nebnoswal

do you apply any undercoat before you brush paint? A cheap automotive spray/aerosol primer works wonders. Have to agree with Missy here, once you go down the route of an airbrush, you won't want to come back. Admittedly it is a big outlay, compressor, airbrush, thinners, time spent cleaning up etc, etc. Fortunately for me, I've been using a mates for the past 5-6 years, we used to have annual spray days. Now that we live 1600km away, it’s not really doable. Last year Mrs Noswal bought me a compressor and accessory pack for my birthday. Now, not only can I paint when I want too, but I inflate tyres, blow-up toddlers pools (what used to take 45 min of hand-pumping is now 5min), and other husband like jobs requiring high pressure air! I know air-brushes are expensive, but try eBay, I got a cheap one, for starters, from Hong Kong, for only $2 plus $10 postage. What made it even better was that it was listed under the finger-nail art section. The same air-brush in the modelling section was $35! All you need to do is practise.

I need to do something similar for my yards on Sturminster, and have been bebating over clay or card. How portable do you think it would be? What I mean is that my baseboards are portable (2000 x 800 mm). Would the clay withstand being mv\oved around, from home to trailer etc etc?

That GNR coach looks great. Are they custom made transfers?

I've been slack of late, in particular to updates and actually working on the layout. There has been nothing major to report on of late, hence no updates. But with Christmas/summer holidays fast approaching (only 5 more work days to go), I needed to get back to work on Sturminster. So a good dusting and vacuuming latter and I decided I had better put the photographic backscene up before it gets too late. Ideally I should of done this as soon as I put the backscene up and before landscaping and scenery. The photos don't do it justice, as they have picked up all the bubbles, so this will have to be attended too soon. Looking into the station Station overview Butts Pond

Well the mojo is in full swing now. Got my 2 MLS sausage vans finished today. In between time I've working on some more local rolling stock.

It's been awhile, almost as if I've been hibernating over winter, yes that's right we do have winter here down under. I went to the annual state railway modelling show over the weekend, and did some shopping. I also had a visit from 1/3 of the Ixion management, and after these long discussion, I think my mojo is back. Some new irons are in the fire, and hopefully at Christmas I will be having a date with the a 3d laser cutter. Whilst I’ve been absent in model making, it hasn't stopped me from shopping. The UFO pile continues to grow. I recent got some of the Mill Lane siding kits for a Palethorpes Sausage van to go onto the NGS 6 wheeled chassis from the Stove R. The main parts of the kit are made from Rowmark. It's a harder plastic which enable it to go through a laser cutter and not melting, I guess that is handy. But it needs stronger glue. The roof is thick card which needs to be rolled. The actual sides are printed photos with the door detail on them, similar to the 4 wheeled sausage van from MLS. I need to fit the end steps and paint the ends and roof prior to fitting the sides. Overall a quite simple kit, and it adds some variety, and great use of the new NGS 6 wheeled chassis. I also pick-up another laser cut wood kit from Aussie manufacturer Spirit Design, this time the ubiquitous Victorian Railways Z van. This kit gives you 2 different variants, detailed instructions, colour reference photos and transfers. All I need to do now is source some Peco brake van chassis to make up a 4 and 6 wheeled chassis. It was quite simple to build.

You never cease to amaze Missy. I'm still contemplating how I'm going to tackle some clerestory coaches, and here you are taking on streamlining, curves and angles. Inspirational as always, well done and eagerly looking forward to seeing the finished outcome.

Thats what diseasel's look like to me, a box on wheels.

Have you tried CCT (Cambridge Custom Transfers) They do a range of BR transfers. http://www.cctrans.freeserve.co.uk/

That looks pretty impressive. As Missy said, I've too have avoided whitemetal wagon kits due to lack of detail or rough castings, but what you have there has changed my mind. The extra detail you have added improves it 10 fold

I managed to find some time to week to resume work on the luggage van. After several phone calls to the Sithlord up in Longreach, I made an attempt on the roof. With no previous experience with rolling brass, I was a bit hesitant to start with. To get the main curve of the roof I used a piece of 20mm diameter steel pipe and rolled it on a computer mouse mat. For the edges, I clamped it 1mm in from the edge in the hold-n-fold and then used a 3mm diameter brass rod to turn-up the ends. After a couple of trial fits and fettling I glued the brass roof detail on to the plastic former. Once it had set I drilled out the holes and fitted the ventilators. From there it was a couple coats of under coat and then a spray of grey for the roof. It turns out that the Sithlord has over taken me. In the space of 1 week he has made-up his luggage van, painted it and fitted the window grills. http://sithlordsrail...01_archive.html My only saving grace being that I’ve fitted bogies to mine and run it on my layout. Whilst waiting for all the paint to dry, I dove into the box of UFO's to see what I could find to finish-off. What I found was a partially built Ultima 42' LMS bogie CCT. I cleaned it up, added the under frame detail, cut the roof to size and fitted the ventilators. I still need to fit the following: handrails on the other side strips on the roof grills on the window This kit is currently being upgraded by Ultima and it should hopefully be a fold-up kit and do away with the whitemetal ends.

Thanks Michael, for a first attempt at making a brass etch kit, I'm quite happy with it. it maynot have the correct bogies, but it runs well. Kevin of Oz has now followed suit and we've most of this evening discussing various ways to to get the brass roof section right. Also need to find the appropiate transfers.

Thats very disco Missy . First you add pink to the model railway colour spectrum and now the cockpit instruments from the Starship Enterprise. Whats next ................................... But serriously, thats great work.

Another weekend over and where did all the time go? With no outstanding husband work due (lawn mowing, gutter cleaning etc) apart from baby minding and nappy changing I resolved to get some modelling done. On Friday night I put together a shopping list for a model shop tour the next day. My Saturday departure was delayed by an unannounced visit by a doting grandma and aunty to see young Dougie. Leaving 3 hours later than expected I commenced my 300km round trip. Yes, 300km! I could have waited and just ordered the stuff over the phone and internet, but occasionally wandering the isles of good model shop brings an added reward. I spent a good few hours rubbing the luggage van with the fibreglass brush, getting a bit of a shine to it. It struck me them, must be all that army training, that to polish brass to use brasso. So I did, I gave it a good soak and then a good scrub and rinse in hot soapy water. I let it sit over night in an air tight container, to make sure nothing reacted to it. First thing Sunday morning I gave its first undercoat and let sit in the sun. With the warm weather I reapplied the undercoat over lunch. While waiting for the paint to dry, I moved onto the Vic Rail AE coach. I had painted the sides and ends the night before, after having sprayed the undercoat during the week. The instruction suggested that the window frames be painted prior to assembly, to assist in this it came with a sheet of 'quickmask', an adhesive vinyl which had all the window recesses cut-out. This I did, but still managed to get some of the paint to seep , probably because I brushed painted as opposed to the recommend air-brushing. This will need some more touching up. After allowing it to dry I assembled one side of the coach with some quickset PVA. So far so good. 5 hours later I moved back to the luggage van. Next coat to go on was the green. Now its starting to look good. Some minor touching-up is still required and the solebar and underframe have only had one pass of the paint-brush. Thanks to Etched Pixels, I re-read the instructions and realised the plastic roof supplied is meant to have the brass etch attached to it.

Only you could get away with that Missy

Against that backdrop, they look excellant. Well done

Two weeks on and the luggage van has hit the rails. I finally finished a majority of the detailing bits. It had its first run around the layout on an old set of Minitrix Mk1 bogies, with no problems. Even the steps on the solebar cleared the platforms at Stur. All that is left are the cables on the ends, the inside window grills and the next major obstacle; the roof! So a question to all your blog readers out there, how do I shape the roof to the right profile, without having to buy specialist equipment? And a second question while I'm at it, about cleaning-up the brass. I've given it several scrubs in hot soapy water with a toothbrush, a good going over with a fibreglass brush and also with a wire wheel on the dremel. But I still I can't get it cleaned-up. Any suggestions? Whilst this has been my first attempt at soldering a brass kit, I learnt some valuable lessons: · Even though I read the instructions, always go back to them. · Learn your railway terminology; find out what is a rubbing plate, solebar etc.... · As per any making or building project, measure/fit twice – cut once · Unlike plastic kits, brass is forgiving and can allow you to fix some mistakes (like the underframe truss soldered upside-down on the solebar ) · A good soldering iron is very helpful.

No new work on the layout to talk about, but I’ve received some new rolling stock and vehicles. I got some of the new Mathison and Dapol private owner wagons. They are quite well detailed, but will need to be weathered down to make them aged. I also received some of the new Oxford diecast vehicles; the Albion horsebox and the Scammel mechanical horse. Have also been working on finishing off some UFO’s.

Well I managed to save some money at the train show, so a new soldering iron was purchased. Temperature controlled and a ceramic heating element, hopefully this will help me to improve my skills with the hot wand. The wooden pegs as suggested in previous comments is a great tip, apart from the fact all the pegs in our peg bag are plastic! Looks like I'm off to the shops, again. Managed to do some more on the luggage van today. Both solebars are fitted now, even after I put the frame on upside down on the first attempt. I've added the other set of strapping and the sliding doors and a few more of the vertical ribs, all with the new iron. I did misplace one of the buffers and spent a good 10 minutes looking for it, this turned out to be a good thing as I found some coupling springs and drill bits which had escaped the workbench. Back onto the topic of Laser cutting, I picked a couple of kits at the show. One was for a VicRail permanent way good shed. This will fit in quite well as the gangers trolley shed situated next the signal box at Sturminster. Only 6 parts, it went together really easy. The second was for a VicRail AE 1st class passenger car on 6 wheel bogies. It looks pretty straight forward; I just forgot to get the paint for it at the time. The wood panel detail is pretty good. Both of these kits are produced by Spirit Design based here down under. They do custom work, so I will be contacting them about some little jobs i'd like done.

Good investment - yes. Its not the name brand 'hold and fold', but just as good for a quarter of the price. I picked-up on eBay from a US supplier. Tumblehome - No

Well I've dived off into the deep end today! After yesterdays playing with the forthcoming Manor, it was straight out to the garage today, in between nappies and bathing and burping. I recently purchased a kit for a Maunsell 51ft SR bogie gangway luggage (GBL) van from Ultima Models for inclusion in my Pines Express. I've never fully attempted a brass etch kit, but you have to have a go some time, especially considering I've been stockpiling them for the last couple of years. So here is the result of one evenings work. I got all the ventilation vents fitted as well as the chalk boards. The side-walls and ends folded-up and soldered, and they are nearly square! I've attached the battery boxes, one panel of timber bracing and started on the solebar. All this and I only burnt myself once. So what did I learn? I need a new soldering-iron for starters. Hopefully tomorrow I don't buy anything at the Sandown train show and my train-fund can purchase a temperature-controlled iron on my way home. I also need a decent tip cleaner and some metal clamps (plastic melts) to hold things in place, either that or become an octopus! It hasn't scared me off, yet, so I will continue. There is some finer detail to add, including numerous vertical ribbing strips that look like being a bit of a challenge.