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cooley_boy

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Blog Entries posted by cooley_boy

  1. cooley_boy
    One of the many loads seen on American rails pipes are easier to model than it may seem but as with all things it just needs a bit of time. I have made one form in the photo but I am about to make some other variants. If any one is interested I will take photos as I make them for those who would like to recreate it. Just let me know.

     
    Also practiced making some rusting spots...

     
    I over did it a bit when spraying a got a bit to much White Spirits in on spot but I managed to create this nice water stain. Have I discovered something new or is it just me. I will have to investigate further I think.....

  2. cooley_boy

    KFA Continued

    By cooley_boy,

    Well now every wagon has had the bulkheads fixed on and the vertical struts fixed down. Next step will be weathering all of them which will hopefully be something that can be done this weekend as the weather is looking good for it.
     

     

  3. cooley_boy
    Well now comes the "fun" stuff with making the finer details like the handrails that sit on the side of the bulkhead. Time to put on a good series and get the tweezers out. I found some .25mm nickel silver wire which is just about the right size for handrails in my reckoning. After making 30 of these with 2 spare I will paint them white tonight and fix them in place once dry.
     

     

     
    Also I have seen in pictures that after they added the holes in the bulkhead to allow air through that they have later added struts across the holes to prevent logs flying out. Just as well as from these photos several have been broken and bent outwards as a result of sliding logs. So looked for the smallest styrene strip I could find from Evergreen which happened to be 0.01mm by 0.25mm and cut up several lengths into 4/6/8mm lengths to go over the holes in the bulkheads. Simply gluing them onto the back where the joins will be weathered over helping loose them in the rust.
     

     

     

     

  4. cooley_boy
    So this weekend I had a slight opening weather-wise and as such took the opportunity to paint the coaches I have set aside for my WCRC excursion train. It took a bit to get the color right but I think I got pretty close. This week I will be starting to apply all the decals which I go from Railtec.

    These have all been stripped using IPA in a Spaghetti Container which doubles nicely as an overnight bath for the Coaches. Using a tooth brush I scrubbed off the paint and decals and then using a 1200 fine wet N dry just smoothed the surface before painting.

    All up there will be 11 coaches all up in the following Running Numbers:

    BSK Mk1 80217
    BCK Mk1 99304
    TSO Mk1 5032
    TSO Mk1 4940
    RMB Mk1 1860
    TSO Mk2 5237
    Pullman Mk1 99350
    Maroon Pullman Mk1 Julia
    Pullman Mk1 Alexandria
    SK Mk1 99722
    Pullman Mk1 Diana




  6. cooley_boy
    On a side note I updated the tower case for my computer and this left me with a spare tower with no real use. Then I had a thought, which is dangerous I'll admit, about converting the tower for a new use. Up to date I have been doing all my weathering outside as I didn't have a way of venting the fumes outside from indoors. I didn't have the space or cash to buy or make a spray booth for my weathering projects. Now that I am going to be doing this more often I wanted to move this inside so I wouldn't be at the mercy of the prevailing weather of the day.
    With this back story I looked at the computer tower I had spare and had the idea of converting this into a spray booth. It has 4 sides, a top and a base. I have removed one side panel which will be the access side and removed the front aesthetic panel to have access to the front grill which is where I have attached a 200mm extraction fan. I then lined the sides with canvas to absorb any off spray and placed a nice bit of timber in the base to spray on. All I need now is to find a lazy Susan.
     

     

     

  9. cooley_boy
    Before I get to building the layout I am going through all my rolling stock and getting the Sound / Lights correct and everything weathered.

    Current project is just finishing of my Atlas Dash-8 32BW in Amtrak Phase 5 Livery. Not an easy model to get.

    Here we are prior to adding the paint having first masked all the windows and lights.







    And now with all the weathering.






  10. cooley_boy
    Next thing on the books is to put sound and lights onto my two Patriot 4-6-0 class locomotives.

    I have Hornby 45528 - R.E.M.E. and 45531 - Sir Frederick Harrison which I will also rename to 45521 - Rhyl and 45532 - Illustrious respectively.



    First Thing I do whenever I do an install is to completely disassemble the loco and remove all unwanted wiring as I always hardwire the decoders into my locos to ensure a solid connection. This also removes the change of the PCB failing on me and removes joints that could fail down the line.



    I will generally work on the part where the decoder will not be located first as this part is fairly straight forward to do. In this case the tenders are where the speakers are going to be located and so I removed the weight and cut out a section of the coal bunker to allow for a larger speaker and creates a bit more air space for the sound to reverberate.







    I will then cut the power wires where they attached the the contacts at the front end of the tender and will drill a hole to allow the wires to be feed through and out the underside of the tender and eventually up and into the locomotive.



    Having done the modifications I will add Lead stripes around the internal sides of the tender body shell to replace the weight that was removed and will act as sound absorption stopping the body from rattling when the sound is on. This make the sound clearer and boomier.



    Once done I will place the speaker on the chassis and attach black extension wires to it feeding them out of the hole made earlier and I will also do the same with the pick up wires making sure to note which is right and left. I will also now put a piece of card in the coal bunker and glue in place to fill the hole made to fit the speaker. Later I will paint over this and place a coal load on top making it so no one but I shall know any better. Then I re-assemble the tender and that part is done. One thing to note is that removing the factory weight means I loose my locking point for the rear part of the tender body shell. I cut off the internal clip and when I place the shell back on I place a couple drops of plastic cement and this holds the shell on nicely.

    Now on to the front part of the locomotive.

    Here I am placing working loco lamps from DCCconcepts which I have always used and fine them brilliant. Fiddly yes so if you have unsteady hands get someone who does to do this part for you.
    I first make sure to spray the lamps before installing them. I am using black lamps so I spray them a flat black to color them a bit and prevent any light leakage.



    I then drill the holes for the lamp wires to go through. I will do this a couple of millimetres from the lamp bracket and them feed the wires through and glue the lamps in place. I also tie the wires off around the buffers to help hold the lamps in position while the glue is drying.



    Once set I will now run the wires under the locomotive shell and into the boiler where the decoder will be. I do this by cutting channels with a dremmel and engraving bit. I will then use plastic cement and glue the wires down into the channels bit by bit ensuring to keep tension on the wire until it sets. Running the wires this way will make sure that they do not get crimped or in any way damaged when the shell is placed back on to the chassis. also if you braid the wires they are a lot easier to run and it keeps everything neater.





    After all this we locate the decoder on the place where the 8 pin socket was and remove the lugs. Then place the decoder on a piece of double sided foam mounting strip.



    Next job now is to run the wires to the motor and connect all the track power wires along with the speaker wires from the tender. The Purple, Yellow and Green wires get isolated and put to one side leaving the Blue and White for the front lights. I put these into one end of a plug along with a 1k resistor on the Blue wire and then attach the wires from the lamps on the other end making sure to match the positive and negative ends correctly. The plug allows me to disconnect the body from the chassis in case I need to get into the locomotive for servicing later on.
    Last thing is to tidy of the wiring and get the shell back on and test.





    Next step is the renaming and weathering.

    But before I weather them I will be adding sound into my newly arrived Duchess!!!
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