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Fen End Pit

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  1. Fen End Pit

    16mm - Return of the Lister

    By Fen End Pit,


    16mm photo-plank
    Some time ago my Lister stopped working during an exhibition, it was returned to its stock box in disgrace and, in the absence of any exhibition outings to provide the impetus to repair it, there it had stayed. However a  birthday present of a copy of 'Picking, Packing and Processing of Peat' by Paul Webb published by the Moseley Railway Trust spurred me into action. It contained too many nice photographs and drawings of Lister locomotives  for me to ignore the overdue repair. Dismantling the locomotive showed up the problem quite quickly. The DCC chip is located under the roof and has four wires from the chassis passing up one of the corner supports. When two of the wires detached before I even pulled them it confirmed that the issue was a broken joint in the wiring. This time I attempted to do the job properly, fastening the wires to either side of a 4-pin Molex style socket. This means that the chassis can be removed from the body and the wiring disconnected.

     
     
    The wiring hides in the canvas weather protection but I need to do more to hide them at floor level.
     
    The locomotive is now back in working order, all we need now are some exhibitions.... maybe later this year.

     
    David
  2. Fen End Pit

    16mm photo-plank - a new workbench

    By Fen End Pit,


    16mm photo-plank
    Everyone needs a workbench, my real one is generally cluttered with a PC, cutting mat, soldering iron and more tins of adhesive and paint than is good for your health.
    My 16mm workshop needs a workbench so I purchased some timber from Ely's wonderful City Cycles and went searching on the internet for images of 'vintage workbench UK'
     
    I am quite pleased with the result which looks pretty good to me covered in tools.
     


     
    I think I'm probably going to 3d print some bolt heads and add them to secure the legs together and to the top. I think the vice rather looks the part, but then I am a man with plenty of vices.
     
    David
     
     
     
  3. Fen End Pit
    I've started making a lathe for my model workshop. Boy does it have a lot of pieces! I've still got the gearing on the drive end to do and the bracket which holds the top set of pulley wheels. I'm not slavishly copying this photograph but trying to make something which looks lathe-like.
     

     
    The main bed of the lathe worked out to be too big to print on the Anycubic photon in a single piece so, as it was a relatively simple shape and could be sanded easily, I printed it on my Ender 5 FDM printer. This came out really well but I did have some issues with the tolerances between the FDM printed parts and the DLP printed detail bits.
     
    The first batch of detail parts just fitted onto the build platform and took about 4 1/2 hours yesterday evening.

     
    So far I have just cleaned up the parts and tried to fit them together, the white resin is useless at showing the detail in photographs (learnt lesson purchased grey next time). I think the results are looking ok. One of the levers on the cross-slide didn't get printed (my mistake) and the little handle on one of the levers is too thin and only just holding together. The tail-stock wheel is just secured with blu-tac for now.
     


     
    There are a couple of rods which need to be threaded along the bed, one threaded and one plane. I'm wondering if I can get a length of 1mm threaded rod from anywhere. If the 5p doesn't give a sense of scale here is the Bachmann 16mm driver next to the lathe.

     
    I'm quite pleased with how it is coming along, it is certainly the largest and most complex thing I've done so far.
     
    * line from Galaxy Quest !
     
     
     
  4. Fen End Pit
    I printed out the parts for my forge blower. There was some spare space on the build platform so I printed a few extra tools at the same time. I deliberately put the parts on twice and in a couple of different orientations to see which came out best. Splitting the blower into two halves allowed the bottom sides to be sanded and form the join.
     
    You can just make out the Alcoso No4 text on the parts and, while you can't read the text, the builder's plate has some relief on it which makes it look rather nice. The layers show up in the picture but hide as soon as some paint is applied. I used some brass rod to make the axle for the belt drive wheel, it rotates but I don't image it will be accurate to actually drive round..

     
    I also drew up and printed out some pipe work to connect the blower to the bottom of the forge. It looks a bit two heavy duty and I didn't think more modern 'tumble drier venting duct' would look right. On the same print job I also printed up a number of buckets and pales. These were really simple to draw up and modify to give different handle versions. I could also easily scale in the slicer to give different sizes.
     

     
    So my little workshop/forge scene is coming on.
     

     
    Next I'll be moving on to a range of machine tools.
     
    David
  5. Fen End Pit

    16mm photo-plank - Every forge needs a blower

    By Fen End Pit,


    16mm photo-plank
    So I got the forge painted, like the original it is very black and difficult to photograph! If it was anything other than a forge I might have been tempted to pick out the lettering in paint but in reality it would never have been.

     
    I did a quick google search for 'vintage belt drive forge blower UK' and found someone selling two on Ebay. I liked the note that said postage was not an option given the weight. Still they helpfully supplied a number of photographs and the key dimensions on their listing.

     
    So the intention is that my forge will be proudly equipped with an Alcosa No4 blower manufactured by William Allday at Paradise St, Birmingham. (Not wishing to offend any Brummies on here but that does sound like a case of Victoria hyperbole to me).
     
    It modeled up quite well in CAD and ends up about 20mm tall.
     

     
    It's not perfect but I doubt there are many people out there who will be able to tell once it is installed in the gloom next to the forge.
     
    David
  6. Fen End Pit

    16mm photo-plank - forging a forge

    By Fen End Pit,


    16mm photo-plank
    I had modeled the forge up as 8 separate parts to allow me to position them on the Anycubic Photon to get the quickest prints. The resulting jobs filled the print bed twice and at a .04mm layer height it took about 5 hours to print out the parts. The results weren't too bad, there was a bit of warping on the largest part (the main base of the forge) but it was fairly easy to conceal as the worse bits are under the base and not visible.
     
    The top came out very nicely and I don't think there is a quicker, more consistent, way to make something with those compound curves than CAD and a 3D printer.
    The parts were stuck together with CA glue, the legs actually fitted fairly well into the corner cut outs made for them. Filings of the resin actually make an excellent filler in the joints when a drop of thin CA glue is put onto the surface.  The complete forge stands at 84mm tall with the base being a scale 3' square.
     

     
    I'm very pleased with the way the manufacturer's name came out on the front and the general look of being made from cast metal.
    When positioned with the anvil and work bench I think it looks the part.
     

     
    There will need to be some kind of belt driven blower positioned next to it to feed in air and a good layer of coal/ashes. I'm also wondering about fitting an orange glowing LED. I'll also need a bucket of water and a sack of coal to go with it.
     
    David
     
     
     
  7. Fen End Pit
    Over the past week I've managed a few more bits of 3D printing, pushing my 3D modeling skills and my Anycubic photon to the limit. The power hammer had lots of odd shapes to model up and my favourite feature, the large spring between the two parts of the hammer mechanism. I was astonished that the foot peddle which engages the clutch mechanism came out, this is only 1mmx.8mm in profile. I printed this in 4 pieces, the main frame casting, the two fly wheels and the main hammer mechanism.  This was printed with a .04mm layer height and took about 5 hours of print time. The wheels are on a brass rod axle.
     

    The operating gubbins shows the layer lines but these cleaned off quite easily, bear in mind this part is just 28mm across. The spring is made of .75mm coils and once the little bit of support structure was removed from the rear it actually springs freely.

     
     
    Once assembled the hammer was primed and then painted up. Just a reminder of the prototype.

    and my representation of it. I've added a little weathering to hopefully represent a work horse machine still in reasonable nick.
     

     

     
    Next up I've made some dustbins! Lots of fun modeling the various flutes and ribs on the bin and the lids. Three of these filled the print bed of the Photon nicely.
     

     
    A little bit of cleaning up was required, there was a slight issue about half way up the bins where there was a little bit of layer separation. Fortunately it wasn't enough to make the print fail and was pretty well hidden under a coat of primer. I was pushing the thickness (or actually thinness) of the parts on the printer. I hadn't allowed quite enough clearance on the rim of the lids so had to scrape some of the material off the inside to make them fit on the bases.
     

     
    With a little bit of sanding, painting a suitable grey and some weathering I think they look the part.
     

     
    The scene continues to come together, next up is the pillar drill.
     

     
    I've not been ignoring the Stour Valley during all this. I've been working mainly on wagon stock. I had the amusement of running stupidly long trains round and round just for the fun of it.
     
    David
     
  8. Fen End Pit
    A few more printing projects over the last week. I found some nice pictures on the internet of the same sort of tortoise stove I'd seen at Thelkeld. The hardest bit to model up was the 'Celtic rope' design around the top, mind you I'm not sure drawing tortoises is my strong suite. The text around the top is tiny, the letters are .8mm tall and are have .25mm of relief. That they are visible once printed is nothing short of miraculous. I couldn't actually make out the text on the raw print and it only really became visible after painting and dry brushing.
     

     
    Owing to my stupidity with the support structure the flue didn't come out but I can add it with a piece of Plastruct tube. I'll probably have another go. Still, the occupants of my shed will now be able to keep warm and make some tea. For reference this stove is 36mm tall by 20mm in diameter.

    At the same time I printed a machinist vice for the pillar drill.

     
    While on the printer I also made a load of G-Clamps, as you know you can never have too many G-Clamps. I modeled one and adjusted the size by 10% up and down to give some different sizes. You can't quite make out the 'Made in England' legend but you can just make out there is something there.
     

     
    Finally I got a bit silly with the hand tools. The planes were based on a page from a Stanley catalogue I found online, the adze from a picture from my friend Alan who will be getting a few more tools in the post. The planes vary from 12 to 16mm (scale 9" to 12"). The adze has a scale 3' long handle.
     

     
    The garage has got too cold for printing now, the resin going extremely gloopy at low temperatures. Fortunately I was able to set the printer up inside and I tried the technology outlet's Premium Low Odour resin. I guess 'Low Odour' is a relative term but at least it didn't stink the house out.
     
    I've got some sculptamold on the Stour valley castle mount now. It looks ok but doesn't photograph too well in its white state. I'll post some pictures once it gets some brown undercoat on it.
     
    David
     
  9. Fen End Pit

    16mm photo-plank - lathe completed

    By Fen End Pit,


    16mm photo-plank
    Work on the lathe continued, I had several more pieces to model up and a couple of changes to some of the first attempts at detail parts. The final CAD drawing looks quite attractive.
     

     
    To those who think 3D printing is 'cheating' I think I should point out this was more of 'home kit production' as the lathe has almost 30 separate pieces. The parts almost filled the build plate on my Anycubic photon twice over and each print job took about 4 1/2 hours.
     
    I got the parts assembled and painted, still need a bit of weathering, but I'm quite happy with the results.
     


     
    I intend to make another couple of chucks and a variety of tools to go with the lathe.
     
    Meanwhile, I needed a cup of tea so put the kettle on the stove.
     

     
    Now I just need to make a flue for the stove so I can light it !
     
    David
  10. Fen End Pit

    16mm photo-plank - more workbench details

    By Fen End Pit,


    16mm photo-plank
    I made some progress on the workbench today. I 3D printed a range of bolt heads to add to the timber to hold it all together. I just drilled tiny .7mm holes and stuck them in place. Good(ish) weather meant for a nice afternoon walk and I was able to find a bit of twig which I used to make a log on which to mount the anvil.
     

     
    I've continued to make more tools for the bench, the range of difference size files and tongs is increasing nicely. From my pictures of old forges it looks like you can never have too many pairs of tongs. I also decided to model up some ammo boxes because there were quite a few lying about the shed at Thelkeld, someone will probably tell me I'm wrong, but the auction site I was checking out the pictures on claimed that the blue one was ex-RAF. I probably need some half-worn off stenciled markings.
     

     
    I think the overall effect is coming along rather nicely. I think I need some trays for the tools and probably some screwdrivers.
     

     
    I think the next thing is to try and make a forge, I'm not sure what form this will take, I think I have the option of something brick like this
     

     
    or a cast one like this.
     

     
    Any views anyone?
     
     
  11. Fen End Pit

    16mm photo-plank - Pillar Drill and test wall

    By Fen End Pit,


    16mm photo-plank
    As I mentioned in my last blog the next bit of workshop machinery I fancied trying to reproduce was a pillar drill. This proved to be quite a tricky bit of modeling just because there were so many features. I'd taken a photograph of this drill in the shed at Thelkeld.
     
     

    It looked to me as if the drill was originally belt driven with a 'new' electric motor powering the original drive wheel at the bottom. There then seems to be a belt which takes the drive to the top of the drill via a choice of three pairs of pulleys depending on the speed you require. I could also see the interesting hand wheel which raises and lowers the platform on the pillar. I'm not really sure exactly what all the rest of the gubbins on the top of the drill is for. Perhaps someone can enlighten me. It looked to me as if there was a handle to pull down the drill head but it looks as if this can be reconfigured to give some kind of automatic geared lowering? It looks like you could set the machine up and leave it to drill down at a preset speed? Anyway, it had lots of interesting shapes and, while I've not exactly modeled it all precisely I hope I've captured the feel of the prototype.
     

    The main pillar was divided into two and the table and bottom drive wheels printed as separate parts. Also separate are the hand wheel to lift the table and the quadrant handle. The parts took just over 4 hours to print at .04mm layer height on the Anycubic Photon. The parts took a little cleaning up but I was blown away by the detail which came out. The toothed rack behind the drill head and the teeth of the gears came out remarkable well, even the lift rod on the table has a thread on it (albeit with a rather coarse pitch than the prototype).

     
     
     

    Please bear in mind that this part is only 35mm from front to back.
     

    I intend to make some drive belts out of paper in a bit.
     
    I found a rather nice Bachmann 16mm fireman and together with workbench you can get a sense of scale.
     
     

     
    The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed that there is a section of wall behind the workbench rather that piece of MDF and I'd like your opinion on this. I've never been any good at trying to scribe random stone so I thought I'd try a rolling pin I downloaded from the thingiverse. This printed out on my Ender 5 and looks, well frankly, a bit weird. The roller is 86mm tall and ~25mm diameter so gives a repeat in the pattern at ~80mm. I laid down a 6mm thick of layer of Sculptamold and let it go off for about 30 minutes until it was firm but still 'green'. The roller was rolled into the surface and it took the pattern well. I then made the pattern slightly less patio and more wall by adding in some extra horizontal joints in the stonework. I also found I could smooth in a little extra Sculptamold to fill in some of the joints to make the pattern so it didn't repeat so obviously. Finally I found that a coarse old paint brush could be used to apply a little more texture and strata markings to individual rocks. Do you think this will work as the inside walls of the shed? Ultimately I want something which looks like old white-washed stone.

     
     
     
     
    Please let me know what you think.
     
    David
     

  12. Fen End Pit

    16mm photo-plank - plans for a forge

    By Fen End Pit,


    16mm photo-plank
    In my previous posting I had found this picture of a rather nice cast forge.
     

     
    Some more digging on the internet and I found some references to Keith - Blackman Ltd of Farringdon Avenue London, manufacturers of smith's hearths and forge blowers - purveyors  of complete installations for the smithy. I thought I'd try to model up something suitable for my workshop.
     
     

    I've broken it down into a number of pieces so i can try and print the individual parts on the photon..
     
    If there are any RMWebbers who know their forges please tell me if this looks hideously wrong!
     
    I've also started on modeling up a power hammer, this is definitely a work in progress and still needs lots more work doing on it.

    Again, all comments very welcome!
     
    David
     
     
  13. Fen End Pit
    Thanks for all the comments and ideas on this project both on and off this forum. I'm getting the ideas to jell now, trying to balance all the features I want with practical considerations such as size and construction effort.
     
    I was originally considering something which would give me a couple of options, on the left we had the inside of the shed/workshop and then on the right we had the outside of the building with the gable end. This idea would be about 3' x ~1'6". The Thelkeld shed has a door in the side as well as the end so one option would be a wagon turntable to give a route out through that door, optionally a second road in the shed could be used for locomotive repairs while the main road was used for running locomotives.

     
    I then went a bit wild and considered making the plank double-sided, adding a track down the outside of the shed. So one side would be open the other closed.
     

     
    In hindsight I think this is probably too big and not meet my design criteria of wanting something easy to move about.
     
    What I am considering now is actually to do the design in two halves, the inside of the shed and the out outside and half them join at the gabled wall.
     
    Some considerations I'd like your opinions on, I want the shed to be very much a workshop and not just a running shed, so I'm considering some of the following :-
    a forge - I'd expect a quarry workshop to be able to do some basic blacksmith work,
    a power hammer?
    a power hacksaw?
    Do I have a mill and/or lathe? If I have a lathe how big should it be?
    Should I put an inspection pit on the running road?
     
    Just for fun I found some 3d models on the thingyverse for some blacksmith tools and also drew up a few bits myself. I printed these out on the photon.
     

     
    They painted up quite nicely and I think look rather more 3 dimensional than some of the etched offerings available. I think I might get some wood and try and make up a work bench.
     

     
    As always, all ideas welcome.
     
    David
     
     
  14. Fen End Pit
    A trip to Thelkeld gave an opportunity to get some more inspiration for my 16mm photo-plank. It was a rather windy and rainy day and being out-of-season trains were being operated by a Hudson diesel giving Sir Tom a rest.
     
    The shed doors were shut against the wind and the sky 'somewhat overcast'.

     
    A request in the office and the helpful folk were more than happy to let me take a look inside. Before going in I took a look at the inspection pit which is covered over by boards and a grate. I'd not seen this before as this is usually where Sir Tom sits between duties.
     

     
    Inside the shed Sir Tom rests and we get our first view of the inside of the shed, I'm sure the good folks at Thelkeld won't be offended if I describe it as 'workman like'.
     

     
    I took note of the sign inside the door, which was lucky as obviously I would have started tampering with machinery unless I had been specifically told not to!
     

     
    Every space is used for something in this shed, the bench grinder is on one corner of a clutter workbench with racks for files behind, hung off the beam are a large variety of hacksaws.
     

     
    Looking up in the far corner of the shed you can see the belt rollers which power an old lathe, against the wall behind the lathe is a pair of large bellows. I suspect that the umbrella may be required given the state of the roof.
     

     
    Opposite the lathe there is a belt driven pillar drill, the different pulleys gave different speeds.
     

     
    A little further along the wall is a belt driven milling machine, the old ammo boxes appear to hold various bits and machine tools.
     

     
    Looking back to the door the forest of timbers, drive shafts, belts and pulleys looks fascinating, there are additional milling and drilling machines at various positions in the shed.
     

     
    This belt driven lathe looks rather interesting.
     

     
    To provide a bit of heat the shed has a Tortoise stove, I've spotted that these were made in Halstead so maybe I also need to make some in 4mm as a wagon load for Clare! The top features a molded tortoise and the legend 'Slow but Sure Combustion'.
     

     
    I have a few more pictures if anyone is interested. As always I'd thoroughly recommend a visit to Thelkeld if you get the chance. There is so much there if you are interested in narrow gauge industrial railways and/or vintage industrial plant.
     
    David
     
     
     
  15. Fen End Pit
    I've been doing a number of projects over the last month. More on the etches for the 4mm J17 and also playing with the electronics for my level crossing.
     
    Meanwhile as a more practical modeling activity I've made a start on the shed which is my 16mm photo plank project. The sides of the shed were laser cut in 6mm and 3mm ply. I've deliberately made the back wall in two parts to give me some reasonable thickness for the wall. I have just sanded the outside and have the option to produce an outer shell in the event that I want to include the shed as part of a layout in future.
     
    The insides of the walls were covered in Sculptamold, a layer about 3mm thick. I've been really impressed by how Sculptamold sticks to the ply surface. After about 10 minutes of going off I rolled the surface texture with my 3D printed rolling tool. This came from the Thingiverse. I modified the original 'crazy pavement' version, doubling the diameter. This means that the stones became longer and more suitable for a stone wall. I also modified the shapes slightly adding a couple of extra lines  with model filler.
     

     
    I turned the tool over so the pattern repeat isn't too visible, I also added some additional lines with a scribing tool while the Scupltamold was still green. Finally I used a stiff old toothbrush to add just a little more texture to the stone surface.
     

     
    The effect I'm after is going to be a weathered whitewash inside for the building like this at Threlkeld.
     

     
    The shed includes a inspection pit (which isn't full depth and will probably be covered with timber) and a wagon turn table which would allow a wagon (or loco) to be turned and moved off the running line.

     
    I had cut some ply to form the inset for the track but having seen how well the Sculptamold worked on the walls I think I may just use it on the floor. I'm thinking I want to go for a 'rustic concrete' effect - something that looks patched up and laid at different times. I'm thinking that maybe there were original pads installed for the heavy tools (power hammer, lathe etc) and then the rest of the floor was concreted later.
     
    The door lintels just had some scrap ply inserted when I added the Sculptamold, I intend to add proper lintels either of timber or maybe a modern replacement RSJ. The window lintels are just carved stone (I think I need to make these more pronounced). The windows are only a scale 5' wide which I think is narrow enough to cope with just a stone lintel.
     
    It has made a nice diversion from CAD and MERG electronics.
     
    David
  16. Fen End Pit
    So I've been thinking about a little 16mm project to keep up my narrow gauge interest while I can't take Fen End Pit out. I don't mean to distract too much from the construction of Clare but just have something extra to work on when I fancy a change.
     
    One of my favourite places to visit is the Thelkeld Quarry Museum and I have long thought that the engine shed is full of modelling potential but I've not been sure how I could use its inspiration.
     

     
    What I have been thinking about is building a 'photo plank' which captures some of the Thelkeld building but I'm wondering about turning things inside out, looking at the interior as a basis for a scene.  I fancy trying to capture some of the atmosphere of the workshop and clutter.  I don't think this is Thelkeld but it is the kind of thing I'm after.
     

     
    I also have a memory of the belt driven workshop at the back of the sheds at the Launceston steam railway.
     
    So at the moment I'm thinking about trying to build a 'box' which represents the inside of the shed, along the back I make a variety of workshop tools, ideally belt driven, and a work bench. In front of that I have a line of track set in concrete which goes out of the door.  Even though this isn't a big building it will be probably be something like 2'x1'..
     
    So I'm searching for additional inspiration....
    Anyone got any nice photos of belt driven workshops or ideas about the best way to layout a belt drive workshop?
     
    Thanks
    David
     
     
  17. Fen End Pit
    I recently purchased a copy of Roy Link's new Crowsnest Chronicles book. An very good read full of inspirational modeling. This finally inspired me to get my, not quite completed, Slater's 16mm Simplex kit out of the cupboard where it has been languishing for a year or more. I'd been frustrated by not managing to get the cooling fan to work with the DCC decoder. The loco also had rather a lot of emotional baggage attached as I'd bought it as a present to me shortly after receiving a nasty shock a couple of years back.
     
    I had purchased a Nigel Lawton 12v motor to drive the fan and wanted to drive it from one of the function outputs from the DCC chip. Obviously if I just connected the motor between the common negative and the function output the motor would work but be much too fast. If I used the 'dimming' function of the chip it uses Pulse Wave Modulation which meant the motor went slower, heated up and made a heck of a noise. I tried just adding a resistor into the circuit, but if I used a value that made any difference to the speed there wasn't enough current to give the motor enough torque to turn the fan.  This weekend I finally cracked it, using a lower value (100 Ohm) resistor in series with the motor and a 100nF capacitor in parallel with the motor. The capacitor smooths the pulses from the chip and I can now dim the output without the motor making a nasty humming noise and getting hot.
     
    I also upgraded the bearing in the fan to use a pair of tiny 2mm ID ball races, this greatly reduces the friction. I painted up a figure as a driver (still a work in progress) but I'm very much happier with the project than I was before. The loco is now flaunting itself on my desk rather than hiding in the cupboard.
     
    I'm mulling over a 16mm narrow gauge 'side project' to give some variety while working on the Stour Valley - more details soon.....
     

     
    There is a clip on Youtube in all its noisy glory.
     
    Enjoy with the sound turned up.
     
    David
     
     
  18. Fen End Pit
    After an excellent weekend with 'Fen End Pit' at the Southwold exhibition I came back and spent a few more hours on the PC producing the drawings for the roofs and chimneys of the test station building. No matter how hard I try to sort out the angles of hipped roofs by being mathematical I'm always surprised when they fit, more often than not after a bit of 'adjustment'.
     
    The chimneys are cut from 1mm MDF and fitted together quite well. I'm less convinced about making 'interlocking' brickwork than I was originally but it seemed the right approach for these as I wanted some strength in them. The built out sections which fit horizontally around the main chimney worked particularly well.
     

     

     
    The fit will be better once I have the slates and the flashing in place but you get the idea.
     
    I also fitted the remaining windows into the building and with these in and roof on I think it is coming together quite nicely.
     

     

     
    David
  19. Fen End Pit
    I had a go at cutting the building again, this time in the more conventional 3mm MDF, using .7mm ply for the quions. The result fitted together quite nicely, though I probably shouldn't have turned the 'corner power' down so far on the ply as I had to resort to a scalpel to get some of the parts free.
     


     
    Before discussing painting here is a picture of Clare station to give you some idea of the colouring. I'm not convinced that four decades of no trains and possible cleaning haven't changed the colour a bit.
     

     
    I painted the building with an acrylic varnish to seal it, and then fairly crudely painted the walls in Humbrol brick red (Matt 70) and the quions in light stone (Matt 121).
     

     
    When dry I applied ModelMates Brick joint filler, This is an interesting material as you are meant to paint it on, leave it to dry and then wipe off with a damp cloth (or in my case cotton buds)

     
    The problem I have is that the filler also tones down the colour of the bricks making them too pale and I'm not sure that the mortar would really be that white.
     
    I've tried dealing with that by applying some earth weathering powder and then washing most of it off the brickwork. I'd appreciate your views on the result. Worth putting a roof on?
     

     
    thanks
    David
  20. Fen End Pit
    Over the last few weeks I've been drawing up a laser cutting drawing for a Great Eastern Railway '1865' style building. These were built on several lines including the Stour valley line, conveniently these came in three sizes, small, medium and large. The Great Eastern Railway society publish some plans of the small version Takeley and an ancient April 1986 copy of Practical Model Railways has drawings of the Medium taken from Lavenham.
     
    I've decided to try this as an experiment on cutting using Acrylic rather than MDF. I had some white 3mm Acrylic and I obtain some .7mm Acrylic/ABS mix from HPC laser.
     

     
    Just the base here cut from 3mm Acrylic. It worked ok and the joints seem very strong with Plastic Weld. I've tried using a mitre joint on the small shed end of the building using the sanding disk in Makespace. I had to use a little model filler on the corners but I think the corners might look better than the 'interlocking' method but we'll see once it is painted.
     

     
    The building has brick adornments on the corners and around the windows and here I've tried using the .7mm material from HPC laser. This isn't listed on their website but you can ask for it if you ring them. The material cuts a lot better than pure ABS and I can see that it has potential.
     

     
    Once I stuck the quoins onto the base it does begin to look like an 1865 station building.
     
    I think I need to practice a bit with some of the strengths/speeds of the laser to get the brick engraving and cutting better but as an experiment in what the materials can do I'm happy so far.
     
    David
  21. Fen End Pit
    I was keen to try and find a way to make a slate roof that would give some texture better than just printed paper. The Scalescenes paper I used before looked very good, but I couldn't face the idea of trying to cut all the lines between the slates.
     
    What I've tried here is to laser cut strips of slates onto large A4 size postage labels. The slates are about 3.5mm across and the strips are 10mm deep.
     

     

     
    Laying these strips is a little fiddly and I found with the hipped roof that you must get the bottom row correct all the way around the hip before starting to move up the roof. (yes I did work that out the hard way!) The bottom row is over lapped by a row immediately on top of it before moving up the roof. So far I have only put a single code of slate grey over the top and a wash of matt black which brings out the gaps in the slates. This picture is roughly 3 times actual size.
     

     
    I originally thought that the ridges were covered by lead, but actually it appears to be a tile fired to be the same colour as the slates. I've had a go at representing these using a strip of sticky paper with some very thin strips added to represent the joints between the tiles. I had to line these up by eye and made a bit of a mess of them. I think in future I might cut a 'ladder' shape of paper, stick it over the ridge so the 'rungs' form the joints and stay at a constant distance apart, and then trim off the sides of the ladder (if that makes any sense at all as a description!)
     

     
    The resulting roof doesn't look too bad, I need to work on the colouring, there are some unpleasant glossy bits where I was impatient with the paint mixing and there are some little bumps where I applied a dob of superglue to fasten some of the tiny strips of paper on the ridges down (I think I've worked out how to do lichen). The timber around the roof line looks a bit odd at the moment but bear in mind this will have a gutter attached in due course.
     

     
    Please let me know what you think.
     
    David
  22. Fen End Pit
    Taking on-board the advice from KH1 and Middlepeak I had some further goes at the brickwork on the building. Running in some very dilute acrylic white into the mortar joints worked well and then I tried just lifting the colour of the bricks using some Derwent graphic pencils. Using a couple of different colours on the brick red gets quite a nice subtle variation in my view and I hope I've toned down the quions to slightly better grey-yellow of the Cambridge white bricks.
     

     

     
    On Friday I also made a trip to the cutter and had a first go at the windows. I cut these in 1.5mm MDF and you can draw the glazing bars at about .7mm and still cut them. Careful sanding takes the depth down to about .75mm before painting and sticking onto some clear plastic.The result can been seen in this rather cruel enlargement (the actual height of this section is 50mm), at any kind of distance it looks pretty good.
     

     
    Justin1985 asked about the drawing shown on the previous post. This was the drawings of Takeley, available for purchase and download from the GERS site.
     
    thanks
    David
  23. Fen End Pit

    A bouncing signal

    By Fen End Pit,

    As a break from the J39 I did a little project to build an advanced starter for the layout. I'd been playing about with a USB servo controller to make a bouncing mechanism.
     
    Many thanks to Mick Nicholson for his Semaphore Signals book, an excellent step-by-step guide to their construction.
     

     

    David
  24. Fen End Pit

    A day out at Bressingham

    By Fen End Pit,


    Fen End Pit
    On Sunday Fen End Pit visited the Narrow Gauge show being organised at Bressingham Steam Museum in Norfolk. It was an excellent day out and thanks are due to the organising team for putting on a good show. We were able to set up on the Saturday evening which meant a much more relaxed setup and an extra hours' lie-in. The layout worked pretty well, no big issues which impacted operation. As usual my son produced a long list of 'improvements' to keep me busy for a few months.
     

     
    The room we were set up in is used as a creche so, if we got bored, we could play with the Brio or the play fire-engine! The artwork was attractive, even if not the most realistic clouds I've ever seen on a backscene!
     

     
    Operation was working so well that I was even able to leave the layout in the capable hands of 'the crew' while I sneaked out and had a run around on the Nursery line.

     
    Some of the crew got their own back and had a ride on the Gallopers in the background!
     

     
     
    On standard gauge duty was a Southern 'P' and we obviously went at paid our respects the 'Eric' the E4 and the J69 from the National Collection which were in the museum shed.
     
    If you haven't been to Bressingham it is certainly worth a visit, it was great to see so many people there and to hear that their programmes on channel 5  have had a positive impact on visitor numbers.
     
    Next to us in the creche was a lovely On14 layout Gweithdy Dyffryn which was featured quite recently in NG&IRM Review. The pretty much unique feature was the modelling of working stub points. It was the layout's first outing to a show and the owner said it was ok for me to include a couple of photos here.
     
     
     

     

    David
  25. Fen End Pit
    Blimey I've not put anything on the blog since August. I must be slacking... 
    There has been a fair amount going on but not much progress to write about.
     
    Progress on the Ivatt has been good, however I felt that the original Brassmasters pony truck, a work of art and perfectly good product, was in a different league to the rest of the EasiChas I had been designing. Discussing with the Brassmasters at Scaleforum we decided to try to design an 'EasiPonyTruck' with the aim to making an easy to assemble unit which would better match the rest of the kit. The revised version uses just two main parts together with wire sprung bearings for the axle.

     
    The original unit needed lots of tiny etched parts to make up the springs on the front and rear but I decided this could be more simply dealt with by a little 3D print.
     

     
    The complete loco is now running around Clare and looks rather good hauling a goods train.
     

     
    One of the best features of having put a new High Level motor and gearbox in the chassis is that the footplate can be cut away between the frames like the prototype.  This gap has a couple of addition bits of bracing which are just visible when the boiler is in place.
     

     
    The J17 project continues with the delivery of the second set of test etches. So far these have gone together well. One of the major design changes has been the decision to split the etches between nickel-silver and brass. There is now quite a difference in price and also some parts, notable the cab roof were a bit tricky to roll in nickel-silver. Also I've decided that rather than produce the tender as a single part, etching the outside frames and buffer beams will make for a stronger model. This also makes the tend much easier to print and clean up.
     

     
    Please note that isn't the tender riding too high the holes in the side frames are to locate the axlebox print and deliberately don't match the centre height of the axles. This version of the boiler has the vacuum brake pipe so this was one of the fitted J17s. I've also modified the 3D model to produce an earlier non-super heater version with a Ramsbottom safety valve rather than Ross Pops.
     

     
    In fact it is fair to say that I am getting quite a collection of J17s now...
     

     
    Other activities have included making a front end for a Wickham DMU at the request of a fellow member of the GERS who want one to go with some etched sides he had. This was a bit tricky with lots of compound curves and difficult shapes. I think I've made a half-decent fist of it and people I have shown it to have at least gone 'ah, a Wickham' so hopefully I'm not too far out.
     

     
    So now I have best part of two weeks off. I hope I can get this J17 build running and get a bit further with the instructions for the Ivatt.
     
    And I must put a few more blog entries up...
     
    David
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