Pugsley

That little chassis is very impressive! B) B)

Mikkel - Butanone is the same as Methyl Ethyl Ketone, which you should be able to obtain as a solvent for ABS plumbing pipe. I managed to find this for you:

http://viewitem.eim.ebay.dk/500ml-pure-Methyl-Ethyl-Ketone--MEK--Butanone/370452694212/item

HTH

If you're ever in deepest darkest Wiltshire, you can get in to one of the Chilmark sites (now an industrial estate) and close enough on the road to view two of the other sites.

I didn't realise there was a DVD about Chilmark - I'll have to try and obtain a copy of that.

Dean Hill was RN, BTW.

Thanks everyone B) B) B)

James, I'm going to use liver of sulphur to blacken the springs, apparently that will blacken both copper and brass, so it'll do for the secondary springs as well.

Great stuff as always - cracking modelling and a great story to go with it!

Very impressive.

You can get the forum to display muff

Thanks Missy, glad you like it!

Yes, the springs are designed to be fully functional, in more or less the same way as the real thing. The only difference is that the platform that the springs mount on isn't pivoted on the model.

I have experimented with other wires for the springs, including phosphor bronze, nickel silver and brass, and found that everything apart from copper produced springs that were far too strong. By the time I've got everything riding at the right height I think I'll have had to add a lot of weight in the model as it is, if I used anything stronger, it would have to be really heavy.

I've subjected my springs to an extreme weight test (ie I stood on one to see what happened!) and that lost some of its spring, but it was still sufficient for use. I've added another coil now, which will help, I think.

More later, as I've done a bit more with the axleboxes. It's really coming together now!

Yes, I saw those on a link from the DEMU forum. Very impressive! But yes, rather expensive.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

James - I hope there'll be a video of it at some point, there will certainly be a short demonstration track for it to run on at some point, as there's some techniques I want to try before building the layout proper. The layout is some way off though, I have to build a bit more stock first, including designing my own wagon kits!

Jamie - That's a good point about the piddly valvegear, but this is a lot less fiddly than that, and building something from new is often easier than modification. Good thinking about painting the springs, I'll have to check out how to chemically blacken copper.

Dave - I must confess that worries me too. Unfortunately, the only way I'll find out is by doing it! If they do compress over time, I guess I'll just have to renew them

Now, about that diesel engine

I've thought about it! It's something I'd love to do, but the bogie project has stretched my current limited engineering skills to the limit, there's absolutely no chance of me making a miniature diesel engine at the moment. Never say never, though, as I'm quite sure it's possible

James - It is satisfying working in 7mm. Years ago I was quite taken with the idea of SM32 in the garden, I'd planned a small nitro-electric loco for that, using a radio control car engine and generator feeding two traction motors, but never got round to it. Again, maybe one day! The G scale stuff does look like fun

Thanks for the enouragement everyone, hopefully there'll be more updates soon.

Thanks Mike, I can't help but agree with you

There are times that I wish I hadn't embarked on this madcap scheme, but I'm well past the point of no return, so I have to make it work.

Whether I do another one in this way remains to be seen, but with any luck it will be easier the second time around....

Top stuff Martin, thanks for that, I'll make sure I have a good read through before starting on my 108.

In terms of the Western, take a look here:

http://www.westernthunder.co.uk/index.php?topic=53.0

http://www.westernthunder.co.uk/index.php?topic=44.0

http://www.westernthunder.co.uk/index.php?topic=54.0

and here:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14229&start=125

Hope that's of some use to you.

Unfortunately it does, the powder and gouache is just too fragile a finish for exhibition conditions otherwise. However, now I've proven the concept with familiar materials, I'm going to use oils on the other side, which would be a lot less fragile.

Wish me luck!

That looks great Pugsley. I was thinking that the clean patches were too clean, until I saw the prototype photo. Good stuff!Of course, in reality this is just your subconsciousness yearning to model a kettle. Go on, give in!

Already done. It's very overrated...

Thanks everyone B) More pics to come when it's actually finished!

You made it home then!

I ordered mine from Netmerchants:

http://www.netmerchants.co.uk/

They're very good.

Thanks Phil I like the idea of the 'exhibition proofing' mod, I'll give that a go on the next ones.

That's coming along nicely B) B)

Thanks all - it's nice to be doing something a little more artistic, rather that precision engineering

Al - Yes, those seams are a real pain in the butt! I chose the best of the 3 for this, bearing in mind I wanted to keep the original livery. The next two need even more filler...

Thanks CK. I should clarify the barrel statement - the barrel is undersized for the majority of class A tanks, by a millimetre or two, so it fails to capture the bulk of the prototype, in my eyes. However, the barrel diameter is correct for a small number of class B tanks that were de-lagged and converted to class A tanks, which I understand is what Bachmann measured when researching the model.

I think a couple of these would look quite good on Callow Lane B)

I dont remember them being rack engines though :PSeriously though, is that gear going to cause problems? It looks awfully low to me.Missy

You're not supposed to look at it that closely! The traction motor is currently missing its torque reaction arms, so it has dropped down to rest on the gear. The gear is a bit of a problem, but not in the way it looks in the photo above, in as much as I've miscalculated the clearance between the reduction gear and the bogies crossmember - there isn't any! So, I'll have to modify the crossmember by cutting a slot in it for the gear to pass through it.

James & Simon, thanks for the encouragement! It's proving a challenge, but I am still enjoying it.

These ones will Once I've used up all of the Cambrian springs I've got, I'll probably make my own, like Will (Vale) did on his MKAs. They'll be loaded, it's much easier that way than working out curved lengths of material!

It's a shame that you posted who was assisting you in your post, I was going to ask if I got any points for identifying your assistant purely from the top of his head!

Yep, that sketch definitely looks like Bender, but the finished items look great!

I'm not a big fan of Deltics (Brian H will confirm that ) but yours is a stonking model and really captures the look of them.

Once painted and weathered and photographed on a scenic layout/diorama, that's going to look the dogs bo**ocks!

Thanks James, I'll bear that in mind if things don't go to plan. I'm fortunate in as much as most of these can be printed on white paper, and the ones that can't are black.

The only one I might have to watch is the large red Total logo, that might not work too well without a white backing. If I do have to get those professionally printed, then I've still saved a fair bit of cash!

Jon - No worries, hope it was of use

Jo - I only used the vector software as I was familiar with it for drawing etches. I wouldn't know where to start trying to do it in Photoshop!

James - I've had a bit of a rethink about this. Originally I was going to get the lot printed on clear, including the white. The supplier that I'd been put in touch with isn't confident that he can print some of the colours I need, particularly orange and blue. This, and the fact that I've just acquired a rather good colour laser printer for a very good price means that I'll end up printing them myself on either white or clear paper as required.