Hawk

Brilliant! But how do you prepare laser-cutting files from Fusion 360?

Thanks for an informative post, Stephen. One more thing: Does it matter if the female die is on top or below? It seems that custom is to have the male die on top, but does it affect the results? In my opinion it would be easier to position a half etched dimple if the male die is below and hence the stationary die. Hope I managed to make self clear here...

Did some googling myself, but I failed to find many closeups of rivets produced with drop type riveters. There are several things about using a drop hammer riveter I am uncertain about, like how hard the surface under the metal sheet should be. Aluminium seems a bit too hard. MDF, perhaps? I am also a bit uncertain about how sharp the point of the tool should be. The scriber point is very sharp, and it might work better with a slightly more blunt point. The reason I am not just starting to experiment is that I at the moment have no half etched parts to experiment with. I am in the process of designing some test parts, but until they arrive I would love some pointers that might steer me in the right direction.

My main interest in modelling is early twentieth century rolling stock, so my modelling involves plenty of rivets. So far I have used a mix of real brass rivets and etched rivets. On the 0-scale model in the picture below the two largest sizes of rivets are turned brass rivets with head diameter of 0,8 and 0,6mm. The small rivets on the blue platework is half etched relief rivets. Nothing beats the turned rivets in my opinion, they look great and does also fill a functional purpose. I do not make real riveted connections, but even soldered rivets add a lot of strength, and also aligns parts very precisely during construction. The drawback is cost, as the cheapest t I have found cost a little over 10p pr. rivet includet VAT and postage. (Hassler Profile in Lichtenstein is my preferred source). And I use quite a lot of them They also take a bit of time to install, to get a snug fit the holes need to be etched a bit undersize and drilled out to the final size. For a new etched wagon project I need a lot of rivet detail on parts that also will have fold lines. If anyone have used three layer etching services that makes it possible to have etched rivets on one side and fold lines on the other, I would be thrilled to hear about it. But so far I have just heard rumours about this. So I think that the way to go is to punch the rivets manually with either a riveting tool like the NWSL riveter I bought eons ago. This is not a very precise tool as it lacks a proper X-Y table. It has a rather flimsy "X-table" that is absolutely no good for producing lots of parts. But the die sets for the machine are of a good quality. The rivets punched with the NWSL tool are very crisp, and it is quite easy to get a consistent size. But I will need to have half-etched "Starter dimples" for precise location of the rivets, and I am a bit concerned it will be difficult to get a decent production speed with this concept. So I am looking into the "drop hammer" type of riveting tool: This is a design that I think I saw first in an old MRJ, but I am not sure who invented the thing. Nothing special with my version, the pointed bit is taken from a cheap scriper that is meant for cutting ceramic tiles. (They are also very uesful for cutting microscope coverslips for glazing. ) But so far I must confess I am a little underwhelmed by the results. The drophammer is no match for the NWSL riveter, as this little test shows: The crisp rivets are by the NWSL tool, the miniature molehills are by the drophammer tool. In addition to the uneven shape, the metal around the rivets is also a bit distorted. So am I doing something wrong? Have anyone achieved good results with drophammer riveters, even without etched starter dimples? Or do you really need starter dimples for good results with this type of tool? I would love to se pictures of what others have achieved with this type of tool. Other tips for rivetmaking are of course also very welcome!

Exactly the same camera I am using myself!

It seems to work very well! May I ask what type of camera you are using?

You said in an earlier post that you don´t use focus-stacking for your images, but how do you achieve the fantasic depth of field in your images?

Somehow a trio of british arctic explorers does not feel quite right as the last post in this wooden mineral wagon saga. So here is the official end of thread image, the wagons in a train for the first time:

I agree that it is hard to judge colors from black & white images. But I have no documentation on the colors. I have been told by one of the Thamshavn museum staff that the wagons were painted mineral red. The lack of contrast is not hard proof either way, the film used could quite possible be orthochromatic which would render red as almost black. Take a look at the Union Jack in this photo, it was taken with orthochromatic film: The people in the picture are probably quite sunburnt, as their skin tones are rather dark as well. The combined photo is a bit misleading as well. My wagons are in fact models in a much later period than the prototype photo. One of the things no one has noticed is that the prototype wagons in the picture do not have airbrakes, while the models have such equipment. So the models are the wagons anno 1938, the protopicture is taken around 1912. A lot could have happened to the paint job in 26 years! An obvious error is that I did not use a revision date much closer to 1938 on the stencils. The wagons would certainly have gotten a revision when the airbrakes were fitted. I confess that there is an element of modellers license involved. I kind of liked the black strappings against the mineral, and did not think too hard about if it was correct or not. I guess that more prototype info will surface now that the wagons are almost finished!

I am in the process of preparing a couple of magazine articles on this project and plan to re-shoot the image. I will add snow and a neutral sky background then. I really like the "studio" feel of the white ground and background. "Chain and ball" is on the to-do list in addition to brake shoes and safety chains/hooks. More weathering will be added, I am just unsure how to proceed. Would be a shame to screw up at this stage.

If I had to make two variations of the hinges for the door I would have to design two sets of brass castings. And that would have meant double cost for 3D-printing and more expensive castings. (Economy of scale, you know). Alternative explanation: I am a lazy bum and thought that no one would notice. I think it was a little of both...

We are getting close now...

The other night I painted the wheels for the wagons and started experimenting with the painting of the underframes. As much as I like the blackened bare metal look, I think the underframes need a bit of paint to blend in with the wheels, and also make the brass castings blend in with the nickel-silver etchings. At the same time I wanted a hint of the original metal to show through the paint. I started with the work car as this one has all the metalwork in place. I started by giving it a good bath in thinner. Then I mixed up a cup of Tamiya Black (XF2) and dark grey with a ratio of 1+3 black+grey. Thinned it with cellulose thinner (1+2 paint+thinner.) Then I airbrushed a very thin coat to the underframe. The wheels were painted the same color, but with a heavier coat. After the grey I misted on a layer of Tamiya XF64 reddish brown as the first step of weathering. I then assembled the wagon, and this is what it looks like right now: I would love to have sincere opinions on hoe this looks at the present stage. All opinions and suggestions are welcome. The wagon needs some more weathering, but not as much as the mineral wagons. By the way, here is a picture of one of the stencils: The crude cutouts on each side of the stencil was made with a Dremel by yours truly. The fold-up sides of the stencils came in conflict with the hardware on the wagonside... Looks horrible, but it works. Made masking off the wagon a bit more of a challenge, though. As you can see from the lack of paint in the middle of the stencil, I used a litte glue clamp to keep the stencil as close to the wagon side as possible. Using stencils like this is nt for the faint of hearted, it is very easy to mess up. I have one side on each wagon that are not 100%, but fortunately you can see only one side of the wagons at a time!

Would love to know the name of the brand of solder creams you are using! And what are the melting point, by the way?

Tonight I added the lettering to the wagons with the help of etched stencils made by PPD ltd. The etching job by PPD is fantastic, I highly recommend their etching service. Hopefully, the next update will show the finished wagons. Quite thrilled with the thought...

Thanks, Dave! I am happy that you took an interest in the Thamshavn Railway. It is quite unique, and I find it a bit puzzling that I am (as far as I know) the only person in Norway modeling this interesting little railway.

Thanks, Simon!

You might be right. But I have had problems with white crud forming on the solder joints during the actual blackening process, so It could also be from the blackening. I might be a bit paranoid about neutralizing the blackening, but I have heard stories about model chains that have been reduced to dust years after (well, around 100 yrs, I read this on a maritime modeling forum). What I know from personal experience is that brass screws can be seriously weakened by blackening just after a couple of years. I would think that the trick is to use the right strength of caustic soda solution. Any chemists that can enlighten us?

One of the things I have been really struggling with is blackening metal parts. But I am struggling even more with airbrushing, so I decided to blacken the underframes. I have tried several approaches to blackening, but this time I tried this: 1. Clean the parts 5 minutes in an Ultrasonic cleaner with a 1:10 water / industrial grade detergent. ( I got it from my brother in law that works in a lab) 2. Rinse with lot of plain water 3. Brush on full strength Birchwood Casey Brass blackening. Work it into every nook an cranny with a stiff little paintbrush. Let it work for a while, dunk it in a container with water. Brush on more B, let it work for a while. Continue until happy with the color. 4. Rinse with lots of water. 5. Neutralise the blackening with a solution of caustic soda. I used around a tablespoon for a liter of water. 6. Rinse with a lot of cold water. At first, this seemed to work great. But after I examined the frames more closely, I had a few concerns. First, the color was not as dark as I had thought. In the pictures, they look far to light in my opinion. Second, a few parts came loose during the process, and I am a bit concerned that the blackening has etched away at the solder joints. They could of course have been poor from the start, and that it was all the fiddeling with the brushes that made them come loose. The UC could probably work parts loose as well. Third, there was quite a lot of white crud on the solder joints after the parts had dried. It was easy to remove the crud with a stiff brush, but I am wondering what this crud is, and if it is a sign that the joints are disintegrating. My chemistry skills are rudimentary at best, so I really have no idea if using caustic soda to neutralize the selenium acid in the blackening is a clever move. But I do know that if the acid is not neutralized properly, it will continue to etch away at the parts. If anyone could advise me on you to neutralise the acid in the right manner, I would be very happy! OK, enough with the babble. Here are pictures: Comments, anyone? I would love to hear your experiences with blackening metal. Even if I am not 100% happy with my results, I think it will be OK as a starting point for further weathering.

That is not far from what I in fact did. My explanation was a bit lacking, perhaps. I drilled a 0,6mm hole in the the Tufnol board, and used the 0,6mm drillbit (with an 3mm shank) instead of a cocktail stick. The advantage of using a drillbit instead of a stick is that it aligns the tiny brass rings more precisely, and that it is easier to apply more pressure. An adtitional advantage is that the drillbit leads electricity, and the RSU wire can be connected to it. The disadvantage is that the the parts and the drillbit is soldered together, and it takes quite a bit of torque to pry the drillbot loose. Fortunately, no drillbits broke in the process!

As usual, I underestimate the amount of work that goes into things... Here are a set of thingies that I must have suppressed that I needed to make. In fact, they were not even on the etches. So I had to do alittle spot of kit bashing to make them. It was a real chore to cut 16 pieces of 0,3mm long pieces of 1mm brass tubing. A little practical tip to justify the post: For cutting thin brass tubing, use a stanley knife. I use a simple jig made from a piece of heavy brass angle clamped to a smooth surface. A piece of 0,3mm brass is used as a length gauge. To cut you just roll the tubing back and forth with the knife. The cut is not perfect, so I square off the tubing with a file before cutting a new part. This way I have a good end that is soldered to the part, and after soldering the bad end is cleaned up with the file. Soldering parts that is smaller than one cubic mm is no fun, I have found that the way to do it is to pin down the tubing/eched part/tubing sandwich with a 0,6 mm drill. I then solder everything together, and twist the drill loose. A little graphite on the drill prevents the solder from sticking too well to the drill: Last picture in this enormously interesting photo-essay shows a dry assembly of the wagons: It moves forward, albeit slowly!

Thanks a lot! I checked out your large scale models, they look great! Sometimes I regret not choosing a larger scale myself.

I haven't given up modeling, but most of the work done lately has been repetitions of things posted earlier. Two mineral wagons are now 95% ready except painting, lettering and weathering. Here is one of them:

Nice pictures! And excellent depth of field. Did you use focus stacking for the picture?

Resistance is futile! Please put up more photos, this is one of the most impressing modeling projects ever.