otherplanet

Very nice. I have often thought that a combination of faller and radio control ought to allow larger numbers of vehicles, whilst maintaining the interesting bit. It also occured to me that a hybrid system using a Deltang receiver with the buffer stop function enabled could help to control the abrupt acceleration. Potentially you could use an extra servo channel to swap between servo and wire controlled steering to allow it to break free.

Thank you for the thoughts, I shall have to look into the options at some point soon. I completely agree, I have an aspiration for a free standing yard crane. Although the temptation to knock up a building with an I girder crane out the door is very strong. In the mean time I took delivery of some large 6ft X 3ft crates to put in the back.

it seems that what's needed is less a thread, which is a good source of transient info. But rather a list of the information collated from the thread, so that it can be referenced easily. A bit like the Henk of Holland website for 1:76-1:72 military models. Which is quite a useful resource, although it's hard to track down what you want amoungst the huge range of information, of which most is very military focused for obvious reasons. https://henk.fox3000.com/index2.htm On a different matter, KWtrams appear to have the ABS (plus a few others) range on their website, and all stated as in stock.

A slight correction, the correct spelling is Roden, They also have a FWD truck with a choice of load beds. Which although American built were refurbished in reasonable quantities and sold ex WD after the war. Another similar company is RPM models. They do a Model T ambulance and a a less useful model T machine gun car, which provides a good chassis for kit bashing, but the body is of little use. Although it claims to be 1:72. The wheelbase is exactly right for 1:76. They also do a Mack AC truck with various body styles, although I think they were less common as civilian vehicles. Note, they don't have a website, but if you search "rpm plastic kits" you will find plenty of distributors.

I also need to take up Giles' suggestion of upgrading my transmitter to something with more sensitivity and adjustment, whilst I dislike the idea of the transmitter being 4 times the size of the vehicle. I have to accept that my home made single stick units do not have sufficient sensitivity to get the best out of these vehicle.

You are quite right, far too harsh a stop. Mainly due to the ham fisted, out of practise skills of the driver. Although it is capable of quite slow speed driving, the throttle is very sensitive. This has improved a bit since I took the video as a result of applying the Giles Favell trick of adjusting the PWM (although the RX47 doesn't get as low as 60Hz). Plus applying the "max speed" function to spread the available speed range across a wider percentage of the stick travel. Incidentally. I measured it last night at the top speed is a scale 12mph. The prototype would have been capable of about twice that. I think the rules on top speed were increased about the mid 20s. (But haven't double checked.) Assuming you were on rubber tyres and within certain axle load limits. You are also right, the brakes on the prototype were rear wheel only. The big drums are represented quite well in the kit.

Forgot to link the video

Finished at last, give or take some number plates and some plastidip on the front wheels to increase their grip for steering. I am not perfectly happy with the smoothness of operation of the tilt and tailgate, but they will do. I have enabled the servo slow function on the tailgate to make the operation less of a crash, and used the max speed function of the RX47 to limit the speed of the tilt, which only has an on-off-on rocker switch to control it. Since I have the decals from the kit, I have been able to finish this one and give it a little light weathering. On any layout I have planned from my armchair, this vehicle would be no more than a year or two old, (and that's the late era concepts). So I have assumed it is new, well looked after and therefore just some light road grime from the day deliveries, plus a bit in those hard to reach areas line the roof.

There is a German company called Benedini that make sound modules for RC. They use the signal from the speed channel to control the engine noise and have options to add extra sounds including startup and horns. 3 problems, 1) they are targeted at military RC, so there are no railway sound files. But there is a very sophisticated software for the PC so you can make your own. 2) cost, 119euros! 3) size. The smallest unit is the TBS mini. Which is quite chunky for a OO loco. They used to do a TBS micro but discontinued it after it got cloned and ripped off by Chinese copies. Search for TBS micro. Same applies to making your own sound files. Caveat. I have not used either of these products. I have no direct experience, this is just the output of my research for a future project.

Beautiful locos Giles. Looking forward to seeing this layout operational.

Lovely work. Some nice brass engineering going on there.

There is a discussion in the "road vehicles" thread on flashing lights which could do with your input on these rotating beacons.

I used these switches in my radio control vehicles. Search 'micro slide switch' on your online auction site of choice. There is a wide range. Just be careful when glueing them in. It's quite easy to glue them solid, especially if you use low viscosity super glue. I've also used SMD LEDs, after carefully soldering wires onto tiny pieces of LED dust for many vehicles, I then started buying pre wired versions (same online auction site) it's just not worth the hassle. The wires are super thin and you can then just glue them where you need. Make sure you buy the right colour white for your era. You need warm white unless you are modelling modern image. I always add high value resistors, up to 10k Ohm, to adjust the intensity of light to a more realistic level. Finally, have you seen the rotating beacons that are available? I've never tried them, but they look so much better for the old style rotating mirror type lights.

Which specific brand of clear resin did you use for that canopy. It looks really good.

And now assembled onto the chassis. Still work to do to get it running perfectly hence it only ran half way

Thanks. The original plan was to use the sliding of the tilt to operate the tail gate at the end of its travel. With a pair of tensioners on the fishing line, which would trip contacts to the end stop detect of the Rx 47. But the subtleties of making it work was too much. So there is one tensioner and the MK1 eyeball as the endstop limit. It leaves enough space to cover the gubbins with a partial load and still have room to load and unload a large crate or box or two. The tail gate deliberately drops under gravity rather than being pulled down (one of the things that proved harder than expected to get right) so that it can be dropped onto the surface of a loading bay, without lifting the whole vehicle into the air.

After a 5 different attempts, the mechanism finally works satisfactorily. It's not as small as I wanted and the tilt doesn't slide as smoothly as I had hoped. (A little more fettling still to go) but it now works and is ready to integrate into the chassis.

Thanks Giles. I've put an order in to beeastudio for the most common size I use. Just in case. I suspect these things are often ex stock from some factory. And therefore tend to run out as either the leftovers are used up or the production line is closed. I have found the original manufacturer of some of them in Hong Kong in the past. But the minimum orders quantities were ridiculous. (Not surprisingly). I have often paid a bit more for slightly different variations in the past. The thornycroft uses long shaft versions that were £16 from premium modellbau. but enabled me to use the shaft directly as a windlass. There used to be a webshop in the US that did them with 30-40mm long shafts, that whole website dissappeared a few years ago though. Cheers for the heads up.

I love the detailing and weathering on these vehicles, nice work. A suggestion for grippy tyres. There is a product called Plastidip, its intended for providing a silicone rubber grippy coating for surfaces like pickup truck beds etc. But it works well as a coating for model wheels. Comes in clear as well as black, which allows you to use it more like a varnish and let a weathered colour come through. They do a small 250ml tin which will last forever. I've used it on several of my OO radio controlled trucks. Including, to refer to an earlier post on this thread, a Kiel Kraft B type bus which definitely does have enough space for steering. Especially if you add proper side rails under the running boards. The Roden and WD models versions are probably similar. Giles, in the radio control post has shared a simple design of front steering he has used on his OO RC trucks I hope that helps.

That walking figure is inspired. Oddly, I had been recently contemplating some sort of automata, but nothing that good. Is the raised hand going to carry a lantern? It looks suitably posed to make a perfect night Watchman.

But interestingly Micron appear to be taking up the reins, if not directly. See here http://www.micronradiocontrol.co.uk/rc_rail_status.html Unfortunately the Rx47 is at the end of the priority list. But as Giles says, the 41, 43 and 45 seem to be continuing. So hopefully the micron stock status is just a temporary blip

A key member of the team unfortunately had real life get in the way of modelling when his work got very complicated. I believe it was his concept, and certainly he was leading the track development. Everything unfortunately then ground to a halt. I still have a prototype turntable mechanism somewhere in a box, that operated the above mentioned rotating points.

It just all looks so big in there. Room spare for several more motors! Seriously. It looks great and runs beautifully. Could you share some details about the new latest differential you have got in there. Incidentally, during some research for future potential projects, I read that the Scammel 100 tonner of 1929 had 2 rear axles side by side so it looks from the side like a single long axle with wheels at the ends and in the middle. Each axle had a differential and then they were driven via chains from a central diff that split the drive between the 2 axles. So 4 wheels and 3 diffs. Possibly a little excessive for modelling.

Well its been a while. Shortly after the last post, I had to pack up all the modelling equipment, along with the rest of my study so that it could be knocked down as the first stage of some building work. With everything boxed and scattered between our house and my parents garage, I resorted to armchair modelling, something I am far too inclined to indulge in anyway. Then, with the foundation poured, we went into lockdown. Consequently nothing has happened on the trailer. But armchair modelling led to considering ideas for a K&ESR layout, which lead to thoughts of what time period to choose, which lead to investigations of what road vehicles might be available for conversion to suit those time periods. The Merit Thornycroft PB lorry, proved difficult to find much historical information or pictures until I found this website. http://www.archive-images.co.uk/index.search.php?cmd=doSearch&new=1&keywords_simple_boolean=gwr+lorry I had always thought the body to look rather odd in the kit, but these pictures made it all make sense. It also stimulated a need to order one immediately. Along with the various other bits needed to replace what was stored in a garage a lockdown away. Its been a slow build, but with lockdown eased, my wife and children went to visit her mum for the weekend and I got 2 days of dedicated time to make progress. so I now have the chassis running, not finished, but running. The oversized battery is just for running in, the final one will fit in the bed. The motor sits just infront of the rear axle and is standard 6mm gear motor, but I ordered from a different supplier to get one with a long shaft, the worm glues straight on with no need to extend the shaft. There was even enough spare length to add a brass bearing on the end. The front axle is cut from 2 layers of plastic sheet and uses a slot cut through the front springs as hornblocks to keep it controlled, it pivots on a piece of steel wire passed through the crankcase which is also slotted. The steering knuckles are made from U section channel. These were cut to create the track rod arms and drilled for the kingpins, plus a hole for the 1mm stub axle. The right hand knuckle also has a second piece of channel for the crank to the servo I used channel from Chronos, as the wall thickness is larger than most. the limited clearance to the chassis frames meant the throw had to be quite short. The linking rods are formed from 0.5mm steel wire, rather than bending into a hook, they are bent to 90 with a tiny piece of 0.1mm wall thickness tube, also from Chronos. combined with the drilled holes, this has resulted in a steering mechanism which has much less freeplay than my previous attempts. Which valuable given the complications needed with the servo, see below. The wheel bearing uses a Romford top hat bearing, held in place by a very short piece of tube, on the end. The top hat then gets glued into the wheel, very carefully! The servo, sits flat in the cab, I trialled various ideas, but struggled to find a good orientation. The need to keep the travel short meant that a simple crank arm, passing through the floor, meant that the only about 30% of the servo throw would be used. The final solution was to drill a hole into the spigot of the servo, insert a pin, and then an rocker arm links from the servo, through a snug hole in a brass plate glued to the floor, this shortens the throw, makes the movement more linear, but unfortunately reverses the travel, which was solved by rewiring the servo motor and potentiometer. The headlights and driving lights were drilled out and fitted with surface mount warm white LED's and the lenses made using UV cure resin from greenstuff. This works really well and I have used it to pot the wiring in places to keep things secure. The headlights have a 4K7 resistor and the driving lights a 10K, this makes them a little brighter than the those on the Prewar vehicles. I have used the Deltang RX47 receiver, which is nicely laid out, and slightly narrower than the others, and therefore fits nicely between the chassis frames between the motor and cab. I think I will need to get a couple of spares of these before Deltang run out of stock. The only weakness is the +ve and -ve terminals are very close together, which I feel is a little risky. I have added two tool boxes on either side of the chassis to mount the power switch and charging socket. This is not present on the GWR versions in the historic photo. But the Thornycroft website has pictures of a demonstrator model (normal flat bed) which has these boxes, so I feel a little modelling license is reasonable. https://www.thornycroft.org.uk/Thornycroft Group C.htm I still need to finish the chassis details including things like the wheel arches. Then I can move onto the truck bed. Obviously the objective will be to try and get this to operate. I have a second long shaft motor with a lower ratio which I intend to use as a winch. This and the final battery will go into the fixed part of the body. Oh, and the extension building is now finished externally, so soon, modelling will get interrupted again so I can focus on fitting out the new modelling room.

Lovely work as usual Giles. I'm sure you said 4mm was too small for you! I wish I could keep up with even half your productivity