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Andy Y

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  1. Andy Y

    33/0 - loose ends

    By Andy Y,

    I wouldn't call it one of my quickest projects, after 18 months it's still not actually finished but I thought it would be appropriate to round up the bits that have been around before.
     
    Keyhaven won't feel right to me until there's a filthy old Crompton burbling away in early guise (probably GSYPWL - work that one out) and so a 33/1 and a 33/0 shell have been sitting for ages idly waiting for me to grab some time to attack them. I know I could probably just about live with the incorrect roof profile of a 33/0 but if I was going to go to the trouble of doing all the other bits to backdate it I thought I'd may as well make it as right as I could.
     
    Stage 1 - Hacking the body.
     
    The cabs have been cut away from the 33/0 with the cut being made just above the moulding line as shown below. It takes time and a will to cut gently and often rather than too deep in any one pass but a reasonably neat line can be taken by working freehand around the moulding.
     
     

     
     
    To give myself maximum room for error in doing this I cut below the moulding line on the 33/1 cabs and then filed back with a test fit process until it was near enough. There is a slight difference in the depth between the two moulding lines between the two variants, the 33/0 being around 0.5mm deeper, which is correct? I don't know but by this time it was easier to take more of the top of the 33/0 cabs than it was to take anything off the roof of the 33/1.
     

     
     
     
    Moving onto the roof it was relatively easy to determine the position of the old exhaust from the drawing below.
     

     
     
     
    What was concerning was the outer sides of the exhaust on the drawing were different from all of the images I had seen but I've followed the images rather than the drawings.
     
    Handily on the roof of the 33/1 are four little pimples (plate bolts or lifting eyes?) that appear to mark the position of the earlier exhaust so it becomes a case of joining those dots with a small saw.
     

     
     
     
    Once the panel is cut out the opening is tidied with a file, the removed section is filed back by around 2mm at each side and a vertical face prepared on each side. A plasticard liner will be created inside the body for the reduced exhaust panel to be glued upon.
     
    The clamps/brackets are removed from the roof by a shaving action with the knife, shaving from varying directions produces a reasonable result but any irregularities are removed by using a small file very softly over them. The newer style exhaust grille is also removed by shaving and filing prior to filling.
     

     
     
     
    So; that's the part done that had the potential to ruin two bodies, it was not as bad as I thought to be honest but it does represent 3-4 hours steady work and I haven't got anywhere near re-assembly - that will come when I've done some rubbing down.
     
     

     
     
     
    I shall  use the early 24 circular exhaust port (pic below) from the Brassmasters 24/25 detailing etch which is spot on for the dimensions given, the wife may also find a very small hole in one of her nylons to form the grille.
     

     
    The cavity around the roof horns was filled along with the later vent.
     

     
    The body and cab were brought back together.
     

     
    The following pic shows the vent and exhaust in situ.
     

     
    The remainder of the process was re-assembly, re-siting the speaker beneath the exhaust rather than beneath the cooling fan (why do we do that?) and taking it through the paint shop.
     
    As I said it isn't complete, it will be when I find where those Archers rivets for the roof got to though.
     

     

  2. Andy Y
    In finishing off the Mermaid modded here I thought I'd try the household cleaning aisle's wonder-stuff Klear for it's ballasting properties. A dry mix of ballast was placed in the weighted load area of the Mermaid, the Klear was given isopropyl alcohol and a blob of washing up liquid as additives and sprayed straight onto the dry mix. It soaked in like a dream with virtually no disturbance of the dry ballast. A few hours later it's rock hard. Any slight sheen is taken off with subsequent matt spray varnishing. I shall definitely be using that to speed up the ballasting process in future.
     
    Hoard secured.
     

  3. Andy Y
    Dear Number 57, whoever you are or more probably were, today I really appreciate what you and your colleagues did all those years ago!
     
    I'd had a Dapol Prestwin in the to-do drawer for a year or two and decided a few weeks back to put into the works. What an utter disaster it was and virtually put me off buying any of Dapol's current production of these time-served moulds. The chassis was so distorted that at rest only two wheels would touch the rails, three if a digit was placed on a corner; I can't even remember where I'd bought it so it now lives in the parts bin for its other components.
     
    The kit started life under Airfix around 1964 and it's a very different story with crisp detail on decent plastic (if a little brittle with age resulting in a broken brake lever at a late stage) that can still make a decent showing placed next to the current pick of the crop. Assembly is a dream with sharp alignment, positive fit and achievable in under an hour despite the 60+ parts that make this up. The only modifications to date to the kit are the addition of a couple of Cambrian brake wheels (I owe you another thank you Brian!) to the discharge pipes on the roof and the handrails above the short ladder to the platform on one side. The original transfers are somewhat yellow and curled but handily there were appropriate lettering and numbers left over on a Modelmaster 4644r sheet after the Presflo project (I really must post some snaps of the finished article).
     

     

     
    I accept that the seams in the tanks are more prominent than you'd like to see on a wagon produced last week but in the flesh they don't look as pronounced as they do on the snaps and that some final touching up is needed before a dose of Dullcote.
     
    Show me anything as good from 1964 that you can pick up for a fiver if you can!
  4. Andy Y

    Twin Silo Presflo

    By Andy Y,

    Jumping ahead to other bits of Keyhaven that may or may not get built at some point this year I picked up some Presflos with a view to altering them to reflect the twin silo variety that were initially used for ICI salt traffic and latterly for Slate Powder.
     
    Paul Bartlett's site again provides useful reference content with various angles of these wagons - http://gallery6801.f...et/c121408.html
     

     
    The starting point was the Crown Cement liveried Presflo with the correct buffer types shown left and the adapted wagon on the right.
     
    The principal difference to the twin silo version is just that, twin silos with separate feeds at top and bottom. After dismantling the wagon the hopper bottom was removed with a saw and a replacement with twin discharges was knocked up from 160gsm card..
     

     
    Although the wagon runs fine I decided to add some cheap weights whilst the top was off.
     

     
    The replacement piping was formed from 0.020inch round brass rod, the handrails from Alan Gibson .45mm wire, the small valve knobs from plastic rod cutoffs, one larger valve handle temporarily removed from another Presflo until I find a handle that better matches that in the prototype images and lastly brass offcuts for the notice panels.
     

     

     
    When considering the job I thought I'd have to use two wagons to generate enough bits but other than the valve wheel it was achieved from what happened to be lying around. Cheap job, takes about an hour.
     
    I may get round to painting when I've done a couple more and sorted the transfers and found a definitive shot in salt livery.
     
     
  7. Andy Y

    Reach for the ferry

    By Andy Y,

    It's high time I got round to putting together some of the more appropriate stock to run on Keyhaven.
     
    First off the ramp is this M.A.R.C. Models reach wagon, some enterprising soul down Dorzet way seems to have purloined one of the matching pair that fell out of use at Dover in the 1950s. The originals were paired together for loading train ferries offering the bare basics of accommodation for riders.
     

     

     
    Although the kit has been sat around the workbench for the last 7 months it was an easy build last night and this afternoon, seeing as the solder had gone on walkabouts post Christmas I decided it would be quicker to get going with epoxy resin rather than venturing out. It all went together an awful lot better than a simple plastic brake van kit that's following it on the assembly line!
  8. Andy Y

    I hate wasps

    By Andy Y,

    As part of the drive to get something useful done whilst the site's off in the evenings some layabouts in the to-do drawer have resurfaced. Keyhaven's always needed an 07 to help give it some geographical recognition and a lemon of a runner (and build) Craftsman 07 has lain dormant next to a Silver Fox resin body. The Silver Fox body needs a Bachmann 04 split chassis and having fried one chip with a chassis short when DCCing it too sat in the 'one day' pile. The detail on the Craftsman brass body is immeasurably superior and so it seemed a Dr. Frankenstein approach to modelling would give me a decent looker on a decent running chassis. First of all the Bachy chassis was sorted and chipped, the Silver Fox bonnet and boot were removed (yeah I did split the chassis at one pint cutting too quick but superglue has sorted that) as were the Craftsman panels. They just about fit together in the right places and in fact there's fractionally more clearance around the Bachy chassis block now.
     
    For a little loco it ran up quite a list of products required to finish it (unique lining and roundels to name a couple) with me aiming for the Fox ready to splat warning stripes. Yet another local shop seems to be running down the quantity of useful bits and bobs held in stock which meant I'd have to wait a few days and order some off t'internet. In the meantime I thought I'd have a go at the DIY-head-in option and save a few quid into the bargain.
     
    I've always found Tamiya masking tape to be the best for my use but this was going to put it to the test over the uneven surface and sloping edges.
     

     
    Cutting the masking tape down into 2.5mm strips for the front and 3.5mm strips for the top and sides the fiddly bit came in applying the sections of those strips onto the smaller than average shunter's backsides into something that looked reasonable. These were applied over Railmatch Acrylic Warning Yellow and didn't lift any of the paint when removed, Tamiya Acrylic X-1 black was sprayed over the whole nose and left to dry. Despite my best efforts to carefully lift the tape I did nick the yellow in a couple of places which will need a brush touch-up.
     

     

     
    Pulling those strips of masking tape off and seeing the finish was so much more satisfying than if I'd found the transfers I was looking for in that shop drawer. I'm so glad it wasn't a horror story.
     
     
     
     
     
  9. Andy Y

    Fleur

    By Andy Y,

    So what's an L&Y pug doing down at the seaside?
     
    This was an innocent bystander sat in the bottom of the drawer that I'd picked up for less than a tenner moons ago, no I didn't need it, want it or foresee any need for it but there you go. It'd be boring if everything was done to a plan wouldn't it?
     
    After a strip down and clean it was the quickest DCC hard-wire job I've ever done, hiding the decoder's another matter hence the use of 'Big Hands' on the footplate. A quick blast from the spray gun and weathering from the Tamiya make-up packs, paper nameplates (which give a clue to future Keyhaven developments) and job done. It still runs like a 3-legged dog though.
     

     
     
  11. Andy Y

    Keyhaven - the facade

    By Andy Y,

    The low relief buildings at the back of Keyhaven also serve to conceal a hidden storage road, one of which I've never been particularly happy with as it was a hasty gap filler at the time of the layout challenge. So, the 75% of the building in the centre is now a landfill contribution.? ? 
     
    ? ? 
     
    I'd picked up a couple of Ten Commandments stone-cast low-relief buildings to hack about.? ? 
     

     
    And re-assembled as below, PVA giving a good bond between the sections.
     

     
    The building was then given an all over spray of a sandy brown. To paint all of the windows at first glance looked like a waste of an otherwise good afternoon at the same time as being unconvinced about their appearance. As it turns out the easy way is to fill all of the panes with a dark grey paint and then use a trusty old fibreglass brush (that and gaffer tape form 50% of my modelling life) to take the paint back off the frames, it turns out neat enough. However I wanted something more down at heel too so the window reveals were filled with sections of corrugated plasticard. ? ? The brickwork was dry brushed with darker and varied tones before weathering back with Tamiya weathering packs, the corrugated iron was finished with a variety of blue and grey acrylics, weathered down with a wash and highlights picked up from yet more Tamiya make-up palettes.
     
    As it stood the building was overshadowed by it's neighbours the engineering factory and the salt works and need a bit of a lift. Keyhaven seems to be a study in corrugated cladding through different mediums so yet more wouldn't look amiss. This time it was asbestos sheeting! A framework was formed from foamboard and simply clad with strips of corrugated plasticard. This was spray painted with a mix of red oxide, grey and white primers before having a grey wash applied with a variety of tones built in with ground chalk pastels as weathering material.? ? 
     
    So, more of the same but different and it seems to fit in quite well. Time for some basic rainwater goods and we're away.? ? 
     
    ? ? 
     

     
     
  12. Andy Y
    Every now and again I suppose many of us go beyond what we'd normally expect as our own "it'll do for me" criteria and get carried away with something.
     
    Keyhaven wouldn't have been right without a late 60s Crompton rattling away on idle and so the saga of the 33/0 began with much hacking to get a 33/0 with decent roof profile and one thing just led to another. To follow on from the blog link above the Archer's rivet transfers never did surface so I got round to ordering some more. Once you start to look really close another 'find' creates more work and I thought I may as well make handles for the roof panels rather than Heljan's distorted nipples. Then there's the louvre/grille debate which, having gone an obsessive step too far, meant that I spent time creating ambiguity rather than a definitive action. See, it's getting silly isn't it?
     
    Whilst deciding to slim down the tanks a fraction rather than just slice out some unseen bits I decided that fitting a bass reflex speaker and mounting the tank sides onto that would be another way of upping the spec, adding unnecessary cost (but it don't 'arf sound beefy now!) and creating another to do task.
     
    Virtually every snap of a working Crompton shows the roof to be a fairly overall sooty charcoal but having taken some snaps of a 33 with a comparatively clean fibreglass roof I could make out there were some ribs under there which affected the uniformity of finish so it would be nice to give a hint of that. Oh, and I mustn't forget the slightly fibreglassy tone to those parts, and the normally less filthy exhaust (but of course some snaps show a hint of rust spots). And then cover it in grime. I must be mad.
     
    Now I'm not that stupid to have been at this weakness full time but I did start it 23 months ago and I've finished
     

     

     
    Now for the really silly bit:
     
    1 x Heljan 33/1 £55
    1 x Heljan 33/0 body £20
    1 x Howes sound decoder £115
    1 x Bass reflex speaker £10
    1 x Archers Rivets £11
    Transfers / Paint £15
    Replacement wheelsets £5
    Time @ minimum wage £don't even go there and it would have been even worse if I'd seen Pugsley's body scraping at some time in the process.
     
    Total > £230.00
     
    No thanks; I don't want one that much!
     
    Having learned some useful lessons along the way I fancy one in original livery. Utter madness.
     
     
    (don't be silly) done all that I can until Mr Hanson can get some extreme etches for the grilles and laser cut windows sorted*.*Other nags are on his list I'm sure.
     
    Source: Unhealthy obsessions .....
  13. Andy Y
    After months years of chewing over the next phase of Keyhaven everywhere I turned there were self-created compatability issues and also the legacy of bits that could have been better so I'd decided some time back that its offspring would recreate some of the old but improve upon it, especially from an operation viewpoint, and take the idea a stage further.
     
    If I keep deliberating and looking for problems it'll never happen so now is the time of year to make a start, a time when you can traipse in and out of the house fetching and cutting things without turning the rest of the house distinctly nippy.
     

     
    A pile of wood, today.
     
    A picture of a pile of wood shouldn't really merit an illustration but it's there to say that I thought that part through too and saved myself a whole bundle of time in return for a fiver by getting Jewson to cut the ply. It seems fewer and fewer of the DIY tin sheds actually trust their staff to cut bent timber in straight lines or for customers to not end up with splinters and claim inordinate levels of dosh for psychological trauma of timber related injuries. It's hardly top quality but with the construction techniques I'll be using it won't be a problem.
     

     
     
    Within 30 minutes a ply sandwich forms the first 3'6" x 2' baseboard frame, fairly lightweight and reasonably rigid (well it will be when the cross-member goes in when I've finally decided on point locations). Another layer of ply or foamboard will sit upon the ply deck. I was tempted to go with foamboard for the whole thing but some recent experiences told me I'd possibly get frustrated with the amount of bracing required to eliminate any variations in level that could happen if unsupported.
     
    Another timesaver was to use a staple gun as the principal tool rather than ommer'n'nails or screwing it together.
     

     
     
    So what will K2yhaven look like? It will be the equivalent of turning the existing layout through 90 degrees (on the right of the plan) with the station at 90 degrees to the quay across the back of the layout. The station will be a terminus formed from a truncated branch route. The left foreground will be a boat yard with a ramp down onto a car ferry with the centre foreground being the harbour water.
     

     
     
    My target is to get it reasonably complete by Taunton next April.
     
    The topic will run here but significant posts will be copied over to the blog as a digest.
     
    Source: K2yhaven
  14. Andy Y
    "Ooh, I didn't expect it to be that big", long time since I've heard that one.
     
    Whilst showers just about managed to hold off I was able to get the main baseboards and legs knocked together. I hadn't properly considered the leg issue when I made the previous board so that's also been replaced which now means the legs are interchangeable between boards with an easy slot in. No more bulky steel trestles!
     

     
     

     
     

     
     
    A little more time would have enabled me to fit the internal angle bracing and baseboard connectors but I don't think it's too bad for an afternoon's work. There's still two more boards to make for the front section but they're scenic only.
     
    Source: K2yhaven
  15. Andy Y
    Remembers those Solvite ads decades ago where they papered a bloke to a plane and flew around and the one where they pasted him to a board and swung him from a helicopter? I never believed them for one minute but I now reckon they used this stuff:
     

     
     
    It's 1mm thick, 38mm wide, double sided and self-adhesive on a thin core of foam. I thought it would be worth a go for laying the track on the train turntable onto expecting something that would allow secure fixing without the use of pins ( being unsatisfied with latex-based adhesive last weekend) and the ability to lift and adjust if necessary. WRONG.
     
    This stuff must rate high amongst 'sticky things that don't do what you want them to' with it's propensity to adhere to any organic substance within a 3 yard radius rather than where you want it to go. Face, body hair, clothing etc. Once it's in contact with wood or track that's it, fixed. Forever.
     

     
     
    Eventually I did get part of the TT and the approaches sorted; when I've got a day when I want something more agonising than a needle in the eyeball I'll get the other end done. I'll now be trying to work out how to slide some copper-clads under and solder for additional rigidity at the join as the only weakness is in the chairs - certainly not in the track being fixed to the board!
     
    Source: K2yhaven
  16. Andy Y
    A chance to get a bit of personal modelling done as it seems as we've been doing Sentinels to death of late (although this one's slightly different so I'm videoing it as I go along as a test of video more than anything else) but someone may find it of use later on.
     
    The intention is to get to something close to the pictured Sentinel in Sheffield's back streets at Grimesthorpe so it's a case of subtraction and addition to get the right result.
     

     
    An hour later the destruction's complete and it's time to move onto the construction phase (when some extras have arrived) and hopefully have it on BCB at the end of the month at DEMU Showcase.
     

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