Timber

This is a Tinkercad slate roof I have drawn up- I will see what this prints up like before drawing the complete roof..

All, I need some help please. Not living close to wales, I am attempting to model the B&M. I am building a goods shed. Can someone please guide me on the stone colour that would have been used on the B&M in the Brecon area....is the attached too light, not brown enough etc... All help gratefully received.

Off the printer - the lose stones on the edges are intentional......I am sure that the B&M did not spend too much time repointing their goods sheds. Here is the link to the STL https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g_zTGBjTH4cWNgQ6_ngR3fAGmTppwzpI/view?usp=sharing

Bored with ballasting i decided to make a Goods Shed. It is not based on any specific prototype but i have tried to capture the architectural features employed by the B&M. I have drawn this in Tinkercad and will print on my Filament printer. I am making the walls etc as seperate pieces and will glue together at the end. As with my engines I will share the STL files but this is probably a bit early in design to share too widely.

I have started to ballast. Its been a while since I have ballasted track and I had to remind myself how not to mess up the track. I tried a few different ballast types and settled on a Hornby product. I liked the colour it took after the PVA had been applied and by varying the PVA strength it takes a different colour as I tackle each section. The sleepers I stained with dark oak and then gave a grey wash to make them stand out as sun dried oak. The side of the rails have picked up the wood dye which will remove the need to seperately paint. On the picture below there are a few pieces of ballast to pick out but that can be done in time.

Y Wladfa is a small cameo terminus somewhere on the Brecon and Merthyr railway. If coal had ever been mined at Y Wladfa then I am confident that the railway to supply the people and mine of this Town would have looked just like my model. The layout has been designed to start life as a small terminus and then to expand in time to a through station and potentially beyond that to a continuous loop. The layout follows no prototype norms. I am simply trying to pack as much operational interest into the smallest possible space. The design requirements were: · A turntable so I can run tender engines · A coal mine to recognise the coal mining heritage of the B&M and enhance operations interest · Goods and cattle facilities to enable a wide variety of rolling stock · Engine Shed repair yard to allow several locomotives to be kept operational at any time · A small station with passing loop. After a number of false starts I arrived at the attached track plan. Plenty of curves, no straight sections and enough track to provide interest without trying to cover every square inch of the baseboard. The current available space is 16 foot, but there is the potential to extend beyond this but I would rather grow the model than start a project I never finish. I am relatively new to S Scale modelling and my interests lie much more in building locomotives than signal boxes and stations, so I suspect that this will be a slow build. But hopefully the updates to this blog will energies me to one day finish the layout. I am starting this blog at the point that I have built baseboards, laid track (using Templot) and completed the electrics (basic) Building track in S Scale is the same as 4mm. All of the parts are available from the S Scale Society stores. http://www.s-scale.org.uk/,

Another engine in war time black Class 9 number 25. Not sure that the Class 9s ever carried a black livery and if they did I am not sure that anyone would have spent too much time polishing the dome...but I like it.

Just off the bench...few more details to add but nearly there.

Rather than replicate the same model for Number 12 Glanseven, I applied some artistic licence and took a guess at what the engine may have looked like in war time black with a cab and engine brakes fitted. Other than it was made to the same design as Number 11 Wynnstay; to the best of my knowledge no photos exist so maybe my cameo may be OK. The cab design i took from other Sharp Stewarts at that time.

Here is a model of an early version of Wynnstay. B&M number 12.

That looks really nice!

The thing that you will need direct from Markits are the 1/8 brass rectangular brass bearings. Markits are pretty responsive by phone. If he is there and he answers the phone then he usually gets things out to you same day. Try for a couple of days - if no response then email me direct and I can drop 4 bearings in the post. Anything else go through Roxey Moldings they have a stock of Markit components but i have always had to buy the bearings direct. Alternatively you could use High level Hornblacks. I have started using these on some other engines but the hornblocks will need to be aligned and the compensation beams altered. The Markit path is the easiest.

Thanks Rob - they look good off your printer. I will be interested in feedback on the slimmer rim. Now I have the geometry and Fusion script worked out, it only takes a few minutes to produce a driver wheel STL so happy to help with anyone elses project if you need a plastic wheel. I have tried printing in metal but the shrinkage is unpredictable. However, I can add some thickness to the rim so that they could be a master for casting. Post casting the wheel it can be turned to size on the lathe.

As requested outside of this thread but placed here for ease of sharing. An STL for a 24.6mm 16 spoke outside crank driver with thinner tyres. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cLtPfhiIOeQGCLzuU94MeRko3e0QDS-v/view?usp=sharing

Rosedale this is great work. My recomendation is that as you develop the artwork you start to test its geometric integrity by sending it so something like https://www.meshmixer.com/download.html. I do not know how DSM works but when working in Fusion every few hours I stop, create a print and pass the print through Meshmixer. If Meshmixer tells me I have a problem I can go back and double check the latest changes. The problem you want to avoid is non-manifold geometry. It is not something that you need to understand but it is something that you need to avoid. https://www.sculpteo.com/en/3d-learning-hub/create-3d-file/fix-non-manifold-geometry/. Checking at regular intervals saves time in the long run. Otherwise you will get to the end of building a complex model, find that you have poor geometry and have to start to try and debug the whole model rather than testing changes as you go along. Tinkercad will not allow non-manifold geometry but in Fusion and Sketchup the application will allow you to do what you want - something that could include poor geometry. There are tools that will fix poor geometry but i always find it is best to fix at source. Keep up the great work!

Someone has requested a copy of the Tender etch artwork. Here is the PDF that can be checked before ordering. The cost for this etch is £25 not including postage. The etch supports a variety of different designs. Early tenders had a rear tool box, some Tenders had a curved front step others a straight front step. This etch will support these variations. 34603-3 07.04.21 Sharp Stewart 4 Wheel Tender 2021 integrated etch 06042021.pdf

Hello, I am making a Manning Wardle old Class I. Anyone have any idea as to how think the connecting rods would be at the bearing. Would 4" depth be too thick? And the actual rods themselves would 2.5" be about right? Many thanks in advance.

Photo of my DeWinton parts. The boiler is just a rough print that i will now print in a higher grade material. The fittings are printed in brass by Shapeways. They are a little big (10%) as I will now get them cast by slatters and there will be further shrinkage.

Hi Rob - The hole for the brass nut was sized to be an engineering fit. To illustrate, as you can see from the pictures below it takes a gentle push for the nut to go into the wheel and the friction is just enough to hold the wheel. Typically I push the brass nut into the front of the wheel to ease the fit, remove and then fit axle from back and reset the nut onto the axle through the front. If the nut is a good fit, when tightened, this holds the wheel nice and true. I find that this is better than simply relying on the axle flange and back of wheel. In the New Year I plan to try making some wheels that push onto a 1/8 axle, similar to Gibosons and Ultrascale. The markit axles are good in that it is easy to take the wheels on and off but I wonder if a push fit will be simpler,

As advised in other thread I have updated the chimney and full body posts with STEP files as well as STL. @apl31 be interesting to hear if you can open these.

thanks everyone....

Thank you - let me look at this......the STL is a mesh body so I am not sure that I can save as anything else......

let me try sharing the mesh body.....

@apl31 copied in my fellow S Scale modeller.

these are amazing - what CAD package are you using?