eldavo

For those that like detail here's how the rake is made up: Bain horsebox (MSE kit). Brake composite (Janick kit). Composite (Janick kit). All third with luggage (Janick kit). Brake third (Janick kit). 4 wheel passenger brake (Slater's kit). Should really be one of these either end I think.

I have finally finished the paintwork on this rake of coaches, hoorah! A few roughly painted cheapo Chinese figures have been scattered about just to make it look as though this is a passenger train. I can't be bothered to spend too much time on the interiors as you really can't see any detail from normal viewing distances when the roof is on. Ouch that's a cruel close up and shows some shabby paintwork I haven't cleaned up very well! As a rake I think they look suitably Midland. I now probably have enough coaches to run the layout but I doubt that will stop me building more. The platforms can take a decent array of stock as seen below. The single is pulling in to the platform with the rake of 4 Clayton square panel clerestory coaches, along with a Bain horsebox and a 4 wheel brake, while in the next platform is a rake of 54ft Bain round panel clerestories top and tailed with 6 wheel brakes. In the short platform is an autotrain. That's a lot of red paint! I also have a number of 6 wheel and bogie arc roof coaches to run a couple more trains. May have to build some more locos. :-) Cheers Dave

A red lens? Cheers Dave

With the horsebox done and dusted it's time to crack on with the Clayton clerestories. The final stage of the lining process is to touch in any black and crimson where the gold lining has escaped or I've been overly enthusiastic in cutting back. That done the coach is glazed, transfers are added and the whole lot is given one of two coats of Johnson's Klear. Looks a bit rough in a cruel close-up but probably ok from 4ft. With the roof checked for fit all the coach needs now is a few passengers before it enters service. Two more to glaze etc. Cheers Dave

I have been having the odd hour or so working on the clerestory coaches but with 3 to do it's taking some time. I have though managed to get the horsebox across the finish line today. Being my usual stupid self I ignored the recommendations of those who know what they are doing and used yellow to line it out. It looked terrible and was a dreadful ragged job! No choice but to spray another coat of crimson on it and start again. This time I've used a cream colour which looks much better and I've managed to get much finer lining. Today I added glazing and transfers. It has now had a coat of Johnson's klear to seal everything. It will need some light weathering which will tone down the lining even more. It looks ok from 4ft away or if a take my glasses off but here's a cruel close-up. Back to lining out the coaches with gold for the next few sessions... Cheers Dave

My mother insisted I have piano lessons from the age of 7 but I hated it! After the 11 plus (shows my age!) I chose to go to the secondary modern school because they had a brass band. I played cornet, trumpet and flugel horn mainly in brass bands for something like 35 years. I was fortunate to play in the top levels of brass bands and at most of the top contests as well as innumerable concerts including radio and TV. I gave up playing in 2000 when I felt the commitment of time and effort had become too much. The instruments have only come out of the case on a couple of special occasions since. Cheers Dave

First stage of rework is a bit of a step backwards. Some of the gold lining is a bit ragged or too wide so needs to be trimmed up. I could overpaint with crimson but getting red paint to cover gold is a challenge especially when it has to be decanted from a rattle can. My usual approach is to gently scrape back the excess using the point of a craft knife. This is a bit of a tricky job and is very easy to overdo it. There are a couple of patches where I've been a bit heavy handed and will have to touch in the red. Other slight scratches should(!) disappear when the coach is varnished. I tend to solder in the door handles and grab handles so the paint has to be removed from these at the same time. Next up I have to touch in some of the black. Cheers Dave

Starting to get some gold paint on now. This time I'm using a much finer pen that came in an old set picked up from an "antiques" shop. No idea who made it but it can produce a pretty fine line (in the right hands!). Sometimes I can get a good result but I'm inconsistent. It'll take some rework but should be ok in the end. Cheers Dave

The crimson paintwork looks to be pretty good so I've set about adding the lining. First up all the beading is painted black. Up till now I've always done this freehand using a 5/0 paintbrush which is a slow and tedious job. After reading posts by folks, who know what they are doing, I decided to try doing this with a lining pen. Rather than trying to get the thinnest line possible which is what you normally do with a lining pen, in this case I need a fairly wide line. Fortunately in my collection of lining pens and assorted bits I have just the right tool. Some considerable time ago I invested in a couple of pens to experiment with. These came from eBay and were vastly expensive (£1.50 for 2). They do the job fine and as these are Clayton period coaches with square panelling I can use a straight edge for almost all of the work. Why did I not try this method sooner? It is so much faster and easier! Onward. Cheers Dave

Well the weather was warm, and more importantly dry, today so good progress made. Managed to get 3 coaches and the horse box through the grit blaster. That cleaned them up a treat. Although it was a bit more blowy than I would like in my spray booth (the compost heap) I managed to get a coat of etch primer, a coat of red oxide primer and a top coat of Ford Burgundy red applied to all of them. Also sprayed the horse box underframe with satin black. These will be left to harden for a day or two before I start the tedious bit of adding the black panel lines by hand. I've also finished building the interiors and painted them so all in all a productive day. I may have to take a trip to Halfords soon though as my rattle can collection has taken a bit of a hit. The dead men... Cheers Dave

Definitely in need of some calm warm weather. Getting a bit of a paintshop backlog!

I've had success with Cataloy knifing putty available from Halfords. Easy to apply and goes off pretty quickly and as it's designed for car body repairs can be sanded etc. Cheers Dave

PVA requires at least one of the pieces being bonded to be absorbent and so a join between two pieces of foam will never fully cure. I've used solvent free grip fill (Screwfix cheapo) in the past and even though that is probably PVA based it produces a pretty good join. There are also specialist foam glues available at a cost. Cheers Dave

What with the RMweb machinations and working on the club layout as part of the build up to Ally Pally not much has occurred on the layout. I have though been having a bit of a stock building session. At the start of lockdown one of the Winchester railway modellers decided to have a clear out of his kit collection and so money changed hands and I ended up with 6 kits. You might ask why I was mad enough to buy a bunch of Janick kits when I have been warned about them many times. I think the most flattering description I heard was "they can be made up into decent vehicles but...". They were for interesting prototypes that nobody else makes so... In fact the body etches aren't too bad and go together in a fairly straightforward manner. Some of the details are a bit sketchy as are the instructions. Bits of the wrong diameter wood dowel for the cylinders are far too crude but can easily be sorted with a bit of 3D printing. I also have all the key books so can fill in some of the missing detail. The bogies though were another matter. The kit has a bunch of etches and white metal castings. None of the castings fitted and the etched construction was seriously flimsy. I ditched them. I had previously done the CAD work for a 3 piece Clayton 10ft bogey so modified this for these kits. The central framework and bolster are printed as a single piece in rigid resin while the sideframe assemblies are printed in a tough flexible resin. If I had printed the side frames in the rigid resin the footboards etc. wouldn't have listed 5 minutes. Assembly is simple. Insert bearings into the sideframe position the wheel sets and bang it all together with super glue. They aren't overly detailed bogies but they look ok to my eye when under the coach. I have four of these 48ft clerestory coaches to build and so far one is completed. In the photo above you can also see a mostly completed MSE horse box kit waiting for the paint shop. Lots to do. Cheers Dave

Go radical, use copper tape on the top of the baseboard for the bus. Thin gauge wire for the feeds to the track on the surface will be adequate unless the layout is going to pull serious amounts of power. I seem to remember using this method for a common acquaintance. :-) You can be sure lots of folk will tell you it won't work. Cheers Dave

The Winchester Railway Modellers will be there with Redbridge Wharf. Cheers Dave

I'm not sure about the practices of the Generally Wet and Rusty but some other companies certainly shipped new sleepers complete with chairs, chairs having been fitted after creosoting. The chairs would probably have been rusty whether they were new or old. Did they paint individual chairs at that time? Cheers Dave (who for his sins has had to 3D print chair and sleeper stacks for the club layout that is based around a sleeper works)

Had a couple of K's kits way back when. Never managed to get any of them to run properly. Where would the average modeller have documented their pain before the days of the internet? I don't believe the magazines would have printed criticisms. Cheers Dave (who wasted considerable amounts of his pocket money)

A truly great piece of modelling.

The DAS experiment seems to be progressing OK. The clay has dried without cracking (yet) and I've thrown some paint at it. Looks vaguely sett like. Given that this isn't even visible from the public viewing side of the layout, it's good enough. I've also been working on more ballasting and an access road into the goods yard area. Trying to replicate the way prototype track is practically buried in ash ballast is a bit of a challenge given the flange sizes etc of finescale O gauge. I've tried to give an impression using tile grout. It might work. Lots to do. Dave

The goods yard track has now all been wired up and seems to work, mostly. I need to fettle the pointwork a tad as a couple of wagons are a bit jumpy. In the mean time I have been doing some ballasting of the new track and bedding in the goods shed. I decided to add an area of stone setts on the road vehicle side of the shed so I've started an experiment with DAS clay. It's the first time I've used the stuff so who knows how it will come out. The clay is laid on a 1.5mm card base to bring the level up. I coated the card in PVA so hopefully the DAS won't break off. I decided to scribe a pattern into the clay while it's half dry. It's a bit crude but it might work. We shall see. Onward. Dave

It's a landmark day today. The last of the track on the scenic part of the layout is now complete all bar fettling and detailing. I could probably have missed out the brake van spur to make the goods yard a bit more spacious but hey ho it's down now. Better get on and wire it all up. Cheers Dave

At a guess super glue (cyanoacrylate) is probably your best get. The most common materials used in 3D printing are PLA, for filament extruded printers, and photoreactive resin. Neither of these have commonly available solvents that you can use as an adhesive. Cheers Dave

Is the H bridge connected directly to your bench power supply? Sounds suspiciously as though the power is being taken from the microcontroller so that when you have 2 decoders on the train the whole lot shuts down due to excess power drain. Cheers Dave

No huge progress but I've been tinkering with a few bits and pieces. Knocked together a Slater's kit for a 4-wheel passenger brake coach that seemed to drop into my last order for rail (must have clicked the wrong button 😮 ). This has been sprayed up along with another coach and is currently being lined out. Quite nice to work on a fairly simple kit for a change. I've also been making progress on the goods shed. The office building now has windows. These are one of the few bits of laser cutting on this building. The roof is currently under construction and I'm working on the tedious tiling bit. The slates are also laser cut. I've got a whole stack of slate strips somewhere but I'm blowed it I can find them so I had to cut some more. The large doors have also been sorted along with some basic internal details which are of course invisible when the roof is on! The roof lights are awaiting glazing bars which are currently sat on my workbench. The shed is capable of taking 3 wagons so it's a reasonable size but I think it will fit in the space quite nicely. Hopefully I'll have the roof work completed in the next couple of days and then I need to build a crane. Cheers Dave