john lewsey
Western Thunderer
I admire your skills Ian
2mm Modbury
- Thread starter Ian Smith
- Start date
Brian McKenzie
Western Thunderer
Phew! I can imagine the trouble I would get into by attempting similar
. While cutting a 0.5mm wide strip from 0.003" brass might be straight forward enough using scissors (?) and steady hands, getting it soldered neatly along the base of the tank, and then making the joint of tank to the footplate, would likely have me in a mess.
How did you manage?
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
Brian, believe it or not it was remarkably easy! I did solder the strip in place before attaching the tank to the footplate, I think trying to add the strip with the tank in place would be more difficult.Phew! I can imagine the trouble I would get into by attempting similar
While cutting a 0.5mm wide strip from 0.003" brass might be straight forward enough using scissors (?) and steady hands, getting it soldered neatly along the base of the tank, and then making the joint of tank to the footplate, would likely have me in a mess.
How did you manage?
The strip and the base of the tank were both tinned, the middle of the strip was tacked in place in the middle of the end panel of the tank, and once happy the rest of the strip was soldered along the base of the end panel, running the flat of the iron along the bottom edge of tank and strip ensured that the two were aligned perfectly. It was then a simple matter of pulling the strip taut around the bend and repeating down each tank side. Once attached the excess strip was trimmed back flush with the tank ends. Perhaps I was lucky!
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
A little more work on the Dean Goods...
The Tender Brakes (hangers/blocks) have been fretted and filed from 0.018" nickel silver, they are representational rather than copies of the real thing. Once one had been drilled and shaped, it was sweated onto a corner of the larger sheet, and used as a pattern to drill and file around. Once the pair had been separated and they were then used as patterns for the next two and so on until I'd got 8 (a couple of spares).
The finished brake hangers/blocks (the holes are drilled 0.35mm to give a sense of size)
I had already soldered stubs of 0.33mm brass wire into the chassis for these to hang from, so each was located on its wire and soldered into position being careful to ensure that they were close to the wheel tyre but not touching (for binding reasons rather than electrical shorting, as being a split chassis it doesn't matter if they touch the wheels from an electrical point of view).
The pull rods were formed from 0.008" nickel silver. The holes (0.35mm dia) for the cross shafts were drilled (very) close to the edge of the sheet, then the opposite edge of the pull rod was scored and bent back and forth to snap off the pull rod (the bit with the 3 holes in it was held in the vice for this operation to keep the pull rod straight). The scored/snapped edge was cleaned up with fine emery and the rod cut to length. It was then a simple matter of fitting the pull rods to the hangers with more 0.33mm brass wire for the cross shafts.
The Tender brakes in position on the chassis. I still have to make a representation of the "L" shaped chunk of metal that converted the vertical motion imparted by the brake handle to the horizontal push/pull on the rods.
And a view from underneath (after the cross shafts have been severed to preserve electrical isolation of each half of the chassis).
And what it all looks like with the body sitting on top.
The next thing to be tackled was the leading steps. These were fretted from more 0.008" and soldered into position behind the footplate valance. On the rear steps I had made the steps themselves from pieces of 0.004" nickel silver bent to an L along their middle to represent the step and its upstand. The real things had an upstand on the ends as well (as I had done on the engine, and by comparison the tender steps just didn't look right), so I decided to remove the steps from the rear and re-make them when I added the front steps. Again, they were made from 0.004", a score along the middle allowed the strip to be bent at 90 degrees, but before this bend was made, I cut little noggins out of the ends of the metal that was to represent the upstands to allow the end of the step piece to be bent upright to represent the end upstands. The step was then bent along the score line to form a little complete step. Several minutes were then taken to coax these little blighters into place. Hopefully, comparison of the photo above and below will show what I think is an improvement to the rear steps.
The current state of play of the tender body. The front steps have been added, as have the handrails on the rear corners of the tank. I've just noticed that I've left the handrail knobs for the tank front poked into the holes there (not fixed yet). The tank top bulkhead has also been fretted/filed and fitted in place on the tank top. Finally the holes for the brake standards have been drilled on the footplate.
I've now got to the stage where I can make a list of all the things that I need to make/add for the project. Some of these are shown below.
The first of the "fiddly's" : Handrail knobs - twists of fine phosphor bronze wire (annealed over a lighter flame before twisting); Tender Brake Standards - relatively simple turnings on the lathe from 1.5mm dia brass rod, a notch filed across the top and a bit of bent guitar string soldered into the notch (It probably took longer to solder the wire in place correctly than it did to turn the standards!!); Tender Sandboxes - Filed from 3mm square brass bar, and cut to length, hole drilled in top to accept a domed piece of brass rod (filed to about 1.2mm diameter) to represent the filler cap. A standard coin of the realm to give indication of size of the "fiddly's"!
That's it for this update. Thanks for looking.
Ian
The Tender Brakes (hangers/blocks) have been fretted and filed from 0.018" nickel silver, they are representational rather than copies of the real thing. Once one had been drilled and shaped, it was sweated onto a corner of the larger sheet, and used as a pattern to drill and file around. Once the pair had been separated and they were then used as patterns for the next two and so on until I'd got 8 (a couple of spares).
The finished brake hangers/blocks (the holes are drilled 0.35mm to give a sense of size)
I had already soldered stubs of 0.33mm brass wire into the chassis for these to hang from, so each was located on its wire and soldered into position being careful to ensure that they were close to the wheel tyre but not touching (for binding reasons rather than electrical shorting, as being a split chassis it doesn't matter if they touch the wheels from an electrical point of view).
The pull rods were formed from 0.008" nickel silver. The holes (0.35mm dia) for the cross shafts were drilled (very) close to the edge of the sheet, then the opposite edge of the pull rod was scored and bent back and forth to snap off the pull rod (the bit with the 3 holes in it was held in the vice for this operation to keep the pull rod straight). The scored/snapped edge was cleaned up with fine emery and the rod cut to length. It was then a simple matter of fitting the pull rods to the hangers with more 0.33mm brass wire for the cross shafts.
The Tender brakes in position on the chassis. I still have to make a representation of the "L" shaped chunk of metal that converted the vertical motion imparted by the brake handle to the horizontal push/pull on the rods.
And a view from underneath (after the cross shafts have been severed to preserve electrical isolation of each half of the chassis).
And what it all looks like with the body sitting on top.
The next thing to be tackled was the leading steps. These were fretted from more 0.008" and soldered into position behind the footplate valance. On the rear steps I had made the steps themselves from pieces of 0.004" nickel silver bent to an L along their middle to represent the step and its upstand. The real things had an upstand on the ends as well (as I had done on the engine, and by comparison the tender steps just didn't look right), so I decided to remove the steps from the rear and re-make them when I added the front steps. Again, they were made from 0.004", a score along the middle allowed the strip to be bent at 90 degrees, but before this bend was made, I cut little noggins out of the ends of the metal that was to represent the upstands to allow the end of the step piece to be bent upright to represent the end upstands. The step was then bent along the score line to form a little complete step. Several minutes were then taken to coax these little blighters into place. Hopefully, comparison of the photo above and below will show what I think is an improvement to the rear steps.
The current state of play of the tender body. The front steps have been added, as have the handrails on the rear corners of the tank. I've just noticed that I've left the handrail knobs for the tank front poked into the holes there (not fixed yet). The tank top bulkhead has also been fretted/filed and fitted in place on the tank top. Finally the holes for the brake standards have been drilled on the footplate.
I've now got to the stage where I can make a list of all the things that I need to make/add for the project. Some of these are shown below.
The first of the "fiddly's" : Handrail knobs - twists of fine phosphor bronze wire (annealed over a lighter flame before twisting); Tender Brake Standards - relatively simple turnings on the lathe from 1.5mm dia brass rod, a notch filed across the top and a bit of bent guitar string soldered into the notch (It probably took longer to solder the wire in place correctly than it did to turn the standards!!); Tender Sandboxes - Filed from 3mm square brass bar, and cut to length, hole drilled in top to accept a domed piece of brass rod (filed to about 1.2mm diameter) to represent the filler cap. A standard coin of the realm to give indication of size of the "fiddly's"!
That's it for this update. Thanks for looking.
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
A little more work on the GWR 2500 gallon tender...
The coal rails have been made and added, these are 0.33mm brass wire taped down and small 0.004" brackets soldered in place with 188 degree solder. The positions of the brackets were marked on the paper which the wire had been taped, the middle bracket (the one that is on the rails on the tender rear) was made so that it wrapped around the wire to make sure it won't come adrift in a later process - the top lamp socket needs to be fixed to this bracket when I come to add these details.
Once all the brackets were secure, the rear corners in the length of coal rails were bent around a 2.5mm drill at the corners to a 90 degree bend - I had to apply the iron to that middle bracket to slide it over by about 0.015" to get it central on the tank. The bottom legs of the brackets were then splayed inwards so that they fitted against the inside of the tender flare, and any excess length snipped off so that the rails sat at a suitable height above the tender flare. The forward ends of the coal rails were then measured against the tender sides and bent down so that they could be attached to the inside of the flare and again excess length snipped off. It was then a relatively simple matter of attaching the coal rail assembly to the tender flare by the attached brackets - this was done with 70 degree solder. Finally, the tops of the brackets were filed flush with the top coal rail (with the exception of the one on the back rail which had been wrapped around the rail).
The next task was to add the D shaped filler on the tank top behind the rear bulkhead. Some scrap 8mm square brass bar was milled down to be about 3mm thick and 5mm wide and the D shaped end carefully filed at one end. The filed block was then sweated onto a scrap piece of 0.008", which was then filed back to leave a small lip around the sides and D shaped end of the filler. A couple of 0.3mm holes were drilled in the top to accommodate a handle made from a bit of 36SWG phosphor bronze wire, and 0.004" hinges were soldered on a few mm back. These hinges were made as a pair by filing up a U shaped piece of 0.004", the ends of the U being folded out slightly and soldered in place with more 70 degree solder before the bottom of the U was snapped off and the attached hinges cleaned up with a fine file.
A couple of photos of the tender sporting its coal rails and D shaped filler :
The current state of the tender with its newly added coal rails and D filler. Evident in the photos is the "special strong" bracket on the rear rail which has been wrapped around the top rail for strength - Eventually, the top lamp socket will be attached to this bracket.
A little work on the engine part of the project has been done too - the holes for the handrails have all been drilled around the boiler and smokebox, and the washout plugs have been added on the firebox wrapper! The positions for the latter were carefully marked, and then drilled 0.4mm. Using these holes for guidance, a 0.8mm drill was then run into the holes for a a few thou - making sure that the drill didn't break all the way through the thickness of the boiler tube. To make the plugs themselves, some 0.4mm copper wire had its last mm or two squashed square in a pair of pliers, the very end cut off to leave a (fairly) undistorted squared off end. Then a piece about 3mm long was cut off and the squared off end bent at right angles and poked into the 0.4mm hole in the firebox side from the inside and secured with cyano. The photo below shows the end result - I think its made the world of difference to what would otherwise have been a pretty bland firebox side.
Current state of the boiler sub-assembly with the newly added washout plugs.
Thanks for looking
Ian
The coal rails have been made and added, these are 0.33mm brass wire taped down and small 0.004" brackets soldered in place with 188 degree solder. The positions of the brackets were marked on the paper which the wire had been taped, the middle bracket (the one that is on the rails on the tender rear) was made so that it wrapped around the wire to make sure it won't come adrift in a later process - the top lamp socket needs to be fixed to this bracket when I come to add these details.
Once all the brackets were secure, the rear corners in the length of coal rails were bent around a 2.5mm drill at the corners to a 90 degree bend - I had to apply the iron to that middle bracket to slide it over by about 0.015" to get it central on the tank. The bottom legs of the brackets were then splayed inwards so that they fitted against the inside of the tender flare, and any excess length snipped off so that the rails sat at a suitable height above the tender flare. The forward ends of the coal rails were then measured against the tender sides and bent down so that they could be attached to the inside of the flare and again excess length snipped off. It was then a relatively simple matter of attaching the coal rail assembly to the tender flare by the attached brackets - this was done with 70 degree solder. Finally, the tops of the brackets were filed flush with the top coal rail (with the exception of the one on the back rail which had been wrapped around the rail).
The next task was to add the D shaped filler on the tank top behind the rear bulkhead. Some scrap 8mm square brass bar was milled down to be about 3mm thick and 5mm wide and the D shaped end carefully filed at one end. The filed block was then sweated onto a scrap piece of 0.008", which was then filed back to leave a small lip around the sides and D shaped end of the filler. A couple of 0.3mm holes were drilled in the top to accommodate a handle made from a bit of 36SWG phosphor bronze wire, and 0.004" hinges were soldered on a few mm back. These hinges were made as a pair by filing up a U shaped piece of 0.004", the ends of the U being folded out slightly and soldered in place with more 70 degree solder before the bottom of the U was snapped off and the attached hinges cleaned up with a fine file.
A couple of photos of the tender sporting its coal rails and D shaped filler :
The current state of the tender with its newly added coal rails and D filler. Evident in the photos is the "special strong" bracket on the rear rail which has been wrapped around the top rail for strength - Eventually, the top lamp socket will be attached to this bracket.
A little work on the engine part of the project has been done too - the holes for the handrails have all been drilled around the boiler and smokebox, and the washout plugs have been added on the firebox wrapper! The positions for the latter were carefully marked, and then drilled 0.4mm. Using these holes for guidance, a 0.8mm drill was then run into the holes for a a few thou - making sure that the drill didn't break all the way through the thickness of the boiler tube. To make the plugs themselves, some 0.4mm copper wire had its last mm or two squashed square in a pair of pliers, the very end cut off to leave a (fairly) undistorted squared off end. Then a piece about 3mm long was cut off and the squared off end bent at right angles and poked into the 0.4mm hole in the firebox side from the inside and secured with cyano. The photo below shows the end result - I think its made the world of difference to what would otherwise have been a pretty bland firebox side.
Current state of the boiler sub-assembly with the newly added washout plugs.
Thanks for looking
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
A little more work on the Tender for the Dean Goods...
The front handrails have been added, along with the previously made brake stanchions and toolboxes. The next task was to add the axleboxes. The Association used to sell two varieties of white metal castings for GWR Tender axleboxes, unfortunately the only ones still stocked are the heavier variety which are more suited to the tenders behind Kings and Castles. Guess which ones I've got in my gloat box!!! Therefore, I had to cobble together some lighter variety suitable for a 2500 gallon tender - I decided to use some N Brass SR axleboxes that I had (simply because the springs were the right length). The axleboxes themselves aren't quite right, the springs are a little to heavy (being almost flat across the top), and the spring cups at the bottom of the links hanging down from the spring ends are incredibly anaemic! However, attacking the spring tops with a file soon sorted the spring shape, and a little surgery to remove the spring cups yielded something that looked OK. Before they could be fitted though, I needed to reinstate the spring cups so an hour or so on the lathe produced 15 new spring cups (only need 12 but some sacrificial extras for the carpet monster is always a good call)
The N Brass SR axle box castings, top 3 as they come, bottom 3 after thinning the springs and removing the spring cups. On the right are a couple of my turned spring cups (the two spares that I didn't lose to the carpet monster).
The spring cups were carefully soldered into the angle of the frames where the "W Iron" part meets the top half of the frame.
All 12 spring cups soldered into position in the angles of the lower frames - they have been soldered in place with more than half of the spring cup outside the frame.
I then moved on to fitting the lamp sockets on the tender rear. The real things were probably cast, and bolted in place. They were roughly a cube of 4 - 5" with a square hole through them for the lamp spigot and part of the casting was a plate extending backwards to allow them to be bolted onto the footplate. I must admit that mine are a bit beefier than the 0.7 or 0.8mm cubes that they should be, I file 1mm square brass down to 0.9mm, file a step in the end of the bar to represent the fixing plate, drill a 0.3mm hole through them for my lamp spigot (I really do have ModelU lamps that I can move around so that my trains have the correct head codes! Although I will admit that my spigot is a bit of round wire rather than a tapered square peg). The embryonic lamp socket is almost severed from the end of the bar so that the rest of the bar can be snapped off once the socket has been soldered in position (if the whole socket comes off when I try to snap it off I know that my solder joint was useless and needs to be remade
).
An embryonic lamp socket prior to soldering in place. The brass bar is 0.9mm square.
The socket soldered in place on the coal rail prior to snapping off the rest of the bar.
The completed lamp socket after cleaning up with a fine file.
Finally, a couple of photos of the current state of the tender :
The only things left to add now are the toolboxes, and the mushroom vents on top of the tanks - I'm not completely convinced that all tenders had the latter, they are certainly not evident in many of the photos of 2500 gallon tenders around the turn of the century, but then most of the tenders seem to have huge piles of coal on them that probably cover the vents anyway, certainly the photo I have of DG No.2569 (the DG I'm trying to model) is in that situation.
Thanks for looking
Ian
The front handrails have been added, along with the previously made brake stanchions and toolboxes. The next task was to add the axleboxes. The Association used to sell two varieties of white metal castings for GWR Tender axleboxes, unfortunately the only ones still stocked are the heavier variety which are more suited to the tenders behind Kings and Castles. Guess which ones I've got in my gloat box!!! Therefore, I had to cobble together some lighter variety suitable for a 2500 gallon tender - I decided to use some N Brass SR axleboxes that I had (simply because the springs were the right length). The axleboxes themselves aren't quite right, the springs are a little to heavy (being almost flat across the top), and the spring cups at the bottom of the links hanging down from the spring ends are incredibly anaemic! However, attacking the spring tops with a file soon sorted the spring shape, and a little surgery to remove the spring cups yielded something that looked OK. Before they could be fitted though, I needed to reinstate the spring cups so an hour or so on the lathe produced 15 new spring cups (only need 12 but some sacrificial extras for the carpet monster is always a good call)
The N Brass SR axle box castings, top 3 as they come, bottom 3 after thinning the springs and removing the spring cups. On the right are a couple of my turned spring cups (the two spares that I didn't lose to the carpet monster).
The spring cups were carefully soldered into the angle of the frames where the "W Iron" part meets the top half of the frame.
All 12 spring cups soldered into position in the angles of the lower frames - they have been soldered in place with more than half of the spring cup outside the frame.
I then moved on to fitting the lamp sockets on the tender rear. The real things were probably cast, and bolted in place. They were roughly a cube of 4 - 5" with a square hole through them for the lamp spigot and part of the casting was a plate extending backwards to allow them to be bolted onto the footplate. I must admit that mine are a bit beefier than the 0.7 or 0.8mm cubes that they should be, I file 1mm square brass down to 0.9mm, file a step in the end of the bar to represent the fixing plate, drill a 0.3mm hole through them for my lamp spigot (I really do have ModelU lamps that I can move around so that my trains have the correct head codes! Although I will admit that my spigot is a bit of round wire rather than a tapered square peg). The embryonic lamp socket is almost severed from the end of the bar so that the rest of the bar can be snapped off once the socket has been soldered in position (if the whole socket comes off when I try to snap it off I know that my solder joint was useless and needs to be remade
An embryonic lamp socket prior to soldering in place. The brass bar is 0.9mm square.
The socket soldered in place on the coal rail prior to snapping off the rest of the bar.
The completed lamp socket after cleaning up with a fine file.
Finally, a couple of photos of the current state of the tender :
The only things left to add now are the toolboxes, and the mushroom vents on top of the tanks - I'm not completely convinced that all tenders had the latter, they are certainly not evident in many of the photos of 2500 gallon tenders around the turn of the century, but then most of the tenders seem to have huge piles of coal on them that probably cover the vents anyway, certainly the photo I have of DG No.2569 (the DG I'm trying to model) is in that situation.
Thanks for looking
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
With the tender for the Dean Goods getting close to completion, I decided it was about time I returned to the engine portion of the combination.
Not really a huge amount left to do, but I do have a tick list which I now need to work through. First on that list were the footplate sandboxes, I have always considered these little items to be quite a noticeable aspect of the front end of a Dean Goods - they appear to sit on a little plinth, have rounded off corners, and the lid has a little knob for a handle. Below is an image of what I am trying to achieve :
In model form these sandboxes are a little over 3mm x 2mm x 1.5mm high. The first step was to file up a pair of solid pieces of brass to the aforementioned size, which were then soldered onto a bit of 0.010" scrap etch for the plinth. The plinth was then filed back to size to stand 0.010" proud on all sides. A hole was then drilled centrally through the sandboxes for a phosphor bronze pin which would form 3 functions, it would be filed to provide the distinctive knob, it would serve to hold everything together when I fitted the lid, and also provide a mounting peg. For the lid, the end of a piece of silver steel bar was filed to the shape of the lid (an oval about 2mm long by 1.5mm wide), this was then used to punch out a pair of lids from 0.004" nickel silver, in turn, these were drilled and broached accommodate the previously mentioned phosphor bronze wire (which had had the end filed to the shape of the knob in a mini drill). It was then a simple matter of threading the plinth, sandbox body and lid onto the PB wire knob and soldering the lot together - to make it a bit easier, the plinth and body were held together with 188 degree solder, and the lid and knob added with 145 degree paste. The final task with these little fixings was to add the lamp sockets. These were again filed down from 1mm square brass rod to 0.8mm square, a mounting spigot was turned , and then a 0.3mm hole drilled through the "cube" on the end of the mounting spigot for the lamp spigot, before then being cut off the end of the bar with a piercing saw. The lamp sockets were soldered into holes drilled in the front face of the sandboxes with low melt solder. The finished sandboxes can be seen in the photo below :
And a final photo of what they look like plonked in place in holes in the footplate :
Thanks for looking.
Ian
Not really a huge amount left to do, but I do have a tick list which I now need to work through. First on that list were the footplate sandboxes, I have always considered these little items to be quite a noticeable aspect of the front end of a Dean Goods - they appear to sit on a little plinth, have rounded off corners, and the lid has a little knob for a handle. Below is an image of what I am trying to achieve :
In model form these sandboxes are a little over 3mm x 2mm x 1.5mm high. The first step was to file up a pair of solid pieces of brass to the aforementioned size, which were then soldered onto a bit of 0.010" scrap etch for the plinth. The plinth was then filed back to size to stand 0.010" proud on all sides. A hole was then drilled centrally through the sandboxes for a phosphor bronze pin which would form 3 functions, it would be filed to provide the distinctive knob, it would serve to hold everything together when I fitted the lid, and also provide a mounting peg. For the lid, the end of a piece of silver steel bar was filed to the shape of the lid (an oval about 2mm long by 1.5mm wide), this was then used to punch out a pair of lids from 0.004" nickel silver, in turn, these were drilled and broached accommodate the previously mentioned phosphor bronze wire (which had had the end filed to the shape of the knob in a mini drill). It was then a simple matter of threading the plinth, sandbox body and lid onto the PB wire knob and soldering the lot together - to make it a bit easier, the plinth and body were held together with 188 degree solder, and the lid and knob added with 145 degree paste. The final task with these little fixings was to add the lamp sockets. These were again filed down from 1mm square brass rod to 0.8mm square, a mounting spigot was turned , and then a 0.3mm hole drilled through the "cube" on the end of the mounting spigot for the lamp spigot, before then being cut off the end of the bar with a piercing saw. The lamp sockets were soldered into holes drilled in the front face of the sandboxes with low melt solder. The finished sandboxes can be seen in the photo below :
And a final photo of what they look like plonked in place in holes in the footplate :
Thanks for looking.
Ian
Grahame Hedges
Western Thunderer
Some incredibly fine and impressive model making. How many hours have been invested so far and how far off completion (painted and running) is it?
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
Grahame,
Thank you for your kind comments.
Because for me railway modelling is very much a hobby, I never record how many hours I spend on a project. I started the build in late March, and by no means have I worked on it every day since then.
As to when it will be finished, my driving factor is that Modbury in theory should be at the Aldershot exhibition in October, so my aim is to finish it by then. However, the amount of work left is of the detail variety so by definition can take time to make and add, having said that I have made a list and am working through it, a quick look on that list reveals nothing that will take hours to make and fit (although very often it takes longer to fit an item than it does to make it - the lamp sockets were an example of that).
One of the things that can prolong my projects is that I am a bit of a butterfly modeller, an example of this is that I have just made a start on a couple of clerestory coaches even though the Dean Goods could actually be completed in less that a fortnight if I put my mind to it!
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
As a bit of a break from the Dean Goods, over the last couple of days I've also been working on coaches...
The first is a GWR Diagram C4 scratch aid from Worsley Works. The kits provides the sides and ends of the main body and the same for the clerestory, and usefully provides a starting point for the underframe (floor, solebars, headstocks and top step). There are a couple of issues with the model as provided, the first is that the C4 coach was one of those that had a 3-arc roof profile for the main roof, but the clerestory had a plain arc profile (the kit has 3-arc profiles for both rooves). My solution was to re-profile the clerestory ends to an arc profile with files (unfortunately, the panelling on the end retains the 3-arc profile but I don't think that it's too noticeable under the eaves of the roof). The second issue is very simple to resolve as it relates to the positions of the holes for the bogie pivots - they are too far apart, so new holes were marked and drilled at the prototypical 23'2".
The sides for the main body and clerestory were prepared before separating from the fret by soldering on all of the vents above the doors. Unfortunately, the kit only provides sufficient for the body sides and a couple of extras, luckily however I had a separate small etch from Allan which contained nothing but vents which I used for the clerestory. Once separated, the tumblehome was formed in my usual manner of thumb pressure over a suitable piece of steel bar. Once the ends and sides of the main body were assembled, a piece of 0.005" brass was cut to size and formed to shape over more steel bars and soldered in place. The clerestory sides and ends were then assembled in place on the roof. Because the clerestory needs to be glazed, and also because I needed to get inside it to solder the roof on, I drilled a couple of holes in the roof within the confines of the clerestory then fretted and filed out two large holes (a bridging piece was left across the middle of the clerestory for strength) to allow access from the inside to solder on the clerestory roof which was also made from a piece of 0.005" brass formed over a steel bar.
Current state of the C4 bogie coach (although I have sanded back the edges of the roof since the photo was taken as I felt the roof overhung the sides too much) - The next step will be to drill the holes for the door handles and sweat on all of the G scroll handles (both from N Brass). I always attach these before painting, preferring to scrape back to bare brass before applying decals and varnish.
The other coach that has been worked up is another for my train of 6-wheel coaches, and is another from my own artwork. It is another diagram S6, but this time I've built it with oil lamps for variety.
-a.JPG.8232023b1bb70ec9130e0c445eb2a4f9.JPG)
The non-step end illustrating the coupling I've used on both my 4-wheeled set and 6-wheeled sets of coaches. It is supposed to represent the vacuum pipe, but I do fit it centrally rather than off to one side, but it works well with coaches that only have a 0.010" thick headstock.
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The step end of the coach. As this will be the outer end of the set (for now) it has a DG coupling soldered below the headstock (although the latch won't be fitted until after painting as I've done that before and had no end of trouble extricating it from the maskol that I'll be applying to protect the coupling)
-c.JPG.75bb19847d347979ee3f4fd254c96ebd.JPG)
The new coach alongside her sister S6 which is sporting gas lamps (with just the single feed pipe). Just about visible is the way the two coaches are connected by the vacuum pipe coupling.
Thanks for looking.
Ian
The first is a GWR Diagram C4 scratch aid from Worsley Works. The kits provides the sides and ends of the main body and the same for the clerestory, and usefully provides a starting point for the underframe (floor, solebars, headstocks and top step). There are a couple of issues with the model as provided, the first is that the C4 coach was one of those that had a 3-arc roof profile for the main roof, but the clerestory had a plain arc profile (the kit has 3-arc profiles for both rooves). My solution was to re-profile the clerestory ends to an arc profile with files (unfortunately, the panelling on the end retains the 3-arc profile but I don't think that it's too noticeable under the eaves of the roof). The second issue is very simple to resolve as it relates to the positions of the holes for the bogie pivots - they are too far apart, so new holes were marked and drilled at the prototypical 23'2".
The sides for the main body and clerestory were prepared before separating from the fret by soldering on all of the vents above the doors. Unfortunately, the kit only provides sufficient for the body sides and a couple of extras, luckily however I had a separate small etch from Allan which contained nothing but vents which I used for the clerestory. Once separated, the tumblehome was formed in my usual manner of thumb pressure over a suitable piece of steel bar. Once the ends and sides of the main body were assembled, a piece of 0.005" brass was cut to size and formed to shape over more steel bars and soldered in place. The clerestory sides and ends were then assembled in place on the roof. Because the clerestory needs to be glazed, and also because I needed to get inside it to solder the roof on, I drilled a couple of holes in the roof within the confines of the clerestory then fretted and filed out two large holes (a bridging piece was left across the middle of the clerestory for strength) to allow access from the inside to solder on the clerestory roof which was also made from a piece of 0.005" brass formed over a steel bar.
Current state of the C4 bogie coach (although I have sanded back the edges of the roof since the photo was taken as I felt the roof overhung the sides too much) - The next step will be to drill the holes for the door handles and sweat on all of the G scroll handles (both from N Brass). I always attach these before painting, preferring to scrape back to bare brass before applying decals and varnish.
The other coach that has been worked up is another for my train of 6-wheel coaches, and is another from my own artwork. It is another diagram S6, but this time I've built it with oil lamps for variety.
The non-step end illustrating the coupling I've used on both my 4-wheeled set and 6-wheeled sets of coaches. It is supposed to represent the vacuum pipe, but I do fit it centrally rather than off to one side, but it works well with coaches that only have a 0.010" thick headstock.
The step end of the coach. As this will be the outer end of the set (for now) it has a DG coupling soldered below the headstock (although the latch won't be fitted until after painting as I've done that before and had no end of trouble extricating it from the maskol that I'll be applying to protect the coupling)
The new coach alongside her sister S6 which is sporting gas lamps (with just the single feed pipe). Just about visible is the way the two coaches are connected by the vacuum pipe coupling.
Thanks for looking.
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
A little more progress on the Dean Goods...
She has had a visit to the paint shops, being sprayed green (Precision Paints GWR 1881-1906 Loco Green), once dry, masking tape was deployed so that the Indian Red could be deployed on the splashers, toolboxes and everything below the footplate. The tender received similar paint coverage before the blackwork could be tackled by brush. Finally, the buffer beams were brush painted too.
Then came the bit that in my eyes brings an Edwardian loco to life, the lining!!
Being a bit of a chicken, I decided to use Fox transfers for as much of the lining as I could - Boiler Bands on the loco, and all of the lining on the tender. The following image shows where I'm up to...
Yesterday, I tackled the boiler band lining, and because the Midland Area group had a ZOOM meeting last night, below is the image I shared in our "show and tell".
Today, I've tackled one side of the tender, and offer the following pair of photos as evidence to the jury.
A coin of the realm has been included to give a sense of scale
There is still quite a bit to do yet, the engine needs the cab sides lining, a pair of whistles making and fitting, and also the brass spectacle rims. She also needs brake gear, guard irons, etc making and fitting below the footplate. The tender toolboxes need to be made too, and I might see if I can nudge some of the vertical lining transfers slightly to better disguise the overlaps before it all gets a coat of varnish.
Thanks for looking
Ian
She has had a visit to the paint shops, being sprayed green (Precision Paints GWR 1881-1906 Loco Green), once dry, masking tape was deployed so that the Indian Red could be deployed on the splashers, toolboxes and everything below the footplate. The tender received similar paint coverage before the blackwork could be tackled by brush. Finally, the buffer beams were brush painted too.
Then came the bit that in my eyes brings an Edwardian loco to life, the lining!!
Being a bit of a chicken, I decided to use Fox transfers for as much of the lining as I could - Boiler Bands on the loco, and all of the lining on the tender. The following image shows where I'm up to...
Yesterday, I tackled the boiler band lining, and because the Midland Area group had a ZOOM meeting last night, below is the image I shared in our "show and tell".
Today, I've tackled one side of the tender, and offer the following pair of photos as evidence to the jury.
A coin of the realm has been included to give a sense of scale
There is still quite a bit to do yet, the engine needs the cab sides lining, a pair of whistles making and fitting, and also the brass spectacle rims. She also needs brake gear, guard irons, etc making and fitting below the footplate. The tender toolboxes need to be made too, and I might see if I can nudge some of the vertical lining transfers slightly to better disguise the overlaps before it all gets a coat of varnish.
Thanks for looking
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
The lining on the Dean Goods has now been completed, and brass spectacle rims have been turned up and fitted (secured with satin varnish).
The cab side lining was a bit of a pig to do - The straight sections and curved corners were done with Fox transfers, but the curved sections above the splashers and around the cab side openings were what caused the problems (as I expected really!). I initially tried to do both with a bow compass, and to be honest made a complete mess. It was therefore necessary to strip it all back off, which meant re-applying the green too. I decided to do this by brush painting a couple of thinned coats rather than trying to mask everything back up and re-spray. With the transfers re-applied, the curved sections that caused such problems were tackled by brush painting. The orange was applied first, and neatened as best I could by use of a thinners moistened brush to lift off the paint to give as good an edge as I could. Once fully dry, a fine black line was brushed on down the middle of the orange, again a moistened brush was deployed to try to get it as neat as I could. Whilst by no means perfect, I think it's as good as I can make it, and doesn't look too bad under normal viewing (if you squint and look out of the corner of your eye
). Seriously though, I'm pretty happy even though the digital camera is quite unkind!
Below are a couple of photos of the current state of affairs. She now needs to be boxed up and salted safely away pending a house move in the next couple of weeks.
There is still quite a bit to do to get her finished - tool boxes and coal in the tender, brake gear, whistles and cab interior on the engine. Of course she needs her number plates too, which have been ordered from Narrow Planet, but I'm not expecting them anytime soon.
For me she is a bit of a milestone. Partly because she is my first tender engine, but mainly because before I gave up trying to model in 2mm scale in the late 80's early 90's I had tried to build a Dean Goods (albeit in 1930's guise), but had failed because I couldn't get the chassis to run.
Thanks for looking
Ian
The cab side lining was a bit of a pig to do - The straight sections and curved corners were done with Fox transfers, but the curved sections above the splashers and around the cab side openings were what caused the problems (as I expected really!). I initially tried to do both with a bow compass, and to be honest made a complete mess. It was therefore necessary to strip it all back off, which meant re-applying the green too. I decided to do this by brush painting a couple of thinned coats rather than trying to mask everything back up and re-spray. With the transfers re-applied, the curved sections that caused such problems were tackled by brush painting. The orange was applied first, and neatened as best I could by use of a thinners moistened brush to lift off the paint to give as good an edge as I could. Once fully dry, a fine black line was brushed on down the middle of the orange, again a moistened brush was deployed to try to get it as neat as I could. Whilst by no means perfect, I think it's as good as I can make it, and doesn't look too bad under normal viewing (if you squint and look out of the corner of your eye
Below are a couple of photos of the current state of affairs. She now needs to be boxed up and salted safely away pending a house move in the next couple of weeks.
There is still quite a bit to do to get her finished - tool boxes and coal in the tender, brake gear, whistles and cab interior on the engine. Of course she needs her number plates too, which have been ordered from Narrow Planet, but I'm not expecting them anytime soon.
For me she is a bit of a milestone. Partly because she is my first tender engine, but mainly because before I gave up trying to model in 2mm scale in the late 80's early 90's I had tried to build a Dean Goods (albeit in 1930's guise), but had failed because I couldn't get the chassis to run.
Thanks for looking
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
Can You Guess What It Is Yet???
A few weeks ago while working on my Dean Goods, I discovered in my gloat box another set of six 10mm drivers of the old cast white metal centre/nickel silver tyre variety dating back to the 1980's/early 90's, and I also had a 7mm pair of the Mk IV brass centred/steel tyre pony truck wheels. It seemed churlish not to make some use of these "finds", so following the announcement in the last 2mm Mag newsletter that the Association had a stock of the Tramfabriek 6mm and 7mm motors, I decided last week to place an order with Shop 3.
Over the last couple of days some 6mm square brass and a 1mm thick strip of brass have been bolted together, drilled, milled and filed to form an embryonic chassis - there is still a fair bit more milling and filing to be done, but I like to make sure that I have a working chassis before I start any further hacking chunks out of bits of brass. The motor is the 6mm diameter one, and the worm and associated gear are real relics from a bygone Association age, being a 36:1 set comprising a steel worm (possibly 2BA studding with a central hole!) and brass gear wheel (with straight cut rather than helical teeth). Whatever its pedigree, it seems to work! Motor temporarily held on chassis with a couple of lumps of blu-tac, and leads touching PP3 terminals.
Thank you for looking
Ian
A few weeks ago while working on my Dean Goods, I discovered in my gloat box another set of six 10mm drivers of the old cast white metal centre/nickel silver tyre variety dating back to the 1980's/early 90's, and I also had a 7mm pair of the Mk IV brass centred/steel tyre pony truck wheels. It seemed churlish not to make some use of these "finds", so following the announcement in the last 2mm Mag newsletter that the Association had a stock of the Tramfabriek 6mm and 7mm motors, I decided last week to place an order with Shop 3.
Over the last couple of days some 6mm square brass and a 1mm thick strip of brass have been bolted together, drilled, milled and filed to form an embryonic chassis - there is still a fair bit more milling and filing to be done, but I like to make sure that I have a working chassis before I start any further hacking chunks out of bits of brass. The motor is the 6mm diameter one, and the worm and associated gear are real relics from a bygone Association age, being a 36:1 set comprising a steel worm (possibly 2BA studding with a central hole!) and brass gear wheel (with straight cut rather than helical teeth). Whatever its pedigree, it seems to work! Motor temporarily held on chassis with a couple of lumps of blu-tac, and leads touching PP3 terminals.
Thank you for looking
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
This morning has seen a little bit of gardening being done on Modbury. I've made a couple of little beds to go under the running in boards on the up and down platforms. The base of each "garden" is a piece of 0.030" black plasticard, around which bits of broken coal were super-glued. Once dry, the coal was given a couple of coats of Humbrol Matt White. Strips of 0.010" plasticard were added across the back of each bed and painted Precision Paints Weathered Sleepers. Once the ground surface had been given a painting of earth colour, planting could begin.
Small pieces of Woodland Scenics were glued within the "stones" to represent low growing plants, while small lengths of postiche were glued together in bunches to represent the stems of roses - once dry, the bunches were pruned, and dabs of PVA applied to the stems and the plant dunked in a bag of scatter material. This latter action was repeated until I felt I had a rose-looking structure. Once the PVA had dried, the rose flowers were added with thick Humbrol paint (the pigment from an un-stirred tin, I keep my tiniest of paint upside down so the pigment settles on the lid). What tends to happen is that some of the scatter material gets picked up on the end of the brush, so these were carefully swished about in a little thinned paint, then re-applied to the plant stems. A representation of delphiniums was done in a similar manner to the roses but this time using Woodland Scenics "field grass" for the stems which are lengths of pre-coloured straight fibres about 2" long.
The results are captured in a couple of phone snaps below :
Bed on the Down Platform
Bed on the Up Platform
Thanks for looking
Ian
Small pieces of Woodland Scenics were glued within the "stones" to represent low growing plants, while small lengths of postiche were glued together in bunches to represent the stems of roses - once dry, the bunches were pruned, and dabs of PVA applied to the stems and the plant dunked in a bag of scatter material. This latter action was repeated until I felt I had a rose-looking structure. Once the PVA had dried, the rose flowers were added with thick Humbrol paint (the pigment from an un-stirred tin, I keep my tiniest of paint upside down so the pigment settles on the lid). What tends to happen is that some of the scatter material gets picked up on the end of the brush, so these were carefully swished about in a little thinned paint, then re-applied to the plant stems. A representation of delphiniums was done in a similar manner to the roses but this time using Woodland Scenics "field grass" for the stems which are lengths of pre-coloured straight fibres about 2" long.
The results are captured in a couple of phone snaps below :
Bed on the Down Platform
Bed on the Up Platform
Thanks for looking
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
Today I got the camera out to record for posterity some of the recent additions to Modbury ...
An overall view looking in the Plymouth direction illustrate the telegraph poles that have been added - these are at a scale 60 yard separation.
I couldn't resist a view in the opposite direction towards Newton Abbot, this is the view that the operator has. Dean Goods (No.2569) waits for the signal to be lowered before it can continue with a morning passenger train of 6 wheelers.
A slightly closer view of the station area, which gives a bit better view of the yesterdays additions - the rotating point disks connected to the down main to goods loop crossing. As yet, the discs do not rotate as they will need to be connected to servos which will act simultaneously with the memory wire actuators controlling the throw of the point blades.
Finally an image from the archives (?) showing a close up of the signal box environs which provides a much closer view of one of the telegraph poles.
Thanks for looking.
Ian
An overall view looking in the Plymouth direction illustrate the telegraph poles that have been added - these are at a scale 60 yard separation.
I couldn't resist a view in the opposite direction towards Newton Abbot, this is the view that the operator has. Dean Goods (No.2569) waits for the signal to be lowered before it can continue with a morning passenger train of 6 wheelers.
A slightly closer view of the station area, which gives a bit better view of the yesterdays additions - the rotating point disks connected to the down main to goods loop crossing. As yet, the discs do not rotate as they will need to be connected to servos which will act simultaneously with the memory wire actuators controlling the throw of the point blades.
Finally an image from the archives (?) showing a close up of the signal box environs which provides a much closer view of one of the telegraph poles.
Thanks for looking.
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
The number plates for my Dean Goods arrived a couple of days ago from Narrow Planet - never used their services before (all of my other locos feature my own numberplates etched in 0.006" brass), but I am very happy with them. I have secured them to the cab sides with small dabs of satin varnish, and last night took the following photos :
A side on view of the Dean Goods sporting her new numberplates.
Dean Goods no. 2569 doing what she was built for - a contrived shot as the traintables will only allow her to pull a maximum of 9 wagons on the layout.
Same from the other end - the signalman has been pretty damn quick to restore the home signal!!!
Thanks for looking
Ian
A side on view of the Dean Goods sporting her new numberplates.
Dean Goods no. 2569 doing what she was built for - a contrived shot as the traintables will only allow her to pull a maximum of 9 wagons on the layout.
Same from the other end - the signalman has been pretty damn quick to restore the home signal!!!
Thanks for looking
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
A week or two ago on "the other side" I promised to try to post some photos of how I paint my coaches. As I maintain a thread in both places, I felt that folk over here might be interested too, so here goes...
The initial point of course is the priming. I use an etching primer from Halfords. As can be seen my preference is to solder the door handles and grab rails in place before any painting is commenced - I scrape these back to bare brass before the final coat of varnish is applied.
Having masked the roof and brown bits with masking tape, the cream is applied.
Once that's had a chance to thoroughly dry (I generally leave it for a couple of days at least), I then cover the cream area with Humbrol Maskol fluid (I apply this quite thickly with a couple of coats as it becomes much easier to peel off that way). The mouldings help to keep the Maskol roughly where I want it, but occasionally it does stray into what should be a chocolate panel, I try to rectify these indiscretions if I spot them with a cocktail stick but invariably miss one or two places, not that it matters too much as there will almost certainly be some touching up to do later anyway!
The chocolate is then applied and once it's dry the Maskol can be peeled off. The centre door panel shows one of my "indiscretions" with the Maskol!!
After another couple of days of drying time, it's now time to apply the black lining on the moulding. I do this with a 0.01mm Rotring pen and their black ink. Above can be seen the tools used at this stage - a really important piece of the equipment (for me) is the "clamping frame" which holds the model securely while the lining is drawn. This is made from 3 bits of 3/4" MDF, a base, a hand rest (glued to base) and a sliding clamp piece. The depth of the clamp is just right for 2mm scale models.
The coach is clamped in the "clamping frame" in a bed of kitchen roll to protect the model, and the moulding lines picked out with the Rotring pen and a straight edge. The curved corners of the mouldings are touched in freehand afterwards. Again the odd mistake is bound to be made where the pen slips into a cream panel, and this will need to be touched up later with a fine brush and two or three coats of well thinned cream paint.
With the moulding lines drawn, the next stage is to paint the mahogany bolections. The paint is thinned to a consistency where it will flow under capillary action and gravity around the windows - it might be possible to see that when I designed the artwork for this coach that a narrow trough was etched around the window to delineate the bolection which aids the painting of the window surrounds as it acts as a "stop line".
The above image is simply to illustrate the bolection and door droplight painting. Good light and magnification, a pringle lid palette, and a puddle of paint that is regularly topped up with thinners to obtain a consistency that flows around the bolections. The door droplights don't have the luxury (on my etched coaches) of a "stop line", so thicker paint, a steady hand and a fair bit of cleaning up afterwards is required to get these neat!!
The final image in this post shows the coach side after "iteration 1" of the process. I have started to clean up the cream paintwork around the door droplights with a very fine sable brush moistened with thinners to lift off most of the errant mahogany paint. It will be necessary to touch up the cream further into the process!!
It is now a "simple" case of repeating most of the above to obtain a neat finish that I am satisfied with. All being well in a few weeks the coach will be ready to add to the rest of the train :
What I'm aiming for!
Thanks for looking,
Ian
The initial point of course is the priming. I use an etching primer from Halfords. As can be seen my preference is to solder the door handles and grab rails in place before any painting is commenced - I scrape these back to bare brass before the final coat of varnish is applied.
Having masked the roof and brown bits with masking tape, the cream is applied.
Once that's had a chance to thoroughly dry (I generally leave it for a couple of days at least), I then cover the cream area with Humbrol Maskol fluid (I apply this quite thickly with a couple of coats as it becomes much easier to peel off that way). The mouldings help to keep the Maskol roughly where I want it, but occasionally it does stray into what should be a chocolate panel, I try to rectify these indiscretions if I spot them with a cocktail stick but invariably miss one or two places, not that it matters too much as there will almost certainly be some touching up to do later anyway!
The chocolate is then applied and once it's dry the Maskol can be peeled off. The centre door panel shows one of my "indiscretions" with the Maskol!!
After another couple of days of drying time, it's now time to apply the black lining on the moulding. I do this with a 0.01mm Rotring pen and their black ink. Above can be seen the tools used at this stage - a really important piece of the equipment (for me) is the "clamping frame" which holds the model securely while the lining is drawn. This is made from 3 bits of 3/4" MDF, a base, a hand rest (glued to base) and a sliding clamp piece. The depth of the clamp is just right for 2mm scale models.
The coach is clamped in the "clamping frame" in a bed of kitchen roll to protect the model, and the moulding lines picked out with the Rotring pen and a straight edge. The curved corners of the mouldings are touched in freehand afterwards. Again the odd mistake is bound to be made where the pen slips into a cream panel, and this will need to be touched up later with a fine brush and two or three coats of well thinned cream paint.
With the moulding lines drawn, the next stage is to paint the mahogany bolections. The paint is thinned to a consistency where it will flow under capillary action and gravity around the windows - it might be possible to see that when I designed the artwork for this coach that a narrow trough was etched around the window to delineate the bolection which aids the painting of the window surrounds as it acts as a "stop line".
The above image is simply to illustrate the bolection and door droplight painting. Good light and magnification, a pringle lid palette, and a puddle of paint that is regularly topped up with thinners to obtain a consistency that flows around the bolections. The door droplights don't have the luxury (on my etched coaches) of a "stop line", so thicker paint, a steady hand and a fair bit of cleaning up afterwards is required to get these neat!!
The final image in this post shows the coach side after "iteration 1" of the process. I have started to clean up the cream paintwork around the door droplights with a very fine sable brush moistened with thinners to lift off most of the errant mahogany paint. It will be necessary to touch up the cream further into the process!!
It is now a "simple" case of repeating most of the above to obtain a neat finish that I am satisfied with. All being well in a few weeks the coach will be ready to add to the rest of the train :
What I'm aiming for!
Thanks for looking,
Ian
Ian Smith
Western Thunderer
The latest coach is now running off the workbench and onto the Modbury to head the existing train of 6 wheelers there. The iterative approach to painting the exterior has been completed, transfers applied (the "Third" branding for this coach is from the decals supplied by the Association courtesy of work done by John Aldrick, and is in all honesty far superior to the Modelmaster transfers applied to the other coaches on the layout. However, the Association decals do appear a bit thicker but not noticeable in this instance as they are within the small panels in the waists of the doors). As is my want, the door handles and G grab rails were scraped back to bare brass after painting.
The coach has received a protective coach of Precision Paints Satin Varnish, and the glazing is the Cobex sheet again supplied by the Association secured with canopy glue. A rudimentary interior of compartments made up from bits of plastic completes.
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-e.JPG.3bf058414f7adc41e85e61bfc06147bf.JPG)
The curly bit of wire on one end of the coach is my way of joining my coaches together in rakes, hopefully representing the vacuum pipe!
The photos are rather cruel close ups as the finished model is a mere 56mm long.
Thanks for looking.
Ian
The coach has received a protective coach of Precision Paints Satin Varnish, and the glazing is the Cobex sheet again supplied by the Association secured with canopy glue. A rudimentary interior of compartments made up from bits of plastic completes.
The curly bit of wire on one end of the coach is my way of joining my coaches together in rakes, hopefully representing the vacuum pipe!
The photos are rather cruel close ups as the finished model is a mere 56mm long.
Thanks for looking.
Ian