JCL]

Finally today (probably), a quick coat of Vallejo light orange paint, which has made it look a bit more  presentable.

 

 

The first test of the all 3rd to diagram 245. I don't need to worry about openings above the windows on this one,  and the seats will be a lot easier The vent slots are in there, but I did them on the wrong layer - doh!

 

Edited December 19, 2016 by JCL

[JCL]

I thought I'd add just two more posts before Christmas. I hope you all have a lovely time. In the spirit of giving, I've attached a couple of files to this post that might be of interest to someone.

 

The first is the ducket test file. I've added it as a pdf and an svg flle (that can be opened in software like Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape). I did it in MDF and card, but of course, you could use whatever floats your boat. Note that the MDF slots and tabs are 1mm thick. All of the parts in the left column were done on card - about .015" thick, and the MDF parts are on the right.

 

• ducket test.pdf
• ducket test.svg

The second file is the first class seating I did a couple of weeks ago. Again in pdf and svg format. The red lines should be folded on the front, the cyan blue lines on the back

 

• Diagram 84 - toilet 1st - phase 2 2 - seats.pdf
• Diagram 84 - toilet 1st - phase 2 2 - seats.svg

 

 

[JCL]

And my last post this year

 

On Black Friday I also took advantage of the Shapeways sale to order an updated chassis for the G1 0-4-4 that Dave, Mile and I discussed in the pub while I was in London. The main changes, apart from beefing it up a little bit, were made to the bogie and splashers. Dave had a devil of a time trying to get the wheels in on his version so I made a change that would separate the bogie just above the axles. The wheels can now be slotted in and then the splashers lowered onto them. To be honest I've had problems with Shapeways prints this year, and I was pleasantly surprised that they came out exactly as I hoped.

 

A quick note on the photo efects - not Photoshop, Stove-top.

 

First of all, the full chassis, practically as it came out of the box. The only thing I've done is cut of its conjoined twin - they were joined top to top to save money. The chassis is in White Strong and Flexible (WSF) material, which does show on the bogie.

 

 

The following photo is of the bogie. These were joined back to back to keep the mating faces pristine - hopefully saving any filing. As it was, they went together really well.

 

 

And finally, the two separated chassis, one with the WSF bogie and the other with the FUD one. The difference is very apparent.

 

 

Mike, I'll put yours in the post when I get back from Tofino.

 

And with that, I'd just like to say thank you for popping in to look at the thread. There's been a great deal of inactivity this year, but then it's been an unusual year, a lot of which I wouldn't like to repeat. Hopefully I can keep the momentum I've built up over the last few weeks and keep going with the coaches. That's my top priority at the moment. I'm away between Xmas and the new year, without the internet, so if I get the time, I'm going to have a bonanza cutting day tomorrow and at least get all of the MDF shells I've fnished designing cut so that I can get them glued together, and with a back wind, some of the sides done as well so I can start laminating them properly and with greater care.

 

I hope you all have a great holiday, and that next year brings you good health and happiness.

 

cheers

 

Jason

Edited December 24, 2016 by JCL

[mullie]

 

I thought I'd add just two more posts before Christmas. I hope you all have a lovely time. In the spirit of giving, I've attached a couple of files to this post that might be of interest to someone.

 

The first is the ducket test file. I've added it as a pdf and an svg flle (that can be opened in software like Adobe Illustrator and Inkscape). I did it in MDF and card, but of course, you could use whatever floats your boat. Note that the MDF slots and tabs are 1mm thick. All of the parts in the left column were done on card - about .015" thick, and the MDF parts are on the right.

 

ducket.jpg

• ducket test.pdf
• ducket test.svg

The second file is the first class seating I did a couple of weeks ago. Again in pdf and svg format. The red lines should be folded on the front, the cyan blue lines on the back

 

seats.jpg

• Diagram 84 - toilet 1st - phase 2 2 - seats.pdf
• Diagram 84 - toilet 1st - phase 2 2 - seats.svg

 

Thanks for these, I will be cutting the seats out the old fashioned way as possible seating for some heavily butchered Ratio coaches I'm working on. The duckets could be useful as well.

 

Happy Christmas

[BlueLightning]

Hi Jason,

 

Although I don't comment often I do follow you thread with great interest and I just wanted to pop-in and say Merry Christmas and keep up the inspirational modelling!

 

Gary

[Alister_G]

Merry Christmas Jason mate, and all the best for the New Year.

 

Al.

[Woodcock29]

Hi Jason

 

I've been reading your thread over the last week or so.

 

I'm an LNER modeller- predominantly ex GC and GN living in Adelaide,South Australia.

 

I've looked at the on-line store with your Shapeways 3D printed items on and off over the last year or so and now I know who created them.

 

I have just ordered 2 sets of crossing gates, 60 railing posts, 8 duckets and 12 platform seats. Some of these are for my current layout which is based on a freelance ex GC mainline station with an ex GN loop line and GN branch. The rest will be either used on an exhibition layout I've been thinking about based on Sutton-on-Sea or a joint exhibition layout a friend of mine will be building that will use my rolling stock and be based loosely on Spilsby.

 

I also have another friend who has modelled Nottingham Victoria fairly closely to scale and is now starting to build the buildings for a smaller layout based on Wainfleet! So the ex GC and GN live on strongly in South Australia.

 

In the last year or so I've concentrated on building Howlden stock from either D&S kits or in the case of the last one a D129 lav comp from the new Bill Bedford resin cast kit.

 

The other interesting thing is that my 29 year old son is currently living in your previous location Fernie for the northern winter.

 

Anyway have a Happy New Year.

 

Regards

 

Andrew Emmett

[JCL]

Hi Andrew, thanks very much for all of that. I was wishing some friends in Fernie a happy new year only last night. Apparently a lot of people are very happy with the snow over there. We decided to go to the beach in Tofino for the week. It's very odd walking along the beach and being careful of the ice. Even Skeg's not that cold generally.

 

Thanks also for the purchases. The railings are very fragile, and you will break a few even if you're careful. I find the best thing to do is to put your drill bit in the pin vise and let the weight of the vise push the bit through - pushing a tiny bit if necessary. It takes a while, but it is something you can do while watching TV. I wish I could do them in something other than FUD, but unfortunately I can't see an alternative at the moment (except model 7mm!). When you do the wires through, push the posts onto all four of them at once instead of attempting to do one wire at a time for all posts.

 

Sutton on sea or Spilsby? Well both of them are great places. Spilsby has a really interesting yard with an associated wood yard - and of course, it's a terminus which can make things a bit easier, and Sutton also has the workings to Alford that has some great looking coaches. I was looking at it a while ago and found a good, if short, book on the Alford and Sutton tramway. I hope you'll start a thread to show us your progress.

 

cheers

 

Jason

[chris p bacon]

 

Sutton on sea or Spilsby? Well both of them are great places. Spilsby has a really interesting yard with an associated wood yard - and of course, it's a terminus which can make things a bit easier, and Sutton also has the workings to Alford that has some great looking coaches. I was looking at it a while ago and found a good, if short, book on the Alford and Sutton tramway. I hope you'll start a thread to show us your progress.

Spilsby, Think I've mentioned before that the station building is the same design as Sandy,  even thought some time ago about an exhibition layout of Spilsby as Sandy can't go out on the road........as if a huge layout, helping out a friends 2mm layout of Little Salkeld and club layouts weren't enough..........

[RANGERS]

I took advantage of the Shapeways new year sale and ordered some of the GNR fence posts and platform seats. Placed the order at lunchtime New Year's Eve, all delivered (from Holland by the look of it) on Thursday Jan 5th. I'm amazed at how fast this was produced and delivered, taking the holidays into account, it was practically overnight.

[JCL]

Wow, that is fast. I had an email from them this morning to say that they were shortening their wait times across a lot of their materials.

[JCL]

Fits and starts this week. The main focus since getting back from Tofino has been on the shed that will be a new home for all of the modelling stuff, and such.

 

 

Slow work on the coaches. The basic bodies for the 1st class coaches (dia 84) are done now all bar some fettling, and some undercoat and light orange have been painted onto them (a la Mike Trice's teaking thread). While that dries I've started looking at the rooves.

 

 

Finally, as I was sat around, I grabbed a scan of a Howlden 45' coach from the Nick Campling book and had a go at putting together a representation of an 8' fox bogie. I think that, detail-wise, it'll be ok on Dave's Sandy layout - the one that is set in fog at midnight. The sides. top and bracing underneath are in 1mm mdf, and the axleboxes will be done with 110lb card - same as the coach sides. Right now though I'm going to leave it so that the glue can dry.

 

 

edited to add another photo with wheels (but not axleboxes - I'll do that tomorrow) added. It certainly seems to run very freely, and by using the tab and slot again, even I've managed to line everything up correctly.

 

 

If I use much more of the MDF, i'll have to make a trip over for supplies!

 

Well, that's me about up to date.

 

cheers

 

Jason

 

edited - Nick Campling not Nick Campbell

Edited January 10, 2017 by JCL

[manna]

G'day Gents

 

Love those coaches. Wow.

 

manna

[gr.king]

Hmmm....timber framed bogies, just like an 1880s MS&LR 25 ton mineral brake - still in use in the 1950s breakdown train at Immingham.

[chris p bacon]

 I think that, detail-wise, it'll be ok on Dave's Sandy layout - the one that is set in fog at midnight. 

We went to the theatre over xmas......I'm ordering one of the smoke machines they use to fill the room!

 

I've noticed an increasing use of wood in your modelling....you're not turning into a lumberjack by any chance........you are in Canada after all..

 

Q song.....Ooooooh I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok...etc

 

I have a feeling It won't be long before you fell your own spruce and whittle it into an Atlantic using a sharpened bears tooth the way you're going.

[Alister_G]

Your MDF modelling is just amazing, a material I had only ever thought of for baseboard tops being used in such intricate ways.

 

Can't wait to see what you produce next.

 

Al.

[chris p bacon]

If I use much more of the MDF, i'll have to make a trip over for supplies!

I missed this first time, are you saying that I'm going to have to make a trip to the 4D shop again......I'd be heartbroken.....and penniless...

[JCL]

Thanks Al. Initially the MDF was used because you can't cut styrene using this laser cutter - it off-gasses chlorine, which is bad for lungs and for the laser cutter itself. Also the styrene would melt. The MDF gives out formaldehyde, but I've counteracted that by sticking the laser outside when actually cutting.

 

4D is a terrible place. Worst thing is, that I could have brought more back, but I thought I was over the baggage weight limit - turns out I had 5kg spare. Next time I come over I'll bring a luggage scale and stock up.

 

Here's the latest version of the bogie

 

 

... and painted - I took the photo outside as the light is better there. The black paint hides the tab at middle-top really well.

 

 

I thought I'd try cutting the springs and axlebox out of the same MDF instead of lots of layers of thin card. It mostly works, but I think I'd add a single layer of card behind the springs to create the flange rather than just marking the MDF - it would also help make the springs slightly deeper. Am I right that they are 4" deep in real life?

 

The parts (so far) look like the image below. The four parts around the baseplate (if that's what it's called) are exactly the same and are used as bracing in the middle as well as making up the thicker ends. I've done a few circularparts to glue around the screw, but I'm not sure how many I'd need, or even if they are the right size to stop a coach from wobbling, so experimentation there. The green parts would be etched, the red parts would be cut, and then the black parts.

 

 

Next version in a few days will have a mount for some sort of coupling, and hopefully some representation of weights and/or brakes - you never know.

 

The reason for doing these is, first of all I wanted to see how MDF fares when making bogies as opposed to the styrene I used before. My problem before was the bogies flexed too much, especially when putting them together from layers, whereas the mdf is as solid as a rock. The second reason is that I bought a Diagram3D 45' coach that I'll put together at some point, and I thought I'd see how much of it I could do myself without buying parts. I realise it's a bit crude, but I'm certainly happy with how it's come together for my purposes. When I'm 100% happy with it, I'll post the file up on here.

 

With regards to the 6 wheel coaches. They will be grounded bodies for a short time while I sort out the shed and get all of my stuff organised - including the oil paints and such needed to do the teaking. In the meantime I'll make a start on the second set.

Edited January 10, 2017 by JCL

[chris p bacon]

You could have saved some MDF by using Mikes axleboxes....

 

Looking good though. 

[JCL]

True that our kid. On the upside, those springs are so small that I managed to stick them between other parts. That said, there's no way I can do buffers with it, so I've invested in some of those and vents from Mike's 3D Emporium.

 

Did you get that video done btw?

[chris p bacon]

Did you get that video done btw?

No, not yet. The rooms upside down while I cable up underneath to the new panel, then all the boxes go back under. Also I was using an old Duette for power and the reason I couldn't control easily was it was basically an on/off switch so I need to dig out my other one.

 

Excuses.....excuses.....

 

There just might be a new coach for it to haul soon.........

[uax6]

Nice bogies! Just one more thing (in best Columbo accent) though.. Real Fox bogies are pressed steel, therefore you need to round the edges of the sides. You'll be amazed at the difference that will make to them...

 

Also I would be tempted to remove the bolster detailing from the outer frame and have that as an addition behind the outer frame, as in real life the bolster sits inside the bogie. It may also help to strengthen the side to top joint.

 

Are you going to be making any of the articulated sets?

 

Andy G

[JCL]

Ah, thanks for that Andy, I'll get a file out and round off those edges. However, this is where you have found me out as a fraud "remove the bolster detailing from the outer frame and have that as an addition behind the outer frame" - I'm afraid I don't know what you mean..

 

On the strengthening, I've two strengtheners underneath either side of the hole for the bolt which are just slightly narrower than the side height, so good to go there. I'll take a photo of the up and undersides next time.

 

"Are you going to be making any of the articulated sets?" - I have the diagrams and coach numbers of the twin articulated set that were used between Firsby and Skegness in the 1920s behind the G1 that I drew out, so that will definitely come at some point. I also have the MJT gubbins to be able to put one together. So all I need now is time.

[MikeTrice]

Ah, thanks for that Andy, I'll get a file out and round off those edges. However, this is where you have found me out as a fraud "remove the bolster detailing from the outer frame and have that as an addition behind the outer frame" - I'm afraid I don't know what you mean..

 

What he means is the bit highlighted here should be set back from the outer frames giving a bit more depth:

 

Edit: Thinking about it you could probably do the central bolster on the same layer as the brake shoes which fix behind the current sideframes.

Edited January 11, 2017 by MikeTrice