Phil's Workbench

Isle of Man Test track Mk 2

2012-02-03T07:00:00.013Z

After the embarrassment of my Isle of Man Test track Mk1 turning into something more akin to a roller coaster, we've made a second version which is currently with the sanding and finishing department.

The materials remain the same - plywood top with softwood framing - but without the fancy corners from the first attempt that I feel might have caused some of the problems. The corner blocks that keep the boars apart in transit have been fixed to the ply tops with thin ply slabs on the side to brace them. Easier to do and just as effective as my joinery attempts. We've varnished the wood very early on in the process too. If there is any moisture in there, it's staying put this time.

So far, things are looking fine. After the next coat of varnish dries I'll be screwing the metalwork in place. Then it goes off for the track to be laid followed by some wires and perhaps even a bit of scenery.

One man's rubbish...

2012-02-02T07:00:00.021Z

When you look at this picture, some of you will be saying "That's a Waggon & Maschinenbau railcar".

Others will be saying "That's that railcar that Heljan are doing isn't it ?"

Both would be right. Well sort of.

What it is, is the Silver Fox models resin bodied version of the Waggon & Maschinenbau railcar. It's been on the market for a few years and is about to have its sales torpedoed by Heljan's offering.

I picked this model up for a tenner at a show recently. It comes complete with motor, wheels, gears and the metal unit they fit in. Basically, all I have to do is put the bits together, glaze it and I have a nice little model.

The quality of the resin moulding is excellent. I doubt that the plastic version will be any better. Detail courtesy of brass horns and wire handrails will guild the lilly. As a companion to my Dapol based Park Royal railbus, it will be lovely.

Now, most people wouldn't look twice at the box of bits I bought, which is why I picked it up for a tenner. That's a good thing. For me anyway !

Silver Fox website.

I'm getting the wrong breakfast cereal

2012-02-01T07:00:00.013Z

Whilst my bowl of Fruit & Fibre or porridge might be good for me, it isn't nurishing my model-making sensibilities.

Over on his blog, Akihiro Morohoshi is showing some pictures of a little plastic kit that reminds me very much of the "good old days" when the box came with both food AND a little plastic kit for a car. Sadly, my non-existant Japanese means I can't be certain that this is what it is, or identify the breakfast food that I need to be shopping for.

So it's over to you dear reader. Can you translate for me ? Where can I go and start my morning with a filling meal and a little model tram car and trailer ?

The original post from Akihiro Morohoshi's blog can be found here.

Trutexture building papers

2012-01-31T07:00:00.019Z

A couple of weeks ago, I was sent a pack of building papers from a new company: Truetexture.

Brick and stone papers have been around since the dawn of railway modelling time but these are a bit different being based on photographs. The colours certainly look very nice and there aren't many of them exhibiting the repeats you get when tiling photos to fill a sheet.Print quality is very high although they do have a slight sheen which would benefit from a shot of matt varnish.

One surprise was that they are flat - the "texture" part of the name is the graphic design term meaning a patterned fill rather than the modelling version where the bricks or stones would be proud of the surfaces such as in embossed plasticard. From reasonable viewing distances this will look fine and the accurate colour will compensate and fool the eye.

As well as the building sheets, the range includes waterslide transfers for window tops and road markings. There are acetate windows which are designed to look 3D.

I'll have a go with the sheets in the future and say how I got on. For the moment, you can read more about the range on the Truetexture website.

iCar

2012-01-30T07:00:00.019Z

I can't work out if this is neat or not. What you see is an iCar from Minuteman Scale Models in the USA. The idea is that you slot your iPhone into it and then thanks to an angled mirror on the back, can shove the wagon around your HO scale layout while capturing a video.

I've pondered if mini video is a good idea in the past. Maybe it works better on the sort of giant layouts that Americans can build in their cavernous basements. You probably can't see the edge of the little "world" quite so easily. With even the slightest bump in the track such as a point crossing likely to make the thing bounce around a bit, I'm not sure how good the resulting film will be.

Anyway, even though the price is very reasonable, I don't own an iPhone and have no intention of buying one to find out how well this works, or if it even goes under a UK loading gauge structure. I will admit it's quite novel though.

HO Scale iCar

You aren't ALL Brian Monaghan !

2012-01-29T07:00:00.021Z

(Note to younger readers, Brian Monaghan was the Railway Modeller's official photographer back in the 70's and 80's. A bit like Chris Nevard, but with film. He once appeared in the mag wearing a bowler hat and surrounded by ladies, Charlies Angels style. Mr Nev doesn't get anything quite so glamorous.)

Last weekend I'm sure I notice more cameras floating around than normal at a model railway exhibition. They came in all shapes and sizes from mobile photos to decent high-end DSLR's. It was a real shutterfest. Many hundred of pictures must have been taken of our layout alone.

What the heck does everyone do with them ?

I mean, it's not like you can't find pictures on tinterweb or even in magazines. Are they all carefully filed away for future reference and dug out to aid modelling ? I don't think so. In fact I suspect that any interest passes about a millisecond after the button is pressed. It's the fun of framing the shot, capturing the moment that the photographer is interested in. Like big game hunters, once the trophy is bagged, it's on to the next kill. Sure, friends might be shown the results stuffed and mounted, although probably on the back of the camera rather than framed on paper, but it's a collecting thing.

And what a lot of big cameras. I'd hate to explain that a lot of pro's favour something smaller such as the Cannon G9 rather than lug anything as chunky around a show. A decent compact will give results perfectly adequate for most of this stuff anyway - if you are shooting for print then this isn't done while jostling with the great unwashed over a barrier. One might suspect that they are big boys toys...

The one benefit of all digital as far as those of us inside the barrier are concerned is that you can switch the flash off. This is a simple enough trick that no one with a film camera ever seemed to manage. For years the unwary operator could expect to look up several times a day to BAM, another flashgun and some dazzle in the eyes for the next five minutes. All that for a badly focused shot of a toy train.

It's not like I want people not to take pics. It's flattering and if you ask we're even happy to pose locos for you (Note: This is a limited offer that covers only the loco in use unless the show is very quiet. We do not intend to bring out a series of trains in the middle of a busy session just so you can play at being Tony Wright. And yes that does happen.) so you don't have to click while it's moving. I take photos myself and stuff some on Flickr as well as using them for detail and inspiration. But I never try and record an entire show via the medium of a camera. I like to look at stuff that isn't on a 3 inch screen.

As for video cameras - well they have been mostly displaced by DSLR's but not entirely. And who watches that stuff again ?

Railmatch 402 = Track colour

2012-01-28T07:00:00.001Z

Mike asks: I was reading your blog item on the demise of Humbrol 170, where you mentioned a Precision alternative namely "underframe dirt". Do you have the appropriate Precision reference number for this colour?

I checked their site, but wasn't sure I'd found the correct item by description alone.

There is a good reason for that - I got it wrong. It's not a Precision paint you need but a Railmatch one. Specifically, Railmatch 402 "Frame Dirt". Sorry about that.

Mind you, it is marvellous stuff. I bet I go through 4 or 5 jars of it every year. In fact I went out and bought a fresh one only yesterday...

Stop Press: Humbrol are bringing back track colour ! Number 173 is back in the range this year !

Raise the exhibitors !

2012-01-27T07:00:00.013Z

I mentioned on Monday that my assistant operator over the weekend was ~~a shortarse~~ vertically challenged. The layout backscene comes within an inch of his chin, making it slightly harder for him to operate than it is for those of us who grew up properly. We weren't the only people with this "issue" though, next door was a layout with a backscene even higher. I'd have struggled to see over it.

Needless to say, there was a solution. As part of the exhibition kit, the team brought along this piece of staging - looking awfully like three pallets nailed together. As well as raising them up a little, the carpet saves their delicate feet from a day spent on a hard, concrete, floor, keeping them warm and unworn in the process.

And for all those of you who are saying, "What a bunch of wimps", well you try and spend the day standing up on a hard floor. After a weekend, you certainly know about it. Exhibition hall floors seem harder than most, some engineering type can explain why although it's probably something to do with load bearing or having fat sales reps trudging around them a lot, unlike village halls which seem positively civilised. Carpet isn't good news either. I strip of it behind the layout is a good thing, I try to remember some, but under the baseboard legs ? No thanks. You have the layout wobbling around every time you shunt.

Chassis testing

2012-01-26T07:00:00.015Z

I hate diesels. With a chuff-chuff, you get to build the chassis and then spend many hours tweaking the thing to make it work properly. Not with the Class 25. I plopped it on the track and it ran around the layout perfectly first time. Where is the fun in that ?

I'm joking of course. Before the Leamington show opened, I took the opportunity to stick the chassis on the track and give it a go. It really did run around perfectly. The only problems were when the wires caught on the tunnel mouth exiting the fiddle yard or around the water crane. Putting the body on brought these under control and sorted this out. Those wires are too long anyway but just twisted together for testing. I'll probably use a chocolate block connector on the finished model so the thing can be easily dismantled.

The BullAnt bogies worked a treat. Even my slightly rough and ready regauging was OK. They didn't rumble over the pointwork or get upset about the curves. Even with one wire disconnected and reducing the pickup numbers, we didn't see any stalling either.

All in all, a very pleasing moment. The hobby can be relaxing after all !

Class 25 Bogie sideframes

2012-01-25T07:00:00.013Z

The most striking component of the Class 25 kit were the bogie sideframes. Not an easy part to build as I've found out in the past, I am perfectly happy to leave the job to someone else.

Before sticking the bits in place, I re-gauged the wheelsets from 12 to 14.2mm by carefully pulling them out with a gear extraction tool. A dot of superglue on the axles ends before starting this hopefully get s pulled into the axle/wheel join as I work saving me from the embarrassment of another one falling off in service.

A dry run showed that the whitemetal parts were quite wide. In fact if I'd stuck them on as supplied the loco would have been distinctly bulbous down below the body whereas the photos showed the bogies tucked nicely underneath. I massaged the metal with my fingers to squash the convext part in a bit. The wheelbase grew a tiny bit as a result but at least the middle bit got thinner. Then, by cutting the outer mounting point away, I was able to superglue them in place.

A little care was required as the parts seem deeper than expected and it's always a good idea to have nothing poking below the wheel tread. I suspect that the master might have been slightly over scale as everything else is right. At least the space under the model will be well filled.

Class 25 side skirts

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000Z

Under the Class 25 body on the etch were some odd dangly bits. The general consensus was that these are supposed to represent those parts seen under the locomotive body. Or that the designer had a brainstorm and went a bit mad. Whatever, they aren't there in the real loco, so I cut them off and threw them in the bin.

The underbody bits on diesels are a bit of a nightmare and working out exactly what should be there isn't easy. The plans are confusing and the photos not much help as they show all the bits at once and I have to try and work out what they are and what order to make them. Eventually I think I worked out the basic skirts, or at least figured out enough to be able to cut something out from a sheet of very thin brass.

Cutting was entirely with the Olfa Plasticard cutter and a small disposable knife. No scissors or sawing this time as the job called for lots of straight lines and I'm rubbish at sawing these. You can cut brass with a knife, it just takes lots of gentle cuts. The stuff is thinner than paper and so if you push too hard it will distort.

Fitting to the chassis involved scribing some lines and using these as a guide. A hot iron, lots of flux and speed were also required as the metal is so thin, heat can distort it if you linger too long.

Finally, the buffer beams are whitemetal castings. I think the buffer shanks are a bit short so had to pack the beam forward with a strip of metal, but it looks the part and that's what matters. To me anyway.

Leamington & Warwick MRS Show 2012

2012-01-23T07:00:00.020Z

Well, that's the local show over with for another year. It all seemed to go very well. There were a lot of people coming in the door. The layout ran passably well. Excellent breakfast batches were on sale for £3.50 from the restaurant. What more could anyone want ?

Behind Flockburgh, I had the able assistance of Chris Mead since my normal second operator was busy helping out with the club second hand stall. He normally runs his own OO layout, Overlord, and so it was his first go with the finescale 14.2 3mm scale. His layout doesn't have uncoupling magnets either.Finally, he's shorter than me which makes seeing over the backscene more challenging that it might otherwise be.

Anyway, there were lots of really good layouts to look at and plenty of places they could buy stuff from. The crowds were good, especially on Sunday. Maybe modellers have finally worked out that it's a lot easier to get around and see stuff on the second day. This rule applies to all shows by the way...

Both of us found the time passed really quickly. I'm not sure why, but it did - obviously we were enjoying ourselves. We certainly talked a lot, both about the main layout and the tiddly little ones on the table beside us and they certainly attracted a lot of interest. On Sunday, Chris added a new building he is working for his layout. This is a huge model of a bit of Portsmouth Dockyard. It was longer then the micro layouts !

Anyway, if you said hello, thanks for dropping by. If you visited and didn't then don't worry, I won't hold it against you, I just hope you enjoyed yourself.

See the pictures (most of which have model trains in) I took here.

Fastbuilding ?

2012-01-22T07:00:00.011Z

I bought a kit recently which proclaimed that it could be built in less than 30 minutes. Apparently this is A Good Thing.

Surely not ?

After all, you buy a plastic kit with the aim of spending some pleasurable time putting the thing together. A significant chunk of the fun to be had is in the assembly. Take that away and you might as well sell the thing ready built.

Obviously this is partly driven by the idea that people have shorter attention spans than they used to have but I wonder if there is something else at work here. This symbol wasn't put on the box by a modeller, it arrived there thanks to the marketing department.

If I were cynical, which I'm not of course, I might suspect that a group of people sat around a table, none of whom were modellers or even interested in model making, and had to come up with an idea for selling the kit. "I know", said someone in a sharp suit, "tell them it won't take long."

And so an important point was comprehensively missed.

L&WMRS Show 2012

2012-01-21T07:00:00.015Z

As you read this, I should be standing in the exhibition hall at Stoneleigh on a little bit of carpet which I hope will keep my feet warm.

Even though I'm not a club member, I've been doing my bit to help. At 8:45 on Friday morning, I was sharing airtime with Pete Waterman on Radio CWR's breakfast show. He didn't have to turn up in Coventry at that time, phoning in his contribution, probably from bed whilst being served breakfast by a manservant. Not to worry, my two minutes of fame was well worth the trip.

I also helped mark out the hall. In the cold. Then warmed up by helping unload the 200+ tables from the lorry they arrived in. I might have commented at the time that it didn't look like the club had over 60 members judging by how many were heaving lumps of wood around...

Anyway, Flockburgh is set up. Adjacent to it is a table covered with micro layouts which is standing in for the layout "Hope Mill" which dropped out due to illness. A great shame, but on the other hand you do get 2 replacements even if they are static models. Well I can't run them AND the other layout can I ?

Visit the club website for more details.

L&WMRS Exhibition 2012

2012-01-20T07:00:00.014Z

Today, for me anyway, is all about setting up the Leamington & Warwick Model Railway Exhibition at the Stoneleigh Park Exhibition Centre. By the time many of you read this, I'll be crawling around the floor trying to mark out the positions of the stands.

Later in the day, I'll nip back home to collect Flockburgh, which will be on show over the weekend. If you are in the area or fancy being in the area, please drop in and say hello. It's worth it, the lunches are excellent !

More on the show at the LWMRS club website.

Next stop the bonfire

2012-01-19T07:00:00.012Z

On Monday, things weren't looking good for my little Isle of Man test track. The boards had warped and I'd dunked them in the bath to try and fix this.

After 36 hours drying, I checked the board on a flat surface. Resut: still warped. Maybe things had improved slightly but not enough to be any use.

So, as a last attempt at fixing the problem, a length of softwood was cut to length and glued in diagonally between the corners. Plenty of weight to make the board flat again and lashings of Resin W wood glue to fix the wood were my last hope. The whole lot was left overnight.

Result: Still warped.

Would you like to guess who has been down the wood shop again ?

Joining Lionel Track

2012-01-18T07:00:00.017Z

Here's a problem you don't encounter in the finescale model railway world. I was helping a friend set up some Lionel trains track - three rail chunky stuff that would give an MRJ subscriber and attack of the vapours - and once we'd clipped it all together, he handed me a bag of joiners.

These slide under the sleepers at the end of each length of track and stop them working apart. With Lionel trains being made of cast iron and weighing about half a ton each, it seems that as they round the bend, something they are perfectly capable of doing at speed, they can cause the track to "walk" and the joints to open up. Do this too much and the lines splits producing a crash not unlike the final scenes of the 1976 film "Silver Streak".

The joiners are a bit of a fiddle to slide under the sleeper. I found that if you squeezed the nearest ends together you could slide the plate in place and then with a good shove and some sore fingers, use it to pull the rest of the sleeper over.

Presumably this all worked because there was nothing on the local news along the lines of "Small child killed by derailing toy train", although since the stand was promoting the L&WMRS exhibition, it might have garnered plenty of press coverage if it had !

G2 boiler handrail mysteries

2012-01-17T07:00:00.026Z

I've been looking at a lot of photos of steam trains recently. Mostly Super D's which have been in front of many snappers lenses. All with a mounting sense of frustration. You see I was trying to work out how the boiler handrail works.

On a normal engine it's simple, handrail knobs of varying lengths support it out from the boiler. You drill some holes, bend a bit of wire and after a lot of fiddling and swearing, the job is done.

On the G2, it's a different kettle of fish. The handrail runs along side a fat pipe that runs along the boiler. Trying to get a clear view of this is impossible. The plan helps a little but in photos the rail is overshadowed by the pipe. I would guess that there is some clever bracketry going on to hold the two but I can't get a decent look.

In an effort to progress this model, I've had to make an educated guess. The pipe was soldered into position and then drilled with 0.9mm holes to take some split pins which will act as handrail knobs.

There was still much fiddling and swearing, not helped by the fact that the longest bit of 0.7mm wire wasn't long enough for the whole job so I had to hide joins in the front split pins, but at least it now looks OK.

Update: Of course, now I've done the job, I find this photo on the NRM website. Amazingly, it looks like I got it right !

Trying to avert baseboard disaster

2012-01-16T07:00:00.010Z

My Dad is ready to finish the track work on the Isle of Man test track so we dug out the board from the plastic box they live in and put them on his cleared desk. It became immediately clear that there was a problem - they wobbled.

Looking along the woodwork it was obvious that the wood had warped quite badly. One board had moved a few millimetres but the other was over a centimetre up in one corner. Both were quite useless for laying track. At first sight the bonfire seemed the most likely destination.

With nothing to lose, I decided to try something desperate. The store box was placed in the bath, the boards put back in and then the box filled with water. A heavy weight on the top of them kept them under the surface.

After a couple of hours they were transferred to the kitchen worktop. The first thing I spotted was that they were now perfectly flat again. Soaking wet, but flat.

To try and persuade them to stay this way, every available weight was placed on top and they were left for 36 hours to dry out again. This meant fish'n'chips rather than cookery for tea but sometimes you just have to suffer for your art...

Anyway, the boards are now up and look OK. I'll check and let you know how they have fared. In the meantime, would any wood fiends out there care to comment ? My feeling is that storage in a plastic box has dried the plywood out and that caused the twist. If I get them flat and varnish both sides, hopefully this will sort things.

Video: Micro Fairey Huntress on the water

2012-01-15T07:00:00.007Z

A nice day at the lake allowed me to film the Mighty Atom and its sister boat on the water. These little vessels really do work well - not like some sort of gimmick but a real model boat. Just smaller.

Basic Class 25 chassis

2012-01-14T07:00:00.031Z

I don't watch a lot of TV and when I do it's usually while I'm doing something else. However, I do quite like those American shows set in custom car or bike workshops. For some reason the producers seem to focus on the personalities though, rather than the construction of the vehicles. They forget that normal people will get bored of this stuff and the real market is anoraks who want to know the welding method or what CAD package is being used to machine the parts.

Anyway, watching people welding stuff with carefree abandon made me want to do something similar. Make an item from scratch and wield the soldering iron like only I can. On the shelf was the Class 25 and I reckoned that in a couple of hours, I could get the chassis together well enough to support the newly delivered bogies.

The design is simple - a flat plate into which the BullAnt bogies are bolted. I just had to cut a length of nickel silver sheet to width, mark some holes, cut some even bigger ones and the job would be done !

All of this took about 3 hours. The same number of piercing saw blades were broken hacking out those big holes. Marking out was done with a combination of pencil, scribe and a pair of compasses which have two points. This last tool was particularly useful when a lot of identical dimensions needed to be marker such as the position of the bolt holes.

To stop the plate from bending I soldered a couple of thick bits of brass down the sides inset about one and half millimetres from the edge. The leftovers from old kits come in ever so useful ! More etch edging is fitted inside the body to provide a ledge for the chassis. This was fiddly to fit but with the aid of a couple of clips and a little tack soldering, I managed.

Finally, a long brass bolt reaches inside the body to screw into a nut soldered to the inside of the roof. Doing this up provides the body with a nice flush plate filling the bottom. Now I can bolt up the bogies and look at the under-body embellishments.

Engineering pickups

2012-01-13T07:00:00.023Z

The Super D has a fantastic chassis, amazing motor and so I need to do a decent job with the electric collection. Fortunately, there is enough space down there to do something I've wanted to do for a long while - some engineered rather than bodged pickups.

The idea isn't new, in fact I'm sure it dates from a very early MRJ. What you do is fix a bit of copper-clad inside the frames behind each wheel. Then you make the pickup in a U-shape. One leg is soldered to the paxolin and the other bears lightly on the back of the wheel.

In theory, the wheel can move up and down in its hornblock and stay in contact with the back of the tyre. Adjustment can be carried out one wheel at a time as well without mucking up the others.

Well, it was fiddly but I built it. The copper clad strips are attached to the frames with epoxy. This took longer to dry than expected but overnight it fixed them well. Soldering the wires wasn't too bad once I'd done a couple. The wheels have sideplay but stuffing some tweezers behind them moved the wheel as far out as possible. As long as wheel and pickup touch at this point then everything should be fine.

Anyway, the result was, it worked ! Every single pickup worked. On the track, the chassis runs up and down the length of track. I did this for quite a while as I was so chuffed with it.

Goods shed and 009 Stock in Hornby Magazine

2012-01-12T07:00:00.036Z

Christmas plays havoc with magazine schedules. I received a call about the February issue of Hornby mag well before Christmas so I could have the latest Parker's Guide submitted in plenty of time to make it into print.

This article is a conversion of the Wills Goods Office to add a side office and replace the flimsy looking (to me) wooden supports with something much more solid from brick. Kitbashing like this used to be very fashionable but with the advent of all those lovely resin buildings has fallen off many people's radars in recent years.

This is sad because it's a great way to make your layout your layout rather than just a collection of bits that you bought and plonked into place. I'm not saying that buying stuff is bad, far from it, but you miss out so much if you don't get your hands dirty and fiddle with them. Wills kits are especially good for this as you can buy materials to match the kit bits so with a little care, it should be impossible to see where the kit ends and the scratchbuild begins.

My other main contribution is part 3 of the Handyman Hall Railway series. With the layout finished, I move on to building a bit of stock for it. At this point I have to say a big thank you to Michael Campbell who sent me some couplings to play around with as I wasn't sure what was the "done thing" in the narrow gauge world.

The coach and guards van I built worked very nicely but in print there is a minor error. Photo 7 is captioned "The side handrails are lengths of plastic rod glued to pips on the side of the body. Fix these in place with plastic glue, let them dry and then trim to their final length." The designer obviously say a mention of the balconies and focused on this rather than the side handrails. A shame because the balcony isn't interesting whereas the grab rails are a bit nifty. Hopefully this photo will make up for it.

Finally, I've contributed to The Clinic special on wheel and track cleaning. I know this is an area that interests a lot of people. Judging by the number of times that people ask how we get locos to run so well when appearing at shows anyway. Read the wise words and with a bit of luck, your trains will work as well as mine.

AMT Depth Charger custom car kit

2012-01-11T07:00:00.014Z

He's something a little different from the normal round of boats and trains - a custom car.

I'll start by admitting that I only painted this model, which was built from an AMT plastic kit - my Dad used to build this sort of thing in his youth, as evidenced by a cabinet of such models, and fancied having another go. The kit can from the US for no more than it would have cost in this country and off he went.

Assembly wasn't completely straight forward. The diving helmet driving position is supposed to be supported on a pair of angle brackets. At least they are on the chassis moulding but the instructions don't show them. He cut them off as they raised the cabin up to a stupid height. A little packing with plasticard off-cuts sorted this out.

Painting was "fun". You can't hide anything with a bit of weathering so it had to be right. The gloss yellow enamel sprayed well but the black bits were done with Humbrol acrylic which refused to do gloss despite what it said on the tub - presumably the paint can't read. Some buffing with T-cut helped but in the end I shot Johnsons Klear floor polish on to give a shine. While this was a valuable lesson, I could have done without it. Just to add contrast, the air pipes are painted, by hand, in matt enamel to represent rubber.

It's an interesting looking model. You just don't get chrome like this on model train kits. What you do get is lots of alternative decals (American kit, we'd call them transfers in Blighty) so I have some goodies stashed away for future less-than-serious boat projects.

Postscript: I'd just written this post when on my blog reader came a mention of Matt Irvine's new Scale Model Car book, which has this very kit on the cover !

Sticking curtains to layouts

2012-01-10T07:00:00.035Z

After yesterday's glue, here's another industrial sized product - Velcro on a roll.

The local club have been building a OO layout for what seems like the last decade and finally it's ready to go out to a show. Specifically, it's ready (they have been told) to attend the Leamington show on 20th & 21st January. Apart from some frantic modelling, they also have to sort out the presentation, which means a curtain to hide all that ugly mess under a model railway baseboard.

It appear that sewing machines are too difficult for the average modeller so via my the Club President (my Dad) came a request for help. My mother happily acquired the material (something with lots of polyester since it's not going to be seeing an iron any time in the future) and make the curtain.

Fixing was to be with Velcro. You put once half on the the woodwork and the other on the curtain. In theory this makes hanging the thing easy, one person can do it by pressing the two halves together. That is unless the person tasked with buying the Velcro gets two lengths of hooks and no loops. Then spends ages faffing instead of arranging to return the wrong one.

With the deadline approaching, there was much concern about this thing getting finished. Suggestions of using drawing pins were pooh-poohed (they work for me, maybe the layout owners aren't allowed sharp objects) but without loops, we weren't getting anywhere.

So, to the interweb and a search for "Velcro". First result was MPD Hook & Loop who sell Velcro in layout sized quantities rather the domestic ones you find in the average haberdashers. The roll in the photo is 25 metres long, 20mm wide and self-adhesive. The last one was a mistake on my part but did save the effort of pinning the stuff to the material before sewing. Cost - an entirely reasonable £6.46 including VAT. Sadly, delivery was over 4 quid but that wouldn't change if we'd bought a roll of hooks to go with these loops. Not that we worried, an order placed on Friday morning was with us on Saturday. By the end of the day, the curtain was finished.

While doing this I even learned something - who knew you could buy this stuff in different colours ? I want to find a use for the fluorescent orange version. I even wonder if the 15cm wide version could be used structurally to save some bolts and speed set-up and knock down.The little strap thingies look pretty nifty too...

I must be a serious modeller, I buy the big glue

2012-01-09T07:00:00.021Z

My little bottle of liquid plastic glue was nearly empty so I asked my Dad to pick up some more Slaters Mek-Pak for me while he was in Antics Coventry model shop. You can see what he brought back.

It seems that the shop didn't have the expected modest bottle. No, they only stocked the super-sized half-litre version. Like an American at the head of a McDonalds queue, this is what I had to have.

However, this isn't a bad thing. After all, I have a supply that's going to last me quite a long while now. Over the long term, the investment of £21.30 will pay off rather better than any savings I have in the bank. Unless I knock the thing over and spill the contents, I'll eventually use them up sticking little bits of plastic together. To that end, I'll not be working from the metal tub, it's the small bottle (a Humbrol product) that will live on the workbench. Glue will be transferred by pipette and nary a drop will be wasted.

I think I even like the aesthetic. That metal bottle is so much more workman like than the prettier brown glass one the smaller quantities arrive in. It reminds me of the sort of materials you see in the back of a plumbers van - quite a lot like the ones you get from a DIY store but not as pretty.The manufacturers know it's performance, not beauty that sell to the crowd arriving in work boots. You know once you are buying the ugly packaging, you must be serious.

Naming the Mighty Atom

2012-01-08T07:00:00.001Z

When David handed over the Micro Huntress, he did mention that the paintwork needed a little touch up and that we ought to sort out a name. I think he was being a bit hard on himself - the hull bottom looked OK to me. However he was insistent so I masked off the area using the swage line as a guide, and wafted some dark blue over the area.

Actually this turned out badly, not the paint itself, but the painting. A word of warning, make sure the paint cup is attached to your airbrush properly. If you don't, it drops off, splattering paint everywhere, especially over your sweatshirt and jeans. The later were Primark and well worn so a bit of paint won't hurt. The turps required to clean them would probably cost more than the clothes ! Not the case with the top but hitting this with white spirit and a quick wash solved the problem and saved me trip to the shops.

Naming the boat was via some make it yourself waterslide transfers sealed with several coats of satin varnish. The front names went OK but at the back I should have dried some thin coats over it as the ink ran slightly. Still, as long as they stay in place while sailing.

The varnish also tones down the gold line around the waterline. I couldn't resist adding this with the bow pen. Perhaps metallic gold wasn't the best choice as it's very runny, but it certainly brightens up the colours and adds a bit of luxury.

Finally, the steering wheel comes from a Bill Bedford etch of wheels. I assume there is a wagon somewhere that has a ships wheel to operate a door or something. It's ideal here though so if I build such a wagon, I'll need another etch.

The Super D gets back on its feet

2012-01-07T07:00:00.002Z

The freshly cut metal is hanging under the back end of the chassis. It supports the linkage that connects the brake pull rods to the control inside the cab. A bit more planning and I've have remembered to drill holes for the fixing bolts first - as it was I had to fiddle things a bit to allow the heads of these in.

At the front, sand pipes curl around the brake hangers. In real life these are separate but on the model, fixing everything together makes more sens as the separation would be so small as to be invisible. Anyway, the pipes need some support or they will be bashed around in service.

After a good scrub, I masked the hornblocks and blasted a coat of primer followed by some weathered black over the chassis. A bit of touching up with a paint brush to cover the areas where I'd over-masked such as the detailed part of the hornblocks. Life's too short to fiddle around with tape here and you can't tell under the loco as the paint brushes very well.

24 hours hardening later, the wheels and motor go back in. I still need to add rear sand pipes, but apart from that it's ready for the body.

Cutting out metal parts

2012-01-06T07:00:00.013Z

Work recommences on the Super D with the discovery that I'm missing some bits for the chassis - the guard irons (the locos ones, I have three pairs for the tender) and supports for the brake pivot under the cab.

Luckily, in the mountain of paper that came in the box of bits, there were several drawings of the locomotive from which I could trace the parts. Ideally, I would have preferred to use carbon paper but couldn't find any. Luckily the print was strong and the paper I wanted to trace on to thin.

Needing two of everything, I laminated a couple of bits of nickel silver together with a little solder, lots of flux and plenty of heat. The drawing was stuck on with spray glue.

After this it was just a case of making holes (pictured) and hacking away with a piercing saw. Straight lines are formed by cutting near to the line and then filing back to it. Once happy, more heat and a scalpel blade forced between the sheets of metal separated the bits. A course file cleaned away the solder and was followed by a rub with the fat fibreglass stick.

Result: parts that look pretty much like they would if I'd been able to cut them out from an etch !

Garratt Pivots

2012-01-05T07:00:00.011Z

David asks:

I’ve just been reading your piece dated 10 October 2008 on Garratt Pivots and I have some questions:
1. Do the pivots take the whole weight of the boiler unit;

Yes they do. It's nopt that heavy to be honest, I try to get most of the weight in the engine units.

2. Does the boiler unit “balance” on these pivots alone or are there other secondary bearing surfaces or restraints ;

The female pivot is a top hat bearing so provides a modest extra bearing surface. The streatcher that the male half is fitted to sits on this.

3. Does the bearing itself accommodate the relative motion of the bogies on poor track work and if so how much tolerance do you allow, (eg front bogie on a slope, rear bogie still on the level or front bogie canted over with rear bogie still level).

Nothing sophisticated I'm afrid. There is a bit of slop in the bearing and that seems to be enough to accomodate track irregularities. If the track is very bad then this might not work.

I’m thinking about making a model but I want to be clear about the pivots and anticipate potential problems.

Good luck. I suspect you are over-thinking the problem. On a model, these parts don't need to be very sophisticated at all.

New Year Sail

2012-01-04T07:00:00.016Z

My Dad received a superb present for Christmas this year from the Chairman of our model boat club - a model boat.

Not just any model boat though, a micro Fairey Huntress. This is the Mk2 version of the boat that appears in the January issue of Model Boats magazine. It's a really tiny vessel but can still cut it on the water with much larger models.

Weather, illness and panto work meant that the maiden voyage wasn't until the New Year bank holiday but once on our pool, it raced around like a good 'un. The top speed looks pretty close to scale - David suggested we might want to tweak the blades on the prop for a little more aggression but at this point it doesn't look like it.

The model isn't quite finished. I've been tasked with touching up the paint and adding a name. We'll also fit a steering wheel from the stash of model railway bits. A couple of crew members are required and the new owner (who is well chuffed with his new toy) is going to have a chat with a friend who makes these from scratch to see if he can't make a commodore and dolly bird. If this happens, don't worry, there will be photos !

Diary Dates

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000Z

Time to open up the new calendar and fill in the boxes. With so many hobbies, it's easy, even this early in the year, to get clashes between events I was to attend.

The first dates to add are those on my exhibition diary for model railway shows. In the early season, there's a lot going on. Flockburgh is out and about 6 times before the summer. If you are in the area, then please drop in and say hello. It's great fun meeting people who read this stuff. In the meantime, I have some layout modifications to consider.

Then there's the Model Engineering Show and International Model Boat Show, both of which I want to have completed some new models for, so I better schedule some time in to get building.

Life must be a lot easier when the only date you have in your diary is when the next issue of "What's on TV" magazine comes out...

New year, New look

2012-01-02T07:00:00.001Z

Regular readers will have noticed that Phil's Workbench has changed its look. I've been planning this for some time - months if I'm honest - but never seemed to get around to it. A new year has given me a kick up the bum to do something at last.

The background image is really my workbench, or at least the self-healing cutting board that lives in it when I'm not wielding a soldering iron anyway. It's looking a bit battered compared to it's brand new state last February ! I've already used this on my loco gallery and I think it gives the blog a nice workmanlike feel.

To compliment this, the main text is in a font that Blogger calls "Permanent Marker". This is a bit controversial as I'm not convinced that it's particularly well supported - on my mobile phone I see a Serif font instead but this could be just a mobile device thing. Worse, it isn't hugely different from the hated Comic Sans. Nothing good comes of writing in crayon under the impression that it makes you look "wacky".

Finally, the LinkWithin gadget provides some related posts at the bottom of each entry. Hopefully this encourages anyone who's dropped in thanks to a search engine to look around a bit and maybe subscribe.

Anyway, this is work in progress, there will be more fiddling in the future. Well, if I pull my finger out at least. Let me know what you think.

Six !

2012-01-01T07:00:00.054Z

Another blog birthday, so how are we doing ?

2011 saw 367 posts, just keeping me ahead of one a day I'm aiming for. Some days this is more of a stretch than others. At least it gives me an incentive, indeed, often an imperative, to keep working on the projects.
Visitor numbers are up with around 360 visits, including 80, regulars every day. Google reckons that's over 55,000 different visitors which seems like an awful lot to me. You are coming from over 140 different countries too including 1 visit from someone on St Kitts & Nevis.
Fixing the Peugeot indicator remains the most popular post but the Miniature V12 engine video is creeping up there.
I clocked up the 2000th post in October, which is great. Time to head toward the next millennium entry.

As far as my plans this year went, very little happened. The Garrat hasn't changed, nor has the 1/20th Brede lifeboat. In fact I didn't manage to finish a model boat at all this year. Maybe in 2012. I did get another loco for Flockburgh and the Club 500 did sail. And sink. And sail again.

There have been some good shows attended and some very good cake eaten. I've made my mark in some new publications including and non-English one. That's pretty good going. There are a few things lined up in this direction for 2012, maybe I'll even find a publisher for the novel.

For next year, well the Super D and Dunalistair are scheduled for an early finish. Well, in the later case, early as in 4 years anyway. There's also a Canberra to build and maybe, if I pull my finger out, a whole load of other interesting projects that really should be taken from the pile to fruition. Talking of fruition, the pear tree keeps droppings stuff on the garden railway, which reminds me that I haven't done much in that direction for a while. Mind you, the weather is looking a bit iffy at the moment, so perhaps it can wait a while.

I must admit, one of the best things about writing this post each year is that it forces me to re-read some of my old ramblings. Then I realise just how long projects seem to take when I'm driving them forward and feel less good. Not to worry, I will make a New Years Resolution to do better. Let's see if I'm still as bullish about this next year !

Global Van Lines Truck

2011-12-31T07:00:00.014Z

How's this for timing. We reach the last day of 2011 and I put the finishing touches to the Ford Truck.

After letting decals dry, the model was given a blast of satin varnish to seal them in and tone down the sheen of the sides. I know the real thing would have been gloss painted, although the paint probably wouldn't have held its shine like modern ones do, but in my opinion, satin looks far more realistic for a miniature.

Sheen was a problem with the black paint that followed. Brushing Humbrol is normally simple but for some reason the stuff insisted in drying with an eggshell finish. A good stir and second coat sorted this out which was a relief. Mind you, the first go looked annoyingly good with not a brush stroke to be seen !

Finally, the cab glazing was put in with Krystal Klear. Not perfect, but adequate for this model. I'm really surprised that the kit didn't come with clear plastic parts for this, it would certainly have been easier. The windscreen was too large and curved for the glazing liquid to be placed in with a cocktail stick or small screwdriver - the paddle end of the Tamiya paint stirrer did the job though. Mind you, even that took a couple of attempts.

Were I to build this model again, the biggest change I'd make to the process would be spraying in matt rather than gloss paint. I think the finish would be better (no dust or paint collection around detail) and I could go over it with acrylic gloss varnish to give the transfers somewhere nice to sit. Even though there would be a subsequent satin coat, the final paint thickness wouldn't be any greater as I had to put plenty of base colour on with the poor coverage of the gloss.

Anyway, that's the last project of the year. Time to get back to something serious now. In the meantime, Happy New Year everyone.

Decaling

2011-12-30T07:00:00.013Z

Decals (or transfers as we, in more civilised countries call them) can make or break a model. On the Ford truck they make a big difference to the look of the thing so I wanted to do a good job here.

The ones supplied are waterslide but at around 30 years old, I wasn't confident that they wouldn't disintegrate on contact with moisture. I needn't have worried. The transfer film is pretty thick and so I was able to float them in my little dish of water and slide the film from the backing paper easily. Admittedly I did do my best to slide the decal straight from the backing to the side of the model. Having had a few nightmares carrying released transfers around in the past, I've learned my lesson !

The black "sea" neatly covers the gap between the upper and lower halves of the trailer. The two parts don't mate perfectly, or at least didn't for me.

Thick film causes problems with it has to sit over the various hinges and panel lines on the side but a coat of Micro Sol and Micro Set (still can't work out which one does what) did help a bit. If I were aiming for a perfect model then perhaps I'd have been more concerned but as long as I keep reminding myself that this is just for fun, then all is well.

Phil's Grotto

2011-12-29T07:00:00.005Z

Ahh, the joys of a Pantomime. Men dressed as women. Women dressed as men. Audiences full of children with tiny bladders. Buckets of popcorn mixed with ice cream all over the floor. It's what Christmas is all about.

As if the sugar-rich food wasn't enough, our theatre also stocks a fine range of flashing spinning things for the kids to wave around. These arrive in big boxes from China and when unpacked, quite a few of them fail to work. How this happens is a mystery since they must cost a whole 50p to make !

Anyway, our options are to throw the duff ones away or do something about them. Since the world has all the pink landfill it needs right now, I get to do the later.

I set up a workbench in the cupboard under the seating that is acting as a grotto. A big box of goodies on one side, a smaller box of goodies that are beyond saving on the other. My toolkit is pretty basic, just a small Phillips screwdriver, battery tester, some emery paper, a length of brass wire with a hook on the end and I'm ready for work.

The main problem quickly shows itself. In transit a lot of the batteries have tarnished on the end metal contacts. Once checked to see if there isn't any electric in the cell, a rub of emery or even the leg of my jeans is enough to remove the tarnish and see the windmills lit up and whirling. Light sabres and stars take a bit more effort as they are powered by button batteries accessed via a small panel held in place with a screw but that's the only problem.

Sometimes spring contacts need pulling up a bit to give a bit more pressure - that's the job for a wire hook that can be poked down battery holders.

All of this is basic stuff but not something we have time for when there is a show on. After a couple of hours though, the pile of very dead items was still tiny whereas the stock of repaired goodies will be enough to keep us going until the end of the run and delight small children. Even the dead items will be passed on the boat club where they will be stripped for LEDs and useful bits of tube.

Hows that for doing our bit for the environment ?

Clever design saves on masking tape

2011-12-28T07:00:00.014Z

The biggest challenge I could see from looking at the box artwork for the Ford Truck, was painting. The thing that initially attracted me to the model was the pretty picture but I suspected that replicating the design was going to stretch my masking abilities.

But no, the designer has made things easy. All the major parts are split along the colour lines. Thus, the cab makes up into two sub-assemblies. One is painted dark blue, the other, white.

Better still, the trailer splits the same. This is more impressive as it would be much easier to mould, and simpler to build, if the sides were in single slabs of plastic. However, we get a tub for the bottom, sides, and roof. Each is dark blue, light blue and silver respectively. I wish many model locomotive kits were as well designed.

Spraying was fun. My stock of blues isn't large so I had to use gloss colours for these. In theory, this is A Good Thing as the smooth surface should be more decal-friendly than a matt one is. Trouble is, I'm not very good at spraying gloss. Coverage always seems very poor and the only way to hide the white plastic is lots and lots of very thin coats, each given a shot of hair drier before the next one is laid down. Tedious and prone to attracting dust.

In the end, I have mostly got away with it. However, there and hour and a half of work to produce a finish that in truth isn't as good in some ways (I win on paint thickness, they win on finish) as you will find on a 4 quid diecast lorry.

Global Van Lines Ford Truck

2011-12-27T07:00:00.003Z

It's Christmas time and for most people, this means a break from work. I don't get one of those, in fact in theatreland it means lots of panto hours, weird days and long shifts. Nothing conducive to serious modelling. So, I've dug out a nice little plastic kit to stick together.

To make things simple, the model is a Heljan/Con-Cor HO scale kit for a Ford Truck. Something I have absolutely no need of, so if it goes wrong, I don't have to care.

The model was picked up at a show a few months ago for a couple of quid second hand, although still wrapped in cellophane. The picture on the box looked nice and it was cheap.

Inside, the kit is white plastic and dates from 1980. There is a little visible flash on some of the parts but generally looks OK. Nice decals (transfers to UK modellers, but this is an American kit so I suppose I ought to speak in the vernacular. I'm wearing a ten gallon hat while I work too.) are included but oddly, no clear plastic bits for glazing.

As well as the truck, there are some bits of furniture included on the sprue. They will be stashed away on the spares box as you never know when you might need a 1/87 scale grand piano !

Better a Yule log

2011-12-26T07:00:00.045Z

Christmas Day isn't a time for hiding away at the workbench, One should steel oneself to spend time sitting beside a roaring log fire with the family and watching the "top quality" entertainment provided for us all by the big television companies.

If you get bored with StictlyComeXFactorOldFilmOverSentimentalDrWho and find yourself with itchy fingers, it's nice if earlier in the day, someone thought to get you a model to put together. Lego is ideal (for all ages - really, I mean you can't solder or glue or anything) but I didn't get any of that. What I got, for fun, was a Quay Imports VW Beetle kit.

You'll have seen these in shops - slot together plywood models that sort of resemble whatever they are supposed to be of. Entertaining to build, much like a 3D jigsaw.

Or at least that's the idea.

The Beetle exposes a number of flaws in the plan. First, the die-cutting machine that produces the parts needs a new blade as the one used on my kit is blunt. Hence, easing out many of the bits is a bit fraught. I used a knife to cut some out of the sheet.

Next, the part fit is in many places, terrible. Tab and slot construction should make this a joy. Instead, I was hacking away to ease many of the Part A's into Part B.

Apparently, you need no glue for assembly, which is probably true for some kits in the range, but here the designer got clever and tries to bend the plywood to produce an appropriately curvy shape. The roof needed glue. And a clamp.

Finally, the instructions. I know these things are done to a price but the back of the photo shows a plan of the bits in the sheet with numbers. In theory you match the numbers up and the model goes together. There are well over 100 of them. I suppose you can treat the model as a puzzle but an exploded plan would be nicer.

On the plus side, the wood smells lovely as you take it out of the packet. And it will add warmth to the room if it ends up on the fire. Maybe I was unlucky and got a duff kit but just in case, next year, instead of an exercise in frustration, can I have a lump of wood and a pocket knife so I can sit and whittle instead ?

Update: After another hour and a bit, I finished the model. If I sand down the tabs a bit then the little wooden car will look OK. I'll still ask for Lego next time though.

Merry Christmas !

2011-12-25T07:00:00.004Z

Merry Christmas to all readers of Phil's Workbench. And a happy new year to you as well, what the heck, 'tis the season to be generous.

I hope you find good things under the tree and have remembered to buy the batteries for those that require them. If not, well you'd be surprised what you can power from the outputs on an old H&M Duette if you have a couple of long wires handy...

Cleaning silver chain

2011-12-24T07:00:00.006Z

Christmas time approaches and the wallets are getting thin.

Like many people, I struggle to find the right present for some relatives. My mother mentioned some antique centre with jewelery in she liked but that still leaves me with a pretty wide range of options, especially if I discount anything that would cost more than a decent locomotive or boat kit ! (Note: I'm happy to spend the money, but by this point I don't want to be taking a risk, I want to be certain I'm getting the right thing)

I did find a rather nice carved shell pendant on a silver chain. It was sensibly priced because the chain was mucky. Not a problem I thought, I must have something that can fix that. If everyone else is too lazy to do a bit of cleaning, their loss is my gain. Anyway, I rather like the idea of restoring something rather than just buying it. It's a bit more personal that way and you aren't likely to see another example any time soon.

Talking to the man in the shop, he mentioned something called "Silver Dip". A trip to a hardware shop and 4 quid furnished me with a tub of the stuff - Goddards Silver Dip, Cleans Silver Fast. Apparently.

It does too. I dipped the chain in the liquid and swooshed it around gently for a minute and the dirt fell off. You can see the difference in the photo comparing the chain to the tarnished jump ring. All I've done is dip it a couple of times and then rub the chain with some kitchen towel to remove excess dip and polish the metal slightly.

Time required, less than 5 minutes. It's a heck of a lot easier to clean chain this way than doing it with elbow grease. My mind now wonders what is in this stuff and whether it has any model making applications !

The best presents are quality tools

2011-12-23T07:00:00.032Z

Some days I struggle for things to write about on this blog. On others, I find inspiration somewhere and know what I want to say. As I write, serendipity has happened. There was I struggling with lack of project progress thanks to work and illness. Then I read the Toolmonger.com blog where someone is talking about presents for those of us with practical minds.

The gimmicky stuff can be useful, but getting someone a quality set of drivers or the like will always trump the gimmick.

Which is so true, as illustrated by this set of screwdrivers.

I was presented with these as a little gift by someone while I worked for the Ministry of Cows over 15 years ago. You might think "nice set of jewelers screwdrivers" but they are more than that. I can get a "nice" set for a couple of quid. For that money they will be used and abused - picking up superglue or oil (don't mix those up !) to drop in little spaces for example. Or maybe as punches when removing stubborn gears from shafts. When the blades get to battered to use on screw heads, I restore them with a file.

These screwdrivers are kept for best. Precision work. Those moments when I fancy myself as a bit of an engineer rather than a bodger. They also travel to exhibitions in my toolkit, in fact they have probably clocked up many thousands of miles this way. At no point do they get hit with a hammer or dipped in superglue.

So, as the man says, if you are looking for presents, a single high quality tool might look unimpressive under the tree, but it will be in use for many years to come and every time the owner picks it up, they will remember the person who gave it to them.

Super D Chassis video

2011-12-22T07:00:00.007Z

One for the gearbox pervs among you today - and yes I know there are some out there !

Powering the Super D will be a Cannon motor working through an ABC Models gearbox. The whole unit came from ABC ready assembled. All I had to do was file a flat on the axle, slide it in place, tighten the grub screw with an Allen key then apply power.

This is literally the first test. No lubrication yet, no running in and electric from my trusty H&M Duettee. Compensated chassis aren't at their best when not on the track either. Considering all this, the running is superb as you'd expect from a Rolls-Royce power unit. Mind you, at approaching 100 quid, it's not cheap but definitely worth it for the beautiful quality of the engineering. It goes to show, that in the UK we can do something other than make c**p telly and pizza after all !

Best of all, the body slips over the top of this lot with the motor in the firebox. I could fill the boiler with lead for some serious traction...

Compensating an 0-8-0 chassis

2011-12-21T07:00:00.000Z

The Super D box of bits contains really lovely item - the chassis. It's scratchbuilt and fully compensated. I post a picture, not because I want to claim any input (It was built when I got it) but for those who fancy doing the same thing and want to know which wheels should move up and down.

Now I've actually seen the beast, it's simple. The front pair use a normal compensation beam. A fixed third axle is then followed by one able to tilt. The pivot is cleverly a bolt so the ride height can be adjusted.

On a 7mm scale loco, this is a serious level of sophistication. Most people just fill the boiler with lead and let the weight bend the world, or at least the layout, around the loco. Some may whinge about the lack of inside cylinders but then they probably don't build their own toy trains. This thing might be lacking in this department but, by golly, it will be able to pull the side off a house.

Wishing Well in GardenRail magazine

2011-12-20T07:00:00.022Z

With the weather warming up a little in time for Christmas, handily ruining the dreams of children hoping for a white one, the January GardenRail magazine arrives to persuade us to do a bit on the line outside.

In this issue, I've built a Perfect World resin kit for a wishing well. It's a nice model but I couldn't stop myself fiddling with it and making a few changes that I consider improvements.

The main mod is to add a tube to the bottom of the "stone" casting. If you don't do this, the little well is likely to be blown away in the wind as the roof will act like a parachute. The scale is large enough (1:19) that you can see down the hole anyway, so it se4ems a shame not to let people peer in hope of seeing some coins tossed in the bottom.

The other change is to pin each of the "wooden" joints with little bits of plastic in case the superglue used for construction doesn't hold up to well in the winter. Hopefully something mechanical fixing bits together will save me a repair job next year.

It's a nice atmospheric little kit that I enjoyed building. From a writers point of view, the biggest problem is that the instructions are so good, there isn't much more to add !

Builders Yards

2011-12-19T07:00:00.001Z

Do to lots of work (Panto time in theatreland) and some nasty sickness (clearing a hall after 600 kids isn't a pleasant job), I've not done enough model making recently. Therefore, for todays' post I'm taking the opportunity to point out that Iain Robinson is posting picture of his new project - wonderfully atmospheric model building work building garage.

His post that I loved most recently was one showing a builders yard he created back in 1980.

I'm sure I remember reading the article that went with it and being impressed and inspired. It's certainly the kind of modelling I aspire to rather than the clinical perfection showing in the finescale magazines.

The entrance intrigued me though. When I made my yard from Hornby Skaledale structures, I had envisaged just such a feature. In the end I chickened out and went for a simple gate but I wonder if I was influenced by the memory of what I read in an old magazine ?

Who knows ?

Anyway, I've run out of interesting things to say, so please pop over to the Iain Robinson - Modelmaking blog, I'm sure you'll find something of interest.

Mike Cook - RIP

2011-12-18T07:00:00.017Z

It is always sad to hear the news that a friend in the hobby has died, but in the case of Mike Cook, it is especially bad.

For those who didn't know him, Mike Cook was York Model Railway Exhibition. He had been the lynch-pin of the organisation for 49 years and 2012 would have been his 50th exhibition. A record no one would have beaten. Sadly, he will only be with us in spirit.

My Dad and I have taken many layouts to York. We've been attending as exhibitors on and off since the show was in the centre of the city. Those days you could finish your operating session and nip out to watch the buskers performing in the streets whilst munching Yum-Yums. In the evening there would be social events to entertain you if you wanted. I always avoided the barn dance but loved the sing-song in the Brown Cow pub.

With one man the driving force behind the show, the quality could vary slightly from year to year. Mike admitted as much in his book "The Show That Never Ends". However over the last decade or so, you'd have been hard pressed to have found such a consistently good show anywhere.

More than that, and I think this is where Mike scored, the show has an undefinable atmosphere. It's friendly and pleasant. You want to be part of the gang inside the barriers but if you can't be, it's worth being outside and wandering around.

We'll still be taking Flockburgh to York next year. It's a shame Mike didn't make the half century but he had a damn good try. We'll all be doing our best to honour his memory and look to carry forward his legacy, a superb show, for many years to come.

Turning Turtle

2011-12-17T07:00:00.012Z

When you pick up a glossy magazine, you might well assume that its production was a simple process with very little in the way of problems. You would be wrong. Readers of this blog know I screw stuff up sometimes but today I'll document a bigger Oooops than normal.

The picture shows a Korean Turtle Boat, an early type of warship. It's built from an Academy plastic kit intended for schoolkids. When I saw it, I thought "That looks fun and I could do a review of it." so I purchased one and eventually got around to building it.

As a model, it's pretty accurate. OK, so there is a solar cell to power the oars rather than little people and a couple of sails, but then the kit is as much science project as model. I spent a fair amount of time painting the thing based on some photos I found on the web.

The rowing works well, but needs a decent amount of light, not something on offer during the cold winters morning I had for the on water photography. Not to worry, I got some good shots (the best are saved for the mag) including the one above.

Then I tried to retrieve the model with a hook and turned it over. Water got in the top and the thing sank. Efforts to drag the bottom with a net were not successful so it looks like I've lost this boat. Needless to say, the piece was submitted with me pointing out that I couldn't do much if he didn't like the pictures !

Class 25 bodyshell

2011-12-16T07:00:00.002Z

Normal service on other projects was interrupted for an evening so I could test the Class 25 model kit to see if I could assemble it. I'm not getting a couple of BullAnts in if there are fundamental problems that I wouldn't be able to solve.

As you can see, there aren't. In a couple of hours I had what you see in the photo.

The first stage happened while the model was in the flat - under the bodyside there are some odd lumps and bumps etched in. These were removed with a pair of scissors and a file. I think the designer was trying to replicate the lumps under the body of the prototype but didn't spot that these are set back underneath. No matter, I can make those myself.

Next the corners on the top edge were formed in bending bars. The metal is thick and I didn't anneal it so they didn't come out sharp, but slightly radiused, just like the real thing. I'd like to claim I knew this would work as well, but there was a lot of luck involved. The main roof curve was formed with finger pressure around a aluminium round bar. This sort of job people assume is cleverly done in one hit by us "experts" but I just prod and poke away until it looks right.

The doors go on with normal solder, the ends fitted with 100 degree solder and gaps between cab top and roof front filled with low melt. That's three different types in one little model. Finally the cab front detail was filed off in preparation for some new nose work.

Which gets me to the stage I was with the Class 26 by picking the resin body out of the box. I know how the rest should work out now so at least I have one kit underway that I can be confident about !

3mm scale Class 25 diesel kit

2011-12-15T07:00:00.028Z

After the Warley show, I decided that our Class 26 diesel had been so successful, it should be joined by a Class 25 as well. I knew there was a kit advertised on the 3SMR website and it looked decent enough with etched sides and cast details. In my head this meant a quick build using the same motorising techniques as the earlier model.

The problems started when I rang the company to be told that the kit wasn't available any more and had been replaced with a resin body intended for a RTR chassis. The cost had risen to - my original plan would have come in at around 100 quid. Not cheap but then I'm working in an odd-ball scale and using read to run motor unit. The new version was half as much again. I want a loco but did I want it that much ?

I also didn't fancy the resin shell much. It was OK, but the etch version would be better, or at least I hoped it would.

Anyway, in desperation I stuck a plea on the 3mm scale mailing list to see if anyone had one of the kits in their stash of bits. 3 offers came in and I quickly secured a deal for the one you see in the photo.

One other reply pointed out something I hadn't spotted by fans of the class will see immediately. The model is unbuildable.

Class 25 locos were built by several builders. The early ones has doors in the nose and grilles dotted around the bodyside in a slightly random fashion. The later versions moved the grilles up into the roof and removed the nose doors allowing a bigger window. On the kit we have the early grilles and later nose. Putting the grilles in the top would be a nightmare, so it's a good job that I wanted the earlier version isn't it ?

Wikipedia article on the Class 25

Tiny Fairey Huntress in Model Boats

2011-12-14T07:00:00.019Z

Another first for me in the January issue of Model Boats magazine - an article by me about a model built by someone else. Perfect really, all the fun of the writing (and the fee) but none of the tiresome model making stuff to do first.

The model is a fully radio controlled model of a Fairey Huntsman built by David Pledge, Chairman of Knightcote Model Boat club. It's an amazing little model which unlike a lot of miniature boats, works properly on the water. He has sailed it alongside other much larger models with the little scamp nipping in an out between them and it doesn't get swamped or do anything daft.

I've learnt quite a bit writing the piece. 1/2 and 1/4 size AA batteries exist for example. I didn't know that. I've also picked up the importance of weight for tiny models. at 60.5g, this is a real featherweight, which it needs to be to work of course. The batteries make up 1/4 of the total weight.

Model Boats Website

Making the footplate flat

2011-12-13T07:00:00.009Z

Wary of my experiences trying to rescue the old kit bits, I took a critical look at my Plan B Super D.

In the main, it was very good but I still wasn't happy with the footplate. What should have been a long flat thing was slightly twisted. It's an easy thing to do and the wonkiness was very slight, but still (IMHO) not good enough. However, I reckoned if I could rotate the boiler very slightly around its mounting at the firebox end, all would be well.

A little work with a gas torch released the 100 degree solder but this don't entirely do the job so I cut down with a fine blade along the front face of the 'box and by the time I was 3 or 4mm down, the tube would move.

Before fixing it back in place, I made a jig to hold the footplate perfectly flat. Basically this is a bit of wood with holes drilled in to match the body fixing bolts. The body is fixed to this and construction can continue. And yes, I did check the wood was flat against a mirror first.

I just wish I'd done this a couple of days ago. Never mind, maybe I'll learn for next time.

Realism and a plan B

2011-12-12T07:00:00.023Z

Last week, the Super D was looking good. Then I went to sleep and had a good look at it again in the morning. Overnight the model railway gremlins had struck and ruined it.

The front plan view was the worst problem. Despite marking and (I though) soldering the smokebox in the right place, adding the boiler had twisted it horribly. To be fair, the photo exaggerates the error but it was till there and bad enough I couldn't ignore it.

Running rulers and dividers over the model, I found other "issues":

The footplate was quite badly distorted. On one side it was was spot on, the other could be pushed up to a flat edge but refused to stay there. I suspect this happened when the boiler got dinged. The metal hadn't just bent, it had stretched and distorted.

At the back, the cab and side tanks (?) were pretty good but the front of the firebox wasn't perpendicular to the footplate edge. This gave the boiler an natural path diagonally along the loco. Fixing this probably contributed to the wonky smokebox issues.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is why taking on kits someone has already had a go at is harder than starting with a fresh set of parts. I need a plan B.

Those with sharp eyes will have noticed that the tags at the bottom of this post include one marked "G2". You might even have clicked on it and realised that this isn't the first such loco I've constructed in 7mm. The last go became a still-born project that has been gathering dust for a couple of years.

Unearthing it made me realise I had another option. If I nicked the body from this loco, I could marry it up to the parts I already had. My construction didn't look too bad and it sat on the chassis OK. I've ordered a replacement body kit to go in the box I'm robbing stuff from, but for the moment, it looks like this will keep the project on track.

Cheap toy trains

2011-12-11T01:57:00.002Z

I’m not really sure why I own these model locomotives. Each was bought from the Hornby Railways stand at a show for the princely sum of 5 pounds. Yep, a fiver for a real, working, toy train. If anyone is making money with this deal, I’ll be amazed.

Their appearance in my collection is probably just because of the price. When I was a lad, buying a new toy chuff-chuff was a rare experience. Nowadays it seems like many modellers pick up every single item from the major manufacturers as it arrives at their favourite on-line retailer. If you read the forums, there are always howls of protest when something comes out at a price beyond what they want to spend along the lines of “How can the evil manufacturers expect us to buy everything if they insist on charging so much for it ?”. For me though, as mentioned last week, a new loco is a significant event – I know Hornby, Bachmann etc. Don’t expect me to buy everything they make and I for one, am happy with that situation.

If I can have a pretty loco simply by handing over the smallest denomination note you get from an English bank though, it seems difficult to resist. The problem is, what next ?

Both models are based on Hornby’s basic 0-4-0 chassis. The one with gears from the Scalextric range and performance to match. As shunters, they are useless unless you want to go down the route of replacing the gubbins with something more sophisticated (as you can read about in my book), The wheels have to go too.

The bodies are either the corpulent 06 diesel or a freelance steam engine. The first is so distorted as to be unsaveable in scale terms, the other is quite pretty though. I fancy that with new underpinnings including outside cylinders, it might be quite attractive. OK, so British Rail never had anything that looked like this, but it doesn’t matter. Well, not on my train set anyway.

One oddity – the diesel chassis has been reversed so that the cylinders, a hang over from its origins on various steam engines, are tucked out of sight under the steps. On the steam loco, they are missing entirely. Presumably someone altered the mould when it was decided to add to the pretty locos range.

Anyway, that’s two locos. Maybe there will be more to come – I fancy the old GWR 101 will be next in Network Southeast livery. And if it’s a fiver, I’ll add it to my collection.

Miniature V12 engine

2011-12-10T01:45:00.005Z

I worry about the economy. If we don't all do some work then our politicians won't be able to siphon off the cash to pay for expensive suits and champagne baths. Bankers children will have to go without their Louboutins. Thus I have saved this post for a Saturday. That way, when you watch the video, you won't be doing it in the firms time.

The film shows a man building a miniature V12 engine. It's the sort of project I'd love to do but don't have the skills or the patience. He produces over 200 perfectly engineered components and then assembles them into an engine on the kitchen table. I particularly enjoyed seeing the crankshaft being machined on the lathe - I wondered how that sort of thing was done and now I know.

Best of all - the music. A soaring orchestral score. The sort of sound that makes you realise this isn't a bloke in a shed but a hero fighting the metal to achieve a great goal.

Signal Box and more Handyman Hall in Hornby Magazine

2011-12-09T07:30:00.011Z

Remember when the Yellow Pages used to arrive on the doorstep ? A big, fat , paper publication that hit the mat with a thump ? Well the January Hornby mag is a bit like that. As well as the magazine (154 pages), there is a Hornby calendar featuring photos of some of the layouts that appeared in the last year and a Hattons catalogue. Those of us with subscriptions also got a CD with the Trackmaster software on it since they only went out to the news trade last month.

My contributions are a Parkers Guide on building a Ratio signal box and a Coopercraft platelayers hut. You also get part 2 of the Handyman Hall railway feature where we take the layout from bare plaster to a finished model.

The signal box is a particularly interesting kit. I really enjoyed building it and think that despite its age, it would be a really good basis for a very high quality model. That's not to say there is anything wrong with what you get, just that there is loads of potential as well. Detail the inside, perhaps replace the locking room windows, add some telegraph wires and somewhere for the point roding to exit, that sort of thing.

Elsewhere, you get loads of reviews including LMS 10000, Derby Lightweight DMU, Baby Deltic and Class 22. I only have a kit stashed away for one of those...

Hornby Magazine Website

Replacing the dented boiler

2011-12-08T08:00:00.018Z

Blimey, this was a job that took longer than expected, but the end result was worth it. A Super D doesn't actually have a lot of bodywork to worry about so the stuff there is needs to be right.

When we left the story, the dented boiler had been removed. I'd also taken off the smokebox. I had a replacement bent bit of nickel silver that just needed to drop in. First up I soldered the tube to be the right size. On the front of the firebox there was a nice whitemetal stub to guide me. A couple of tack solder joints to ascertain the basic position and then working away from the whitemetal, seam soldered the bottom along its length.

With the smokebox loose, I could see that it had only been tacked together. Not brilliantly either but after a few burnt fingers and a bit of poking with wooden lolly stick, this was sorted out. I even remembered to clean this part up before fixing it to the footplate. I must have been on a roll at this point because I also realised that it had been in the wrong place earlier. 6mm from the front of the buffer beam is correct, not 8. And to carry on with the theme, the body retaining nut went in before I blocked access with the tube. Mind you, I did bung it up with solder so I suppose normal service was being resumed.

To fill the gap between boiler and smokebox wrapper, a quick wrap spare etch part bent around a small metal torch was made up. Lots more tack soldering and fiddling until everything lined up properly. The footplate, the one part I'd planned to keep because it was right, was wonky. Strapping a steel rule to this sorted it out and now the whole thing is locked together solid.

Tightly bent track

2011-12-07T01:08:00.000Z

Norm asks: Do you know what type of flex track allows for the tight radius shown Akihiro Morohoshi’s micro sized layouts ?

I've always been a fan of Akihiro's work and aspire to build something simialr to his wonderful novel creations. On many of his layouts, as far as I can tell, the track is scratchbuilt with pre-bent rail sodlered to a base. The rail bending tool is ingenious, being made of old railway wheels and plasticard. Clever but if you want to use commercial track, not that helpful.

All is not lost though, you can take comercial flexi-track (I'm using Peco 009 track in the photo) and bend it very tightly. The key is the webs between the sleepers under the rail. To make flexi-track flexible, some of these are supplied partly missing. This allow user to bend the track because the sleepers can close up on one side.

On the smaller gauges, these probably allow sufficient bending for most people. Peco used to demo the track by bending it into the shape of a traditional carpet beater with far tighter curves than normal locomotives could traverse.

If you want tighter bends, just remove some more webs with a sharp knife. Take enough out and you will be able to get the radius down to that of a tin can. The biggest problem then will be finding a chassis with a short enough wheelbase to power around the curves. Mind you, if the trains are short then most RTR units will be man enough for the task.

If this inspires you then please let us all see the results of your labours.

Akihiro Morohoshi layout gallery

Boiler chopping

2011-12-06T01:35:00.021Z

The process of building a Super D starts with some destruction. The steps sticking out below the footplate. They get in the way when I'm working on the model locomotive - I like it to sit down on the workbench and so they are more of an inconvenience at this stage of the project. A quick blast from the gas torch melted the solder so they fell off and were dropped in the bits box for possible re-use later.

Next, the biggie, the boiler. I reckoned that some heat would be required but first, I wanted to separate the front and back parts. A couple of fine blades in the piercing saw later, it was chopped in half. The firebox end turned out not to be attached at all so it was easily removed. At the front, the boiler pokes into the smokebox so I'll need to dismantle this to remove the offending metal and replace it with a nice round item. This probably means the whole smokebox will fall apart but that's not a huge issue. After all, it's no worse than building a kit.

Super D

2011-12-05T01:28:00.011Z

I seem to be the target for "unusual" projects. The ones that aren't straight "Take the kit out of the box and stick it together without deviating from the nice simple instructions". This is one of those.

My task is to build a Super D. To aid me, I have been supplied with a loco that looks almost exactly right - apart from the almighty dent in the boiler. In addition there are loads of slightly random bits in the box. Some of these duplicate bits already on the model and other don't. I just have to pick the best of the bunch, and make a complete loco out of them.

I also get some information including a Model Railways Magazine from July 1973 with the "Bazzing Around" feature on the class. For those who don't remember him, Baz was a bloodhound who used to write a very informative column covering details of individual classes. I have read his words and still don't understand the history. It's a good job that the pictures are excellent.

So, I have a dented loco, loads of bits and a magazine article written by a dog. What could go wrong ?

G1 Assoc. AGM

2011-12-04T06:52:00.027Z

I love the smell of methylated spirits in the morning.

Which is handy because I spent Saturday getting right good nostril full. We had been asked to cover the Mercian Model stand at the G1 Association AGM thanks to a clash with the O gauge show at Reading. Being just up the road and a veteran of 3 G1 kits, I was the right man for the job.

Our pitch was opposite the text track which was handy as we could watch live steam chuff-chuffs (and the odd diesel) powering around all day. I've always liked the way that owners have to book a slot on the timetable to run and this is displayed on a big board for the crowd to see. Some well disciplined work means that there are no times when something isn't chonking around the track.

The first crowds pretty quickly headed for any potential bargains but they soon worked their way around all of us. As well as a selection of kits we had a few ready made items to sell and during the day, most of these found new owners. Despite the recession, there was plenty of money about. Ready to run coaches from the stand next door were selling well despite being around 500 quid each. Mind you, they were very nice indeed and even I could have taken away a rake of Mk 1's in blood & custard livery had I not been short of both cash, space and excuses !

I hadn't expected quite so much trade. In fact what I thought we'd find would be half a dozen stands and several layouts. The reverse was true, with a large hall full of sales and only one track in the middle. For a minority scale, this is pretty impressive.

Discipline was the order of the day for me and apart from a couple of books, our car went home emptier than it arrived. This doesn't mean I can't spend money in my head and I've seen a project I really want to start next year. Barratt Engineering produce some rather nice live steam Gauge 1 locos that are supplied fully machined in installments. Think of those part-work magazines that appear after Christmas every year and you get the idea. Their J38 tender engine always looked pretty good but next year they are also releasing a couple of tanks. The B4 looks nice but the one for me would be a J65. 6 wheels, nice and simple, not too big and if I say £750 quickly enough, not too expensive. Maybe. I mean, I've never really wanted a live steam loco. Well not much anyway, but this does look soooo tempting.

Or maybe it's the effect of the meths !

More photos on Flickr

Bachmann 3F

2011-12-03T01:48:00.016Z

As regular readers will have spotted, I don't buy many ready to run model locomotives. Occasionally though, one comes along that even I can't resist and so a couple of days ago, I blew my latest cheque from Google (Those adverts on the right. Click on them and the money is invested in toy trains. Eventually - they aren't making me rich !) on a new 3F from my ever reliable local model shop Classic Train and Motor Bus in Leamington Spa.

Before I handed over the plastic, Mark ran the loco up and down the test track to make sure it was all right (try that over t'internet) and suitably satisfied I lodged it in my bag and wandered home.

First impressions are good. The body and chassis look really fine. The shape appears to my eye to be about right. Inside the cab there is a wooden floor and most amazing of all, a working fall plate !

Of course, there are a few things that will need to be fixed. The coal for a start. Have you ever seen such plasticy looking stuff ? The rest of the model is a lovely satin shine, ripe for a bit of weathering but an excellent start. The fake dead dinosaurs in the water cart, well at the very least will need covering with real ones.

My other gripe is the loco-tender gap. Yes there is a clever springy bar joining the two but it's default position is too far away. I reckon that this can be adjusted with a screwdriver but even them I'm not sure how close I can bring the two. The fall plate is supposed to bridge the gap, not provide a take-off ramp for the fireman !

You might wonder quite what attracted me to the model. It's not like I have any layouts to use it on after all. The thing is that my very first model engine was a Triang 3F and so there has always been a soft spot in my heart for the class. Somewhere my loco sits with weathered black paint and home make vac pipes. With this latest model I can restore it back to Triang-ness and sit the two together.

Of course, there is the little matter of the Gibson (I think) kit I have stashed away as well. Maybe 3 3F's ?

Le train français des biens

2011-12-02T01:30:00.030Z

Weathering the Y51100 started with a quick dirty wash to get some grime into those crevices. Then out came the airbrush to shoot an earth colour over the underframe. Next a dark grey over the top part and then some rush everywhere.

Exhaust muck appeared courtesy of some weathered black followed up by a bit of matt black. I went to town on this as I'd not been able to match the green paint on the horn as well as might have liked. No sweat though, where it is the normal colour with be filth after a couple of days away from the paint shop.

Finally, a nice mist of underframe dirt (dark brown - the colour we used to call "track colour") everywhere.

While I was mucking up the loco, I also worked over some wagons I'd been sent in the same package:

Doing an entire train makes the job a lot quicker. I filled a paint cup and then used it for each vehicle in turn.

The tank wagons are much improved by a bit of dirt. As supplied, the looked a bit toy like - the underframe could really do with some brakes to my eyes. Not being familiar with the prototype I can't be certain but at least the paint isn't as shiny now. Except where I put a bit of Johnsons Klear floor polish on to shine up the spillages anyway.

Steakyness is achieved by brushing the dirt vertically with an old brush and a bit of thinners, then re-spraying like that nice Mr Shackleton wrote in his book.

Horn and hole

2011-12-01T01:07:00.013Z

Model locomotive chinmeys used to be supplied "blind", or blanked off at the top. The exceptions were those with a screw in the bottom to hold the body to the chassis. You still see this in some whitemetal castings but not often.

This might be a diesel but it still has something that looks a bit chimneyish for the exhuast fumes to escape. Quite a chunky pipe this, I don't know if it needs to be or is just the whim of the designers. Whatever, the top was solid and since we see model railway from above most of the time, I didn't feel this was satisfactory.

With some trepidation, I started to drill the metal. To my surprise it was quite soft. My scriber could be pushed into the centre of the soon-to-be hole and this guided a 1mm drill. Following up with a wider bit took some time but was still accomplished with hand power rather than electricity.

Emboldened, I thought I'd drill out the front of the blank airhorn. That wasn't so clever as the plastic body twisted as soon as the drill bit. I pondered the problem and then made it worse by snapping the thing in two.

Luckily I have a box of spare bits and this included a packet of rather nice brass airhorns. Drilling the the bracket I quickly put one in place with a touch of superglue. To be honest, I should have done this in the first place as it looks a lot better.

Soldering handrails

2011-11-30T01:05:00.000Z

The biggest problem with this model locomotive were the missing bonnet side handrails. On the real loco they are pretty prominent so I couldn't just pretend their removal wasn't an in service modification.

Worse, the things are exposed and vulnerable, which is probably why they were missing. As bought they are moulded in plastic. Without access to an injection moulding machine, I knew it was time for some wirework.

Normally I make handrails for 4mm scale models from 0.45mm brass wire. 3mm scale models get 0.33mm so I guess I wanted something half way between these for 3.5mm. No chance, a quick measure of the existing ones showed that the 7mm scale wire - a whopping 0.7mm - was required.

Bending the top rail was complicated because the rails curve in towards the front steps. The verticals are complicated because the holes in the footplate and holes in the cab side aren't in line. As it turns out this worked to my benefit. I fitted the verticals leaning out and then the lower horizontal on the faces of these. The results looks pretty good as the outside edge of the horizontal rails are the same(ish) distance out from the bonnet sides.

All soldering was done with the wire in-situ thanks to the diecast body. Quick work, good flux (tried the non-acid stuff which was as usual, rubbish) and I didn't damage the paintwork. The handrails were flexible enough to be removed for cleaning in the sink followed by a blast of primer and thin coat of weathered black paint.

Cab work

2011-11-29T01:47:00.013Z

There's not a lot of space inside this cab - it's mostly full of diecast lump covering the motor and circuit board.

I'd been sent a figure to fit in there but the trip through the post had decapitated him so I had to find a replacement in my stock of little people. Luckily I had a HO builder who, once chopped off at the waist, "sat" at the controls with his hands on the desk. The yellow hard hat and blue boiler suit symbolises the model industrial locomotive driver for me. An older prototype would see the mans bonce protected by a cloth flat cap.

Anticipating the future weathering activities, I masked the cab windows by pushing in some tape and then running a knife blade around the inside edge to trim it exactly to shape. Of course this meant I couldn't be certain the driver was looking through the windscreen properly so I should have left this for a little later.

Y51100

2011-11-28T01:14:00.009Z

My next project is a bit of a departure - a French model shunting locomotive, Y51100.

The basic model is produced by NPE Modellbau but this one appears to be second hand, or at least has been in a wars a little. Along the sides, the prominent handrails are missing. Holes are included in the buffer beam for pipes but there aren't any in the box too.

A bit of digging around on the web threw up plenty of photo galleries such as this one which shows that shunters around the world are very similar. Boxes on wheels that get dirty. There's nothing special about French grime it appears.

This is a popular prototype for models. DJH produce a whitmetale kit and Joueffused to make a ridiculously cheap version.

My job is to detail and weather this model. The first step is to take it to pieces, as one of the "musts" is a driver in the cab. Access to the insides involves undoing a mixed bag of screws until the thing comes apart. The main body is entirely diecast but comes apart easily enough. Inside is a can motor with two worms driving both axles. A circuit board handles the directional lights and presumably facilitates DCC installation.

Flockburgh video

2011-11-27T10:50:00.000Z

At Warley, BRM took some photos and video which have now appeared on the website.

The pictures are here

and Watch the video here (Flockburgh is 8 minutes in)

Making your own sand blaster

2011-11-27T03:23:00.013Z

While reading English Mechanics, I couldn't help photographing this delight - instructions for making your own sandblasting set-up using a grinder fitted with a wire wheel.

Basically, you drop the blasting medium down a funnel onto to the wheel which flings it at the item to be blasted. Health & Safety isn't forgotten with a see-through panel to protect the operator. I bet he needed it too - the media will get suck in the bristles and be flung out everywhere that the wheel isn't guarded.

The thing that strikes me about this is how incredibly messy the process would be. Did anyone every try this ?

Nowadays we do the whole thing in a sealed cabinet using compressed air. The mess is contained and the media can be reused until it wears smooth. Still, it shows ingenuity which is what made this nation great !

English Mechanics - June 1938

2011-11-26T03:04:00.035Z

Querist requires a formula for working the pressure to eject a cylindrical pot stamping out of its die, in terms of the pressure required to stamp it out.

I'm glad I don't get that sort of question when people hit the Ask Phil button at the side of this page !

Browsing through English Mechanics magazine, June 1938 issue - I'm a bit behind with my reading, it's just the sort of thing you could write in and ask. Another questioner asks about making a xylophone and the third about wiring up an earth indicator. Flicking though the other issues that year, the questions all seem to be in the same vein.

This was the era of men in sheds. Inventors beavering away in the workshop at the bottom of the garden, every so often taking a pause to re-fill the obligatory pipe and take stock of progress. Electricity was still relatively news, refrigerators a luxury and bicycles or motorbikes the personal transport of choice for most people.

Can you image such a magazine in WH Smith today ? Even those that do science don't get into the nuts and bolts in the same way. Now we have people who are scared to build a plastic kit, then they were considering how to set up a production line for metal pots. Mind you, if you had to ask the question then I wonder how much chance there really was that you could use the answer. As it is, the reply involves pointing out that there are too many variables to be accurate. After all, are you stamping out thimbles or batch tubs ?

Still, at least there is an answer. One that even makes sense to me and describes a basic machine to do the job. I could probably head down to the shed and after a bit of hammering and drilling, have my own production line up and running in a couple of days.

I wonder what happened to the questioner ? In a couple of years time he would probably be involved in fighting from a muddy trench wishing he had stamped out a few more metal pots to wear on his head. It's quite poignant really.

(US readers might point out that they had "Popular Mechanics" magazine but I'd suggest that it was more colourful and quite a lot less hardcore shed man than the English version. A lot more readable though.)

More on English Mechanics here.

A foreigner teaches me a bit about compensated chassis

2011-11-25T03:42:00.013Z

"A Great Western loco on your layout ?" I hear you cry, "How could such a thing happen ?"

Well, I'll admit that something Great Wobbly turning up on one of my train sets is unusual. It's not that there is anything wrong with GWR stuff, it's just that all the other companies were better and GW fans are a but too fundamentalist for my liking.

Anyway, at Warley (yes, I'll stop mentioning it now) Peter Stratford was manning the 3MM Society stand behind our layout. On it he was merrily building rolling stock, assisted by his young daughter. At 12 she shows many a grown-up how to assemble a Parkside kit. Among his collection was this 94xx Pannier Tank and coach which he was keen to see visit our bit of Scotland.

Late on Saturday, when I hoped no-one was watching, we gave it a go. And it worked. The loco ran happily around the layout. Peter was pleased as he doesn't have anywhere to try it at the moment so the fact it could handle our sharpest curve was good news.

As someone who struggles with flexi-chassis construction, I was interested to note a few differences from my own methods. First, he doesn't use hornblocks for the wobbly axles, just bearings that have been opened out top and bottom. Movement is minimal, nothing more than a couple of mm, my models have twice this which makes fitting pickups awkward but I can't see a disadvantage with making use of the full treavel of the 4mm scale hornblocks - or is there ? Also the engine, being whitemetal, is very heavy. Twice my engines weight at least.

Some lessons to be learned there perhaps. Not enough to convince me to got GW though !

Flockburgh Fisheries Chimney

2011-11-24T03:35:00.009Z

After all my messing around with cardboard to produce a chimney for Flockbrugh Fisheries, I solved the problem with a simple action - I handed the job to my Dad. After all, I had enough to do on the train set and it would be a good way to keep his aged brain ticking over.

Of course, pretty much the first version he made was right. All I had to do was cover the card shell with plasticard and paint it. I did take the opportunity to build the top of the stack (is there a technical name for this ?) with multiple layers to make it look a bit fancy. My study of photos showed that factory owners liked to show off up there - presumably because everyone could see where the money had been spent.

Anyway, after a little ground clearance and a touch of trimming at the back, it's in place hiding the gap in the sky where the baseboards meet. I didn't do a great job of matching the brick colours but that can be sorted eventually. In the meantime it's just a more modern addition to the factory to replace the one that nice Mr Dibnah modified.

Matchbox shunters

2011-11-23T03:12:00.020Z

A little eye-searing colour for a Wednesday morning ! Bet that woke you up...

One of the cleverest conversions I've seen for some time was sat next to us at Warley on the British HO 1:87 scale stand (the stand was full size, it was the models that were 1:87 obviously)

A diescast shunter from Matchbox (MB 24) had been motorised with the guts of an Underground Ernie inspection vehicle. Plastic bufferbeams made this into quite a presentable freelance industrial shunter. A similar modification has been performed on the front model but as this came from a set, it's a plastic rather than die cast metal locomotive . I'm intrigued that Matchbox bothered to produce the model in two materials since this would double the investment in tooling.

Anyway, I had one of these loco as a kid but only the metal one. Had the Steam engine and GWR saddle tank too. Having always wondered if it would be possible to motorise the models and build a little railway, I'm now wondering about a project to make them into something better. Sadly the plastic models are like hens teeth and you can't easily detail the metal ones.

Needless to say, having seen these models, it turns out that conversions of this model are quite popular with the 009 community. Maybe the Handyman Hall railway needs another bit of motive power ?

More information on the Matchbox shunters here

Flockburgh Souveniers

2011-11-22T04:02:00.001Z

Flockburgh is a seaside town so it stands to reason that visitors would be able to buy some delightful tat as souvenirs. To provide some atmosphere, we've accumulated a collection of these which are displayed along the top of the fiddle yard display box.

Of course, Flockburgh is a fictional place so all of these goodies have been converted from souvenirs from other towns. Luckily for us, these things are made in huge quantities very cheaply. Then they are handed to poorly paid people who paint the appropriate place name on. As these aren't under the glazing on pottery items, a quick rub with a fibre pen and some Brasso gives me what is described in modern parlance as a "white label" item. Being made by the ton means they turn up for no money at car boot sales and other outlets for junk, for no money, so we've amassed quite a selection. Those in the photo are just the new items for Warley.

A few moments work with a small paintbrush gives a reasonable piece that could very well have been bought from a shop in the town to commemorate a visit. The fact that the painting can be a bit shoddy doesn't matter - in many ways it makes them more convincing.

The pile is enough to convince many visitors that we have modelled a real place. Finescale anoraks on the other hand are completely unimpressed. At a recent show someone who had spent the previous half hour bending my ear about how great he was building 009 chassis was especially scathing. He wandered off convinced that I didn't take things seriously enough to warrant further enlightening about his achievements. If I'd realised they would have that effect, he'd have had his attention drawn to them 29 1/2 minutes earlier !

In addition to the little items above, we also have a couple of "Flockburgh, Home of the Happy Haddock" sweatshirts that occasionally make an appearance at shows. Sadly I'd don't have a photo of myself wearing one, but if any blog reader happened to take one at Warley, then let me have it and I'll post it up here if it's not to embarrassing.

Warley 2011 roundup

2011-11-21T01:40:00.001Z

Cake: Excellent. Chocolate muffin with white choccy bits and gooey choc in the middle. Offered as the second course at lunch. You could have had yogurt but why would you ? Made excellent afternoon tea.

Best bits: Meeting lots of people who read this blog (Hello everyone, thanks for dropping by). Hearing lots of people say nice things about the layout. Getting away at the end of the show by twenty to six thanks to some fine organising of the traffic.

Worst bits: Opening at 9am thanks to the motorcycle show. Apparently biker are scared of railway modellers so we have to go in first in case we rough them up. Being clobbered by a falling 3mm Society stand. The steam locos on the layout gradually giving up due to various mysterious ailments.

Favorite Layout: Mannin Middle. Top pun for a name (the operator, a man, is in the middle of the layout, gedditt ?) but most importantly, a cracking little Isle of Man layout. Looked good. Ran well.

Favorite Moment: Watching Chris Nevard apparently setting up a photo of; nothing. Just an empty test track. I'm sure there was a reason.

Basically, it was a good weekend, although I was shattered by the end of Saturday. The attendances were as good as previous years which would seem to be a good thing. Lots of people were carrying lots of goodies.

The layout was a bit problematic. Diesels ran well, steam a lot less so. I really can't build reliable compensated chassis and when you want to rely on them this is A Bad Thing. We have thought about this and with a bit of reworking, the layout could accommodate more early oil burners. Extend the head shunt, move the church a couple of inches and we can get a loco and two wagons in and we have a plan.

Thanks again to everyone who said hello. Special thanks to Mike for being our third operator and doing a heck of a lot of playing trains over the weekend. He seemed to be enjoying it though. Perhaps it was something in the muffins.

More photos on Flickr

Anyway, I picked up a few other ideas so stay tuned for the rest of the week.

Weathered Teak

2011-11-20T02:17:00.000Z

Not being familiar with real LNER teak coaches, I was interested to get a proper look at some during my trip on the Severn Valley Railway. Varnished teak is an interesting material and very popular with modeller. The trouble is, it's a pig to get right and this isn't helped by people not understanding what is right.

As you can see, the wood changes colour from the nice uniform shade seen on most model railway coaches to a patchwork of different browns. I can't work out if the wood lightens or darkens with age - it looks like the former on some vehicles but some of the descriptions I've read suggest the opposite. There's certainly a darkening where muck has got into splits in the wood and seeped along the grain.

Of course, there is an extra factor at play here. Restoration. These coaches have been restored and maintained in an era when the wood is harder to get hold of and we are more sensitive to keep things original. Thus, panels will have been removed and replaced rather than just thrown away. I suspect this accounts for some of the patchwork effect you see in the top picture.

How would I model all this ?

Dunno. I saw Pete Waterman perform a demo using his brand of teak undercoat topped with brushed on coloured varnish. This looked pretty effective but wouldn't replicate the variations in tone I saw. Maybe these didn't happen in real life, or maybe we just prefer to remember things looking rather nicer than they really did.

To cover the layout or not ?

2011-11-19T01:14:00.002Z

Flockburgh is situated quite near a huge NEC door this year at Warley. Worried that muck, dust and rain might blow in and damage things, we bought a 5 by 4 metre thin polythene sheet to cover the model up. In the erie sodium lighting, it looks quite spooky as the gossamer thin plastic billows around.

Is this a good idea though ? Normally we don't bother covering the model overnight at shows yet others go to great pains to do this. I can understand traders being keen - it's a security measure more then a hygiene one, but I've always felt that with layouts you stand more chance of damaging detail hauling sheets on and off the model.

The other thing is that there is likely to be more dirt around when the public are in than when the hall is empty. Therefore you'd be better off covering it when the filthy people are wandering around. At least that way they won't be able to see anything to complain about !

So, do you cover or not ? And why ?

Nearly Warley

2011-11-18T01:15:00.002Z

Yes, this another post about the Warley Model Railway Exhibition taking place at the NEC this weekend. I know you've read the same sort of thing on other train blogs and if you aren't going or even don't live in the same country, it's probably not that interesting. Sorry about that.

Anyway, I will be exhibiting Flockburgh at the show. Stand E54, about 2/3rd's of the way across the hall from the main door. Later today we'll load it into the car and trundle through some of the back-roads of Warwickshire to the big tin shed in Solihull, next to the airport.

The wheels are cleaned, some of the jobs are done and hopefully everything will be working as you burst through the doors at 9am (yes, 9am !) on Saturday morning. Please come and say hello, it's nice to meet people who read the blog. At least that way I can believe that there are some real humans out there !

Over on the Hornby Magazine stand (A12) I'll have the Skaledale conversion builders yard on display. We reckon it will fit in one of the glass cases so you can have a proper look and say "It's smaller than it looked in the magazine".

Making it's exhibition debut is the Handyman Hall railway. You've seen it in print and on this blog, now have a look at the real thing. I've had to sort out some light as the NEC illumination is a bit rubbish for this sort of thing. In my case, this is a desk lamp rather than anything more sophisticated. I'm not anticipating taking the layout out on the circuit so no great efforts are going to be made in that direction. The model might even be operating, such as it is, if you ask someone on the stand nicely. Well, ask them to turn the controller on anyway.

Warley Show Website

Jinxed cardboard

2011-11-17T01:05:00.008Z

What you see before you is my first attempt at the Flockburgh chimney. You'll probably notice that it looks bit too tapered. I thought so too. I can't find a plan for a tall chimney so I'm having to make it up as I go along.

It wasn't easy to get this far either. Every single part I cut out went wrong. Either it was badly measured or I simply didn't cut it right. Absolutely nothing worked. There's not a single part that wasn't done twice.

Anyway, I had another go. This time I wanted the same thing except with less taper. My latest attempt went right first time.

Except that when I compare it against MK1, the taper is the same. How does that happen ?

Jinxed cardboard. That can be the only answer.

Thunder Tiger people

2011-11-16T03:04:00.017Z

Paul asks: Great website.......I am new to the model boat world and I have acquired a good example of the Thunder Tiger Catherine which I plan to light, rename and add a few extra’s Including a crew.

I need to acquire some rigging eyelets because the rigging was damaged in transit, can you help?

Finally for now in your view what is the approx. scale of the Thunder Tiger Fishing boats?

The first part is easy - I'm pretty certain the eyelets are available from DIY stores, or at least something very similar is. If you only need a couple though, I'd be inclined to bend them out of wire rather than buy. Form the main look around a drill bit and then twist the tail with pliers.

People are harder. Looking at my model I've used some 1/24th scale sailors from George Turner, set 2422 but repainted. However, George is giving up figure production apparently to concentrate on slot car production. You might get lucky and he will have some left in stock. If not then it's going to be more of a challenge. You might like to try Prieser as they do some good stuff and not too expensive for what you get. The slightly cartoonish President Obama might be fun to use somewhere or you can do your own thing with some nudes.

One handy hint with figures - to work out the scale, measure a door. This is probably 7ft tall, possibly 6 1/2ft on a boat. Using these numbers you can quickly divide one into the other to get a scale no matter what the model. If you know the door height, take a ruler to a toy shop and measure the little people (the ones on the shelves, not the customers) and you might be surprised what will fit in.

Handyman Hall and oil tanker in Hornby Magazine

2011-11-15T01:50:00.023Z

December already for the magazine world and issue 54 of Hornby Magazine sees me building a Peco Wonderful tank wagon. It's an old kit but still available. Despite its age, this is a very advanced model with working leaf springs, something I don't think is available anywhere else. Even the finescale boys who do spring their rolling stock use a wire behind the W-irons rather than proper, working springs. Maybe we've stolen a march on the MRJ crowd with this !

Down at the clinic I've explaining how to avoid burning your delicate fingers while soldering, stopping your paint from drying out, measuring rail and making baseboards. This last answer sees the first appearance of our late lamented cat Tiger in print. When I was snapping a picture of the part-built boards, he decided to wander up and sit on the corner. Two and a half decades later, he is seen posing in the sunshine.

Finally, this issue is the start of the Handyman Hall Railway series. We move from plywood bits to some rough scenery and a big pile of mess. Unlike the slightly random ramblings here, in print you get nicer pictures and properly edited text. Next month, more scenery, water and buildings.

The Warley job list

2011-11-14T06:26:00.001Z

A few weeks ago at Taunton, I started a list. A bit like the one that German starts in the Dad's Army film but without Pike's name on it.

Under the miss-spelt title, I noted the following tasks:

Clean the display box glass
New display box sign to replace the one that got wet
Build a chimney to cover the baseboard joint
Reverse the Jinty polarity
Put an extra magnet in the headshunt
Rewire the Class 20
Re-mark all the uncoupling magnets

Oh, and finish off the detail on the scenic extension.

Still, I have all week to do this don't I ?

International Model Boat Show 2011

2011-11-13T06:00:00.009Z

As the winter arrives, it's time for the model boat show. Just as we are all thinking "It's a bit cold so I'll give a trip to the lake a miss today.", we are gathering in a big shed in Warwickshire to stock up on goodies to build the craft we plan to sail when the temperature picks up in a few months.

The format was the usual mix of trade stands and boats on display. A modest poll is provided and unlike previous years, it's seen a lot of use. My attempts at booking a sailing slot on the Saturday afternoon we fruitless as all the frequencies had been bagged. The same story applied on Sunday. I think this is Neptune telling me to get a 2.4ghz radio set !

One of the high points was visitor trying to persuade me to sell him Pigeon Pie. He and his wife liked my model a lot and the kit has been discontinued, although not for ever it appears, so there wasn't an opportunity to replicate my efforts. Needless to say, there was no deal. This is the pride of my fleet and not up for grabs. It's really nice to be asked though and certainly good for the ego.

Elsewhere, the highpoint was to see the ex-HFM Pilot Boat is being re-released in much improved form. I've ordered one as I really love pilot boats. Long term readers will know that my last attempt was a bit of a disaster but I'm confident that this time I'll get something on the water. Looking at the prototype racing around the pool, it really looks the business.

I've been taking time to look at other projects in my personal boat yard. Three Brede lifeboats and a Tyne that happens to be the same model I have plans for for a start. I might not make immediate progress but at least my photo collection is growing and one day, I will get started.

Talking of photos: Have a look at my collection on Flickr.

Station and Railcar in Hornby Magazine Yearbook

2011-11-12T02:30:00.013Z

Christmas time is here again and that means the arrival of Hornby Magazines yearbook.

This year the publication differs in having a central theme - the building of a layout based in ex-GWR territory. Both the "How to Guides" and prototype information revolve around the project and give reader an idea of the scope of such a project both from the research and building ends of the job.

My contributions are assembling a Ratio Station and detailing a "Flying Banana" railcar. The photos have come out very well and I'm very pleased with the look of my work.

The railcar is a little unusual for a magazine project because although I tried flush-glazing it, this didn't work so I reverted to the supplied plastic item. I make it rule to improve a model when modifying it and if something isn't going well, then stop it. In this case, the glazing kit didn't fit well so I decided that non-flush glazing was better than badly fitted windows.

Maybe this means there is a gap in the market for a better set (some of those nice laser cut ones perhaps) or maybe just a new model. Railcars are lovely but not often seen on layouts. Apart from Flockburgh of course. And I have a GWR steam one in my kit stash. And a couple of G1 Bananas to look at some time. And a 3mm scale one I can't remember why I bought. Oh, and that 7mm kit for an early banana.

Hmmmm. Perhaps it would be better if no-one produced a new RTR model please. Until I've finished mine at least !

Amazon has a really good deal on the yearbook.

A tiny little book

2011-11-11T01:16:00.019Z

Preparing Pigeon Pie for it's appearance at the International Model Boat show this weekend, I realised that whilst I'd painted a resin figure bought from a dolls house shop to lounge around on the desk, she was reading but I didn't have anything for her too read. I couldn't put the model on show without sorting this out. If I did the appearance would be of a bored teenager grumpily lying on the deck rather than someone enjoying their trip down the river.

Someone said every problem is an opportunity and this gave me an idea. I've written a novel, so how about giving my miniature reader a copy to enjoy ?

The cover art was dragged into a DTP package and reduced to 1/12th scale. At the same time I did a copy of the first title page in the book. Both were printed on photo quality paper to make sure that the resolution was high enough for them to be read. As an added bonus, the shiny paper gives the correct sheen to the paper.

After cutting out the cover, I stuck a slip of plain paper inside it but only to the back. The real book has an inner cover and so it's nice to be able to fan the pages a little. Having said that, being able to flick through the entire volume would be a step too far so the rest of the pages are represented by a rectangle of Daler board which is solid enough to fold the spine around. On to this is stuck the printed inner cover and the job is complete.

With this my scene is complete - our reader is about to embark on a new novel as the vessel she is travelling on potters down the river on a lovely summers day.

ex-LNER Class C15 locomotive

2011-11-10T01:47:00.005Z

Finally, after rather longer than it should have taken, the C15 locomotive is finished and has been passed on to its new owner. After final assembly and a little light weathering, it looks rather nice. It's ABC gearbox makes it move like a Rolls-Royce too.

I didn't go to town on the dirt. This is a well-cared for locomotive which is doesn't gleam but at the front there is dirt and a bit of rust. The underframes are grey and brown with a bit of earth colour blown on with the airbrush. This creeps up the bodysides a bit as would happen in the real world. Along the top is two shades of black and a touch of gunmetal for sparkle.

On delivery, I found the bogie spring needed quite a bit of adjustment to keep the driving wheels in proper contact with the track. It might be that the spring needs to be shortened, but it can't be left out altogether as the bogie will leap around if some of the weight of the loco isn't transfered to it. I put some lead in the body but as a DCC chip was to be fitted, I left plenty of space for this since I had no idea how big it was ! With the chip in, John is filling the boiler with lead and this should provide loads of tractive effort.

Hopefully the model should be running on the L&WMRS layout Kimble at Warley. With 4 or 5 coaches on the back it should look lovely.

The kit is still available from Connoisseur Models.

Coaling up

2011-11-09T01:26:00.020Z

At the back of a tank loco is space for coal. On the C15, it's a gaping hole that could swallow a couple of full-sized lumps of the stuff.

I'm not depleting my supplies of real Welsh Steam Coal (honestly, it's what I use, get in touch if you'd be interested in buying some) that much, so I filled the hole with foam rubber filched from some packing suitably chopped about to look like the coal is sloping toward the bunker whole. Somewhere I have some dense dark grey but couldn't find it so this time it was a medium density powder blue. Never mind, a coat of Humbrol black acrylic sorted this out although it looks a lot like "liquid lead" in the photo, the filling weighs nothing.

This was topped with broken up coal stuck in place with lashings of watered down PVA. A 50/50 mix of water and glue plus a drop of washing up liquid to reduce the surface tension. The water came from the pot I cleaned the acrylic brush in so it was nicely black. I'm hoping this adds extra shadows or something. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

As well as saving coal, this has the added advantage of not adding a load of unwanted weight at the back of the engine. I'm nearly done and don't want to be re-balancing a model see-sawing on it's drivers.

Electric pony

2011-11-08T01:07:00.017Z

Will 4 wheels on a model locomotive provide enough pickups ? I don't think so and with another 6 to choose from on the C15, I ought to be able to do better.

At the front, the bogie is attached to the body rather than the chassis. If I try and wire that up there will need to be provision for the chassis to come out and disconnect. Maybe something involving micro plugs and sockets or very long wires might work but both seems a lot of trouble. Fitting invisible pickups on the thing would be a challenge too.

The pony truck at the back looked a better option. It's bolted to the chassis and flops around so will stay on the rails nicely. I added a load of lead to the nickel silver - not that easy as you have to put the cutouts in to access the chassis retaining bolts - to improve road-holding.

Electric collection comes from a couple of PCB off-cuts with phosphor-bronze wires. These have the added advantage of providing some side-springing to the keep the axle centred in the narrow truck.

So now 6 of the 10 wheels are doing something useful. Let's hope this is enough.

Inside the cab

2011-11-07T05:43:00.018Z

Cab interiors on preserved engines are lovely shiny places. Because the footplate crew are volunteers, a bit of elbow grease and Brasso isn't a problem. Indeed, they are so chuffed to be there and allowed to be in charge of a real life locomotive, that they want to show their steed off to the public and make sure it looks it's best.

The cab of 828 is a good case in point. You can see your face, or any other part of your body you care to examine, in the pipework. The cab sides are clean and you can easily see that they are painted with a woodgrain effect. Even the backhead has had attention.

In real life, things weren't so tidy. Crews might have been a little house-proud when they were assigned to a single engine but once you were rota'd on to anything that moved, the impetus to spruce it up wasn't really there. The next guy on the footplate might benefit but you could spend your life polishing and by the time you saw your engine again, the work would have been undone.

On the C15, I wanted to show a working engine. It's not decrepit but the cab is a dirty, dusty place. The sort of effect you'd get by shovelling a few tons of coal from one end of your living room to the other.

After a little discussion on a forum, it was decided the the cab sides would probably be painted beige/cream above waist height. Left on it's own, this would be too bright but a wash or two of dirty black toned it down and gave a pleasantly uneven finish. Once the paint had dried but not hardened, I brushed several colours of weathering powders and some black powder paint around to make things even dirtier and properly gritty. It's not clean but not horribly dirty either. Hopefully more real engine than museum piece.

Caledonian 828

2011-11-06T01:29:00.033Z

Last week I went on my first railtour. It was a bit of an accident as I'd been asked along to chat to someone who wanted a loco built. Since he was running the tour, it seemed like a good idea. Initially I thought it was just a quick chat on Bewdly Station on the Severn Valley Railway while we looked at a real engine. So it was that I arrived at 8am to find a nice blue loco standing under the water crane. Gradually, people turned up and suddenly the chat included a train ride and I was also fitted up with an ornage hi-viz tabard.

We boarded the 4 coach train and headed up the line. In the middle of nowhere, the train stopped and we clambered down to the lineside. The train drew back and then went forward so the crowd, who had assembledinto a neat line so as not to block each others shots, took photos. It then went back and we repeated this. 3 times. Then we moved along the line a few metres and repeated the exercise.

After half an hour we climbed aboard again and headed to the Kidderminster. The loco was turned while we watched. Most of us filled up with hot drinks as well. Then we returned to Bewdley.

At this point most of the party left to take up vantage points on the platform or lineside. I stayed on board with Trevor and looked through Geoff Silcox amazing collection of industrial railway photos. He managed to spend a great chunk of time in the Wlesh coalfields during the last days of steam and captured images that won't be seen ever again. As well as taking f ine railway enthusiast snap, he also managed to get some atmosphere into the pictures. This might not make them helpful for modellers fascinated by the number of rivets, but to those who will never experience such lines, they are invaluable. To be honest, most of them should be hanging in galleries in place of some of the thing that pass for "art". In fact if there were of a gritty inner city rather than gritty coalfield.

While we enjoyed the photos, our train had travelled back and forth through the station about half a dozen times (I lost count if I'm honest). At this point the party got back on board and decided to break for lunch. Sadly, I had to attend a meeting in the late afternoon so had to leave to get back to it so left them to fill thier camera cards. Next time though, I'll make sure the day is clear.

I did manage to bag a few photos I'm proud off, 2 of which are shown here. Click for bigger versions and let me know what you think. There are some useful detail shots to come later in the week too, so watch this space.

Book Review: Weathering Locomotives by Tim Shackleton

2011-11-05T01:52:00.051Z

The latest in the "Aspects of Modelling" series from Ian Allan publishing is the well publicised Weathering Locomotives by ex-MRJ editor, Tim Shackleton.

Any book on model railway weathering is always going to be compared with "The Art of Weathering" by Martyn Welch. The later is seen by many as a bible of weathering techniques. Most fine scale articles include the phrase "Weathering techniques from The Art of Weathering blah blah blah". Now it is an excellent book and my copy is well thumbed, but the methods described are IMHO more suited to 7mm scale models and larger. Trying to apply them to 4mm and below risks over-cooking the model. The detail needed in the smaller scales simply isn't as great as you are effectively viewing the trains from further away, which softens what you see. It's not for the time-starved modeller either.

This is where Mr S's book scores. He takes a more practical approach for the 4mm workers. For a start, his palette has only 4 colours on it: Matt White, Matt Black, Matt Leather and Metalcote Gunmetal. All are obtainable from a reasonable model shop. You will need an airbrush though, and apparently a pretty good one. My trusty Badger 150 gets a mention but really I need something double-acting. The spray isn't the only tool mentioned, lots of scraping and brushing to move paint around enters in to the task so prepare for a trip to the makeup counter if you want a full set of tools - although doubtless a trader or two will have been to Boots and then re-sell the results on their stand at a show for a decent markup.

Much of the book is spent explaining how weathering and dirt affect locomotives at various stages of their life. Whilst using photos as a reference is mentioned, this is an excellent way of explaining what you are seeing in a photo. Most of the time people tell you to model what you see. I remember my art teacher doing this for drawing and while I got the idea, turning a 3D item into a 2D sketch of any quality always defeated me. I quite enjoyed this part of the book as it's well written and a good read.

There are a number of worked examples showing dirt being applied to various locomotives. Mostly this involves airbrushing paint but American "Filter" paints are also tried. To be honest, I didn't think the results were that great on this one. The 08 model didn't look much like the photo at the start of the piece - but I can see the idea and even if I don't want to copy the technique, I know I'm not interested so have probably saved the cost of the book in materials.

Photographic quality is excellent throughout, not something to be said for The Art of Weathering which Wild Swan produced largely in black & white, not that helpful bearing in mind the subject !

One point I would disagree with the author on is not wearing a face mask while spraying. I know he normally works outside and suggests that this allows the vapour to dissipate, but I'd argue that you suck air in from a reasonable distance, certainly the same sort of place that the airbrush is laying paint. Maybe I'm just over-cautious, but I don't see a spray mask as an optional extra.

Overall, I'm happy to recommend the book. I paid good money for it and feel it was well worth it. If nothing else, it is an enjoyable read which provides plenty of food for thought even for someone who has been weathering stuff for years.

Buy Weathering Locomotives from Amazon

Fantastic Mr Fox

2011-11-04T06:20:00.016Z

Sometimes I am to forward planning, what Archimedes was to ventriloquism. That's why a few days ago I was looking through my folder of transfers (decals to US readers) and realised with surprise that there were no BR numbers suitable for an O gauge model steam locomotive. Some of the largest BR crest from a OO sheet would be fine, but no digits.

A quick telephone call to Fox Transfers found me talking to a very well-informed lady. She could supply me with a sheet full of a specific size crest, or a mixed sheet. I went for the later as I recon there might be some G1 projects that could use the larger sizes. And I didn't know exactly how big I wanted so this kept my options open.

Numbers can also be sent in mixed or single sizes. I knew, thanks to the instructions, I wanted 8 inch and so opted for a one size sheet. I was then promised that they would be sent out as quickly as possible.

As quickly as possible turned out to mean a long envelope arriving in the post the next day. My transfers were packed with a sheet of black plasticard to stop the GPO folding them in transit. Everything arrived in perfect condition.

The crests are interesting. The loco was requested to be supplied with early BR versions. This means the "Lion on a unicycle" version. More importantly, for really early crests, I'll be using the version where on both sides of the loco, the ferret faces the smokebox. Originally this was the plan but when the Royal Heraldry people told BR that this counted as two different designs, presumably requiring two different registration fees, the railway company decided on a single version which faced the front or back of the loco depending on the side it was applied. I quite like the anomaly though and it's a conversation point for those looking at the model.

Westinghouse pumps

2011-11-03T01:25:00.003Z

Attached to the C15 smokebox side is a Westinghouse pump, a common feature amoungst Highland engines.

The kit makes provides a couple of whitemetal castings and some rough instruction for fitting. Not being familiar with this fitting I looked at photos and concluded that they were bracketed to the appropriate bit of engine and most importantly, held vertically in all directions. If you just fit the bits then the pump will lean as the smokebox at this point isn't vertical.

Making up a spacer from spare etch wasn't too difficult but I still didn't have much guidance on the plumbing. In the instructions there is a side view but it doesn't make it clear where the top pipe goes in. I took it around the back of the disk on the top of the pump which is probably correct, although having seen a real Westinghouse, I'm not so sure now !

Pipes and wire

2011-11-02T01:07:00.014Z

Back at the C15 locomotive, I've been fitting the pipework that runs along the side of the boiler. There's quite a lot of it and working out where it should go has been a problem. Put simply, the pipes emerge from the cab front and end up in the smokebox. The route they take is the issue.

Looking at the prototype photos it appears that no two locos are the same. It's possible that they even changed during the live of the engine. The basic route is the same but fitting seems to have been a pretty ad-hoc thing with many variations on the bends in the pipe. Some look suspiciously like the pipe hasn't seen a proper pipe bender. Most don't do anything for the clean lines of the engine, especially the larger pipe which runs at all sorts of funny angles when it leaves the cab.

On the model, all this is produced using various thicknesses of wire. I always use stuff supplied straight rather than rolled - this job is hard enough as it is without acting like a brass snake charmer !

Another issue is fixing the pipes/wire to the boiler. If there are clips, and I assume there are, then these are tiny and not visible in pictures. I just soldered the wire wherever I could secure it and hope no one notices.

How big is a tank driver ?

2011-11-01T04:10:00.004Z

Don asks: I know this is probably a silly question but could you tell me what size figure you would use with the hachette tiger 1 ? Height in mm please. Thank you for your help.

Not a daft question at all Don. The Hachette tank partwork is aimed at beginners and it's perfectly possible to built it without any model making experience whatsoever. The only daft thing is not to ask when you are unsure.

The tank is 1:16 in scale so to work out how tall your driver needs to be, just take his height and divide it by 16. So, if you require a 6ft 3in driver, then convert this to centimetres (190.5), multiply by 10 and then divide the result by 16. Result: 119mm

Or if you fancy loading your tank with a British Prime Minister, 103mm.

My suggestion would be to do a quick search for Tamya 1/16th military figures. The range and quality is excellent and it's easier than measuring !

Fitting the track - Part 1

2011-10-31T01:00:00.006Z

Because I'm rubbish at scale drawing stuff, even with the aid of a program to do it for me, I didn't actually know for certain if the track plan I hoped to use, would fit on the baseboard. No matter, with a micro layout and nice, easy to build PCB track, you can just make up your points and try it out !

The major piece of pointwork is a crossover and my Dad had already built this for Foxdale so we just plonked it on the new board to see how it looked.

The answer is, not bad at all.

Of course it helps to have sensible (read: easy to meet) design criteria. This is a test track so there needs to be enough space for a loco to traverse all the track. Headshunts capable to holding Caledonia and a wagon will be fine. The runround loop needs to be long enough for a coach and perhaps a wagon as well. In real life, Manx stations are surprisingly long with 12 coach trains being common in the heyday of the line, not here. If you really want to go all prototype then I'll point out we are on the Foxdale line where single coach trains were more the thing.

Or I'll point out that this is a test track. More to the point, it's MY test track. So if you aren't happy, clear off and annoy someone else before I stab you with a soldering iron.

Sorry, back to the trackwork.

I think I'll move the siding point back to the other side of the board joint. Then we just need another point for the near end of the model and some track to join everything up. And some method of operating the points. Then I can start testing rolling stock !

Beatties - 1975

2011-10-30T01:00:00.003Z

Thanks are due to Christopher Rabson for this bit of model railway archeology - a genuine Beatties carrier bag from 1975, an even more impressive find than my 1980's example.

Looking at the addresses on the front, I thought I recognised the High Holburn one as a ModelZone shop but according to Google, it's now McDonalds. The model shop is down the road a bit at 202.

Or is it ?

A quick search online reveals that the ghost of Beatties still exists:

What's going on here ? Spooky.

Anyway, does anyone recognise any of the other addresses ? Are any of them hosting model making related shops or they all fast food joints ?

Aiming for accuracy

2011-10-29T01:55:00.026Z

A folding baseboard only works if when you unfold it the tracks align properly. Before anyone starts shouting about baseboard alignment devices they read about in MRJ once, forget it, we don't use them as demountable hinges are better. Anyway, I want this thing to fold which precludes the use of dowels, the name for things you are trying to remember.

The hinge/clasp combination seems pretty reliable anyway. All I had to do was set it up properly with the board tops nice and flat from the outset. The best way to do this I figured, was to do all the work joining the boards on a nice flat surface.

In an ideal world, this would be a surface plate as used by engineers but getting something big enough for a layout, even a micro one, would cost a fortune. Fortunately, the next best thing can be found in all house - the kitchen worktop.

It takes real skill to bend an inch thick-slab of melamine covered chipboard enough to be a problem and when we fitted the kitchen, I took pains to make sure this didn't happen for just this sort of occasion.

Anyway, a few minutes work saw everything screwed into place and I can now open and close the board with everything remaining in alignment. I wonder if this is the sort of thing the advertisers are thinking of when they ask "What do you do in your kitchen ? We'll design the perfect one for you.". Something tells me "Building toy trains" didn't figure in the brainstorming meeting, or would make it to the telly advert !

Putting a big baseboard in a small box

2011-10-28T01:00:00.025Z

Ta Daaa ! A folding baseboard - That's how I get a layout 148cm long into a box half that length.

Construction is simple enough. 6mm plywood cut to size by my friendly local wood shop. Stripwood from the mouldings rack in the same shop is fitted around the bottom edge. Some leftover 2 by 1 from the shed slots into the corners through holes cut in the ply. The folding is thanks to a pair of brass hinges from the leftover hinge drawer in the garage. Locking from a pair of brass catches - I had to buy these as we don't have to hand.

Woodwork is made much easier thanks to getting the ply cut and owning one of those cheap mitre saw things from a DIY shed. It's nice to be confident that the cuts are at 90 degrees in the softwood. I was keen to ensure the baseboard tops were level at the join, so spent a bit of time making the hinge supports as near the same height at possible. Those supports should allow me to fit low buildings (did I mention this test track will probably get some scenery) as long as they don't clash when the board folds.

I'm particularly chuffed with the corners which are strengthened by insetting the 2 by 1 by thinning it on two corners so it fits nicely. The horizontal cuts were performed on the mitre and the verticals in a vice using a hacksaw with a metal blade - the finer teeth are great for this sort of job as they don't tear the wood - then finishing with a chisel using techniques I picked up on the woodwork course I attended a couple of years ago. Cabinet makers will scoff but this is a step up for my tree hacking.
The whole lot fits in the box tightly. I could have done to allowed a few more mm over the width for those catches or found some that folded flatter, but it works so I'll not worry too much.