Bryn

Weight, weight and more weight! Even though the Ruston is smaller than the Farish class 04 it now weighs more. Hopefully this will help it move a wagon or two 😉

Mark, Looks like a RMWeb issue, that was a typo I edited yesterday. No idea why you're still seeing the old text. PPD Ltd offer the laser cutting service. Similar to the etching service where you just provide the artwork.

Test drive with the DCC equipment fitted. It was reassuring how slow and smooth it could operate with such a low single stage gearing. Coreless motors and DCC really have opened up new doors to the 2mm world.

Foot steps are assembled from the parts supplied on the etch. I filed the curved cut out to suit my prototype. Buffers are an industrial type from N brass, which require assembly. I turned down the buffer face in a collet chuck on the lathe and soldered each buffer together. The cast builders logo was a delicate operation to fit, but worth the effort. Handrail knobs are turned brass items from N brass. The foot steps were fitted with low melt solder to reduce the risk of part separation near by.

Hi Michael, This is just a recap thread, the shunter is mostly completed at this stage. I'm just digging through the photo archives and updating it in small sections. The issue I had with the roof and bonnet was trying to get a smooth radius with the half etched detail present. Most likely not an issue in 4mm, but was causing some kinks. I only selected brass as that is what I had to hand. Overall the kit scaled down well and I'll be coming back for some more! Thanks 😀

The 4mm scale artwork reduced quite nicely and the fit worked out well for 2mm. The the cab rood and bonnet tops were replaced with brass which I annealed to make shaping easier. The roof was made a little wider as the 4mm reduction came up a little short. The laser cut chassis was soldered up to give the first glimpse of what the finished shunter will look like. Van for scale, it's easy to forgot how little this Ruston is!

After some design trial and error on AutoCAD I decided to produce my own chassis using laser cut 0.75mm brass. The benefit of the more common 0.25mm nickel silver etched chassis is the additional weight and no need for frame bushes as the brass can be reemed to the correct axle diameter. Of note, the new mk5 axles are steel. The main advantage of the 6mm motor is it's ability to sit down low between the frames. This gives much more room for additional weight in the bonnet above the centre of the locomotive. The laser cut counter weight jack shaft drive was soldered to some brass tube to act as an axle. The connecting rods from the etch were laminated, drilled and reemed to fit. The sand boxes are plastic sections cut to shape by hand. The initial test on DC voltage looked promising, the crank pin washers were left until the end if the chassis needed adjustment later on.

First step was to get a feel for how large the space envelope would be for the mechanism and DCC components. From the start I knew I would be using the 6mm diameter coreless motor from the association shop and the Zimo MX615r decoder with additional stay alive capacitors. I used the etched chassis in the kit to make a prototype chassis to help develop the final design. The cab seemed the logical place for the stay alive circuit. I sandwiched three 470uF capacitors together with the Zimo SACC16 board. This all nicely sits below the cab window level. The motor would easily fit within the bonnet with enough room for the DCC decoder. My only concern was adding as much weight ass possible to aid traction. As the jack cranks on the etch were different to the association wheels I would have to produce my own. The wheels used are 7mm mk5 wheels from thr Association shop, they should be 6mm but this isn't really noticeable.

I was first drawn to 2mm finescale modelling back in the 1990s when viewing the Association's online gallery. What stood out to me was the excellent diesel shunters produced by Stephen Harris, compared to the original Poole Graham Farish 08 it was in a different league! A couple of decades later I thought I'd turn my hand to making my first shunter. Inspired by the image below I ordered a Judith Edge Ruston 165 etched kit, a direct reduction of the 4mm kit without any castings. https://flic.kr/p/2kvFRqh - Dave Peachey Photograph I'll update this thread with details of the build over the coming days. Thank you to @Michael Edge for making this available in 2mm scale.

Finally, the 45T tank project is coming to an end. Kits are from the Stephen Harris range.

Slowly but surely building up the layers of weathering on the Stephen Harris 45T tank kits.

A question which alway results in endless debate which could easily take this enjoyable thread off topic. So to wrap this up: "At the time of creating your project use the best options given your; current modelling time allowance, skills and off the shelf models/kits available" Not all 2FS modellers are the same, there is a very diverse range of skills and experience within this group of active modellers. The idea of there being a hard line between N gauge and 2mm Finescale is where this conversation normally gets confused in translation. In my experience it truly is a grey scale all the way from code 80 Peco track with older 1:148(ish) Farish models through to hand crafted 1:152 brass locomotives on 2FS track. You just need to consider what is the best combination for yourself at the time of the project in hand. As of today your basic scenarios are as follows. Steam Era As mentioned above, a 1:152 kit on 2FS track is the best option visually. An etched chassis under a 1:148 RTR body is still an improvement over N gauge if you don't have time to build a body or more likely you'll see new modellers in the scale using this option as a stepping stone on their modelling journey to full 1:152 (if time and skill allows... we can gain skill, but sadly not time). Diesel (Green and Blue) For the record there are a few 1:152 scratch built diesels around, the Association's 08 kit and a few etched scratch aid kits on the market. Not for the faint hearted, but they do exist out in the wild as running models. The discussion normally focuses around the fact that a rewheeled 1:148 locomotive on 2FS track doesn't really improve the model, which is fully correct. This is the situation I find myself in with Colwyn Bay Goods, I can't currently build a class 25 in 1:152 which would look better than my out of scale Farish model with drop in wheels. It is my best option at this moment in time given my skills and available time. You need to consider the bigger picture of all rolling stock of this era, I much prefer the etched kits such as the 16T mineral wagons and catfish which are only available in 1:152 currently. The wagons have very open underframes which show off the finer wheels to great effect and are a massive improvement on the current N gauge alternatives. I can't make the 3 way turnout with Finetrax as the over scale flangeways would overlap and clash (granted, Colwyn Bay Goods predated Finetrax by a decade). With technology progressing well the concept of a 3D printed 1:152 diesel body becomes a closer reality I would like to explore, because I enjoy building kits and have recently started to learn about making my own 2FS chassis. In summary, this era is a grey area. No wrong answers but no easy perfect solution either way. Diesel and Electric (The air braked era) Unless you need to model complex trackwork (where the wider clearances of Finetrax will always be a limiting factor) then it makes sense to use 1:148 models on code 40 N gauge track.... but not for the reasons we all assume. - 1:152 Track has a correct track spacing for the scale, 9.42mm - 1:148 Finescale track should be to 9.69mm - Finetrax is 9mm Why? Because UK N gauge is running on European/American 1:160 track which is where the 9mm comes from. So technically you would be nearer to scale to use N gauge stock on 2FS track. So not only does Finetrax have have over sized flangeways the gauge is still wrong. So why did I state Finetrax as the best option for modern diesel/electric? It's back to "the best option at the current time" as it looks right and is cost effective. Why rewheel stock if you can't see the benefit behind bogie side frames? Also, I can't think of any modern 1:152 kits (currently). Conclusion Sometimes the overall effect is more important than dimensional accuracy. Unless your're rewheeling 1:148 N gauge locos to run on hand made 9.69mm track it's always going to be a compromise which suits your current situation. If mixing 1:152 stock with 1:148 try not to use combinations which obviously visually clash. For instance, mixed freight wagons hide the scale difference well but a rake of similar coaches should be of one scale. Current situation etc. Which is why the majority of active 2mm Finescale modellers rewheel N gauge. We just like building and tinkering with stuff. Nothing more, nothing less. The satisfaction of this is greater than exact dimensional perfection. This will always be a soft target for people to call foul play and it's not really 2mm Finescale, but hey! It makes us happy and who knows maybe a few of us will progress slowly towards pure 1:152. Hats off to the pure 1:152 modellers, we all truely look up to them, but the rest of us are just plodding along that grey scale line away from code 80 and pizza cutters at our own speed

A quick request, does anyone have any other photos of this Ruston 165DS? Ideally from the rear. I'm struggling with finding any using the usual search engines. Thanks in advance!

Short answer, no. The HEA is a difficult wagon to model for various reasons. The model produced by Graham Farish was one of the first wagons made in China after the sale of the company to Bachmann. It's very crude detail and lack of any underframe discharge doors doesn't help. Under the MEA the chassis doesn't look as bad. Drop in replacement wheels might work as a quick fix. You could machine out the Farish chassis to accept etched W irons and use the Association whitemetal castings for the Bruninghaus spring with roller bearing. A few people, including myself, have done this with the Farish TTAs before the Stephen Harris kit was available. This gets rid of the horrible low relief suspension details of the Farish mouldings and allows the use of 12.25mm axles. Sadly now out of production is the Taylor Precision Models HEA kit which used to fit a heavily modified Peco chassis. In my opinion this was a better alternative to the Farish model.

Experimenting with oil paints on an old detailed Farish TTA. The paint has the linseed leached by placing it in card for a hour or so before use, then applied by brush and thinned where required.

This seasons project was a rake of Stephen Harris 45T tanks. Various types of walkways and chassis details. The blue parts are custom 3D prints from Missy from my own art work.

First pass of weathering going onto the Stephen Harris mermaid kit this evening. Oil paint rendering over the top of a sprayed acrylic base coat.

Phil, I had a chat with Stephen last night and can now confirm the following; - Mermaids have been out of stock in the Association shop due to the contracted caster being temporarily unavailable. A new batch of kits are currently on the way to the Association shops. - Dogfish are available from Stephen directly and he has some in stock. Everyone else, From the list of kits in the link below Stephen can supply kits which don't include castings directly by calling him on the phone number provided. Kits with resin parts require a minimum quantity order to justify a fresh run, hence why the Mermaid kit is now stocked by the association rather than Stephen having to keep stock himself. If you are interested in a resin kit please speak to Stephen about current options. http://www.2mm.org.uk/small_suppliers/stephenharris/index.htm

I stand corrected, it isn't currently a listed product. I might have been told some dud information or it has been removed.

Weekend build progress. This is the start of a mermaid ballast wagon, etched from 0.25mm nickel silver sheet material with a cast resin body. Kit designed by Stephen Harris and available from from 2mm Scale Association.

.... and the other pair from the Revolution trio. Rust patches on the last tank was created by applying neat acrylic with a sponge, the rest of the weathering was brush applied oils.

Another play with oil paint rendering for weathering. This time on a rewheeled N gauge 36T class B tank from Revolution. Two more to go...

This time a repaint of a Stephen Harris 21T mineral which I built 11 years ago. I was wasn't happy with the old Maskol rust technique it was redone with chipping fluid and oil paints. And here are my 3 recent projects in an arty shot on Colwyn Bay Goods.

As promised;

I've not made an etched kit for a long time, so what better excuse to dust off the RSU than to put together one of Stephen Harris' kit for the 13T All Steel High. http://www.2mm.org.uk/small_suppliers/stephenharris/index.htm The etched contains everything except; vacuum cylinder, wheel sets, axle boxes and buffers. An interesting process is making the chain link dimples in the side of some wagon diagrams. This involves a 1mm punch and a sandwich of etched jigs, very well though out. Transfers are from fox and the base paint was Tamiya acrylics. This was then sealed in with matt varnish. The weather was built up in layers using various paints and the majority is done with brush work.