Work in progress: Scratchbuilding a mineral wagon in 0-scale

[Rumblestripe]

You're making the rest of us feel pretty inadequate, please keep it up! 

 

This is awe inspiring modelling.

 

Sir, I salute you.

[Hawk]

You're making the rest of us feel pretty inadequate, please keep it up! 

 

This is awe inspiring modelling.

 

Sir, I salute you.

Thanks a lot!

 

I honestly belive that when it comes to modelling, you can have it if you want it hard enough. That means a willingness to invest the neccesary time and money.

Having custom made etchings made cost some money, and I could never have achived this without the help of my RSU.

But the main investment is time. You would probably not belive how many hours I have spent in the workshop between the posting made on the 16 March and the one posted yesterday.

We are talking several working days (in Norway, we are blessed with over a full week off during easter). I now that this must sound ridicilous to many of you, put parts have been remade several times, parts have been soldered and desoldered multiple times, etched parts have been melted into small lumps of sooty metal. Not to mention a significant amount of time searching for miniscule parts and fasteners dropped on the floor.  The list goes on. 

 

I am certainly not the most talented modeller on this forum, but I might be the most stubborn one!

[Simond]

Hauk

 

I wholeheartedly concur with your comments about determination.  Some years ago, I was at an exhibition - some guys were discussing a master for a loco brake cylinder - I asked if I might look at it, and it was placed in my hand - I stated the b****y obvious by complimenting the maker, and said "I wish I had the patience"

 

the reply was curt and supercilious "what about the skill?"

 

"oh, I'm sure I could learn the skill, if I were prepared to just keep making them til one was good enough"

 

they were not impressed...

 

keep on being stubborn, your efforts are a joy to behold!

 

best

Simon

[Hawk]

Hauk

 

I wholeheartedly concur with your comments about determination.  Some years ago, I was at an exhibition - some guys were discussing a master for a loco brake cylinder - I asked if I might look at it, and it was placed in my hand - I stated the b****y obvious by complimenting the maker, and said "I wish I had the patience"

 

the reply was curt and supercilious "what about the skill?"

 

"oh, I'm sure I could learn the skill, if I were prepared to just keep making them til one was good enough"

 

they were not impressed...

 

keep on being stubborn, your efforts are a joy to behold!

 

best

Simon

Good points, Simon! I think the attitudes you describe arise when people confuse craftsmanship with art. With very few exceptions, even the best model railroaders are craftsmen and not artists.

To become an artist, you need talent in addition to a willingness to work really hard. For becoming a great craftsman, hard work will get you a very long way. This is a tad simplistic, of course, the border between arts and crafts is not razor sharp. 

 

I also think that making great models requires quite a bit of creativity. But that a project requires a certain degree of creativity does not mean that the result is a work of art.

 

Well, I am starting to drift here. Maybe I should get back to modeling! 

 

 

 

[Simond]

Hauk

 

Interesting, but I think I disagree.

 

I take the view that modelling is very much a combination of art and craft - the skills, as you say, are something that most of us can acquire, given time & practice.

 

The artistic element can also be refined with time, observation & practice, but I suspect that's somehow rather more innate.

 

I think it would be possible to build a model railway that is "technically perfect", but utterly soulless - if the craft were there without the art.

 

Actually, there is a (real) new town outside Cambridge, which give exactly that impression!

 

Best

Simon

[semley1912]

Hi Hauk,

 

First can I say how impressed I am with the quality of your models.

 

In post #70 you say 'I use an el cheapo scribing pen, it costs about £ 4.00'  for cutting microscope cover slips.

 

I have tried buying a scriber of the quality your pictures show without success. Can you let me have a link for the scriber you use?

 

Many thanks

 

Martin

[Simond]

I have a similar one - try this but of course there are other suppliers!

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SCRIBE-TUNGSTEN-CARBIDE-TIPPED-SCORER/dp/B016DX3WTS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1459878864&sr=8-2&keywords=carbide+scribe

 

Best

Simon

[semley1912]

Thanks Simon - I've ordered one.

 

Martin

[Simond]

Happy to help!

Simon

[Hawk]

I haven't given up modeling, but most of the work done lately has been repetitions of things posted earlier. 

 

Two mineral wagons are now 95% ready except painting, lettering and weathering. 

Here is one of them: 

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk

[Spitfire2865]

What you have achieved is a wonder, and over the past few months, I have strived to match your level of chraftsmanship, though in a larger scale.

[Hawk]

What you have achieved is a wonder, and over the past few months, I have strived to match your level of chraftsmanship, though in a larger scale.

 

 

Thanks a lot! I checked out your large scale models, they look great! Sometimes I regret not choosing a larger scale myself. 

[Hawk]

As usual, I underestimate the amount of work that goes into things...

Here are a set of thingies that I must have suppressed that I needed to make. In fact, they were not even on the etches. So I had to do alittle spot of kit bashing to make them. It was a real chore to cut 16 pieces of 0,3mm long pieces of 1mm brass tubing.

 

 

 

A little practical tip to justify the post: For cutting thin brass tubing, use a stanley knife. I use a simple jig made from a piece of heavy brass angle clamped to a smooth surface. A piece of 0,3mm brass is used as a length gauge. 

 

 

To cut you just roll the tubing back and forth with the knife. The cut is not perfect, so I square off the tubing with a file before cutting a new part. This way I have a good end that is soldered to the part, and after soldering the bad end is cleaned up with the file. 

 

Soldering parts that is smaller than one cubic mm is no fun, I have found that the way to do it is to pin down the tubing/eched part/tubing sandwich with a 0,6 mm drill. I then solder everything together, and twist the drill loose.  A little graphite on the drill prevents the solder from sticking too well to the drill:

 

 

 

Last picture in this enormously interesting photo-essay shows a dry assembly of the wagons:

 

 

It moves forward, albeit slowly!

Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk

[Simond]

Hawk

 

Happy New Year!

 

The "thingies" are excellent - as usual, your modelling is inspirational.

 

It is sometimes helpful to drill a tiny hole in a suitable piece of wood, and hold the thingy and the short bit of tube with a cocktail stick which can be jammed through both and into the hole. This way they all stay aligned whilst you solder - but it doesn't work well with a blow lamp!

 

Best

Simon

[Hawk]

Hawk

 

Happy New Year!

 

The "thingies" are excellent - as usual, your modelling is inspirational.

 

It is sometimes helpful to drill a tiny hole in a suitable piece of wood, and hold the thingy and the short bit of tube with a cocktail stick which can be jammed through both and into the hole. This way they all stay aligned whilst you solder - but it doesn't work well with a blow lamp!

 

Best

Simon

 

That is not far from what I in fact did. My explanation was a bit lacking, perhaps.

 

I drilled a 0,6mm hole in the the Tufnol board, and used the 0,6mm drillbit (with an 3mm shank)  instead of a cocktail stick. The advantage of using a drillbit instead of a stick is that it aligns the tiny brass rings more precisely, and that it is easier to apply more pressure. An adtitional advantage is that  the drillbit leads electricity, and the RSU wire can be connected to it. The disadvantage is that the the parts and the drillbit is soldered together, and it takes quite a bit of torque to pry the drillbot loose. Fortunately, no drillbits broke in the process!

[Hawk]

One of the things I have been really struggling with is blackening metal parts.

But I am struggling even more with airbrushing, so I decided to blacken the underframes.

 

I have tried several approaches to blackening, but this time I tried this:

 

1. Clean the parts 5 minutes in an Ultrasonic cleaner with a 1:10 water / industrial grade detergent. ( I got it from my brother in law that works in a lab)

 

2. Rinse with lot of plain water

 

3. Brush on full strength Birchwood Casey Brass blackening. Work it into every nook an cranny with a stiff little paintbrush. Let it work for a while, dunk it in a container with water. Brush on more B, let it work for a while. Continue until happy with the color.

 

4. Rinse with lots of water.

 

5. Neutralise the blackening with a solution of caustic soda. I used around a tablespoon for a liter of water.

 

6. Rinse with a lot of cold water.

 

At first, this seemed to work great. But after I examined the frames more closely, I had a few concerns. First, the color was not as dark as I had thought. In the pictures, they look far to light in my opinion. Second, a few parts came loose during the process, and I am a bit concerned that the blackening has etched away at the solder joints. They could of course have been poor from the start, and that it was all the fiddeling with the brushes that made them come loose. The UC could probably work parts loose as well.

Third, there was quite a lot of white crud on the solder joints after the parts had dried. It was easy to remove the crud with a stiff brush, but I am wondering what this crud is, and if it is a sign that the joints are disintegrating.

 

My chemistry skills are rudimentary at best, so I really have no idea if using caustic soda to neutralize the selenium acid in the blackening is a clever move. But I do know that if the acid is not neutralized properly, it will continue to etch away at the parts. If anyone could advise me on you to neutralise the acid in the right manner, I would be very happy!

 

OK, enough with the babble. Here are pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments, anyone? I would love to hear your experiences with blackening metal.

Even if I am not 100% happy with my results, I think it will be OK as a starting point for further weathering.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk

[Simond]

Hawk

 

I'd be a bit concerned that the caustic soda is attacking the solder. I use various blacking solutions, usually diluted a bit, and always washed off with lots of fresh water. I have never applied a strong alkali to stop or fix the process, nor have I heard of anyone else doing so, until today!

 

Hth

Simon

[Hawk]

Hawk

 

I'd be a bit concerned that the caustic soda is attacking the solder. I use various blacking solutions, usually diluted a bit, and always washed off with lots of fresh water. I have never applied a strong alkali to stop or fix the process, nor have I heard of anyone else doing so, until today!

 

Hth

Simon

You might be right. But I have had problems with white crud forming on the solder joints during the actual blackening process, so It could also be from the blackening.

 

I might be a bit paranoid about neutralizing the blackening, but I have heard stories about model chains that have been reduced to dust years after (well, around 100 yrs, I read this on a maritime modeling forum).

 

What I know from personal experience is that brass screws can be seriously weakened by blackening just after a couple of years.

 

I would think that the trick is to use the right strength of caustic soda solution. Any chemists that can enlighten us?

[Simond]

There's a couple of industrial chemists on the G0G forum. I'll send a link and see if they can advise.

 

Best

Simon

Edited January 22, 2017 by Simond

[Hawk]

There's a couple of industrial chemists on the G0G forum. I'll send a link and see if they can advise.

 

Best

Simon

 

Thanks, Simon!

[Dave John]

Absolutely top class modelmaking Hauk, I am following your techniques with amazement.  

 

I have just spent an enjoyable few hours following the route of the line on google earth and reading about its varied, and at times explosive, history. Of particular interest is the link through Christian Salveson who was involved in the construction of the line to my own interests of railways, shipping and transportation in Scotland. 

 

So, many thanks, I have had a very educational morning. 

[Hawk]

Absolutely top class modelmaking Hauk, I am following your techniques with amazement.  

 

I have just spent an enjoyable few hours following the route of the line on google earth and reading about its varied, and at times explosive, history. Of particular interest is the link through Christian Salveson who was involved in the construction of the line to my own interests of railways, shipping and transportation in Scotland. 

 

So, many thanks, I have had a very educational morning.

Thanks, Dave!

I am happy that you took an interest in the Thamshavn Railway. It is quite unique, and I find it a bit puzzling that I am (as far as I know) the only person in Norway modeling this interesting little railway.

[Hawk]

Tonight I added the lettering to the wagons with the help of etched stencils made by PPD ltd. The etching job by PPD is fantastic, I highly recommend their etching service. 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully, the next update will show the finished wagons. Quite thrilled with the thought...

Edited August 11, 2023 by Hawk

[Simond]

Hauk

 

Again, I find myself between inspired, and demoralised, by your modelling. They are superb.

 

Looking forward to the finished articles!

 

Best

Simon

[PaulCheffus]

That is not far from what I in fact did. My explanation was a bit lacking, perhaps.

 

I drilled a 0,6mm hole in the the Tufnol board, and used the 0,6mm drillbit (with an 3mm shank)  instead of a cocktail stick. The advantage of using a drillbit instead of a stick is that it aligns the tiny brass rings more precisely, and that it is easier to apply more pressure. An adtitional advantage is that  the drillbit leads electricity, and the RSU wire can be connected to it. The disadvantage is that the the parts and the drillbit is soldered together, and it takes quite a bit of torque to pry the drillbot loose. Fortunately, no drillbits broke in the process!

Hi

 

When I've done things like this I oil the pin so that the solder doesn't stick to it. Whether that would work with a RSU I don't know.

 

Cheers

 

Paul