Etched Pixels

Bernard (TPM) does token catchers if I remember rightly - he certainly used to as I have a packet of them somewhere from an ebay 99p moment. The catchers seem to have vanished fairly early on and the space hopefully just needs a bit of hole in the body and a bit of something thin behind it.

It needs to be able to run around stock so for the moment the rapido may have to stay. I've just discovered from more careful picture perusal that the group of locos that I'm doing the conversion from all kept their token catcher recessed. So that's going to be a fun additional chunk of work I hadn't banked on attempting.

The nose view (needs more painting yet)

You should be able to click on bigger pictures on RMWeb mark 4 and them epand and show up properly. The etched bits are from the detailing kit I do yes - but there isn't any really sane way to do the roof correction that way so that is all microstrip and filler - as is filling the spare lamps and filing them smooth.

I've started on a BR Blue Class 24 which is going to be turning into a 24/1 and getting various details fixed on the way (notably the annoying error in the roof lines)

It's not an airbrush that's the problem its the complete lack of anywhere to use it. Brushes for all their problems can be used in confined spaces and indoors without the household authorities objecting. (and a shed would unfortunately involve a fight with the planning people for idiotic reasons)

This started off as a Mill Lane Sidings ferryvan but is getting turned into the conversions done on them for use as curtain sided vans. The weathering on the sides is all done digitally (which is why the ends are not weathered yet). The rest will get weathered once I've attached all the other parts and painted them (roof, underframe etc)

Not had much modelling time but did have time to fix the Thompson roof vents, paint the underframe and put it all together. Still needs rainstrips.

The body is - its the not quite final version of some etches I'm just finishing off. The chassis is a pair of Poole Farish 40 bogies on a class 25 chassis block, which turn out not only to fit together perfectly happily but also are very very close to the right length.

Done a bit of filling and painting work so 10203 is beginning to take shape. Still need to sort out the battery box further and fit the handrails, folded headcode discs and the other grilles. Then of course paint the chassis/battery box silver.

I thought about it - but the Japanese range is so good, and the quality so high that you can find close matches for everything. I'm very surprised Dapol didn't use a Tomix pantograph. I guess lots of folks will be changing the pantographs.

Having finally got a bit of modelling time I've also started putting the cab roof profile onto 10201 and 10203. Trying Daz clay this time to see if I can get a better finish than will milliput. So far the finish seems nicer but its a right pain to get Daz to stay stuck to anything while being shaped, that or there is a trick I don't know !

Its a CE5000-40. The bigger brother of the Craft Robo and I believe the version I have was also discontinued some time ago which has the Windows users cross as there is no new software for it now. It's really more of a pro vinyl sign cutter so unless you also do signwriting the craft robo upgrade is probably a new craft robo if you've worn the poor thing out. Maybe you'll be the first person to claim craft robos are 'consumables' to the taxman. [1] Alan [1] In the games industry years ago we had a similar argument with the taxman because Amiga and Atari mice really didn't last more than a few months in a work environment !

The cutter itself talks a subset of HP-GL and some other vendor HP-GL like language. That seems to be fairly common for such devices although some of the very low end ones have a USB connector and dump bits of the processing onto the PC. Inkscape will convert a lot of formats to HP-GL and the windows softrware supplied (which I don't use) has plugins for some drawing programs as well. In theory anything that will output fairly simple postscript also ought to be convertible into suitable cutting lists. Sadly its not strong enough to cut thick card or all but the thinnest of styrene sheet and laser cutters are a bit too expensive

Bit more time working on the Thompson over lunch. Botched up the underframe out of some Ultima bits, a proper version of this is going to need some tweaking but most of it works out as is. Now what colour should the interior be ? I've also finally resolved the problem of the 57 with split gears. After various circles with parts and service suppliers who said they couldn't get the bits for it and that they were not available, plus no email response from Bachmann I eventually phoned Bachmann's service folks. Five minutes later the problem is solved and the needed axles are on their way. - excellent service. It does look like a one off fault - the early Farish 66s certainly split a few gears (and parts are available) but the 57 was a new one. Coupled with the fact it split four axle gears rather suggests a few dodgy gears than a trend.

I normally do but this coach like quite a few of the newer ones I've had has the underframe and body shell glued together. I will indeed repaint the underframe - but after I've replaced it. It now has an underframe on it which has shown up a problem I'd not considered - the solebars I have are designed to fit inside the edge of an etched fold up shell and the battery boxes are designed to fit likewise so needed sawing down to size. I think I may need to etch some alternatives. Pete: I'm not aware of a method to avoid the white edges. It's one reason I normally use etched sides or paint sides. Adam did post some suggestions to the n gauge group about the white edges. I seem to remember that felt tip pen was mentioned.

I had a crack at the third, first, and two brake third types to start with - in part because they are very similar so a lot can be cut and pasted. I've not found suitable fonts for the LNER brown livery and teak looks to be very very hard so I'll give that a miss for now.

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.

For the roof you shouldn't need to reshape anything, trim the ends off the roof moulding square with a set square or similar (or use a square and square up one end. You can then trim it just over length and file it until it fits nicely between the ends. Remove some of the lip on the bottom where it fits over the sides at each end and off you go. A spot of filler will cover any minor sins. NB - I always cut them a bit over but square then file back. Don't assume you can file the ends square to fit - sometimes you find you've got the coach ends merely 'almost square' so test fitting is a better approach.

I've always "cheated" (in certain eyes) with the finer detail on etched coaches. I solder up everything that needs soldering then use superglue paste for the detail bits. You have to do them in that order because the superglue paste will fracture if you then solder near it later, and also very hot superglue gives off nasties.

Worsley do some Thompson scratch aids - but you still need fittings and I wanted something a bit easier to build. For bogies most of the N folk I've talked with about it favour the slightly inaccurate (8ft v 8ft6) bogies from the NGS as they are plastic mouldings with couplers, springs etc. I've done some six wheelers - LSWR and LB&SCR so far. I must get around to other regions one day . Takes me about 20 minutes to build a six wheeler using Peco chassis components but thats without things like fitted handrails and doorhandles, and its not painted which takes me forever in comparison. I've still yet to line some of the coaches, and in the SECR case I'm still not sure *how* I am going to line them like that. Now I would quibble the 'chaps', they may be the minority but they are not all 'chaps'.

Within the constraints of the plastic roof profile N v 2mm is "which button do I decide to push". The test ones are 2mm, in part because Colin originally drew them in 2mm and because in my experience is 2mm folks want 2mm, N folks aren't so fussy although for longer vehicles it gets more visible. Primarily its a matter of whose bogies you decide to pick. Saying folks are happy with a generic suburban is questionable IMHO - all the suburbans in N generic or otherwise are 57ft plus. There are no 40-50ft SR coaches, no 51ft Gresleys, no odd length RTR staniers, etc. That's a real problem in terms of the look of stuff prior to the mass extermination of pre Mark 1 stock and the replacement of most suburban services with DMUs. Other whole styles of coach are missing too - try finding anything with a birdcage.- and the birdcage style brake stock lasted a long time - and in engineering use until the early 1970s. I'm not holding my breath for a Farish 'trio' set either ..

LB&SCR 7ft wheelbase dumb buffered ballast wagon - amazingly some of these survived into grouping. Tester for a 52ft Thompson Starting work on a 'Continental brake'

The "empty to Delabole" rather dates the wagon too, as that would have been quite tricky well before the flow stopped.