tim4948 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 (edited) Hi all, After some prompting from some of the club members at my local model railway club I thought I'd start a thread detailing some of the things I get up to in case they may be of interest to anyone. To start things off here is one of my recent projects that I did. It all started off by being shown a video clip on YouTube which showed a transformer being loaded onto a wagon and taken by rail to the power station in Blaenau Ffestiniog in 1962, so I decided it would be a bit of fun to have a go at building the whole train. The train consisted of: Class 20 diesel - Bachmann model Ex Midland brake composite - Ratio kit Ex Midland 20 ton brake van (converted to a gauging vehicle) - modified Parkside kit Ex LNER plate wagon - Parkside kit BR transformer MC - Scratch built from plasticard Ex LNER plate wagon - Parkside kit Ex LMS inspection saloon - unknown brass sides mounted onto an old mainline full brake Ex LMS 10 ton van - Cambrian kit BR standard 20 ton brake van - Dapol kit Here is a picture of the full train running on the clubs layout "Northwick" And a close up of the transformer MC Also a picture of the transformer MC before it was painted (not the best picture but it's the only one I've got of it before it was painted) Edited July 10, 2022 by tim4948 Re-uploaded pictures 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted February 15, 2016 Author Share Posted February 15, 2016 (edited) So, time for the next project and its going to be a big one. I have decided to have a go at scratch building H.M.G. Boche-Buster, the biggest British railway gun ever built. Here's a bit of history of the gun. The gun carriage was originally built during the First World War and was fitted with a 14" gun and had 15 axels. It became famous when it fired "The Kings Shot" near Arras in Pas-de-Calais on 8th August 1918 during an inspection by King George V. Two 18" barrels were constructed for Boche-Buster and its sister Scene-Shifter in case it was found that the 14" barrels were inadequate. The 18" barrels were designed to have the same external dimensions and contours as the 14" barrels, this was possible despite the 4" caliber difference because the 18" barrels were howitzers as opposed to the 14"s being guns, this meant that the thickness of the walls could be thinner as howitzers are less highly stressed. The 18" barrels where never fitted during the First World War as they were completed after the war was over. Upon its return from France after the First World War the 2 18" barrels where mounted and proved in turn, then the whole lot was put into storage. The gun was taken to Salisbury plain and fired twice in the inter-war years and in 1926 the 14" barrel was declared obsolete but the mounting was retained so that one of the 18" barrels could be fitted at a later date if required. With the outbreak of the Second World War, Churchill had hoped to persuade the armaments industry to construct entirely new railway guns against an almost impossible timescale, but in the end had to settle for second best and reuse some of the existing WW1 artillery - one of these being Boche-Buster, the doors of the building which it had been stored in since the 1920's where opened for the first time in 1940, the carriage was then taken to the Darlington workshops to be overhauled and have the 18" barrel fitted. Once the 18 inch barrel had been fitted to the carriage it became the biggest of the British World War II heavies. The Bishop Park Tunnel on the Elham Valley Railway was earmarked to be the home for Boche-Buster, because the meandering line meant that the majority of the South-East coast of Kent could be covered. The cutting to the north of the tunnel had four brick built magazines built in it and to the south of the tunnel portal steps were cut into the banks leading to the tunnel in which Boche-Buster was to be housed. As the total weight of the gun was 250 tons it far exceeded the weight limit of the line, so huge timber baulks had to be installed under the girders for the 2 bridges on the line (Railway Hill & Barrackers Road). The SR plate laying gang were busily engaged relaying certain sections of the track between Bishopbourne and Barham with 24 sleepers per 45ft length instead of the normal 18 and reballasting with fine ballast. After initial training at Catterick Camp the battery moved south arriving at Bishopsbourne in February 1941 after a 43 hour journey from Catterick disguised as a string of banana wagons. On the bright spring morning of 13th February 1941, the gun was pushed out of the tunnel by a WD diesel engine, through Bishopsbourne station to the Kingston spur, where it was fired for the first time sending several rounds into the English Channel. Although the villagers had been warned to open all their windows, considerable damage was caused in Kingston and Barham by the shock waves which brought down a number of ceilings. As a result, only two other test firings were made near World’s Wonder bridge and at Lickpot bridge. Apart from the blast damage the track had to be strengthened every time it was fired. Although it was never fired in anger, the gun was frequently photographed in aggressive poses and was billed as a 'fearsome cross-channel monster' but the truth of it being that it was capable of hurling a 6 ft long shell weighing 1 1/2 tons 12 1/2 miles so as it was not capable of firing across the English Channel (22 miles at its narrowest) it was to be used to fire upon the enemy ships in the channel and to help defend the coastline around Kent in the case of an invasion. Boche-Buster was a high elevation howitzer with a maximum elevation angle of 40 degrees but it could only traverse 2 degrees. In 1943 Boche-Buster found itself back at Salisbury plain to fire trials of a new anti-concrete shell and by the end of 1943 all the railway guns on the Elham Valley Railway had been taken out of service and the units disbanded. Later the warn Boche-Buster was taken to the Royal Arsenal and it was cut up in the early 1960s. No British railway guns exist today although one of the 18" barrels from Boche-Buster is at the Royal Artilleries Museum at Fort Nelson, Hampshire. The barrel is mounted on a proofing carriage, which is a gun carriage with very limited elevation and traversing as it is intended only for test firing. Here are some pictures and videos of the real thing in action. Now back to the model, I have got as far as starting to build the 4 bogie frames (3x 4 axel bogies & 1x 3 axel bogie) they have been cut out of 1mm thick plasticard. Below are some pictures of them so far, the first is one of the 2 identical inner bogies, the second is the smaller 3 axel outer bogie. Edited July 10, 2022 by tim4948 Re-uploaded pictures 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhall Posted February 16, 2016 Share Posted February 16, 2016 Tim, are you working from drawings or by dead reckoning for the railgun? I'd like to see the drawings please if its the former? Thanks, Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted February 16, 2016 Author Share Posted February 16, 2016 (edited) Hi Jon Yes I do have a drawing but it only gives you the basic measurements of the wagon as it mainly concentrates on how the gun is attached to the wagon, see below. The finer details are having to be done from various photos and footage that exists. Edited July 10, 2022 by tim4948 Re-uploaded pictures Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 I have now started to fit the top plates to the bogies starting with the outer ones first. The first thing to be done was to cut them out, I decided that as they were going to be made out of 0.25mm thick plasticard then the best option wast to cut them out using my silhouette portrait cutter, so after about 45 mins of design work I had all of them ready to be cut. The picture below is of one of the finished articles after I removed it from the adhesive cutting mat. The next job was to start sticking them on, I have only done the 2 outer bogies at the moment but the others will follow, I found that the best way for these was to start from the buffer beam end and work to the other, below are pictures of them. I have also made up a frame for the underside to support the tops and to stop them from sagging when the rest of the wagon is assembled as these will take the whole weight. The frame is made from 1mm square plastic rod and the beams around the pivot point are made of 1mm x 2mm plastic rod, here is a picture of the underside of the bigger of the 2 outer bogies. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted February 19, 2016 Author Share Posted February 19, 2016 I have now managed to fix the top plate onto both of the inner bogies, with these I found the best way to do them was to start from the middle and work outwards as both ends are angled, I also found it easier fitting the two central beams before starting to attach the top plate. Below is a picture with the 2 central beams fitted followed by one with the top plate fitted ready for the beams below to be fitted, I also found it easier to install the two other beams that are positioned a shot distance behind the bend as this resulted in a neater bend and less distortion in the top plate. It was then just the case of making up the rest of the beams that run the length of the bogie to then make the top nice and strong, this really helped the angled parts of the top plate as they are very flimsy without the beam, each of the bits of 1mm square plastic rod had to be bent to the correct angle before fitting as shown in the picture below. Below is a picture of the underside of one of the inner bogies after all of the plastic rod ding has been added. The next step will be to start to make the beams that connect 2 bogies which will result in 2 pairs of bogies. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 So now onto the 2 beams that connect the 2 bogies that will result in 2 pairs of bogies. The basic frame was constructed out of 1mm plasticard. The next step was to put he 2 sides onto it to form the basic shape of the beam again using 1mm plasticard. I then put the 2 pivot points on to the beam (1 at each end). This was done by again using 1mm plasticard and drilling, then countersinking a hole in the middle of it to make sure that the head of the 8ba bolt was as flush with the surface as possible, I then used superglue to hold it in place. Because the head of the bolt wasn't quite flush I had to countersink the underside of the beam to ensure that the 2 peices of plasticard joined together properly, see picture below to see what I mean. The same was then done for the other end. I have only got as far as doing the smaller of the 2 beams (there are 2 different sizes as the smaller one connects a 3 axel + 4 axel bogie, the other larger beam connects the 2 remaining 4 axel bogies). Here it is connecting the 2 bogies together. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted February 23, 2016 Author Share Posted February 23, 2016 I have now built the second and slightly larger beam, this was done that same way as the smaller one. I have also cut the inner end of both of the beams at an angle so that they will clear the main girder. The next step was to add the top and bottom plates using 0.25mm thick plasticard to both of the beams. The axel boxes, springs and buffers have arrived in the post. The axel boxes are not quite right, basically the front of the axel box needs to be changed to have a hinge at the top and slope slightly outward to the bottom, also each axel box will need 8 reinforcing triangles added to them (4 per side). The springs are correct but new spring hangers will need to be made as the ones that were originally attached are not beefy enough. The buffers however are close enough to the originals so I think that I can leave them. I have decided to fit all of the buffers, axel boxes and springs as it will be easier for me to modify them once they are fixed to the bogie (I won't have to spend ages to see where they have pinged to if I was to do it by using tweezers to hold onto them). Below are 2 pictures showing the 2 pairs of bogies attached to their beams. The next job will be to either do some of the detailing work on the beams or as some of the plastic tubing for the gun barrel has arrived today I may not be able to resist the temptation to put it together, time will tell. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmrspaul Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 I don't suppose it is of great consequence, but for the record the Transformer in the film is a BR one, the axleboxes and the bogies is a give away. You have made a lovely model. Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium nick_bastable Posted February 23, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 23, 2016 I have always been interested in the "local" railguns will watch with interest suprised you haven't used the cutter more Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted February 24, 2016 Author Share Posted February 24, 2016 (edited) Hi Paul, I hadn't picked up on that, thanks for pointing it out. Nick_bastable: I haven't used the cutter much at the moment but I'm sure that I will need to use it more later on in the build as parts become more fiddly. To be honest this is the first project that I have used the cutter for so its still a learning curve as to what the limitations are. By the way does anyone know if the silhouette portrait cutter can cut 0.5mm thick plasticard as I have tried and failed? Well the results are in and I can confirm that I couldn't resist temptation and have made a start on the gun barrel so far I have used 7.9mm diameter for the centre of the barrel which gives it a internal dimension of 6.5mm which is 0.5mm too big (should be 6mm as the bore of the real barrel is 18") I will solve this by adding another, smaller tube and drill the centre out to the correct size. This was then followed by 2 more layers of tubing measuring 9.5mm and 11.1mm respectively. There is still more to go on at the barrel end but I haven't got the materials for doing that yet. I have also added the 4 ridges that will connect to the barrel mount when I build it. Just to give you a scale for the size of the barrel Edited July 10, 2022 by tim4948 Re-uploaded pictures 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted February 25, 2016 Author Share Posted February 25, 2016 (edited) On to the last remaining large piece of the wagon and that is the main girder, this was cut out of 2 layers of 1mm thick plasticard that will be laminated together. It has been made from 2 layers for 2 reasons, the first one being because the rear of the girder is slightly thinner in thickness than the rest of the length, the second being to give the rest of it more strength. The 2 parts before they are put together After they are put together The next step was to put 4mm wide x 0.25mm thick plasticard around the edge of the main part of the girder, basically the start of the detailing of the girder. I couldn't resist posing one of the girders on top of the bogies. The next step will be to put the detailing onto the main girder and the beams that join the bogies together. Edited July 10, 2022 by tim4948 Re-uploaded pictures 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted February 27, 2016 Author Share Posted February 27, 2016 (edited) A start has been made on the detailing on the main girders, the first one is done and the second one is about half done. The above pictures show you the whole girder and then a close up. The pieces that are at 90 degrees to the main girder are made from 1mm wide x 0.5mm thick plasticard, the parts either side of it and top and bottom of each section are made from 1mm wide x 0.25mm thick plasticard. This was a time consuming process as each part had to be cut individually to ensure a good fit, but I think it's made all the difference. Once the main girders have been done the next thing will be the details on the beams that connect the bogies. Edited July 10, 2022 by tim4948 Re-uploaded pictures 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted February 28, 2016 Author Share Posted February 28, 2016 Now that both of the main girders have had their detailing added to them I've decided to move onto the beams that connect the two bogies. The first step was to add the angled reinforcing plates to each end of the beams. Then it was a case of putting the top plates onto the angled plates, this was done by using the silhouette portrait cutter to cut them out of 0.25mm thick plasticard. It was then just a case of putting them on the angled plates, this was done by gluing them to the flat front part and then bending it onto the angled part as shown in the pictures below. The next job was to do the detailing on the rest of the beams, this was done using the same methods as I did for the main girder (The pieces that are at 90 degrees to the main girder are made from 1mm wide x 0.5mm thick plasticard, the parts either side of it and top and bottom of each section are made from 1mm wide x 0.25mm thick plasticard) Here are 2 pictures, the first showing the 1mm x 0.5mm plasticard added. The second shows the beam with the 1mm x 0.25mm plasticard added. This now finishes the detailing on the beams until I have joined the 2 main girders together so that I can get the angle pieces made up that connect to the beams to support the main girder. Whilst I was using the 1mm x 0.25mm plasticard I decided to add it to the bogies (just under the top plate). The next step will be to connect the 2 main girder sides together. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 (edited) The 2 main girders have now been joined together with the rear surface being made out of 0.5mm thick plasticard (which will become the floor when it is the right way up), the rest of the beams which join the 2 girders being made out of 1mm thick plasticard. Below is a picture of the underside of the rear of the girder. A similar process was used for joining the front minus the floor as it will be modelled with this section open as the front part of the floor was built in sections and was on hinges and could be opened up, I thought this would make it more interesting when finished. Below is a picture of the real Boche-Buster to show what I'm trying to describe. Now that the 2 main girders have been joined together I decided to place it on top of the bogies with the gun barrel placed on top. Just to give you a feeling of the size of this beast here it is with a figure in front of it. Edited July 11, 2022 by tim4948 Re-uploaded pictures 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
croydon junction Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 (edited) The 2 main girders have now been joined together with the rear surface being made out of 0.5mm thick plasticard (which will become the floor when it is the right way up), the rest of the beams which join the 2 girders being made out of 1mm thick plasticard. Below is a picture of the underside of the rear of the girder. image.jpg A similar process was used for joining the front minus the floor as it will be modelled with this section open as the front part of the floor was built in sections and was on hinges and could be opened up, I thought this would make it more interesting when finished. Below is a picture of the real Boche-Buster to show what I'm trying to describe. image.jpg Now that the 2 main girders have been joined together I decided to place it on top of the bogies with the gun barrel placed on top. image.jpg image.jpg Just to give you a feeling of the size of this beast here it is with a figure in front of it. image.jpg You only realise how big it was when you put a replica on the track, and then you realise it was bigger than 2 class 20's! Edited March 1, 2016 by matthew ostrowski 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 (edited) Having now looked at the model closer I have realised that I have missed a part off of the main girders, if you look a the below picture you will notice that the top of the girders are straight. If you then compare it to the picture below you will notice that at the rear of the gun barrel the top of the girder slopes upwards a small amount and then levels of and then continues for the rest of the length of the girder. So I set about rectifying this, I started off by removing the 0.25mm thick plasticard that was on top of the girder, I also removed the detailing strips that are at the top of each panel of the girder. This was done with surprisingly little effort by using a sharpe knife blade at a very shallow angle between the main girder and the parts that needed removing. Below is a picture of the girder with all the necessary bits removed. The next step was to add a new piece of plasticard measuring 1mm thick x 2mm wide with a slope at one end. The new piece of 0.25mm thick plasticard was then added to the top of this. I then noticed that I had managed to take a gouge out of the main girder towards the front on one of the sides, luckily this was covered up when I added the new detailing strips. (Not the clearest of pictures but I had difficulty with getting the camera phone to focus properly) I then finished off the rest of the detailing strips for the rest of the girder. Edited July 11, 2022 by tim4948 Re-uploaded pictures 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Holt Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 A very interesting and unusual modelling project which looks to be coming along nicely. If you look at the main girders, the top flange is progressively thickened towards the middle by rivetting on additional doubling plates. This is also quite common in bridge construction. Looking at the photos, one of the eye catching features is the extent of rivets. Are you intending to add these to the model? Regards, Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 Hi Dave I hadn't realised that the top flange was thicker towards the middle so thank you for pointing it out. With regards to the rivets I am aiming to do these but I haven't decided which way to do them yet, I am currently thinking of using very small dots of superglue to achieve this but I will have to experiment first to see if this will work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted March 5, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 5, 2016 Sir, I teks me 'at off to yer. A subject way outside my modelling era and interests, but a great project with excellent problem solving, I'm hooked and will be following with interest. Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted March 5, 2016 Author Share Posted March 5, 2016 Sir, I teks me 'at off to yer. A subject way outside my modelling era and interests, but a great project with excellent problem solving, I'm hooked and will be following with interest. Mike Hi mike Glad that you are enjoying the build so far, an update will follow later today. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
N15class Posted March 5, 2016 Share Posted March 5, 2016 PVA glue is good for rivet heads. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted March 5, 2016 Author Share Posted March 5, 2016 As promised here is the next update. I have gone back to the beams that join the bogies together and I found that I had done another bit slightly wrong, basically the 3 central vertical pieces that I put on earlier should where the brackets that support the main girder join onto the beam! So I set about rectifying this. The first step was to remove the incorrect pieces, done in a similar way to the main beams (scalpel blade at a shallow angle) Then it was onto making the new brackets these where made from 1mm thick plasticard and all where the same length but this is where the similarities ended as each beam was a slightly different height, but hey if it was simple it wouldn't be a challenge. The bottom outer corners where then rounded off. And then the beams where attached to the beams. Next up was to use the silhouette cutter to cut out the flanges for the beams 0.25 mm plasticard was used for this. It was then time to for the flanges to the brackets (you will see that I had to number the brackets to avoid confusion, permanent pen was used as I managed to wipe the pencil numbers off a couple when I rounded the corners off), the first step was to fix a piece of 0.25mm x 1mm plasticard strip to the top outer edge and then the top edge of the flange was glued to it. Then the same method was used to fix the rest of the flange in place as I used for when I fixed the 2 end pieces on (hold each one in place and apply the glue). Here are both of the beams after they had gone through the process. It was then just a case of putting the top plate onto the top edge of the brackets, 1mm plasticard was used for this. Below are some pictures of the finished beams. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 Thanks for that Peter I hadn't heard of that method before, will have to give it an experiment as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim4948 Posted March 7, 2016 Author Share Posted March 7, 2016 So onto the next bit which is the front end of the main beams, this consisted of putting in the various beams between the main girders. At the front where the main girder pivots a box structure was formed to hide the bolt head, this is where there was a wider beam anyway so it was useful to hide it. The bigger beams are made from 1mm plasticard and the smaller ones are evergreen I beam strip sections. Before the top plate was added (the wonky beam was straightened before this happened) The top planet was then added, made from 1mm plasticard and then the flange plate was cut out ready to go on top. The flange plate was then added followed by the front barrel support (made from 2 layers of 1mm plasticard and filed to the correct profile with a rounded file) Next step it to finish the basic, big parts of structure between the main girders and then it may be time to start thinking of sorting out the barrel so that it can be joined to the girders! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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