Hello from Zuid Limburg, Netherlands

[WM183]

Hello all!

I am 40-something railway modeller from the Netherlands who loves scratchbuilding; buildings, wagons, whatever. I work in 0-MF standards, and am currently focused on little seaside branches of the GWR in the early to mid 1950s; Weymouth Quay is my biggest inspiration these days. My layout is small; 50 cm x 360 cm, roughly 20 inches by 12 feet, and is just getting to the trackwork stage.

I'm happy to be here! Here's a couple pictures of my last couple scratchbuilds: an LMS D1814 van and an LMS d1927 3 plank open, both with LMS pattern AVB.

 

[Heather Kay]

*waves*

I see you have already seen the memo about lots of photos!

 

[Neil]

Hello. Some beautiful work there, I look forward to seeing some more.

 

[adrian]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting those photos - the build on them look absolutely top quality - they do look really nice. There is a really nice use of different materials - I know we quite often get caught in the trap of using what we are comfortable with but you seem to have a really good mix of plastic strip and card, metal sections, brass and white metal castings etc. as required.

So a couple of questions if I may - I'm always curious how people go about their modelling and trying to learn something. The inside of the axle boxes seem to be elongated so are these vehicles sprung in some way?
Secondly the springs and axle boxes appear to be plastic moulded components - are these something you've done yourself or are they bought in from another source?
Finally the end of the box van - how did you go about reproducing the corrugations. It has always struck me as quite a difficult thing to get right to ensure a consistent appearance.

 

[Dog Star]

So a couple of questions if I may - I'm always curious how people go about their modelling and trying to learn something. The inside of the axle boxes seem to be elongated so are these vehicles sprung in some way?

Secondly the springs and axle boxes appear to be plastic moulded components - are these something you've done yourself or are they bought in from another source?

I think that Adrian is on the money with his comments, there is much to learn from the details of the modelling in the photos. I shall be most interested in a concordance of parts / suppliers.. especially for those door assisters on the drop side wagon.

 

[WM183]

Hi all.

Thank you for the kind words and warm reception. I've poked about the forum and this seems to be my sort of place.

The models pictured above were built with plasticcard bodies, mostly made of .060 styrene, with brass details in the form of strip and wire. The frames and suspension are buit around a frame made of 5x3mm brass U channel, with Bill Bedford etched and sprung W irons. These require that the bearing be free to move up and down a bit, hence the drilling out of the axle boxes. The axleboxes, springs, and any other bits made of tan plastic are extra bits from Slaters' kits - their BR van in particular comes with enough spare parts for multiple wagons! The 3 plank open has a set of white metal brake parts, robbed from an ABS LNER clasp brake kit I got from ebay for a few euro.

Many of the parts, however, just need to be scratchbuilt, like the door assisters on the dropside wagon. That is made of a piece of tube and a brass rod that fits inside for the pneumatic piston part (I think it's pneumatic? May be a spring) and the arm is made of folded and shaped pieces of brass sheet and strip, with bits of rod and wire as wrist pins. If I built one again, I'd likely do the pneumatic part, and the bracket that holds it to the solebar, of plastic. It kept wanting to come loose when soldering!

The end of the box van was made using Evergreen .060 half round strips, glued to the ends, with rivets made of .030 plastic rod. The ends were very time consuming, and as the real ones are stamped sheet mine are not perfect, as the real ones don't have "corners" where the corrugations meet the end like mine does, but I think it's quite servicable. Buffers are from Slaters or Parkside, and couplings are generally kit ones, or Dapol screw couplings. However I will likely switch to Dinghams, as even in 0 scale these chains are fiddly things.

I hope I answered all your questions! Keep them coming, I am happy to try and share what little I have learned.

Amanda

 

[AJC]

Welcome! That’s really top drawer work, and I especially like the home brewed corrugated ends which must have taxed your eyes and patience.

The door regulator/controller on real
Medfits and other wagons is simply a big spring. A fit and forget option - I have a photo showing this on the laptop. I look forward to seeing more of your work!

Adam

 

[Lancastrian]

Hello and welcome to Western Thunder. As other have said, that is some very fine modelling shown in your photographs. Keep up the good work and I too look forward to seeing more.

Ian

 

[readingtype]

@WM183 hello! Did I notice you say [somewhere else on the internet] that you were considering scratchbuilding a German loco in 0 scale? If so, I'm interested to see which 0 scale you choose for that project, and look forward to seeing the results

 

[WM183]

@WM183 hello! Did I notice you say [somewhere else on the internet] that you were considering scratchbuilding a German loco in 0 scale? If so, I'm interested to see which 0 scale you choose for that project, and look forward to seeing the results

You did hear me say that! I have debated building some German stuff in 1:43.5, 7mm scale. For now, it's only a thought exercise sadly. Parts for German models seem much harder to come by than British ones. German model RR seems almost entirely RtR these days.

 

[michael080]

Parts for German models seem much harder to come by than British ones.

True, but there are some suppliers of very nice parts. I have ordered a few parts for my BR78 build (elsewhere here) and their quality is extraordinary.
Here are my favourites:
DCC For You - DCC For You
Gußteile
Bauteile - moba-shop24
Bauermodellbau - Bauermodellbau

I will show some of them later this week in my build thread.

I forgot, welcome here, this is the friendliest modeller forum.

Michael