Plywood heaven

Not a pretty sight is it ? That's what happens when you set fire to your van and get lucky.

Yes lucky.

It could so easily have spread a lot further and left me with a write-off. And I suspect the insurance people would have said that the damage was my own fault for welding without due care and attention.

Anyway, the plumbing was quickly replaced with some new piping along with a load of silicone sealant. It looks quite, not pretty, but efficient in the photo I think. For those not acquainted with Dormobile VW Type 2's, the mechanical thing in the corner is the foot pump for the sink. I know you can buy electric ones but don't see the point in running the battery down just to get water. Well not until I actually want water and remember how slow the process of pumping it is anyway.

Still, with the waterworks done I started putting an interior back in place. This is a whole lot easier when you have access to the back of the units, but I didn't, so some nice battens had to go in first to give me something to fit the sides and bottom to. The wood all came from Homebase and was surprisingly good quality. The pine was straight and the surface of the ply very nicely grained. In fact the leftover bit found in the garage and used on the base isn't nearly so good and I almost (note: almost) wish I'd gone and bought another sheet to keep the same look.

The shelf is deliberately short, in case you think I can't work a tape measure, as a cool box stands at the end and if it fitted under the shelf, only tea bags would fit on top. And in a rare moment of cleverness, I fitted the shelf ply under the battens so they provide a lip to retain stuff when I go round corners.

Melted pipe

Melted pipe
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Last year I managed to set fire to my VW campervan. At the time we pulled out the inside of the cupboard under the sink, put out the flames and left it all. Since I've not been camping this hasn't been a problem, just one of those jobs that will be sorted out "eventually".

Well this week eventually happened and so I've been digging into the results of the fire. I knew there was a plastic pipe running along the side and suspected it might need a little attention. As the photo shows, I was right !

Not only is the pipe somewhat melted, it's even got bits of welding rod sticking out of the bend where I had been trying to seal up the holes in the side !

The biggest problem was the quality of our construction of the cabinet - it's too good. Quite a lot of brute force & ignorance was required to get the floor and back out. Putting them back is going to be even more of a challenge, but first I think I need more pipe.

Chassis painted

Chassis painted
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

After a good scrub the Ruston locomotive chassis has been primed and painted. Since the model will be lightly weathered, Precision Paints "Weathered Black" was used on the visible parts. Elsewhere normal Humbrol matt black did the job - the later brushes better and I prefer to get a thicker coat on a chassis than that provided by the airbrush. If you look at a real locomotives underpinnings you'll see that they is a lot of muck under there and so sharp detail actually isn't that appropriate !

With paint on, wheels and mechanical bits were fitted and tested. Not problems there with everything revolving quite freely.

Finally the brakes were made up, fun with 4 parts in each including a short wire stub, cleaned and fitted. Carrs Red is the flux of choice from now on as there's no chance of putting this in the sink any more to remove residues.

Of course I couldn't rest a test fitting of the body, just to make sure that everything lines up of course...

Chinese junk ?

Stripped hull
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

A fair bit of work with paint stripper cleaned up the hul quite nicely. The results initially looked very promising. This Chinese made model boat has a sort of chine hull - around a (obechi ?) keel there is a solid base and then thin ply sides.

The quality of the wood used looks pretty promising and the workmanship pretty reasonable. Exactly what you would expect in any mass produced product - they aren't going to waste time with filler at the price these things go out the door for !

I sanded the wood with both sanding pads and a detail sander. The keel was sharpened up at the front and made flush at the back end to allow for a single drive shaft and rudder. Things were looking very promising, until I looked at the back.

My plan is to have a copy made of this hull using vac-forming. This will require me to mount it upside down on a flat board, thus the deck has to be flat. This is where the problem appeared. If you look at the photo it's obvious that something is awry. The deck looks wonky. In fact with a bit of examination, the deck is fine, the bottom of the boat is fatter on one side than the other.

It may be that I can sort this out with a sander. Or just stick the hull in the bin and go and find something else to do.

Chinese speedboat

Chinese speedboat
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Damn eBay.

I bought this little boat a couple of years ago. It was described as having a plastic hull, which made me think it would be an excellent project and make a nice little runabout for pool and lake.

Of course the reality is different. The hull is wooden and has no space for a motor or any other bits that need to go inside to producing a working model boat. So it's sat on a shelf while I've tried to work out the next step.

This is my plan - strip all the bits off. Clean up the hull, improving the shape a bit. Then have a moulding taken of the hull. Fit a new superstructure using the original fittings where appropriate and some working gubbins inside.

Work starts by pulling the fittings off the hull and stashing them in a box. Most look pretty reusable although a bigger lifebelt would be a good idea. How the Chinese designer thought anyone would use the item supplied is a mystery, it's barely big enough to be an armband !

Detailed chassis

Detailed chassis
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

Back on the chassis, it is time to do some detailing. First I attached the sandboxes in line with the filler caps etched into the footplate. These aren't perfect replicas of the real thing as far as I can see but exactly what the prototype items look like is impossible to judge from the shots I have. Of course under the footplate you won't notice as they are pretty hidden away.

On the test build, the sand pipes were pretty rudimentary. Good enough for the garden but this time I've fabricated something a bit more realistic. Some 1mm wire and small brass washers representing unions so the job. To make sure the "pipes" are pointing in the right direction I test fitted a wheel each time - at which point I discovered that the read sandboxes are too far forward. Desoldering them using the gas torch (they were attached with 100 degree solder so fell off when I got enough heat in the nickel) and re-fixing back a bit appeared scarier than it turned out to be.

The brake hangers have metal plates bolted to the chassis, represented here with plasticard and slices of rod. This covers up the original hanger holes. I moved the brakes a lot closer to the wheels on this model which will look a lot better even if it does mean the wheels are trapped.

Finally, more slices of plastic rod were super glued around the gearbox aperture. Not sure how visible these will be but I know they are there.

Book Review: A Train is for life by Pete Waterman

My first impressions of this book were formed at the Warley exhibition when it launched. The stand was full of people snapping up their signed copies and I just thought it would just be a rich bloke showing off his models and those buying it were collectors who just wanted some association with the most famous railway modeller in the UK. Quite why anyone would want to add it to their library was a bit of a mystery, but then so is Heat magazine so I'm perhaps not that good on celebrity culture.

I should at this point say that I actually like Pete Waterman. I've met him a few times and even been to see and operate his famous Leamingon Spa layout. He's very down to earth and best of all, a very good model maker. His teak coaches are some of the best I've seen. This isn't a case of chequebook modelling - he and his friends actually get their hands dirty. The stock doesn't just sit in a glass case either, it gets used on the layout and you have to drive it. Taking a train of 12 coaches up the back of the model with something GW on the front is a touch scary the first time you do it but soon becomes normal. In fact the whole set up is so normal that you can imagine it's housed in a garage, not a barn, with all the usual garage junk on the ground floor. It's just that Pete's garage junk is more interesting than most of ours.

Anyway, back to the book. Because of my preconceptions I hadn't even picked up a copy for a browse until one appeared in the railways section of our local library. I took a look and immediately added it to the pile to be borrowed.

There's no doubt that this is what is described as a "coffee table" book. There are lots of pictures and not too many words. The photos, are all of excellent quality and in the main, showcase different locomotives. The descriptions are perhaps a touch short, but very informative. You learn a little about each real loco, the section showing the differences between the LMS "Twins" 10000 and 10001 being particularly interesting for me as I will be building a model of at least one of them one day.

The thing is that for the purposes of model making, this is a very useful book. I know you are supposed to return to the prototype every time but sometimes those old pictures are muddy exactly where you need them to be clear to see some detail. So when people have gone to great lengths to do the research, there is a something to be said for using their models as a guide when these locomotives are so clearly pictured. The angles on these pictures are often more use than the traditional 3/4 view from a station platform too.

The prototype choices are catholic with lots of different companies and eras represented. It's not going to be a replacement for proper source material but if you like variety then it has a place on the shelf. All the model making is of the highest quality and very inspirational. I've not seen such a body of work by the countries best model makers in one place before. This is all presented without a hint of showing off, it's just how these things are. How many wouldn't build a similar collection if the funds were available ? Personally I aspire to owning a Guy R William model loco. But then I aspire to owning a Canaletto and I don't think that is going to happen either !

All in all, this is a very good book. If you thing Pete is just a rich and famous bloke who plays at trains then it will change your mind, the title and text explain how once you are infected with an interest in railways it never entirely leaves you - I bet plenty of us know about that !

You can buy the book from Amazon. It would make a great answer for that "What can I get your for birthday/Christmas" question.

Or just borrow it from your local library.

And Pete has a blog.