Repairing Lord Westwood

Bought at Ally Pally earlier this year, my Tri-ang R765 "Lord Westwood" was a bargain. Mainly because it didn't work. 

This didn't put me off. Models of this vintage might lack detail, but they are easily fixable with the aid of some simple hand tools. The heart of this, and many others of that vintage, is the X04 motor, a rugged unit that is easy to find second-hand if the original is toast. 

The body is removed by undoing a long screw under the back of the cab. The chassis can then be wiggled free for examination. 

Inside, there was some fluff, and only one brush on the motor. This looked promising. 

You won't be surprised I had a spare set in my stash of bits. The only problem is that the wire on top of the motor was broken. It should be steel, but I couldn't find any, so made up a brass version. I'll keep an eye out for the correct replacement as the softer metal might work, but it won't last forever. 

However, work it does, and the locomotive now bumps it's way along the railchairs on Code 75 track (I'm out of Code 100) very smoothly. 

In the tender, someone has swapped the wheelsets over to disable the steam noise feature. 

The sound is generated by a steel tab rubbing on a strip of abrasive. This sounds a bit crude, but the metal strip is attached to a plastic soundbox to increase the volume. 

I've heard worse, and anyway, love a gadget in a model loco, so the wheels have been swapped back, the sideframes can be flexed enough to release them using a small screwdriver. 

After this, a good clean up with a stiff brush to remove all the dust and I have a near mint model for the collection. Just the think to wind up GWR fans, and valuable too. From £15, this thing is now worth around £70!

2018 - Review of the year

Time for the annual look back on another year's worth of model making and writing.

There have been a few changes in my professional life - I handed the editor's chair of Engineering in Miniature magazine to Andrew Charman. He's a much better fit for the job than I was being an engineer for a start, and the magazine is going from strength to strength. Quite how he finds the time what with editing Narrow Gauge World and some serious motoring journalism is beyond me...

Garden Rail is still very much mine though, and it is going very well. (Nearly) Everyone seems to enjoy it, readers and advertisers. Most importantly, the publisher is happy so they are still paying me. One day he will realise that I'm only faking it all, but for the moment, please don't tell him.

I don't escape work just by handing EiM on though as instead of a monthly magazine, I produce an on-line newsletter, BRM Express, twice a month. Quite a lot of that has to be written by me too. If you don't get it, go here and tick all the boxes. It's free and, though I say so myself, very good.


All this is part of the way that the magazine world is changing. Every magazine is losing sales. BRM is holding up very well thanks to our DVD, but if you are publishing a celebrity mag, then you are in trouble as Instagram eats your audience.

Digital editions also play a bigger part in our output since they are far more profitable than issues sold on the newsstand (subscription sales are too) since the costs of getting physical products on the shelves are massive. Digital allows us to do more though and so we do. I'm set up to shoot video, as well as taking on some layout snapping duties so this will become an increasing part of my job. The Phil'n'Andy film crew will be putting in some miles this year.

As far a magazine work goes, the biggest success has been our Cake Box Challenge. We know over a hundred people started projects, many for the first time. Simply getting people modelling is a real challenge and yet that's what we have done with this idea. I couldn't be more proud.

Personally, I've built a few things, but nowhere near as many as I'd have liked to.

There have been a couple of 16mm battery powered diesels:



Dotti from an IP Engineering kit and a Phil Sharples kit for a Hunslet.

I'm really loving working in the larger scales and will definitely be doing more in the future.

An odd-ball project was a Space 1999 Comlock.

There was also a small building from Petite Properties.

I even built a beach buggy!

Apart from that, however, my personal output has been derisory. From last January, I can copy'n'paste:

All of which means that the list of uncompleted projects from this time last year hasn't changed much:

• 7mm scale Garratts STILL haven't been out of their boxes
• I found the 3mm scale Class 25 the other day and it hasn't bothered to build itself.
• O gauge "Flying Banana" railcar, still summoning up the courage to re-start that. 
• 4mm GWR steam railcar, I know it's one people would like to see finished. Me too.
• The Cravens DMU is probably the first candidate on this list to re-start as it should be fairly simple. 

And my Beetle still sits forlornly in the garage stopping it filling up with junk. 

All the above is still true. I suppose I can dream that the list might get shorter during the year, but other commitments, combined with my propensity to buy even more projects to sit on the shelf and tempt me means I have a horrible feeling that I'll do the same in 12 months time. 

One highlight I should mention is my trip to Canada. I really did it - I really built a model railway and took it across the Atlantic to an exhibition. 

This isn't something I ever thought I'd do, so thanks to all the guys at Rapido Trains for making me get on an aeroplane.

I know you all like numbers, so here we go

• 365 posts - one a day. It's been a struggle sometimes, but I stuck to it.
• An average of 360 visitors a day. That's down on last year.
• 214000 page views. Again, up on last year

The traffic drop is a little worrying, but probably due to there being less coherent projects this year. I always notice numbers rise if I start soldering things together. Maybe it's just the way the world works too. People prefer less reading, more gawping at video or single photos. I could do more video, but the truth is, it's time consuming and so saved for work generally. Making model railway videos quickly becomes a hobby in itself, and not one I really want to get in to to the exclusion of everything else I do.

Anyway, thanks for dropping by and reading this stuff. It is nice to know people do, and even nicer if they comment occasionally.

Let's see what 2019 brings!

Modelling summer grass

Damian asks: 

I’m just making an English seaside summer model railway, and i have a problem with grass colour. My colours assortment is limited to Woodland Scenics turfs. I don’t have a static grass applicator. I tried to make a turf mix to match the grass colour to the photographs, but wasn’t successful in recreating the nice green. Knowing that you have experience in modeling, which WS colours would you recommend to mix to get that summer grass colours.

This has taken quite a lot of thinking about, and I'm still not sure I have a definitive answer. In fact I'm not sure there is a definitive answer.

My first suggestion is to forget the idea that you can mix a single grass colour. Grass, like so many other surfaces, varies a huge amount on anything other than the most manicured of lawns. Assuming you want "normal" grass then you need to adopt a slightly random approach to sprinking flock powder around.

I tend to work with Woodland Scenics green blended turf. I use it everywhere, on the grass, over static grass, on hedges, as tree foliage. My layouts are set in an idyllic UK countryside full of sunshine, kids having their ears clipped by smiling bobbies and village nurses cycling between patients. It's always sunny because that's how we like to imagine it.

But I don't use it on it's own. I'll lay down a base coat but then quickly sprinkle both lighter and darker shades around the place. There's not pattern to this, it's random. I might aim the darker stuff where there should be shadow and the lighter version on the top of hedges, trees and into the middle of fields.

Extra hold hair spray is your friend when adding extra flock. Blast it around, throw the flock willy-nilly and you'll get a more natural result.

Beware though, summer grass isn't green. It often bleaches out. This video from the BBC shows the effect it has revealing buried buildings. For this you'll need some yellow grass or earth (better still a mix of the two) and work this over the areas that will get most sunshine.

Sorry if this isn't the perfect answer, it's an area where art plays a big part.

I'd also suggest that while an electric static grass tool isn't essential, a £4.95 puffer bottle is very useful. Get mid green and beige fibres and mix poorly so the tufts blasted out are random shades. For summer, 50% or more beige is the way to go. Finish with more hair spray and a sprinkle of you flocks for undergrowth.

Colours on a model are subjective. You need to consider the lighting too, incandescent bulbs make things look warm, as do warm LEDs and florescent tubes. Cold tubes and lights make things look blue.Work under the lights the layout is to be displayed under if possible.

I'll admit to aiming for a consistent colour palette as ultimately, this will look much better than widely differing greens.

Final thought - don't forget to sprinkle a few white and yellow flecks in there for daisies and dandelions. A simple job, but one that really catches the eyes of people looking at the model.

Accucraft E-Van

 

From the Accucraft website: 

The ‘E’ vans were four-wheeled brake and luggage vans fitted with lookout duckets, but otherwise entirely sealed with only two drop-sash windows at the guard’s door. None of these vans survive today, and they were effectively made redundant when later passenger coaches had their own braking systems. 

The primary purpose of the ‘E’ van was to provide luggage accommodation and braking for the original ‘A’ – ‘D’ class most of which did not have their own brakes when supplied in 1873/4. One surviving member of the class sat at the end of the Port Erin arrival platform at Douglas for many years and retained its pre-war two-tone brown livery. The Manx Northern Railway owned a pair of similar vans for use with the ‘N’ class carriages, but these seem to have been replaced in the 1890s and then used for goods traffic until they were scrapped in the 1920. 

The latest Isle of Man model from Accucraft was always going to be an essential purchase for me. Just right to coupling on the back of a short set of 4-wheel coaches. Unsurprisingly, the model matches these perfectly. It's very nicely made in plastic with high-quality paint decoration.

The model shown is straight from the box. I haven't fitted the supplied number transfers or lamp tops. 45mm gauge wheels are fitted, but as usual, 32mm versions are included. I'd be interested to see a van fitted with these as it must look a bit top-heavy, but each to his own. In G scale, this represents 3-foot track, so I assume 32mm is sort of 2 foot.

Those lamps would benefit from LEDs inside, but the roof comes off to allow this. Keen types will fit interior detail too - Brandbright make wooden kits for the coaches and may well do one for this. 

A popular model, this was number 19 sold from a stand at the Large Scale Show, and they weren't the only supplier with the model. 

Full specification on the Accucraft website. 

2017 - Review of the year

12 years of blogging and there hasn't been a let up in model making activities for me.

While 2016 was notable for me giving up editing MREmag, this year has seen a reversal of fortunes with the editor's chars for Garden Rail and Engineering in Miniature magazine coming my way. With all the BRM work, that's made for a slightly over-stuffed programme.

Taking these on was a leap of faith for both myself and Warners - I've not edited a newsstand magazine before but they trusted me to do a good job and I don't think I've let them down. There isn't an issue I'm unhappy with and looking back, several I'm really proud of. Much of this is due to working with excellent designers who have done a terrific job in making both publications look fantastic.

Things continue to evolve and I know there are several exciting projects on the horizon for 2018 so watch this space.

I'm not just writing either. Obviously there is the video work, but they've also trusted me to go out and bag a few layouts at shows.

I've also slipped a few other publications in while freelancing - History Magazine was a first. Even though I wrote with a model railway theme, it's interesting to get out of the sector.  My column in the Hornby Collectors Club magazine carries on too - which reminds me, I better ask the editor what he wants next.

On the workbench, there seem to have been a lot of Wickham railcars this year. N, OO and O gauge models including a narrow gauge one built from a rather tired old white metal kit.

For BRM, there was a diorama complete with working O gauge railcar. 

Talking of dioramas, possibly my proudest achievement this year has been kicking off the BRM Cake Box challenge in October. 

To be honest, we'd expected that over a year we might get 20 models being built - but within a week there were 17 threads running on RMweb and now over 70. Add to that the models that aren't being written up on the forum and the chances are we are looking at over 100. People, it seems, will build models, they just need to be inspired. If I'm contributed to this in any way, I'm really, really pleased.

 If you asked which project I'm most pleased with over the year, the answer is surprisingly the Metcalf Models card footbridge revamp. It wasn't the most complicated, nor expensive, but the results really blew me away. Such a difference so easily and a model that could grace any layout.

All this has limited my own modelling quite a bit. I certainly haven't been as productive as I'd like to have been. A 2CV kit provided light relief, but was really a stick it together job. 

More complicated was the On30 railbus built from a second-hand kit.

As you saw yesterday, my vintage speedboat just scrapped into this year as well.

All of which means that the list of uncompleted projects from this time last year hasn't changed much:

• 7mm scale Garratts STILL haven't been out of their boxes
• I found the 3mm scale Class 25 the other day and it hasn't bothered to build itself.
• O gauge "Flying Banana" railcar, still summoning up the courage to re-start that. 
• 4mm GWR steam railcar, I know it's one people would like to see finished. Me too.
• The Cravens DMU is probably the first candidate on this list to re-start as it should be fairly simple. 

And my Beetle still sits forlornly in the garage stopping it filling up with junk. 

All this is weird. I've been very, very busy this year but looking back through the postings, I don't seem to have produced that much. 

Talking of postings:

• 365 posts - one a day. I'm chuffed with that.
• An average of 423 visitors a day. Up on last year. OK, I'm not Zoella, but that's OK.
• 214000 page views. Again, up on last year

So, 2018. More projects. More travel. More magazine stuff. More personal projects too I hope.

Thanks for reading, and commenting. It's always great to know there is someone out there. 

2016 and all that

As 2017 rolls in, we're reached 11 years of blogging over here on the workbench and what a year it has been. 

Starting with the sad - my tenure as editor at MREmag came to an end in the autumn. It was a shame that technical issues meant I wasn't able to wind it down as smoothly and tidily as I'd have liked. Mind you, it's a great shame we had to wind the thrice weekly version down at all but that's down to commerical pressures. Sometimes things don't work out. I ploughed an awful lot of my life into it and was sorry to have failed. 

The extra free time should have allowed me to move other projects on, but as always this hasn't happened quite how I'd have liked. Partly, at least in December, is down to me taking on a job with a local theatre. That's not so much a financial move, more to do with finding working from home a bit lonely. Sometimes I need to meet other people and interact, and more than just at model railway exhibitions! Hopefully in the post-panto days I'll get back to normal. 

There have been some great projects this year. Pride of place has to go to Ruston Quays, a layout I'm really proud of. It's a long way from finished - a further sprinkling of detail is really required. Maybe one day? At shows it's always attracted a huge amount of attention and I know at least 3 people are building their own versions. As I've said before, this is the best bit of what I do. Inspiring others to enjoy themselves at the workbench and get creative. 

A "me" project completed this year was my O16.5 Barclay tank engine. Nice etched kit and very enjoyable. One day it will get a layout. I already have some ideas in that direction. Mind you, I ALWAYS have loads of ideas, just not the time to complete them.

Another personal project has been my entry into our model boat club Chairman's Challenge competition. For this we all had to use a standard hull to make a model of our own devising. Sadly, I was ill on the day so couldn't attend but as it happens, I'd not have stood a chance anyway, the wining entry was a belter, turning the hull into a paddle tug! Still, I built a nice boat to sail on a Thursday morning, something I've managed to do quite a lot this year.

Back in magazine land, the projects that stick in my mind are my first N gauge layout, a MERG DCC system, night time diorama with Faller road system, Radstock Sentinel loco and the 7mm scenic halt covered with very effective Polak material.  

Probably my favourite though was the "Wagon kit in every scale" series as it allowed me to fulfill a dream by building both S Gauge and Gauge 3 wagons. The finished display looks great and attracted a lot of interest at Warley last year. While many keyboard warriors bemoan the lack of "proper" modelling in the popular model railway press, I'm pretty certain that wagon kits, especially in unusual scales should counter this argument. 

Talking of publications, at the start of the year I was involved in the production of Ramsay's collectors guide with Pat Hammond. It's not made a proper collector out of me but has proved to be an invaluable aid during the year when writing other articles and blog posts.

2016 was also the first time I've run a railway modelling course. Dillington House was the venue and I met a group of lovely people and had a great time. There's nothing like this lined up at the moment, but that's largely due to lack of time on my part to pitch the idea to other venues.

All this reminiscing reminds me just how long ago some of the projects were, which means it's time to look at last years list and see how we are getting on. 

The 7mm scale Garratts haven't been out of their boxes, nor has the 3mm scale Class 25. No change there. 

Added to the pile are an O gauge "Flying Banana" railcar, although that's because the kit isn't very good. Not something you can say about the 4mm GWR steam railcar, it's just sort of fallen off the end of the list. This seems to be a standard feature for carried based stuff as the Cravens DMU also seems a bit stalled. 

Statistics look fine though:

• 366 posts - you got a free one as it was a leap year. 
• 144079 visitors - Just under 400 a day. That's slightly down on last year, although I suspect this might be down to the way the counter is operating. There are 3 and all give different results. I'm using the middle set.
• 208847 page views - Once people arrive, they do seem to look around a bit. 

I'm seeing more comments on posts too, with many questions answered. 

As usual, can I thank everyone who drops by to see what I'm up to. In the back of my mind are some ideas for the way this blog can develop. I'll talk about these tomorrow.

Transrapid 07

I've always been fascinated by Maglev and monorail systems. In model form they are rare, but a few hints saw me receive a tatty box containing the Revell HO scale model arrive at Christmas. There is a dusty corner of the Hereford Model Centre that is a little bit emptier now...

The Transrapid concept was developed in German around the turn of the century. Sadly, despite the prototype information in the model's box, the only working application is a short line in China. The planned links in Germany lost out to conventional railway systems - you can build an ICE train cheaper than a fancy-pants monorail maglev system and travel sufficiently fast for practical purposes. Even the Emsland test facility has been scrapped.

Full history can be found on Wikipedia.

The model is a pre-painted plastic "kit" designed as a desk ornament. At just under half a metre long, it's an impressive beast. Detail is limited, just like the real thing, although electromagnets are moulded underneath the "track" if you look underneath. 

Conversion to a working model might just be possible. You need to plan on making something that looks right rather than is right. The air gap on the real Transrapid is 10mm. Scaling that down results in a gap best described as bu**er all. This pretty much rules out proper maglev working as you'd need an overscale gap and the thing would probably move oddly. 

Get past this though and I can see why wheels shouldn't be fitted inside, picking up from wipers operating under the track. 

Two sections of track are supplied and as far as I can tell, spares were never available. Making your own wouldn't be too bad although some experimentation would be required. Apparently pre-fabricating standard sections on the prototype isn't as easy as it looks, everything to form a curve has to be bespoke. 

For the minute, this is just a collectors item, but I am sure a Maglev model will feature in my future. 

Hut ready for the garden

 

Ready for the garden. I sprayed the hut with primer followed by car aerosol black.

This looked very clean and lovely, but not the look I was after. These things probably never looked new!

Out with the acrylic paint and my first shock was - no black. Don't know where it's gone as I know I used to have some, but there was grey and dark blue so I mixed these up, painted the "metal" and then wiped it down. The results weren't quite as dark as I might have liked, but they aren't bad, espcially in daylight. 

Some grey and brown mix applied in the same way on the woodwork looked OK. Finally the red wheels with gunmetal treads. 

It might not be finescale, but placed outside amoung all the wrong scale real plants, I looks great. I just can't decided whether to keep it in over winter or put it in place now.

Big brick buildings in BRM

I'm bricking it in the November issue of BRM. It's time to make some big buildings and I really do mean big.

The main warehouse is 50cm long but is joined by a smaller one shown above and over 5 feet of arches for the retaining wall.

All these bricks need colour and so I've covered my method of doing this with pencil crayons and weathering powders. If this doesn't appeal, there are 3 other options including the Pendon one with each brick painted with watercolours - I'd be a gibbering wreck if I tried that!

Best of all, I found a use for a quarter of a Springside Morris Minor kit. Now all I need is a home for the rest!

We'll need some wagons for the shunting yard so I've taken 8 different ones and carried out some simple modifications to personalise each one. I don't like to see strings of identical wagons on a layout so hopefully this will inspire a few people to dabble in the art of ruining perfectly good RTR products and turning them into unique models.

Years ago, Hornby licensed a kit for Dunster station. I always liked the look of it, but the photos hide that the attractive stone covering was flat stickers.

You can now buy the kit again from Gaugemaster, this time part of their "Fordhampton" range. It's still a very nice model but the new stickers are still flat. Replacing them with 3D Redutex surfaces makes a huge difference and now with care, a really lovely model station can be built by anyone.

We've split the build between the pages of the magazine and the DVD. On the disk, you'll also find me showing how to use Ballast Magic to add coal to wagons. I get a bit annoyed when people pay for someone to coal a model tender - it's such a simple and satisfying job and this way there's not even any messy glue!

More details of the November BRM on RMweb.

Daventry tomorrow

 

Today, or at least the later part of it, will be taken up packing Melbridge Dock up for it's trip to Daventry Model Railway exhibition tomorrow.

 

We don't get the chance to take the Dock out for shows very often now so if you fancy some shunting action then please come along. From what I remember, the cakes are pretty good too!

Exhibiting model railways isn't all glamour you know

I know you think that life on the model railway exhibition circuit is all glitz and glamour, but it isn't.

Years ago, we exhibited at Genk in Belgium. Overlord had been invited and there was space in the van so we took Melbridge Dock.

After a day driving from the tunnel, getting lost in Brussels, setting up and getting lost on the way to the accommodation, we arrived at midnight. The digs were a watersports centre which as you can see, were a little bit basic.

To cap it all, the bedding arrived rolled up in clingfilm so our first job was to make up all the beds.

Still, at least we slept as everyone was to tired. In the morning we awoke to a breakfast of frozen bread...