hendie

Thanks Mark. I believe you are right about the window height. That all goes back to the erroneous drawings I used originally to get the brass cut. I think I can make a few tweaks to the window frame to make that right. When I've done that I'll print them off again.

While waiting on a new side frame to arrive, I thought I would get on with something that I have been studiously avoiding so far... the diamond windows. Part of the reason for the avoidance is that those windows are very fine, and I was terrified of having to cut the "glass" to fit. When I designed these I tried to keep as true to scale as I could - which meant I only had a 0.1mm ledge behind the frame to rest the "glass" on. First things first - let's get them painted. Now, not only did I have a ridiculously small ledge to fit the glass onto, I also had a radius of about 1.6mm which had to match very closely or you would see gaps around the window somewhere. To my absolute astonishment, I got this match on a first try Now I had a different problem to solve. The diamond windows on the real Pegasus are frosted/obscured glass. One window on the bathroom and the other window is at the kitchen and I guess no-one wants to know what goes on in either of those locations. But how to create a frosted glass look ? Quite simple really (after a couple of false starts) I found that 1500 grit micro-mesh produces a very passable frosted look after a few minutes light rubbing. The glass was then set into the frame using superglue. As much as I dislike the stuff, the amount of area I had to glue onto was so small I didn't really have any other choice. I applied superglue very carefully around the perimeter on the inside face and let capillary action do it's stuff. Luckily I did not have any catastrophic happenings. There! I think that will work. Then the window can simply drop into place in the side frame. The one above is just dropped in to see what it looked like - it's the side-frame with the window in the wrong location, so it's now my "test" piece As I was painting these frames I saw that my stock of Italian Dark Brown (I'm using it for teh Pullman Umber) was getting low, so after the modeling session I went to order some more -SHOCK ! HORROR!!! Testors/Model Master have discontinued this color. EEEK !!!!! WTF??? As I am going to need some to paint the new side frame I then spent a frantic hour or more searching t'interweb for a source. Nothing. None at Amazon, None on Ebay, and none on any of my usual hobby website haunts. I found a source in Canada who doesn't ship to the USA, and I found another source about 3 hours away in DE but won't mail paint. Eventually I found a source in NJ who had two jars left so I bought 'em straight away. Of all the things that have bothered my about this build I never imagined that paint would be one of them (at least, not after I found a suitable color)

Today started well. I woke up, which was a bonus I guess. After that, things started going not so well. And when I say not so well, I mean not well at all. Which is really a bit of an understatement as things went downhill fast. Drastically. And when I say downhill I don't mean just a bit of a slope, I mean disastrous. Bad. Really bad. So bad I don't think I've had a badder modeling day. It would actually be quite funny if it wasn't so disastrously disastrous and not very good at all. Read on dear readers... Lets begin with something that wasn't completely disastrous then. Transfers. I decided to bite the bullet today and see if I could get some of those transfers I'd wait so long for actually on the model. Out came the drawings and out came the reference photo's. Measure twice, cut once they say - so I paid very careful attention to the locations and measurements. The first transfers on were the scrolls just below the cant rail. Masking tape was used to to provide locations. Dook 'em in water and slabber some micro-1 on the side frame in anticipation. In the end, the scrolls were not too difficult to apply though you have to be really careful. The transfers are wonderful quality but very delicate, and even micro-1 will start to dissolve the carrier film if you leave it too long. So, scrolls were positioned gently and when I was happy with the location, were pressed down with a damp kitchen towel. The same procedure was applied to the Pullman crest. I did a test piece just prior to this and found that when I applied micro-2 the transfer wrinkled (as expected) but some of the wrinkles did not flatten out... so so far I have not applied micro-2 to the side-frame. I'm just too scared! Same process at the opposite end. Apologies for the out of focus shot, - this was meant to show how flat the transfers were with no air bubbles or wrinkles. Trust me - there's no air bubbles or wrinkles! Honest guv. So far so good. Now it was time for the big test - the name plate! This is just over 3 inches long - 80mm in new money. After 4 successful transfer applications, my confidence was building. You (me!) just had to be careful. Sounds easy - right? So how'd it go then ? Well, how's this? Looky here.. all nice and flat - no air bubbles, no wrinkling. Looks good n'est pas? Well, apparently my inner modeler did not think so. I spotted a slight, very slight curve towards the end of the SUS and decided to try and rectify it. ! Wrecked the transfer I did - completely. Well, it was lucky I had two printed on my test sheet wasn't it? Well, I should have had three printed as I wrecked the second one while applying it. I'm sure frustration was creeping in and had something to do with it. I should have stepped back and gone for a walk or something, but no... I ploughed ahead and messed it up. At least I learned something - I think I tried to remove the second transfer from the backing sheet too early and it stretched a little bit... but I did have some success with the other transfers which was encouraging. But now we come to the howler of the year. No, the howler of the decade, indeed, the howler of my entire modeling career. Take a ganders at the photo below. Notice anything strange ? Out of place ? Simply wrong? No ? Believe me - there is something wrong. Badly wrong. I've been working on this damn car for around 5 years now, and I have handled and worked these side frames for several of those years. I've painted, stripped, painted, stripped ad infinitum and I completely missed it all these years... until today that is. dammit! dammit! dammit! dammit!dammit!dammit! Here... this photo may help clarify things a tad.... notice anything now ? Window ? The small window ? Sitting by itself over there on the left? See where it is located in relation to the end of the side-frame? Yes, he (me) says sheepishly... it's in the wrong darn place isn't it ? How on earth did I get that wrong? And why did I never notice it until today of all days? I could leave it as is - as that window is in the kitchen area - but ... I'LL KNOW IT'S WRONG!!! and all you do too now. So I gave up modeling for the day. I shall have to mull this over, but I can see that I will need to try and call in favors and have another side frame made out of brass - this time with the windows in the right location. I cannot unsee that which I have seen. - though why I couldn't have seen it three years ago is beyond me. . Is all I can say. It's not all doom and gloom in the hend cave now. I must admit to being severely peeved when I first spotted it. However, now I've had time to settle down a bit I've come to realize that it's not as bad as it could have been - what if I didn't spot the error until all the transfers were on? or worse... when it was completed ? My plan is to take the week to calm down and reorganize myself - then I shall contact my tool shop that did the side frames for me last time around and see if I can pull in that favor. I'm sure it will be okay, it's just embarrassing having to ask for that favor. The up side is now I have another test side frame complete with all paint and clear coat as the final versions so I can test out clear coating over the decals without worrying about messing up the paint job. yours sheepishly and somewhat very, very embarrassingly Hend the crap draftsman (though it's just as well I did it right on the real thing or that really would have been embarrassing! not to mention, a career defining moment!) *** later that week... I found out how I made the mistake though. I checked all the drawings this morning and found that i used a drawing used to show the different skinning panel arrangements. That was the culprit. I also checked the author of the drawing... and it wasn't me! Small consolation though at this point. If I ever meet a certain Mr. McLaren again I'm going to give him a good slap! Still my fault though - I really should have double checked

Thanks for the comments @Bucoops, @Ceptic, and @PaulCheffus - very much appreciated. I wrote a few posts back that the gods seemed to be smiling on me - I almost wrote in that very same post that things were going so well, those same gods must be planning something nasty for me in the near future. I didn't post that in case I jinxed myself. I needn't have bothered - the gods dumped on me yet again - Look to the bottom right of the vestibule, just to the left of the electrical wozzit Damn!!!! Some glue must have seeped around the sides of the wooden paneling and sucked the bejesus out of the styrene as it cured. As you can imagine, I was less than pleased when I discovered that. After cursing and screaming I quietened down a bit and thought what do I do here ? I can try and repair it, or is there an alternative? Well, there may be an alternative i.e. hiding it, or at least some of it. The PassCom has some vertical pipery running up the vestibule just to the side of the diaphragm. One of the sinks runs vertically and would for the most part, be hidden behind said pipe. I'm still undecided whether to repair or just move on. I'm really not sure what to do here. Anyways, moving on for the mo' I thought that pipe arrangement (I had made many moons ago) looked a bit oversized, so attempted another, this time from brass rod. This looks much better, and to my eye, more in scale Still avoiding any decision as to repair, ignore, or throw it out the window, I made another few bits and pieces for the PassCom mechanical stuff. (It kept my mind of the sinking issue) Those of you daft enough to follow this thread will know of my inherent fear of painting, and how many times I have stripped this thing back to metal in the quest for a decent paint job. I now have that decent paint job, but there's more - I also need to have a very good gloss coat on top. I managed to get a decent gloss coat months ago, and micromeshed it back (I can't for the life of me remember why), but now I have some transfers to apply, I need to get that gloss coat back in place. I've tried many things and had many fails. However, after much to-ing and fro-ing I decided to use Testors Wet Gloss - it gets great write ups and seems to be the best thing for a really shiny gloss coat. The downside is that it comes in small 3oz aerosols. I had used Alclad Aqua gloss on the vestibule ends, and to be honest, I am really going off Alclad - except for their grey primer. Every Alclad I have used has had issues with durability. The chrome and other metals seem to wear off as soon as I touch them. The black primer I used on the Wessex does not appear very durable and even light masking is pulling the black primer off. The grey primer on the other hand sticks like the proverbial to a blanket, and I love it. However, back to the Aqua Gloss - it lays down nicely but I find that after handling, that shiny gloss disappears and leaves a dull cruddy looking surface - which I had completely forgotten about when I sprayed the vestibule ends. So, back to the Testors Wet Gloss... I had one part used aerosol left and decided to use it for the side frames - they are going to get a lot of handling once coated and the last thing I needed was for the gloss to disappear under handling with my greasy sweaty mitts. Lots of preparation - polythene everywhere to keep dust away - a good wash and clean of the side-frames, and micromeshing of the orange stripe to remove any hard edges. and back to gloss coat!!! Except - for some reason, one side frame appeared to get lots of particulate caught up in the spraying. Dammit! The other side went much better and the finish was perfect except for this little . ARghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!! Of course, one little stray hair(?) couldn't have landed anywhere where it would be covered by a transfer could it ? Oh no, it had to land smack in the middle of a nice cream colored panel. So, two more aerosols ordered and two side frames to be rubbed down yet again. I did get a new toy to play with - I have a few vices that can hold very narrow bits n bobs, but realized last week that I had nothing that could hold slightly thicker parts with any ease. This proved to be very useful for holding some aluminum while I filed to shaped. A good investment. So, at the end of play this weekend, I have a few electrical plugs and a few PassCom pieces painted up This modeling malarkey is fun isn't it ?

Thanks Paul - was the Polybulk one continuous transfer or individual letters ? Looks great by the way. From there, on to today's escapades. I can forewarn you that I did actually get some of yer akchul real construction completed today - it seemed so strange! To celebrate I took loads of photo's to bore you with and hopefully didn't miss anything important. Starting with the vestibules, nicely glossed, completed wiv stickers n everyfink. (another strange feeling). I also dug out bits and pieces salvaged from previous failed vestibule ends that must have been a couple of years ago by now. First job of the day was to remove anything from the vestibule which wasn't very vestibulic. Namely, the passageway entrance. In a rare moment of planning ahead, when I originally did these, I had the passageway entrance scored in the plastic but not removed. That made it a simple, if still somewhat scary, to gently score the ehrr... scores with a fresh blade. The scores were on the reverse side from that shown here, so there was always a fear in my mind that some paint would decide to part company with the plastic leaving me lying on the concrete floor, whimpering like a child who's just had his lolly stolen. Gently does it... a bit at a time. And if the gods are willing, we end up with nothing... a space. Just what we wanted! Emptiness! Next step was to gently file around the edges at an angle to cut back any hard edges of the paint - I didn't want my clumsy digits peeling back any of the brown stuff after all this time. I'll deal with the small white edge later Looks like we are finally getting somewhere on this build. I had some clear acetate (or acrylic) sheet which I purchased who knows when, but when I looked at it from a "window" perspective, I wasn't completely happy. Yes, it was nice and clear, but like most of those thin films, when it caught the light you could see small striations which showed the surface wasn't completely flat. You had to look, but it was there. Fortuitously, I had also bought some 0.030" Lexan (plexiglass) and this appeared to be much better - and it could still be cut with a blade. The windows were glued in with GS-Hypo, then the interior was glued on top of that using E6000. I had to make new interior panels but you already saw me doing that several years ago so no need to show again. Finally, almost 5, yes 5 (count them!) years into the build and we have a vestibule end complete with windows and interior paneling. I got so excited, I made two! With that excitement over, it was time to mangle and destroy that perfect finish I had worked to hard to achieve. (This is where the more exciting buildy stuff starts to appear.) It's diaphragm time folks! Since the diaphragms are going to be literally hanging off the end of the car, I thought it prudent to and provide some positive fixings for them, and not rely solely on glue, so, rough up the surface and start drilling some holes in it Why ? Well, I though using some brass rivets would come in handy to assist in positioning and fixing. Once I had drilled the vestibule end, I transferred the holes to the diaphragm and popped in some brass rivets. 4 in total. Next up were the bellows for the diaphragm. If you have a really good memory, you will recall that I made these many years ago from the foil paper inside cigarette packets. Surprisingly they have stood the test of time, though they did have a few cobwebs and loads of dust I had to clean off first. Cut to size and glued to the diaphragm, they almost look convincing. Well, convincing enough for me. - and that's what counts I guess. The bellows and top cover had some superglue gel smushed over the surfaces (and superglue normal to hold the rivets in place), then the rivets were guided into their mating holes on the vestibule end and the whole shebang clamped together. The s/g gel gave me some wiggle time to position the diaphragm relative to the doorway. Are we there yet ? 'Fraid not. Still more gubbinses to attached. Strangely, for me at least, I managed to find things I had made a year or two back without too much trouble. Normally my 'safe' places go walkabout the moment I turn my back. Anyways, there are some electrical wotnots to be added. Sorry for the poor photo, but you can see the small roundish thing just below the window, one on each side of the doorway. There is a small tube protruding from the bottom end - that will get some electrical cable and a plug when I get around to it. Next, another electrical power socket thingy. Things are really starting to take shape now. It's amazing what a splash of color can do to a build. and there we have an almost complete vestibule end 'cept for some cable and a plug, and a few other bits n pieces. you also get to see some nice greasy fingerprints all over the place, free of charge. Warning: and photo's after this point are completely gratuitous and posted for purely selfish reasons. - 'cos I took them. So what does it look like in situ then I hear you ask? I really should have stuck on a sideframe or two to take these shots, but that would have meant tidying up my workbench and putting tools and stuff away, so no side frames I'm afraid... just use your imagination. that's all for the time being folks. See you at the next stop

@Hilux5972 and @richard i, yes there was a high gloss coat on the surface before I applied the transfers. I use Alclad Aqua Gloss. thanks, I'll look into that thanks Jo, that's one of the routes I am looking into for the next batch. I should have mentioned these transfers have been produced by Railtec, who I'm sure you are all familiar with. The quality of the product is fantastic and I'm sure most of the issue is down to my application techniques. I think there is another aspect to my challenge. That of size. Some of these decals will be several inches long - and trying to get the air removed from under a long, narrow transfer without distorting it in any way is going to be challenging. Lots of practice in the future. I was the design engineer on this project when the car was built in Edinburgh back in 2000, which is the reason behind me wanting to build this model. I openly admit I know nothing about trains and I'm just following my references. If my references show it, I'm adding it.

Thanks Jo - I appreciate the comments. After what seems like a couple of years of inactivity I finally seem to be getting somewhere. It's been a long haul, but this has been on my to do list ever since I designed the 1:1 car so I am determined to get it completed... one day!!! I was determined to get into some actual construction - but there were a few things that needed done first. Part of the test sheet of transfers contains a few items that I need on the end vestibule (I'm sure you've heard me harp on about that many times) - I was about to cut those out and apply them when I noticed (or rather remembered) something about Pegasus - there is an orange line around the car just below the cant rail... something to do about electrical danger. Now, if I had been bright I would have had a transfer made up for that orange strip but no, I had completely forgotten about it, and it needed done before I go sticking transfers all over the place. Nowt for it but to paint the blighter. How do you paint a narrow very narrow orange strip along the length of a train car ? Thank heavens for Aizu tape is all I can say. I took a roll of 1mm wide tape and applied it along the top edge of the sideframe. Not an easy task keeping that straight by any means. It was a case of stick it down at one end then slowly, carefully grabbing the tape with tweezers about every 20 - 30 mm and touching it down with the tweezers, then using a cloth to make sure it was burnished flat. I got that as straight as I could and both sides probably took me a good 30 minutes to get that first strip of tape down. That was followed by Aizu 0.5mm tape. Again, starting off and using tweezers every inch or so to touch the tape onto the surface before burnishing the length that had just been applied. The tape was lifted and relaid many times along that length as I needed it to nest right into the previous strip. This shot shows the 0.5mm tape being applied - minus the hand with the tweezers as cludgey old me can't operate tweezers and a camera simultaneously in the same hand Once that effort was completed and my eyes had recovered, it was time to lay down a third strip. Again Aizu tape but this time 2mm tape (I think) - but again had to be very closely aligned with the 0.5mm I had just laid down. Once I was happy with the masking... grab one end of the 0.5mm and rip that stuff right off again. Yes really. All that time and effort to get the tape nicely in position, only to remove it again. Isn't this modeling malarkey fun ? As you can see for yourselves here - this leaves a nice 0.5mm wide gap between the first and third strips of tape. It should be a relatively even gap as well although I did spot a couple of places where it seemed to narrow down. No! I wasn't going to do it again! I mixed up some orange gloss with a few drops of dark grey just to take the brightness away from it. Then it was time to attack... I was taking no chances this time - my Tamiya tape with integral blast screen was used as protection. The same process was applied to the end vestibules. Painting was quite frightening - it was very difficult to tell how well the orange has covered the umber, and I was very conscious of laying the paint on too tick, and also terrified it would cover well enough. Once the masking was removed I'd never be able to mask to the same lines again and it would be a strip back and start again job. Again! I was extremely nervous when it came time to remove the masking - this paint job has been my worst nightmare and I didn't want to botch it up this late in the game. Thankfully the masking came away cleanly (another nice thing about Aizu tape) and the orange seemed to have covered sufficiently. Strong enough to be easily seen , and not too bright. Ditto on the side frames It even looks to be relatively straight. Large sighs of relief Then at long last, the transfers were applied to the vestibule ends Another milestone reached. I can now actually begin some construction on the ends now. (well, as soon as I have clear coated these first!) I seem to remember I had built a whole bunch of stuff made and ready to stick on... now where did I put them. Where's that safe place again? (later that week...) Having had a whole night to themselves, it was time to add the final coat to the transfers. First the orange line was given a quick buff with micromesh to remove the ridges left my masking. Then another pucker moment or two was had while I applied the final clear coat to the vestibule ends. I ended up with two tiny spots but so tiny even I am not going to get bothered by them. Everything looks great but you can still catch the carrier film in the light quite easily. It seems a gloss coat will not make the carrier invisible which is a bit of a bummer, but I don't know that there's much if anything I can do about that. I'm guessing this is a limitation of the media. I don't suppose it matters much on most of your normal teensy weensy train scales, where it would hardly be seen. However scaling up to this size means that I do need large areas of carrier film to hold the numerous parts of the decal together - ergo, there are going to be large areas of carrier film present. On the vestibule ends I am not too bothered by the carrier but on the side frames where there is such a large expanse of flatness.... the transfers could make or break the build. Well, maybe not that drastic, but it would be a shame if I couldn't make a decent enough job with these to make it look presentable. Quality though, is unquestionable. These decals are astounding. I'm leaving the clear coat for a few days to harden up properly before I start handling it (just in case).

Momentous moments No 1 look what just arrived !!! My trial sheet of transfers. Hooray! Although this trial sheet is mainly to test dimensions and colors, there's a few transfers that I can use - namely all the stuff that goes on the end vestibule - and that will let me get started on some actual long awaited construction. WOW ! What can I say ? These transfers look fantastic - way better than I imagined. Just look at that detail (trusty blade included for scale factor) Even more scale factor - that's the tip of my index finger wavering there in the foreground. Yes, I did have a little 'artistic' moment there and included my name as part of the transfers - am I allowed to do that ? (since I re-designed the darned thing) Blown away I am. Blown away. It's really tempting to jump right in and try these but I want to wait until I've calmed down and have plenty of time in front of me so there's no rush. <a few days later> I managed to spend some time down at the workbench. This time I dived right into the transfers - it was a learning experience - I've never worked with spot printed transfers before. (you can probably tell after looking at the pic below) The 4 samples are for choosing the colors. Based on these I think I am going with Sample A (yes, the one I damaged). It appears to be closest in color based on all my reference photo's. I also managed to add a small twist to Sample C. I initially tried using MicroS1 and MicroS2 (can never remember if it's Sol or Set that's first so I have them numbered) but they didn't seem to make any difference whatsoever, and I messed up a couple of the transfers - so then I followed the instructions (getting old you see). Basically, wet the transfer, slide off into place, then press down to remove all h2o stuck underneath. It's slightly more difficult than the type I'm used to but I'll get there. I have to! I'll give those a coat of clear next time I'm in the basement - just to check that my chosen clear coat won't mess them up. It's just as well these are samples, but I can see I am going to have to make sure I order enough spares to get me through - they can be quite fragile when subjected to Hend treatment. I also had a go at what promises to be one of the more difficult applications - those double lines will run the length of the car - about 600 mm or so. I also learned that I'll have to let each individual transfer dry thoroughly before trying to add another transfer adjacent to one already in place. Altogether a very valuable learning experience but I'm sure I have a long way to go yet before I'm proficient at this malarkey. It was worth the investment in getting this trial sheet before committing to the full shebang. I did get these two transfers in place before I packed in for the evening. Progress. I thought these were the first 'official' transfers on the build but apparently I added one to the undersides two or three years ago (yes, it's been that long!) Hend the impressed signing off

yet another teeny tiny update. This does not mean that nothing has been getting done - more that the work going on in the background is pretty boring and not particularly photogenic. I continued to get more comfy chairs from the comfy chair mold, though I think the mold has now passed it's sell by date. Take a look at the flutes inside the mold - you can see they are really beginning to tear up quite badly. However, I needed 16 chairs and I managed to get 20 chairs by this point, though the last couple of chairs do need some clean up. (actually I think I only need 14 chairs - need to double check) What time there was available today was spent sanding, and sanding and more sanding followed by more sanding until I got to this point Quite happy with that lot though it is pretty nigh on impossible to see how good or bad they are in that whitest of white whites. I'll need to hit them with some primer to see how many little air holes got captured, and just how much more cleanup they will require. I did face one problem though - if you remember back to the mold. I used modeling clay in there to help build up the body and give these parts some strength. The down side to that is now i do not have a reference point on the underside - it's all lumpy. How do I know how long to cut each table leg ? In order to be able to set the height of these tables I need a reference point/surface. The top of the tables are now nice and flat once they've been sanded but I need to be able to fix a table leg and two brackets to the underside in order to fit them to the wall panels. I needed a consistent surface on the undersides. Some time back (years?) I purchased an end mill - for what I have no idea, but it did come in handy. The end mill was mounted in my bench press and the stop set a few mm higher than the wooden block shown here. That meant I could then plunge the end mill into the resin knowing that I wouldn't push right through it - and the depth would be consistent from (and parallel to) the top surface. This gives me a uniform level to fit the mounting brackets and the table leg to (whenever I get around to them) Proof of concept worked, so now back to the boring stuff. until next time...

In this particular car, there are 16 comfy chairs, and two long and four short tables - with tablecloths. Some de-lego-ing and pulling things out of silicone produced this. The originals and hopefully two workable molds. Lets see how we get on then. I decided to use my old stock resin - why not? What's the worst that could happen. Well, it stated in bold type on the containers 'Shake well before use' Since this had been lying for who knows how long I made sure I gave it a good shake. Of course the inevitable happens when you shake liquidy things - LOTS of bubbles. Lots! In my rush to see how the molds came out I completely forgot to test the resin on an old mold in case something went not quite right. However, the gods seemed to be on my side today and at least I cold see that the resin was starting to cure After waiting probably not quite long enough I popped the resin out of the molds. Here's some upside down tables They look slightly better the correct way up. I can see lots of sanding in my future. What about the chair then ? Well, first impressions (sic) are good Compared to my last version (on the left) I think these capture the shape I was after much better. What about those tables then ? Well I couldn't resist getting at least one set looking slightly more table like so out with the sanding paper and lots of elbow grease later, and a quick squirt of primer... this is the short table.. ... and this is the longer table There are a few bubbles here and there, especially around the sharp ends - not really a surprise, but overall, I think these will clean up nicely with a swipe of filler here and there and a judicious application of micro-mesh. Primer also went on the new comfy chair. It's looking a little bit rough, but a dip in whatever flavor of Klear I have should help sort that out. But what do they look like together I hear you ask. Well, wait no longer That is all the easy part. The tables in particular - all they will need is a coat of something near white. The chairs are a different beast altogether. They are a rather brightish blue with a white flower pattern. I can see lots of experimentation in my future trying to get something approaching that pattern. The result of an afternoon's work in Hendieland I'll pick the best of those tables, and I only have another half dozen or so chairs to make. I should get those done at the next session. and now the countdown begins until my test transfers arrive....

thanks for the suggestion 08 - I did consider it but masking solution I find is too thick to be able to get into sharp corners etc with any degree of accuracy. I have purchased a set of very fine paintbrushes which I plan on using. I think with a bit of care - and lots of breath-holding, I should be able to produce a reasonable job. Painting the chairs is a much more daunting prospect - but I (think I) have a plan...

Anyways, anyone remember these ? I got me a new toy and thought I would try it out to see if I could wash out the icky residue from inside the lamp covers Well, this is what happens when you stick them in an ultrasonic bath with IPA to wash out the sticky residue. Not great. There's no sticky residue any more but I don't know if I will use these or get some more and chance the residue issue (it may react with the paint). I've sen some comments on forums where after some time, a crystallization growth occurs on the surface where the 3D print has been painted. I haven't seen it on any of my stuff so far but it's something I'll need to look into in more depth when I get the time. Since the transfers still seem a ways off, I need to find other tasks to keep me sane. For some time now I have been looking at the seats, and more and more I felt I hadn't captured the look I was going for. Back to basics... You can see the original former there in the background - nothing more than a few pieces of cable wrapped over a styrene core and the ends filled in with milliput. Evolution of a seat. - On the right is my original original. In the middle was my last attempt that I grew to dislike over time, and on the right is my new version which I don't like either! It's too skinny at the waist methinks. So back on with some milliput again. It's still a bit rough but should shape up nicely with some gentle persuasion from various sanding implements. Here it is compared to the other versions. I thought the side bits (sorry, my chair terminology is not up to scratch) were too obvious and clunky looking. The new version on the right has a more tapered version which 'flows' better to my mind. Seen from the side you can see more of the *cough* improvement. I also shortened the arms just a touch. I'm much happier with that - or at least I will be when I've finished sanding and shaping. I should note here that I found that a couple of dips in whatever flavor of Klear you have available seems to help in covering over pinholes in the resin. Then I just need to make 16 or so of them. So I guess I can scrap these one's then! At least I shall have plenty of test subjects for painting when the time comes. Still going with an interior theme here - what goes with chairs ? Tables. Of course, they couldn't just be plain old tables. No. That would be too easy. They had to have tablecloths on them didn't they ? Well, you wouldn't spend upwards of a few grand to sit on a train without tablecloths would you ? Tablecloths are a bit problematic when it comes to modeling aren't they ? How do you get that hanging over the edge look to a tablecloth in 1/32 scale? This is my best guess (or my only guess at the moment - let's see how it turns out) Passable ? It's not great I'll admit, but a decent first pass. (I hope) It will come as no surprise that there are two different sizes of tables so I had to do the metal tape thing all over again, and there are a number of tables! Me being lazy as always does not want to have to model each and every table individually so I am going to have a try at casting them in resin. and this is where I realized that my silicone was out of date and have to go and order more

Greetings folks. Back once again after a long hiatus where life and work get in the way. I haven't been completely idle though... Hey ho. Since I am doing nothing else at the moment except wallowing in my own special type of purgatory, waiting on transfers, and never one to pass up a challenge... I took some scraps of styrene and whittled out this little intriguing shape here. Can you tell what it is yet ? (are we allowed to say that yet or is it too soon?) Truth be told, I just cut some shapes and a couple of bits of rod and glued them all together, but keep believing the chewing/whittling version if it makes you happy! Unfortunately, despite measuring the gift cabinet width several times I still managed to make the mini-macro Pegasus too big to fit into the cabinet Additionally unfortunately also I made a right hash up of the paint job. In my defense, the bristles my brushes are akin to the nostril hairs of a camel who uses Insette Spikey on a regular basis and I've got shakey hands and I do believe there was a mild earthquake and I may have had to much coffee or not enough That version shall be retired, never to surface again. However it has now got under my skin and I have to make one that actually fits inside the gift cabinet. Stay tuned. I had a brief excursion to doing some more on my other (languishing) builds - While that particular diversion was going on some even more diversionary stuff arrived. To wit mes amis, a window frame. Yes. A window frame. We don't want to go making something the wrong size now do we? So I had a single window frame printed as a test for fitting before I went and ordered a *cough* trainload of them. I was originally going to make these out of PE, but after some serious thought I realized that I couldn't get the depth I needed with PE, even using several layers - plus, all the layers and the folding just got very complicated. With some reluctance I decided to go down the 3D printing route. I say reluctance because I consider this effort a scratch build and I thoroughly enjoy that aspect of this labor of love. I could easily have 3D printed the entire carriage from buffer to buffer but where's the fun in that? However, as I (think I have) mentioned sometime somewhere previously, there are times when there's just no substitute for what can be achieved with this medium. (P.S. I started another round of sanding before a final clear coat, which is why the side frame looks so mottled at the mo'!) It's just a shame the damned thing didn't fit! Curiouser and curiouser. I was positive I had checked and verified that dimension on multiple occasions to ensure I got it right. (See above for how successful my multiple measuring sessions have been!) I checked the frame. I know I had designed it to be 37 mm wide, and what's this I see? Why it's almost 0.2 mm too long. Dammit! That'll do it. Now that led me off on a trail checking my 3D model, the STP file and several other avenues, and everything pointed to me creating and submitting a window frame that should have been 37 mm width at the critical area. So what's going on then ? Is it Shapeways? Are their printers out of calibration ? Or is this result what I have to expect from the resolution of the printer/material combination ? Perhaps. It did raise a question though - if it was down to printer tolerance, would the next batch be printed on the very same printer? Unlikely. Would they be better or worse? Who knows. I reckoned that 0.15 mm would be enough to ensure it fitted, and if there was a gap, it would be so small it would be very difficult to notice. So today during lunchtime I decided to update the model and remove 0.15 mm from the width, but held off from submitting the newly updated model file. This evening while I was messing about trying to find more things to do I happens across the window frame and wanted to double check the fit to make sure I was removing the right amount of width, and I also wanted to add slightly more depth to the frame as well. Wait, what's this??? It fits!!! What the... I tried it in several windows just to make sure and it fitted perfectly in each and every one. I measure it again with the calipers and got 37.0 mm give or take a gnats hair. Now I know plastic shrinks, and some plastics will shrink for days, if not weeks, but for a part this small on volume and cross section, any shrinkage should have completed long before it arrived at my abode. Nonetheless, I'll take this as a win - and go back and add the 0.15 mm I removed earlier today. Actually I may just go somewhere in between, maybe 0.08 mm just to be on the safe side. And lookey here. Lampshades no less. Single lampshades and double lampshades. Check the size of that digit holding them and you can understand why I went the same route with these. There's no way on this earth that I could have made something so delicate and symmetric, then to have made multiples of them. Not a chance! I love the way the plastic has captured the look of the frosted glass. Look at the detail captured here. Sadly, I have to now paint them. I've put that off for now as I had to go and order some decent paintbrushes before I could even attempt to paint detail this small. The frames around the lamps will be painted according to which compartment they are in. For example, those fittings in the bar area will be chrome finish, while those in the dining area will be brass. I'm sure I'll have just oodles of fun trying not to mess those up. Which brings us to a close for this update where there really wasn't any actual update, just me slamming up photo's of parts that I didn't even have to make (aside from that mini-macro Pegasus). Well, the last thing that I didn't make was the diamond window assembly. Yup! Printed two, too. So delicate. Aaaaannnnndddddd, they fit!!! Woopie doo it fits. It fits I tell you. I'll count that as a win. and now slope off to try and chase up the transfer ghost

Thanks for the comments @richard i, @Nova Scotian, & @Bucoops. You guys are way too kind!!! I've been grabbing some more time at work for 3D printing stuff but don't have anything worth showing in that respect at the moment. I'm trying to avoid 3D printing everything as I really enjoy the scratch building challenge and the thought process behind it. However, there are definitely times when there is really no viable alternative to 3D printing - i.e. for replicating minute details and when multiples of an object are required. Larger objects can be cast in resin but smaller objects are much more difficult to do unless you have access to some specialist equipment. In those cases I console myself that I am still creating something - e.g. the model. I think those door handles were a perfect example. Anyway, moving on... I did start work on some internal stuff - basically just killing time until I can get on with the *real* assembly, which is delayed until I can get those transfers I've been waiting so long for. In the bar area, at one end of the bar there is a gift cabinet... The gift cabinet - Some framing, sanded to a nice half round edge Then test fitted with some "glass" shelves The gift cabinet also has sliding glass doors on the front so they might prove a bit more challenging to make and look right. <pause> The gift cabinet is now fully stained, waiting to dry and then it will get another coat of semi gloss. I'm toying with the idea of adding two steel braces (i.e. bits of wire) per shelf to take away from the overall blandness and general emptiness inside. The rest of my available time has been spent with micro-mesh in hand. The entrance doors and frames proved to be very troublesome. Doing a great big flat expanse like the side frame was relatively easy to micro-mesh, but the doors are a different matter wot with all the nooks and crannies and such. I'm sticking with the 'not quite perfect' look again for the doors. On the 3D printing route, I have the diamond window completed. My original idea back when I started all this was to do that one in PE, but I won't get the relief and detail that window really needs. Printing it will be the way to go. The main window assembly is also designed, ready for the printer. I'm quietly confident about the diamond window, but I'm only going to print one of the main windows as a test to see if it needs any tweaks before I go off printing the entire carriage worth of windows. Next job was to fix the shelf brackets. I simply drilled Ø0.4mm holes through the back of the cabinet. The holes were then countersunk slightly on the rear face (to help with gluing), then some stainless steel wire was pushed through the holes until it was 5mm proud into the cabinet. Sloopergloo was slapped on the back and when hard, the excess wire was snipped off the rear and it was all sanded flush This gave me 4 sets of brackets to sit shelves onto, and yet more surfaces for dust to be attracted to. Once the shelves were in - I used GS Hypo to tack them in place, I began work on the sliding doors. The job would have been made a whole lot easier if I hadn't glued the facing on the front first as the sliding windows had to be tucked in behind the facings, but Percy Verance helped out and I got there in the end. Then a couple of off-cuts were sliced to act as 'handles' on the doors. I really should have thought ahead and got some baubles and wotnots to put inside the cabinet. Maybe I'll revisit it at a later date, who knows. It should be easy enough to pop those doors off though when/if the time comes. Anyways, job done. One gift cabinet made

I bought some oil paints about 2 years ago, and this was my very first opportunity to use them. A heavily thinned wash of umber was applied to the door handles, and really makers that detail pop out. After that dried a quick flash of gloss coat was applied to seal it all in. Moving on... On the vestibule end, there are some electrical doodads hanging off the body just below the window. There's a cable hanging out the bottom end of the doodad and a plug attached to the cable (to be addressed in a future episode). I had made some of these a while back (probably a couple of years ago now!) but I wasn't happy with those so I remade them - this time paying attention to the runic symbols on my lathe and getting 4 pieces which are almost the same size... give or take. I drilled a hole in each one and added a small length of brass tube which, if the planets align, will provide a fixing to hold the cable in place, sorta like the one shown at the bottom of the strip. now painted and waiting for a gloss coat... and cable... and... On to other things. Okay, it's still the vestibules but we're not talking paint any more. I actually got a couple of coats of clear gloss on the ends. (The micro drill is just there to provide something for the camera to focus on). Moving from a painting stage to a clear coat stage is a major milestone for me. A pivotal moment. I have spent so long developing my phobia of painting that getting from a painting stage to a clear coating stage is a major moment in the build for me. It doesn't matter that clear coating is still in fact painting - and I still have the phobia to deal with, but as far as I am concerned, I just put one stage of the build behind me! and in an even more panic driven mode, I got some clear coat on the side frames. This is a moment I have been trying to get to for several years now It doesn't look too bad. It's not perfect by any means, but it's not too bad. A closer shot... That will get a micro-mesh once fully cured followed by another coat or two of clear I came to the realization (finally!!!) that this was never going to be perfect. I'm just not very good at doing perfect. I'm sort of okay at doing not bad, and every now and then can come up with a 'quite good' but I'm just not good at doing perfect at all. Between my phobia of painting and my lack of skills in said art, if I waited until things were perfect before moving on.... well, I've already been at this for 5 years now. You get the picture! I decided that rather than focus on the individual blemishes and faults, I have to look at the job as a whole. That means, yes there will be a fleck or two of who-knows-what in the final paint job, but I think the transfers will go a long way to making the eyes look at the carriage, and not a small blemish. One day it will be complete

Thanks Ian. It's definitely starting to take shape now, but it's been a long time coming... and still a long, long way to go! My Edwardian but not quite steampunk hardware arrived a few days ago. At first glance, things looked promising so as per my usual want I blundered straight into things. A coat of alclad grey primer brought out the detail as you might be able to see in this oh so cruel close up. I'm still blown away by the amount of detail that can be captured in the printing process. Even greater is the fact that all things considered, it really is an inexpensive addition to the arsenal when needed. I'm already planning some further printing excursions for small parts that would be a nightmare to try and manufacture by manual means, especially when you have multiples of the same thing. So what does it look like I hear you ask ? Well... here's a sneak peek. In the foreground we have the new grab handle and an original all brass affair at the rear. While the rear one doesn't look too bad, trying to get 8 of them looking identical was just too much for an old codger like me. The assemble process began by painting the printed parts gloss black, then adding the brass rod. Opposite handles were then cut from the bank and added to the other end of the rod. Very fiddly, and even although I thought I had printed plenty, I only just made 8 sets (after grubbing around on the floor for those escapees from the tweezer flinger) One other thing I did with the printed version which I couldn't really do with the all brass version was to include an offset. Original brass on left and new gizmo on right. Here you can see why I added the offset. The door frame is very narrow, and had the grab handles protruded perpendicular to the door frame, there would have been no room available to actually grab the darned thing as it would be almost flush with the side-frame. (btw I am using my spare test door for this, the real doors are a little bit better) I'm not cheating... honest... the 1:1 has these handles offset too, for the very same reason. The Broons got micro-meshed but unfortunately, I was a bit too aggressive with the pads and I had some primer creep through in a few places, so it's back for another brooning for most of the parts. (Actually, several times back and forth) While the broons were off to the But 'n Ben for a curing, I decided to proceed with more of the handles. On Pegasus there are a mixture of chrome handles and brass handles - depending upon which part of the carriage you are in. The dining area for example is all brass hardware, while in the bar area, it's all chromed. I mixed up some testors brass and gave it a squirt. This macro shot shows that even after primer and top coat, it's still possible to see the detail. Did I mention I was impressed? The brass is a bit light for my liking so I may investigate other brands - I wonder if alclad do a brass finish ? (yes they do...). A little oil wash may bring out the detail more. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating dinette. Even though the brass finish is a little light it still looks pretty decent against the mahogany background. Then to finish off for today, here's a shot of a fully chromed grab handle in situ. Y'know... I think that's going to work Decals are still a hold up but I guess until I can get the brown all finished and gloss coated they're really not preventing me from moving forward. Well, more sideways really, but at least the build is not at a standstill.

Well, this week is a bit of a pig... incredibly busy at work, and have to work today as well, just trying to play catch up with the business. However I did manage to get some brief work done during the odd lunch break. More of an experiment really. Going back a few posts to the grab handles I made for the doors. I wasn't overly happy with them and they take an inordinate amount of time to make each one, and trying to get each of the end shapes identical is very frustrating. I ran over in my mind all the different ways I could try and make them - carving, resin molding etc, before I thought about 3D printing. I have absolutely no idea if this will work, and I might be at the hairy edge of the capabilities here but thought it was worth a go. Now there's no way (to my limited knowledge) a full handle could be printed at this scale and be of good enough quality to be used, but I'm only struggling with the very end of the handle, where it mounts on to the frame, so... after several false starts I arrived at this shape. Sorry no currency as scale reference but this part is 1.25 mm wide x 3 mm long x around 1.75 mm high then while I was doing that I thought I may as well try and see what a door handle would look like. I have simplified it slightly but I think it's worth a shot. This time dimensions are 5mm long x 1.5 mm wide and I can't remember how much the handle projects. I then threw those onto a single base and uploaded it to Shapeways. If the door handles work, I'll order another batch separately For around ten bucks I thought it was worth a try. Nothing ventured and all that The door handle was created by referencing a photo of one of the original parts so we'll see how good I was when the part arrives. I may have to tweak a few things and try again. That should be here within a week or so. <jump forward a week...> A while back it was the end vestibules that seemed never ending, now it appears that it's doors that are never ending. After spending an eon, or at least a bit of an eon getting doors ready I finally remembered that I had considered, maybe not quite planned, but had certainly considered having a door open at each end so I could see inside in my dotage. Ergo, I spent at least one modeling session creating new doors and frames. It wasn't as simple as just cutting the door out of an already made assembly as the doors themselves are slightly wider than the surrounding framing - as the doors close into a rebate behind the frame. And stoopid old me decided to replicate that feature. I offer to you proof of my stupidity... Then my addled grey matter remembered that I also need a second "door" to fit onto the rear side of the actual door. Why ? I hear you ask... well, my plan is to sandwich some clear styrene between the real door and the dummy door to form the window. It seemed an awful lot easier to stick a false door on the back of the window than it was to try and cut out the oval window shape with anything approaching accuracy. Here be a primed door forest. There's more doors hiding in the background but you get the general idea. Now onto things exciting, or perhaps not quite so boring... Color me impressed... Shapeways delivered the part in under a week. Okay I did pay $2.50 or summat to expedite, but all in all I consider it a good deal. Go up a couple of stairs to post 957 and you'll see the 3D model. Look under my finger here and you'll see the printed part, all of nearly 50 mm long'ish and decidedly smallish. Here, is this any better ? To be honest I was completely blown away when I saw that the print did actually capture some detail ( the print captured more than the camera is capable of capturing apparently). Although I had thrown some detail onto the model I didn't really have high hopes of seeing that on the final part, maybe a suggestion of detail but certainly not as much as I was seeing here. I got all excited and threw some primer (Alclad) on it and on close up it looks pretty awful. Well, maybe not quite awful, but I wasn't completely gobsmacked. Still considering the size we're looking at here - that door handle is 1.5 mm wide, or was it 1.25 mm? Though it looks a bit better if I hold the camera slightly further away... Those bits hanging off the lower edges isn't dust or any form of hendie droppings - it's where the print ended due to the print orientation. No chance of being able to clean them up but I think they'll disappear in the final product. But to give you a real idea of scale here I included portions of my aged and decrepit digits for comparison. Let's be honest here, those parts may not have the most perfect detail in the world, but I wouldn't stand a chance in Hades of being able to make a number of handles or any other object for that matter, that small and identical in size and features. But the real proof is in the clootie dumplin' right? I let the alclad primer dry for nearly all of three or four minutes before firing some gloss black acrylic on. Similarly that dried for only a few minutes before I fired on some alclad chrome... count to ten.... fire on some alclad aqua clear. Definitely not the way to do things, but I only had limited time and I really wanted to see how it was going to turn out. Pretty good I think though it's ridiculously difficult to take photo's of a chrome finish. So here's the custard to go with the clootie dumplin'.... How does it look in place I wonder? Just a dry fit shown here - the doors still have to be micro meshed, given a second coat of umber, then micro meshed again before clear coating, which will really darken the brown down. Well, I am very impressed with that. I really wasn't sure how it would turn out and it was a shot in the dark, but I am very pleased with the result. I don't like to 3D print just for the sake of it and I prefer to scratch build when at all possible, but there are times - like this - where 3D printing is invaluable. Okay, that's the door handle experiments taken care of. The grab rail escutcheon (?) wasn't so successful though it shows promise. I have a couple of ideas on how to modify the escutcheon to have a better chance of using it though I'm going to be really struggling for time over the next few weeks, but I'll try and keep plugging away at this Okay, I know this shot is boring but it's a milestone, albeit a very minor milestone. A milestone nonetheless. All the parts you see there have been (since you last saw them...) micro-meshed, painted, micro-meshed and painted again. They are now waiting on their very last final micro-meshing before clear coating - unless I micro-mesh through to the primer in which case they'll have to go through the same process again. again. While I am waiting on that lot to fully cure, well, let's be honest... I won't be touching them until next weekend at the earliest... I started another proof of concept for yet more hardware. For 'proof of concept' read 'can I actually make it?' In addition to two vertical grab rails and a horizontal grab rail mounted on the front (outside) of the doors, inside the doors is an "H" rail, which is visible through the oval window. I hummed and hawed between trying the H rail with two long vertical pieces and three shorter horizontal pieces to form the H, or one longer horizontal piece with four shorted vertical pieces. Either way, it ended up with essentially two soldered joints, but I opted for the longer horizontal piece with four verticals somehow convincing myself that it would have greater structural integrity, or at least have slightly less chance of falling apart in my cumbersome handling methods (i.e. using my fingers!) Once the soldered joints were cleaned up, I pinched the ends of each length in the vice to flatten them - supposed to represent the mounting flanges, then followed that up with a quick blast with Alclad chrome. The alclad was straight onto the brass - no primer I may need to tweak the horizontal dimensions slightly but I think that method should work To be honest, I think the alclad chrome is a bit too chintzy for my liking. It's too bright imo and looks very much looks chrome on plastic. On that shot above there's no clear coat on the alclad. I shall have to experiment with semi matt and mat finishes to see what can dull down the alclad to look more like 'real' chrome. I also revisited my earlier solid modeling, in particular, the end pieces for the grab handles. I had one of those 'doh! moments at work and realized I was making things unnecessarily difficult for myself with the current design. If I modeled only the end piece, that meant I had to cut the brass rod at the correct length on the angle - a lot more difficult than it sounds. If the angle isn't right, the whole thing will look wonky. If the length of the angled end isn't spot on, the whole rail will not sit properly on the frame. After the realization, I simply modeled the end of the grab dandle to include the angled section -now all I have to do is cut the brass rod to the correct length and everything should fall into place. and look something like this... I think that the tapers as it meets the center section are a bit oversize, but I had issues with the edges cracking on the first set, so I had to add some meat to the part to minimize the chances of that happening again. We'll see how these go. If I need to I can reduce that taper slightly and have them reprinted. Other than that, I am still waiting on transfers - my second transfer guy has gone a bit quiet, however I knew he was extremely busy before I approached him. Hopefully it won't turn out to be the same situation as my first attempt.

It's been a while since I was here but things have been progressing in the background. I have deliberately held off from posting here as I wanted to make sure I had something substantial to post - I was working on another project which was taking most of my time, but I have now temporarily sheoved that to concentrate on Pegasus. First things first. I had to dig out a bunch of parts that I knew I had been working on, but do you think I could figure out where I was heading down that particular path? No, me neither. I know it was something to do with doors and vestibules. Even reading through the last couple of pages of my posts didn't help me there. Note to self: take better notes! Eventually I figured it out. Sort of. The last set of doors I had made had the outer framing a few millimeters too short. The outer frame hangs down over the chassis whereas I had cut them flush. Pay more attention hend! This time I had made the outer frames longer so I could trim them to size once they were in place. However for some reason unbeknownst to me, I had also made them wider. Don't ask me why. I know not the reason and can only guess I had some cunning plan now lost to the mists of time. That meant I had to trim the outer edge of each frame down to 2 mm wide. A few swipes with a sharp blade to give a groove, then followed up with some careful razor-sawing. Frame on left cut down, frame on right about to be sawn. Wash rinse and repeat on 4 doors/frames. I only messed up two cuts, but I cheated and chopped the frame off near the top and added a new 2 mm wide strip. Door 1 dry fitted. As before, the weather strip at the bottom was made with a styrene strip shaved with a knife blade to give a nice steep angle. A small rectangular strip attached to the bottom end, and a piece of round rod glued on the top end. That all goes together to make a reasonably convincing weather strip. and just to prove that I have in fact made more than one door... In fact I had made all 4 doors exactly the same before I remembered I was pondering whether to have one or more doors in the open position. I think I had decided that I was going to have one door open at each end. Boogerit. Luckily I have about a gazillion doors/frames i all stages of manufacture so I've already started to make two frames sans doors that I will attempt to make look good later. Then before you know it, paint was on! Yip Yip!!! I think the weather strip shows up to good effect here By this time these must be vestibule numbers 8 or 9 judging by the number of times I've made/remade these. Don't bother asking about the number of doors... it's frightening. At last though, I think I have the 'production' parts. T'other end. It all fits so far. That's a bonus I guess. Lastly for this evening, I shall leave you with this parting shot. It's looking more Pullman than it's ever done before. (though the carpet fitters have left a bit of a mess!) I'll now leave that paint to cure for a few days before giving it all a good micro-mesh to smooth things down. That will be followed by a second coat, and then... wait for it... now that the warm weather is here, I think the next job will be to apply the clear coat. To be honest, that's even more frightening than the paint job on the side frames. What could go wrong eh? Well, I've just sent off my transfers test sheet so all I have to do now is wait and see how much it's going to cost. This afternoon did provide a nice moment of panic though when I could not find the drawing I originally created for the transfers. I spent about 45 minutes searching for it on my old laptop to no avail. Luckily, I had the drawing on the main computer. I've still one drawing to find though - the PULLMAN text which sites between the top of the windows and the cant rail... I know I started a drawing for that... somewhere This is my test sheet - if these sizes work out then I can go ahead and get the full sheet(s) printed The resolution of that piccie above isn't great so here's a close up of one of the scrolls nothing to do now but sit and wait.... and continue working on the model.

Ah.... never thought of that Michael - good idea. But... just a tad late for this now Take a piece of scrap timber, drill two holes. Cut some brass sheet into small squares, drill a hole in each. Insert 'pin' into brass sheet and locate in holes in timber, then line up the handrail and secure in place for soldering. The pins were trimmed down before the solder was applied. Repeat multiple times. Okay, it's not pretty but it doesn't need to be at this stage - just functional. Take a small vise and secure handrail - take one file and remove anything non handrail shaped. We then end up with a handrail with a pin at each end. Which will now sit nicely, and more importantly, securely on the framework. Now I have plenty of filing time ahead of me... as well as yet more chromework for the doors. There's a lot more than I first thought.

Aha - you sussed me out. The little tag is probably Just under 1 mm wide x 1.5 - 2 mm long. Initially I was trying to think of ways to attach a pin to the back face before determining that was an improbable if not impossible solution. However, as you suggest - there's nothing to stop me drilling through the tag and using a pin which I can then snip to length after the soldering operation, and that was the solution I finally arrived at. I need to make a small fixture so that the two pins are always in the same location. I'm going to place them immediately outboard (each end) of the handle itself. That way I can cut a bunch of brass squares, drill a 0.5 mm hole through each of them. Then insert a pin through the hole and use the pin to locate the squares. The handle can then be placed on top of the squares and soldered, capturing the pins at the same time. After that, some trimming and filing and I should have pinned handles. I'll try and post some photo's later

Mike, I did consider etching but the etched parts would be so small that it would be all but impossible to hold them in position accurately while soldering. I decided it was much easier to solder a larger piece of brass in place and remove what I don't need.

and the fun and games continues ... along with the making of more frames. I've lost count of the number of frames, ovals, and doors I've cut out over the last few weeks. - at least I have plenty spares for testing ideas on... talking of which. Lets take a look again at this photo of Pegasus (copyright Terry Bye) - Note the chrome grab handles on either side of the door, the two vertical ones. They are very distinctive and catch the eye as there's not a lot of other distraction on the car. (aside from the natural beauty of the car itself that is) While making the doors and frames it dawned on me that I really need to get those chromed handrails done fairly soon. Thinking about the build sequence, I want to mount the handrails on the frames before I mount the doors and frames to the carriage to avoid any chance of collateral damage. That means the vestibule ends and doors have got to be finished, painted, clear coated, windows fitted and decals before they get fitted (I think). I had mulled over how I was going to attack those handrails for a few days and had an idea or two. When it came time to try those ideas out, most of it involved cutting bits of brass rod, getting it wrong and throwing the scrap away. It took a while before I had a eureka moment. The biggest problem was that there are a total of eight handrails, all identical, and all having that distinctive curve and mounting flange at the end (I'm sure there's a term for that). Therefore I needed to make eight identical copies - with all the bends, curves and angles matching. Generally when I have a task like this I will tape the rods together. That works fine for two or three parts, but not for eight. I messed around for a while with clamps, solder, and other less than award winning ideas before it struck me - how do I get all the bends in the same location on each piece of rod ? Simple - make a small jig. I found a small off-cut of aluminum bar and drilled a 0.9 mm hole x 3 mm deep on one face. This way, the brass rod can only go so far into the jig so when the rod is bent, the bend will always be at the same location relative to the end of the rod. While the idea itself is simple, it still took me a good few attempts to get the overall dimensions I was looking for. The 'hole in a bar' fixture solved the problem of the location of the bend but it also meant that every piece of rod had to be cut and filed to exactly the same length, in this instance 28 mm. I should mention that on checking my references I found I had no detailed drawings of these particular handrails, only a very generic sketch which was of no real use. However, I figured a one inch diameter would be good size for a handrail and that works out at 0.8 mm in diameter at this scale (and thankfully I have a lot of that in stock). Overall lengths were gauged from photos by eye. Getting the bend in the right place was critical, but only one part of the equation - all the angles had to be the same too or this wasn't going to work. Constant test fitting against the protractor was essential in allowing me to sneak up on the correct angle. (it's a lot easier to add more bend to a rod than it is to remove some bend!). I figured 55 degrees looked about right Eventually I ended up with enough handrails plus a couple of spares cos I know I'm going to mess up at least once in this journey. A quick visual check tells me that the length is about right, or as close as I am going to get it. In the 1:1 photo above you can see that the top of the handrail is mounted at the mid point of the oval window, and the bottom of the handrail is mounted about the midpoint of the bottom of the oval window and the bottom of the door. So far so good, but there's still a long way to go with the handrails. Somehow I have to incorporate that distinctive flange mounting. My first attempt involved soldering a small section of brass sheet to the end of the rod. A scrap rod in this case. Then using an assortment of files and some anglo saxon phrases I removed everything that didn't look like the pointy flange. A quick squirt of Alclad Chrome to add some pretty to the rail and then placed against a test strip for a visual assessment Perhaps seen to better effect in this view It's by no means perfect, but I am not sure I can achieve any better at this scale. It's going to be a tedious job making all eight of these handrails but has to be done. One other issue I must overcome is how to securely fix these to Pegasus. I don't like superglue and it's really not suitable for a job like this. - Far too easily knocked off, and will probably damage the paint in the process. The handrails need to be pinned in place as well as glued... but how to fix a pin to something this size? I think I have a plan so will try that out tomorrow. Stay tuned.

I thought I should provide some sliver of evidence that I am still alive and kicking, and preferably in the way of imagery of some sort. Once again life has got in the way of modeling and most of my modeling over the last few weeks has been simply reading about others efforts and being envious For the first time in what has seemed like months I actually got some time to go delving in the basement so I dived in head first. Only to discover that once I had checked my references, I had the doors slightly wrong. Well, slightly wrong is as good as very wrong, so I scrapped what had gone before and started again - this time paying a tad more attention to what I was trying to do. In my last outing and attempt at the vestibule doors, I realized that the doors were just a bit short. That in itself wasn't a deal breaker as there were ways to cover that up, but what I did discover when I looked more closely at my references was that the doors themselves were inset slightly and there was a 'frame' in front of them - I had completely missed that and it made a difference to the overall appearance. However, taking a step back, last time around I showed some doors and had a nice little beading around the oval. I showed the creation of the beading but didn't show how I got a nice even finish around the bead. I gave a rather brief and unhelpful description but here's a photo that shows the process much better... With the beading firmly glued in place in a door, I used a scrap door and simply enlarged the oval to a point where it fitted over the beading. The scrap door just happened to be the correct thickness for the amount I wanted the bead to protrude from the door itself. Then it was a case of using a sanding stick to remove unwanted material, leaving a nice even bead all around the oval. Next, I re-cut all the doors, or more accurately, rescribed the doors with the cutter. This time I overlaid the frame, the door and a few other guidelines, none of which will be visible in the finished part (he hopes). A separate frame was cut to fit over the 'door' part on the right. You can see two 'doors' on the part on the right (with the arched tops). The outer 'door' is the actual door and the inner arched shape is the frame overlap - I am using those lines to align the frame on the left. They were carefully assembled and offered up to the structure. That looks much better. The crossbar over the oval window is a dry fit to check for scale. According to my drawings, the chrome work works out at Ø0.5 mm, which this wire is, but it looks a little on the thin side compared to my references. I may go up to Ø0.6 mm but we'll see about that later. Next step was to add a rain diverter/weatherbar to the bottom of the door and a quick coat of primer to see how the details look. (everything just dry fitted of course) I think I have a working design now. Now I just need to repeat the process three more times. The two vertical grab handles fitted either side of the door are going to be challenging and I think I will need to attack those before I fit the doors in place because if I stuff those handles up, I could end up having to remake the doors again. That strip to the left of the door is a tad under 2mm wide and that's where the grab handle gets fitted Fun and games ahead....

An update at last... I have spent whatever free time I've had in the last few weeks fighting CAD systems and Graphics programs trying to produce a file that my decal guy can work with. I thought I was being smart designing everything in Draftsight (CAD) since it was all vector driven, that plus the fact that I know the system and it was relatively straightforward to produce what I needed, albeit time consuming. However, translating that file format to a usable format for the decal guy proved exceedingly troublesome. Who'd have thought translating from vector to vector would be so frustrating? I tried everything from DWG to DXF (multiple versions, including ASCII & Binary). Vector PDF's though everything seemed to get rasterized in the process. Goodness knows how many other file types before I happened across some glitches that started to switch the light-bulb on in the far distance. I had downloaded Inkscape (then fought for an hour or two with Win 10 to get the damned thing installed) as I thought I had a chance with an SVG file type. That seemed to go almost according to plan except that when I saved as an SVG from Draftsight then imported it into Inkscape the scaling was all to pot. So, not being quite au fait with Inkscape and not knowing how to scale vectors in that software I kept plugging away at exploring file translations. Eventually I happened across the fact that if you SAVE (in Draftsight) as an SVG file type - it does save successfully but loses the scale reference. However, if you PLOT to SVG file type, it creates the SVG file with the correct scaling.... YIPEEEEeeeeeeee! But there was one thing left biting me - some of the lines were vectors and some were rasterized huh??? After more frustrating hours I found that if you used the standard colors within Draftsight, it created vectors, but if you used true colors, then it rasterized them. I also found the same issue when creating PDF's - if I 'print' to PDF I get a raster output, but if I PLOT to PDF I get a vector output. Damnit!!! Why didn't I know this??? So, today, after 3 or 4 weeks trying I finally managed to send him some files which (fingers crossed) he can work with. Now I just need to wait and see the results... Anyhoos... Back to Pegasus, which is why we're all here after all... or at least me. The reason I sort of dropped everything to concentrate on those decals is that I am getting to some stages in the build sequence where I need to paint and apply decals before I can go any further. Namely the end vestibule (yes... again!) I had tried to rescue those previous end vestibules but without success - the plastic was just too thin in places after repeated sanding. That meant hey let's build some more... (again!) And now that I look at this and consider what I have just written above, I wonder if the issues I was experiencing with the cutter were down to producing raster PDF's and not vector PDF's (must dig the cutter out again and try with some actual vector files) Since I have now made about eleventy seven of these, the build went much quicker. This fast in fact... Then it was off to the paint shop for some primer. Followed by some sanding. Followed by some primer. Followed by some sanding. Followed by some primer. Which is where we sit today... ready for the Pullman Umber (when the temperature rises) I took the opportunity of some build down time to experiment with the doors - the glazing on the doors has a small beading around the edge. I cut a small strip of styrene and glued this inside the oval with some Tamiya extra thin. Once that had dried, I cut another slightly larger oval and in another sheet of styrene and placed this over the 'beading'. This allowed me to sand down the beading to something approaching a scale thickness. (okay, a little bit more needs taken down here I think) Then when painted looks not too bad at all. A shot of the side-frame dry fitted. I think we are finally getting somewhere folks! Of course I discovered after this that the doors are actually inset just slightly from the door frame. That aside, I'll take this as a win - proof of concept works! I think I may need to reduce the width of the doors slightly to allow for the grab handles - they should be interesting to (try and) make Now, I just need to paint those vestibules and get the decals

I think the paper option will be okay once it's given a matt coat of clear. Nothing to show this week - still working on the decals. I found a company but am having trouble converting to a file type that they can use. I also restarted the vestibule ends yet again - my attempt at salvaging them some time back didn't work so I decided to do them over again.