Dan Randall

Hi Mark As a big fan of parcels stock and a WR modeller, I'm looking forward to seeing this one develop. Regards Dan

What he said - well done Rob, they look excellent! Regards Dan

Well done Richard (and team). Looking forward to seeing this at a show in the not too distant. It's a shame I won't be able to run my stuff on it though...... Regards Dan

Hi Rob. If it's the Ian Kirk Siphon G, you didn't get the wrong one - it's the only planking variant he does! I was going to buy one myself at Telford last year and like you, I wanted an inside frame Siphon with vertical planks - I came away empty handed. If you've managed to convert yours to a vertically planked example, I salute you! Regards Dan

Nice one Jon. After this, doing a Western loco will be a walk in the park..... Regards Dan

Thanks for your kind words. I'm a bit new to this blog thingy and I'm also a bit of a computer muppet - I've recently discovered my blog entries are actually far too long, which is why the Western one just kind of fizzles out where it does! I've only brought about 50% of it over from the old forum so far.... I now have to go through it all again and break it into smaller chunks and will have to do the same with any other posts too. It might take a while, as I really have to be in the mood to go through all that again, but do pop back from time to time and see how I'm doing! Regards Dan

Nice one Pugs. After I've got one or two other ongoing projects out of the way, I've promised myself an MMP 08. I imagine it'll have a rather faded pre-TOPS BR blue finish and I'll be popping back here for some tips and inspiration, when the time comes. See you at Reading. Regards Dan

Yes, thanks to you, Jamie and Mikkel - well done chaps. Now I Just have to bring all my other stuff over from the old forum and also start on some new projects to fill some of the many "empty" categories.... Regards Dan

Yeah, sorry about that Pugs, but you'll thank me one day. Are you still going to Reading in December to, ahem, buy some wheels? I like the logos, by the way. Regards Dan

Nice work JB. Regards Dan

An excellent result Mike - well done. Methinks I'll be bending Mr MOK's ear about a S7 friendly version next time I see him. Regards Dan

It's now apparent why finished AGH wheels command such a high price! There's a lot of work goes into them (especially when you consider the original pattern making too), but don't they look nice! I hope to be able to flash out on a set of these one day, but to keep costs to a sensible level, it will probably be a simple 0-4-2 or 0-6-0 tank loco. Regards Dan

Thanks Mike Considering you've not worked on it every day, that's a pretty good rate of progress and, I would suggest, gives a good indication as to the quality of the kit. So, as it's nearly there, what's scheduled to land on the workbench next? Regards Dan

You've made a cracking job of the loco and the weathering Mike (though I do think the driver's trousers could do with being a little less err, bright!). It doesn't seem that long ago since you started it. Can you remember how long it took to build please? Regards Dan

Very nice work as usual Pugs and I must agree with Road Stone, the shot of both together is excellent. Of course, you know that MMP do an 08 in 7mm scale..... Regards Dan

Nice work Richard. Sometimes, making jigs can be a real chore, but the end results, as in this case, are well worth it. Methinks I'll have to invest in some of this Scale Hardware stuff too. Regards Dan

Mmmm, that does look rather nice. I quite fancy one of those (and an Orion Hawksworth auto trailer), but what mods did you have to make to change it to S7 please? Regards Dan

You lucky sod - all that space at your disposal and everything in one room! I work at the kitchen table and constantly have to fend off the cat who likes to do that "I'll just bat this object across the room for no reason" thing that cats do. My books and bits are spread over four rooms as well, which isn't ideal. I'm actually amazed that I get anything done to be honest, but if I had an activity bunker like yours, I'd be unstoppable. And by the way, I can see your MMP BG on that middle shelf you know.... Regards Dan

It's a little out of period for me, but it's looking good. I agree with Buckjumper about your way of replicating hinges and the idea has now been nicked for a second time.... Regards Dan

Hi Mike The Q1 is looking really good and I'm amazed at how quickly it seems to be coming together. Top marks. Regards Dan

Thanks guys - glad to see you here too. Sorry for the lack of avatar. I've had a few attempts at re-sizing some photos, but so far it hasn't liked what I've been doing. Edit: Well, as you can see, I've now managed to get an avatar picture (my wife, Rachel), but it wasn't easy to do! I was going to load a picture of me in my profile section and an avatar, but for some reason it wouldn't let me. What you're actually seeing as my avatar, was actually loaded as my profile picture. It's probably best this way - my wife is much nicer to look at.... Regards Dan

Sunday 11th October 2009: So, here we are in the brave new world of RMweb4. Those of you, who subscribed to my 7mm Workbench ramblings on the old RMweb, may be pleased to know that there will be more of the same here. I hope to bring across all my previous workbench stuff, but I??™m also hoping to separate each project into its own section if possible. I have two locos on the go at present ??“ a JLTRT Western and a JLTRT/Mitchell Castle. I also have a number of Slater??™s vans and wagons on the go, including an ex. SR PMV, BR 12t Van, BR Insulated Van and a Conflat. As an ex P4 modeller, I was becoming increasingly unhappy with the clunky appearance of O gauge wheels and as recently as two weeks ago, I decided to move from OF to Scale Seven (S7). As a result of this, I have already had the Western??™s wheels re-profiled, so there??™s no going back now! In due course, I??™ll get the Castle??™s wheels re-profiled, then strip the chassis down and rebuild it with S7 frame spacers. The wagons and vans currently on the go do not present too much of a challenge, as some of the underframes aren??™t even built yet! I??™m also keen to build a small S7 layout, which I??™ll document here. I don??™t have a lot of room at my disposal (7mm stuff is big!), but I keep being drawn to Gordon Gravett's "Ditchling Green" (MRJ No 50). The scenic part is 11' 3" long and our lean-to is 12', so I could at least get something of similar dimensions built. Any curves would be very subtle, so I don't see any problems there. Fiddle yard boards would add additional length, so running sessions would be confined to outside on dry/sunny days! I have in mind a half-station layout, similar to Ken Gibbon's "New Quay", with a small fiddle yard at each end. Passenger trains terminate at the station (for whatever reason), so you only get to see the loco and first two coaches, the rest of the train (which obviously doesn't actually exist), is being obscured by a footbridge, overbridge or whatever view blockers I can engineer. This means I won't need much in the way of coaching stock and is the perfect excuse to obtain a couple of MMP Mk1s to hang on the back of my JLTRT Western (or JLTRTs forthcoming Warship!). Short freight workings can continue through the station (to the other fiddle yard), to serve some sort of off-scene industry, such as a Dairy (which would satisfy my craving for some 6-wheel milk tanks!). My modeling preferences are BR (Western Region), 1960 ??“ 1975, so the station would reflect this, with typical buildings, enamel signs (I love Totems!) and platform furniture such as lamp posts, fencing, benches and trolleys. I did manage to buy some timber a few weeks ago, but haven??™t yet formulated a track plan. As soon as I do, I??™ll be getting stuck into some carpentry, track laying and all the other tasks that layout building entails! Here??™s a reminder of what??™s to come??¦. Regards Dan

Tuesday 3rd June 2008: I decided to do some work to the Western today. This is a direct result of seeing the progress "Druid" is making with his version of the same kit - thanks Druid! I last did some work on my Western about six months ago, but for some reason, I forgot to post it on RMweb at the time. Anyway, from the outset, I decided to illuminate the cabs, headcodes and marker lights. However, because certain parts will be inaccessible once the kit is built, a bit of forward planning is called for. Marker lights: Although very nicely moulded on the cab fronts, the actual lens part is just a shallow blind hole, so the first job is to drill these out.... I discovered that I had some aluminium tube in stock that was a nice snug fit in the holes, (outside diameter is 1.5mm and the inside diameter is 0.85mm). A short section of tube is cut off and cleaned up to remove any internal and external burrs. It is then inserted into the hole in the marker light where, because of its snug fit, it will stay where you put it.... With a 0.85mm drill in a pin chuck, carefully drill through the centre of the tube, keeping the drill as perpendicular to the cab as possible. Note that the cab has a very shallow "V" shaped front, so it is this facet that you need to keep perpendicular to! The tube ensures that the holes being drilled are nicely centred. Here's the drilling in progress.... And finished.... I think I drilled down to about 10mm or so, removing the drill frequently and removing the swarf from the flutes. The area behind the marker lights is a large plug of resin - this is what you're drilling into.... And here are marker lights done.... Once the 0.85mm holes are done, remove the tube and carefully enlarge the holes to 1.5mm, like so.... (That was last years output, now we move on to today's progress). Once this has been done, you need to get the fibre optic from its light source to the marker light itself. Initially, I had drilled another hole at an angle from the rear to intersect with the holes drilled from the front, as indicated by the scriber in the picture.... Having done this, I discovered that I couldn't run the fibre optic to the light source as I had first envisaged, because getting the chassis moulding in and out would have caused problems. I had to resort to making a channel in the cab casting using a burr in a mini drill following a rough guide line.... A few minutes later and this is where it's at.... I had to drill through from the marker light again until it met up with the channel and you can just make out the drill in the picture. Once the channel is ready, it's time to install a length of the same aluminium tube that was used for the drilling. This will enable the fibre optic to be fed through from the light source to the marker light. Ensure that there are no kinks in the tube otherwise you won't be able to feed the fibre optic through! Here's a piece of tube and length of fibre optic in position.... Before going any further, I thought I'd better see if this would actually work. Here's a view from the front with a length of fibre optic in position, with just ambient light visible.... The same again, but this time, the other end of the fibre optic is being held over a light source.... I realise that the marker light on this side should actually be red, but I was using my anglepoise lamp as the light source. The fibre optic is actually about 6 - 7mm from the outside of the marker light, because as I moved it nearer the outside, it started to move away from being central, probably due to the curvature it goes through on its journey. The aluminium tube stops short too and only just plugs into the hole at the back, again I think, due to its curvature. I might fit a small offcut of aluminium tube from the front of the marker light to channel the light from the fibre optic. Also, if I countersink the internal bore of the tube with a larger drill, I'm hoping it will give the impression of a reflector behind the lens. The lenses themselves will just be blobs of Microscale "Kristal Klear" and although the red marker light will have a red light source, I shall attempt to give the lens a red tint too, as this seems to be quite apparent in photographs. Anyway, having satisfied myself that it's worthwhile continuing I mixed up some Milliput and filled in the channel.... A few hours later, the Milliput could be sanded down and this is the result.... In order for the fibre optic cable to reach the light source, the hatched part of the cab bulkhead needs to be removed.... I do have more pictures to post, but it's time for bed now so I think they'll have to wait. __________________________________________ Tuesday 3rd June 2008 (continued): OK, here's the stuff I was too tired to post yesterday. Head code illumination: My first thought on how to illuminate the head codes was to use one or two small bulbs. I was a little worried about the build up of heat so I drilled a 6mm hole through the bulkhead and under the cab floor to hopefully permit some degree of ventilation. The more I thought about it though, the less I liked the idea of bulbs. They have a tendency to expire eventually and I was worried about being able to get to them if I needed to. I decided that a single 5mm white LED might be more suitable and decided the best way to get it into the headcode void was from below, via the chassis moulding. This caused its own problems in that unlike a bulb, the light emitted from an LED is concentrated into a fairly narrow beam and in this case would be shining upwards instead of forwards. Being made of a sort of cream/grey resin, I suppose the walls of the headcode void might have bounced the light around a bit and enabled some to shine forwards, but I didn't want to take any chances. I fabricated a brass "illumination box" to fit inside the headcode void. This is obviously more reflective than resin and incorporated a curved rear reflector. I felt if any light was being bounced around inside, the reflector would definitely channel the light forwards. Being brass, I figured this would also take some of the harshness from the white LED and give it a sort of tungsten glow. Having made one of these, I couldn't face making any more (and I do intend to build more Westerns in the future). As I was doing some artwork for various etched projects at the time (remember the Castle balance weights?), I took the easy way out, drew them up and had them etched. Here's the result in its flat state.... And folded up.... I had to bin the etched reflectors and fabricate new ones from some scrap brass. I'd drawn them too short and the (now unrequired), vent holes at the rear caused them to crease. The artwork has since been modified. The next job is to mark the chassis moulding where the LED is to go.... And then drill the hole.... Here's the head code illumination box in position.... Now fit the LED.... Connect the LED to a power source and it should light up.... There seems to be a reasonable amount of light on show, so fingers crossed. This is where it gets interesting. With the power to the LED off, slide the cab into position.... Then dim the lights and switch the power back on.... I'm pretty happy with that. The power source I'm using here is just the test facility from a multi-meter, so it's probably fairly low voltage. Once installed properly, the LEDs will be connected to a proper power supply via resistors. The Western is to be DCC fitted at some point in the future, so I'll be able to tweak the light output if needs be. I now need to devise a way to illuminate the cabs and in fairness, I'll probably just drill some holes at the top of the bulkheads, feed the legs of the LEDs through and connect them to a power source. I also need to install the LEDs that provide the light for the marker lights and run the fibre optics to them. Incidentally, the headcode blinds are made by Precision Labels. Here's what's on and more importantly, in the packet.... I bought mine in October 2005 from Frizinghall Model Railways, Bradford (01274) 542515 and they cost ??9.99 + ??1.00 postage. I'd not noticed the sticker on the back of the packet before - I imagine you could get them direct from Precision too. __________________________________________ Sunday 6th July 2008: After a bit of an absence from the workbench, I managed to do some more to the Western today. Having done some work to the marker lights in a previous posting, I decided to give some thought to the cab illumination today. I had intended to install two 3mm LEDs in each cab, but following a conversation with a friend earlier in the day, I decided that I might actually get away with just one in each cab. My friend has recently installed lighting to his MMP Class 47 and has managed to embed the tails/wiring in a channel milled in the cab roof castings (which are quite thick), whilst the LEDs themselves (one per cab), point downwards. The cab roof castings on the Western aren't thick enough to permit this, but this wasn't really an issue for me because I wanted to be able to get them out easily should the need ever arise. Also, having tried folding the tails of an LED at 90 degrees and putting it in position in the roof, I wasn't happy with the way it hung down like a chandelier. I decided to keep the LED's as close to the underside of the roof as possible and have them pointing straight ahead and the results were most encouraging. I also wanted a simple method of getting power to the LEDs and decided to use these miniature plugs & sockets, which came from "All Components".... As luck would have it, the tails of the LEDs fit nicely into the connectors.... I marked the Anodes and Cathodes with some overhead projector pens, so I'd know which was which after cutting them to the same length.... I think I trimmed them both so they were about 25mm long and then inserted them as far as they would go into a female connector. Having done this I bent the tails over approximately 90 degrees.... I made a couple of slots in the centre of the cab rear bulkheads to accept the tails of the LEDs.... Here's an LED and connector just resting in position.... The tails of the LEDs will be held in the slots with a dab of superglue and filler and should be easy enough to get out again should I need to. The connectors just slide up into position and are held by friction as one would expect. Anyway, having got the basic set up together, it's time for a test. Here's the cab in a suitably dimmed room.... Add power to the LED and this is the result.... It's a shame the cab interior isn't painted yet. A final view showing both bulkheads with their LEDs glued in position.... That's all for now - more pictures as and when. __________________________________________ Tuesday 8th July 2008: A few bogie shots, as requested by 28ten.... Underside of bogie, motor end.... Bogie casting/moulding showing leading axle hole.... The centre axle holes are supplied elongated to allow up and down movement. I imagine the same could be done to the leading holes too, leaving the rear (driven), axle rigid as is the norm with a steam loco chassis. Here's one of the original bogie castings/mouldings after I'd dropped it on the floor.... I'd just completed it and was about to take it upstairs for a session on the rolling road (out of the way of the kitten), when I inexplicably let it go. When the bogies are complete with wheels, motors, castings and so on, they're pretty heavy, so be very careful when you build yours. Following a quick e-mail to JLTRT, I had a replacement bogie on my workbench within a couple of days. These are the (three) whitemetal castings that make up the suspension that surrounds the centre wheels.... These are supposed to be glued into slots in the bogie sides, but I decided to modify them to enable me to get the wheels in and out if needed. I soldered some brass studding to the whitemetal castings and made holes at the top of the slots to give a sort of keyhole effect, like so.... The castings are then held on by putting nuts on the studding from inside. Finally, a couple of shots of the brake rigging.... I must get around to doing the other three sets of rigging soon. __________________________________________ Thursday 10th July 2008: Having dealt with getting some fibre optics to the marker lights in a previous posting, I decided to deal with the "light source" ends today. After a little thought, I decided on some male and female connectors made from telescopic tube. Here are the bits required to do one marker light.... One down, three to go. Once all the tubing was prepared, I drilled a couple of 0.9mm holes in the rear of the bulkheads.... Work then begins on the LEDs. As before, I marked the anode and cathode with red and blue overhead projector pens and then trimmed them to the same length. Next, small lengths of sheathing from some appropriately sized (and coloured), multi strand cable are slid in place. I removed the pins from the male part of the miniature 2 pin connectors seen previously and having bent the LED tails 90 degrees, the remainder of the male connector is slid into place and glued with superglue. Finally, I drilled a 0.9mm hole through the male connector and glued a short length of 0.9mm wire. Here's one example finished.... The larger of the tubes shown earlier then slides over the LED to make the female part of the assembly.... Although the tube slides easily over the LED, it tends to catch on the plastic sheathing. I filed a bit of bevel on the inside of the tube and once it's passed the leading edge of the sheathing, it holds on nicely. This how the LED will look, once positioned on the bulkhead.... To make the male part of the assembly, the intermediate brass tubes are telescoped and soldered together. The aluminium tube is glued inside these and the fibre optic is glued inside the aluminium.... To allow for the domed shape of the LED, I put a bevel on the inside of the tubes with a centre drill.... This is how the light source and fibre optic come together.... Both ends have now been dealt with.... With the bulkhead in position, this is how it looks.... Finally, I've installed the LEDs for the headcodes from below. I think the LEDs must have a slight taper to their bodies, because they are a nice interference fit in a 5mm hole, no glue required.... I'm now in a position, where I can actually think about gluing the body together. However, I'll probably leave it for a bit in case I think of something else I need to do first. I may well start painting and fitting out the cab interiors though and I still have a couple of bags of castings to de-sprue and clean up, plus three lots of brake rigging to fit. More progress reports as and when. __________________________________________ Tuesday 29th July 2008: With a few hours to kill before work (but not enough for a fully blown session), I decided to make a start on the cab interiors. I gave the castings a good scrub with some liquid scouring cream and then dried them with a hairdryer. Here they are ready for painting.... Next a light coat of Halfords acrylic satin black paint.... This was followed by some Precision Paints BR Freight Stock Grey.... This was applied by fairly loosely by brush, as I didn't want a pristine finish and quite a bit of white spirit was stippled in and blended with the paint too. This done, it was time to get ready for work, but they needed to dry off anyway. Moving on to today (Friday), I applied more Precision Paint, this time Roof Grey. This was to darken down the existing finish and also to pick out some of the black items on my prototype picture, but without the intensity of black paint.... Again, lots of white spirit was used and I'm pretty happy with the results. I'll have to start painting/fitting the various controls next and then think about painting the bulkheads and the inside of the cab castings themselves. __________________________________________ Friday 26 September 2008: I had a few hours in which to do some modelling today and thought I'd do a bit more to the Western. I've spent a lot of time looking through one of my most thumbed books lately "Power of the Westerns", trying to find a suitable identity for my model (more of that later). After looking at various Westerns and especially cab fronts for so long, I realised there might be room for improvement in the headcode box area. On the kit, the vertical divider between the doors has no representation of the gap that exists between them (if you see what I mean?). On the prototype, the left hand door closes over the right hand door, therefore the gap should be offset to the right. I don't have specific dimensions, but it looks like the gap is about two thirds of the way across. There is also a small handle on the left hand door and I decided to have a go at replicating both these missing features. Here are a couple of pictures of the headcode box on "Western Campaigner" on the West Somerset Railway.... Unfortunately, they don't illustrate the offset gap because they weren't closed at the time, but you can make out the small handle on the left hand door. I might have to replicate the holes at the top and bottom of the right hand door as well, but that can wait for another day. In order to get a decent vertical scribe line between the doors, I decided to make a jig from some pieces of brass. This also doubles up as a jig to drill the holes accurately. Here are the basic components.... The piece on the left fits snugly into the aperture in the left hand door (the holes are just an aid to soldering the parts together), whilst the right hand piece rests on the aperture surround. Here's the first part sitting in the headcode aperture.... The raised mouldings on the vertical bar will need to be removed for the jig to fit and will be reinstated later. Here are the parts soldered together.... The holes have now been drilled for the handle.... Because the headcode aperture is recessed into the cab front, these "wings" need to be folded to conform to the appropriate shape.... At this point I realised there needed to be some additional holes top and bottom, so these were incorporated into the jig.... The jig is now fitted into the aperture in the left hand door.... After scribing and drilling, this is the result.... It took quite a while to actually make the jig, but not very long to do the scribing and drilling. However, by the time I'd finished the first one, it was time for bed (I was going to Scaleforum the following morning!). I'll do the other cab next time I get a bit of spare time. I mentioned earlier that I was looking for an identity for my Western. It had been my intention to go for a Swindon built example and I had already bought plates for D1029 "Western Legionnaire". Having bought the plates, I realised I couldn't find a picture of the prototype in scabby Rail Blue finish circa 1972. Also, in every picture I've seen of "Legionnaire", there's no sign of headboard clips and this was something I wanted on my model. Having trawled through a couple of books, I came across a picture of D1031 Western Rifleman in "Power of the Westerns".... The picture shows the loco being stripped for spares in Swindon works and the finish is, as desired, pretty scabby and it has headboard clips. Although built at Crewe rather than Swindon, what attracted me (apart from the rather cool name), was the date the photo was taken - 5th November 1975. As a child, I loved fireworks - as a matter of fact, I still do. I thought it was rather poignant that on that day in 1975, as a fourteen year old that couldn't wait for darkness to fall, this handsome loco was being dismantled and would soon be no more. The real clincher though was reading in Adrian Curtis' book "Cast of Thousands", that the loco's last day in traffic was 28th November 1974 - my 14th birthday. Whilst working a Margam-Acton freight that evening, it had caught fire near Patchway and rather like my favoured "Standard Fireworks", would have been "lighting up the sky" that evening. __________________________________________ Saturday 18th October 2008: A little more progress was made on the Western today, specifically to the headcode boxes. My previous post showed how I'd represented the gap between the headcode box doors. Having done this, I started to become drawn to the gap around the doors that is incorporated in the casting - it just seemed too wide in comparison with photos of the prototype, especially when compared with the vertical gap that I'd just added. In a moment of extreme bravery (or foolishness), I decided to try and rectify the appearance. First of all, I pared off the representations of hinges with a chisel shaped blade. Then the moulded gap was plugged with some JP Green Model Filler. Once this had set (which doesn't take too long), the excess was removed by a combination of scraping with the chisel blade and fine wet or dry paper in wet mode. Having removed the excess filler, a new gap was scribed on the centre line. Here are some cruel enlargements of the results.... Here's a before and after comparison.... It looks a bit ragged in the pictures, but is much better in the flesh. I think it makes a big difference which should really become apparent after painting and weathering. The hinges will need to be reinstated and there are a couple of other small things to do, but this cab is nearly there. Speaking of painting, there may be some of that happening soon, but just to the cabs initially. I've devised a means of representing the glazing rubbers in the headcode doors and it will be a lot easier to fit these after priming and painting the ends yellow, but before the cabs are glued to the sides & roof. Here are a couple of shots of the glazing rubber.... Again it looks a bit rough at this kind of magnification (and I hadn't noticed the glazing and "rubber" had drifted apart at the bottom right hand corner), but it makes a big difference at normal size. I did this by rounding off the edge of a piece of 15 thou styrene to give a semi-circular profile. Once this was done, this edge of the sheet was cut off at about 2mm wide and then a piece was cut off and trimmed to length to fit snugly in the aperture, though this took a bit of trial and error (I did actually make a block of appropriate dimensions from Milliput to wrap the styrene around, enabling it to be plunged into hot water to aid the forming process, but it wasn't very successful). The glazing is just a piece of acrylic sheet about 1mm thick, cut to the size of the aperture less 15 thou all around. I had a lot of trouble with this because being quite thick, it was hard to cut accurately and even harder to clean up without damaging the visible faces. This was the Mk 1 version and having tested the principle, I had some glazing material laser cut.... These came out very well and if my measurements were correct, they should be a nice fit - I'll report more on this when I get around to fitting them. Before packing up for the day, I thought I'd fit name board clips and lamp irons temporarily, to get a feel for the finished model.... I also applied filler to the unmodified cab and was able to rub this down and scribe the gaps this morning.... That's all for now - more updates as and when. __________________________________________ Sunday 23rd November 2008: In my previous post I mentioned that I was having some windows etched. I opened the door to the porch yesterday lunchtime to let the dog out and discovered Postie had been. I only spoke to the etchers (PPD), regarding these on Thursday and wasn't expecting them until sometime next week, so top marks to them. Anyway, here are a couple of views of the fret.... On the back of these are some small half etched holes that, when embossed, should have represented the bolts/rivets that secured the handles. I realised that if I were to actually try and emboss these, the frame would probably distort, so I decided to leave well alone. I stuck some wet or dry paper to an eraser with double sided tape and used this to rough up the rear of the fret to give a key for the adhesive.... The next job was to cut and shape some 10 thou clear Evergreen to size.... This was a pretty boring job and given that I'd like some more Westerns, I think I'll be putting in a order for some more laser-cut glazing soon! Anyway, this was attached with canopy glue, pressing the frame down hard onto the glazing with the other side of the eraser. Any excess glue was removed from the glazing with a cocktail stick and/or a small damp paintbrush. I did try using superglue to start with, but found the frames and glazing tended to part company if flexed. I'm hoping the canopy glue will have a little more give in it. One down, seven to go.... Halfway there.... Once all the windows were done, they were put to one side, whilst the cab was tackled. Here's what the windows look like as supplied.... The idea is to carefully remove material up to the raised edge. Almost there.... There's no going back now! Having removed the material from one window, I thought I'd try the etches for size. I should really have left them for about 24 hours, but I (and you), want to see what they look like now. Having carefully removed them from the fret and cleaned them up, this is the result.... Next, they're clamped so the frames are held securely, whilst the handle is formed.... After bending as far as possible in this clamp, they were finished off on the bench, by holding the frame down with a metal straight edge and finishing off the fold to just over ninety degrees, to give this result.... It's now time to (temporarily), fit them to the cab and this was done with a couple of dabs of canopy glue.... A different angle showing the handles.... (I wish I'd fitted the instrument panel before taking this picture). At this point, the memory on the camera became full, so I thought I might as well get the pictures onto the PC and post them here. I might do a bit more before bedtime, but don't expect any more pictures today! __________________________________________ Friday 12th December 2008: I've just had a week off, but it wasn't until 14:00 hrs today, that I managed to indulge in some workbench activity. Anyway, I've made a little more progress with the Western - I managed to remove the unwanted material from the three remaining cab side window apertures. This will allow the fitting of the etched replacements when the time comes. Here are the cabs after treatment.... I also decided to permanently fit the lamp irons and name board clips to both cabs.... The buffers on the left hand cab are just fitted temporarily, but it's starting to come together now. (The windscreen apertures on the other cab need a little flash removed before too long). Looking at pictures in "Power of the Westerns", it became apparent that the head code box doors required a few additional holes, two of which sit in a small recessed area on the right hand door (one top, one bottom). I ought to have made a jig, but couldn't be bothered and did them by eye.... These were done with a 0.3mm drill, but will be enlarged to 0.35mm, as soon as I find the pack of drills I ordered from Squires a few days ago. I think they look OK, but will probably make a jig for the next and any subsequent Westerns. The recessed areas were made by pressing a sharp scalpel blade into the resin at the edges of the rebate, making a couple of intermediate nicks and then carving/scraping away the excess. The rebates are rather small and the cruel enlargement does them no favours, but viewed normally (and under a layer of filth), I think they'll look fine. A close-up of the buffers, just for the hell of it.... These will probably be fitted quite late in the build (after the main body painting stage, I imagine) and will be chemically blackened first. I know I've said this before, but I think I'm pretty close to getting some paint on the cabs now. I just need to reinstate the hinges on the head code box doors, de-flash the windscreens on one of the cabs and make provision for attaching the lost wax cab steps. These are just supposed to be glued on, but for strength, I want to pin them as well. I was just wondering whether or not to do some more, when the dog came along to see what I was up to and tell me it was time for bed.... It was about 22:40, so I had to agree with him. More updates, as and when. __________________________________________ Wednesday 17th December: Not modelling progress as such, but a means to an end. I got in from work Tuesday evening to discover Postie had been. I'd placed an order with Squires first thing the previous morning for (amongst other things), some pin chucks and here they are.... I needed one that would go down as small as 0mm to replace the one that expired a few days ago. The one on the left goes from 0 - 1mm and will enable me to crack on with the Western again. The other four came as a set and go from 0 - 1mm, 0.8 - 1.5mm, 1.3 - 3.1mm and 3.0 - 4.8mm. The first one of the set is obviously exactly the same as the one far left - I thought it prudent to have a spare of this size after last week's events. As for the others, well, I have two other pin chucks in my toolbox that seem to fulfil most of my other drilling needs, but I have found on occasions, I've been using one or more drills that require the same chuck. The solution was obvious really - buy some more chucks, but until my hand was forced last week, it had never occurred to me. Top marks to Squires for their most efficient mail order service. Now, if talk of further Western progress has excited anyone (other than me), here's something else that Postie brought with him.... I ordered these the old fashioned cheque-in-an-envelope-way and had them within seven days. Once again, I think Shawplan and the Post Office are to be congratulated for the quick turnaround. I might get a bit of modelling in at the weekend if I'm lucky, so stay tuned. Friday 26th December 2008: I managed a few hours on the Western today, the main job being to sort out the cab steps. They're designed to be glued on, but I wanted to pin them as well as I felt they might be a bit vulnerable to damage otherwise.... I drilled a 0.7mm hole on one side where it makes contact with the body.... I then discovered I had some brass channel in stock that was a pretty good fit over the steps.... Drill through the hole in the step and through the channel.... Then turn the step through 180 degrees and drill through the channel again.... Whilst the step is this way round, from the back of the channel, insert the drill into the first hole and mark the undrilled side of the step. Having done this, remove the channel and finish drilling the step to end up with this.... Now fit the remaining steps into the channel in turn and mark through with the drill.... You should be able to make out where the drill has made its marks.... You can now finish off the holes to end up with this.... It's not clear from the instructions or prototype photos where the steps are positioned, so I decided to put them about 1mm back from the edge. I put a small strip of double-sided tape under the cab doors, plonked each step on the tape and drilled through the holes into the cab castings.... In case of any variance in the hole positions, I marked each step to ensure it went back in the right place, in this case B end, Driver's side. Once these holes were drilled, I enlarged them slightly (0.85mm I think), to allow a little adjustment and to make room for the superglue. I countersunk the holes in the steps to allow a bead of solder to form around the 0.7mm wire pins I was installing.... I did the same to the holes in the cab castings in case the solder beads prevented the steps from sitting hard against the resin, but forgot to take a picture. Here are the wire pins.... They should fit nicely into the holes.... Once happy with the fit of the steps, it was out with the superglue.... I'm pretty pleased with today's progress, as I'm a step closer to getting some primer and paint on the cabs. I think the windscreens are the last hurdle now - I don't really want to use the glazing material that came with the kit, because it's some sort of plastic or acrylic material. There's nothing wrong with that as such, it's just that being flexible, I'm worried about unrealistic distorted reflections when it catches the light. Im going to try and order some microscope slides next week and have a play with those. I do have some glass cover slips, but they're pretty thin (about 0.18mm) and I don't think they'll be robust enough on an area as big as the windscreens. More updates as they happen. __________________________________________ Sunday 1st February 2009: I managed to make a bit more progress on the Western today. My last proper session was way back on Boxing Day, but I did manage a couple of hours about a fortnight ago and today's session was a continuation of that one really. The main aim was to attempt to make some windscreens using real glass microscope slides, which are approximately 1mm thick. Going back to the session a fortnight ago, I'd managed to blag a few microscope slides from a friend (I kept forgetting to order my own), but didn't have a great deal of luck at that time. I managed to make two windscreens, but wasn't particularly happy with either of them. If I'd been more careful, I could have potentially made eight with the slides at my disposal. With two mediocre windscreens and a pile of broken glass on the bench, it gave me the incentive I needed to order some slides of my own, so I sent off for a hundred of them. These duly arrived, so I had another go at the task today and actually managed to make four windscreens that I'm pretty happy with. Here's the starting point.... (The scriber comes from CPL Products and is supplied with their microscope cover slips. These differ from the above in that they're only 0.18mm thick. I do have a use for these, but that's for a future post). I put some red electrical insulation tape on one of the slides.... Ballpoint ink shows up well on this and it provides a relatively non-slip surface later on when marking out. I think this idea came from Simon Varnam's web site, so thanks for the tip Simon. I wanted to do the outer edges of the windscreens first and if I was lucky, I'd get two good edges from one score line. Using one of the supplied JLTRT plastic windows (or in this case, a glass one I'd made earlier), I marked where the glass needed to be cut. I held the slide and pre-cut window hard against a small metal block and drew a short line with the ballpoint pen.... Once this is done, the line can be extended as necessary.... Due to the thickness of the pen nib, the physical edge of the glass will actually be about half a millimetre inside the pen line. (It's not important on this first cut, but it will be when you come to do the second one). Because the glass cannot be guaranteed to break cleanly, using a scalpel, cut the tape just on the edge of the pen line and remove the excess from the waste side.... Align a straightedge with the edge of the tape and then scribe a line onto the glass.... Align the scribed line with the edge of the work surface and press down on the unsupported side to snap the glass. I forgot to photograph this stage, but here's the result.... If you're lucky, you'll get a clean break - I didn't, but it doesn't matter, as it will need to be cleaned-up anyway. It's a bit ragged at this point, so you have to watch your fingers! Incidentally, the right hand piece had to be re-scribed and snapped off again. Here it is after a partial clean-up with an abrasive stone.... The dull bits are where the stone has done its work and after a little more time and effort, we end up with this.... Final finishing was done using a couple of different grades of wet or dry paper and a little water. The biggest problem with the glass is its tendency to chip at the edges when cleaning-up. This wouldn't matter too much if the glass was going to sit in a large rebate, but unfortunately, you don't get that with the Western.... I made and rejected several windscreens because the glass had chipped and the prismatic effect had encroached into the visible area of the screens. After a while, I realised I would never achieve 100% success and providing the blemish is not too big, I'm happy to fit a less than perfect screen. The edges of windscreens can accumulate quite a bit of grime and I intend to hide any such blemishes this way. If the chip is on the outside of the screen, I'll have to apply a little filler to the chips before weathering, but if the chip is on the inside of the glass, it will be much easier to deal with. Once both straight edges are finished, it's time to do the curved edge.... I scored both sides of the glass and did a series of radiating lines, thinking it might help with the snapping-off process. This was done using some pliers and here's the result.... Again, not pretty, but not a problem. Here it is after cleaning-up.... Before the glass can be checked for size in the aperture, the bottom corner will need to be rounded off. The piece in the foreground is already finished.... Both screens are finished.... Time to fit them temporarily and see how they look.... The driver's side screen wasn't quite such a tight fit and has tilted inwards slightly in the picture. Luckily, it's not glued in yet. A few hours later and all four screens are finished and fitted temporarily.... I think the next job might be to paint the cab interiors. Once this is done, the windscreens can be glued in. I might feel like I'm getting somewhere then. More updates as they happen. __________________________________________ Saturday 7th February 2009: A pleasant few hours at the workbench today saw the cab interiors and bulkheads receiving a lick of paint. Photos of Western cab interiors (especially in colour), seem to be a bit thin on the ground. This is the conclusion I've come to, having studied the books in my collection. What I've done therefore, is guesswork really, but if anyone has information on this subject they'd be willing to share, I for one, would be most grateful. I did come across several pictures on the Internet of Westerns on the Swindon scrap line and these included a couple of pictures of the Driver's desk and various instruments and controls. I used these pictures as a basis for painting my desks some time ago and these were basically done with Precision Paints BR Freight Stock Grey and BR Roof Grey over Halfords Satin Black. I decided to paint the bulkheads and cab interiors the same sort of colour as the desks, but I didn't bother with the Satin Black on either of them, as there was very little of it still visible on the desks once I'd gone over them with two shades of grey. Also, I wanted the bulkhead lights to remain as unpainted resin and couldn't be bothered to mask them off. Here's how the bulkheads look now.... The electrical conduits were painted with Humbrol matt orange (can't remember the number), but I added a drop of Precision Roof Grey and some Gloss Varnish, to tone down the intensity and add a little shine. The bulkhead lights were painted with Gloss Varnish to suggest glass, as were the two large circular fittings. I think one of these might be a fire alarm and wonder if it ought to have a red surround. Does anyone know the answer please? Here are the cab interiors.... I just painted the bits that would be visible through the windows - no point in wasting paint. One of the bulkheads seen through the (as yet unglazed), windscreens.... Apologies for the harsh lighting, but it was the only way I could get a half-decent picture. I removed the moulded door handles before painting and drilled holes for their replacements, which will be fashioned from flattened fusewire or scrap etch. Finally, a view through the side window.... I'm looking forward to replicating this shot once the side windows and glazing have been installed. __________________________________________ Sunday 15th February 2009: I wasn't 100% happy with the clear styrene glazing I'd used on the cab side windows, as it was quite easily scratched, so I decided to have another attempt, but this time, using real glass cover slips for the glazing material. The first step was to apply some domestic masking tape to the cover slips. The etched frames are positioned on top, with the bottom edge aligned with the edge of the glass.... Using a sharp scalpel blade held against the top of the frame, a couple of marks are made.... The etch is removed and using the marks as a guide, the tape is cut along its length. Having removed the tape from the waste side, the glass is scored and then snapped off.... Having taken care of the height, the procedure is repeated for the length.... A while later, here are the results.... Any corners that need rounding off will be dealt with once the glass and frames are glued and the adhesive has set. Having cut all the glass to size, the frames can be removed from the etch and cleaned-up and then have their handles formed.... On the first windows I did, I experimented with both canopy glue and superglue. I don't think either was right for the job and coupled with the smoothness of the etches, I had a few instances of frames and glazing parting company. These etches were modified and now incorporate a series of small holes around their perimeter on the inside. This is to provide a key for the adhesive, in this case, slow setting Araldite. Here's all the glazing and frames after gluing.... Edit: Any excess Araldite that oozed out from between the parts was scraped off and then the frames and glazing were wiped over with a cotton bud dampened with Methylated Spirit. This will leave a residue on the glass, but on a previously done test piece this was easily removed, once dry, with a fibreglass pen. This done, they were put in a safe place to cure. Any glass protruding beyond the frames will be removed using an abrasive stone and/or some wet or dry paper glued to a piece of wood. Having admired Roger Manton's Western on the JLTRT stand on several occasions, I decided his idea of removing the rain strips on the cab was a good one.... Roger said it's easier to fill and rub down the joints between the cab, side and roof castings, without the rain strips in the way. They'll be reinstated after, with strips of suitably formed wire. __________________________________________ Sunday 15th February 2009 (Continued): When I posted the previous installment, I forgot to mention that the last job of the day was to Araldite the real glass windscreens in. I didn't take any pictures at the time, because once I'd glued them in and removed the excess adhesive (using a scraper and cotton bud dampened with Methylated Spirit), I put them straight in the modelling cupboard to cure. Well, a week has passed and here they are.... I've tried to catch the light in the pictures to illustrate the fact that the windows are actually glazed and also to show the diluted residual Araldite on the glass. This will be removed with a fibreglass pen and I'll do this in my next workbench session - I'll post some more pictures then. __________________________________________ Tuesday 24th February 2009: With a couple of hours to kill before setting off to work, I thought I'd have a go at removing the diluted film of Araldite covering both sides of the Western's windscreens. I've already done the one nearest the camera and also in the picture are the few tools I used.... An internal view.... An external close-up.... Another close-up showing the secondman's windscreen partially done.... The same from inside, highlighted against a dark background.... Both windscreens finished.... This was literally 15-20 minutes work. I still have the other cab to do, but that'll have to wait until next time. __________________________________________ Tuesday 10th March 2009: Being suitably inspired by some of the stuff at last Saturday's Kettering show, I decided a little more work on the Western was in order today. Having already removed the residual Araldite from the windscreens of one cab, the first job was to bring the remaining cab up to the same stage.... With that out of the way, I thought I'd have a go at forming the short handrails that were fitted to the headcode box door. I made these from 0.31mm brass wire.... http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum

Sunday 6th April 2008: Most of my recent workbench activity has been focused on building a JLTRT Castle, but I fancied a change today. Fed up with removing cusps from etches and soldering bits of metal together, I decided to raid the cupboard and get stuck into some styrene instead. I thought it was time to do some more to my Slater's PMV, which last saw the light of day last October. I had opted to bond the roof to the sides/ends, rather than fit it last. This enabled me to get a gap free fit, but meant that the body would need to be painted and glazed before fitting the floor and adding solebars and the rest of the underframe detail. I realised that I had only two buffers, two vacuum pipes and two steam heat valves to fit, before it could be given a coat of primer, so here it is with all the necessary castings in place.... And in close-up.... I decided to chemically blacken the castings as a sort of preventative measure against future paint chips.... Once that was done, it was time for a good scrub with some Ajax, followed by a rinse with cold water and a session with my wife's hairdryer. Now the model was nice and dry, it was out with the Halfords acrylic grey primer and here are some pictures of the results.... I particulary like these representations of the cast data plates on the ends.... It was only later when I was admiring my handiwork, that I realised I hadn't fitted the rainstrips yet! Still, shouldn't be too hard to retro-fit. The next job will be to airbrush it with Rail Blue, followed by some suitable transfers. I'm hoping to use the Methylated Spirit fix type (made by the HMRS, I believe), but I don't know if they actually do BR Blue stuff. __________________________________________ Wednesday 16th April 2008: Following on from the last workbench session, I thought a little more work should be done to the PMV. In my eagerness to apply some primer to the finished body, I had forgotten to fit the rainstrips, so I thought this was a good place to start work. The rainstrips are simply injection moulded with the majority of the kit. Here they all are, the first one having been de-sprued and cleaned up.... One of them broke whilst trimming it from the sprue. This was annoying, but is easily repairable. I would have preferred the runners on the outside of the rainstrips rather than the insides though. Cleaning pips from the concave surface of a delicate piece of plastic is not fun. The instructions stated that the rainstrips should be positioned 5.5mm from the roof edge. I took this to mean the extremities of the rainstrips, so I cut some strips of masking tape 5.5mm wide, trimmed them to the same length as the rainstrips, marked the centre lines and then applied them to the roof. One edge of the masking tape lines up with the roof edge, whilst the centre line is aligned with the gap between the doors. Here's a couple of shots.... Once this is done, each rainstrip is held in position by a couple of small pieces of masking tape.... Then, keeping light pressure on the mid-point of the rainstrip, some liquid adhesive (I used EMA "Plastic Weld"), is applied with a suitable brush. As the roof was already coated in primer, I decided something a little stronger than MekPak might be called for, hence the Plastic Weld. Once the middle part of the rainstrip has bonded to the roof, the small pieces of masking tape are carefully removed from the ends and more adhesive applied. Here's the finished result.... Some of the photos in my previous post highlighted a couple of dodgy areas - it's amazing what a coat of primer can expose. I had to scribe-in a couple of planks where they hadn't moulded properly and a bit of filler was needed here and there, on the corner strapping. With the addition of the rainstrips in bare plastic, I'll probably waft a little more primer over the model in the next day or so and then give the roof a lick of paint, probably with a brush. Once this has had a chance to dry, I might fire up the airbrush and give it a coat of Rail Blue. Stay tuned. __________________________________________ Friday 18th April 2008: Having fitted the missing rainstrips to the PMV during the previous workbench session, I managed to waft a bit more primer over it yesterday. For todays session, I decided to give the roof a coat of Precision Paints "BR Roof Grey (Matt). This was applied by brush and for a first coat, gave a pretty good coverage. The majority of the paint dried to a nice matt finish, as would be expected when using matt paint. However, there are a few streaks that have a bit of a sheen to them, which I'm not entirely happy with. The biggest problem was that the paint was drying pretty fast and it wasn't easy keeping a wet edge to work to. Painting around the rainstrips themselves, was also pretty awkward. It will need a second coat and I think I'll do this with the airbrush, which with hindsight, I should have done in the first place. Anyway, here's some before and after pictures.... __________________________________________ Thursday 24th April 2008: Not being totally happy with the "less than matt" finish on the roofs after brush painting, I decided to give them both another coat today using my airbrush. I actually bought this over six years ago, but this is the first time I've used it. It says a lot for my modelling output, but I have to say, since defecting to 7mm, I seem to be achieving a lot more than I used to. Anyway, after a bit of a false start, everything seems to have come out OK, so here are a couple of before and after shots.... The next jobs are a coat of Rail Blue, followed by lettering and glazing. Once this is done, I'll glue the floor in for good and crack on with the chassis. __________________________________________ Saturday 24th May 2008: I felt it was time for an update. The main lack of progress recently has been down to a lack of airbrush. I bought my airbrush about seven years ago and used it for the first time to spray the roofs on the PMV and a Slater's Shoc Van. Having done the roofs, I stripped it down to clean it and then realised I wasn't really sure how it went back together, especially with regard to the position of the needle! (There were no instructions included either ). Anyway, I did what I thought was right, but next time I came to use it, I couldn't get it to work at all. I did obtain a rather spectacular fountain of paint as the air blew back through the paint cup, but couldn't get any to come out of the front of the airbrush. A quick search on the Internet later and I found "The Airbrush Company Limited". After a quick exchange of e-mails, I sent off my airbrush and eight days later it was back as good as new! Apparently, there was a hairline fracture in the nozzle so this was replaced as was the nozzle washer (I expect the original went down the plug hole when I was cleaning it ). The repair was less than ??21 and they even managed to find me a set of DeVilbiss instructions as well. If anyone has any airbrush problems, I can certainly recommend this company - http://www.airbrushes.com Anyway, back to the PMV - After masking off the roof, a pleasant 20 minutes or so was spent mixing some suitable paint. I used Railmatch products on this occasion and wanted the finish to look a little faded rather than ex works. I mixed Rail Blue (7 parts), Network South East Light Blue (1 part) and white spirit (2 parts) and here are the results.... It's nice to see the cast data plates are still legible after painting. The finish in the photos actually seems lighter than in real life, but I think I'm happy with the end result. I'll leave it in the airing cupboard for a week or so for the paint to harden off, then it's time for some transfers to be applied. Slater's make no mention of the lettering that appears on these vans in BR livery, but thanks to an exchange of e-mails with Paul Bartlett (thanks Paul), I now know what should be present on the PMV. I have a sheet of HMRS BR blue era transfers in stock and hope to make a start on this soon. I was also uncertain as to what colour the vacuum pipe should be - Paul to the rescue again: "Dear Dan and others, The colour of the steel work of vacuum pipes is not an optional extra! They are always red when the vehicle has vacuum operated brakes and white when it is only providing through piping without any automatic brake. They can, of course, get pretty dirty. Regards Paul" Thanks Paul - duly noted. More updates as and when. __________________________________________ __________________________________________ Sunday 16th November 2008: It's been a while since any progress was made on the PMV, but this was the state of play after the last session.... In my previous post, I mentioned that the transfers would be going on soon. There is quite a lot of lettering on these vans and following an exchange of e-mails, Paul Bartlett very kindly sent me an excellent picture to work from (thanks Paul). I thought the required lettering would be included on the sheet of BR Blue coaching stock transfers available from the HMRS, but unfortunately, the only things I could use were the running numbers and the letters PMV. There is lots of information on the PMV regarding things like Width over Body, Extreme Width and Extreme Height. Although this kind of information was on the HMRS sheet, it was for the BR built GUV and CCT. The lettering on the PMV is condensed in places to fit with the confines of the diagonal strapping and the HMRS lettering was of no use on this model. I made enquiries with a couple of transfer manufacturers, but neither had suitable transfers in their ranges (though Fox did say they were hoping to do them next year). I decided to get some transfers custom made and after an exchange of e-mails with Robert Kosmider (of Steam and Things, PO Box 277, Surrey Downs, SA 5126, Australia), I had an idea of the information I would need to provide in order to have some transfers made. Using Paul Bartlett's photo as a reference, I drew my requirements in TurboCAD, sent them off to Robert and yesterday lunchtime, the Postman came.... Here we see my original TuboCAD drawing, the finished transfers and a paper "black on white" proof, so you can see what you've got. My original drawing was done at 5x enlargement and the triangles you see denote the confines of the strapping whilst the red rectangles surrounding the text illustrate the extents of the text. The various scribbles are simply the dimensions of the rectangles and the distances between them. The small blue triangle in the middle is actual size and, as it happens, I should have sent my dimensions actual size in the first place. Still, half an hour or so with a calculator soon took care of that. Here's a close-up of the transfers - sorry, white on pale blue doesn't come out too well.... And here's my actual size TurboCAD version against the proof.... Before going to bed on Saturday night, I applied some gloss varnish to the areas where the transfers would be applied and then put the model in the airing cupboard for the night to dry off.... The eagle eyed amongst you might notice that the vacuum pipe uprights have received a lick of red paint. This was done several weeks ago, but I didn't think it warranted a posting just for that. The number and electrification flashes were applied at the same time, though the flashes are printed a bit off-centre and I think I'll cover them over with some better ones before long. Custom transfers have now been applied.... I did have a bit of a senior moment when I did the original drawing - Paul's photograph is of a van with unequal width planks and the lines of text are laid out to fit within the confines of the particular planks. The Slater's van has planks of equal width, so when I laid the first transfer in position, some of the text was spanning the gaps between the planks and didn't look right at all. I decided to replace it and this time, I cut the replacement transfer into pieces to fit the planks. If Slater's (or JLTRT) ever bring out an unequal planked or plywood version, it would be much appreciated! I'm well impressed with these transfers and I wish now that I'd had some running numbers made up too. The HMRS numbers seem to have a really intense whiteness to them and the characters seem a bit "rounded" (if you know what I mean?), whilst the custom ones have a sort of faded appearance I think. I'll have to try and tone down the HMRS ones at the weathering stage. Incidentally, the HMRS "PMV" branding I had applied to one side was removed, because I had already catered for it (and CCT), on my custom made versions. I really like these vans and might do the CCT version next time. After sticking the model back in the airing cupboard again, the last job for today on the PMV was the window bars.... I had these etched a while ago and as I had some white primer to apply to another project today, I thought I'd chemically blacken these and put some primer on them at the same time. I didn't want the finish to look too white, so I just wafted the primer on and allowed the blackening to grin through a little.... Once the glazing and window bars have been fitted, I can think about cracking on with the underframe. __________________________________________ Sunday 14th December 2008: It's time to make a start on the underframe. Here are a few things laid out for the day's session.... The springs, W-irons etc, need removing from their sprues and cleaning-up. The lost wax castings contain, amongst other things, 8 step board supports. Although the body is upside-down, the van floor is the right way up. The grey area is two strips of roofing lead - it weighs a ton! Having cleaned-up the leaf spring assemblies, I thought I'd remove the web between the spring hanger and the mounting.... It wasn't that hard to do, but makes a big difference. Not having any suitable etched W-irons in stock, I decided to use the ones that came with the kit.... The one thing I really didn't like about these was the retaining strip at the bottom - It's about 1mm thick, which scales up to about an inch and three quarters! I decided to remove them and will replace them with some brass strip of a more suitable thickness. Several hours later, a lot of the parts have been cleaned-up.... I've drilled right through the axle boxes, so it's easier to get some glue on the bearing cups when I'm happy with their positioning. The holes will be hidden by the covers seen below them. I didn't like the idea of gluing plastic step boards to the lost wax supports, so I made some new steps from some double sided copper clad paxolin. With the copper removed from one side, it's just the right thickness. I started to make a jig to hold the supports whilst the steps were soldered on. The supports are handed, so I went to the cupboard and dug out my reference photo, to see which support went where. I then discovered the van in the photo didn't have any step boards! I'm not sure how widespread this was (perhaps BR removed them?), but as it was the next one in sequence to my PMV, I decided mine wouldn't have step boards either! Despite my best intentions, I didn't actually manage to stick any of this together today, but I'm pleased that a lot of cleaning-up and preparatory work has been done. I should be in a position to start sloshing some solvent around soon, but I also need to make a jig for drilling some holes in the wheels. I'll have to see how the mood takes me at the next session. __________________________________________ Sunday 5th April 2009: Having been waylaid by other modelling projects recently, I thought it was time the PMV's underframe received a little more attention. However, due to the need to let things set after gluing, the only thing I could realistically do for now, was to attach the floor. Here it is, complete with a hefty portion of lead flashing for ballast.... The floor was glued in using solvent and held firmly in position to cure, with a wooden packing piece and some rubber bands.... I'll give it a few days for the glue to set before doing any more. __________________________________________ Saturday 25th April 2009: Almost two weeks off work, but it wasn't until today, that I managed to do some modelling. Anyway, I made a little more progress on the PMV today and concentrated my efforts on the wheelsets. As supplied, the Slater's wheels have no holes in them. Most, if not all, the disc carriage wheels I've seen, have at least a couple of holes in them (for lifting purposes?) and BR Mk1s seem to have four. As my PMV will be rubbing shoulders with some Mk1s and has the same diameter wheels, I figured they could well be one and the same and decided to make a drilling jig, to speed things up with this and any future carriage builds. A friend is currently building an MMP Mk1 and he informed me that the holes were about 1mm diameter and 9mm from the centres, MMP having thoughtfully provided a drilling jig of their own. Armed with this information, the first job was to put a small offcut of fret waste into my GW Models rivet press.... Each turn of the handwheel moves the workpiece by 1mm, so it's pretty easy to use.... The idea is to emboss some rivets in the appropriate position and use the indents to centre the drill that makes the holes. I've just embossed the centre rivet and the one 9mm to its left has already been done.... Two more rivets and the job's done.... If you were actually wanting rivets, this is what you'd end up with.... The rivets made by the tool were filed off, then the workpiece turned over and the holes drilled 0.75mm.... I could have left it looking like this, but thought it would look nicer as a disc. A cut line was scribed using an Olfa compass cutter and the brass was carefully cut and filed to size. The final clean-up was achieved by mounting the disc in a mandrel and spinning it in my mini drill against an abrasive stick.... The outer holes are opened up to 1mm, whilst the centre one is enlarged so it will just slide over the axles. The wheel backs are rotated a few times on some abrasive paper to remove any lumps and bumps caused by the moulding process and are now, in theory, ready for drilling.... However, I wanted the holes to be as perpendicular as possible and this called for another jig. A quick rummage in my box of brass sections and I found a suitable piece of box section. Two holes were marked out and drilled accordingly (right through), one for the axle and the other for the hole in the wheels.... The holes were then enlarged, the latter being made to accept some 1mm I/D brass tube.... This hole was also countersunk on one side, to allow the tube to be soldered in with a nice bead around it. The tube is soldered in position & cleaned-up and having removed one wheel from the axle, it's time to drill.... With the drill inserted into the tube, the box section jig is slid over the axle and rotated until the drill drops through the appropriate hole in the brass disc.... The wheel is resting on a piece of wood and the protruding axle passes through a hole in the wood, enabling the wheel to sit down flat and steady. It's worth putting a small piece of tape from the disc to the wheel, to prevent it rotating. The finished wheelset.... The first wheelset was drilled from the back, but I found it difficult to clean-up the front face of the wheels where the drill had broken through. The next wheelset was drilled from the front and this gave much better results, though obviously, the wheels have to be reversed on the axles.... I'm off to the ALSRM bash at Rivermead on the 9th May and having given it some thought (and having had some seeds of doubt sown by 28ten regarding the track holding characteristics of long wheelbase rigid stock), I've decided to buy some Slater's sprung W-irons for my PMV. I've also had a change of heart with regard to the footsteps under the doors. It was my intention to leave them off, but having looked a few pictures of the prototype, I've decided they look much better fitted, so mine are going back on! That's all for now. __________________________________________ Sunday 10th May 2009: Having visited the ALSRM exhibition at Reading yesterday, I picked up some sprung W-irons for the PMV. Here's what you get in the packet.... Each unit consists of a W-iron, Spring, Hornblock guide and Hornblock. Once assembled, the W-irons are attached to the floor with a couple of self-tapping screws and these are also supplied. I decided to make just one unit for now, to see how it went. Here, the parts have been cleaned-up and the rivets embossed on the keeper plate.... One of the plastic W-irons supplied with the kit can be seen in the background. The parts are assembled and the Hornblocks slide up and down nicely.... The folds have been made and soldered.... Although pleased with the way it seemed to work, I wasn't keen on seeing the prongs of the Hornblock guide peeking out below the Hornblock. The prongs limit the downward travel, but I decided better idea might be to solder a length of wire underneath the Hornblock and then remove the prongs.... Having got this far, I'm now concerned that with the weight of the vehicle pushing down on the springs (causing the Hornblocks to move up in the W-irons), the wire will be quite noticeable! I have another idea, but that'll have to wait until the next session. Before going to bed, I managed to glue the underframe moulding and solebars to the floor - I feel like I'm getting somewhere at last. __________________________________________ Sunday 7th June 2009: Following on from the previous post, my attempts at adding sprung W-irons have been aborted on this project - the Slater's springs were bottoming out due to the rather large amount of roofing lead I'd put inside. I bought some stiffer springs from Eileen's Emporium and they bottomed out too. So, it's back to the plastic W-irons and a few days previously, I'd managed to glue a couple of these on.... Today's task was to chemically blacken the wheel sets before fitting these and the remaining two W-irons.... It was nice to see it trundling along my yard or so of track, but I thought I'd better put it back in the box to let everything set. In a few more days, I hope to start adding the rest of the underframe details. __________________________________________

Wednesday 26th December 2007: An all day modelling session today saw a bit more progress on the JLTRT Castle. Previous visitors may remember my attempt at modifying the Slater's wheels, specifically, trying to improve the appearance of the balance weights by incorporating a representation of the stays that pass from front to rear. This was the first one I finished.... Although pleased with the end result, I didn't relish the prospect of doing another five - repetition is not something I'm good at! I decided it would be easier to draw up some artwork and have them etched and this is the result (sorry about the poor focus).... I was pleasantly surprised at how well these came out and decided it was time to get stuck in. The front portion was glued to an oversize piece of 30 Thou styrene and the excess removed. Next the holes were opened up with a 0.7mm drill and the assembly was then glued in position on the wheel. The rear portion (no styrene this time), also had it's holes opened up to 0.7mm and short lengths of wire were passed between the spokes and through the corresponding holes in the front portion, finishing just proud of the surface (less cleaning-up later!). Next, a small dab of Superglue was applied where the pieces of wire go through the styrene to secure the front and then some more glue on the rear of the spokes and the rear portion was positioned. The wire was then soldered to the rear and the excess snipped off. (Incidentally, although the front and rear etchings are identical, the holes are etched slightly bigger on one side to allow a little gap for the solder to fill). Here we see a couple of wires in position on the front.... And a rear view.... Here we see the rear, part finished.... Cleaning up the rear was accomplished by placing a 12 Thou packing piece opposite the weight and rotating a few times on some wet & dry paper.... Here's the finished article.... And the front, prior to cleaning up.... This proved to be a little trickier due to the boss sticking out further than the weight. I didn't want to use a file or abrasive paper in backwards/forward motion in case I damaged the wheel rim, so after a little thought, I devised this little gizmo.... Made from a scrap of brass, a section of tube, a length of bullhead rail and a piece of styrene, it has a piece of wet & dry paper on its underside, held on with double sided tape, as seen here.... In order to work, the Slater's axle is inserted into the wheel and this handy little thingy replaces the standard retaining screw.... This is actually from my JLTRT Western kit and is part of the speedometer assembly! Anyway, this is screwed into the wheel and the gizmo is then moved from side to side, pivoting around the spigot without damaging the wheel rim, like so.... It takes a long time and a few changes of abrasive paper, but this is the end result.... So, just to recap, here are the Mk 1 and Mk 2 versions together.... And the Mk 2 on its own.... Once I'd finished this first one (which is one of the centre drivers), it didn't take very long to do one of the rear drivers, as this has a smaller weight. Here they are together.... I'm very pleased with the end results so far and am looking forward to the next modelling session. I haven't done much to my Western lately, but once I've finished these wheels and returned the speedo drive thingy to its rightful box, I'll have no excuses! Incidentally, I realise that the pieces I've added to my wheels aren't actually the weights themselves, but are probably best described as retaining plates for the (lead?) fill, though I think most people would be familiar hearing them described as balance weights. I have seen photos where these plates do appear to be filled to the brim with lead or whatever it is (perhaps they need more weight added as the tyres wear down?), but the photo I'm working from (GWR 4-6-0s In Colour, Page 69), shows a "Grange" at Crewe and on the rear wheel, the stays are quite visible, so I thought this would be an unusual thing to try and replicate. Given the amount of time I've spent doing these wheels so far, I'm not sure it was one of my better ideas! To be honest, I wouldn't really expect the stays to be visible on the centre wheels, because there would need to be a lot of weight to counterbalance both the coupling rods and connecting rods. Unfortunately, most of the photos in my books always seem to have the weights in the wrong position or in shadow. I should probably have thicker plates on the middle drivers (as the "Grange" in my photo seems to have), as this seems to be quite a common thing. These would be easy enough to retro fit , but I'll get the coupling rods on first and see what the clearances are like. Thanks again for your input and I hope you will pop back from time to time to check on progress! __________________________________________ New Years Eve, 2007: This being my last day off in the Christmas holidays, I'd promised myself a day of modelling. Unfortunately, I got rather engrossed reading some books and magazines in the modelling cupboard - it's amazing how quickly 4 -5 hours can pass! The paper distractions were put away at about 16:00 hrs and the tools came out. I'd set myself a target to finish off two more "Castle" balance weights, but actually managed to do three. One more to go, then it's time to start work on the coupling rods and connecting rods! Happy New Year to one and all - lets hope 2008 is as productive as we all hope! __________________________________________ Sunday 6th January 2008: Another session at the bench today, saw the final wheel fitted with its balance weight. Having done this, I thought I'd crack on with the coupling rods, because once these are finished, I'll be able to think about fitting the hornblocks into the frames and then getting the rivetted detail overlays in place. Here are a few pictures of progress at the end of the day. Wheels & rods.... Rods in close-up.... (I'm quite glad I posted these pictures of the rods, because I've noticed a couple of bits that need a further visit from the files and wet/dry paper!). I couldn't resist laying the rods in position on the finished wheels.... Once I'd done that, I thought I might as well dig the chassis out and see what they looked like together.... Here's another view showing the frame extensions/cylinder assembly - these two parts are just held on with tape for the photo....! That's all for now - I hope to get some more done next weekend. Thanks for looking. __________________________________________ Sunday 13th January 2008: Today saw saw a bit more progress on the "Castle". I'd decided the time had come to remove the axle hole blanks from the leading and centre axles and fit the etched hornguides, allowing compensation to be fitted. Here are the frames with the axle blanks removed.... Here are a couple of etched hornguides and a square brass bearing.... The tab on the side folds up to stop the bearing rotating and also provides a smooth surface for the bearing to slide against - I know I haven't made a decent 90 degree fold, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway, because I discovered that there was far too much slop between the bearing and hornguide. The bearing was able to move fore and aft by about 2mm and didn't even make contact with the bearing surface tab! Now, I realise a phone call or e-mail to JLTRT would have replacements on their way by return of post, but this was a Sunday, so nothing could have happened until the following day. Being rather impatient, I decided to utilise the bearings supplied and make some new hornguides from some K&S brass strip I had knocking about. Here we see the first one being marked out.... Having made the first one, here's a size comparion with the etched version.... Having established this was going to work OK, I started on the next one.... A few hours later and we have a full set finished.... I added some "L" angle on one side to replicate the tab on the etched version and this was pinned as well as soldered, to prevent movement when soldering to the frames. This idea was pinched from John Hayes, who did something similar during the consruction of a Finney "Hall", in a copy of MRJ several years ago (thanks John!).... All ready to fit to the frames, but by now it was time for bed.... __________________________________________ Sunday 20th January 2008: Having got the frame cut-outs ready and manufactured some new horn guides the previous Sunday, it was time to unite them and this was achieved with relative ease. Here are a couple of views of the new hornguides fitted to the frames.... I fitted the wheels temporarily and it ran well first time, but to avoid the dragster look, it's time to think about making the compensating beam.... These two pieces of telescopic tube form the two transverse components.... The moving outer tube has a small hole drilled in it to enable a drop of lubrication as and when.... And this is how they'll go together once installed.... Before installation takes place, a couple of washers are required. Made from cigarette paper, these will fit between the frames and the moving outer tube. Once in position, they'll be given a drop of oil and will hopefully prevent flux and solder finding its way between the tubes and fusing them together.... Here's everything bar the oil ready for soldering.... Solder applied - notice the oil soaked washers.... Soldering was a success! The outer tube rotating freely, so the washers were removed and things cleaned up.... The final part to add, is the beam that rests on the leading and middle axles. Here it is prior to soldering.... And after soldering.... Once the beam was fixed in place, the chassis was now high at the front end. A couple of goes at exerting some downward pressure to distort the beam and the ride height levelled out nicely.... So, after a most enjoyable workbench session, that's the progress so far. I think the next task will be fitting the brake rigging wires and then the rivetted frame overlays. I'm going to have to bite the bullet soon though and make the con rods and think about slidebars and crossheads. Watch this space....! __________________________________________ Saturday 26th January 2008: A few spare hours today saw a little more progress being made on the Castle, namely the rivetted frame overlays. Here are the cleaned-up etches waiting to be fitted.... The overlays are held in position by aluminium hair grips, which are available from most chemists. Here are a couple of views before soldering.... And after soldering and cleaning up.... The instructions recommend soldering some lengths of 0.9mm wire through the frames and overlays during this operation, leaving about 10mm sticking out either side. These lengths of wire support the (as yet unmade), brake hangers and are trimmed to length once the brake hangers are in the correct position. Trouble is, until the wires are trimmed, they foul the coupling rods and I'm enjoying pushing my chassis back and forth at the moment, so I thought I'd put the wires in at a later date! That's all for now - I'm off all this week and hope to make some more progress, so be sure to pop back at some point! __________________________________________ Sunday 3rd February 2008: Despite having had a week off, I didn't get a chance to get stuck in again until today, my last day off! Anyway, more work on the chassis was in order so I took the relevent fret from the box to see which parts were required. The fret may look a little daunting, but some of it is alternative parts to cater for the modeller's choice of gauge or prototype variations, so not all of it is needed.... Here we see the day's intended output. Top left are the connecting rods, to their right, the crosshead components, below these are the inside slide bars and at the bottom, the motion bracket. All I managed to do in the end, was three crossheads!.... Here are a couple of crosshead outers. The left hand one is as it comes from the fret and the right hand one has been cleaned up and modified. The protruding bit on the left is actually rounded on the prototype and I decided that the flat version as supplied, wasn't doing it for me.... The rear and middle parts of a crosshead assembled and awaiting fitment of the outer face and piston rod. The latter has had a couple of short lengths of brass tube attached, to represent the rounded part.... Some views of the crosshead and piston rod aligned for soldering.... There are two spikes on the rear of the crosshead (that will be removed later) and these are pushed through some balsa wood. Lines are then scored at the edges and centre line of the crosshead and the piston rod aligned by eye. Once happy with the positioning, some aluminium hairgrips hold it nicely in position, whilst the 8BA spanner is just the right thickness for keeping the rod parallel to the balsa. A couple of views after soldering/cleaning up, showing the improvement over the rather 2 dimensional raw etch. A final touch is a small brass washer butted up to the brass tube to represent the raised collar. I'm not sure it's 100% accurate, but in my opinion, it looks much better.... The holes in the middle of the crossheads were enlarged on all three components in order to accept some aluminium tube. This was simply to keep the outer face where it needed to be, whilst soldering. I'll have to devise some means of representing what needs to be here at some point! The inner crossheads are made in the same way, but the piston rod is longer and protrudes both front and rear. The small flat next to the brass tubing is necessary to clear the internal part of the crosshead and ensures that the crosshead and the piston rod are in the same plane.... Here's one inside crosshead finished.... A couple of views of it in-situ behind the aperture in the frames.... These internal crossheads actually move in synch with the outer ones and is the reason the piston rod protudes both ends (there are holes in the frames, that the rod slides in). When I've established the amount of fore and aft movement, I'll trim the piston rods to length. Unfortunately, there's no mention of this in the instructions, which quite frankly, are extremely vague for such an important area. I still have one inside crosshead to make and can honestly say that I'm not looking forward to it! It took me ages to do the first one, though I admit, it did get a little easier once I knew what I was doing. I just hope I don't forget before I make the final one! That's all for now - stay tuned! __________________________________________ Sunday 9th March 2008: After a distinct lack of recent modelling activity and feeling fired up by the previous day's visit to Kettering, I blew the dust off the toolbox and did some more work to the Castle. A few weeks ago, I borrowed my friend's "Metalsmith" rolling bars. Not wishing to hang onto them for ages, I thought I'd put the chassis aside for the moment and get the smokebox and boiler rolled, so he can have them back. Anyway, here we see the smokebox with its front and rear formers.... Part way through rolling.... (The day after I did this, Jazz rolled the smokebox on his 42xx (see Jazz' workbench). He puts a piece of paper between the etch and the rollers to protect the rivets. Seems like a sound idea to me and I wish I'd thought of doing that, but I think I got away with it this time!). Here's the end result.... When the gap is closed up and soldered, it will look something like this (held together with tape at the moment).... Here's a little tip if you're rolling a boiler or whatever - lay the etch over a sheet of paper and cut around the edges to give a paper template. The paper template can then be wrapped around the formers to check that the circumference of the part is correct. If the paper overlaps itself, make a mark with a pencil or point of a scalpel and then trim a corresponding amount from the etch (take half the overlap from each side if possible). I didn't do this with my smokebox and had to trim about 1.5mm overall from the etch. Believe me, it's better to do this before you roll the thing! Having got to this stage, I thought I'd see what it looked like with a chimney and smokebox door.... The door is held very crudely in place using a piece of wire, so apologies if it looks a bit droopy. I had thought about using Blu Tack, but couldn't find any. Next I thought a piece of chewing gum would do the trick - this turned out to be a very stupid and sticky mistake. It didn't hold the heavy casting at all well and I spent about ten minutes cleaning it all off again. Perhaps if I'd chewed it for about 15 minutes instead of about 45 seconds, it might have worked.... Here's a side view.... I'm not sure of the chimney's exact position yet, but it should be forward of centre, as here. Here's the boiler wrapper.... After the earlier debacle with the smokebox wrapper having too big a circumference, I made a paper template and this can be seen in the background. It must be a trick of perspective, but it is the same size. A couple of views of the paper boiler in position.... As suspected, the boiler wrapper has too great a circumference as well. Though it can't be seen, the paper edges overlap, so this overlap will be removed from the the etch before rolling. I'll do this during my next workbench session hopefully - stay tuned! __________________________________________ Wednesday 12th March 2008: Having received an unexpected "Not required for duty" message from work, I thought I'd get a fews hours in at the workbench. Having rolled the smokebox during the last session, it was now time to do the boiler. As mentioned previously, the boiler was found to have too great a circumference, so the first thing to do was cut a suitable amount from each side.... Having done that and cleaned up the edges, I gave the etch a good scrub with a brass bristled suede brush and it was now ready for rolling.... Here it is part way through the process.... I must confess, I'd never used rolling bars before starting this project and although I'd already done a successful job on the smokebox, the boiler was a real sod to do! I imagine it's because it's tapered rather than parallel, but I was getting all sorts of bizarre shapes as I tweaked the rollers to try and get the edges to meet. I managed to sort it out in the end though and despite my anxieties along the way, it has to be better than trying to roll by hand on a wad of thick paper or a mouse mat! Anyway, here's the finished article.... I got a much closer gap this time, so thanks to Jazz for his recent and timely 42xx pictures. Here's the rear former soldered in position and cleaned up.... This actually took me two attempts, because I discovered that in places, the rear face of the former was protruding beyond the back edge of the boiler (if you see what I mean?). This meant that when the front firebox former was attached later, there would have been some annoying gaps. There was nothing for it, but to try and get it off again. Neither of my soldering irons would do it, so I had to stick it on the electric hob to get enough heat to melt the solder! Having cleaned up the parts, the second attempt came out as it should have. Here's the front former about to go in (the inside of the boiler has been pre-tinned).... The front former having been soldered in position.... I've also soldered some strips of flat lead behind the washout plug holes (which is why they're now blocked with solder). The lead will then be drilled into and short lengths of square wire added to represent the washout plugs themselves. This idea came from the late Guy Williams and will look much better than the etched (and rather 2 dimensional) washout plugs supplied with the kit. Having got to this stage, I couldn't resist plugging the smokebox and chimney in position, to get a feel for the end result.... I just need to do something with the seam at the bottom of the boiler now and as much as I'd like to continue with the upper works, after the seam is done, I need to get back to the chassis again. More pictures as work progresses! __________________________________________