Jump to content
 

sleeper

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    287

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by sleeper

  1. sleeper
    Now I'm back from the UK and have some time to spare here is the update on the van. I'm limiting this to pictures only.
     

     
    wheel parts
     


     

     
    chassis parts and technical plans
     

     
    1 assembled chassis
    2 wheel silicon mould
    3 tyre parts etc with one wheel completed
    van body painted
     

     

     
    van body from different angles, windows are blanked out for painting but are clear plastic underneath
     
    cheers
  2. sleeper
    Hi,
    I stumbled upon a very interesting thread here on RMweb a couple of weeks ago. The name of it was 'A guide to using the Silhouette Cameo cutter, by JCL. For those who don't know of these machines they're similar to an inkjet printer but instead of a print head they have a tiny blade which cuts designs out of a sheet of thin material which has been fed into it.
    Primarily they're designed for cutting shapes out of thin card, vinyl, or paper for things like scrap booking etc, but some of the guys on RMweb have used them to great effect for cutting intricate shapes from plastic card.
    The Silhouette comes with its own software to use for the actual cutting, it is very limited for design work and so a design program such as Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, Coraldraw, eIc must be used for the design.
    I myself have never used one of these type of programs, all my designs to date have been done with a pencil and ruler on the back of a fag packet, so it's been back to school for me. There is an excellent tutorial under the Special interests / 3D printing, Laser cutting heading called 'Introduction to Inkscape' by Mike Trice which I've been studying and I've now got to the stage where I can turn out a fairly simple design and that's what I did.
    I found a diagram online containing a covered wagon body, simply 2 sides, 2 inner ends, 2 outer ends, Roof, sub roof, base, that's it nice and simple.
    I imported the design into Inkscape and used it as a guide to super-impose my own cut lines. This was saved as a DXF file ( Direct eXchange Format) which is the format that the silhouette's own software accepts, this is saved in the Silhouette with a Silhouette Studio 3 extension, this is what the cutter reads to perform it's work.After much trial and tribulation I managed to get the cutter to cut it out. I cut it on ordinary printer paper first to make sure I had it aligned in the right place on the screen and then on 10thou card. I performed multiple cuts gradually adjusting the settings to cut deeper but not to cut too deep and ruin the sticky cutting mat under the paper/card.
    So here's a few photos of what I've done so far.

    This is the cut out from paper I forgot to photograph the parts prior to assembly

    The assembled body parts with a section added to support the roof

    The base with solebars added, these were 3mm channel

    The next stage, designing and cutting 'W' irons and axlebox parts
     
    I cut the W irons and axleboxes from 0.2mm thick plastic card which is only slightly thicker than paper so several had to be laminated to make up the thickness to 1mm. The reason for using such thin card was that I wasn't sure if the Silhouette would cut the tiny,intricate design successfully from thicker plastic, this needs further investigation. I'm now working on the Mark 2 design of W iron this will include attachment tags forgotten in the original. This is one aspect of this method in that you can just design and cut modifications as they arise.
    I can't show you this as the website won't allow this kind of file to be uploaded, but I'll photograph the results when I have completed and cut the parts.
     
    cheers for now
     
    Edited to add categories and tags that always disappear while typing the main text
  3. sleeper
    I might have mentioned in an earlier blog that I was also putting some plastic wagon kits together. While the Mink G van is awaiting a slot in the paintshops I've posted a couple of photos of the Ratio bogie B passenger van I'm doing, alongside the Mink G, which has now had the body painted and the decals fixed. When it's been varnished and the underframe paintwork finished I'll post it up.
     
    I find the Ratio plastic kits go together reasonably well and (this 'B' vans bogies aside), are quite therapeutic to work on. I haven't gone in to the actual building of the kit as it's all standard stuff, but as it's now near to completion here's a few pics of it to date
     

     
    This is the body/underframe with all the brass detailing parts attached using Humbrol Satincoat varnish as an adhesive.
     

     
    You may have seen in earlier posts that I've used a jewellers lupe as a macro lens over the lens of my camera to take close up shots, hence this round picture.
    It shows the detailing to the front. I tried using the etched handrails supplied with the kit but they were just too flimsy so I bent up 0.45 brass wire instead, first though I drilling a hole with a 0.4 drill bit to provide a tight fit, I then dropped a blob of superglue at the back.
     

     
    This final shot shows the body coated in Halfords red oxide primer, prior to this I primed it with some primer specially for painting plastic car parts, it is clear and dries in minutes. I got it from the French equivalent of Halfords called Roady, part of the Intermarché group, no connection.
     
    More news later guys, cheers for now
  4. sleeper
    I have made a start on this model but to date I haven't got very far with it due to other commitments. The model will be in O gauge either cardboard or plastic card possibly a mixture of both. I have drawn up the experimental parts for the roof,seen here I also took a couple of photos of the assembled parts.
     

     

     
    This photo best illustrates the curves of the roof so this was my guide for producing the drawing in inkscape. After much adjustment I finally got the curves right. The end panel was basically a triangle with a very slightly curved base line and sides with slightly more pronounced curves. The roof section had to be supported and I achieved this using sections with a straight base line and curved top, all this mounted on an oblong sub base. I then cut these on my silhouette cutter and glued it all up, as seen below.
     

     

     
    I wasn't happy with the quality of these sections, they certainly wouldn't be good enough to use, so more experimentation is required when I have more time. I'll post up the progress as and when.
     
    cheers for now
     
    Roly
  5. sleeper

    Parkside brake van

    By sleeper,

    While I overwintered in Wales I took with me some modelling stuff, well quite a large cardboard boxful to be more precise, along with the silhouette cutter, laptop, etc. While I was there I went to the O gauge society expo in Reading and was tempted into buying a Parkside LMS brake van kit, mainly to get a feel of working in this gauge in preparation for the forthcoming CC1 mentioned in an earlier entry's comments.
    I was impressed by the contents of the box, although the price is a bit on the heavy side at £40 odd quid in comparison to an etched brass kit I bought online from M&M models at slightly less money.
    So, I started assembly end to side, end to side, both halves together. It was then I realised I'd stuck one side on upside down! duh! I couldn't do anything about that so just had to mark out and re-drill the holes for the various handrails, consequently one ducket is lower than it should be, never mind eh? good job I'm not a rivet counter, that would have been several Archers sheets worth I'm sure.
    One problem and really the only one was that the floor section seemed to be half a mil too narrow, I overcame this by adding a length of plastic microstrip along one side of the base, problem solved. The kit went together well and despite the said dodgy ducket look good, to me at least, well it would wouldn't it?
    Here's some pics,
     

    This shot is just to illustrate what glue (seen in the background) I used
     

     

    These two photos show the mistake on the sides
     

    This is how I had to fill out the base section with Micro-strip
     

     

     
    That's it, hope you liked it, bye for now.
  6. sleeper
    I refitted the bogies to the shortened cl45 chassis to which I'd fitted some 3mm channel to form the solebar and to this I added a representation of the brackets to which the lifting lugs were attached, this was given a coat of Tamiya nato black. I cut a length of plastic tube and glued this to the underside of the roof with epoxy. This lined up with a hole drilled in the chassis through which I inserted a 12ba brass screw that tapped its own thread in the tube and held the body in place, the 3mm channel on the sides served to support the body at the right height.
     
    So that's about it, here are the photos of the finished model
     

     

     

     

     

     
    Hope you have enjoyed this build as much as I did while doing it.
     
    cheers for now
  7. sleeper

    Nothing to add m'lud

    By sleeper,

    I've chosen the title of this blog for two reasons.
     
    First is what the title suggests, there isn't much to add to the D16/2 category at present as I've just been going back over what went before and putting right a few minor wrongs. Which were mainly the ends being flat instead of bevelled. This has been corrected and the ends/sides re-united so we're back to square one. I've used the previous photo to illustrate this rather than take a photo of the same thing but modified.
     

     
    When I've made more progress I'll photograph it 'as is'.
    Checking back I can't see I've mentioned the bit of work done on the bogies. On this loco the buffer beams were all part of the bogies, .so I set about re-creating this. I cut off the existing coupling on one bogie, the plastic these are made from is quite flexible and extremely tough to cut through with a razor saw. This bogie is now ready to receive its modified buffer beam. I used two drill bits clamped to a piece of batten as a jig to make sure all the 1.8mm holes were in line when I stuck the layers together.
     

     

     
    I'm still undecided as to which coupling system to use, probably I'll go for nem pockets as then I don't have to have a dirty great hook stuck out the back.
    I've stuck together about 6-8 roof layers to make up the depth of the roof which is approximately 6mm. I've made a start on shaping the roof to fit the profiles which in turn were taken from the original drawing I have. More on this when I've made more progress.
     
    The second reason for the title is that, despite 200 odd viewings in the last posting, there's not one comment left. I wonder why? is it their right to remain silent being exercised?
     
    Roly
  8. sleeper
    I've now more or less completed the drawing up of the various parts, although some may yet need alteration as I go along, as has been the case so far.
    On the class 50 that I've just completed I made the ends to fit between the sides, on this one I've done the opposite. There isn't much to choose between the two really. The reason I changed was
     
    1 on the other one I had to ease the sides out to slide over the lugs on the chassis frame and it caused very minute cracks to open up in the paint, I'm hoping that doing it differently will avoid that.
     
    2 I'm hoping the increased width of the end will make for a smoother face because it's the bit that gets the most attention. I wasn't too happy with the ends of the '50'.
     
    I felt that some support inside the end panels would be of benefit and hoped for a nice chunky block sat between the sides would be strong. Unfortunately this wasn't possible because the plastic chassis frame protruded up inside the body by 6mm, I needed a 1mm space below the front windows for the glazing, so my chunky block came down to only 5mm deep.
    Gluing the end panels to the sides will be more problematic. When I fixed the ends internally on the 50 I just clamped the sides with the end panel in between using a small screw-vice, that won't be possible gluing the ends to the sides. I will have to think up a clamp that's as long as the sides, plus the side panels will need support in between to prevent them buckling.
     

     
    I've drawn up some fillets to be inserted behind the window corner pillars. These are merely rectangles with a vertical score line, so when bent to a right angle make a fillet 2.5mm x 3mm x 8mm long.
    On this model I want to improve on the glazing inside the cab which was not possible on the 50. I've drawn one layer of the end panels with a large cut-out to allow the insertion of some clear plastic to be sandwiched between layers and I've adopted this method with all the glazing throughout, so far it's worked well with the ends. The only problem is that the windows will need to be masked off when I paint the body. I plan either to use the blanks cut-out from the openings reinserted over the perspex or get some maskol when I go back to the UK.
     

     
    Above is a picture of all the parts cut to date. The red ringed ones show the glazing method on the ends, the orange blue and green ringed are the various side/door windows, the plastic cut outs are just visible 5th from the left. I've taken some pics of the glazing fitted (next three) but thse are not too clear.
     

     

     

     
    The difference between the black sides and the white is the black ones are outside panels, the white ones are inner panels, I just did that to save on Black card which is more expensive, no other reason.
    When I've completed the next phase I'll post the details.
     
    Regards Roly
  9. sleeper
    It was as I suspected, the superglue had bonded to the poly glue and pulled it away from the plastic of the chassis. I cleaned up the surfaces with a scalpel and then filed them flat with a needle file and re-applied the superglue and they bonded . Just to make certain I stuck a square of 2mm thick plastic card across the join to reinforce the join. (1st photo)
     
    I did a trial cut of one of the design pages using 0.5mm white card (2nd photo) mainly to check it fitted against the modified chassis, this looked to be in order. In this photo you will see one roof layer on the right and the two roof templates that I will use to check the profile when I sand the roof to shape later in the build.
     
    One of the apprehensions I had with the class 50 model was the not so fine finish. Although the enamel paint had provided a fairly tough coat on the cardboard, it left a lot to be desired in my opinion. I was chatting with a French friend who's a designer and he suggested I sprayed it with acrylic ink, he thought this might result in a finer finish.
     
    I agree with what he says but have reservations as to the strength of the body once complete, some more experimentation is on the cards.
    As the livery carried on the southern prototypes was British Railways black I thought it might be prudent to use black card. (3rd photo)
     
    Here in France it is possible to buy card in various colours as well as weights and I just happened to have a couple of sheets in stock. ( in stock meaning the pile of junk in the corner of my bedroom). I cut this into A4 sheets and used one to cut some more parts, which was successful, I had feared the card would be too tough to cut through, because I'd already experienced this before when I first used the Silhouette.
    Unfortunately the cutting mat has now lost all it's sticky so the second sheet shed some of its parts and jammed the cutter enough to shift the mat slightly. This resulted in the parts being cut all wrong, so now I have to buy another cutting mat or find some genuinly re-positionable adhesive before I can carry on.
     
    In the design I drew all the lines to be cut in red and all the lines to be scribed in blue. There's tick boxes for each colour. I ran the first cut with the blade set at Number 1 and scribed the blue lines, then did three more passes, one at setting 3, one at 6 and finally one at 7. This provided a clean cut through, at 6 some places don't quite cut right through. The scribing can just be seen in photo 4, the lines scribed were
     
    1/ two parallel horizontal lines as guide for silver stripe halfway up
    2/ various panel positions
    3/ positions of doors
     
    In the two outer layers I have arranged for the doorways to be cut out, on the next subsequent layers the doors are filled in, just the door windows are cut out. I did this to alleviate the faffing around I had with the class 50 doors, where I cut all the doorways out and then had to trim and stick back all the door blanks to fill the holes, dohh. Hopefully this will result in cleaner doorways on this model. Here's the pics-
     

     

     

     

     
    When I get a new mat I'll continue with the next installment.
     
    Regards Roly
  10. sleeper
    I've been researching a Southern Railway diesel electric locomotive from the years immediately prior to nationalisation in 1948 and the subsequent birth of British Railways. The loco was designated D16/2, the original design was by O V Bulleid and was built at the Ashford works in Kent.
    Only 3 were ever built, sadly they were all retired in the late 60s and cut up soon after, meaning none survived into preservation.
    My search for information hasn't brought much up but fortunately I found an illustration of the layout of this loco and will, I hope serve to produce a fair representation.
     

     
    This photo of a model once produced by Silver Fox was kindly taken by a fellow member of RMWeb. This is what, hopefully mine will resemble when finished.
     
    The build
     
    As you can see from the photos this loco has a 1-co-co-1 wheel configuration, that is two 6 wheel bogies with a set of pony wheels fore and aft of them. This configuration was later used on the class 40 and 45 loco's. The first task was to get hold of a cl 40/45 chassis, fortunately a Mainline model came my way cheaply, not the very best but good enough for my purposes.
     

     
    This is the bare chassis with bogies and weights removed.On measuring it I found that approximately 20mm had to be removed from the center along with the battery boxes, so this was measured and marked out. I removed the battery box with a razor saw and then using an engineers square as a guide, removed the 20mm section, thus.
     

     
    Here you can see the severed battery box which left a square hole in the base of the chassis that has almost disappeared now the excess length has been removed. I might use the 2 sections to reinforce the chassis where the cut is
     

     
    A quick line up to make sure the bogies didn't clash and then glue together, but when I tried gluing the 2 halves together with plastic solvent it wasn't affected by the solvent so I had to use cyano-acrylate.
    The chassis is now 234mm long in line with the scale length of the body. Now the chassis is modified it can be used to build up the body layers, which will be cut from card again with the Silhouette cutter.
    As there is a complete absence of etched brass parts for this one, grilles roof fan etc, I will have to make them myself as I did the louvres for the class 50 or use parts from other classes,
     
    More later,
    Roly
  11. sleeper

    Class 50 scratchbuild 10

    By sleeper,

    Well at last it's finished. After the paint had time to harden off I gave the transfer areas a coat of Kleer and then applied the transfers using HMRS sheet 15 BR blue for the inter-city arrows and the numbers too, then I applied a waterslide data panel from Replica Railways under each number and finally the overhead flash signs also waterslide, from Precision Decals, no connections etc.
    This was followed by a spray coat of Humbrol satin varnish.
    Once the varnish had hardened sufficiently I weathered it with acrylics using a very weak wash of white first to give the blue a faded look. When this had dried I applied Humbrol 'smoke' weathering powder and washed this in with a wet brush and then took off the surplus with a large dry flat brush, finaly forming puddles of water on the roof and allowing them to run down the sides,blotting with kitchen roll and rubbing in with the dry brush.
    When all this was complete and dried overnight I brushed a coat of matt varnish all over.
    I'd already weathered the chassis with acrylics using the same techniques.
    Finally body and chassis were re-united, here's the results.
     

     

     

     

     
    The last photo is a really harsh cruel close up which shows the model,'warts an' all'. I procrastinated for ages over the 4th photo, but decided that it left the viewer with no illusions as to what this model really is, you must be the judges.
     
    My personal impressions of this model now it's finished are that I could have taken more care over the preparation. I also think that fearing it would be flimsy I have made the sides too thick, especially around the windows. Lack of thought has resulted in the interior around the windows being unsuitable for fixing any glazing to. I have cut the glazing and dry fitted it but have my doubts that it will fit correctly leaving gaps here and there which would look ugly.
    Overall, considering this model was an experiment by someone who was still learning how to use Inkscape and the silhouette cutter, it hasn't turned out too bad on the whole, but that's just my opinion. Please do add your criticism, it would be most welcome, as that way we all learn.
    Regards Roly
  12. sleeper

    class 50 scratchbuild 9?

    By sleeper,

    I've made some more progress on this model, one step forward and two steps back though.
     

     

     

     
    I had almost finished this model and had it trapped between my knees while working on it and somehow it slipped out and fell nose first onto the tiled floor. This didn't do it any good, the cardboard sprung back into shape ok but the paint layer was badly cracked (see in third photo).
    I made a fine file by gluing a strip of 400 grade wet and dry paper to a 5mm wide strip of plastic and filed down the damaged surface. I filled the damage with a couple of good applications of yellow acrylic paint, then rubbed those down with the file I'd made and finished with a coat of the same colour enamel I'd used originally. It now looks presentable.
    In the second photo you can see I've started the numbering, I had a little problem with a couple of the waterslide overhead electric decals curling up and peeling, despite sealing them with Kleer. They are on quite thick decal paper and I suspect they weren't quite dry despite leaving them for over an hour as recommended in the instructions.
    Personally I'm not a fan of this type of decal but it's all I could find.
    So now I've nearly finished detailing, next some varnish, so more to come.
     
    Roly
  13. sleeper
    I've done a bit more of the detailing, my luck held with the headcode box alterations. I managed a second time to scribe the face and then remove it from the cutter, first marking the position of the cutting mat by sticking a bit of masking tape to the mat alongside one of the rollers, it was then just a matter of re-entering it using the tape as a guide, spot on! I've added some handrails, grab rails, buffer beam steps etc. I used 0.45mm brass wire for the rails, fixed with superglue into 0.6mm holes. One little problem I encountered with this was, unlike plastic the card raises up around the drill bit when you drill it, in other words it doesn't cut cleanly and so I have had to sand the mounds back with a minute piece of wet and dry, very annoying when the paint has been done. I'd considered fitting the rails before the paint job but decided against it as I didn't know just how many coats it would take to secure a decent finish, too many might have swallowed up the hand rails.
    In the second picture you can just make out the buffer beam steps, these were another Shawplan etch,they are very very delicate, not long in this world I think.
     

     

     
    With regard to the use of kleer to stiffen up the cardboard, as an experiment I thoroughly wetted a strip of 0.45mm card with it and let it dry, it didn't seem any stiffer than before. I also used kleer to stick two bits together, clamping them together overnight, again it was no good as an adhesive. Perhaps if it was soaked for longer it might absorb more liquid.
     
    more later
     
    Roly
  14. sleeper
    I had a choice of three BR blue liveries all blue of course but they vary in the yellow panels. One type is with a small yellow end panel only, one has full yellow ends wrapping right round to include the cab door, but with black round the windscreens and thirdly the one I chose full yellow ends wrapping round but with a blue panel beneath the side windows and yellow round the front windows too.
    I was a little concerned that if the doors were yellow and had to be rubbed down it would be near impossible as the doors were recessed slightly.
    It wasn't till I got into the masking off that I realised I'd picked the most difficult to mask, there is a little curve in the top of the blue side panel which involved cutting the masking tape round a piece of 3mm plastic tube with the craft knife, all good fun!
    This first photo is a really cruel close up of the paint job, it looks better 'in the flesh' probably only because you can choose to ignore the bad bits, whereas in the photo they smack you in the eye.
     

     
    I've started detailing it, you can just see some of the grab rails (4) fitted to the front. I'm also working on the headcode boxes. I'm not happy with these. I had made them shallow thinking that I could add a deeper front, which I did, but having done so I now realise the boxes should have been deeper from the very start. This has shown up now at this late stage, with the Shawplan 4mm round etched horn grilles I'm going to fit, being a knats too large for the depth of the face of the box. I'll have to solder them to a piece of brass wire and mount them in the mini drill to take them down slightly. A real pain but less work than altering the headcode boxes.
     

     
    in this picture are some masks, masking tape cut on the silhouette cutter, this will be stuck to the face of the headcode box to form a guide for painting the domino spots on the face of the box. Will it work? Yes it will, I know because I've already done it once. Unfortunately the dots looked too close together, so the one on the right in the photo is the mk2 version.
    I drew the box's face in Inkscape, using a head-on photo as a guide to getting the right layout. I first tried cutting them from a sticky labels sheet but it didn't seem to want to work, the cutter just tore up the label. Next I cut the design on a sheet of copy paper attached to the cutting mat. I carefully noted just where the mat lay in relation to the rollers on the cutter, released the mat and stuck masking tape exactly over the images that were cut into the paper. You can see the black outlines where I highlighted the outer edges with a pen.
    I then very carefully lined up the rollers with the sheet again and re-cut the images. My luck was in, the cutter cut right bang on target, in fact there was only half a mil of tape left on each side. These were carefully teased off the mat with a scalpel and applied to the face of the headcode box. I painted the dominos with white acrylic paint and the places where the horn grilles would go in grey so if they showed through the grill it wouldn't show up.
    What a pity the dots were wrongly spaced because I now have to go all through the procedure again. I wonder if I will have the same luck again?
    We'll see!
    cheers for now
    Roly
  15. sleeper
    I've fitted the Shawplan etched brass window frames, these are a replacement for the ones on the Lima version which I gather are a little on the thick side, Some of you may have encountered this at some time!
    Surprisingly these fitted almost exactly into the space between the corner stanchions, I guess the drawing I worked from must have been replicated from a Lima model because the chassis I've used is a Lima one and that fitted, or rather the sides cut from the drawing fitted the Lima chassis too.
     

     
    So I've spent some time fettling various bits, one mistake I made right at the start but which didn't become obvious until now is that one end was attached to the sides lower down than the other end, by some 1.5mm, the resultant gap under the windscreen frames has had to be built up with strips of card and then reshaped.
    It wasn't possible to remove a corresponding amount of material from the bottom of the panel as that would have made the lights too low, so it has had to remain, it's not like anyone would view it from both ends, it's just that I know it's there.
    I have attached the roof to the body, after careful consideration to make sure I wasn't restricting my access anywhere. I used a contact adhesive for this to make sure it was firmly bonded because the joint between has to be filled as the sides and roof on this loco are all in one and I didn't want any cracks appearing in the future.
    Some way back in this post there was some discussion as to what treatment to give the card to firm it up, well I was somewhat concerned that the Halfords red primer I intended to use might act on the various glues I'd used and soften them to the point where the whole thing fell apart. I used one of the sides I'd previously stuck together and painted to test for reactions. The layers separated! I'd used a pritt stick type of glue to bond these and consequently it broke down when in contact with the Halfords paint, which I suspect might be water bound as there's no real solvent fumes when sprayed. So I coated the painted side of the test piece with a hair lacquer spray, no reaction, then I sprayed it with primer, no reaction, bingo! that's the way to go.
    A few coats of hair lacquer and a good coat of primer, produced this.
     

     
    I'm now filling and rubbing down ready for the top coat. Sorry this post has been all gabble and few photos but this stage is a lot of labour with little to show for it.
     
    More soon
     
    Roly
  16. sleeper
    So that's the faffing around all done now down to making the model. Despite a long lay off from Inkscape I managed to produce a workable drawing and cut the first sides which were entirely wrong but proved I could produce something here's the result
     

     
    I hadn't got the scale right it was too high and too short but eventualy it came back to me and I got the hang of altering the measurements and cut the first sides, 5 in total. I stuck these together to form a side 2.5mm thick together with the complete end panels including windscreens.
     

     
    Then the brain begun to engage and I started thinking about the chassis. I had a rummage through my bits and pieces and came up with a Lima chassis complete with motor bogie for a class 50, how clever is that? Not that clever because I had had visions of etched bogies with a nice little machima motor, dream on sunshine!
    Anyhow I compared the side I'd fabricated with the chassis and it was surprisingly compatible it just needed about 1.5mm removing from the middle so out with the razor saw and with a square for guidance hacked it in half.
    I chose to cut it just aft of the box thingy underneath. There is a 1mm gap between that and another box thingy beside it, if anyone knows what these two boxes are for sing out I'd like to know.
    here's where I cut it
     

     
    After filing out approximately 1.5mm the two halves were re-united but it was still too long! too late it was stuck together, so my thoughts turned to the alternative, lengthen the body but that would be out of scale, what to do?
    I measured the chassis and then realised that the side I'd produced was a mite too short anyway. So back to the drawing on the computer and resized it by 2mm and re-cut the sides. When I laminated them together I clamped the layers together thus
     

     
    The Lima body is held to the chassis by small slots that coincide with the step below the doors slotting over small nibs cast into the plastic chassis, these lined up perfectly with my sides and so, a possible method of holding the two parts together
    So I took this shot to give you an idea of how it might look like
     

     
    I then made up some new ends deleting the windscreens, these will be added later, possibly from etched brass as the laminated card ones were too thick, these next shots show work to date
     

     

     

     
    More later
     
    Roly
  17. sleeper
    phew! I've just finished digging my way out from 10 pages down the lists. well although a lot has been happening on the house renovation front, not a lot has happened as far as model making is concerned, but here is a brief update just to dust off the shelves so to speak.
    In my last post you will maybe recall (or maybe not) I had designed and cut the parts for a covered wagon using plastic card cut in a Silhouette Portrait cutter which I had assembled and more or less awaited painting. I think I'd got this far

    I glued the body to the chassis after first making ventilation holes underneath to allow the solvent fumes to escape, then completed it using the brake gear from a wagon underframe kit, it was now ready for the paint shop.
    Once painted and weathered and some of the decals fixed it hung around for a while and during that time the roof warped badly due I suspect to it being 3 layers laminated together. There was nothing for it but to remove the warped roof panel which I attempted with a scalpel, during this operation I managed to collapse one of the W irons and the brakes on that side too. I have since filled the whole roof area with Milliput and filed/sanded it back to its proper profile. I decided the whole W iron set up was weak and vulnerable so have removed it pending further work using possibly etched W iron sub-assemblies, but I think this particular model is destined for a grounded van and any further development will be a completely new attempt, here's a photo of what I have at the moment.

    This has not been a complete waste of time I have learned a lot from it, although after such a protracted break I've forgotten what knowledge I'd gained in operating Inkscape so will have to start again from scratch.
  18. sleeper
    I've reverted to type with this project, maybe it's a case of 'old habits die hard' but I find it difficult to just dream up components and draw them up in Inkscape. What I've done is cut the parts by hand tried them for fit and then re-produced them in inkscape and ultimately as a Silhouette cutting file so now I have virtually a goods wagon kit ready to be cut and that will be the next stage, seeing if it all works and carrying out necessary modifications along the way.
    One problem I've encountered is the sheer amount of files created which I find confusing simply because I haven't had a proper filing system in place. I've started sorting it all out this evening.
    What happens is that I create a part using Inkscape, this original I save as an SVG file (scalable vector graphics) this then has to be saved as a DXF file ( direct exchange format) because the Silhouette software will only recognise DXF type files not SVG :roll: I then import the DXF into the Silhouette library which then becomes a Silhouette V3 file which is the only file the Silhouette will cut , see what I mean? This is further compounded when I re-design a part but am reluctant to delete the old design until I'm sure the new one is ok after a test cut and examination. The result is a lot of files everywhere if you're not careful.
    Anyway here's the model to date.
     

     

     

     
     
    in the photos you can just make out the compensation it is the traditional 3 legged stool principle again scratchbuilt using the previously produced W irons, the frame pivots on a length of 0.6mm brass wire threaded lengthwise through the frame and mountings. This took some considerable fiddling and fettling to get the ride height the same as the front pair. I decided to use a wagon underframe kit I had spare for the detailing parts, I took measurements from the kit items where possible, (for instance the V hangers), luckily the buffer height came out more or less right.
    The photos show the addition of buffers and clasp brakes from the kit. I'm not sure the clasp brakes are correct, they were one of two types in the kit but the label was lost long ago and I can't remember exactly what the kit was or who made it so the jury's out on that until I've either researched it or had my knuckles rapped on this Forum. I'm going back to the UK on Sunday so I don't expect much more will get done for a while but I would welcome comments/advice on the clasp brakes issue or anything else for that matter.
     
    cheers for now
     
    Roly
  19. sleeper
    I've a couple of things to talk about in this blog. One is about my recent acquisition of a 12 volt mini drill. I bought it from a seller on Ebay it cost £9.95 and came all the way from Turkey post free! how do they do that? I've had stuff shipped from China for nix too and yet some sellers in the UK are asking anything up to £35 yes £35 for a coach that cost a tenner, who's fooling who here?
    Anyhow, here's a picture of it

    and this one shows the spec

     
    I attached it to my trusty H&M controller so I can vary the speed depending on what I'm doing with it.
     
    here's a link to it,
    just a word of warning it took 3 weeks to arrive, partly due to the seller not posting it for 6 days and partly due to the French snail mail, (cos the French ate all the snails) usually 5-6 days
     
    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291036914684?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
     
    The second thing I want to show you is my ongoing search for suitable material to make coach roofs. If you remember in my last scratchbuilt project, the GWR mink G van I used an Aluminium roof that I cut from a deodorant container
    see here
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1250/entry-14283-mink-g-van-1/
     
     

     
    The orange fruit juice I buy here in France comes in a rather sturdy plastic bottle and I've had an eye on it ever since I first bought it to do something with the container, seen here.

    Like the deodorant tin I stuck masking tape lengthwise and traced an outline using the aforementioned alu roof as a template. I carefully cut this out using the Dremel, the new drill's Coletts were too small, I had to really crank the speed up compared with the Alu, it's pretty tough stuff.
    The edges of the blank were pretty rough with a considerable burr on both sides, partly I think to some heat being generated by the faster speed.
    I set to work first with the scalpel trying to scrape it off, that only removed the fragments but not the burr, so next I tried a needle file with limited success next I got out the big Bars***d you know, the one you keep in the shed and filed off most of it. I said this material was tough! Finally I finished it off with Emery cloth, running this all over to make it opaque ready for priming.
    Generally I would say this took longer to shape than the Alu and the latter is much more rigid but the plastic has the advantage of it being able to be manipulated into whatever curve you require with suitably shaped stiffeners maybe
    here's some pictures

    This is the blank as cut from the bottle

    These are the tools I used

    The bottle masked up

    I gave it a quick coat of primer just to see if I'd completely removed the burr, I can report it looked ok
     
    So that concludes my experiment with plastic other than Evergreen/Slaters etc for now, I can't remember if I mentioned in earlier posts but I cut some strips from an Alu beer can and laminated them together with contact adhesive, 2 layers were ok 3 would have been stronger. Because of the limited length of beer cans I'm thinking of putting two blanks end to end and sticking another layer across the joint with one blank cut in halves either end to make a longer roof the joint could be filled.
    I'll let you know when I've drunk the beers
    cheers for now
  20. sleeper

    GW Mink G van 5

    By sleeper,

    Well at last it's finished, well as near as. It has now been painted in GWR freight grey and weathered to what I think it might have looked like. On checking online I had a lot of guidance on the state of some wagons when in service, on refering to some of Paul Bartletts work some wagons were virtually falling apart, I didn't want to overdo the weathering to that extent though.
    See what you think,
     

     

     

     

     
    I've ordered a sillhouette portrait vinyl cutter from Amazon which is due for delivery on Monday, I'm hoping if I can learn the computer design thingy (inkscape) it will help with the scratchbuilds I'd like to do but don't because of the complexity of cutting out small detail by hand.
    So watch this space - but don't hold your breath!
     

     

     
    I've edited this post to include the photos of the van with added door hinges
     
     
    cheers for now
  21. sleeper

    GWR Mink 'G' van 4

    By sleeper,

    I'm sorry this blog hasn't been updated for so long, but work on the house has taken priority, so the only modelling done recently have been a couple of Ratio Vans. 1 is an LMS ventilated van the other an SR 28ton bogie 'B' luggage van and a Parkside Dundas 'vanwide' kit.
    The two small vans were a doddle and a pleasure to build, the SR 'B' van was a bit of a pig with lots of fiddly bits making up the bogies and I'm not happy that I've got them right even now.
    Another thing I wasn't happy about was the ride height, the buffers were much too high, I finally found I had read the instructions wrong and perched the side frames on top of the solebars instead of dropping them over the solebars to rest on the bottom web, so I had to cut the body free and re-fix it properly, fortunately the glue parted fairly easily so no great damage has been done.
     
    Well on to the Mink G, If you read blog 3 you'll find that I was contemplating a brass chassis for this van, well ,I obtained one from Brian Morgan Design who specialises in GWR, it arrived shortly before a friend arrived from the UK so no time to do anything but have a brief shoofty, it all looked terribly complicated especially as this was my first excursion into brass kit building apart from some brass bogies on a 51L wagon, oh that's another one I've done recently, all these are awaiting the paint shop.
    After returning from a trip to the UK I finally got stuck into it and my first problem was that the instructions were on DVD ALL 72 PAGES OF THEM!!! In PDF format which was fine except that good ol' windows 8 didn't want me to print them off, anyway to cut a long story short I managed it on a windows 7 computer but as the info contained therein is general for all 27 models I had to determine which sheets I required.
    All due respects to Brian Morgan his designs are brilliant but so, so intricate, especially for a first timer named Quassiemodo, (yours truly) I ended up hurling the instructions across the room and figuring it out myself. The compensation didn't happen! mainly because the bit that the guitar string springing was set into wasn't square with the axle line although the box that it was mounted in was, one of the brake rods didn't seem to fit anywhere so I made my own adaptation with 0.5mm brass wire, (rivet counters?- tuff get over it)! I managed to adapt it to fit afterwards but it's not true to prototype.
    After all this gassing you're expecting some photos, well I took some but they're all out of focus for some reason however they'll give you some idea. The chassis is in the paint shop, painted, as I speak so no chance of re-taking them I'm afraid. The body was first given a coat of Halfords' red oxide primer, followed by a top coat of grey enamel that hopefully resembles GWR grey, so when the lettering is all finished I'll post some final pictures
    here's the progress to date.
     

     
    This is the base together with the sliding bearing retainers that ended up being soldered in place
     

     
    This is the guitar string springs in their holder
     

     
    The finished chassis ready for priming with an etch primer
     

     
    Finally the painted body, in GWR freight grey?
     
    I'd welcome any comment/criticism on the shade of grey as appropriate to GWR freight grey
  22. sleeper

    Toby or not Toby

    By sleeper,

    Some time ago I bought a brake van body because i could see a certain resemblance to 'Toby the Tram' hence the title of this blog. I did some research on steam trams, gathering together a collection of images and articles on the subject. here's a photo of what I broadly wanted to achieve

    I don't have a photo of the original body but here's one soon after I started mucking around with it some time last year

    I fitted some half panels to the doors, filled in the place where the duckets would have been fitted, added some 0.25 clear plexiglass for the glazing and cut away the underside to create an aperture for the motor seen here


    I then started making up the chassis by cutting out the side frames which I clamped together and drilled out 4mm holes for the 1.5mm brass shouldered bearings and fixed those in with superglue, using a length of 1.5mm rod for alignment. It was my intention to use 12mm romford bogie wheels on 1.5mm axles. Next came fitting the frame spacers, again using 2mm plastic card similar to the frames.
    I intended to use a spare can motor from an RTR Hornby 0-4-0. I bushed the cog down with some plastic tube inserted the axle through the bearings and cog using carfully filed down bearings as spacers and super glued the cog to the axle with bated breath in case the glue ran into the spacers/bearings. Thankfully I got away with it, although the assembly ran a little tight due to me allowing insufficient end float, but I suspect that will ease itself with running in. I didn't take pictures of the initial stages of construction but here is the chassis with the running plate fitted and the can motor retainer in place.

    Later on I'll show you the next stages of the project.
  23. sleeper
    Hi Folks,
     
    It's been a while now since I last posted anything in this blog, largely due to having resumed work on the house renovation, realising that if I didn't do it no other bu@@er would. Apart from that I recently took my half yearly trip back to the UK.
    I had recently bought a French Senior Citizens rail pass which gives me 50% off of SNCF fares so booked 4 months in advance for Eurostar. I was very impressed with the TGV, very comfortable, smooth and quiet too. Eurostar looked a bit jaded by comparison, but what a quick journey 12 hours from door to door and I arrived as fresh as a daisy (well almost). The time taken included a 2 hour stopover at Victoria coach station, the total cost £120 return.
    While I was there I went down to south Wales by train to see friends, on my return early Sunday morning I saw Nunny Castle waiting in Newport station with a train of mk1 carriages in tow.
    I travelled down to East Sussex via St Pancras again where I caught the HST to Ashford it was the Javelin, wow! it accelerates like a javelin too, very, very quick.
     
    I recently bought this on Ebay:-
     
     

     
    I believe it to be a J72, it's white metal kit built and I think it could have been made by Nu-Cast, there is an X04 type motor fitted but far smaller, with a squiggly pattern on the top plate, seen here :-
     
     

     
    According to Wikipedia some were in LNER Apple Green which would look quite nice and Some later ones in BR Black.
    I would be grateful if anyone could verify this and if so were they plain black or lined.
     
    When I get some time to myself I'll do a decent paint job on it, it'll need stripping first and as it's fixed together with glue I'll have to be careful, can't just dunk it in brake fluid. It needs some pick ups and wiring to the motor fitted to make it a runner.
     
    more later
     
    Regards Roly
  24. sleeper

    My Metro-Vick 4

    By sleeper,

    With the base and body complete all that remained was to paint it, I had used a maroon coloured card for the body but I now think that is the wrong colour it should be more of a red oxide colour I think. here's how it looked when I'd finished it
     

     

     
    This was the original photo and below is my Diorama to replicate it
     

     

     
    That's about it really, apart I suppose from this little fellah
     

     
    if you look at the original you'll see him down on the rails between the engine and train, He can also be seen driving a pug in one of the dubs crane blogs.
     
    Regards Roly
  25. sleeper
    In my last post I showed how I constructed the connecting rods, they looked a shade too heavy so I slimmed them down a bit. Next came the tricky bit, how to secure them on the crank pins. I sought advice on the questions page and have received some very sound advice, thanks to all who contributed.
    Here's a picture of the rods on one side set up with oiled cigarette papers in place ready for the 'quick dab' with the new Antex 25 watt iron.
     

     
    Once the soldering was sucessfully completed I assembled the chassis and painted and lacquered body and took some photos, here they are
     

    One for 46444
     

     
     

    The completed connecting rods
     

    This is the driver, his name is Aurther Mowe [ I've been driving these things since I was this high]
     

    Real coal curtesy of Didcot Engine Sheds
     

    Blimey that's a droopy rear end!
     
    And finally some pictures of the real thing
     

     

     

     
    That brings this particular project to an end, I wonder what I'm going to do now?
     
    cheers for now
     
    Roly
×
×
  • Create New...