Pugsley

Very cool - it's got me looking at 1:43 Unimogs now! Do you think it would be possible to do a 4WD one, Giles, based on your experience so far, or would that be pushing it a bit? I realise it would add a lot of complication to the front axle.

Lack of updates should not be confused with lack of progress, although the two are usually related - I can't write about doing naff all, well, I could, but people would soon stop reading it! However, in the time I've not been here posting, I have summoned up the courage to actually make a start on painting the 37 and it hasn't been the disaster that I feared it would. It came close to it on a number of occasions though! Mostly problems with paint adhesion, I don't think I cleaned the body quite enough before assembly, and on a couple of occasions I thinned the Railmatch acrylics a little too much, which didn't help. A bit of remedial work with some fine sandpaper did the job though, and now you'd never know! This is how it looks now: After masking all of the stripes around the door areas, I was starting to wish that I'd decided to build it as a triple grey example! Still, I'm fairly pleased with the end result, even though it has required quite a lot of touching in in places - I'm not sure Tamiya masking tape is as good as it used to be. I've also got the replacement brake shoes from Shapeways - these are the best quality parts that I've had in the FUD material, and they arrived within 7 days. I've now ordered some more, as I was three quarters of the way through doing the first bogie before realising each sprue contained enough brake shoes for one bogie, and I had only ordered one of them.... Mounting the brakes in position has also confirmed that I have some room to add extra pick-ups, so these will also be put in place, which should help with the problems experienced on the first test run. In addition to the bogie works, a coat of Klear will go on the body next, in preparation for adding the decals, of which the orange cantrail lining is what I'm looking forward to least. Everything else is straightforward, there's the Kingfishers to go on the engine room doors and the numbers are Replica rub-on ones. I'm toying with the idea of putting the OHL warning flashes onto thin plastic sheet, or photo paper, and sticking them on, to provide a little bit of relief, but haven't quite made my mind up in that respect.

That looks really good - roll on the NSE ones!

Sorry, it just looks a bit big to me next to the other models. It certainly looks good shape-wise.

The old style notice is a nice touch.

Take a look here: http://www.barrowmoremrg.co.uk/Prototype.html It's the diagrams of PO wagons you want to look through, you may find the diagrams of all 3 wagons in there - it's only a rough guide, with dimensions, but it's a start. Sense check the dimensions, they're not always right. HTH

The Maroon FY End one is a work of art, I'll be interested to see how well the factory replicate that. If they do it well, I might even get one (assuming they haven't been sold out by that point)! It's a lovely model, and steals the mantle of best looking RTR diesel from the Hornby 60 IMO.

As mentioned above, though, you could get your flat plastic parts laser cut and then all you'd have to do would be to stick them together. Don't get stuck on 3D printing being the perfect solution to all problems - there are other ways of designing your parts on a computer and getting them turned into something physical. I totally agree with the fun part!

I suspect, but don't know for sure, that if the beams are secured to the outer boxes by a pivot, then they fit in the stirrup under the central axlebox, which just bears on them, and aren't secured in there.

The side pieces wrap round the rear of the bogie frame, which you can see if you look carefully in the top left of the picture, this is what checks the lateral motion. Also, the bottom plate does keep the axlebox from dropping out of the frame, again you can see where the two triangular protrusions would contact that bracket if it were to drop far enough. It's a slightly beefier version of the method employed by air braked wagons. The 'suspension bar' you refer to is called an equalising beam, it divides the load between the two axles and helps smooth track irregularities. HTH

How about using magnets on the end of the pipe? Jim S-W has done it and it's pretty effective - you could use something like this: http://www.first4magnets.com/f305---1mm-dia-x-1mm-thick-n42-neodymium-magnet---0025kg-pull-x100-a1y-5-p.asp Jim's article is here: http://www.p4newstreet.com/articlePDFs/Update 42 pipes.pdf HTH

Option 4 sounds to me like the only way forward, the tolerances on FUD obviously aren't good enough for wheels in 2mm scale. I also agree with Bill, above, that some kind of press is required for fitting the wheel to the axle - some of the wheels on my 37 aren't quite as good as they should be, a press would have prevented that. Remind me to never upset you...

Weren't they Gloucester Cross-Country sets, otherwise known as TOPS class 119?

Thanks James. Battery power would be a nice solution, but as I wanted sound etc, it's not the right solution at the moment. I am keeping an eye on this: http://westernthunder.co.uk/index.php?threads/acc-ess-protocab.2124/ which looks to have real potential, but it's early days yet. Once that has sound and lights capabilities, along the lines of a current DCC system, I'd go for it. Hopefully by the time I get round to building a 7mm layout, it'll be a viable alternative. Until that time, I need to sort out the pickups etc, which shouldn't be too difficult. I just need to give it a bit of thought.

Progress continues slowly with the 7mm 37, and I'm currently in the middle of adding all the wiring for lights etc. This is how things looked the other day: It's all a bit tidier now, but I am running out of places to put all of the wires - and the ones for the cab lights, speaker and cooling fan aren't even visible in this picture! I've given up casting the brake shoes from the kit - I'm now in the process of drawing up my own and will get those from Shapeways, or possibly give iMaterilise a try, as I've not had anything from them yet. I'm also going to look at adding additional pickups to the bogies as I'm not totally convinced that the original solution is going to work that well - there is more movement in the axles than they can cope with at present. I've also started creating a length of track, so I can set the chassis up on the rolling road, to get that running sweetly by tweaking a few cv's. It looks like this project will have taken the best part of 3 years to complete, and it's not even there yet - yikes!

Thanks everyone! Nothing odd - I just kept knocking them off! I started off refixing them, but when I knocked them off for the second time I gave up and added them at the end No chance

As the pictures in the printed magazine haven't shown up some of the subtle effects that can be achieved with the oil paints as much as I'd like, I've taken the liberty of putting the pictures used in the article, plus a couple of bonus ones, here. I'm not including the words though - this is in addition to the article, not instead of it Click each photo for a larger view. Intro: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

It looks like one to me.

Thanks Brian.

Brian, can you tell me what diameter ones you've used, please?

Looking good - what wheels have you used in it, Brian?

Sorry, I'd forgotten about this - I've just had a look and it was the October 2005 edition that featured the Tullis Russel PAA drawing. The drawing is by Colin Craig, so I'd be confident that it was accurate. The working suspension looks great!

Amsie's models was working on a kit for the 313 etc, but as far as I'm aware, that is no more. Charlie at DC kits was looking at the possibility of doing a 507/508 a year or two ago, but I don't know what became of that, possibly on the back burner now. I'd like someone to bring one out, as I've got a 455 here that I'd like to build as a 455/7.

There was a drawing of those wagons in Railway Modeller - I'll have a rummage tonight and will let you know which issue it appeared in.

The Gloucester Pedestal suspension looks interesting, presumably it's designed to print in one piece?