Ian Smith

Richard, I have found that locos often seem to run better in one direction. One thing that happens is a slight sideways movement of the gear wheel caused by friction with the worm, gear moving left in one direction and right in the other. Because of the need to shorten the muff, I rarely get a square end on the muff and have witnessed the “high spot” of the muff rubbing on the bearing in the frame. Might be worth looking to see if you are experiencing this in your chassis. Ian

On the two coaches that I have built that are fitted with oil lamps I have painted the vertical face of the pot slightly darker (although the current coach roof is quite dark to start with so the variation on this coach is not quite so noticeable). On the real thing the lamp pots had many vent holes around the vertical face to vent the smoke produced by burning the oil so I guess would account for the pots looking darker in photos.

Steve, thank you for the kind comment. As for roof weathering, I tend to brush paint the rooves in a dirty grey after the satin varnish has dried, as Mikkel says the coaches would have been outshopped with white rooves which would dirty over time to grey (how much time is often debated!) In reality railways were dirty places and the coach sides got pretty mucky too if you look at some Edwardian period photos but the sides at least got washed regularly so that’s my excuse for having relatively pristine coaches, although the coat of varnish does at least knock back the freshly outshopped look! Thanks Mikkel, I do find rooves difficult as they are always the last thing I paint, I may experiment one day by brushing with weathering powders to see if I can improve the result. Izzy, thank you. The mansell wheels are the normal 7mm coach wheels with the Association etched mansell centres. I chemically blacken said centres before giving them a thin coat of brown (usually before glueing in place). I don’t think there are any bolt heads etched on them though. I have some very old Association mansell wheels with what looks like phosphor bronze tyres that were moulded with that level of detail but the axles are a bit short, they will almost certainly stay in the gloat box as the Association have recently introduced new wheels with mansell centres. Ian

The latest coach is now running off the workbench and onto the Modbury to head the existing train of 6 wheelers there. The iterative approach to painting the exterior has been completed, transfers applied (the "Third" branding for this coach is from the decals supplied by the Association courtesy of work done by John Aldrick, and is in all honesty far superior to the Modelmaster transfers applied to the other coaches on the layout. However, the Association decals do appear a bit thicker but not noticeable in this instance as they are within the small panels in the waists of the doors). As is my want, the door handles and G grab rails were scraped back to bare brass after painting. The coach has received a protective coach of Precision Paints Satin Varnish, and the glazing is the Cobex sheet again supplied by the Association secured with canopy glue. A rudimentary interior of compartments made up from bits of plastic completes. The curly bit of wire on one end of the coach is my way of joining my coaches together in rakes, hopefully representing the vacuum pipe! The photos are rather cruel close ups as the finished model is a mere 56mm long. Thanks for looking. Ian

I've used QCAD in the past when doing my first real attempt at producing etch artwork. Adrian Cherry did a few online turorials for QCAD which were linked from Western Thunder here : https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/index.php?threads/qcad-getting-started-guides.3454/ (not sure if you need to be a member on WT to follow that link though, sorry if you do). Hopefully that might be useful. Ian

Mikkel, In 2mm scale I feel that having removable sheets would be a step too far! So I am happy to have wagons permanently sheeted. Checking the stock that I have for Modbury reveals that only 4 of my company opens are sheeted (I have 5 others that are unsheeted with a brace of those having fixed loads of barrels that are roped down). For the ropes I use thread designed for model ships rigging (0.010” thick I think), which is somewhat overscale but has the advantage of not being “hairy” like some cotton thread. Below is a photo of my 4 sheeted opens, in time I need to increase the number of opens that I have, and some of those will also be permanently sheeted (some with sheet supporter bars too) Ian

Russ, I use Precision Paints colours for my coaches - Coach Cream and Coach Brown, and their Mahogany too. Ian

A week or two ago I promised to try to post some photos of how I paint my coaches, so here goes... The initial point of course is the priming. I use an etching primer from Halfords. As can be seen my preference is to solder the door handles and grab rails in place before any painting is commenced - I scrape these back to bare brass before the final coat of varnish is applied. Having masked the roof and brown bits with masking tape, the cream is applied. Once that's had a chance to thoroughly dry (I generally leave it for a couple of days at least), I then cover the cream area with Humbrol Maskol fluid (I apply this quite thickly with a couple of coats as it becomes much easier to peel off that way). The mouldings help to keep the Maskol roughly where I want it, but occasionally it does stray into what should be a chocolate panel, I try to rectify these indiscretions if I spot them with a cocktail stick but invariably miss one or two places, not that it matters too much as there will almost certainly be some touching up to do later anyway! The chocolate is then applied and once it's dry the Maskol can be peeled off. The centre door panel shows one of my "indiscretions" with the Maskol!! After another couple of days of drying time, it's now time to apply the black lining on the moulding. I do this with a 0.01mm Rotring pen and their black ink. Above can be seen the tools used at this stage - a really important piece of the equipment (for me) is the "clamping frame" which holds the model securely while the lining is drawn. This is made from 3 bits of 3/4" MDF, a base, a hand rest (glued to base) and a sliding clamp piece. The depth of the clamp is just right for 2mm scale models. The coach is clamped in the "clamping frame" in a bed of kitchen roll to protect the model, and the moulding lines picked out with the Rotring pen and a straight edge. The curved corners of the mouldings are touched in freehand afterwards. Again the odd mistake is bound to be made where the pen slips into a cream panel, and this will need to be touched up later with a fine brush and two or three coats of well thinned cream paint. With the moulding lines drawn, the next stage is to paint the mahogany bolections. The paint is thinned to a consistency where it will flow under capillary action and gravity around the windows - it might be possible to see that when I designed the artwork for this coach that a narrow trough was etched around the window to delineate the bolection which aids the painting of the window surrounds as it acts as a "stop line". The above image is simply to illustrate the bolection and door droplight painting. Good light and magnification, a pringle lid palette, and a puddle of paint that is regularly topped up with thinners to obtain a consistency that flows around the bolections. The door droplights don't have the luxury (on my etched coaches) of a "stop line", so thicker paint, a steady hand and a fair bit of cleaning up afterwards is required to get these neat!! The final image in this post shows the coach side after "iteration 1" of the process. I have started to clean up the cream paintwork around the door droplights with a very fine sable brush moistened with thinners to lift off most of the errant mahogany paint. It will be necessary to touch up the cream further into the process!! It is now a "simple" case of repeating most of the above to obtain a neat finish that I am satisfied with. All being well in a few weeks the coach will be ready to add to the rest of the train : What I'm aiming for! Thanks for looking, Ian

The number plates for my Dean Goods arrived a couple of days ago from Narrow Planet - never used their services before (all of my other locos feature my own numberplates etched in 0.006" brass), but I am very happy with them. I have secured them to the cab sides with small dabs of satin varnish, and last night took the following photos : A side on view of the Dean Goods sporting her new numberplates. Dean Goods no. 2569 doing what she was built for - a contrived shot as the traintables will only allow her to pull a maximum of 9 wagons on the layout. Same from the other end - the signalman has been pretty damn quick to restore the home signal!!! Thanks for looking Ian

Today I got the camera out to record for posterity some of the recent additions to Modbury ... An overall view looking in the Plymouth direction illustrate the telegraph poles that have been added - these are at a scale 60 yard separation. I couldn't resist a view in the opposite direction towards Newton Abbot, this is the view that the operator has. Dean Goods (No.2569) waits for the signal to be lowered before it can continue with a morning passenger train of 6 wheelers. A slightly closer view of the station area, which gives a bit better view of the yesterdays additions - the rotating point disks connected to the down main to goods loop crossing. As yet, the discs do not rotate as they will need to be connected to servos which will act simultaneously to the memory wire actuators controlling the throw of the point blades. Finally an image from the archives (?) showing a close up of the signal box environs which provides a much closer view of one of the telegraph poles. Thanks for looking. Ian

Richard, I always cover the cream part with maskol. It requires careful application but the raised mouldings help it to be applied only where I want it. I’m not averse to touching up the paint work with a couple of thin coats with a fine brush, good light, magnification and a steady hand too. If I remember I will have to take some photos as I do these two - Anthony is always after articles for the mag. Ian

Angus, The G handles are N brass etchings. I always solder them in place then scrape back to bare brass after painting prior to applying a coat of varnish. Ian

Just rolling off my work bench and into the paint shop are these two GWR coaches : The 6 wheeler is another one of my custom etches, a diagram S6 All Third (this time with oil lamps), and will go on the end of the rake that are already completed. The bogie coach is a Worsley Works diagram C4 a 40'0" 7 compartment All Third. The bogies for the latter are my own 6'4" Dean etches, and will eventually go in a short rake of bogie coaches. Ian

Dave, Thank you for taking the time to scan and place these articles online. Apart from a quick scan of the Binney Coach underframe article I haven't looked at the documents yet but thank you! Ian

I used David’s etched underframes for my Worsley GWR 4 wheeled coaches (one built as a 6 wheeler). The underframes are really for David’s GER coaches so we’re not overly accurate for my coaches (but good enough for me). As I recall they went together without any trouble, brakes might have been a bit fiddly but I was pretty new to 2mm modelling when I put the rake together and it took me a while to get my eye in Like Richard, I tend to draw up my own artwork for things I want now (6 wheeled coaches for example) where I have control of the accuracy and detail. Ian

Richard, you need to keep the tip of the iron clean. A damp sponge is sometimes used for this but I prefer a brass “wool” pad thing (had mine so long I can’t remember the proper name or where I got it from) Ian

Also, remember blu-tac is very useful for mopping up all of the swarf afterwards. Ian

Dave, That's a very worthwhile addition to the layout, it fulfils all of the original criteria and I'm sure that if we ever manage to take our train sets out to entertain the public again that it will only add to their enjoyment of what an Edwardian railway would have looked like. I look forward to seeing the next instalment. Ian

So true! Jerry, in our conversation I mentioned the 517 I’ve started. A photo of the chassis below : Chassis is a split milled brass affair, and will be secured to body by a bolt through the insulated hole at the back into the bunker. The motor is one of the new 6mm diameter tramfabriek ones now stocked by the shop, sitting on a plasticard saddle, driving the leading drivers with a (very) old Association 36:1 worm and gear. The wheels are also old Association ones - steel stub axle, cast white metal wheel with nickel silver tyre (same as I’ve used on my Dean Goods). Ian

As Richard said above, both he and I have done our own etches for our own purposes. The chief shopkeeper has asked if I would mind doing some for the shop, but it’s one of those things that is on my list of things to do, and is a complete re-design to make them easier to assemble (springs and axleboxes mainly). Unfortunately because I have enough of my own for what I need the project is a bit of a back burner. Ian

Personally the brown livery does absolutely nothing for me, I’m not even a fan of LBSCR umber. Similarly locos in fake coach cladding have little to offer, I do however have a Worsley Works steam railmotor to do one day, although being a model of the preserved one I may have to model that in the brown livery, although there is more likelihood that it will be turned out in the same livery as my other coaching stock! It was I believe built in 1908, the year that the brown livery was introduced. As for my 517, it will be open cab with the Swindon high-backed bunker, and I will probably find an example that had been auto-fitted by 1906 - I have an old Langley auto coach kicking about somewhere Ian

I could have made a Stella I suppose, but that would have meant converting the wheels to extended axles and outside cranks. However, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for small Victorian tank engines (especially those designed by Dean and Armstrong), so this next one will be a 517. Ian

One down, 6 or 7 more to go ... Forgot to include a coin of the realm for size comparison, but cross bars are around 9mm long. Ian

Anthony, that’s coming along really nicely. It’s nice to hear that I’m not the only one that sometimes has to make it up as I go along (or rather revise my plans) Ian

Kevin, Sorry I had to drop out - my internet connection became unusable for the zoom meeting. Ian