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Etched Pixels

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  1. Etched Pixels
    Think I need to do the roof out of something other than stainless as its a bit of a ... to shape.
     
    After this one I have a giant to follow (although there is something ironic about a T scale giant)
     
    Still having to do a bit of thinking about the floor - I have the trussing fine and a bit of plastic rod will do the tanks, but getting the solebars right is going to need some experimentation. Thank goodness Peco sell large packs of T scale round buffers in packets labelled 'track pins'
     

  2. Etched Pixels

    Teak and tweak

    By Etched Pixels,

    I've been working on the UFO pile over Christmas and finally got around to painting the 2mm scale 51' full brake I built earlier in the year. It wasn't something I felt too confident attacking as it's a fairly complex livery.
     

     
    Still need to find suitable decals and to glaze it, but it's slowly getting there
  3. 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.
     

  5. 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.
  7. 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.
     

  9. 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.
  10. 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.
     

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