Spitfire2865 Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Well seeing the level of detail and craftsmanship which has gone into this thread, Id be surprised if you couldnt build a wagon with working brakes. Wish you the best of luck. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted September 28, 2015 Author Share Posted September 28, 2015 (edited) Just bumping the thread with a picture of the brake handle mounted on the wagon. Yes, I have noticed the electrocutioned rivet. It will be replaced, and it is a reminder that the RSU must be handeled with care.... But I had a lot of fun playing with that handle. I turns really nice! Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Isambarduk Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 Hawk, Your amazing work in this topic deserves exposure in the 7mm + Modelling Forum (www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/forum/89-7mm-modelling/). I have only just now 'stumbled' upon it! David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted October 6, 2015 Author Share Posted October 6, 2015 Hawk, Your amazing work in this topic deserves exposure in the 7mm + Modelling Forum (www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/forum/89-7mm-modelling/). I have only just now 'stumbled' upon it! David I have been a bit unsure about the forum etiquette when it comes to cross-posting. But If it isn´t frowned upon, I could post a summary of this thread on the 7mm+ modelling forum as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Isambarduk Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 " I could post a summary of this thread on the 7mm+ modelling forum as well." Hawk, A summary would be great but just a link there to this thread would be all that is needed - I would have done it but I had no wish to steal your thunder, it's your show! :-)) David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted October 6, 2015 Author Share Posted October 6, 2015 (edited) Grab irons were this weekends challenge. They are formed from straight 0,5mm nickel silver rod. I bend them using pliers and bench vise. The flat ends where the holes for the rivets are drilled are flattened using an arbor press. This is what they look like before drilling the rivet holes: It is very seldom that a task turns out to be less hassle than I think, but drilling the holes in the grab irons was one of them. I thought that i would have to mill a fancy jig with lots of recesses and stuff, and solder the irons in place for the drilling, first with a 0,25mm centre drill, then with a 0,4mm regular drill. I did need a jig, but it was no more than a 8 mm long and 0,6mm wide slot in a piece of brass. No soldering was necessary, i just covered the iron with a small piece of wood, and drilled right through it using the 0,4mm drill only. Easier done than written, I really should have some pictures of the process. I used the CNC router both for making the slot and doing the drilling. But at least I have a picture of two grab irons test-fitted to the end beam. They are not soldered, so they sag a bit. When they are properly soldered, I dare say they are going to look as good as I hoped! Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Train Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 Absolutely stunning work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 (edited) The describtion of the jig & drilling routine was perhaps a bit confusing without images, so here is a little visual support material. First a photo of the jig. As you can see it is no more than a milled slot the same width as the diameter of the grab iron wire. Ideally, it should be 0.5mm wider than the diameter of the wire, but I used a 0,6mm milling bit for the 0,5mm grab iron wire. Next we have the grabiron placed in the jig. The holes have already been drilled on this one: During drilling I cover the grabiron with a piece of wood. I know that I probably should fasten it with a couple of small clamps, but I like to live dangerous so I just hold it by hand while drilling: Made another set of grabirons, a longer type with four mounting holes. This jig had to be milled with a 0,4mm milling bit. Such drillbits are extremly fragile. So I ended up using 1 mm/s feed and just 0,1mm cutting depth. This way I managed to mill a slot the neccesary 1.8mm deep. I consider myself lucky that I only broke one milling bit during the process. But with a little more CNC-experience it should be possible to do tasks like this without loosing a single milling bit. I made the flat areas a bit oversize, and they will be filed a bit narrower before mounting. Hope this migh be of some help for other facing making some irons! Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted December 25, 2015 Author Share Posted December 25, 2015 (edited) Not as much progress lately as I would have liked, but the first wooden body have been assembled. Installing the hardware is a pain in the a, but the results are good enough. I think. The wooden plans have been roughed up a bit. Unfortunately a bit too hasty, I should have worked more carefully to get an even, worn look. Hopefully the final weathering will blend things together a bit. As it is, the contrast between the wood and metal parts is a bit too much. Close up pictures are really a harsh critic... Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spitfire2865 Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Are you kidding? That looks amazing. Im glad you haven't given up on the project. I dont agree that the wood and iron look too different. Well, negatively that is. I feel its part of the look. Especially on the ends. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted December 26, 2015 Author Share Posted December 26, 2015 Are you kidding? That looks amazing. Im glad you haven't given up on the project. I dont agree that the wood and iron look too different. Well, negatively that is. I feel its part of the look. Especially on the ends. Thanks for the thumbs up! I am quite happy with the way this model is developing, but I still think some more weathering is needed. These wagons were loaded by dumping the ore from above, and this must have created significant amounts of dust. And there must have been quite a lot of braking dust on the wagons, there were long stretches of steep grades on the railway, it was downhill most of the way from the mines to the port of Thamshavn. Suggestions for a good Humbrol braking dust color, anyone? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Depends what the brake blocks were made from. Assuming cast iron, then you're looking for iron oxide colours. Weathering powders? Carr's "Shades of rust"? HTH Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted December 26, 2015 Author Share Posted December 26, 2015 (edited) On 26/12/2015 at 12:28, Simond said: Depends what the brake blocks were made from. Assuming cast iron, then you're looking for iron oxide colours. I took it for granted that all brake blocks were cast iron, but maybe it ain´t so? If no other evidence surfaces before I fire up the airbrush, I will assume they are cast iron, so I will probably go for iron oxide colors. I think I prefer airbrushing over pigments for this. It is a bit risky to try and deduct how a a railway wagon would have appeared without any photographic evidence. But I guess there would have been some dust on the higher parts of the wagon from the filling of ore. And some would probably be apparent on the underframe as the emptying of the wagons would read dust around the lower parts. So the weathering should be a mix of dust colors, a combination of brake dust, ore dust and dust from the right of way. I have some color pictures of more modern equipment than my wagons, and this might give a clue for putting together a palette: Since last posting I have also assembled another wagon. This one have working doors. These are just for show. It is nice to be able to stage pictures with the doors open, but I have no intention of trying to make wagons that are fully operational. Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted December 29, 2015 Author Share Posted December 29, 2015 (edited) First, a little color test. The test piece leaning against the wagon body has been given a wash of silver grey stain. In my opinion this tones down the red quite nicely, and the cracks does not look as fresh. On the actual parts I might dilute the stain a little. Second, a little distraction in the form of a work car. This is the closest the Thamshavnbanen ever came to a caboose. Even if it is not prototype at all, I think it will look real nice on the end of a ore train! Checking the model against the prototype, I see that I might have to tone down the yellow color a bit... Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 (edited) A little practical tip this time. I need to build 8 window inserts with glazing for the work wagon, and the wooden framing for these windowsill be glued directly to real glass microscope cover slips used for glazing. I have earlier used some jewelers glue for this type of task, but this glue is messy, and if it ends up on the wrong places on the glass, it is hard to remove. So on the advice by Tobias Ljung (a very talented Swedish modeller) I tried this glue: The really good thing about this glue is that until it completely hardens it is fairly easy to scrape it off with a scalpel or similar tool. It is possible to do this without scratching the glass. So if some glue seeps out from under the wood it is no catastrophe. When the glue is fully hardenED, it sticks really well to the glass. The coverslip will break long before the wooden parts break loose! The framing was glued to the coverslip with graph paper as an underlay. This helps keep everything nice and square: If the free looks a bit rough, please remember that the windows are fairly small: A test mounting of a test frame on the wagon body: And that was the last thing that got done in the workshop in 2015. A very happy new year to all members on this forum, and especially to all of you that have inspired me to keep modeling! I hope we all will make great progress with our modeling in 2016! Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Hauk Thanks for this tip. I have used Aliphatic glue, but did not realise that it was useful on glass. All the best for 2016! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted January 1, 2016 Author Share Posted January 1, 2016 Hauk Thanks for this tip. I have used Aliphatic glue, but did not realise that it was useful on glass. When I apply glue to small wooden parts, I often use a piece of plate glass as a palette. With regular white glue, it is very easy to remove the hardened blobs of excess glue with a single edge razor blade. But when I tried to remove the blobs of Aliphatic glue it was almost impossible! That was how I discovered that it might be useful for wood to glass joints. I think I will try this glue for metal to wood joints as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 I did a test on both wood to metal (brass) and wood to glass. In both cases it was the wood fibers that broke, not the glue joint. So I recommend this glue for metal/wood and glass/wood without reservations. This might be old news for many of you, but for me it was a very convenient discovery! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted January 2, 2016 Author Share Posted January 2, 2016 (edited) And now for one of the most marginal modelling photo essays you might see this year. The topic is making gutters from brass tubing. For the work wagon I need gutters, but I have not found a source of U-shaped brass profiles in the correct dimension. So I decided to make my own from 2 mm brass tubing. In additon to the tubing I used 4 lengths of 1,2mmX4mm brass, double sided carpet tape (A tape that I use a lot in the workshop!) and a sanding block with rather course emery paper. A length of tubing steadied by two pieces of brass profiles. Press the tubing as hard as possible against the double-sided tape. I use a piece of wood and a C-clamp to apply pressure. But be careful not to deform the tubing. @ A sanding block with two pieces of brass attached with double-sided tape. They act as thickness gauges. Taping them to the sanding block instead of the same surface as the tubing prevents you from sanding down the gauges. Pretty obvious, really. But just the sort of thing that I tend to get wrong... The tubing sanded down so just a thin foil of brass remains. For some reason it is hard to sand away this foil. Remember to only sand parallell to the tubing, if you sand across, the tubing will most certainly turn. The foil is removed with a needle file, and the edges are cleaned up. The finished gutter profile. Hope that this might be helpful! The technique could also be used for making D-shaped profiles. Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted January 6, 2016 Author Share Posted January 6, 2016 (edited) Another tidbit from the workshop. I am a great fan of using real glass for glazing model windows. Microscope cover slips (you can find them on eBay) are great for this purpose, but hey are really brittle and quite hard to cut. At least that was my opinion until I discovered that the key to sucsessfully cutting thin glass is using a really hard and smooth cutting surface. Forget about your plastic cutting mats, go for something like a sheet of aluminium. I use an el cheapo scribing pen, it costs about £ 4.00. To cut identical pieces fast I use a setup with a hinged ruler. I might have shown this little photo essya earlier, so bear with me if this is old hat! I dropped assembling the frames with the graph paper as underlay. Instead I taped the precut cover slip to the window. A piece of MDF that fitted inside the wagon body was placed in the bench vice so the glass had good support during the building of the frames. Even if the window openings are CNC-milled, the are a bit irregular after installing the first framing. This picture shows the window with the first framing, the actual window frame is yet to be installed: Here are 8 panes of finished windows panes for the work wagon. The Aliphatic glue ha been cleaned up, so they look quite sharp in my not so humble opinion: Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted March 16, 2016 Author Share Posted March 16, 2016 (edited) Still at it, but not much progress. Added tarpaper to the work wagon, and this is how it looks: Surgical tape, full strength Humrol n0. 67 and a liberal dusting of talc. Toned down the yellow a bit, as well. Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dajt Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 This thread is magnificent. Beautiful work! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 (edited) A little progress report on the work wagon. Railings for the end platform, vacuum pipes for the Westinghouse brake system and other bits of hardware has been added: Who knows, if the weather gets really nasty during the Easter holiday I might be able to finish the little ###### soon! Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgeT Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Hello Hawk, Excellent workmanship, very nice... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk Posted March 30, 2016 Author Share Posted March 30, 2016 (edited) Thanks for all the encouragement! I have finished all the metalwork now, but the brake rigging almost finished me off... So many small rivets to be inserted in awkward places. But I consider this wagon a learning piece, and I think I have some ideas for mass-producing the parts for the string of mineral wagons I am going to tackle. Speaking of the brake rigging, my version of the Westinghouse Airbrake System is a bit impressionistic as I have no precise drawings for the piping and placement of the brake cylinder and air tank. There was quite a bit of trial and error. But I think everything is linked together now in an plausible way. Feel free to point out errors! Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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