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Etched Pixels

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  1. Etched Pixels
    Picked up one of these from Plaza Japan to play with and to maybe replace the scratchbuilt chassis in the WCPR 'Flying Matchbox' at the moment. The 3D print/scratchbuilt one isn't very reliable to say the least.
     

     
    The Tsugawa wheelbase is a bit long and it'll need a resistor or two as it is meant for 4.5v max.
     
    The design is interesting as the chassis block is produced using a long gear chain that consists of identical gears held in places with pins from each side, and at the end by wheels (also split axles). The axles and pins fit into the same exact gear moulding.
     
    This of course means that you can swap them around (I put the end gears back in so I can find them if I ever want to swap it back)
     
     

     
     
    Turns out the screws foul the wheels but you can drill new 1mm holes and tap the screws into those instead.
     

     
    All fits below the windowline and I think with care I can get the decoder and resistors hidden too. I'll pass on sound for the moment.
  4. Etched Pixels
    For the bridge and valley at the left hand end of the new layout I've been pondering what to use for the narrow gauge line I fancied running over it. Z is a possibility and the little known remainder of the 3' Cornish mineral railways but another obvious option is to lay something in NN15 (or NN18 to be exact). Unfortunately the out of the box T scale track isn't really suitable for narrow gauge so it was time to try the obvious plan B
     
    NN15 track - the soldered way. This is with code 40 flat bottom rail - really I need to find something lower, but I also need to build the proper trackwork in steel anyway because the T gauge stuff relies on magnetism to make the physics work.
     
    The other reason to do this is that T gauge switches are not very good and mostly plastic causing a lot of stalls, so I'll need a couple of T electrofrog switches to pull it off... (oh boy....!)
     

     
    The medium sized controller (in N) surveys his options
  7. Etched Pixels
    The Mark 2 BFK now has an interior - unpainted so far, and the roof mostly done (needs another coat and some weathering/matting). One mystery remains first. Presumably the BFK has a periscope - but where does it go ?
     

     
    Meanwhile I've also been putting together the test build of the Ultima Thompson matchboard full brake. Usefully the N gauge society has produced the rather less usual 8ft Gresley bogies this needs, as part of the rather excellent Gresley brake kit.
     

     
    The only trouble being that in looking for reference images I inadvertently discovered the rather cute 6 wheel Thompson D.358 full brake which I now need to find drawings of to etch up.
  8. Etched Pixels
    Last night I realised that it would be a lot stronger if the ends had tabs that folded round and could be glued down the middle of the sides (as a sort of 3 layer sandwich). The goings on in the corners will be hidden by the overlay bits anyway.
     
    So here is rev 2. I've also added an explicit creative commons license to it so people know it can be reused and how
     
    The previous one will work on thin card, this one won't as the thickness is only going to work for paper. If you are using thin card you don't need the extra tabs so you can cut them off !
     
    Fold up the ends and glue them, then fold up the sides. the light grey tabs each end go into the middle of the respective side to hold it all together firmly.
     
     

     
    1.tiff
     
    and have fun fiddling - if someone wants to make a pro wedding one feel free (please though don't make it the Peco purple as a matter of taste !)
     
    You can actually get very good quality off a modern printer and a bit of judicious use of painting tools. This is one I did a while ago as a bit of fun for a ferry van conversion (sides fit the Mill Lane Sidings ferry van)
     

     
    2.tiff
  9. Etched Pixels
    The Dapol chassis block was about the right size but the motor is held in place by the body, and also in the wrong place. With a lot of careful packing and the motor turned the other way it all fits into the longboiler and can be held in place by a pair of screws drilled and tapped each end of the chassis block.
     
    That way around even the NEM pocket for the front end is in the right spot.
     
    I guess I should have used a black terrier... paintbrush time to follow.
     

     
    Now what to do with the terrier body. Anyone want one for a 2fs chassis building project ;-)
  10. Etched Pixels
    This took a bit of squeezing. It's the Zimo MX648R and a Dapol M7 chassis with a tidied up Highfield G5 body kit on top modified to fit. The speaker and decoder just about fit in the back of the loco although it's a very tight squeeze.
     
     
    Pardon the lousy camera work
     
    http://vimeo.com/36930371
  12. Etched Pixels
    One reject old NSprays/Heritage N body shell (99p)
    Some filing and filling
    Some old white metal ventilators from the scrap box
    Four buffers
    Some bent wire
    An old Poole Farish GWR railcar chassis
    Two DMU bogie outers
    Couple of old BHE DMU underframe castings I had handy
     

     
    Dapol it ain't but everything came from the junk box so quite a saving. No need for a sound chip either, it sounds like a DMU already !
  13. Etched Pixels
    I've been meaning to draw up some templates for making paper wagons for the Peco chassis for a while as its a great way to knock up all kinds of fun wagons, and if you overlay the strapping with black painted plasticard etc can look really good.
     
    This one is just a paper build on a Peco 10ft chassis
     

     
    If you want to make your own then the artwork is below, print at 600dpi and have fun. The tiff one is the best quality and most likely going to just print right, the jpeg is there too just in case.
     
    For OO you'll need to resize it. I don't know what the dimensions of the OO chassis are so you'll have to work it out
     
    Print on nice stiff quality paper (the one above is on cheap paper as tester) and make the folds sharp. Fold up and glue (for laser print titebond woodglue is awesome for this, for inkjet you need more care but spraying the back of the sheet with spray mount might well do the trick).
     
    Cut out four of the corner bits and wrap them round the corner to hold it together.
  14. Etched Pixels

    TPM GWR full brake

    By Etched Pixels,

    Bernard (TPM) did some very nice sides for the K40 full brake that abused a Dapol B set as a donor. This build instead uses a generic 3D printed shell with etched trussing and the usual white metal detail. Given the underframe of the B set needs major work and the roof would need redoing anyway I think its an easier way to do the build (It doesn't really work for the BTK as that re-used the Dapol recessed door)
     
    Sides are just tacked on for the moment as I'll need to take them back off for spraying.
     

  15. Etched Pixels

    Thompson BZ

    By Etched Pixels,

    And then suddenly it's August and hardly any modelling time has happened.
     
    The last couple of weeks I have had a bit of time however and got the Thompson BZ kit design done. This needs a few adjustments (making the roof extend over the ends a spot, moving the steps) but I'm pretty happy with the test run other than that. It rolls beautifully and it'll handle 9" curves.
     

  16. Etched Pixels
    Good to see rmweb slowly recovering
     
    In the meantime I've mostly decalled the 02
     

     
    and am also part way through painting and decalling a Carl Peplow resin 47 shell I had lurking in a drawer.
     

     
    and the Maunsell coach project is slowly getting there. This is a test build with the underframe, sides ends and roof. Couple of small errors to fix on the underframe etches but nothing serious. Need to fit the bogies, underframe and roof vents next, see how it looks.
     

  17. Etched Pixels
    The open coach I built a while back has died somewhat so it seemed to be time to build something more robust, and perhaps a little less "garden railway" looking. The body is a narrow gauge coach off Shapeways which has been slightly anglicised by paint job and then fitted on a scratch built chassis using T scale parts to run on 3.1mm soldered track.
     
    The weight may need adjusting - with a vehicle that size on 15" track the weight needs to be low but at the same time the mechanisms can't haul much weight,
     
    The Eishindo 103 has a separate gear box and motor so I may just have to put a "proper" motor unit together - that would also improve running considerably although I have a few things to do before I can really test the weight and motor situation out properly.
     

     

     

  18. Etched Pixels

    Gresley Bogies

    By Etched Pixels,

    All been a bit hectic and I seem to have spent all my modelling time on real work and also Ultima sorting. Finally got a bit of time however so the Gresley now has bogies. Don't yet have the NGS bogies for the Thompson but I do have the TPM goodie bag so I can get cracking on the rest of the Regional Railways rake.
     
    I've also now got a nice set of "Atlantic Coast Express" plates which will go nicely on the SWT 159 in modern image mode. Wondering about destructing a Dapol 153 when the prices come down (ie after few more releases) and doing a custom 'North Cornwall Line' livery with stuff like Tintagel, Arthur and Obby Oss on it.
     

  20. Etched Pixels
    After the bogie coach I thought I'd try something a bit smaller and more complex. The main problem with T scale wheels is that they are designed to be held in bogies and the bogies have points that go into the wheels not pinpoints on wheels. They are also of course very small.
     
    For this wagon I drilled 0.4mm holes into the centre of each wheel (down the existing dip) and superglued fine wire. The next problem was bearings. After about five failed experiments I hit upon the answer- N gauge handrail knobs, with the loop for the wire acting as the bearing.
     
    It runs, although its a bit rough. I got slightly too much glue on the rods into the wheels seems to be the reason so I know next time what is needed to get smoother running. Then again after the number of obscenities emitted I might build a bogie wagon instead !
     
    Needs more paint and weathering but it'll pass with a bit of dirt.
     

     

  21. Etched Pixels
    I thought I'd start with NN3 trackwork on the basis that I was doing the first test build with a roller gauge and no jigs, along with no experience. I figured that however dodgy it turned out it wouldnt be totally amiss as an industrial narrow gauge siding. It's also using Z standards so its a good deal more forgiving and coarse spec than 2mm trackwork proper.
     
    I have learned several things
     
    - that the ends of the rail are sharp and next time I should cover them in tape so less blood is involved when cleaning up with a file
    - that I need to make some jigs for more serious NN3 trackwork
    - that the pritt stick cheap clone I used to stick the sleepers down ready to solder turns into a strong glue once soldered (next time I may try photomount)
     
    I'm still stuck on a few things
    - The best way to paint it given the sleepers are metal - all over attack with Games Workshop skull white and then clean the tops of the rails ?
    - How people get small neat blobs of solder and don't have to spend an hour cleaning up the joins or removing and replacing some of the worst excesses (would solder paint be better)
    - Would it be better to find matching plastic strip and glue every 'n'th sleeper and just fake the rest, especially on the NN3 bits where realyl the rail ought to be flat bottom on clips or nails/
     
     
    But it works, it's to gauge and you can run things on it. I'm almost tempted to attempt some dual gauge trackwork after I make sleeper spacing jigs so I can get it straight. That is once I figure out the right way to make the jigs.
     
    Alan
  22. Etched Pixels
    I've been playing with the vinyl cutter and Thompson stock. As the Thompson stock is very similar in ends and profile to the Mark 1 it seemed a perfect thing to use the clear plastic shell from the Farish Mark 1 coaches for. Especially with new better Mark 1 coaches on the way.
     
    The coaches were drawn with the gimp and then pasted together using a small program which assembles them and generates three images, one is a colour printed sheet which is like the coach sides it reads but with areas around the sides and in the windows filled in colour so that any slight cutting inaccuracy doesn't show up. The second is a black and white sheet showing which areas are part of the coach (and thus the cutting lines), the third a proof sheet combining strictly for human consumption.
     
    The black and white sheet goes into inkscape and the inkscape 'trace bitmap' function turns it into cutting vectors, and hpgl-distiller makes it edible by the vinyl cutter.
     
    The print image goes to the laser printer first on paper to check sizes/detail and then again with magic laser printed vinyl paper. This second sheet then goes into the vinyl cutter where the registration marks ensure the image is cut accurately and the end result goes on the side of a brasso cleaned coach.
     
    Bogies are plastic ones from the NGS. I could have used the correct etched 8'6" ones but the 8' ones will fool most people and are rather simpler to use. All I need to do now is cut off the underframe then paint and glue on a pair of etched Thompson truss rods, vac cyl, dynamo and battery boxes. After that I'll probably fix the roof ventilators and add rainstrips. Certainly the rainstrips are a very visible difference that needs sorting.
     

  23. Etched Pixels

    Gresley Time

    By Etched Pixels,

    Some old Bill Bedford sides that were kicking around, Ultima bits for most of the rest. The roof is a cut and shut of a longer one so eventually I ought to move the brackets. I've just ordered the bogies for it from 2mm SA shop, which fortunately carries the non-Gresley bogies used under these full brakes.
     

     
    And a quck unusual angle photo down the platform of Aeonian Hills. I really must get the oil lamps wired up next time I'm doing wiring work..
     

  25. Etched Pixels
    Things have been a little slow owing to a number of deliveries for other railway lines and the continued bad weather keeping the paint shop closed. It wasn't helped today when the works closed for the cricket.
     
     
    Another Nightstar sleeper has however joined the formation, which leaves two more to do to build the full rake.
     

     
    and while tidying up the scratch etches I decided this slighty faulty horsebox could be rescued even if not sold. Its now waiting some filling and the paint shop, the wonky bits having been adjusted after the photo
     

     
    and another Thompson has joined the paintshop queue to go out in lined maroon
     

     
    I've also put my clay wagon (flat) tarpaulin artwork up. It's too big to attach on RMWeb so can be found at
     
    http://www.etchedpixels.co.uk/Gallery/claytarps.tiff
     
    Those match the Parkwood/NGS clay kit.
     
    Alan
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