47137

Wow!

Thanks to all of the above I now have a shortlist of characteristics: Things to keep The tyres on the Ixion wheels measure 23 mm diameter, this represents 3ft 2in in 7mm scale. The tyres are 1.4 mm tall representing 2.4 inches. The MRJ article explains, the tyres would have been allowed to wear down to 1.5 inches. So for me, the first stake in the ground is to say the model can represent a prototype with 3ft 1in or 3ft 3in wheels. The wheelbase of the Ixion chassis represents 5 ft 9 in + 5 ft 9 in. The footplate is aligned with the tops of buffer beams. Important to make the model convincing Rivet detail or no cab or ideally both A different cab Good to have Front side rods on the outside (like Stretford but not Baguley) Wheels with ten spokes (Ixion wheels) (strictly, wheels on earlier locomotives had twelve spokes) Options Sand boxes above the footplate (like Baguley) Dumb buffers Serious work (I've not done this before) Outside cylnders I have never added rivet detail to a model. Only filed or scraped it off. A week ago I bought a rivet press tool for a wagon project! I am imagining, the easiest way to add rivets is to make a cover for the water tank from a rectangle of styrene sheet; emboss the rivet detail onto this and then wrap it onto the model? - Richard.

This is incredible. @Barclay has kindly sent me a scan from MRJ, and points out that the eighty locomotives built from 1888 to 1946 don't seem to vary very much! I am sit down with the drawing of the "Easingwold Railweay no.2" and my Ixion model and try to spot the differences. @Ruston I simply quote '1888' from the instruction leaflet supplied by Ixion. If I can make a model of an earlier prototype this sounds brilliant. - Richard.

PM sent.

It looks like I need to find MRJ No. 31, 1989 https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/69095-idea-conversion-of-ixion-hudswell-clarke/&do=findComment&comment=973524 I did five or six Internet searches for "Ixion RMweb" before I started this topic and none of them found this discussion ... - Richard.

Ooooh ... thank you very much. - Richard.

I do it the other way - when I print the label I message the buyer to tell them the parcel is wrapped up and I will be going to the post office tomorrow or the day after or whenever. People seem to appreciate this, as you say communication is the key. - Richard

Actually I quite fancy that threshing machine ... I do not have the skills or knowledge to restore it or a place to keep it, but it does look like very original piece. - Richard.

As the RMweb grows ever bigger I find it harder to decide where to start a new post. This one especially could go with "modifying RTR", "prototype questions", "Ixion" or "7mm". But I suspect, the folk who know the most about the subject tend to hang out here. I have indulged myself in an Ixion model of a Hudswell-Clarke 0-6-0, this model represents a 13 x 20" locomotive built in the late 1920s. Production began in 1888, and I wonder if it would be feasible to alter the model to represent one of the earlier locomotives? A pointer to a useful book or photographs would be great. Many thanks. - Richard.

To be fair on eBay this is really an annoying seller not an annoying platform. I do not do this. If a buyer doesn't pay they get a reminder from eBay after a while. - Richard.

I agree entirely but sellers can hide their use of Hermes behind this eBay phrase "other courier", and "other courier" can equally well be DHL or DX or similar who are dependable and professional businesses. I have a note taped onto my front door telling them where to put my parcel (politely!) but I know this won't help if they cannot find the house. - Richard.

My own annoyance right now is when eBay use the words "other courier" to describe the delivery service when I buy something. If this happens to be Hermes(!!) this company will send me multiple emails telling me there was no-one to accept the package and nowhere to leave it either, invariably to cover themselves because their driver of the day could not find my house. Eventually I will get a refund for non-delivery and have to start again ... - Richard.

Ian, I could not ask for a better accolade, but really a great deal of the success of this model is down to the first-rate mouldings ... the credit is due to Pete and yourself who did the tooling, and to Peco who have supplied absolutely spot-on parts. I have bought the Peco/Parkside "Jubilee" wagon to try in the New Year. - Richard.

I expect this is for the Continental people, to let them show when a model is for the Marklin system. - Richard.

I have received the plates from Light Railway Stores so here she is: I spent ages worrying about the build year but it turns out to be illegible ... so if I rewind my setting back to 1886 I am sure everything will still look fine :-) - Richard

More thinking. We can use lighting to make colours on the layout more intense or even a different hue, but we cannot emulate the effects of distance. This needs muted colours on the model. I was using muted colours for scenery nine years ago but it is taking me a while to realise I have to do it for the trains too. The task is fairly easy for early colours because we will never know the true shade of the mid grey or red viewed from close up or from a distance ... so both can be acceptable. - Richard.

Yes. For a colour chart, I would want largish patches - at least the size of an item of rolling stock. Our task is harder because our red wagon is firmly at the other end of the spectrum too. I do feel, this topic is taking me towards thinking the colour applied to a model must be the prototype colour, with all compensation for using this colour on a model being done through the lighting rig. This rather rubbishes the long-established views about altering colours to suit a model. The only practical alteration we would have reduces to choosing the amount of shine on the varnish. This approach also needs the lighting rig to emit exactly the right spectrum of light, without unwanted peaks or troughs. This is going to be difficult for the model maker to assess in an objective way. - Richard.

So the sensible way to build a model railway layout is to build the baseboard, and add the lighting rig because it is so important and the completed backscene because it is a large surface and reflects light onto the scene. Take a model of a known colour, perhaps Rail Blue, and tweak the lighting rig until this model looks just right for the chosen time of year and time of day. This is subjective of course. Only then start painting the track and doing the ballast, and make sure this looks right under the chosen lighting. And finally, when all this is done, paint the wagon in one's perception of GWR Red and adjust this paint mix until it too looks right. And, unless modelling a preservation scene, take away the Rail Blue item. This has a logic to it, and it is what I am doing for my "Shelf Marshes" layout (where the lighting rig is adjustable for colour temperature and brightness), but for my 7mm project I am very definitely building the rolling stock first and then building the layout to suit. I ought to be able to get away with this because everyone can guess what a 1890s tree and indeed ash and soot should look like, but no-one knows the shades of wagon red and grey. - Richard.

As the OP I am completely happy to carry on here. It is going to be some weeks before I have built an early open wagon with an iron underframe and a 9 foot wheelbase and I am happy to learn. - Richard.

Were you by chance a pupil of Sir Humphrey Appleby? And please can I use this post in my signature block? - Richard.

I am complete newcomer to 7mm scale, only three months' or so experience now, but I think the larger scale is more tolerant to variations in colour. Or if you prefer, errors in colour. I have no idea why. I view my models from much the same distance, so I suppose a subconscious part of me thinks the larger model is 'nearer'. When I get close to a prototype, perhaps a train at a station platform, the underlying colour can vary a great deal because of age or dirt but always looks 'right'. But then I suppose it has to! I've never seen a prototype and thought a warning yellow was somehow wrong, yet there has been a huge amount of variation. Perhaps, I am being distracted by seeing more detail in the larger scale and this is shutting out colour problems. Still, if this greater latitude for larger scales is true, it will only help me :-) - Richard.

I have just remembered, I used Halfords red oxide primer as the top coat for a supposedly "repaired" hood on a 1:87 BYA steel carrier. So here are two photos to merely show the effects of lighting on "red": Exposed with daylight-balanced flash: Exposed with ceiling light (LED bulb, supposedly 'cool white'): The difference in the white foam board background is quite pronounced. (The photos were processed from the camera RAW files by Apple's 'Photos' app, but not maniuplated except to create the jpg files "optimised for most viewers") I am happy looking at both reproductions, but I think I should aim for colours which look 'right' under the flash because I want to share my photos on RMweb and the flash is the most consistent source of light I have. But there are other things at work here - I happen to have the ceiling and walls painted white to make less of a colour cast on the layout. Many folk have more imaginative decoration. - Richard.

The funny thing is, I shot the tank wagon with Halfords red oxide primer and it stayed like this for weeks. I decided to myself, "the paint of the day must have been closer to Indian Red" (fully knowing Indian Red covers quite a spectrum) so I mixed up and brushed on my DIY colour. And I never took a photo of the wagon in its red oxide. - Richard.

If we look at photos of faded red cars https://www.flickr.com/groups/fadedred/pool/page4/ then the fading varies with manufacturer. Vaukhalls go pink (as expected!), Fords go paler red and VWs look like red oxide. I suppose, cars from the 1960s and earlier had lead in their paint so these might give a better idea of how a wagon could fade ... although the car paint will contain additives unavailable to the Victorians. Then again, if we cannot distinguish between a red wagon and a grey wagon, no-one will tell us our faded red paint is "wrong". And if they do, they probably ought to get out more :-) - Richard.

Yes. I suppose, what would be sensible would be for me to alter the mix for each new wagon I build. I could leave the tank wagon as it is, and add some white for my future 4-plank GWR one. Using paint from the jar for a new model will make space to add fresh paint to make a new shade for the next one. I forgot to mention - I usually use the matt version of Tamiya paints. This time I bought a jar of red gloss and added matt brown and matt yellow to change the colour. The result was a bit blotchy, not really gloss or satin, but this improved a lot after I put a satin varnish (Humbrol enamel) over the top. Next time I will start with a matt base colour. - Richard.