Giles

I forgot to add that this has to be finished for Uckfield in October!!!

Some years ago, Di bought me a Slaters kit for a quarry Hunslet which I just got round to building. But during the build, it occurred to me that it would be fun to have ago at fitting a steam generator in the form of an ultrasonic mister - which works very well. This in turn means it has to have a layout - albeit a very small one - 6ft x 2' 8" plus small and simple fiddle. The baseboard is timber-framed foam to keep the weight down, and the track is Barker's. Point motors are my own design, self locking with un-used frog switching, and led panel indicators. Grass is starting to appear - but it's going to be a massive job, as there is no way even my boosted grass-master can give me anything like the density I want with the long fibre (mix) I'm using (4mm, 6.5mm 12mm and random cut 12 - 30mm horse-hair. A small palm full is taken and rolled into a sort of cylinder, the end pulled off, and the remaining flattened end pushed into the pre-glued surface and torn off - rinse and repeat. It takes a very long time and uses LOADS of fibres. When the glues has dried I then hoover 80% back off and reuse it....

My profuse apologies - you are quite right! I can't read my own diary! Excellent!

Sadly, this clashes with Uckfield which I am committed to (and looking forward to!). I very much hope this isn't a one-off, and I would very much like to come next year!

Hi, no - rather a generic model I'm afraid! This was just an itch I wanted to scratch - I thought it should be possible to make a small fully functioning self propelled crane in 4mm, so I did. I have yet to find a use for it!

For information, this is a Slater's 16mm kit, fitted with a little Deltang Rx43 Receivers and 1800mAh battery. Remotored with an N30 gearmotor, and Steam is provided by an ultrasonic 'mister' disc, driver board, triggered via a 4 beat disc on the leading axle.

First class work!!!

Loco completed and finished - and works very well.

It's actually running on clean rain water. I will avoid running it on tap water I think....

The battery fitted should be good for five hours, and there is a socket underneath (and 3-way switch so I can have a small wagon with hidden battery containing an alternative battery for a much longer duration. As its wired at the moment, you can stop it on the quarter and it will continue steaming. I can rewire it to an F output on the receiver so it steams when a button is held down, but a little reprogramming is necessary. Quite understand your queezyness!

Thank you Paul - and the smoke ones can give you cancer. I rather wish I hadn't bothered.

The boiler of this loco is much the same size as 7mm locos - so that's not a real issue. It's perfectly viable for 7mm standard gauge within reason.

Like so many people, I always thought there would be milage in using an ultrasonic mist device in a loco for steam, and when I saw a pack of discs with PCBs available from Ebay for a few quid I bought some. These were 5 volt input, so suitable to work with the radio control stuff I do (other voltages are available). I have an FDM printer available which i used to print a small tank to fit in the boiler (about 30cc refillable through the loco's saddletank filler) and with a very small amount of switching - here we go. Duration should be about an hour constant running before a refill is required, but I haven't had the opportunity to test that yet!

I've used both 4 way and 6 way sliprings from China/Ebay and they are fine within their limitations. I doubt their much use for high speed work, but slow speed work they seem fine. Also, being realistic, they're probably the only easy viable option. I have a few radio control models with these things built into them.

I first went to a Warley show more than 50 years ago (Harry Mitchell), and they were brilliant then. I hope I shall get to whatever they have planned next! Good luck and thanks!

There's a nice painting by Eric Bottomly of exactly that scene....

If you've got two lots of varnish, you might try rubbing down the varnish WET, 2000 grit or finer, and then buffing with a kitchen towel used dry (contains China clay and is very mildly abrasive). If that doesn't shine up a bit, take a little brasso wadding and let it almost dry out and give a wipe with that before buffing. This stops the brasso from desolving your nice varnish, and just let's a bit of the abrasive do the work. In any event, I usually let the weathering sit on top, unless there is a particular reason not to.

Hi John, You will have to be fairly cautious in regard to the varnish that is on there. It may be sensible to do a test piece, or at least try a section that is fairly out of sight. When rubbing down varnish, all goes well until you go right through it, and then you can get a white line appear at the paint/varnish line. If this should happen, you may end up having to re-varnish! This is one of the reasons I never use varnish. However, if the varnish is completely dry, you can give it a gentle surface rub should you wish - being careful not to rub through! Regarding the grime, the varnish will pick up whatever you do very readily. Personally I would use water-soluble oils on this - lamp black, and and a dark brown - say burnt umber. Using them neat, on a small flat brush, almost dry-brush, work one or both colours to your choice into edges, seams and rivet lines - always working vertically. Then dry bush what you've got up and down to the desired degree, and wipe of with clean cotton bud or even kitchen towel, but always vertically. Hopefully this sort of treatment should give you what you want. I suggested water-soluble (Winsor & Newton), as these are a little easier to wash off if you need to. They won't fully dry for several days, so you need to avoid handling them for quite some time. The Class 37 was done with conventional oils, but as described above. Powders can also be added on top of the oils where required for dust, soot etc....

A 16mm scale Hunslet from a Slater's kit. Working with the castings.... polishing, blackening, and half-polishing. Backhead floating matt black/gunmetal-metalcote/rust in thinners and coating with a thick talcum powder, brushed clean when dry.

Interesting! I used to regularly drive Cunarder at Isfield - though she was coverted to a side tank by then. I've not seen a photo of her in her original form - thank you!

In answer to the question, it may be easier to start from scratch. I built an EM gauge self-propelled crane (could just as easily have been 16.5mm) rally functional radio controlled, so it certainly can be done.

Stunning! The only tyres I've added to a model was from neoprene to the traction engine, which worked nicely. I simply cut a strip and super-glued it to the wheel.

I had a communication wondering what technique I use on locos this size (009), so I've put a brief description up in the weathering section if it's of any interest

On another thread I was asked how I did the rubbing down/polishing thing on a model as small as this Baldwin (which is 009). So I thought this was the place to clarify. On areas big enough to allow it - which was only the tank sides, I got a small piece of 2000 grit wet and dry, and folded it so I had a working surface about 5mm x 3mm, and flatted down those, using the wet and dry with a little water. This was then buffed up which a paper kitchen towel, which being paper, is very mildly abrasive itself, and good for giving that shine to paint. All the other paintwork had to be treated differently. I used a cotton bud, first pressed for a second into some brasso wadding - just long enough to pick up a little of the polishing fluid, but not a lot...... I used this end of the cotton but to polish up smooth everything else, but leaving out the lines of rivets and the edges of panels where dirt would collect. Then using the clean end of the cotton bud, I buffed up what I had done, leaving 'recently cleaned panels - with collected dirt on rivet lines, joints, under-cuts and panel bottoms. With the factory applied paint being slightly matt, it showed as slightly grimy after this treatment, so I didn't need to work any more paint in. If the base colour was green however, I would have worked some black/brown Into the weathered areas. Note, most of the polishing was done up and down vertically, so as to leave slight streaks. Both brass and copper were heavily darkened by mixing humbrol brass or copper with either matt black or gunmetal-metalcote. The smokebox was given a wash of thinners/matt black/gunmetal-metalcote, and when dry had soot black weathering powder rubbed into it, and polished off. Roof also gets polishing, a few matt black streaks followed by soot powder.