richbrummitt

The shops haven't done the aprons for years though... It would catch any bits that I drop, but when something goes ping it tends to go a lot further than straight down to the floor.

I lost a good number of bits that I had to leave in the carpet when I last moved house. Top hat bearings have a high 'ping' factor.

I like all the ideas and the work that has been put in. Unfortunately I have a two wire brain when it comes to model railway electronics and those wires are analogue.

Get a graver. It makes these kind of jobs a doddle - well much easier than using a knife. I got mine from Eileens (no connection other than a satisfied repeat customer).

Oi!

My opinion: it's better in colour I agree on the backscene too. The scene extends right to the horizon in those photographs - even though I know where the join is.

Sorry David. Thank you also. I spend far too long on things (and continue to do so on the 5 horsebox underframes that are following). I estimate about 20 hours for this pair. At that kind of pace I probably have enough UFOs for many lifetimes of this hobby. When painted black, as long as the 'lumps and bumps' are about right you can't see that it's wrong. For example my siphons have far less underframe detail (although the reality is sparse in comparison) with just brakes and no linkages and a piece of tube for a vac. cylinder and they look just fine too. I must strike a balance

That last photo is really nice.

I've no idea about the livery. I've have one of these built in 2mm and know it needs to be filthy, but I haven't the heart to do it after adding all the lettering. The model you have created looks really nice. It seems to show that I have missed the steps off under the doors too.

Shire Scenes have some phone boxes. Not sure if any of them will suit. As an architect you could probably lose a lot of time and consider spending considerable sums of money on their etched bits and pieces.

Shop, which shop? I used shapeways FUD but I had multiple parts built in the same model to meet the minimum order value in the most economic way so I haven't offered them in the shapeways store because I couldn't imagine that anyone else would commit to that many at a time.

Thank you all for your kind words. The pictures have been sat in the gallery waiting for me to pull them all together and put some more words to them. Previous requests for a magazine article have been forwarded to the editor, which will hopefully please 2mm types, especially those that don't frequent RMweb. If nothing else it will keep the editor in print! More painting has to wait until the weather decides what to do (there was snow here for much of yesterday) because the spray booth is the back garden. I'll probably go for brown with new numbers, despite what it says in the much expanded Atkins et al. In the middle of WWI seems like a daft time to have a major renumbering and repainting scheme and looking back a century on with virtually no knowledge I imagine there was huge chance for an extended mix up of events. Following on from this success I am finishing the model for a Mink F, which now just requires the bogie mountings and buffers adding to see how reliable the process can be for larger flat surfaces.

Apologies for anyone who's been holding their breath: this entry has been a while because I keep getting distracted any time I come on rmweb and run out of time before I get to updating this. Sorry. This expands on a thread in the 3D Printing and CAD group on my experiment in 3D printing model railway items. I have a job that uses a 3D CAD system extensively so I have a 'leg up' (as one person kindly put it) on the skills required to create a file for printing. Having used similar technology for prototypes in this job I was somewhat sceptical about what could be achieved when asking for much smaller details on much smaller models. I chose a passenger cattle box (BEETLE) as a prototype because it has many different types of feature on the body; layering, planking, louvres, strapping, panels &c. Here it is when it first arrived from Shapeways in FUD (frosted ultra detail). There is a small hole where some of the louvre has broken away during the cleaning process. Below in black after a quick blast from the aerosol, which may make it a bit easier to see the detail (possibly not?). The smallest details are 0.1mm - the width between the planks on the ends. The layers are multiples of 0.125mm so that it matches up with etched construction, which in 2mm scale is almost always in 0.010" material and so matches with half etch. I was pleased with the outcome and so I continued to make the chassis. I was (un)fortunate enough to have a fair few Siphon underframes spare from test etches and mistakes that I cut and shut to 16'0" wheelbase with the aid of a chassis assembly jig from the association 2-312 RCH W irons fret. The brake blocks fold up from the W irons in this case so I was off to a good start. It still left a lot of bits to find. These vehicles are particularly busy underneath because they have central steps plus one at each corner, door bangers under the doors for the beasts, vacuum cylinder, and the longitudinal gas cylinder for lighting the drovers compartment! As can be seen I included the headstocks in the body. The solebars were added from nickel silver strip with wire soldered along the base to represent the bulb. The steps were made as previously on the milk brake with some extra holes in the jig The central footboards are very short, like on a horsebox. The brass wire holds the brass angle down in the jig to leave as many hands free as possible for orienting the stirrups (nickel silver wire), holding the soldering iron &c. This is what the component parts look like before assembly, and after cleaning up. There's no 1p, but the cutting mat should give an idea of size. Parts from various other sources were added until all the prominent items were present. The gas cylinder was mounted on a wireform as previously for the milk brake. There was a particularly scary moment soldering the door bangers in place once the whitemetal castings for the axle boxes and springs had been added where these could not be fitted afterwards. Here a top and bottom view of the chassis and a further picture of the bodies test fitted on them. Not the clearest photograph I'm afraid. It was at this point I realised that I had missed some items off the bodies. A pair of T stanchions from the ends and the water tank in the roof that was present on the early ones. (The models are meant to represent a pair from the first batch of diagram W7.) Now these details are added and the handrails and headstock details fitted they are ready for some more paint. I'm not sure what colour they should be? I thought they would have been lake in the early 20's but Atkins et al. GWR goods wagons 3rd Ed. seems to suggest that they would still have been grey until the grouping. Hmmm.

Coal rails probably didn't last well in real life.

More like something about being too critical.

What did you way to me yesterday?

Fast work - Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Yes, well no - I printed it out, see this blog entry. I have the file somewhere. If I can find it since my computer migration I'll PM you for an email address to send it over.

I think you mean Ian I've to finish it first, and I'm not the only person working on one. Mine will be a large 'metro' whereas I know the other, when it appears, will be small.

To add to what buffalo (Nick?) said the tarpaulin would have to be added after the horse had been loaded to allow the upper 'cupboard' doors to be opened? Presumably they sheeted the van quickly to demonstrate the suitability hence why the ropes are not done tightly (and not all are tied down) There is a section of the appendix of the latest revision of GWW devoted to the various tarpaulin styles over the years. I've got a tarpaulin on one of my opens with the sail (I don't know that this is a recognised term for the device, but it looks like a sail) on it, which would have been repainted or replaced by the period I intend to portray, so I am definitely in a glass house here...

That's not too surprising. Generally the warmer the climate the cooler the light preferred. Our climate is not particularly warm and so we prefer a warmer coloured light. It used to be normal to see 835 in our shops (I think only Sylvania make that spec now) but it was a preference not shared by much of the rest of the world and the major European manufacturers have tried to move us to 3000K or 4000K. The difference between T4 and T5 in size is 1/8" of an inch. They may be more efficient (like T5 are more efficient than T8) but it is all a bit foggy to me now because I moved on from the lighting industry nearly 5 years ago. You can get some nice effects with the light though. After a long discussion with David Eveleigh he had what must have been an interesting conversation with a gentleman in an electrical/lighting wholesale/trade counter place. The result was Framsden being lit by a mixture of halogen spots and a small fluorescent fitting with a cool colour temperature (I cannot remember exactly). The result, combined with his painting artistry, is something of a grey scene with the sun breaking through the clouds in the station area. For me it is a very nice effect that many people will not notice, or if they do they will probably not realise the impact of the lighting elements in how it is created.

T4 is a size (actually 1/2"). More importantly look at the other numbers on the tube something like 830 or 940 - the 8 or 9 is the colour rendering 8 being 80% or better 9 being 90% or better. This is how well the light source will reproduce colours (based on a standard set of cards unfortunately). The last two are the colour temperature in 00°K so 30 is 3000K and 40 is 4000K. The lowest numbers are more red/orange (warm colours) and the higher colours more blue (cold colours). Daylight is in the region of 3000K.

This sounds like a challenge I'll have to get one of the GNR ones now, without ticking the box for the instructions.