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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
    In turning around a Parkside Pallet Van I took the usual course of referencing Paul Bartlett's site and found that the Palvan's seemed to have a fairly distinct way of weathering after lounging around in backwaters following a fairly premature absence from action - http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/p24203000.html . In all likelihood they were probably as drab and mucky as any other van whilst still in service but I fancied a go at something a different shade of brown.
     

     
    Starting from a base of Railmatch BR Bauxite and metal strapping picked out in a dark chocolate shade variations in tone were made via airbrush layering dark bauxite and a faint black towards the edges of panels and the strange sensation of spraying yellow/orange shades towards the centre of the larger panels.
     
    The overall finish is not as pronounced as shown in the prototype pics on the assumption that wagons aren't as old. I must overcome the temptation to treat more vans like that.
     
     
     
     
     
  4. Andy Y

    ICI Presflo

    By Andy Y,

    Follow up to http://www.rmweb.co....n-silo-presflo/
     
    I'd set off on a desire to be different more than anything else in trashing a previously perfect Bachy Presflo into a twin silo variant. I set off knowing that I'd got no reference material other assumption and guesswork and even the resources to complete the model in its supposed form.
     
    Looking back Hornby Dublo produced a Presflo in a slightly bluish green with ICI logos and bulk salt and Dapol some years later in an even more garish shade. That's all I'd got to go on other than Paul Bartlett's reference material to the later life Slate Presflo which was actually more helpful than the pseudo-collectable items of yore in taking a stab at what the colour may have been before age and filth took them to the state shown in Paul's pictures.
     
    Trying to achieve a 'is that blue or is that green' shade took some trial and error with garish shades of Tamiya acrylics that would look more fitting on some yoof's Corsa and a touch of black. I was happy when I'd got a shade that seemed to change in tone dependent on the light it's in.
     
    I'd never expected to find the ICI logos and had an alternate DIY plan for them until I called Modelmaster to get the lettering. I mentioned the ICI logo and lo and behold I was advised that sheet 4651 contained just what I needed. Brilliant. However it's no exaggeration to say that applying the transfers takes longer than the conversion shown in the previous posting.
     
    Out came the Tamiya weathering powders again for pure guesswork on how such a wagon in that usage would have weathered. It's at this point when this blog entry gets posted that someone will step forth with definitive proof that I've got it wrong. Great, do it; I'm ready and waiting with another blank canvas that I can rectify these wild assumptions.
     

     

  5. 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!
  6. 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

    Mermods

    By Andy Y,

    I picked up a Flangeway Mermaid at the weekend and although it has a lot of positives the big negative for me was the solid panel on top of the chassis - see cnw6847's post which detracted from the fineness of the rest of the model. Given the price at GBP15.95 I'd have expected something a little more but having looked at it I felt comfortable that something could be done to improve it.
     
    Step 1 - Separate the wagon body from the supporting frame, maybe it should unclip but I could see glue residue down there so I slid scalpel beneath the body.
     

     
    Step 2 - Separate the tipping frame from the weighted chassis, again there was evidence of clips beneath but it didn't want to budge and I reverted to the scalpel.
     

     
    The tipping frame is clipped to the chassis with two awkward clips on each side, placing pressure on these from inside moves them out sufficiently to remove the tipping frame from the chassis.
     

     
    Step 3 - Remove the weight from the chassis by drilling through the melted plastic peg in each corner of the weight.
     

     
    Step 4 - Replace the tipping frame onto the chassis. At this point I had intended to build up the chassis frame with plastic strip but given that it will be relatively obscured most of the time and looking at a skeleton chassis on Paul Bartlett's site I thought I'd leave it at that.
     

     
    Once the wagon body is replaced I think the result is reasonable and certainly an improvement. The body, and chains, will be fixed back on after the wagon is weathered. The wagon will obviously need that weight that was removed, in this case it will be cut down by 5mm off the length and placed inside the wagon and with additional weight hidden beneath the wagon's load.
     

  10. 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

    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.
     
     
     
     
     
  13. 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!
  14. 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.? ? 
     
    ? ? 
     

     
     
  15. Andy Y

    Inset trackwork on Keyhaven

    By Andy Y,

    I'm frequently asked about how the concrete effect was achieved on keyhaven and also crops up periodically in reference to "How do I do inlaid track work?" questions.
     
    The inset track on Keyhaven Quay was achieved by use of cork floor tiles abutted to the side of the sleepers, these basic floor tiles, obtained from a DIY chain, near enough match the rail height of Peco Code 75 track. The inset section between the rails uses Fabfoam obtained from a craft shop chain and cut into 14mm wide strips; the foam comes in A4 sheets at around 20p a sheet so a little goes a long way and can be easily laid into curved track of any reasonable radius and is secured to the sleepers with Copydex, fortuitously this also matches the height of the code 75 rails.
     

     
    The gap between the rail and the adjacent cork floor tile is filled with ready mixed flexible filler from a tube and smoothed over. Using a strip of plasticard on top of the sleeper ends will stop the filler subsiding into the gaps between the individual sleepers. The same filler is used to fill in any small indentations and cracks that are inherent in a natural cork product and smoothed off before being left to dry.
     

     

     

     

     
    A weakness in my approach was to not put anything over the sleeper ends which led to a slight rippling in the filler as it dried out, a strip of card or plasticard over the sleeper ends would stop that happening. Once the filler is dry a smoothing over with light abrasive paper gives an even finish, the drying process naturally taking the filler down to just below the rail head thus making cleaning relatively easy.
     
    The whole area is then sprayed with a suitable cheap stone coloured spray (Plastikote), concrete comes in a variety of shades but it's worth looking at the real thing before going wild, weathered concrete is probably a lot paler than anticipated when you pick up the spray can. Joints in the concrete are represented by carving lines into it with a craft knife and metal ruler, the lines are then drawn in with pencil. It's then down to you how you much you wish to weather the surface from that point.

     

  16. Andy Y
    I always enjoy any trip down to Hampshire or Dorset, the tinkle of yachts in harbours, the thrum of perpetual ferries, a chance to sample once more some of my favourite pubs; it lifts the spirits don't you know. I must be getting old when thoughts turn to "I could happily retire here, just there, that house with the balcony there", only another 20 years to save up for what I can't afford today!
     
    This time whilst mooching around I was somewhat surprised to find in a bookshop one of the rare New Popular Edition OS maps for The New Forest published just after the war. Seemingly this is the only map edition which shows the line down to Keyhaven from its junction at Shirley Holm on the Lymington branch. I trust you'll forgive it being a little battered, I have a big soft spot for these maps telling a story of years gone by in colour from hand crafted originals, none of this GPS, generated on a screen to be viewed on a 3" screen to tell you how to get where you want to be stuff of the 21st century. OS maps are still world-beating in my eyes, a constantly evolving record of Britain since Napoleon was at the end of telescope on the other side of La Manche.
     

     
    A rare find indeed and one that helps build a picture for the layout. Aside from the rail ferry loading point for transfering stock twixt Eastleigh works and the Isle of Wight it also shows the reason behind one of the branch's other traffic flows to the salt works. The proximity to the salt marshes of Keyhaven and Pennington Marshes supported a salt industry through the years apart from a short 300 year interlude between the 15th and 18th centuries. The salt works is now levelled as is the rail ferry site, the adjacent Keyhaven Marine Engineering company relocated to the Lymington with its well-heeled owners of yachts and Reliant Scimitars in the early 1970s. So, it's all gone now.
     
    Armed with a copy of a page from the Railway Magazine that I remember "seeing" years ago in 1971 I went to see what, if anything, still remained at Keyhaven.
     

     
    All that is now visible is the quayside wall, the River Avon's estuary continues to silt up, the end of the quay has been filled with spoil from the levelling of the site which has now become overgrown. It also forms the start of the coastal footpath that hugs the shoreline to Lymington.
     

     
    The ferry crossed to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight starting through the deeper water channels out of Keyhaven. Deeper is a somewhat subjective term as even at high tide the channel is little more than 15' deep until the shelter of the end of Hurst Castle is passed. Thereafter it's only two miles across the Solent until gaining shelter once again on the far shore once passed Sconce Point. Very few images seem to exist of the rail ferry in operation, the service was infrequent anyway but reduced over the years; crossings were preferred in calmer winds anyway but sailings were often made overnight dependent on tides to try and keep clear of the high number of pleasure boaters on that stretch of water. I caught site of a postcard at a fair that incidentally included the ferry in the distance in a late '60s shot.
     

     
    The ferry unloaded at a similar facility just beyond the former Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport station passing under the town bridge. That line never did close in 1953, not in my world.
     
     
    Credits: New Popular Edition maps coutesy of http://www.npemap.org.uk/ under a Creative Commons Licence.
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