AlfaZagato

Both clubs I am part of, the British Train Society, and the European Train Enthusiasts club, Chicago Chapter, showed at the annual All-American Railroad Show in LaGrange, IL today. I only took a few pictures.

Two projects finished in the last week. I know it is not perfect. Mistakes made on the Dragon will hopefully be remedied on the next build. I only plan on one more airliner, though, and that kit scares me. Still, finished as I consider. I get to display it on the club's layout on Saturday for our one-and-only show this year. I chose 'City of Birmingham' as I wanted one that wasn't modelled frequently, and named for a city in GWR territory. Important, that. I also finished the Leo model for my Gunpla club's contest in April. Rough-&-tumble, weathered pirate-service Leo. I probably could have done more weathering, but I have no experience with weathering yet. For a contest model, I figured better to show off what I know than what I don't. Still, this was my first time with soldering-iron damage, and my first extensive attempt at layering, both on the hook and on the cutlass hilt. What do you think? Also, I lied. No thread yet. I'm not certain which forum such a generic modelling thread would be appropriate. Any suggestions?

Consider following the same concept Chapelon had when he did the PO 231s into 240P's. Modelling-wise, adding a driving axle to a steel frame is a pain. Still, dressing up the boiler with a whole mess of visible pipework, as seemed common with Chapelon rebuilds, would put you in the right neighborhood for visual effect. I don't know if you would want to fudge a corridor tender out of a streamlined Princess Coronation tender, or use a LNER item. Squashing and rolling a lump with some pipework into it would do well to represent the feedwater heaters on the 240P's.

I'd say do it, but I don't know that anyone would drop that coin just to repaint one. Days of buying EMU's and DMU's piecemeal are gone.

What would a UK Vanderbilt tender look like? I'd imagine it would look somewhat like a child rammed the cylindrical block into the squarish one. I don't know that the UK loading gauge would permit the hopper-look of a US Vanderbilt.

Short note - new toys in the mail. I managed to catch the Rails of Sheffield flash-sale on the Heljan L&B Manning-Wardle 'Taw' in Southern lined green. I must say, beautiful model, but the relevant thread elsewhere gives me pause to running it. Shame, cost me enough. On the same order, I grabbed a couple of L&B bogie opens in Southern colors & markings. From the depths of eBay, I won this monstrosity; I regret my decision. Runs like crap. I imagine it is too have tires on the wheels, which are absent. Very rough runner. Paint is crap, and some 5-year-old seems to have slathered that yellow paint on in a go. I did get a coach and a dummy power car as well. Honestly, I plan to corrupt this into a Collett-ized version, when funds allow for the other donors.

OT, but flex is not that bad. Big things are to get the right tools, being a proper track cutter, and keep the 'loose' track on the inside of your turns. A passing loop isn't too hard, just establish one end, and only cut the other.

So, first off, I think after this entry, I'll switch to a workbench thread. The blogs here seem to get very little traffic, and I'm an attention whore. I do want commentary on what I can do better. We had a short break in the weather, with reasonable temps, so I took to the cardboard box that qualifies as my spray booth. The Heller/Airfix/Tasman de Havilland Dragon Rapide is almost finished. Two small detail paint jobs, window frames, and reattaching the struts should do it. Good thing, too, as my club's layout is showing on March 23rd, and I think it will be a wonderful piece for our airfield. I will not be attempting rigging on this build. I don't think I did well enough of a job to warrant it. Next, I have a Bandai Gundam kit I am working on, the High Grade 1/144 OZ-06MS Leo. I don't normally build these smaller HG kits. I much prefer the 1/100 kits, normally Master Grade, but this I built and modified for a contest in my local Gunpla club. Aiming for a pirate theme, I used parts from the Crossbone Gundam and a cheap scenery tree, along with some brass rod. I also played with damaging the parts with a soldering iron. I wanted the suit to look underkempt and beaten. Tonight I managed to get a coat of paint on everything, Citadel Chaos Black; Which focused on the bottle of ClearFix, apparently. I also managed a coat of primer on the Infinity models. I don't think I'll work on them too much more in the immediate future. At this stage, the painting would be intensive, and I have other, older, less intensive projects that time could be given to instead. Finally, I laid a coat of color on the Beetle. I had a can of Boyd Lime Pearl, so I thought I'd give it a try. I hope I can get the roof smooth without destroying too much of the pearl; the paint is OoP, and the can is small. Watch for the thread.

Someone, somewhere will comment on why this has no purpose. I am not such, and think it's cool.

Have you thought of investing in an airbrush? Seeing your comparisons of Railmatch and Precision makes me jealous. Neither are available stateside.

Seems like a lot of work on a brand-new RTR locomotive, but we've been spoiled as an industry of late in OoB running qualities. I'd reckon the same effort into a Lima loco would give pause to most detractors of the brand.

Cost. WW1 did not cost the US a damn thing. We had already largely industrialized for the most part, and both labor and material were still pennies on the dollar. By WW2, we had been through the Great Depression, and our involvement was much higher, so a moving to simpler, cheaper designs was desirable.

I know that was just someone's flight of boredom and fancy, but a collapsible jib would get that right down to gauge.

American cattle-cars were loaded from center doors, and that was often Longhorns, too.

If you've read my other blog, you'll know I ruined a couple of other projects this week. Ruining the other projects kind of dampened motivation to do much else, so 'this week' has literally been 'tonight.' One of two, I had picked up an accessory kit from Bandai, a stand for figures, that also establishes itself as a base for special effects accessories. The translucent purple parts are intended to represent some kind of explosion or radiation. All six sections are molded somewhat vaguely at the ends, in an attempt to make the fit somewhat universal. The brown parts are intended to be debris. They also can be connected into a sort of crater, and laid flat. My intention had originally been to use the debris parts on the display for one of my Gundams, but this stand is not substantial enough to support the Gundam I had in mind. The stand I already had for the Gundam isn't intended to use this system of sub-arms to hold the debris. This whole scheme was sort-of improvised, so I had little motivation to pursue the matter too much further. All else I had managed to do this evening was start building this odd booster unit for Gundams. Not finished, and I know not what I will do with it when I am. I only started building it since it was on my bench. Maybe I'll sort it out t some point.

Thanks for that. I've popped for one. Now to see how long it takes to get to me.

Two entries on two nights, and both poor showings. I've mentioned earlier in this blog that I had two locomotives fail during the Christmas season, my Terrier and 14xx. Tonight, I attempted to take them apart to ascertain what failed, and what I could do to remedy the issues. First, I attempted the Terrier. Completely mangled the thing. One of the clips just would not let go, and by the time it did, I had bent one of the coupling rods, lost a coupling rod pin, and snapped every connection between the pickups and the motor. And I still couldn't remove the body. Squished the thing back together and wedged it back in the box. Might use it as a mule later for N gauge weathering. Second, I tackled the 14xx. I was actually quite able to separate the body from the chassis easily. Only issue was I did not have a Philips-head screwdriver fine enough to fit down the chimney, so I used a flathead instead. Opening the body didn't help, though. The motor didn't respond to directly applied current. Shame, too, as the 14xx is easily my favorite locomotive. I'll have to wait until another run is done. This'll likely become a test canvas as well.

There was a reason to the GWR rhyme without trailing trucks. My understanding is that, with the second-bulkiest part of the locomotive, the firebox, weighing squarely on the drivers, a Consolidation or a Ten-wheeler starts more surely than the equivalent Mikado or Pacific, respectively. I've read of appalling starts by 'foreign' Pacifics during the exchange trials out of Paddington.

I'll investigate that. I was just using what I had handy. I have a feeling that 5-ply is a little overkill for a shoebox. I don't disagree with you, honestly. I'll have to check with some calipers next time I'm near the book.

I do hope Slugworth's is a bit less experimental with their candies than their rivals.

I've managed to mangle two projects tonight. I've taken no pictures, in absolute shame. Firstly, I had done a very rough cut of a baseboard for my shoebox layout. General idea was that I could build the whole of the layout on the plywood, so that I could work on it without destroying the box. Problem with my cutting the baseboard myself is I only have a ripsaw, triangle, and tape measure handy. Nary a sawhorse in sight. Also, the sheet I started with wasn't square in the first place, so I wasn't expecting a great result. I didn't get a great result. Ripsaw wandered horribly; I ended with not a single straight edge. At first, I tried to rasp down the worst of the sides, but I grew impatient, and the rasp was following the curve of the piece, negating any benefit I might gain from the exercise. Hence, I tried to cut the balance off with my miter saw. That didn't work too well. I'll need to start again, and go somewhere I can use better facilities. Secondly, I managed to further ruin a wagon detailing project I started. I've long had one of the Farish Macaws, and a book I picked up recently had an image of three Macaw B's and four Macaw J's(?), carrying a load of large pipe sections. I think I managed to mess up my measurements. The caption lists the pipes as 5'7" diameter. Bringing this down to British N, I come up with 0.45 inches. The nearest equivalent tube size I've found is 7/16, or 0.43 inches. But, two sections abreast leaves me no space for the bracing evident on the bolsters. I'm confused. I've also cut my lengths like absolute trash, so I'll likely pick up new tube. I just need to figure out of I have done my math wrong. Any help there?

Good to see that these prints can be glued and sanded much like plastic. I've always thought the material to be a little overly pliable for positive work like that. A 3D-printed wargaming mini I picked up a couple of years ago resisted everything short of a sharp X-Acto blade.

Are imaginary liveries OK here, too, or is there a better thread for that? Also, is there a good match for BR Golden Ochre that is NOT Phoenix or Railmatch? Can't get those here.

More building this week, stacking up more painting. Firstly, some 28mm 8th Army by Warlord games, intended for their WW2 game Bolt Action The sprue I had came as a pack-in with last month's issue of Wargaming Illustrated. I'm not subscribed, but I might at this point. I'm starting to bite more into the wargaming culture, though WI is aimed more at historical wargaming. Only one of the four games I play is historical, and I don't need further expansion. Secondly, a quick build of Tau Gun Drones for Warhammer 40,000. These were a very simple little kit, being a half-dozen or so parts each. An evening's worth of work. These four put me over two dozen of the , I think, with plans on more. Eventually, I'd like to field 250 or so, as their own army, but Games Workshop has halved the quantity you get in a package of the drones on their own, with no change to the price. Annoying, to say the least. Thirdly, more from the game I'd been working on prior in this blog, Infinity. These are Tiger Soldiers, I believe. Not really certain, I picked these up secondhand, and Corvus Belli have introduced new tooling that supersedes what I have. Not suitable for my army in either case, though cool to have. Finally, a dragon! Reaper Bones Silver Dragon. About six pieces, made of a terrible vinyl material. Think like the joint parts in a Bandai Gundam kit. Warped to boot. Still, I wanted it out of my queue, so now its elsewhere in the queue. Great improvement.

Nah, the USA, where everything is BIGGER and BETTER. Get me out of here. So, question for everyone here, what are the limits on width & height on the UK system?