Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Thanks John
Chas's workbench
- Thread starter Chas Levin
- Start date
Ian Rathbone
Western Thunderer
Very brave, lining the boiler bands direct, not easy with a fixed boiler.
Nowadays I don’t bother masking wheels for spraying as it’s so easy to wipe the paint off the treads then use the pen to paint the tyre. Your C12 is a good candidate for a ‘no ruler’ job as the tank and bunker sides could be lined with the compasses too (provided the edges are dead straight).
When you do the dark green edges rule a dark green line against the white and then fill in with a brush, in fact forget the brush and do it all with a pen.
Have you missed the valance lining?
I’m glad you are using my book and find it useful - I tried to not miss anything out.
Excellent work.
Ian R
Nowadays I don’t bother masking wheels for spraying as it’s so easy to wipe the paint off the treads then use the pen to paint the tyre. Your C12 is a good candidate for a ‘no ruler’ job as the tank and bunker sides could be lined with the compasses too (provided the edges are dead straight).
When you do the dark green edges rule a dark green line against the white and then fill in with a brush, in fact forget the brush and do it all with a pen.
Have you missed the valance lining?
I’m glad you are using my book and find it useful - I tried to not miss anything out.
Excellent work.
Ian R
Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Hello Ian, thank you very much for the reply - your praise is of course greatly appreciated!
To answer your points:
I did think about using the compasses for the tank and bunker sides too, but neither the top edge beading nor the footplate edges are quite as dead straight as a steel rule: the vital importance of dead straight edges is another lesson learned on this build.
The loco body has actually spent very little time off that stand since I built it, only coming off when wheels, bogie or cab roof needed to be mounted on it. It's a handy way to keep it safe, examine it from different angles and in different light and so forth.
Your book is indeed enormously useful - and I certainly haven't thought of anything you've missed out!
Thank you again for the kind words,
Chas
To answer your points:
I have learnt from this build and from your book how much easier painting and lining is with a superstructure in sections, but it's my first etched loco so I was sticking fairly closely to the instructions and I originally intended doing the loco as an LNER C12 in unlined black, only changing my mind after the main build had been done. I found doing the bands less difficult than I'd anticipated, but like all the lining, your technique of stroking lines with a spirit-dampened brush is what really saved the day!
I masked the wheels partly because I'm fairly new to using masking tape and I still get a kick out of peeling it off and seeing the paint - to paraphrase Eric Morecambe - in 'all the right places'! The other reason is that I have tried scraping paint off wheel tyres before and I found it difficult to avoid chipping and flaking the edges of the paint that was staying: do you have any tips for avoiding that?
I did think about using the compasses for the tank and bunker sides too, but neither the top edge beading nor the footplate edges are quite as dead straight as a steel rule: the vital importance of dead straight edges is another lesson learned on this build.
Yes, funny you mention: I did a first - brushed - coat of dark green on the bunker over the weekend and found maintaining a straight edge against the white very difficult, not to mention avoiding brush marks... I'm thinking that doing that wide an expanse with a pen will need great care to avoid too much paint, flooding etc. Using the pen for the centre black lines has led to a slightly raised - domed - black line. I think I'll have a practice at doing multiple parallel touching lines with the PPP dark green on my test panel.
Not at all Sir: I'm following the advice in your book to the letter, leaving that until last because of the likelihood of handling damage. In spite of great care, rubber gloves etc, I've noticed two or three tiny chips to the existing brown valance edges, so I think leaving the lining on those areas until last is definitely wise.
Along with the spirit-dampened brush technique, the other thing I've found immensely useful is your lining stand:
The loco body has actually spent very little time off that stand since I built it, only coming off when wheels, bogie or cab roof needed to be mounted on it. It's a handy way to keep it safe, examine it from different angles and in different light and so forth.
Your book is indeed enormously useful - and I certainly haven't thought of anything you've missed out!
Thank you again for the kind words,
Chas
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Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Work is now underway on the dark green areas of the GNR C2, but that'll take a little while so in the meantime, here are some photos of a previous build, a Sutherland Models Cotswold Kit of an LNER Pipe Wagon. I think they're pretty self-explanatory - hope you enjoy them:
Edited, as I realised there might be one of two things that aren't entirely self-explanatory. The pipe load was made from K&S 9822 4mm x0.45 brass tube and the silver colour is from a fancy art supplies metallic silver aerosol (probably rather bright but I couldn't resist!).
The chains are Cambrian C307 pre-blackened 33 LPI, actually made for them by Weinert Modellbau in Germany, though I've since found some finer ones to use on future projects. Model shipbuilding suppliers are good for things like that, rigging and so forth.
The brake gear was the first time I'd tried soldering anything that thin and light and I fully expected a melting nightmare, but if you're quick, the lack of mass works to your advantage because it gets hotter quicker. And it's 4mm OO again, which is my default setting...
Edited, as I realised there might be one of two things that aren't entirely self-explanatory. The pipe load was made from K&S 9822 4mm x0.45 brass tube and the silver colour is from a fancy art supplies metallic silver aerosol (probably rather bright but I couldn't resist!).
The chains are Cambrian C307 pre-blackened 33 LPI, actually made for them by Weinert Modellbau in Germany, though I've since found some finer ones to use on future projects. Model shipbuilding suppliers are good for things like that, rigging and so forth.
The brake gear was the first time I'd tried soldering anything that thin and light and I fully expected a melting nightmare, but if you're quick, the lack of mass works to your advantage because it gets hotter quicker. And it's 4mm OO again, which is my default setting...
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Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
To complete a trilogy of LNER and LNER-constituent vehicles, here's a build from a little while ago of a 4mm GNR Diagram 303 Brake in ECJS livery, using Mike Trice's excellent 3D Printed body (available from his Shapeways store) and a Brassmasters Cleminson 6-wheel underframe. Like the preceding LNER Pipe wagon, I've posted pics of the finished model before, but not of the build.
First job is to glue together the printed body using cyano and then add handrails, held in place inside the body by cyano on the turned-over ends:
Next, the Brassmasters Cleminson 6-wheel underframe. If you haven't come across these, I cannot recommend them highly enough. They're based on prototype, a clever and sensible design which allows the two outer axles to pivot on curves while the centre axle slides laterally, so that the wheels follow the rails much more securely, leading to fewer derailments from flanges riding up. Here's a link to the page on the Brassmasters site: Cleminson six wheel underframe.
Apologies for the slightly blurred first photo, I didn't notice at the time and didn't take any other ones of that stage:
The first two show the three main parts - the frame plus the two pivoting end W-iron assemblies - with the sliding middle W-iron shown in place in the third picture of the complete assembly, also with the Wizard Mansell wheels in place. The underlying frame is then glued beneath the body. I'm always over-doing fixings (I hate the idea of things coming adrift later on) so those plasticard 'straps' are solvent glued to the plasticard floor:
With the addition of footboards, the clearance issues became apparent and I spent quite a time very carefully taking material off the insides of the solebars and steps to allow the w-irons to pivot and slide sufficiently for my layout's R2 curves:
You can see in the above photo the pencil marks on the floor, showing where the pivoting W-iron bases sit. The 3D printed solebars have enough thickness to allow for thinning, but you need to go carefully as the material is not as forgiving as injection moulded plastic. The four sausage-shaped pieces of plastic strut are additional strengthening pieces.
Everything worked though, and the coach runs incredibly smoothly and reliably - here it is on test, before painting:
I'll skip ahead here, post-painting, to show how the finished and working underframe looks, first disassembled, then assembled:
It's difficult to see the areas that were carved out to allow the pivoting, partly because everything's black, partly because we're only talking percentages of a milimetre.
I'll show painting next - too many photos for everything in the one post.
First job is to glue together the printed body using cyano and then add handrails, held in place inside the body by cyano on the turned-over ends:
Next, the Brassmasters Cleminson 6-wheel underframe. If you haven't come across these, I cannot recommend them highly enough. They're based on prototype, a clever and sensible design which allows the two outer axles to pivot on curves while the centre axle slides laterally, so that the wheels follow the rails much more securely, leading to fewer derailments from flanges riding up. Here's a link to the page on the Brassmasters site: Cleminson six wheel underframe.
Apologies for the slightly blurred first photo, I didn't notice at the time and didn't take any other ones of that stage:
The first two show the three main parts - the frame plus the two pivoting end W-iron assemblies - with the sliding middle W-iron shown in place in the third picture of the complete assembly, also with the Wizard Mansell wheels in place. The underlying frame is then glued beneath the body. I'm always over-doing fixings (I hate the idea of things coming adrift later on) so those plasticard 'straps' are solvent glued to the plasticard floor:
With the addition of footboards, the clearance issues became apparent and I spent quite a time very carefully taking material off the insides of the solebars and steps to allow the w-irons to pivot and slide sufficiently for my layout's R2 curves:
You can see in the above photo the pencil marks on the floor, showing where the pivoting W-iron bases sit. The 3D printed solebars have enough thickness to allow for thinning, but you need to go carefully as the material is not as forgiving as injection moulded plastic. The four sausage-shaped pieces of plastic strut are additional strengthening pieces.
Everything worked though, and the coach runs incredibly smoothly and reliably - here it is on test, before painting:
I'll skip ahead here, post-painting, to show how the finished and working underframe looks, first disassembled, then assembled:
It's difficult to see the areas that were carved out to allow the pivoting, partly because everything's black, partly because we're only talking percentages of a milimetre.
I'll show painting next - too many photos for everything in the one post.
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Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Next was painting, starting with a coat of primer. The printed striations are a still a little visible at this point and I trusted to the multi-layered paint scheme that they'd recede suitably into the background, which I think they did.
I did the teak on this coach based partly on a combination of two other modellers' teak 'systems', plus a bit of my own experimentation; I've done several teak coaches and tried slightly different painting systems on each one, which I find very interesting and it also has the advantage that each coach looks quite different:
Next, an overall coat of light teak, with some panels further lightened with thinnned yellow:
Then, another overall coat of teak (this time Railmatch, where the previous overall one was Phoenix Precision) followed by further lightening of some panels and darkening of some others:
Then, two further coats, one of thined down PPP Coach Teak and one of their Weathered Teak:
Next, a couple of coats of Ronseal Teak varnish - water-based, with colourant, which I've tried a couple of times and rather like, when carefully used:
Then, out with the lining pen. When I did this coach, I hadn't read Ian Rathbone's book and didn't realise you could correct, adjust or even entirely remove lines after applying them, so what you see is what went on and stayed there!
With another coat of gloss varnish, transfers and a varnish coat over them too, side-lamps and some primping and preening, here she is finished, shown in the last photo next to a Mousa resin kit of a GNR brake, built a little while later:
I did the teak on this coach based partly on a combination of two other modellers' teak 'systems', plus a bit of my own experimentation; I've done several teak coaches and tried slightly different painting systems on each one, which I find very interesting and it also has the advantage that each coach looks quite different:
Next, an overall coat of light teak, with some panels further lightened with thinnned yellow:
Then, another overall coat of teak (this time Railmatch, where the previous overall one was Phoenix Precision) followed by further lightening of some panels and darkening of some others:
Then, two further coats, one of thined down PPP Coach Teak and one of their Weathered Teak:
Next, a couple of coats of Ronseal Teak varnish - water-based, with colourant, which I've tried a couple of times and rather like, when carefully used:
Then, out with the lining pen. When I did this coach, I hadn't read Ian Rathbone's book and didn't realise you could correct, adjust or even entirely remove lines after applying them, so what you see is what went on and stayed there!
With another coat of gloss varnish, transfers and a varnish coat over them too, side-lamps and some primping and preening, here she is finished, shown in the last photo next to a Mousa resin kit of a GNR brake, built a little while later:
Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Another thing that a couple of people mentioned in replying to my first post in the New Members section was how much people on here like variety, so, in the words of Monty Python, now for something completely different:
I first built one of these - the well-known Airfix 1/12th Bentley Blower - in my teens, after years of 1/72 WWII vehicles and planes - and always regretted not keeping it, so I thought it would be a fun Christmas project (several Christmasses ago now, in fact) to revisit it.
I even motorised the one I built in my teens... decided not to go that far this time!
I first built one of these - the well-known Airfix 1/12th Bentley Blower - in my teens, after years of 1/72 WWII vehicles and planes - and always regretted not keeping it, so I thought it would be a fun Christmas project (several Christmasses ago now, in fact) to revisit it.
I even motorised the one I built in my teens... decided not to go that far this time!
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Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
I meant to add, the British Racing Green on this beast was done using this stuff:
Tamiya describe this as a 'synthetic lacquer' - not sure whether that means it's enamel, cellulose or quite what, but it settles out into a beautifully smooth, even gloss coat almost immediately and dries in a very few minutes. It was an absolute pleasure to use and for once, watching paint dry was actually fascinating! Any inconsistencies you see on the car's surface are because of poor surface preparation on my part and any areas that look really good are down to the paint...
Thank you to everyone who has hit the 'Like' button for the pictures I've posted so far: it's always nice to show what we do to people who do similar things and understand why we're pleased with them (or worried about them, as the case may be...!)
Tamiya describe this as a 'synthetic lacquer' - not sure whether that means it's enamel, cellulose or quite what, but it settles out into a beautifully smooth, even gloss coat almost immediately and dries in a very few minutes. It was an absolute pleasure to use and for once, watching paint dry was actually fascinating! Any inconsistencies you see on the car's surface are because of poor surface preparation on my part and any areas that look really good are down to the paint...
Thank you to everyone who has hit the 'Like' button for the pictures I've posted so far: it's always nice to show what we do to people who do similar things and understand why we're pleased with them (or worried about them, as the case may be...!)
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Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
And to follow the Airfix kit, in a link that's worthy of a BBC continuity announcer, we go from a 1/12th scale Bentley to a 1/76th one:
It's one of the Oxford Diecast ones, so I can only claim credit for the wagon it's riding in, a D&S kit of a GNR Open Carriage Truck. I know the timeline of combining the two is a little shaky, but I reasoned that as many pre-grouping vehicles remained in their pre-Big Four livery for quite some time after the Grouping, and as the prototype Bentley Blowers were around from about 1927, an early one might have been making a journey from the Bently factory this way...
Here's a quick photo sequence of the build, with a few explanantory comments:
At this point I was able to try for the first time something I was a bit nervous about, soldering white metal to brass. In the event though, like most things, the anticipation was worse than the deed and it went very smoothly, tinning the brass first, then fixing with the 70 degree solder by heating with the iron from beneath the floor, keeping a close eye that things didn't get hot enough to upset the softer material:
Likewise the little brass securing racks on the tops of the sides - in and out quick with a hot iron and lashings of flux, as someone (probably Iain Rice) once said!
Another first for me was next with this kit, constructing as full a representation as I could of the brake gear. Everything's included in the kit (D&S seldom let you down on detail) but I'd taken a 'what can't be seen from normal viewing angles needn't be modelled' approach on previous builds and I thought it was about time I tried something a little better. I'd got more confident by this point soldering WM to brass and the axle boxes went on very easily too, with wheels once again Wizard OO Mansells, which run really smoothly:
Phoenix Precision GNR Freight Brown went on top of Halfords Etch Primer onto the upper body, followed by some multilayered worn timber efforts for the carrying surface:
Then, the main transfers from Steam and Things's GNR range, plus a few white script ones from the 3mm Society's LNER sheet (the smaller scale helped them fit the narrow boards):
Followed finally by the addition of the cargo, as explained above - I think they're fabulous looking cars, in any scale:
It's one of the Oxford Diecast ones, so I can only claim credit for the wagon it's riding in, a D&S kit of a GNR Open Carriage Truck. I know the timeline of combining the two is a little shaky, but I reasoned that as many pre-grouping vehicles remained in their pre-Big Four livery for quite some time after the Grouping, and as the prototype Bentley Blowers were around from about 1927, an early one might have been making a journey from the Bently factory this way...
Here's a quick photo sequence of the build, with a few explanantory comments:
At this point I was able to try for the first time something I was a bit nervous about, soldering white metal to brass. In the event though, like most things, the anticipation was worse than the deed and it went very smoothly, tinning the brass first, then fixing with the 70 degree solder by heating with the iron from beneath the floor, keeping a close eye that things didn't get hot enough to upset the softer material:
Likewise the little brass securing racks on the tops of the sides - in and out quick with a hot iron and lashings of flux, as someone (probably Iain Rice) once said!
Another first for me was next with this kit, constructing as full a representation as I could of the brake gear. Everything's included in the kit (D&S seldom let you down on detail) but I'd taken a 'what can't be seen from normal viewing angles needn't be modelled' approach on previous builds and I thought it was about time I tried something a little better. I'd got more confident by this point soldering WM to brass and the axle boxes went on very easily too, with wheels once again Wizard OO Mansells, which run really smoothly:
Phoenix Precision GNR Freight Brown went on top of Halfords Etch Primer onto the upper body, followed by some multilayered worn timber efforts for the carrying surface:
Then, the main transfers from Steam and Things's GNR range, plus a few white script ones from the 3mm Society's LNER sheet (the smaller scale helped them fit the narrow boards):
Followed finally by the addition of the cargo, as explained above - I think they're fabulous looking cars, in any scale:
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Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Work continues on the GNR C2, but I've been posting that build in detail on RMWeb and I don't want to duplicate the same material here - I'll put up more photos of the C2 here when it reaches the next significant stage - so it seems a good time to change tack again and look at something else, in the form of some RTR restoration.
Although I mainly model LNER and GNR, I also have an interest in European railways, especially Swiss; I'd wanted a Crocodile for ages, but there's something about the Roco one - the easiest and cheapest to find - that I wasn't entirely happy with so I'd steered clear, until I saw an earlier Roco model in its Austrian form, an OBB BR1189. For some reason, to my eye these have a more solid, less plastic looking appearance than the Swiss versions; this one was cheap and being offered in the UK, so I took a punt:
It had been described as a non-runner, supposedly due to a DCC problem - "motor tries to run but wheels don't move" - but a quick look revealed no DCC fitted and drive belts so hardended they had permanently assumed the oval shape formed by the motor and axle pulleys - the one on the right in the photo below was cut from this model (the only way to remove it) and the circular one on the left is a fresh one:
I wonder how long this loco had sat unused for the belts to become so rigidly set? Must have been many years, I think. They're quite awkward to get at - hence having to cut out the old ones:
The other problem was the heavily corroded pickups - the paper insulation layer between them was already disintegrating:
Fitting new pickups is a little fiddly, with wires fed up through the bogies, soldered below to the pickups and above to the board:
The pickups are sandwiched between screwed together plastic plates, a good arrangement (until age and oil make them brittle) but you need to use the minimum of solder in joining the wires to the pickups to make sure the plastic pieces mate properly: too much solder, and the solder 'lump' prevents them closing up, which stops the central screw engaging its retaining thread beneath the bogie. How do I know this? Guess...!
Good beefy pickup wire, too... The upper wiring is kept tidy by the plastic lighting transmission pieces:
And everything looks - and runs - a lot better with the new assemblies in place:
One thing to look out for: the quatering! Those conn rods need to be on the right sides of the right bogies and they need to be the right way up. Marking them, as you remove them, with side and orientation, is the best way, along with lots of photos as you work: I'll know for next time!!
It's a very nice runner - though not the quietest, compared to the latest RTR machines - with excellent haulage power, by virtue of its not inconsiderable weight and the fact that both bogies are driven. I also have a Roco SBB Be 4/6 which I think is the same chassis, but that's run so beautifully for many years that I've never had occasion to take the bodyshell off - a good recommendation for the design.
Although I mainly model LNER and GNR, I also have an interest in European railways, especially Swiss; I'd wanted a Crocodile for ages, but there's something about the Roco one - the easiest and cheapest to find - that I wasn't entirely happy with so I'd steered clear, until I saw an earlier Roco model in its Austrian form, an OBB BR1189. For some reason, to my eye these have a more solid, less plastic looking appearance than the Swiss versions; this one was cheap and being offered in the UK, so I took a punt:
It had been described as a non-runner, supposedly due to a DCC problem - "motor tries to run but wheels don't move" - but a quick look revealed no DCC fitted and drive belts so hardended they had permanently assumed the oval shape formed by the motor and axle pulleys - the one on the right in the photo below was cut from this model (the only way to remove it) and the circular one on the left is a fresh one:
I wonder how long this loco had sat unused for the belts to become so rigidly set? Must have been many years, I think. They're quite awkward to get at - hence having to cut out the old ones:
The other problem was the heavily corroded pickups - the paper insulation layer between them was already disintegrating:
Fitting new pickups is a little fiddly, with wires fed up through the bogies, soldered below to the pickups and above to the board:
The pickups are sandwiched between screwed together plastic plates, a good arrangement (until age and oil make them brittle) but you need to use the minimum of solder in joining the wires to the pickups to make sure the plastic pieces mate properly: too much solder, and the solder 'lump' prevents them closing up, which stops the central screw engaging its retaining thread beneath the bogie. How do I know this? Guess...!
Good beefy pickup wire, too... The upper wiring is kept tidy by the plastic lighting transmission pieces:
And everything looks - and runs - a lot better with the new assemblies in place:
One thing to look out for: the quatering! Those conn rods need to be on the right sides of the right bogies and they need to be the right way up. Marking them, as you remove them, with side and orientation, is the best way, along with lots of photos as you work: I'll know for next time!!
It's a very nice runner - though not the quietest, compared to the latest RTR machines - with excellent haulage power, by virtue of its not inconsiderable weight and the fact that both bogies are driven. I also have a Roco SBB Be 4/6 which I think is the same chassis, but that's run so beautifully for many years that I've never had occasion to take the bodyshell off - a good recommendation for the design.
Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Thanks Ade. I'm currently working on the dark green areas of the bunker and side tanks, then after that it'll be the valance lining...
Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Here's another project from a little while ago - I've shown photos of the finished vehicles before elsewhere, but not the construction. The impetus behind this was the idea of finding an excuse to make some Airfix WWII kits - something I spent an inordinate amount of time doing in my early years - by building suitable railway transport vehicles and then building the military hardware to load onto them! Although I tend to concentrate on the 1920s and 30s, I do sometimes run later stock...
I came across the Genesis brand of kits and built their Warflat and Ramp Wagon, with an Airfix Churchill Tank as cargo. Paints were mainly Humbrol, transfers were cobbled together from various odd bits and bobs by reference to photographs, as were the securing chains, which are from the same stock as the LNER Pipe Wagon earlier in this thread:
The ramp wagon is an interesting vehicle, designed to have a wheelset rolled out and then to drop down on one end, forming - you guessed it - a ramp, up against a long train of warflats, with the road vehicles driving along the whole train of 'flats, descending via the ramp at the end.
My plan is to build more of the 'flats, though I might look at other kits. I enjoyed the build very much, but it was a little fiddly in places (the fit needed quite a bit of fettling due to some uneven castings), the detailing and moulding were a little less crisp than I'd hoped and the bogie mounting as part of the pewter castings didn't work very well for me and needed some modification, by the addition of some brass fittings. Overall though, I'm pleased with the result and so far, the only other kit of this type of vehicle I've found is apparently unavailable, so it may have to be more Genesis:
After priming, I used this build as another experiment in producing painted versions of wood:
More sophisticated tools in use today than when I built Airfix tanks as a kid: I wonder how I held things back then that had a tendency to move apart before the glue set...?
One small mod to the Churchill, having read that the engine vents were removed in rail transit to keep within the loading guage:
I'll have to put the photos of the finished models into another post as I've reached the photo limit!
I came across the Genesis brand of kits and built their Warflat and Ramp Wagon, with an Airfix Churchill Tank as cargo. Paints were mainly Humbrol, transfers were cobbled together from various odd bits and bobs by reference to photographs, as were the securing chains, which are from the same stock as the LNER Pipe Wagon earlier in this thread:
The ramp wagon is an interesting vehicle, designed to have a wheelset rolled out and then to drop down on one end, forming - you guessed it - a ramp, up against a long train of warflats, with the road vehicles driving along the whole train of 'flats, descending via the ramp at the end.
My plan is to build more of the 'flats, though I might look at other kits. I enjoyed the build very much, but it was a little fiddly in places (the fit needed quite a bit of fettling due to some uneven castings), the detailing and moulding were a little less crisp than I'd hoped and the bogie mounting as part of the pewter castings didn't work very well for me and needed some modification, by the addition of some brass fittings. Overall though, I'm pleased with the result and so far, the only other kit of this type of vehicle I've found is apparently unavailable, so it may have to be more Genesis:
After priming, I used this build as another experiment in producing painted versions of wood:
More sophisticated tools in use today than when I built Airfix tanks as a kid: I wonder how I held things back then that had a tendency to move apart before the glue set...?
One small mod to the Churchill, having read that the engine vents were removed in rail transit to keep within the loading guage:
I'll have to put the photos of the finished models into another post as I've reached the photo limit!
Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
And here are a couple of pics of the finished pair, before adding the load:
And with the load in place:
And with the load in place:
Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Work continues on the GNR C2. I've been learning to do something with the bow pen that's almost the exact opposite of the narrowest possible lines I'd spent the previous months working on: following Ian Rathbone's advice to use the bow pen on the dark green areas, I've been learning to cover wide areas with the pen:
By drawing a series of parallel lines, each successive one going over the still wet edge of the previous one, the lines blend together and the result dries - if you get it right - as an amazingly deep and solid colour. Here's another shot - apologies for the poor quality and awkward angle but it's intended to show how evenly the dried surface can be (and I'm only just starting out):
The blemishes were on the surface beforehand! These are just practice areas, done with a ruler but not measured or planned.
In a similar way, I've prepared some practice panels for filling in between the white lining and a defined edge - please excuse the wonky corners and general inaccuracies, these are just rough shapes, done on the fly:
However, I'm having problems with the Phoenix Precision GNR Dark Green paint drying too quickly, so that by the time I come to join the end of the fourth side of a rectangle to the first side, that first side has dried sufficiently to prevent blending. I'm awaiting the arrival of the gloss version of this colour, which should dry more slowly, I'm working very early in the morning when things are at their coolest and the object of all the practice is so that I can get the paint on, accurately, as quickly as possible, but I'm not sure that'll be enough, so...
Having read in Ian's book about using linseed oil as a retarder to slow the drying time, can anyone advise please on amounts or proportions? Should I be looking at a drop to a certain number of ml, or a drop to a dessert spoon - or a number of drops to a 14ml tinlet perhaps? Happy to experiment of course, but when you add thinners you see the result immediately whereas testing a retarder will take considerably longer and possibly use a lot more paint, so any advise would be greatly appreciated...
By drawing a series of parallel lines, each successive one going over the still wet edge of the previous one, the lines blend together and the result dries - if you get it right - as an amazingly deep and solid colour. Here's another shot - apologies for the poor quality and awkward angle but it's intended to show how evenly the dried surface can be (and I'm only just starting out):
The blemishes were on the surface beforehand! These are just practice areas, done with a ruler but not measured or planned.
In a similar way, I've prepared some practice panels for filling in between the white lining and a defined edge - please excuse the wonky corners and general inaccuracies, these are just rough shapes, done on the fly:
However, I'm having problems with the Phoenix Precision GNR Dark Green paint drying too quickly, so that by the time I come to join the end of the fourth side of a rectangle to the first side, that first side has dried sufficiently to prevent blending. I'm awaiting the arrival of the gloss version of this colour, which should dry more slowly, I'm working very early in the morning when things are at their coolest and the object of all the practice is so that I can get the paint on, accurately, as quickly as possible, but I'm not sure that'll be enough, so...
Having read in Ian's book about using linseed oil as a retarder to slow the drying time, can anyone advise please on amounts or proportions? Should I be looking at a drop to a certain number of ml, or a drop to a dessert spoon - or a number of drops to a 14ml tinlet perhaps? Happy to experiment of course, but when you add thinners you see the result immediately whereas testing a retarder will take considerably longer and possibly use a lot more paint, so any advise would be greatly appreciated...
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Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Here's another build from a while ago, the first loco I built, an LNER J9/10 from the DJH kit - I've posted photos of the finished loco online before, but not of the build. It was built pretty much to the instructions, bar the addition of a little extra detailing (the absence of brake gear was rectified with a Mainly Trains etc, for instance). This kit was designed for a much older generation of motor and gearbox (an Anchorage DS10 or DS13 or similar, I think) but supplied to me, as a total novice at loco construction, with DJH's current gearbox and, as I wanted to drive from the centre axle it necessitated quite a bit of work, but in the end everything fitted and the loco runs beautifully. I wasn't confident or knowledgable enough to try anything other than what was recommended and although I'm only now building my second loco, I've learnt enough through that and through reading that If I were building this one again, I'd use a High Level Kits gearbox; I'd also make a brass sub-chassis for the tender, though aside from the occasional noise on curves and a slight waddle, that runs perfectly well as it is...
First came the basic sub-assemblies, footplate, chassis and boiler:
That line down the centre and various other blemishes took some time to remove! Then began the work of fitting the DJH 'box into the boiler:
Tight, but do-able - the slightly visible gearbox sides behind the rear splasher were rendered far less conspicuous by painting them black...
The shaft apparently protruding from the rear of the firebox is a Romford axle nut driver, being used to rest the boiler on to keep the whole assembly level for the photo. So far so good: outside of the main body it ran fine:
It also needed some sculpting under the footplate and splashers, as I suspect the crank throw of the Markits wheels was a little long, but eventually I had the thrill of seeing something I'd built running under it's own power from the track, even if there was still quite a bit of removal of material inside the boiler to be done:
After that, some more work on the superstructure. As well as enlarging the boiler cavity, those brass vertical rails under the rear roof corners were not included in the kit, plus of course handrail knobs and a lot of white metal cleaning, smoothing, filling and filing, followed by a coat of paint (Halfords matt black, rather thick I'm afraid, as my rattle-can skills were not so good then either) and some catching up to do on the tender:
And, following the usual cleaning up, priming and painting, transfers, coaling, loco plates, crew (from Modelu) and lamp, here we are (with apologies for the lens distortion - everything's straight and true in real life):
First came the basic sub-assemblies, footplate, chassis and boiler:
That line down the centre and various other blemishes took some time to remove! Then began the work of fitting the DJH 'box into the boiler:
Tight, but do-able - the slightly visible gearbox sides behind the rear splasher were rendered far less conspicuous by painting them black...
The shaft apparently protruding from the rear of the firebox is a Romford axle nut driver, being used to rest the boiler on to keep the whole assembly level for the photo. So far so good: outside of the main body it ran fine:
It also needed some sculpting under the footplate and splashers, as I suspect the crank throw of the Markits wheels was a little long, but eventually I had the thrill of seeing something I'd built running under it's own power from the track, even if there was still quite a bit of removal of material inside the boiler to be done:
After that, some more work on the superstructure. As well as enlarging the boiler cavity, those brass vertical rails under the rear roof corners were not included in the kit, plus of course handrail knobs and a lot of white metal cleaning, smoothing, filling and filing, followed by a coat of paint (Halfords matt black, rather thick I'm afraid, as my rattle-can skills were not so good then either) and some catching up to do on the tender:
And, following the usual cleaning up, priming and painting, transfers, coaling, loco plates, crew (from Modelu) and lamp, here we are (with apologies for the lens distortion - everything's straight and true in real life):
Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Here's a little Airfix conversion build I did a while back. I needed a couple of lorries to sit in the mouth of a tunnel, to hide the fact that the tunnel doesn't go anywhere - the rear of it is actually filed with a perspex box containing the boards that work the Heathcote signals on my layout. The tunnel is very simple - three pieces of half-inch ply - because this layout was originally built by my dad in the 1960s, when scenery hadn't been invented yet (!) and I've been 'dressing' it over the last few years, while trying to preserve it's underlying character.
The vehicle is based on the Austin K6 fire tender in the Airfix RAF Emergency set with a scratchbuilt body on the Airfix chassis - working from drawings in Gerald Scarborough's 'Modelling RAF Vehicles' Airfix Guide - and the transfers are from Mabex, the cream is Railmatch BR Cream, the blue was a Humbrol homebrew and the glazing was from spare Wizard/51L coach glazing offcuts:
The vehicle next to it is a Coopercraft AEC tanker, the green is the same Tamiya British Racing Green spray I used on the big Airfix Bentley further up the thread and the transfers are from Mabex again - here are some photos of that too:
The vehicle is based on the Austin K6 fire tender in the Airfix RAF Emergency set with a scratchbuilt body on the Airfix chassis - working from drawings in Gerald Scarborough's 'Modelling RAF Vehicles' Airfix Guide - and the transfers are from Mabex, the cream is Railmatch BR Cream, the blue was a Humbrol homebrew and the glazing was from spare Wizard/51L coach glazing offcuts:
The vehicle next to it is a Coopercraft AEC tanker, the green is the same Tamiya British Racing Green spray I used on the big Airfix Bentley further up the thread and the transfers are from Mabex again - here are some photos of that too:
Tim Hale
Western Thunderer
Sorry but I did not notice the original post,
A post WW2 image of an L11 at Grately presumably about to trundle up to Amesbury, the interesting object is behind the loco, a Churchill Crocodile.
In 1949, the 30173 was shedded at Salisbury and noted running along the SDJR on Salisbury-Bournemouth West turns, at the SR/BR transition elderly exLSWR passenger locos found employment on all sorts of odd duties on secondary lines
A post WW2 image of an L11 at Grately presumably about to trundle up to Amesbury, the interesting object is behind the loco, a Churchill Crocodile.
In 1949, the 30173 was shedded at Salisbury and noted running along the SDJR on Salisbury-Bournemouth West turns, at the SR/BR transition elderly exLSWR passenger locos found employment on all sorts of odd duties on secondary lines
Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Very interesting, thank you! Photos with details of the use and arrangement of securing ropes and chains are not that easy to find (at least, I haven't been able to find as many as I'd like) so I'll save that one for when I build the next one...
Chas Levin
Western Thunderer
Hello all, I posted recently as above, asking about what kind of amount of linseed oil you're supposed to add to paint to slow the drying time.
Since then, I've been experimenting using the Phoenix Precision P752 GNR Dark Green and, based on trying 5% and 10% gloss mixes and 5% and 3.3% satin mixes, I think 5% is the optimum amount of linseed oil to add, as it gives a compromise between lengthening the drying time (and therefore allowing separately applied areas to blend at the edges) without making the paint too runny and causing flooding.
If anyone is interested in trying this, you can get small glass pipettes marked with a scale starting at 0.25ml and small plastic mixing cups marked from 5ml very cheaply on Ebay:
I'm still keeping an eye on the various tests - done over the last week - while they cure, as that part of the process is taking quite a lot longer than it would with unadulterated paint, but assuming they do fully harden, I think this seems to be a practical way to solve the problem. Here are a couple of rough tests, where each side of these rectangles was done after a small gap but they still blended together:
You do have to be much more careful with the paint in the bow pen, loading it very lightly, as the paint is noticeably thinner and more prone to drip out of the sides - not to mention flooding the model surface too, if you're not careful!
If anyone else has tried this or has any advice or thoughts, please let me know...