Ian Smith

Tom, Looking good. If I didn't know better I would have put money on that first image being of something somewhat larger than N gauge!! Very inspirational stuff. Ian

Looks fantastic to me!!

I was going to ask that too!! Originally it looked like he'd drilled holes and inserted plastic rod through (but I can't see them on the inside).

I'm sure the huts will look fine. They look a little stark in white plasticard in a pretty well complete area but once painted and weathered they should look the part.

Richard, A nice collection of wagons there. What do you use for the links of the 3-Link couplings?

Not only great modelling, but what talent - driving the trains, playing the piano and filming all at the same time. Sir, you are a genius!!

Mikkel, Absolutely fantastic as usual!! I can't help but feel Aunt Augusta would have been a bit butch judging by the prominant brow ridges, unless of course "Aunt Augusta" was a stage name for a drag queen :-) As others have said, you have been sorely missed, and I too have waited longingly for this episode. Ian

Alan, From the limited experience I have with FUD 0.5mm does seem fine (that is the thickness of the springs that I had printed up - obviously they are delicate until fixed to the model though). The problems with the original painting of the W1 have provided an excellent cleaning fluid - White Spirit - The finish of the FUD material after washing (well mild scrubbing really) in White Spirit accepts enamel paint excellently, I did not apply any undercoat / primer to the wagons. Ian

Chris / Richard, Thank you both for your replies. I think I will order a chassis then probably dispense with the etched gearbox replacing with a custom one of my own. Ian

I am hoping to build a GWR Saddle Tank, and intended to use the Association 57xx chassis as a starting point. From reading the various entries on this thread I am a little confused as to whether the drive is on the centre axle, or one of the outer axles, or whether there are two different chassis to provide this choice. What I want to build is an open cab Saddle Tank, and am wondering if this chassis will be suitable after all. Can anyone with experience of the 57xx chassis advise please? Thanks in anticipation, Ian

Richard, I attended TINGS yesterday, and realised what you meant by "...and we're rostered on different days..." Another Ian Smith was in attendance on the 2mmFS stand :-) A shame our paths didn't cross, I had taken my 3D printed wagons with me on the off chance that you would be there on Saturday. Below are a couple of images that I have posted in my gallery of the finished W1 in pre 1904 cast plate livery: Ian

My 1976 edition of Volume 2 of Atkins, et al has a picture of no. 26481 which reasonably clearly shows the tapered headstocks, also the drawing of the wagon in the same volume shows the same. Whether all of the wooden solebar shod wagons in the diagram had the tapering is open to question. Richard, Unfortunately, I will not be attending the AGM - Throughout the autumn and winter my other hobby (Radio Controlled Car Racing) takes precedent on Saturdays. Ian

The sides I made 0.8mm thick, the ends are a little thicker at 1.0mm (although I thinned the edge of the end where it would be visible in the opening in the sides to 0.5mm (the wide of the corner strapping) by chamfering back along the end by 3.0mm. The plank gaps go into the sides by 0.2mm. All of the strapping (except the X strapping on the ends) is 0.2mm thick, and the bolt heads are all 0.2mm square (again excepting the ones on the X strapping which are slightly bigger but are hexagonal in shape and both stick out 0.15mm). Following the successful printing of these Cattle Wagons, I have made them publicly available from Shapeways (I have bundled them into pairs to keep the cost down for potential purchasers as Shapeways apply a 5 euro surcharge per STL file when printing FUD). If anyone wants more than 2 of a wagon, I don't mind putting a file together containing a few wagons (as I did for myself - 7 wagons for

Following the receipt from Shapeways of a GWR Cattle train that I had drawn up (http://www.rmweb.co....e-train-in-fud/), I have been working on two of the set, a W1 Large Cattle Wagon, and a W2 Medium (Outside Framed) Cattle Wagon. The parts received from Shapeways were cleaned of the waxy support residue using an old toothbrush and washing up liquid. Annoyingly on a couple of the wagons (not the ones in this article) I was a little over-zealous and damaged the T section strapping on the wagon ends (at least I assume it was me and not just a bad print). So for future reference, care is needed while cleaning Once cleaned, the 2mm Scale Association RCH W Irons (part 2-312) were folded up and soldered, then secured with super glue into the recesses that I'd had the foresight to draw into the rear of the solebars (a similar recess assisted the location and fixing of the V hanger). The brake gear was from an old 11'0" wheel base underframe etch that is unfortunately no longer available (I guess it has been superceeded by a better version). The brake handles are from another old etch of Colin Waite brake gear, the last few limited supplies of which are now being sold off by the 2mm Scale Association Shop 2. The W1 wagons were actually 11'6" wheelbase, but this slight discrepancy doesn't really show on the finished wagon (the wheel spacing is to the correct 11'6" it's just the brake gear that is 11'0"). The door bangers are simply strips of 0.010" nickel silver from a bit of an old etch, that were bent to shape with a little "tail" that was inserted into a small hole in the top part of the solebars. These were secured with more super glue applied from the inside of the solebars. The buffers are again 2mm Scale Association items (part 2-072), and are a snug fit in the pre-drawn holes in the headstocks. The horizontal bars in the openings at the top of the sides are 0.3mm brass wire cut to length and super glued to the back of the door framing - The W2 has a recess drawn in to facilitate this fixing, but rather stupidly I forgot to add this aid when I drew the W1 (although I have now rectified this in the updated drawing uploaded on Shapeways. The photo below hopefully shows the W1 (and W2) underframes, and the method employed in the construction of the underframes. The roof was made from 0.010" plasticard, gently rolled to shape with a marker pen on a mouse mat. The strengthening strapping being 0.005" plasticard strip. The W2 does not have the strengthening strapping. The first attempt at painting the W1 had to be stripped off with white spirit as despite being a nice new tin of MATT Humbrol dark grey, it insisted on drying GLOSSY !!!! One surprising benefit of the stripping process was to leave a finish that rather nicely shows off the 3D Print though : A complete re-paint has left the following little wagon that I'm really rather pleased with, it still needs some transfers adding (large 25" GW) and of course the lime wash that was prevalent in my chosen modelling period (c.1905/6). I need to obtain some new transfers because the old Woodhead that I have (I think) are well past their best, I will probably try Fox Transfers, and hope that they have the word "LARGE" on there 2mm GWR sheet. Ian

Dave, I wouldn't go any thinner than 0.010", I've tried something similar in the past and found that 0.005" effectively disolved into the brick courses giving me not quite the look I was going for :-) Ian

Like you, i also have a fondness of William Clarke's buildings (the station buildings themselves rather than goods sheds, etc). Whether it is the ornate chimeys or not I don't know, they just somehow "look right". Sounds like the old Eric Plans that used to be marketed by Peco I think :-) Ian

Dave, Since you model in 7mm, it might be possible to print on something a little thicker than a Rizla. I don't know whether some plain writing paper might be somewhat lighter in weight than ordinary 80gsm printer paper. Ian

Dave, another lovely looking wagon. On the subject of GWR wagon sheets, there was variety in them in the early 1900's (unfortunately the Smith's ones don't really look like any that I have seen of the period). I have produced some artwork to print my own which can be found http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/41875-gwr-tarpaulin/ (early c1900 type) and here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/42027-gwr-sheet-1903/ (c1903 type). An image of the result when printed onto a Rizla for a 2mm wagon here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/42584-2mmfs-fud-van-scratch-open-rizla-tarpaulin-and-3-link-couplings/. Hopefully, if you are interested you could download these images and print them to 7mm scale (they should be 21'0" long if I remember correctly, so trial and error with the scaling when printing should produce an acceptable result) Regards Ian

Missy, That does look rather disappointing. The interior of the cab looks excessively rough, which I can't understand - Are you sure that you removed all of the supporting waxy material from the cab space? I know that after cleaning up my cattle wagons and especialy brake van with a toothbrush and washing up liquid as you have (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1009/entry-10020-2mmfs-gwr-cattle-train-in-fud/) that there was still evidence of the waxy stuff in the internal spaces - a bit of tissue on the end of a cocktail stick removed the awkward bits. Of the 3 Outside Framed Vans that I originally had printed, one had a really rough side (which I think I showed you at the RMweb members day - its the one I have used as a grounded body). From the evidence of my own prints alone, I can see variations in quality some of which are probably down to the orientation of the model when it's printed (which unfortunately cannot be specified to Shapeways, as they will orientate to minimise supporting material I think). It may well be that your model was orienated on one side when printed because of the boiler bottom assembly, perhaps you could separate that off - The 7 wagons and spring sprues in my latest print were all in the same STL file but were not connected to each other. Hope this helps Ian

The results of my labours with Google SketchUp have finally arrived from Shapeways, detailed in previous blog entries. This time I have received a complete GWR Catte Train comprising 2 x Large W1/5 Cattle Wagons, 1 x Medium W2 (Outside Framed) Cattle Wagon, 3 x Small W3 Cattle Wagons (this was a bit of a cock up copying and pasting as there should have been 2 of each! ), and to tail them off an AA16 Outside Framed Brake Van. Each of these were drawn in SketchUp in separate files, and a new file built containing all of them built by simply copying the relevant wagon from it's own file and pasting it in the combined file, the resulting combined file was saved as an STL file, and NetFabb used to correct any errors using the default fix. In addition to the wagons, I had also incorporated some sprues of springs and axleboxes for both the Cattle Wagons and the Brake Van. These were quite fine, and if I'm honest I was unsure whether they would work - they did, although all bar 2 of them had become detached from the sprues in the Shapeways cleaning process or in transit. The axleboxes are a mixture of Grease and Oil, and for the Brake Van were drawn as 4'6" long with J hangers, and for the others 3'6" long. Below are a series of photo's that show the complete order (which cost £37.50 incl post - which I think was pretty good for 7 wagons!) Full Contents of order : Large W1 Cattle Wagon : Last one illustrating the recesses I've drawn into the model to facilitate the use of the 2mm Scale Association's RCH W-Irons (part 2-312) : W2 Outside Framed Medium Cattle Wagon : W3 Small Cattle Wagon : AA16 Outside Framed Brake Van : This was drawn complete with the bench/box ad floor at the verandah end, and incorporated the brake standard. Unfortunately, the handle of the brake did not survive the journey so will have to be replaced with wire. All of the wagons were drawn with holes for the buffer shanks, and a central slot to accomodate the draw hook. Additional holes were drawn in te solebars for the horse hooks (except on the W2 which has a wooden solebar, the plating detail on which isn't really visible in the photos but is there). The Brake Van has 0.3mm holes in the solebar and body side to facilitate fitting of footboards and handrails, which have come out but will need to be opened up as they look significantly smaller than the 0.3mm I had drawn them at - perhaps they still have supporting wax in them. That's all for now - I don't think I'm going to get too bored over the next few weeks now! Ian

I'm not an expert of any kind on trackwork or sleepering arrangements, but sleepers 32 and 33 look a little short, and I'm not sure that they would be angled the way you have them, I would have thought that they would have been laid perpendicular to the far rail - I only say that because I think it would look aesthetically better. Ian

John, Both of those wagons look really nice. I have tried to hand letter a couple of my wagons without much success (mainly because I wanted the 5" G.W.R livery). I had looked at the Fox range, but was a little worried as they seem to be rub-down type which I have struggled with in the past. I must have a look out for the Modelmaster transfers - do they do GWR ones? And are they available publicly (rather than just members of N Gauge Society)? Ian

Lovely modelling Jerry. As Phil says, unless you knew this was 2mm there is nothing that gives away the scale. What have you used for the stone walling and the cobbles? Ian

Very nice Pete. Like so many others I have it in my favourites list (but then so was your blog) :-) Ian