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Barry Ten

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Blog Entries posted by Barry Ten

  1. Barry Ten
    Over the week I finished most of the work on the Rhymney Railway brake van, followed by painting, glazing and attachment of the roof.
     

     
    I'm very pleased with the way this characterful little vehicle has come out, even though it tested my abilities once or twice and there's the odd bodge to get
    to the finished result. In one or two cases I really should have followed the instructions, instead of surging ahead convinced I knew what I was doing. In more
    competent hands, I'm sure there would be no difficulties. As a first for me, the roof needed to be formed from flat brass. I got there in the end, but I'll need to
    improve my technique a bit before I tackle a coach tumblehome.
     
    The size of the vehicle can be judged against a standard Toad:
     

     
    As a quickie, I also assembled this Langley kit for a GWR single-horse omnibus:
     

     
    I managed to make life difficult for myself by melting one of the axles, and then dropping (and losing) one of the forward springs, so some emergency
    bodging/scratchbuilding was called for. I only have one photo of this type of bus, which appears to show it painted in a dark shade which I take to
    be black or chocolate, so chocolate's what I've gone for. The instructions leave one to sort out this sort of detail on your own! I'll skip the tiny
    "great western railway" lettering on the bodyside as it would be all but impossible to do convincingly. Still, a very satisfying break from purely railway
    subjects and a subject that can fit in with GWR layouts well into the grouping era, not just the Edwardian period. Needless to say, the horse will
    get painted as well, and I just wish it was in a more restful stance. I tried adjusting the legs, but then it won't stand up easily!
  2. Barry Ten
    Quite literally in this case - raising the lighting bar.
     
    When I built the lighting support for the summer module, I set it at the same height as the spring and winter modules, both of which had (in my view) worked quite well in terms of framing the scene. But something wasn't quite right. I rebuilt the summer module's lighting arrangement at least three times over the years, but it never sat well with me, and finally the penny dropped - it was too low. The module is much longer and deeper than the other two, and setting the bar at the same height resulted in a cramped, letterbox-style presentation which not only looked claustrophobic, but also severely restricted the viewing angles (as well as access) into the scene, with some bits being all but concealed. Finally I decided to bite the bullet and replace it completely, with a new set-up raised about 15cm higher than the old. It can't go much higher as it's getting very near the ceiling.
     
    The result is much nicer; I haven't tidied it up yet so won't show any overall shots of the fascia etc, but already I can get elevated shots which weren't possible before:
     

     

     
    The benefits of this new rig are twofold - not only can I get to see some of my modelling again, such as the allotment - all but lost behind the goods shed, until now - but the raised aspect means that the light falls at a slightly more realistic angle. Everything looks a llittle less bright, but more convincingly lit - to my eye, at least. Under the old arrangement, it was almost too bright at track level, and the lighting was almost side-on for things at the rear of the scene.
     
    Note the trusty old Superquick church, slowly being reworked with exterior details and texturing, as well as the timber-framed houses from the same supplier, which have full-relief timbering and new roofs. I get quite attached to these old models!
     

     

     
    Althought it's not really obvious from these shots, I also reworked the alignment of the backscene on the right side of the module, extending the scenic area by about two square feet. This opens up an area which had previously been a bit cramped and unsatisfying, as well as allowing scope for some reworking of existing elements, such as the road which cuts away beyond the level crossing. I've never been happy about the sharp bend to the left, immediately after the gates, so one of the next jobs will be to straighten out this road and realign the cottages. All good fun, in my book!
  3. Barry Ten

    More Gallic Goodness

    By Barry Ten,

    While we're on the topic of lovely French models, here are a couple of Jouef 141R locos, both with superb sound and slow running.
     

     
    These North American built locos were part of the lend-lease scheme, being essentially a scaled-down USRA light Mikado. I like the combination of influences in the design - they end up looking very purposeful, yet also compact. The Jouef models are really fantastic, right down to the open nature of the bar frames - there's a surprising amount of daylight in the chassis, even though the motor is in the loco, not the tender. I bought a coal version a couple of years ago, with spoked wheels, but couldn't resist adding a second model, this time with Boxpok wheels and an oil tender.
     
    Oddly, there's no provision for adding a front coupler, with the pony truck not having an NEM pocket. It looks the better for it, of course, but the sound of these two running as a pair is whopping! Left to themselves, as well, they sit there hissing and snorting like a pair of angry dragons.
     
    At some point I'll need to summon up the courage to weather them, but it'll be a while yet.
  4. Barry Ten
    Inching its way towards completion is this Dragon Models kit for a tiny Rhymney Railways brake van. I purchased the kit a good few years ago, at what I think was the last Rhondda model show - 2008 or 2009? I fancied adding a bit of variety to my GWR trains and this vehicle and a slightly larger Taff Vale brake van from the same supplier looked like they'd fit the bill nicely. As it happened, every time I went near either kit I got a cold shiver of terror, for on closer examination they looked to be a bit challenging, to say the least!
     
    Suitably embolded after building a couple of Comet coaches, though, I thought I'd tackle the Rhymney vehicle (it looked like the simpler of the two) and here's the state of progress so far. There's still a fair bit to do but the basic outline of the van is there and I'm pleased with the overall shape. It really is shockingly small! The chassis assembly is quite straightforward but the body sides pose a few difficulties. The first is that beading has to be soldered on to all four outer sides, which went slowly but steadily until I got to the windows and found that they really tested my skills - or lack thereof! I also made a boo-boo in that, well into the soldering, I realised I'd been using 0.7mm wire instead of the 0.5mm intended. Rather than risk messing things up by unsoldering the existing work, i decided to press on, while acknowledging that the beading will be somewhat overscale. Hey ho. The second difficulty is that there's no really positive system for getting the sides square and aligned in all relevant axes, and it took me a few goes to get everything straight, with tack soldering being the approach before going in with the full finishing job.
     
    Next up will be duckets, brake gear, footboards and so on. Wish me luck! Hopefully the end result will be quite a characterful little vehicle.
     
    Edit - I didn't think it was worth a second blog post just for the duckets and a bit of brake gear, so here's tonight's progress. I was fearful of forming the duckets but they went very straightforwardly:
     

  5. Barry Ten
    Following on from the last entry, I assembled the pre-painted sides and found after some minor tweaking found that they sat nicely on the Mainly Trains chassis. I don't want to attach the body to the chassis permanently at this stage, so for now I just used the plastic floor from the Ratio kit to provide some means of centering the body without it being fixed in place, with the floor being cut and glued to the etched underframe so that the body drops neatly into position.
     

     
    The coach is posed next to the Mallard clerestory I acquired last year, with the idea being to achieve a level of finish in the Ratio vehicle that won't disgrace the clerestory - at least from what I'd call a normal viewing distance. Painting this coach has been a good exercise as some may remember that I have an unbuilt kit for a Mallard brake clerestory, which I also hope to finish to a comparable standard. First I have to build it, though! I wouldn't necessarily envisage running these coaches in the same train, but for now they do look quite attractive next to each other. Somewhere I've also got a Slaters clerestory, bought before such things became rarer than hen's teeth. What a shame the clerestory and toplight kits have become so difficult to obtain now.
     

     
    There are still few details that need tweaking here, such as the sides of the guard's lookout, but overall I'm reasonably pleased with the way this one has turned out and look forward to cracking on with the others, at my usual unhurried pace.
     

  6. Barry Ten
    After the travails of the first 70 foot coach, I was hoping for a slightly easier time of the painting - but it wasn't to be!
     
    This was the sorry state of affairs a fortnight ago:
     

     
    The model had been primed and then sprayed with GWR cream, followed by careful masking and an application of brown. All looked
    good - until I started removing the masking tape. Great wodges of paint came off, right back to bare brass! After some cussing I decided
    that there was nothing to be done but to resort to paint stripper and start again. Once again the roof came off - only this time at least I didn't
    have to refit the roof ribs or more than one or two of the door hinges.
     
    For the second attempt I used Railmatch etching primer, followed once again by cream and brown, and - other than a tiny tendency for a sliver
    of paint to lift at one end - I didn't have the problems of the first attempt. A few areas were touched up with brush painting, and then I painted
    the droplights and roof.
     
    Everything else went to plan, using the same waterslide lining and pressfix letters as on the first coach. Glazing was next, followed by commode
    handles and handrails. As with the first coach, a few details remain to be added. I still haven't done the door-opening handles or the roof/end details.
    I've also still to devise a coupling solution and add MJT corridor connections, excepting for the rear of the brake where I used the white metal
    casting in the Comet pack.
     

     

     
    Over on Tony Wright's thread there's been a bit of discussion about what's meant by "layout coaches" (or layout models in general). I think these are
    definitely layout coaches, in that they're built to the best of my present abilities, look fine (to me) from normal viewing distances, and haven't got too
    many fiddly bits. They definitely wouldn't meet the superb standards attained by many, are inaccurate in some respects (roof profile, for instance), but
    they haven't taken months and months to build and I wouldn't find the idea of building a few more too daunting, especially as I hope not to repeat
    the same mistakes as I made on these! Famous last words...
  7. Barry Ten
    Here's a quick snap of recent progress on the block of French buildings I've been fiddling with over the last year or so:
     

     
    There's a bit more of a write-up here:
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/110098-regions-et-compagnies-card-kits/
  8. Barry Ten
    You couldn't get much further from a Toplight Third or Blue Pullman than this, but a change is a good as a rest and this big box of pieces has been gathering dust in my attic for far too long. Although it's not a railway project, its a subject that's very dear to my heart, and it'll draw on a range of familiar skills to get it done.
     


     
    The Polar Lights 1/350th Enterprise kit is justly regarded, being both huge, well designed, and for the most part very accurate. The kit is based around the "refit" Enterprise, which debuted in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture, before going on to feature in a number of the sequels - as well as being destroyed, before coming back as the 1701-A. There are slight differences between the 1701 and 1701-A variants which the kit accounts for.
     
    Personally, I've always somewhat preferred the original design of the Enterprise, maybe because I had the much smaller AMT kit as a child, but when I bought this monster Polar Lights hadn't brought out their version of the original one. But, now that I've spent a lot of time drooling over pictures of other people's models, as well as rewatching bits of ST on Youtube, the refit has really started growing on me. I don't think it will displace the original in my affections, but it's certainly got a lot going for it.
     
    It turns out there is an entire modelling subculture of people building these kits. Not just this one, either, but all the other scales and variants. And as with railway modelling, there are various bits and pieces you can buy to improve your model, as well as pages and pages of internet forums full of discussion and hints and tips.
     
    One thing you notice is that a lot of people put lights in their models, but that seemed like more work than it was worth when I started building the kit. However, after a chance conversation in a model shop, I was persuaded that it's really worth the trouble to light it! I then started looking around for the after-market lighting options, before deciding to go for a relatively budget installation rather than the full bells and whistles. I got a set of LEDS and a lighting board from this ebay retailer:
     
    http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jblightingandmodels?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
     
    The total cost was under 30 pounds, I think, which struck me as a reasonable amount relative to the initial cost of the kit. There is a superb lighting kit available from the States, but it costs more than the original model. Perhaps for another day?
     
    While I was at it, I also ordered a set of Para-grafix etches for superdetailing and replacing one or two of the less accurate details:
     

     
    http://www.paragrafix.biz/
     
    The etch even includes tiny 2-d figures, useful as there a number of areas in the kit where you can legitimately display people, giving a useful sense of size to the finished model.
     
    Because I'd started the kit, I had to indulge in a certain amount of careful dismantling and cutting before I could start putting the lights in. Fortunately I managed to separate all the critical parts without too much damage.
     
    Putting lights in requires a lot of interior work to make sure the finished model is totally light-tight, except for the windows!
     
    The saucer halves fill up most of the box. Here's the underside of the saucer, with some painting guides on a post-it.
     

     
    Light-blocking requires numerous coats of black paint. Even when it looks light-tight, it won't be! The only sure test was to hold the finished part up against a bright ceiling light and see if there was any trace of bleed-through. Inevitably there will be some areas which can't be addressed until final assembly, and there I'll have to light-block from the outside in, before applying the final paint scheme.
     

     
    Once the black has been applied, the next job is to use foil to create a reflective interior so that the light from the LEDS bounces around evely. Here's the inner side of the upper saucer half, after treating with three or four coats of black, silver foil, and most of the required LEDS. I still have to add the navigation lights, which will be wired in separately to allow for flashing. There are a lot more lights that could be added, but again this is where the budget options comes in - as well as not taking an eternity.
     

     
    I hope that my Enterprise will look good, but it won't be a patch on some of the amazing models out there. Basically I want a holiday from a railway modelling project, not a change of hobby! Look at this guy's amazing build sequence:
     
    http://showcase.netins.net/web/marc111creations/PL_Enterprise_Refit_WIP_1.htm
     
    or this one - 1080 hours of work:
     
    http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=170700
     
    Utterly amazing modelling skills.
  9. Barry Ten
    You couldn't get much further from a Toplight Third or Blue Pullman than this, but a change is a good as a rest and this big box of pieces has been gathering dust in my attic for far too long. Although it's not a railway project, its a subject that's very dear to my heart, and it'll draw on a range of familiar skills to get it done.
     


     
    The Polar Lights 1/350th Enterprise kit is justly regarded, being both huge, well designed, and for the most part very accurate. The kit is based around the "refit" Enterprise, which debuted in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture, before going on to feature in a number of the sequels - as well as being destroyed, before coming back as the 1701-A. There are slight differences between the 1701 and 1701-A variants which the kit accounts for.
     
    Personally, I've always somewhat preferred the original design of the Enterprise, maybe because I had the much smaller AMT kit as a child, but when I bought this monster Polar Lights hadn't brought out their version of the original one. But, now that I've spent a lot of time drooling over pictures of other people's models, as well as rewatching bits of ST on Youtube, the refit has really started growing on me. I don't think it will displace the original in my affections, but it's certainly got a lot going for it.
     
    It turns out there is an entire modelling subculture of people building these kits. Not just this one, either, but all the other scales and variants. And as with railway modelling, there are various bits and pieces you can buy to improve your model, as well as pages and pages of internet forums full of discussion and hints and tips.
     
    One thing you notice is that a lot of people put lights in their models, but that seemed like more work than it was worth when I started building the kit. However, after a chance conversation in a model shop, I was persuaded that it's really worth the trouble to light it! I then started looking around for the after-market lighting options, before deciding to go for a relatively budget installation rather than the full bells and whistles. I got a set of LEDS and a lighting board from this ebay retailer:
     
    http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jblightingandmodels?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
     
    The total cost was under 30 pounds, I think, which struck me as a reasonable amount relative to the initial cost of the kit. There is a superb lighting kit available from the States, but it costs more than the original model. Perhaps for another day?
     
    While I was at it, I also ordered a set of Para-grafix etches for superdetailing and replacing one or two of the less accurate details:
     

     
    http://www.paragrafix.biz/
     
    The etch even includes tiny 2-d figures, useful as there a number of areas in the kit where you can legitimately display people, giving a useful sense of size to the finished model.
     
    Because I'd started the kit, I had to indulge in a certain amount of careful dismantling and cutting before I could start putting the lights in. Fortunately I managed to separate all the critical parts without too much damage.
     
    Putting lights in requires a lot of interior work to make sure the finished model is totally light-tight, except for the windows!
     
    The saucer halves fill up most of the box. Here's the underside of the saucer, with some painting guides on a post-it.
     

     
    Light-blocking requires numerous coats of black paint. Even when it looks light-tight, it won't be! The only sure test was to hold the finished part up against a bright ceiling light and see if there was any trace of bleed-through. Inevitably there will be some areas which can't be addressed until final assembly, and there I'll have to light-block from the outside in, before applying the final paint scheme.
     

     
    Once the black has been applied, the next job is to use foil to create a reflective interior so that the light from the LEDS bounces around evely. Here's the inner side of the upper saucer half, after treating with three or four coats of black, silver foil, and most of the required LEDS. I still have to add the navigation lights, which will be wired in separately to allow for flashing. There are a lot more lights that could be added, but again this is where the budget options comes in - as well as not taking an eternity.
     

     
    I hope that my Enterprise will look good, but it won't be a patch on some of the amazing models out there. Basically I want a holiday from a railway modelling project, not a change of hobby! Look at this guy's amazing build sequence:
     
    http://showcase.netins.net/web/marc111creations/PL_Enterprise_Refit_WIP_1.htm
     
    or this one - 1080 hours of work:
     
    http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=170700
     
    Utterly amazing modelling skills.
  10. Barry Ten
    I always feel like I'm on the home stretch when I put primer on, and hopefully that's the case here, but as always putting a flat coat on a model reveals all sorts of issues and imperfections that must be dealt with before thinking about the main colour. I suppose that's the point of it, though - better to find out these things now, while they can still be fixed with more filler and sandpaper!
     
    Nonetheless, the primer does start tieing everything together and if nothing else, as here, I think it shows how sharp the original Triang mouldings are. They really don't look dated compared to modern toolings. The ventilator detail is beautifully crisp, something you appreciate as soon as you try to modify it. It's also nice to see that the Genesis fronts blend so well with the original body.
     

     
    Here's one of the two kitchen cars. I've filled one end door, and scribed new lines for the central ones. I also filled the ventilator at the right side, and added a new one above the left-hand window. Roof detail will have to wait for now but will be added later. At the moment I'm not too happy with the transition between the etched window insert and the lower body sides, so that will need rectifying.
     

     
    I've now done all the intermediate vehicles and the single power car is still more than capable of moving the rake in forward or reverse, so I no longer have any qualms about haulage. Can't wait to finish it now, but I'll resist the temptation to rush the painting stage.
  11. Barry Ten
    Over the week I've been adding more cars to the Western Region, mostly quick work because I already had a large number of bogies assembled. I've also been developing a simple but (hopefully) reliable coupling solution, which consists of a simple hook running from one car to the next, bearing against the inside face of the headstock. A bit of trial and error has been necessary as I wanted to get the coaches as close as possible on the straights, while allowing just enough clearance for curves.
     

     

     
    So far we've got (from the front) - a power car, a parlour second, a kitchen car, two parlour firsts, and a parlour second. I've got the second kitchen car and the rear power car on the desk, but I've run out of bogies now, so I need to get cracking and make some more. On the parlour second, you can see where I've begun to apply filler to blend in the window etch with the coach sides. This wouldn't be necessary if I were retaining the original BP livery, but since I've decided to go for the reverse colour scheme, the blue band needs to extend the full length of the vehicle. Once sanded down, I'm hoping the transition between etch and plastic will be reasonably unobtrusive. Retaining the original blue livery would be a little more straightforward, but I'd have to repaint all the vehicles anyway, as some of the donor coaches I obtained had some scratches and glue marks which have marred the original finish.
     
    The parlour firsts present a slight challenge, as I never ordered replacement window etches for them, thinking I'd stick with the original white window bands. Since I have some spare Triang window inserts, salvaged from the kitchen cars and parlour seconds, I'm going to experiment with painting them blue and see if that's feasible. If not, I'll endeavour to order new etches from Southern Pride.
     
    How's the haulage? Well, so far so good - no problems at all, either forward or reverse. Fingers crossed it stays that way when I add the remaining two unpowered cars, but there's still scope for adding more weight if needed.
  12. Barry Ten
    Prompted by the burst of progress on the FFA/FGA sets, I thought I'd dust off another long-stalled project, this being an attempt at producing an eight-car Western Region Pullman set. I started getting the bits for this together long before the Bachmann model was announced, and I must admit although I carried on the with the best of intentions, the arrival of Bachmann's Midland Pullman did take the wind out of my sails a bit, in that it's a superb model which definitely (for me, at least) scratches the Blue Pullman itch. In other words, I'm not sure I'd bother now. But, I'd made enough progress to justify continuing and the recent acquisition of another BP centre car - for a mere fifteen pounds - was even further incentive to look at how far I'd got. On the subject of the centre cars, I found three or four for sale at less than twenty pounds each at a second-hand stall at a recent model show, suggesting that the market for these has taken a bit of tumble. Admittedly they were all fairly scruffy but if you're contemplating this sort of conversion project, that won't matter too much. I was paying thirty or forty or more ten years ago, and some of those were in fairly tatty condition.
     
    So - where was I? I'd made most of the bogies, acquired the coaches and etched window replacements, and had already grafted new noses onto the Triang driving cars. The bogies are from Chris Leigh, while the noses are from Genesis and the etched sides from Southern Pride. The driving vehicle uses a pair of Black Beetles. I have a couple of spare coaches of the reversed blue/grey variant, which (I discovered) don't have removable window inserts, but these are still useful for seats and underframe parts. If Triang hadn't felt the need to add tension lock couplers to the front, incidentally, then they could have modelled the noses with the buffer beam at the correct depth, and avoided the need for these new castings. I wonder how many people really needed to be able to couple things onto the front of their Blue Pullmans? I bet no one would have minded if there hadn't been couplers.
     
    This week I made a few more tweaks to the motorised power car, adjusting the bogie placements to get them as close to reality as is practically possible given the Triang parts. I also made some more progress on the first of the two Parlour Seconds, one of which is shown here. Next to be done is adjust the seats to match the correct formation for this vehicle.
     

     
    The powered unit runs nice and smoothly and I've wired it up such that conversion to DCC will be pretty painless. But it remains to be seen whether it'll have enough haulage to cope with the full rake. I'm optimistic, but we'll just have to see how it manages as I add more vehicles. If it turns out not to be enough (even with moderate weighting) then I'll make the rear car powered as well.
     
    One last issue is the final livery. It was always going to be the original BP colour scheme, but I'm increasingly toying with the idea of doing it as reversed blue/grey with yellow ends. Although it doesn't seem to have been popular, I've always found the latter scheme to be pretty smart, and at least it'll avoid comparison with the Bachmann one.
  13. Barry Ten
    Back in October I posted an entry on a card kit I'd made for a French corner-style cafe, entitled La Passerelle:
     

    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/257/entry-16720-la-passerelle-a-french-card-structure-in-ho/
     

     

    I've since added another pair of buildings to the block, using another Regions et Compagnies kit, this time for a pair of linked buildings:
     

     
    I've also added lights into some of the rooms, shown separately here as I need to add some more wiring connections behind the scenes
    before they can all be on at the same time:
     

     

     
    After I built the original La Passerelle, I got hold of some textured card roofing sheets and set about improving the roof surfaces on
    the first two buildings. Hopefully you can see the difference between the first and second photos. I've still to do the third, but it'll get the
    same treatment.
     
    There's another building to go in the middle of this block, and then I'll set about integrating them into some sort of street scene/diorama
    which can then be installed on a layout module at a later stage.
     
    One thing which not be readily apparent from the pictures is that these are BIG kits, and would look imposing even on a 4mm layout. My guess
    is that a lot of what we have been conditioned to expect from HO buildings is due to selective compression, with typical plastic buildings being
    made a smaller scale than strict 1/87. I keep having to do a double-take and check the package that these aren't S scale or something! They
    will certainly have a lot of presence in an urban street scene.
  14. Barry Ten
    I bet you'd all forgotten about this, but it's been back on the bench for some final work including droplights being painted, glazing added, and roof and ends painted. There are still a few small castings to go on the ends, as well as working bellows, and I've still yet to add the door opening handles. Then I have to devise some coupling solution which is more a case of choosing one of the several incompatible methods I use on different items of stock.
     
    Corridor side (my favorite side, for some reason - perhaps it's the larger windows, lending a less cluttered look?)
     

     
    Compartment side:
     

     
    Finally I thought I'd see how it lined up against one of Hornby's very nice new 57 foot bow-ended Collett coaches.
     

     
    What's readily apparent is that Hornby's chosen shade of GWR brown is very dull indeed, almost a khaki in certain lights. I wouldn't say it's in any sense wrong but it's definitely on the drab side. My experience
    is that these differences, while stark when you examine two vehicles next to each other, tend to become less striking when running in a train. And of course there was a wide variation in the conditions of paint
    on real coaches, perhaps even more so on the GWR which was noted for assembling very mixed rakes of stock, so you probably wouldn't want too exact a match.
     
    Overall I'm very satisfied with this coach and look forward to adding its brake third partner in due course. Given that it's taken me more than three months to do this one, though, you'd be well advised not to hold your breath...
  15. Barry Ten
    With a five unit rake to populate with containers, I ordered fifteen boxes from C-Rail Intermodal. Five were already painted in Freightliner livery, but the other ten were unpainted boxes in two styles, with and without advertising panels. I also ordered two identical sets of older-era decals, and have now set about painting and decal-ing the models.
     
    At least with the decal sheets I have, there's more scope for using the boxes with panels, whereas only one of the transfer sets (that for AJCL) fits the boxes that have ribs along the whole of the side. I'll no doubt end up ordering more of the former, as well as some more pre-painted boxes, taking a reasonably relaxed rule as to what fits my very loose period.
     

     

     
    As a kid I had the Triang Freightliner depot, which came with an extra CTI container. I'd always liked that container, so it's great that the decal sheet includes an option for CTI - in fact two per sheet, so I should be able to do four in total. I used Railfreight red for this one, French blue for the AJCL container, brick red for the TEX one, and some nondescript green for the Evergreen. The C-Rail decals do give some painting guides for the shades, but it's pretty obvious that you only need to be in the very rough ballpark given how the real things would have aged and faded as they were exposed to the elements. I've yet to fit the door locking gear.
     
    The decals are by Microscale and are up to their usual quality. I've used them before and find them to be very good, and responding well to Micro-Sol and Micro-Set. I found I could do a whole container in about 30 - 45 minutes, with pre-painting taking an evening or two depending on the number of coats. So while it's great to have these kits, it's still fairly time-consuming when you have more than one or two to do.
     
    Not knowing much about container styles and the evolution of company names over the years, I've been very glad to have these two books for reference:
     

     
    The Collins is entirely in black and white save for the cover, but it's a gold-mine for pictures of BR-era container trains. The only drawback is that, with many of the shots typically being the usual three-quarter perspective, the details of the containers are often quite hard to make out. The Shannon is mainly colour and does have some good BR material in it, but it's understandably weighted toward the post-privatisation era.
     
    One thing I will say that is, in many of these shots, the skeletal nature of the FFA/FGA wagons is far from obvious! From anything other than a dead side-on shot, the underframe details blend into the shadows and you can't really tell what's going on. So, while they won't satisfy the purists, I'm very happy with the impressionistic nature of these Triang-Hornby conversions, especially with the containers in place to give a bit of misdirection. On that note I've now done another pair of outer wagons, so the "rake" is now seven units long and really does start to have a bit of presence. Just need some more containers to go on it now...
  16. Barry Ten
    Yesterday I took delivery of a fat envelope full of C-Rail Intermodal goodies, including painted and unpainted containers, as well as some excellent decal sets. The quality of the mouldings and detailing parts was very good, shown to especially good effect with the pre-painted Freightliner boxes, which are of a style suitable for the late 70s.
     
    It was time to see how the containers sat on the modified flats! I'd added the cast attachment points to the flats in accordance with the S-Kits diagrams, carefully filing away recesses in the sides of the Hornby mouldings to accept the castings. Now, the smart thing would have been to use a Bachmann 20 foot container to set out these attachment points, but for some reason that never occurred to me, and it was only when I positioned the C-Rail boxes that I discovered that some of the castings - particularly the ones on the ends of the flats - needed a bit of adjustment. So it was out with the modelling knife, files, superglue and filler and the castings were relocated until they were in neat alignment with the container corners. It wasn't particularly difficult or time-consuming, but I could have saved myself all this bother at the outset, so why didn't I? Answers on a postcard, please...
     

     
    In the meantime, I've started painting the blank boxes - luckily the decal sheets come with very good notes on decal placement and body colour - and I reckon they'll look great once weathered and in-place.
     
    Can you mix Freightliner and deep-sea containers on the same train? I wasn't sure - lots of period photos seems to show only one or the other - but after scrutinising some images it seems that it's also possible to have a mixture of the types, and from a practical standpoint the Freightliner type (including the earlier style as done as Hornby) will help fill out the train quite nicely.
     
    Cheers!
  17. Barry Ten
    I finished re-aligning the attachment points for all five wagons of the initial FFA/FGA rake and am now carrying on with preparing the unpainted container shells. In the meantime, I'm getting a feel for how they sit on the rake, and how the wagons line up. I spent quite a bit of time filing and packing the bogie pivots to get everything level and consistent between the units, but it's quite sensitive to which way around the bogies are, as well as being exaggerated by curves and minor track undulations, so a few more tweaks may be necessary. One thing that's probably unavoidable is the slight sag in the Hornby flats, which are quite bendy, but I hope that with careful positioning of the containers - they'll be glued down gently - I can minimise the effect. In any case, it's really a case of accept it or go home, as there isn't much alternative!
     
    The five unit rake doesn't look very long once it's loaded up, even though my reference books do show the occasional freightliner train using just a single FFA/FGA rake, so I've already made a start converting the other flats. My plan is to do two more outer units, then do the intermediate ones when I'm in the mood.
  18. Barry Ten
    Here's most of the complete backscene in a more or less finished condition, and this time under proper layout lighting. I waited until now to put back the lighting beam as it severely restricts access to certain areas of the module, and I wanted to get the fiddly stuff done first. However, it's not too hard to remove it if needed. Compared to the previous shots, I did some more toning-down with white washes, as well as starting to add some transitional details. Now that the lighting's in place, too, I can get a feel for which way the shadows are falling (if at all) on the foreground elements.
     
    This is a slightly higher viewing angle than the usual, my normal eye-level being roughly in line with the trackwork, unless I'm standing on a footstool.
     
    The King is my usual old-stager, being the Lima body on a Comet chassis, and the coaches are slightly weathered Hornby Hawksworths.
  19. Barry Ten
    As part of the reworking of the spring module, I wanted to take the opportunity to replace the original photographic backscene with a painted one, in keeping with the other two modules. There's nothing wrong with photographic backscenes, of course, and in many ways they'll be the most realistic, but I prefer the flexibility of a painted one, as well as finding them easier to alter as one's ideas change.
     
    The original backscene consisted of card sheets with a photographic layer glued on. In an ideal world, I'd have replaced the whole lot with a continuous sheet of flexible MDF, but unfortunately the thickness of such a sheet would have created problems where the backscene pushes uncomfortably close to the track. So - before exploring other options such as thin plastic or canvas - I decided to have a go at overpainting the original. I wasn't sure how it would work out, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, so with paints and mixing tray in hand off I went. The sky was painted using just two acrylic colours, cerulean blue and white, applied using a wide, soft brush, and with the paint used straight from the tube. I kept at it for several days until I was happy with the general impression of clouds and blue bits, suggestive of a partially overcast sky. I avoid trying to suggest shadowed clouds as I find this can overpower the landscape unless done very skillfully. The card cockled badly (as expected) but gradually flattened itself out again to an acceptable level.
     

     
    Next I started building up the distant hills, using a sap green, white and only a few other tints, keeping it all well de-saturated. Once I was happy with the general form of the hills, hedges and so on, I applied a further
    layer of dilute white just to push it all back a bit more. Ideally one would paint all this stuff at a comfortable position on a table, but I had to reach in and paint it in-situ, using long brushes and resting my hand on the
    roof of the ruined barn and so on. Detail work is definitely out!
     

     
    At the recent Bristol O Gauge show I'd been impressed with the scenic dioramas done by Paul Bambrick, some of which use intermediate background layers to create a kind of 3-d backscene. There was scope for giving this a go on this module, so I added a second, closer line of hills spaced a few mm closer than the main one, and painted a bit more vividly. In the flesh, the 3-d effect is surprisingly effective. I think the next job will be to treat both layers to another white wash, just to de-saturate the greens a little more and push it all a bit further into the distance. There might even be scope for a third layer in places.
     

     
    There's an element of guesswork here, as I expect the colours to shift a bit once I get the layout's lighting rig back into place. They say you should always paint under the same illumination as the finished model, but in this case ease of access won the day. Never mind, though, as any discrepancies can always be shifted back a bit with additional glazes. In general I'm pleased with the impression of open space around the farm, which in reality is a very shallow scene.
  20. Barry Ten

    FFA/FGA container flats

    By Barry Ten,

    This is one of those protracted modelling projects which kept being shoved into a shoe box under the workbench and forgotten about. Although it might be considered a bit outside my normal interests, I've always had a thing about container trains. I think it goes back to a school trip to France in 1979, which involved sailing from Southampton. With seemingly hours to wait before the ferry departed, I remember a view across the docks of a container terminal, and being amazed at the variety of colours, compared to the regulation brown and grey which was all you seemed to get on normal goods trains - at least the ones that went past our school. Ever since then I've been smitten with container trains, regarding them as far more interesting than the usual run-of-the-mill modern freight consists.
     
    I wanted a "1970s" container train, therefore, and decided to take the route of using the S-kits detailing pack to convert a rake of the basic Triang-Hornby container flats. This is very much impressionistic modelling as the kit has to live with the fact that the Hornby wagons have solid frames, rather than the open, skeletal look of the prototype. But as far as I'm aware the only other route to these wagons was an expensive and complex kit designed for P4 modellers, so I took the pragmatic route. It's the containers that'll catch the eye, not the underframe - at least, that's the theory. The S-kits package includes parts to do five wagons, so a complete FFA/FGA rake, and I bought two packs since I intended to do nine or ten vehicles in total, depending on the length of my storage loops. A start was made, wheels bought, bearings added, bogies converted and lowered on the underframes, and various cast bits added to the flats. And that, I'm afraid to say, was 2007. I then got bored with the tediousness of the conversions and put the lot away until later. As luck would have it, Bachmann then announced that they were doing state-of-the-art versions of these wagons, so that was even less incentive to crack on.
     
    But it's two years since the Bachmann announcement, the wagons aren't anywhere near being in the shops, and in any case my personal modelling philosophy is shifting more to having an imperfect but personal model, than something out of a box which doesn't carry any real personal stamp. The real shove to re-examine this project, though, was a review of Model Rail showing C-Rail's new 1970s-era containers, as well as suitable decals. The authentic containers were always going to be a bit of a stumbling block, but not now!
     
    Last night I got the bits out of the box, assessed what had been done, and spent today completing the first of the rakes, barring fine detail such as brake wheels. Getting these to track reliably is a challenge, but after a lot of patient fiddling I got there in the end, and they should only be more sure-footed once the containers are added. They look good whizzing around, anyway.
     

     

     
    Cheers and thanks for reading.
  21. Barry Ten
    Over the last fortnight I've taken the plunge and done some fairly major reworking of the spring module. It used to be single track, but now it's double, which - given that there were already two running lines through the main summer module - means that there is now only a short stretch of single track anywhere on the layout. It's been a lot of messy work, and so the obvious question is - why? One answer is that I've always fancied seeing running of the bigger locomotive classes, such as Castles and Kings, and these always looked a little out of place on the old layout, even allowing for such things as the Kingswear branch. A second answer is that I wasn't quite happy with the sharp reverse curve of the original single track course, which worked fine for smaller engines but resulted in the larger classes looking a little ungainly as they negotiated the bends. Once this T9 crosses the brook, it has to swing to the right to gain the right route for exiting the module - a swerve which looked fine when I laid the track, but gradually came to annoy me.
     

     
    But all of those turned out to be secondary considerations! The main one was a nagging drawback with the fiddleyard. As originally designed - and to be fair it's served me well enough for eight years - it consisted of six double-ended storage loops. Fine enough, but because of the way the turnouts were arranged, the loops got progressively shorter until the last two were just enough for a pannier and B-set, with even a three-car DMU being too long. Worse than that though, when I looked at the amount of room on the boards not taken up by track, I couldn't help feeling that the existing set of loops weren't a very efficient use of space.
     
    The solution was to go double-track, breaking the loops into three up and three down tracks, meaning that - ultimately - they can all be long and make much better use of the available area. I thought long and hard about doing it, though, because I was quite satisfied with the scenery and reliability of the layout as it was, and I didn't want to undo a lot of good work. In the end, though, I got the itch to start doubling! The plan was to do the work in two phases, completing work on the spring module (including re-ballasting and attending to scenery) before doubling the winter module. The first job, to be able to work efficiently, was to dismantle the existing lighting rig and valence, so - since it hasn't been put back together yet - these shots are taken with just the normal room lighting.
     
    So here's where we are:
     

     
    Track is now doubled through the spring module, and the new alignment is a lot gentler on the reverse curves than the old one. It was actually a case of lifting and relaying all the track, as well as altering the angle and width of the crossing over the brook. By working carefully, I managed not to damage any of the foreground scenery, including the telegraph poles - but more on that later. The new brook crossing uses some of the old Wills parts but (for speed) I decided to use the exciting new Superquick papers!
     

     
    Since I'd seemingly acquired a huge number of stone sheets from Beatties(!) this was the spur to tackle the occupation bridge at the end of the layout, as featured here:
     

     
    Before, the single track just ducked out of the module through an exit concealed by trees, but being double now, the hole needed better concealment. Here's how the occupation bridge looks in-situ, providing a nice means of access for the field in the corner.
     

     
    Following a suggestion by Job, I've used charcoals to add a little grime to the bridge and its adjoining retaining walls, but there's still more to be done. Things were going well at that point, but then I managed to drop a tiny blob of Copydex on the telegraph lines. Disaster! It gummed them together in nanoseconds and no amount of delicate persuasion has managed to get them de-gummed. Never mind, they'll just have to be done again, at least between two of the poles. In the meantime, I'm attempting to see what can be salvaged of the original backscene, which I'd also come to dislike in various places.
     
    Lessons learned? With the old track, there were areas where it annoyed me that the C+L wasn't as flat as it could have been, with various dips and bumps. I vowed to do a better job this time, but all I've discovered is that it's bloody hard laying flat C+L! Being so naturally flexible, it's probably superb on a rigid baseboard surface, but as soon as you have some inherent give in the system - such as when using any kind of soft underlay - it's all too easy to end up with exactly the same dips and bumps you were trying hard to avoid! At least I've tried to minimise them this time. In this regard, Peco's promised bullhead track would have been easier to work with, I suspect.
     
    Anyway, ballasting's next...what larks!
     
    Cheers and thanks for reading.
  22. Barry Ten

    Occupation bridge

    By Barry Ten,

    A real bit of old-school railway modelling here - just an afternoon's work with some card, glue, sharp knives and Superquick stone paper:
     

     
    It's a freelance bridge, but inspired by a number of photos of arched occupation bridges in which the road rises to a hump in the middle. It's
    meant to conceal an exit on a reworked portion of the Spring module - but more on that later. The bridge allows access across farmland which has
    been traversed by the railway, so it need only be wide enough for a tractor or perhaps a herd of sheep.
     
    Whatever the pros and cons of printed sheets are, you can construct a simple model in quite a short time compared to other methods. At the
    very least, you don't have to paint it afterwards! Personally I enjoy using varied modelling media, and I'm not at all bothered about occasionally
    juxtaposing one medium with another, provided it's done carefully. The ruined barn in the field which this bridge leads to, for instance, is a
    Hornby resin product, but once weathered and bedded into its surroundings, it doesn't look out of place.
     
    The flash on my camera has picked out some areas which could benefit from a little touching-in with paint, but they're far less obvious in the
    flesh.
     
    Hope you've enjoyed this throwback to a simpler modelling era!
  23. Barry Ten
    One thing I tried to do on this blog is document the cock-ups as well as the triumphs, so in the spirit of honesty, here's what happened with the 70 footer this week. Rest assured, it's back on track now, but it's definitely been one of the more trying episodes...
     
    As mentioned last time, I had primer on and over last weekend I went on to apply GWR cream, which went on very successfully. I then allowed the cream to harden over a couple of days before carefully and laboriously masking up the sides (and interior) for application of the chocolate. Almost immediately things went badly wrong, with the brown drying to a horrible gritty, speckly finish, quite unlike the satin lustre of the cream. I tried a rescue job but by the evening the painful truth was settling in - it was going to have be a total respray job. So the model was stripped of paint in two sessions, and along the way - as I'd feared - quite a lot of the plastic detailing came adrift, including a lot of the door hinges and roof ribs. Then, to cap it all, the roof parted company with the sides, and various other bits fell off! By then it was looking very sad indeed.
     
    But undaunted I cleaned up the sides and roof and refixed them, this time using araldite instead of superglue, and ended up with a somewhat tighter and neater fit than before, and which ought to be stronger. I then reattached the hinges, made new roof ribs, and finally applied a test coat of primer. Which brings us back to tonight, with the coach at least looking slightly less sad than it did an evening or two ago.
     
    I'm still not sure what happened with the brown - possibly I was flogging a too-old can of aerosol and something had happened to the paint constituency. So next time, I'll use a fresh tin (luckily I stocked up at the Bristol show) or perhaps dig out the airbrush for a more controlled application.
  24. Barry Ten
    While I carry on with the Collett coach, here's a bit of 2-D modelling that's been keeping me occupied since last summer. Those of you who've seen a copy of Neil Parkhouse's recent book "West Gloucester and Wye Valley Lines" will recognise the inspiration, in that there's a captivating colour image of Tintern station, taken somewhere between 1936 and 1939, and probably around 1937. It's one of the most amazing images I've ever seen in a railway book, a real glimpse back into the pre-nationalisation era, bringing it alive in a way that B&W photography never quite manages. Not only does it show wagons, locomotive, camping coach and so on in full GWR glory, but it's the kind of railway-in-the-landscape shot that you see very rarely even in BR-era pictures.
     
    I was so taken with the picture that I fancied doing a painting of it, and so last July I picked up a huge canvas from an art shop in Bristol and have been working on it ever since, almost entirely on Wednesday evenings at the local art society. There's still a fair bit to do, but I'm happy with the way it's developing. Its not a straight copy of the original, as I wanted to make it more "summery" than the photo, and I've deviated a bit in the relative positioning and angles of things, not always intentionally! The medium is acrylic.
     

     
    Having studied the original photograph for hours and hours, it strikes me that Tintern would make a wonderful model, with the sweeping curves of the track layout, the gently sloping terrain, the line on an embankment etc.
  25. Barry Ten
    Over Christmas I finished the bogies, apart from a few extra castings which I just found at the bottom of the box, and also completed the basic detailing of the underframe. I say "basic" as, to be accurate, there should be four sets of trusses at the bottom of the coach, not just the two on either side. And perhaps I'll get around to adding the middle two at some point, as well as the brake linkages and dynamo belt, but for now I've used all the bits in the kit and it's certainly on a par with my other GWR coaches.
     

     
    I also tackled the door hinges. After some experimentation, I decided that I didn't want to be soldering on the inside of the coach, so I decided to represent the hinges with small slivers of plastic strip - very much an impressionistic approach, but I think they'll look OK once the coach is painted. I ruled felt tip lines onto the outside as a guide, then tweezered the hinges into position over tiny dots of cyano. They seem durable enough, especially as my stock doesn't get handled all that often.
     
    I'd like to add the door and commode handles now but they'll get in the way when I mask off the top half of the coach, so - on balance - I think I'll leave them until I've applied paint and lining. Next up is the roof detailing and then the interior, followed by buffers and MJT corridor connectors.
     
    I've certainly enjoyed getting the coach to this state, and although there's still quite a bit of work to do, I'm strongly motivated to build a matching 70 foot brake.
     
    May I wish you all a happy and healthy 2016, and thanks for all who have read and commented on my blog, as well as offering advice and guidance.
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