KH1

Am afraid that this is still a bit of a work in progress which I was hoping to have finished this week but you know how things go...... Am continuing on my quest to get better loads for my wagons and more importantly complete loads for each one. As always I believe using pictures of what actually happened is the best policy so sorted out a few mainly from Roy Link's WDLR Album. I wanted to improve on the shell loads so selected one pic and from known dimensions of the wagons worked out that the load was of 12 inch shells. A quick Google found some very useful dimensioned drawings of such shells which (not by me on this occasion I have to admit). were turned (literally!), into four brass masters.these were mounted on a piece of plasticard with double sided tape, some walls built around with foam board and and then filled with rubber mould compound. The next day I had a mould which was soon set to work with the aid of a some casting resin. After a couple of days I had enough shells to start making up the loads but not before each one was drilled and a small split pin fitted to represent the lifting eye. The last pic really reminds me of the terracotta warriors! 60 or so shells a time were then mounted on a piece of card on top of a turntable and as the weather was OK a makeshift spray booth was constructed. My research (greatly aided by Web Compound of this site), had established that these being shrapnel shells there would have been a red identifying band on the nose. So out with the lining pen, the electric drill to mount a shell in, set it revolving slowly and a steady hand. And repeat 200 times! The propellant charges for these shells were carried separately in canisters so I turned up four masters in brass and made a little jig to bend the wires for the handles. Another bit of mould making later and the first batch were ready to be painted. These will be toned down greatly and weathered in as will the shells. I have made a start on the boxes for the fuses to complete the load but at this rate it will be another week before they are all finished. Here is a mock up of the work so far.

I think walkway at front with figure leaning on it (back turned to us), watching the gubbins going on. And if I may venture - should the rail on track panels have holes drilled in ends for fish plate bolts?

Just scan them in at the highest resolution you can then do a little bit of maths to establish the ratio between the scale you have and the scale you want and then adjust the resolution by this amount making sure 'resample image' is ticked. Any version of PhotoShop or any half decent package will do this.

Bit of a first today as doing this in sweltering heat sat by the pool but sadly not in the Caribbean but watching little Iz prove yet again that she is an immeasurably better swimmer than I. Am about to make progress in the reassemby of the pantograph milling machine. A beautifully over engineered scaffold tower has been borrowed and assembled around the bits. All that is needed now is the electric winch that I have been promised which hopefully I will pick up at Stafford show a week on Sunday. More, as they say, as the situation develops.

Thanks, but I am afraid the shadows are not intentional. Rather a lot of light spillage from Kings Weir which was behind us. I s a problem sometimes with the banner material I use but the advantages far out weigh the occasional problems.

Am now not feeling too guilty about missing the gym a couple of times last week as this weekends exertions at Stevenage have more than made up for it. Unlike the gym I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it one of the best shows I have been to for quality of exhibits, traders, organisation and visitors! A huge big thank you to Andy, David and Michael for all the help in running and putting away again - it was really great to be able to stand back a bit and watch the layout running (almost perfectly!), and to be able to talk to visitors a bit more than usual. Managed a few odd pictures on the phone so a bit random on content and quality.

Just getting everything packed away for Stevenage show this weekend. As ever do come and say hello if you are visiting.

Finally managed yo do something I have been meaning to for ages. I have noticed that the black weed control material that I use as a curtain at shows doesn't quite reach the floor leaving a rather stark bit of red leg showing. No one has ever mentioned it but I have noticed! One can of black spray paint from pound land which coat - you guessed it, a day when it was possible to venture outside without Arctic clothing and another thing knocked off the to do list! Have also been spending quite some time making some new 'whole wagon' loads rather than the composite ones I started with. I did this so that they could be used in the well wagons also but seem to use mostly the D's now. By packing everything into one load I think they look far more realistic and busy. Used the same method as previously for making the duck boards out of balsa strips and it is as mind numbingly boring as before! I really need to make a few more but not sure I will manage before next exhibition which is Stevenage next weekend.

I have to admit that I read that sign as 'Emily Robbins for Pleasure' at first and got a completely incorrect impression of what the shop was! But that is probably just my warped mind!

Hmmmm! This has put a cat firmly among the pigeons of my little world! I have recently convinced myself that the white lettering on my wagons was incorrect and should, in fact be yellow. As a bit of background for those who are not familiar I model First World War, War Department railways on the Western Front. I have long had a bee in my bonnet about modelers who use a too modern colour pallet for things like doors, window frames and even clothes as the vivid colours we have today are a relatively modern invention. So was I guilty of it with my white letters? I little light research suggested that I might be as white paints that were stable and quick drying enough appeared not to have been viable until the mid 20's at the earliest. A quick search of pre grouping loco liveries showed almost no use of white - I had not looked at wagons though. So straight away in the first download I see that company after company is described as having ' white lettering'. Am I justified in using white after all?????

Ah! Got plenty of good old oil as have a good old car sharing garage and leaking plenty of it!

WD40 and a tarpaulin already deployed! I think loco frames are going to be the main use for this machine - am going to get the little Bagulay project moving again soon but this time split frame and rubber band powered.

As we are coming rapidly to the time of year for giving I have entered completely into the spirit and have given myself a rather large pressie! Of course money isn't important and it is the thought that counts and I have put quite a lot of thought and effort into this and only a modest amount of money so I am very pleased! I have known about these for quite some time and have been the grateful recipient of the product of Trevor's on a few occasions but the hunt for my own has finally been fruitful. I could of course just thrown money at the problem but apart from not really having any and it not really being satisfying anyway my patience and ground work has paid off. Can't really keep this suspense going for much longer so what I no have taking up a large chunk of my garage is a 1960's vintage Taylor Hobson CXL Pantograph Egraving / Milling machine. I effect these are huge Etch O Sketch machines the principal being that you make up a pattern and then the machine mills as many of it as you want. The secret though is that they can scale down so you can make the pattern up to ten times bigger than the finished article, it being much more accurate to make the pattern bigger. The machine came from a company which no longer used it and needed the space while being more interested in it going to a good home than financial gain. With thanks to Trevor for making the trip over from Wales and then another 100 miles of motorway with me, we got it dismantled and snugly stowed in the back of the Freelander. An uneventful trip back then posed the problem of how to unload it without the help of the two burly blokes who loaded it for us. Well we managed it with only mild language but lots of ingenuity but getting the top casting back on the plinth defeated us for now. This machine really is very, very solid and massively over engineered - they certainly don't make them like they used to! A plan has now been hatched to build a small scaffolding tower around it and hoist the heavy bit up onto the base with this. Once we have managed this I only need to get some suitable cutters and engraving grade brass and then decide which of the various projects in my head gets worked on first!

Actually the only mysterious thing about this case is why I am so mad to have started this in the first place! My search for new wagon loads has led me to loose another four days modelling time in the pursuit of realism misguided or not. This particular one is one that will actually go the other way to usual being spent artillery shell cases which were collected whenever possible and sent back for reuse. Before anyone gets too picky I must point out that they are not of any particular caliber, the dimensions being dictated by the raw materials. I have been pondering this load for some time and have turned up some particularly nice shell cases on the lathe but the time taken and indeed cost of the brass completely ruled out this approach. I did consider casting from these but the wall thickness was just too thin for my casting skills. Quite some time ago I experimented with some 3mm (actually 2.8) drinking straws but experiments with closing off the ends with tiny discs of paper or plasticard was just too fiddly. And then last Sunday afternoon my obviously under taxed brain suddenly realised the relationship between a BBQ skewer and the drinking straws and the game was afoot. Obviously not happy with just one brain wave that day I then employed what has turned out to be a very useful device that I bought last year intended for cutting brass tube. From a picture I worked out the diameter to length proportion of a shell and applied it to the straw so although it may be no caliber known to man it is in proportion to a real one. With the application of a sharp craft knife I soon had about 200 identical length small and fiddly tubes. Having established that the skewer was a good fit in the straw I found that, in no fancy terms, shoving one up the bit of straw a couple of mm and then sawing it off again in the useful gadget was the best way forward. By working with five skewers at at a time and a straw on each end what could have been and unimaginably tedious task was turned into just a tedious task. Having done this two hundred times the next stage was painting. It was obvious each case would have to be primed and the good old Halfords grey spray was the obvious choice but how to hold them was not quite as obvious. Enter the third brainwave - Stickle Bricks! A quick ransack of now not so little Iz's toy box found me a couple of victims and the craft knife was taken to every other stickle and the result mounted on another block. Result a custom made spraying jig. Having undercoated 16 at a go I then had to repeat the process for the final colour which was done with water colours and then a final wash with dirty grime. All very time consuming but done in small batches in between 'proper' work. Next up was mounting them on a false floor with a coat of varnish to start followed by a dose of Astonish floor polish followed by dilute PVA followed by super glue for any that were still loose - can you tell why it took four days yet? During this a few cases were filled with bits of sawn off nail to provide something for the magnet stick to pick up on for easy removal . All the previous glueing steps took place in a spare wagon body with cling film acting as a prophylactic to aid removal. So here you have four days spent on one wagon load! But I do think it looks pretty good.....

Life has taken one of those unexpectedly busy turns in the last few weeks which is. of course good on many levels but not those that involve modelling or blogging about it. So, in the absence of anything new being created a quick update on some developments unveiled at last couple of shows. Firstly a slightly unusual perspective on the layout from the Holmfirth show with Martin doing a great job while I swan off taking photos. Anyone who has met the layout in the flesh will have noted my bespoke crowd barrier of fake barbed wire but what is new and well over due was something to support it in the middle There is also another chapter in the on going sage of developing an end to end communications system. Having given up with walkie talkies I have now acquired two wonderful never issued 1950's military field telephones complete with little handle to spin madly to attract attention of other phone. Being rather short of anywhere to actually put them a few off cuts of ply eventually solved the problem; And finally the bus now finished and where it should be;

A casting kit from Sylmasta - need to get another one soon! https://sylmasta.com/product/sylmasta-casting-kit-01/

Sorry, just couldn't resist the title and I know it is now nowhere near Summer but when you see where the show is I am sure you will understand. I will probably get lynched up in Yorkshire tomorrow! This was going to concern my further developments in the production of wire loads and all the pictures are ready to go but being way past midnight now the sheer dreariness of it would have me snoring away in moments. Will save that delight up for next week. So, almost all packed up for Huddersfield's 50th anniversary show in Holmfirth Sat and Sunday - do come and say hello if you are there.

Glad you like ! Just let me know if you need any help with anything.

Firstly a big thank you to everyone who helped out at Tewkesbury at the weekend - a really enjoyable show. I would have some pictures but only ones are on Simon's phone and he hasn't sent them me yet......... All available time this week (and that is not a lot), has been spent trying to sort out problems from the weekend before the next show at the end of the month in Holmfirth. Finally got around to adding even more weight to the 3D printed wagons to try to tempt them to stay on the track a bit more often. The A has had a false floor of lead added with a petrol can load attached on top. The B has had a couple of lead filled 80 gallon drums and some wire fixed in. The C's have had the whole of the underside filled with lead and have done a little articulation thing on the bogies to stop them turning in on themselves. The Baldwin Gas Mechanical was rather unhappy due to a wire rubbing on one of the wheels so in a move that seemed to take all evening I pulled out the chip and stay alive, hacked the inside of the body around a bit and refitted both. As you will see I can now refit the jack shaft which was being blocked by the chip - only thing is I have to find it first! One of the Baldwin 4-6-0's has had some attention around the cylinders as it was noticed that it was shorting on points. When something fails at a show, I normally use the 'yellow masking tap of shame' to identify what has had a problem. Only trouble this time was that it took loads of paint with it. A good excuse to try out a three part 'real' rust solution I have had for ages. maybee a little too much rust? Still not happy with the pick ups on the 20hp Simplex so have taken a leaf out of the Pont du Ferme chaps books and have added track wiper pick ups. Not terribly attractive but at the moment seem to be doing the trick. And finally the Alco - problem identified as the stub axles spinning in the tufnol muffs so ruining the quartering. More Loctite 290 needed.

Just a quick one as really rather busy for reasons that should be obvious. Have had a bit of a gap since the last exhibition so plenty of time to sort out all the little issues and get things like track and wheels clean again - have I done any of it? Of course not! So mad panic here but hopefully meet at least a few of you tomorrow!

I couldn't agree more!

And it is with quite some relief that I can pronounce it finished at last - three weeks of quality modelling time - far more than I expected but I did do far more than I expected - which, of course, I should have expected! I am certain that I did take pictures of the intermediate stages but I can't find them now so you will have to make do with these. It did look particularly good with all the brass bits and other shiny metal and was a bit of a shame to spray it but needs must. It was almost finished four days ago but when I went to add the die cast stairs on the back I just couldn't do it as they looked so over scale. I didn't fancy replacing the whole lot it the rather complex curve of the steps so instead, hacked, cut and filed the sides away just to leave the spiral foot steps. I wasn't sure what I was going to do next but ended up annealing (heating up on gas stove to red heat then quenching - makes it hold a bend better), the brass for the step sides. Down side of this is that it forms an unsolderable coating on the brass which is a devil to clean without undoing the bend. Anyway, brass sides were then Evo - stuck to the steps which was an experiment that did work. I was then able to solder the uprights to the brass being very careful not to linger with the iron. Am really pleased with the results but a lot more work. Enough words - here are some pics; I would have liked to have attached it to the layout permanently but unfortunately it is just too tall for the gap when the boards are stowed for transport. Other slight problem with it is that in a lot of the available period pictures there are whole rows of them lined up at a time. I am very wary having a token 'one' of everything on layouts but for now one is going to have to do as not going to spend another month doing another one! I have got far better things to do like converting a truck from another one! I never learn. I am really kicking myself for not taking a 'before' picture as I think the improvements are dramatic. Another couple of pictures with a rather relaxed OC using it as an outdoor office to go over deployment of the rather confused sniper reverently waiting on the steps.

Yes, frame bearings - having just reinvented four wheels I decided enough was enough and wasn't going to do it again!

I certainly didn't appreciate how long this bus thing was going to take - if all goes to plan now it will be about three weeks modeling time which is a bit absurd for something that came straight out of a box. Anyway, chassis is now finished and just waiting for me to fit rear mud guards to the body and that is ready for paint. Although I may moan about how long this has taken it has been very enjoyable and quite stretching in working out how to re[lace the over scale bits. I am particularly proud of the new steering wheel and hand brake, both out of brass and nickle silver. Can anyone guess what the new head lamps started out life as ?

Ah! My wife reported a 'big black engine' on her way back from work as well. No further details could be extracted so it must have been 1501 then. Just to add some context to above two comments - a bit further down the hill is the Weavers which I hesitate to call a pub as it is one of a very welcome new breed of watering hole set up in a retail unit but very cosy, no music, no fizzy beer just real stuff and cider and the odd malt. Just a little bit further down is Footplate Models which has expanded nicely into it's new premises having moved across the road - not open on Wednesdays though which always catches me out as it did today!