Mike G's Workspace.

cctransuk

Active Member
John

Pictured on post 145.

Mike

Ah - that appears to be a diagonal mount, using the existing screw holes in the gearbox.

I mount the Mitsumi with the narrowest dimension horizontal, so that it drops as low as possible between the frames.

The diagram enclosed with the motor shows how to set out the new holes in the gearbox for drilling, prior to removing the gearbox from the fret.

It can be a bit fiddly on some of the HL gearboxes, and I know that some customers simply spot-solder the gearbox to the motor case.

Regards,
John Isherwood.
 

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
Re Buffer Heads they are non working but good qulaity. No one else seems to have anything for quite a while .


Thanks for the heads up - just ordered a couple of packs.

Much appreciated.

Mike
 

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
Out the door by 09:10 hrs. This was the scene 20 minutes later...

Paint city central.jpg

Lots to do...

Started with the primer for the gun powder vans, then the chassis for the 14t oil tanker, followed by the chassis of the A44 coach. I ordered some more celly colours (used the RAL numbers to order them) from Coatings direct. 02920 465636 - they are a Cardiff based firm - asked if they could deliver today and one of their drivers dropped it on their way home from work! Now that's customer service. So as soon as I finish typing this I'm off to do the roof of the coach...

Stay safe

Mike
 

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
One day to go, before I start the clear up...

3 engines weathered or more correctly, further weathering carried out to make them look a little less uniform. Coach roof and chassis done (just a gloss varnish coat to do tomorrow morning on the sides and a matt varnish on the roof).

GWR A44 complete paint.jpg

14t oil chassis completed and partially weathered - rust to add in a few places. Gunpowder vans - roofs (?) & sides done, these were an absolute pain.

14t Oil tank start of weathering.jpg

My Asturo air gun is malfunctioning, it doesn't hold the air pressure, no matter how far I turn up the compressor. Stripped it down and gave it a thorough clean, zero impact. There must be a leak somewhere but I cannot hear one. Unfortunately it did this while spraying the roofs of the vans and made a right mess. Cellulose thinners sorted that out but then I had to re-prime them, worse still when I renewed the top coat, I didn't think what I was doing and put the lighter grey on the roofs. Unbelievably I only noticed this when I went to paint the sides. The dinning room was blue for about 20 minutes! Thinners, primer - you get the picture. I still have the sole bars and underframe to do, but I was so angry that I decided to put them by till tomorrow as I feared I may resort to throwing them!

Gunpowder vans 9.jpg

Tomorrow, I hope to get to redo my class 37 diesel, it needs a rub down on the noses to get rid of the awful paint job, then re-prime and then add the yellow fronts - this time I've bought some railmatch enamel yellow (hate the stuff) - the alternative was to part with £15 on half a litre of celly that I would only ever use a very small amount of. If this process doesn't take too long then the County will get some attention. Still have the 42xx to add more weathering to as well. It's been busy.

There will be some better pictures next time round.

Stay safe

Mike
 

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
The dinning room is now back to normal.

I've had a repeat of paint not adhering to the model on the class 37, which I'm really disappointed by - it's a great looking beast. The paint just pools and runs. I'm not concerned about the cause but a solution would be great. There's no way I'm stripping the whole thing again, so may be the solution is to strip where the yellow goes and go from there. Anyway that another problem to solve next year...

14t Oil tank.

14t Oil tank start of weathering 2.jpg

Still a bit to do till I'm satisfied.

Gunpowder vans.

Gunpowder vans 10.jpg

I decided to hand paint the under frames in the end.

GWR A44 coach.

GWR A44 complete varnished 1.jpg

GWR A44 complete varnished 2.jpg

Really pleased with this. A lot more to do, but the hard bit is over...

GWR County of Middlesex.

GWR County of Middlesex.jpg

Another model that;s turned out well is this (excuse the slant, it's not fixed to the chassis) post 427 shows it's original condition. Can't wait to see this take a turn round Barrow Road.

So SWMBO is back around lunch time tomorrow, so I'm ordering another curry and finish off the Stella's I bought Friday. It's been a trying few days and when you've got one project on top of another it can become tiring - not to mention frustrating (I'm never painting a grey van ever again!). But it's all been worth it. Just transfers to complete a number of vehicles, which are now all in stock. And I can take my time over that.

Stay safe

Mike
 

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
My modeling time has been cut down to evenings after 21:00 hrs for various reasons. Progress is therefore much slower than normal.

GWR A44 coach.

GWR A44 end view.jpg

GWR A44 glazing.jpg

Glazing complete and some light weathering has been added to the coach sides, the chassis and bogies need a light dusting over of some grey/brown grime. And then it'll be fit to enter service. Now that I've got my old Paasche VL air brush working again this should be a relatively easy job.
I have a number of photos of this type of coach, 2 taken at Risca station, which shows it in this condition and a third photo taken at Lydney showing BR lining (gold, black, gold) under the windows and normal gold, black above the windows, but also continuing onto the ends. First time I've ever seen that on a coach. This photo also shows that the driving end - at some stage - also had added the jumper cables.

GWR Gunpowder vans.

Gunpowder vans 11.jpg

Transfers on (thank you CCT) and some much needed weathering has been added. Pleased with the way these have turned out. But not over delighted with the shape of the roofs.

14t Oil tank.

14t Oil tank start of weathering 1.jpg

Again light weathering - which needs to be added to.

Still to add the brakes to the County, which will be the next job, after the coach is completed.

I'm planning then to re-visit my 56xx's. Running quality is really good, but they don't like curves (which is a bit of a handicap). I suspect more weight is needed over the front drivers. But that's going to be in a week or two.
In other news: my new Asturo air gun is winging it's way to me from Italy - whether it gets here is another thing all together!

I've been watching some Utube videos on printing your own decals, has anyone tried this and how did it go?

Stay safe

Mike.
 

cctransuk

Active Member
Do the videos explain how to print the white underlay, which is essential if your transfers are to be visible on the model?

Desktop printer inks are translucent, and disappear when applied to darker substrates.

The normal 'dodge' is to print onto white transfer film - but then you need to match the printed surround to the paint of the body; not at all easy.

That is why I am still using 25-year-old Alps printers - they print white, and can print exact, in-register, overlaid inks.

John Isherwood,
Cambridge Custom Transfers.
 
Mike,

As mentioned by John Isherwood, printing onto transparent film is extremely unlikely to work unless you use a dodge like painting the model lettering colour and printing a transfer in body colour and leaving lettering clear, but this won't work with shaded letters.

Printing onto white film can work but there may be problems:
- one may need to match printed and painted body colour
- white film may well be rather thick - there are variations but I've failed to find a really thin one
- inkjet ink is likely to be water soluble so acrylic varnishes may cause ink to run
- light fastness of inkjet ink is not always good - it may be difficult to obtain good ink for a home printer. I've no idea how well mine will survive.

So here are a few things I've done (4mm scale) using a simple HP printer:
LK5-002.jpg
Pretty good match of printer colour and paint.

LK7-01.jpg
Edge of film very prominent on cab side, visible on cylinder, not obvious on sandbox.

DSC05235.JPG
Ink ran!

DSC05234.JPG
Transfers cut to size of door panels so edge not visible, but the less said about the crest the better! (I know the lining needs to be touched up!)

CK24.jpg
From normal viewing distance these look fine.

Regards,
Andrew
 

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
The videos I’ve watched inform that you can use either translucent or white backed decal paper. Make the print thru a desktop printer and once out to spray the transfer with 3/4 coats of lacquer, before using them on the model.
Seemed so easy…and would save a few pounds printing my own coach numbers or the hassle of cutting out and then trying to join them up.

Mike
 

cctransuk

Active Member
The videos I’ve watched inform that you can use either translucent or white backed decal paper. Make the print thru a desktop printer and once out to spray the transfer with 3/4 coats of lacquer, before using them on the model.
Seemed so easy…and would save a few pounds printing my own coach numbers or the hassle of cutting out and then trying to join them up.

Mike

Translucent ink will not show up on the model if printed on clear decal film paper.

If you were to use white decal paper, you would need to print a background surround to match the body colour.

Unfortunately, since the demise of Alps desktop printers, there are no home-user printers available that can undertake the 'print white undercoat / overprint CMYK inks in register' sequence needed to print model transfers.

Regards,
John Isherwood,
Cambridge Custom Transfers.
 

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
Bit of empty house time this evening. Out with the air brush to complete the weathering on the A44.

GWR A44 almost there.jpg

GWR A44 almost there 2.jpg

All it needs now is passengers. As usual I can't find the hundreds of the blighters I bought yonks ago...they aren't where they are supposed to be! And I have to put the 'no smoking' sign in the last compartment.

The rather horrible castings for the 9ft bogies will (eventually) be replaced, once my bank balance recovers from some serious over spends in the last 2 months. I have 2 sets of etches to go to PPD, one of which includes the steps for these bogies and the other is a full coach build for a Brecon & Merthyr coach (in 7mm).

I have started the brakes for the County, painted and weathered, just not fitted. Ran out of steam this evening.

One happy modeler this evening.

Stay safe

Mike
 

paulc

Western Thunderer
My modeling time has been cut down to evenings after 21:00 hrs for various reasons. Progress is therefore much slower than normal.

GWR A44 coach.

View attachment 223247

View attachment 223248

Glazing complete and some light weathering has been added to the coach sides, the chassis and bogies need a light dusting over of some grey/brown grime. And then it'll be fit to enter service. Now that I've got my old Paasche VL air brush working again this should be a relatively easy job.
I have a number of photos of this type of coach, 2 taken at Risca station, which shows it in this condition and a third photo taken at Lydney showing BR lining (gold, black, gold) under the windows and normal gold, black above the windows, but also continuing onto the ends. First time I've ever seen that on a coach. This photo also shows that the driving end - at some stage - also had added the jumper cables.

GWR Gunpowder vans.

View attachment 223246

Transfers on (thank you CCT) and some much needed weathering has been added. Pleased with the way these have turned out. But not over delighted with the shape of the roofs.

14t Oil tank.

View attachment 223245

Again light weathering - which needs to be added to.

Still to add the brakes to the County, which will be the next job, after the coach is completed.

I'm planning then to re-visit my 56xx's. Running quality is really good, but they don't like curves (which is a bit of a handicap). I suspect more weight is needed over the front drivers. But that's going to be in a week or two.
In other news: my new Asturo air gun is winging it's way to me from Italy - whether it gets here is another thing all together!

I've been watching some Utube videos on printing your own decals, has anyone tried this and how did it go?

Stay safe

Mike.
Hi Mike , what was wrong with your old Pasche airbrush and what did you do to get it working ?
 

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
Hi Mike , what was wrong with your old Pasche airbrush and what did you do to get it working ?
The bush in the valve had worn. Which meant I had little to no control of the air flow. I also needed a new needle and cover. I’ve had it nearly 30 years - so something had to give :) .
Took me a while but I managed to find spares for my Paasche and Iwata TRN2 at The Air Brush Company. Welcome to Airbrushes.com
All reasonable prices and good delivery times.

Mike
 
Last edited:

Tim Hale

Western Thunderer
Mike,

I have saved the images of the Mobil 14t as I was lucky enough to find a NOS example recently for the Inglenook that is ‘the last project’. I also own two Dapol AM 14t but the Bachmann Mobil has always been a favourite but eluded me, your images will be used to guide me.

Thanks, Tim
 
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