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Steadfast

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  1. Steadfast

    Knuckle Duster

    By Steadfast,

    Having picked up a handful of the new Farish MBAs over the weekend, today I thought I'd set about adding body mounted knuckle couplers to them. The outer ends of the outer 2 wagons retain Rapidos in NEM pockets for coupling to locos. The inner ends of these two, and both ends of the inner wagons have been fitted with a Microtrains coupler mounted at bufferbeam height. On the buffer fitted wagons, this represents the swinghead coupler, and the inners are fitted with a fixed knuckle, though of course on the model the only variation is whether it has buffers or not

    The original bogie mounted Rapido in an NEM pocket which is retained on the outer end of the outer wagons

    Before and after - note the coupler pocket had to be trimmed to allow for bogie swing. The lid of the coupler box has been left off, using the base of the wagon as the top. To aid construction, one end of the spring was glued to the top half of the knuckle head piece

    Doesn't look too shabby once coupled!

    The coupling gap is closed up a bit with the knuckles fitted. It could be shrunk further by setting the Microtrains coupler further back into the wagon, but this would restrict bogie rotation for tight curves

    Both with an without buffers, side by side
    I'll wait until I have a couple more wagons to make up the set before weathering and making a scrap load.
    A complete aside from the rest of the post, I do like this Windows 7 malarky, got Raiders of the Lost Ark playing in the right window, and I'm typing this in the left window.
    Ace!
  2. Steadfast
    Some of you may remember the 3D printed class 59 bodyshell I was fiddling with on old RMweb http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10057&start=234
    Here is the current progress, once it's done, I'll do a proper step by step blog entry covering the shell, and also the underframe work

  3. Steadfast
    Well some more progress has been made on the grotty Dutch tractor. Inbetween scratching the weathering and throwing my paintbrushes out of the pram, I've attacked the underframe with some powders. They still need some work, but the variation in tone is getting there - in fact it looks a lot more varied, yet subtle to the naked eye than in the photos. Somehow I'm going to add some satin bits to the black on the underframe to give that greasy look, probably a powder and varnish mix. I'll probably add some drybrushing to the steps too with gunmetal or similar. The front end details are done too, pretty happy with these, and the scratches of yellow showing through on the centre plough.



    Not sure whether to cut back and redo the bodyside brown weathering to remove the scatches, or live with them. We'll see!
     
     
  4. Steadfast
    So, had a good session with the airbrush today, got a decent layer of brown on the underframe, and dustings on the bodyshell in the right places. It finally feels as though it is coming together now! Still need washes and powders on the underframe, but its moving in the right direction.

    Also gave some Seacows a dusting over with frame dirt at the same time, these had already had a series of brown and grey washes already. I've also glued on the detailing bits. Looks like they may, just, still make it round 9 inch curves. Further detail painting will follow, along with some stone dust and a load. Mmm, rusty cows


    Should like nice with the OBAs and Autoballasters in a long engineers working behind a tug or a maroon tractor or two
     
     
  5. Steadfast
    Ok, so the model in a week concept didn't work, by the end of the week I couldn't be bothered and lost the excitement with the model. Here is how the loco looked at my attempted finish date. Please excuse the fluff and bits on the model - only just noticed that while I was resizing the fots. It looks ok in the flesh, a little less sure now I've looked back over the piccys. I'm pretty happy with the roof, but the noses and sides still need work. Talk about unsure! Next stage, is to airbrush the underframe brown. On top of this the powders can go on to vary the shade, and add some grime. The lower bodysides will also get a dusting of "underframe turdy brown" as well. Ploughs have had a rough coat of yellow ready for a thick layer of brown!




    I dunno when the next update will be - presumably after some spraying weather!
     
    jo
     
     
  6. Steadfast
    Not a lot to show at this moment in time unfortunately. What there is to show I'm not happy with, having spent the morning attacking the body with various colours of Games Workshop acrylic. The fading on the roof looks ok, but the fading and dirt on the sides and nose I'm really not happy with. It looks grotty, but not in the right way. Will get on with spraying up the bogies, underframe and ploughs in the mean time though. Where's the headbanging smilie off the old forum when you need it?
    Edit time: I've just finished editing the photos for uploading. I've got to say, since I took the photos, and have looked at them on the laptop, I'm a lot happier with the loco so far, perhaps correction needn't be as drastic as I thought. One thing I'm really not happy with is the tide mark on the front by the headlight, which has come from the wash applied here, but is something I can work back and tidy up.

    Here is the fuel tank assembly, with adding piping, primed ready for a coat of matt black to give a nice base for the weathering

    Likewise the bogies. This shot makes the 0.3mm wire on the speedo drive look so chunky! Though it is nice that is doesn't look like some wire and plastic glued on the side now that there is a unified finish between it and the bogie frame.



    The bodyshell weathering, which so far I'm so-so with, as I mentioned above. The roof fading I like, and is ready for a good coating of clag. This is the look I'm aiming for http://chrisfinch.fo.../p55064987.html
    I think I'll get there eventually
    Oh, and I also primed this today, it's been waiting primer for ages, and will eventually be sky blue

     
    jo
  7. Steadfast
    So, lets kick off the blog! As a bit of a trial of the blog format, and because I've got this week off, in between getting the car to the garage, some fotting, and generally wasting time I'm attempting to detail, weather and document the process with the recently released Graham Farish Dutch liveried class 37. Hopefully it'll end up as a blow by blow account (yawn ) of the work done. The aim is, by the time I go back to work at 14.30 on Mon 23rd, to have the loco finished. Today I made a start on the work, breaking the loco down to the component parts. The first photo shows the loco as it is, out of the box, albeit with the thick yellow paint stripped off the bogie axleboxes. The other two shots show the current straight of play.



    Detailing so far has comprised of adding the speedo drive to the bogie from brass wire and scraps of plastic. Removing the footsteps does make working on the bogies that bit easier. They area piece of cake to pop off, just slide a scalpel blade up between the bogie and the steps. Some pipework between the tanks too - this was formed from some nickel silver wire, soldered into a T-shape for the cross pipe, and some shorter bits glued on for the drains/overflows.
    The bogies have had the couplers modified. One has had the pocket removed, the other has had the mount for the NEM socket severely trimmed to reduce it's visual impact. The end with no coupling will be fully detailed, and is prepped for plough fitting. The ploughs are TPM, with some wire soldered to the back to give a semi-prototypical mounting method. They are only placed on the loco at the moment, to prove the concept, but will be glued once they're painted. I don't think this mounting method will work at the other end due to the coupler, I think they'll need attaching to the bogies unfortunately. I'll try to get some better shots tomorrow of the mod work in daylight.
    Ok, so to a bit of an admission, I don't really have a use for this loco I just bought it because it looked nice. I've since found out that the loco didn't make it to 2001, so isn't suitable for the early era I model. It may see use on Hedges Hill, or more likely, I may sell it on. Because of this, and difficulty in matching RTR paint shades, the shell will be staying as it is, although really the bodyside steps and water filler should be plated over, and the only Dutch splitter to retain this wasn't a Canton machine (to make use of the etched plaques) so a re-number isn't going to happen.
    Anyway, enough of the waffling, I'll update it tomorrow, hopefully with progress!
     
    iechyd da
     
    jo
     
     
     
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