craigwelsh

A bit late now but if you needed to drill out pinpoints a little then the freebie from Ultrascale - 26mm Pinpoint axle Bearing drill http://www.ultrascale.co.uk/mis0001.php# is rather good.

While waiting for Ultrascale you can you your digital calipers to set the B2B, the cheap ones from Aldi etc will at least get you to 17.7mm and they do show 2 digit and mine were pretty much spot on to the exactoscale jig. Which B2B are you going to use? 17.67mm or 17.75mm? Exactoscale sell both as well as something like 17.87mm for S4.

I hope there is a bit of compensation movement at one end of the chassis as its a massive wheelbase.

I assume these are HMRS pressfix transfers, i'm not sure how they would react to micro sol/set to try and get them to shape to the detail a little more. It might be worth sealing the transfers with either Varnish or Klear before you attempt an attack on them with a fibreglass brush.

I've posted a list of acrylics from Games Workshop for unpainted wood planks and rust in my thread http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/3646-p4-po-1923-wagons/ . Drybrushing, washes and stippling the rust on are the key imho and the Hornby mag article was a bit basic. The interiors on these generally weren't painted so were dirty wood, I rubbed weathering power into the paint on mine to give texture in the plank lines.

I've got a Bachmann Sheepbridge to do sometime as i've discovered the livery is taken straight out of a picture in The 4mm Coal Wagon!

I hate to be a teansy bit critical but ...

was the horn usually that limp on an 03 ?

Looks like it needs a chat with those fine purveyors of pills I keep fighting out of my email inbox .

Does look superb though and a nice rich green too compared to the latest RTR finishes.

Interesting you mention the brake van having the wrong end windows as my BR vans in grey came with 2 panel windows in the doors instead of 4. I did look at replacing the ends with the ones on the Dave Bradwell etch but I didn't take into account the thickness of the plastic sides!

Looking forward to the finished shock open.

Its a relief to know you have opted for the plywood sleeper type for your pointwork formations,

I used C+L plastic chairs but had to build the formation onto cork cut to shape so that i could permanantly fix in place then transfare it to the baseboard.

The reasoning here being that if i aproached it the way you have done the sleepers would curl up at the ends resulting in gauge narrowing but this won't happen with plywood.

Interesting to hear of that, it would explain why Exactoscale went for full height sleepering in their kits perhaps? I know the C+L flexitrack has a tenancy to be a little narrow to gauge even if you do try and lay it flat.

You can compromise with plastic chairs and ply sleepers quite nicely but the rivets do allow tweaking of complex formations.

I've got to hand it to you, you scare me! Removing sleeper ties so sleepers can be re-spaced at correct intervals for 30ft track panels when most people would just be happy they are modelling in P4. It makes the use of 00 Peco points look like slap dash modelling....

 

Larry

Now now, if you're going to use slapdash you have to use crude and implausible too, its a rule or something . I must admit the club layout is being laid with Exactoscale sleepering with separate chairs throughout, we've done 6 metres so far on a mix of 24 sleepers per 60ft and 26 sleeper panels. Only about 12 more to go! I think it does make a difference when you can see the correct panels and the sleepers closing up next to the fishplates.

I agree it'll be a unique layout once complete and the track and train already mean its in the top class and look great. The effort taken not will be rewarded later when you get power through it too .

Certainly a masterclass in track formations there in what you have laid so far! Nice diamond, 3-way and slip.

Out of curiosity which PVA make did you go for? I must admit I like the Early Learning Centre kids pva! Useful tip with the pins aligning things.

You need to take some piccies too .

Thanks for that pointer, as ever, Paul Bartlett's photos are a wonderful resource. One thing I'd not seen before was the wooden spacer between the brake pushrods...

 

Nick

Note also that the push-rods although slightly broken in that shot should slope inwards from the vee to the wheels at an angle of 1:20 also when they are independent with no cross-rod. The wood blocking rotted away on many wagons so i've left it off a couple of mine.

Exactoscale have got the wheels http://www.exactoscale.co.uk/drawings/4CW%20104A.pdf and axles http://www.exactoscale.co.uk/drawings/4CW%20501A.pdf spot on in 4mm although the wheels were a bit too spot on and the batch I had were so thin in one ring you could see light through the plastic when held up! They've now thickened them up a bit as they could get wobbly at the slightest attempt at cleaning... Not a problem you'd have in S7 though i'd imagine.

Craig - is this something to do with your RCH chassis etches?

Yes these brake lever guards will suit the RCH chassis, see my previous blog post for the view of the fret with the levers on as well.

As the chassis etch can fit morton wagons as well it made sense to put the levers and guards separate.

And we thought Ambis was complicated...

I can't remember if I tried their guards but their levers always had a silly bit of 1/2 etch on the end that made them too short without it and tedious with it. It may look complicated but there is a spare on the etch and once you've done one its a quick process to repeat. A couple of club members broke their trial ones before but they didn't have such photo reference for the process, hopefully with the reference people will be fine now.

I'm jealous, I was out of the country the week of the Space Hulk re-release and missed the whole episode although having seen the price the bank account is slightly happier.

I agree it was an amazing game and I have the 2nd release still intact apart from the models being painted. Wargame modelling certainly shouldn't be knocked for its skill set.

The MTA's look good too although far too modern for me!

Your mantlepiece is certainly straining under the weight (camera lens is causing a nice curve).

There are a couple of free applications i've seen online to stitch pictures together, http://www.irfanview.com/ can do it I believe.

Im impressed at what you've done sticking all those bits together, look forward to seeing them painted.

having chatted to dagworth et al at cheltenham, it appears that elongating the central axle bearings will cure the Bachmann seesaw, the gears being coarse enough to mesh still.

Depends on how bad it is, i've done the elongating and the gears now mesh tight but there is still a bit of a sea-saw! Only this to do would be to lower the outer axles or move the gears.. Or a Shawplan sprung Deltic bogie when he finishes them.

A smaller middle wheel looks a bit pants imho.

Thanks iak.

Craig, very interested to see your beta etch masters, I'm considering some work of my own, so seeing others work is very interesting. You etches look very crisp nad neat, good work.

Michael

Well if its 4mm and you need some help with the technical details then give me a pm and I don't mind helping based on my experience. Its been about a year now since my first etch test of a sprung underframe and i've been improving since. I'm obviously not an expert but my CAD artwork is coming out in metal as expected so far!

Interested to see you're laying track on thin balsa as an underlay?

Yes, balsa had been used on the layout before the relaying and it had been down 10 years and worked well (any problems were known track issues hence the rebuild, where the track had been built fine it hadn't moved). As we weren't after sound deadening then cork wasn't really needed although Dick still would have preferred it!

With the full height plastic sleepers on the plain line the ballast will be hard enough to negate any movement the cork would allow anyway. We could have stuck straight to ply but the balsa is earlier to tweak and create a shoulder in.

Thanks guys, that's an interesting one Jim as its definitely skewed to the river/canal and therefore the hump is skewed as well.

I'll have a look at the bridge I take to the sandwich shop over the canal at Lunchtime. Although its definately not a skew bridge in this case http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=53.394064,-2.373177&spn=0.000521,0.001041&t=h&z=20 (its also hit by a truck each month meaning a lot of its wing walls are replaced but that's a different story!).

Any chance of some more details/pictures of the Pannier? It looks like a very nice job.

Craig - is the PDF file attached to your blog here the latest version, as I've gotten a bit confused as to which one is the most recent. Thanks. (I'm only sorry that I haven't yet had time to start one of the etches I picked up at S4um).

This is the same version as the last I sent you I think (0.9.2). Hopefully i'll have lever etch tests back next week as I sent them off while I was in Ireland.

This one looks the biz tho, prob due to it being in the 'senior scale!'

A 4mm kit to this quality would look as good imho, especially in P4. The PDK kit needs a lot of work to get it to standard though!

Thats incredibly fast work on it you've managed, I am jealous of your dedication to a project.

Can you possibly use the hot water trick to straighten them out again? I actually straightened some resin solebars with the soldering iron when doing a couple of the wagons!

I'm assuming you cut out squares for the [ iron rather than thinning down the backs of the T-section and gusset plates?

Looks very good though. I have some ABS bodies of these in 4mm to do unfitted.

They sound excellent so are you selling them to all and sundry (please) and if so how much is it per etch?

I will do once I have the lever and guard etch done to go with them, price will depend on what the etchers charge for that etch and my further test bits.

Some guys had been following my project for a while so got the first of the main frets at Scaleforum. Hopefully now the instructions are out i'll get feedback on a couple of builds outside of the Manchester club.

I need to pull finger on my wagons so if I ever visit i'll have a train to run! It is looking like a superb asset now guys and the workmanship and finish is great as well.

I'm not sure about taking it to Scaleforum unless you do something like a haulage competition but it would be great at an AGM or other gathering where more time is available to run stuff on a large roundy layout.

Sorry, I was meaning pedantic about your spelling (spings). You are correct though in that only one set of sprung buffers makes the difference but i'm not trying one ended stock for that. ABS brake gear is indeed fine once fettled but I don't have a stock of it do it was worth me folding up some etched ones instead. The tumblers may vex a few but frankly you could leave them off for the amount you see of them. The ability to tweak brake to wheel fit is the important bit for me.

LMS 17' 6" underframe first then 12' although I was thinking BR type more than RCH but once I have the basic design and the w-irons off the long underframe it should be quick for some Felix Pole types.

I was happy Dave Bradwell liked them although Geoff Kent agrees with you that its slightly too detailed