4mm An EM Workbench: Mini-Signwriting (rough)

[AJC]

Moving on from the post above we're now more or less back where Bachmann started - albeit hopefully to a higher standard! The brake levers and linkages (a satisfyingly complex thing to look at but relatively easy to do) are easily to most obvious bits and I've knocked up the basic discharge pipe and its associated brackets from bits of brass tube and scrap etch. Check the pictures of the real thing by way of a comparison [thanks, as ever, to Paul Bartlett]:

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/stsclaylinertta/h8114c50#h8114c50

At this stage it might be worth a quick run down of where the bits come from:

• AB Cylinder: No Nonsense kits (it was meant to go under a 4TC until I realised that the AB gear is on the bogies of these units).
• Brake levers: adapted etch from Dave Bradwell (I don't thnk the etch is on his list but he usually has some at Scaleforum. It also has some rather nice lever guides, not used here because I've run out).
• Lever guides: CraigWelsh/Scalefour Society - if truth be told these are not quite the right pattern (they should be longer) and I'm not altogether impressed with them. Being dead scale - I'm not convinced that they're slightly underscale even in their intended use - they're a bit of a fiddle and that's fine but Nickel Silver is too brittle for the number of half etched folds used here. The one visible in the picture below has been re-assembled from the bits that resulted. Yes you get a spare on the etch but...
• Not quite visible are the AB distributer and resevoir cylinder. These come off a new generation Hornby MGR hopper. I had acquired this with a view to making one hi-fi vehicle but what with the strange compromises and errors present in that model one of the earlier versions might be a better bet, The seperately applied details are nice though.

If anyone is interested I can show how I did the linkages from little bits of 40 thou plastic? In 7mm you might do it properly - i.e., to replicate the prototype - but that's rather fiddly in this scale as anyone who's had a go at early Masokits clasp brakes can tell you. Waving a hot iron around all your carefully assembled existing detail and nicely moulded plastic underframe is not always the best idea either.



Next up is a set of safety loops, a little plumbing and, most significantly, some more detail on those discharge pipe ends.

Adam

 

[Pugsley]

Very cool

 

[AJC]

Thanks Pugsley. Having had a few spare hours this weekend, I've completed the making phase of one of my longer term projects - another Bachmann conversion from earlier in the thread, a Bogie Bolster D from a BBA, sorry, BDA; I don't speak TOPS. It's a bit of a pig to photograph but here's my best effort. It's since had a couple of coats of paint and is ready for lettering and then the fun bit, weathering. There may even be a load at some point...








I'll come clean and admit that I've left off a few of the brake linkages since they really cannot be seen with the vac' pipe and vee hangers that are in the way.

The brake levers and guides are more of the CraigWelsh/Scalefour items and look about right in this application. The levers are simply bent about from items intended for 10' wheelbase Morton brakes. Again, these are somewhat over-designed: I see no reason to make the reversing clutch a serperate item. A half etched line representing the gap between the two bits (or etched through with the fold over layer at the back in one piece) would have been much, much easier to assemble for no loss in fidelity in appearance.

You would be right in thinking that the guides are somewhat fragile; that's unavoidable even at full size! My dodge is to have reinforced them with a bit of 0.5mm Nickel Silver wire soldered to the back of the guides and anchored firmly in the floor. I can't abide bent fittings and this relatively discreet bodge will hopefully make the wagon durable for layout use.

Adam

 

[iak63]

Seriously good stuff again.
The end product is pretty damned convincing frankly!

 

[AJC]

Well it's been painted - axleboxes to go yellow, white ends to the brake levers, lettering to go on (once I've got some...) then weathering.





Getting there I think. I've dug out another ongoing project, a bargain buy - a Bachmann 66xx with a set of EM Ultrascales. Not a bad model as it stands but with a few oddities - mostly in terms of the frames. I've made up some cosmetic frames at the back end - there's actually a carcass of black plastic under there and the very narrow existing Bachmann frame arrangement (which seems to work based on the limited trials that have been performed).



There's more cosmetic work to do - I'm replacing the brakegear so it's on more than nodding acquaintance with the wheels...

Adam

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

Like the pep pipe dangling over the cab side. Puts my 56 to shame, but seriously inspirational.

 

[AJC]

Thanks Jon - I reckon just about every GW tank engine had the pep pipe dangling in roughly that position yet so few people make the effort to model it. The other thing that I'd like to replicate is the spare firing shovel tucked in the bunker handrail. Dart Castings do a nice one in whitemetal but I fear for its long term resiliance. I know that there's an etched one out there (too flat); lost wax brass would be perfect.

The other changes around the cab are replacement window bars (5 amp fusewire), an open cab door - another ubiquitous feature - the edges of the cab roof have been thinned, its rainstrips replaced with 0.75mm angle and the cab opening slightly enlarged. The last makes the biggest difference but won't show clearly until the loco is weathered. Basically, I trimmed away the moulded beading around the top and opened the top of the 'keyhole' out to meet the cabside shutter runner. the beading was subsequently reinstated with Evergreen strip. Must put the RA coloured dot on the side sheet when I remember.

Somewhere in the protracted detailing process, the boiler backhead has vanished into the ether. This will not be replaced since it's so dark in there that, once a crew has been installed, no one will ever see.

Adam

 

[AJC]

After something of a hiatus, one evening last week I got back to grips with my Clayliner tank. Aside from actually doing other things this was partly because I'd reached the difficult bit - mounting the tank on the chassis. On the prototype the tank was let into the frame but the thing that stopped the tank parting company with the wagon - and this was true of all monobloc designs, including the 4-wheel tanks known to modellers as the TTA - was length of angle iron welded or riveted to the tank and in turn mounted to a fabrication built onto the chassis forming a sort of pedestal. Now there was one moulded as part of the tank but was far too shallow and left the tank too close to the solebar so it had to go; there's not a lot of the original wagon left now...



Anyhow, first I built up the 'tray' inside the top to the chassis with plastic sheet and then with a bit of Milliput to match the height of the solebar and giving a nice flat surface to bond the pedestal onto. The angled sides and ends of the pedestal are challenging to do in plastic (they'd be a fiddle in metal too) so, not being sure whether plan A would work, I assembled it away from the wagon. Basically, I made up a sort of picture frame from layers of plastic sheet - the number of layers and the approximate thickness were gauged from the height of the solebar; this game of modelling without drawings is all about proportions - which was crudely shaped using files and the edge of a knife followed up with a bit of wet and dry paper. This seemed promising and, compared to photos, looked about right so I offered it up to the tank and then blu-tacked the whole to the chassis. This looked fine so the pedestal was popped on with some medium thickness cyano'. Amazingly, it still looked right so I returned to the tank and gave it another flash of primer to see how the filling was getting on before assembling it to the chassis and pedestal. It became very clear that the filler needed another go and a dose of Halford's filler primer to get everything nice and smooth (but only on the tank, I masked everything else off). Anyway, here it is. I think it looks about right so the detailing can proceed when I'm in the mood.







You would be well advised not to hold your breath, there are lots of simpler projects to get on with and while this is good fun you have to know when to take a break.

Adam

 

[notascoobie]

Hi Adam,

I'm fairly new around here and I've enjoyed reading your thread. Like you I'm a fan of wagon building in EM Gauge and I'm very impressed by your work. I look forward to seeing more.

Regards,

Vernon

 

[AJC]

Thank you Vernon. Assuming that I have the right Vernon, the quality of your own wagons (the Polybulks that were in MRJ stick in the mind, but there are others) mean that's very kind of you.

Best

Adam

 

[notascoobie]

Thank you Vernon. Assuming that I have the right Vernon, the quality of your own wagons (the Polybulks that were in MRJ stick in the mind, but there are others) mean that's very kind of you.

Best

Adam

Adam,

That's guilty as charged milud, so thanks to you too.

Regards,

Vernon

 

[AJC]

An all round update of current projects assuming people remain interested. The first picture shows the current state of my Coil J fleet. The Hornby pair have benefitted from a little extra work; number and data panels in the case of the first and some patch painted grey based on a Paul Bartlett picture. The second has received its cradle while the third - the original one has come in for more work; compared to the others, it transpired that I'd made the sides too high by about 1mm. I could have been left alone, but the three wagons are intended to run together and this would look odd in the extreme as well as being unprototypical.



I should have realised earlier - looking at the prototype photos, it's clear that the sides of the original tipplers were cut down to about twice the height of the solebar. This is a useful point when bashing and scratchbuilding wagons without a properly dimensioned drawing. You can relate unknown dimensions to what Donald Rumsfeld would call 'known knowns' - things like solebar channels, wheelbases and the size of wheels. It's best to use dimensions in the same plane of course to minimise distortion. None of this is foolproof but you have to start somewhere.



More painting beckons and then they'll be on the home stretch. The Bowaters' tank has also moved forward very slightly with a bit of brakegear knitting; most of which you can't see (of course), and what I've modelled is represenative rather than wholly accurate, but the impression of busyness apparent in the real thing needs to be there for the model to convince. You don't need to put everything in... The remaining bits are a few safety loops which, unusually for someone used to 'traditional', 'steam era' wagons, were made from strip rather than rod - http://paulbartlett....14987#h19475b8e - and then I can finish the discharge pipes.





All good fun, apparently.

Adam

 

[iak63]

Splendid fun indeed Adam.
And rather tasty.
It just shows how ready to run can be gilded and coaxed into something wonderful - bravo

 

[AJC]

Thanks. Now, at the end of a long week, and possibly of interest to some on this forum (of all forums), the state of play on one of my loco projects: D824, Highflyer. This is the best of all worlds - in 4mm at least - the Mainline body, which has rather better buffers than the sprung things Bachmann inflicted on the same moulding, but with Bachmann's chassis (this green example was in the usual, unservicable, state for a Mainline Warship and came with a Maroon Bachmann-built version), and some added detail including Shawplan's rather splendid fan grills.


All the bufferbeam detail is from scratch, as is my wont, from bits of various gauges of copper wire and brass tube and scraps of plastic. Phill's very useful gallery of Warship pictures was handy here: http://www.westernthunder.co.uk/index.php?threads/warship-details.15/ - does anyone have a clear elevation view showing the speedo? I think it would be practical to add it but I'm not 100% sure what the thing looked like...



One significant improvement that can be made to either the Mainline or Bachmann models which is to replace the handrails. The lamp irons are a mixture of Masokits, excellent, but not quite right (top centre) and scrap etch (lower) and steps below the driver's side buffer is another scratchbuilt addition; one of the nice things about this sort of project is that you can add the odd detail here and there. The most 'fun' if you like, were the Shawplan grills; nice, but the lack of instructions (even a picture of the real thing would have done - which is what I actually found) made things a bit more complicated that absolutely necessary. They do look good though...



I must put this to one side and complete the other Warship I've got. After extensive surgery, it thinks that it's a class 74...

Adam

 

[alcazar]

I'll be watching this. Highflyer was my favourite Warship, I have a Tower 7mm model ready to build into it.

 

[AJC]

Well, in which case Jeff, you might like this:



Nothing very complicated - copies of spare Heljan headcode letters and yellow and red paint over white undercoat) as appropriate. The white diamonds seem to have been somewhat unusual on green liveried Warships but Highflyer acquired a pair some time in late '67 and besides, I like the appearance of them. I've replaced the overhead warning flashes and will get around to touching up the noses and skirts just as soon as my jar of Railmatch has seperated out sufficiently to drain some of the oil off; currently it is too thin to be of any use for brush painting. Give it a week or two... The aim is that it will come out something like this so the quality of finish isn't vital (and the yellow doesn't look so ragged in reality), but it would be useful if the green wasn't actually translucent:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertcwp/2410751563/in/set-72157603648348394

Another quick project comes from the stock items drawer. This Parkside 16 tonner body will end up atop one of Justin Newitt's new sprung chassis - http://www.rumneymodels.co.uk/12.html. The result will mirror one of my early (now recycled) kitbashed efforts, a minfit with 8 shoe AVB. Hopefully this one should be reasonably
quick - the body took about 25 minutes of non-continuous work so watch this space.



Adam

 

[iak63]

Now ones build of Justin's chassis will be one to watch.

...looks at box full on shelf above workbench.......

 

[AJC]

Now ones build of Justin's chassis will be one to watch.

...looks at box full on shelf above workbench.......

Hah, it may be a little while; I only put the body together because I was waiting for some epoxy to go off. Justin's chassis look straightforward enough - if possibly a bit fiddly (nature of the beast) - and the instructions are comprehensive. I hope it works out since I have a couple of the 10' versions to do sometime.

Digression: It has to be quicker and easier than working out the thing from scratch which was, perhaps, overambitious for me about 15 years ago. That said, the real problem with my mk 1 minfit was that the W irons (MJT) didn't quite sit level and the ribs on the floor of the (Airfix) body had been gouged away somewhat hamfistedly. It must have offended me quite a bit; it's the only wagon I've built that I've ever scrapped!

Adam

 

[iak63]

B#gg#r...
Into the assembly shop then afore Christmas it seems.

Sláinte
Iain

 

[AJC]

Equally, depending on the weather, it may be the weekend, you never can tell how the mood will take you...

Adam