Bluemonkey presents....

State of play with the roof skylights. Two finished and two nearly there, having remade one already. I though it was something else that was meant to make you go blind! 🥸😇 I am a slow modeller but I have also had a little distraction this weekend; Shame I have a slight whitening from the varnish but this can be masked with coal dust. I am a sucker for the wagon kits. I can not get enough of them!!!! Couplings and sprinkling of coal to add to finish off. This will be an empty as I managed to get the internal irons painted satisfactorily and the floor fits both ends and sides 😲

Will do, many thanks.

Although I am yet to find any pictorial evidence of any gas pipes on the roof for the internal gas lighting. There must have been something as the picture of the inside that I have does not show anything sited on the inside of the roof.

Thank you. I plan to use 0.25mm x 0.5mm plastic strip held in place with superglue as with the gas pipes but looking at plastic rod for that. I decided against as I dont have anything suitable and I do not think I would make a decent enough arc and certainly not able to make a mirror image the other side.

Continuing with the plasticard strips to make up the window framing; Made up the outer frame, then the top cross brace. The outer framing is plastic strip 1.3mm x 0.3mm. This is very flexible so can make the shape over the top without any cracks or breaks. The cross brace is more rigid plastic 1.1mm x 0.5mm which helps to keep the whole thing square and strong. Measured out and marked for the internal pane frames. These are made with 0.6mm x 0.3mm plastic strip with an angle cut at one end to butt against the top frame to square things up. Here's the end product, with weld drying times it has taken about 24hrs to complete this one, just three more to go! Once attached to the roof and painted the glazing will be cut to size and popped in each side.

Looking really good and and great save on the roof and missing elements. Really quick build as well.

Been a little time thinking about how to tackle the skylights and destination boards. Decided to use the same method of a drawn outline on paper cut to form a stencil. The skylight 'box' is formed to check for stability and strength as I am using .010 x .125 strip. I decided not to use brass sheet as the risk of distortion whilst cutting by either knife or scissors would be too great. The 'box' is surprising strong given the size and four joins. I had imagined cutting a small triangle to place on top to forming the apex but have have now decided to form this as a single end section. No need to complicate things 🙃 Now to finish off the other three.

I'm in, you all there! 😉

Many thanks, very much appreciate your quick response. Ticket will be purchased very shortly.

I am hoping to buy my ticket for the show in advance but obviously left it a little later than expected. I do not have a printer to print an emailed ticket and due to time worried it would not arrive in the post in time. Is the emailed ticket shown on a phone acceptable please?

Skylights cleared. real care is a must to preserve fingers and the roof. I did slip a little which provided me with a nice long scratch but not very deep, luckily. This will have a little filler across it later. A little more bending and shaping. This is becoming increasingly easier but also has it's dangers as all the all the additional holes are making it more and more fragile. Found myself a pleasing profile. This is a little wider at the top than the roof formers but allows the curved edges to nicely fall around and over the highest point. Had to open the gas lamp and vent holes a little more and then onto fixing some of the roof details. Gas lamps and Shell vents are white metal and now soldered to the roof. This has increased the overall rigidity of the roof and has enabled me to progress the profile curve a little further. Rain strips, Running boards, skylights and the stove chimney to finish off. I have already formed the grab handles for the end with steps and drilled locating holes in the end. Need to add some steps to the chassis as I forgot those when I built the chassis 🙈

Your are both very right in what you say. I certainly need to get on with brake vans but I do have a tadpole in the 'to do' pile. The modelling knife I used is not overly sharp having been used for this build and my last two plastic kits. This may be a factor as if too sharp my slip easier, not sure. The brass is from Albion Alloys and is 0.12mm thick ref SM1 is does flex very easily.

Took the plunge! Using a knife I experimented with an off cut to see what sort of impression could be made. It appears that a knife will cut this brass sheet as if it was a thick piece of plasticard. So slowly and carefully a start is made. After a near disasterous slip I remembered @Mikkel's Blu-Tac safety measure when converting his pannier. No tac available I has used small strips of masking tape. this acts as a buffer at the end of each cut to hopefully nullify, if not eradicate, any further slips leading to scratch lines on the roof. Any 'squaring' can be finished off with a needle file. As you can see I have start shaping the roof as well. Again very slowly as I do not have the right tools. Firstly rough forming around the existing roof forms on the wagon. Once curve area has been establish I am using a brass rod to continuingly roll the curve, checking against the wagon forms constantly. This is going to take time but better that than have to start again. For those interested; The rod is an aquarium algae scraper, the type that has a plastic V at one end to plant, plants and a plastic holder with a blade in at the other to scrap off algae from inside the aquarium. Both plastic ends are prone to damage/breakage but keeping the rod for poking about the tanks has proved invaluable over the years and now for the railway 🙃

Brass has arrived so had a little play; Just working out how best to cut the skylights as the brass is that thin pressure instantly marks. Cut the profile with standard scissors!

Very tidy and an excellent end result. Aston the multistory train park, no?

A lovely sequence for the build, thank you. Roxey Mouldings have a Dean 8'6" pair of bogies available. I have recently picked some up for a K3 build. Looking at them they seem to follow the conventional, fold and solder as others I have come across, without the inside framing. Roxey appear to be the only source for Dean 8'6" unless you are lucky enough to find a pre-owned set may be. Great job.

After planning the roof layout on paper, matching to the inner supports etc this is transferred to what I had hoped to be the roof. Initial trials suggest the plastic too rigid to accept the tight curve required to meet the body. I do not want to apply the amount of pressure required to bend and hold besides my vice does not extend to over 24cm and I feel this needs to be accomplished in one go. To this end I have had to order some thin brass sheet. I will repeat the 'plan' transfer onto the roof drill out the small detail holes and then hold my breath when cutting out the skylight gaps. Looks like Easter will be fun!

@MrWolf Sounds a fair exchange 🙃 Hope this pictures are what you need.

Here's some variations that I have dug up from the backup folder AKA recycle bin. It's incredible what you find in there! Just for you @Mikkel

OK but I am already excited to see what you produce!!

OK will see what I can find, regarding the builds, will be a couple of hours or so. If not I have them to hand so can at least get new finished pictures for you.

Thank you. The open and tarp covered ones, by any chance? You are right about the Google pages but certainly does highlight how careful we all must be posting pictures as well, it almost like a personal blog, lol.

Good luck with your move as Rob says those full length pictures are great really shows the layout off in a different and more realistic way.

Hi Mikkel, Drop me a line if there is anything specific you want and I'll see what I can find for you. Although it is me taking knowledge, skills and motivation from yourself, of which I am thankful.

My trusty method of backing up in the recycle bin my come into play here, lol. Although this will be a lengthy process as no jpegs are named just have the computer ref number 🤨