4mm Monks: perhaps NOT a Classic Minories - for a grandchild.

[John57sharp]

Oh I do hope you manage to do that! Sounds brilliant.

John

 

[Roger Pound]

Jon,

Have you considered Peco 0 gauge GWR pattern fencing - it's just a thought for your gates which could be easier than trying to stick two small ones together. On the down side it could perhaps be just a little too large. To the best of my ability, it measures 31mm high, or a gnats whisker off eight scale feet in 00. If you are not familiar with it, the moulding is very fine and to a high standard, but requires delicate handling to avoid breakage. Hattons have it, ref Peco LK741 at £11 a packet which gives you 890mm plus some gates.
Just a thought .

Cheers,
Roger.

 

[jonte]

The first beam rolls of the production line:



It’s as accurate as I can make it, fellow Westerners. Hopefully the shadow it creates should hide a multitude of sins.

The holes for the longitudinal rods can be seen just above the brass rod in each of the two hangers.

Had intended to use two-part epoxy to adhere the brass to the plastic, but the superglue in the kitchen fridge saved a trip down the garden. Time will tell if it maintains a strong bond, but the UHU brand I’ve used has proved okay in the past.

Now to complete the other seven, then string them all together.

Jonte

 

[jonte]

Jon,

Have you considered Peco 0 gauge GWR pattern fencing - it's just a thought for your gates which could be easier than trying to stick two small ones together. On the down side it could perhaps be just a little too large. To the best of my ability, it measures 31mm high, or a gnats whisker off eight scale feet in 00. If you are not familiar with it, the moulding is very fine and to a high standard, but requires delicate handling to avoid breakage. Hattons have it, ref Peco LK741 at £11 a packet which gives you 890mm plus some gates.
Just a thought .



Cheers,
Roger.

Hiya, Roger, and thank you for your valuable suggestion

I did indeed, as they were also my first thought (you found a better deal than me online, a tad under thirteen quid was my best price ). It was when I saw the bargain price of the OO gauge versions that I changed my mind, plus it piqued my interest when I thought about incorporating the miles of Ratio stuff I’ve got lying round, and getting my modelling juices going to boot

That said, the square tubing I have is a tad on the large side and would suit the larger Peco product better so there could be a reversion to plan A yet

Watch this space and thanks once again, Roger

Jon

 

[simond]

Ellipse - Two drawing pins and a loop of thickish cotton, or button thread!

 

[jonte]

Oh I do hope you manage to do that! Sounds brilliant.

John

Apologies for the late reply, John, as I’ve only just noticed it

I’ll try even harder now

Cheers,

Jonte

 

[jonte]

Ellipse - Two drawing pins and a loop of thickish cotton, or button thread!

Thanks, Simon

Jonte

 

[jonte]

And so construction of the roof begins, fellow Westerners. I’m afraid this method was the best I could come up with:



I’m sure there are far better ways of doing this; just praying it comes out straight ‘n’ true.

Keen to get everything so, I managed to place the two (baulk?) timbers the wrong way up - thin side should be flat to the surface, not the fat. Not the best of starts. Ah well,I’ve started so I’ll finish as the cliche goes. Perhaps if I ever build another, I’ll remember to get it the right way round .

Cheers for now.

Jonte

 

[jonte]

Because the graph paper I’m using as a guide to keep things in line isn’t quite long enough, fellow Westerners, I’ve decided to build the eight internal beams in two sections of four:



The next job will be to glue the pairs of baulk timbers - as I’ve christened them - to the opposite sides of the two sections. Then a longer piece of board will be rigged up to accommodate the full length of beams, including the end sections.

I’ll post up a picture when the eight beams have been connected.

Thanks for looking.

Jonte

 

[jonte]

This is taking a little longer than anticipated, fellow Westerners; I’d hoped to be in a position to join the two sections together by now. Adding a series of baulk timbers to both sides of each construct is not only prototypical but adds much needed strength to this fragile skeleton. I’m afraid that the cutting of the timbers and waiting for the glue to dry are the dictators of pace. My home made jig helps with keeping the lengths more or less to the same size, but my cutting angle with the razor saw, despite being guided by steel rule - itself fixed as part of the jig - is the part which might just introduce the odd discrepancy, but so far it’s not too bad.

If this was to be any bigger or for a scale model, I’d consider investing in a guillotine.

Some pix:



Each of the two sections has only one side fully ‘timbered’ for the reasons disclosed. The presence of the piece of blu-tac in one set is to stop the construct slipping on the lines of candle wax spread over the surface of the paper to prevent the glue sticking the beams to it.

I’ve taken the liberty of slotting a couple of lengths of wire through the holes in the beams to see what the longitudinal beams will look like, as impatience got the better of me:



I’ll see if I can find a straighter length of wire for the right hand side.

Cheers for now.

Jonte

 

[Roger Pound]

This complex little job is coming along very nicely, Jon, your steady progress is to be much admired . Indeed, a vast improvement on the fits and starts of activity portrayed on my projects ! I continue to look forward to the progression of this part of Monks.

Cheers,
Roger .

 

[jonte]

Thanks, Roger, for your warm words.

Last time I looked, you’d made quite a bit of progress on ‘the Yard’ and ‘the Light’ , so at the very least by my reckoning, that’s more or less on a par with myself, Roger That said, I’ve been dipping out more than in lately as family commitments have of course been taking priority, and it’s difficult getting going again once I’ve cleared the dining table for guests

Still, gotta keep keeping on

Jon

 

[jonte]

Me again, fellow Westerners. I do hope I’m not over-egging the pudding with all these updates, but just wanted to show an interim result: that the roof (the bit that I’ve prised from the building jig anyway) can already stand upright and fairly true on its own two (eight?) feet, which comes as great relief :

Further attachments such as a centre beam (next) and a ceiling should reinforce and secure the bond between the two sections when they’re joined. Still some bits of paper from the jig to remove, but generally, the candle wax did its job. As a side note, I’m a little disappointed in the soldered joints between the uprights and the wire cross beams. Initially, they were barely visible, but with having to replace them because the originals proved to short, there remained a solder residue from previously that was difficult to totally remove from such fragile (0.02”) constructs. Oh well, such is life.

Incidentally, this is the jig/mitre I’ve been using to cut the many timbers to length in between the A frames:



And one or two (or three even) cut examples:



As I wrote last time, they’ve turned out okay, not engineering precise, but better than I could have attained freehand with the razor saw. Anything of greater magnitude (subject-wise), then I think a guillotine of sorts would be the ideal solution, especially for a scale model.

Still, overall, I’m quite pleased with my little roof. Whether it will look anything like the prototype is another matter

Thanks for looking.

Jonte

 

[Roger Pound]

Good stuff, Jon - it definitely looks the part and that is what counts. I doubt anyone will notice those alleged solder residues that you mention. I cannot honestly detect them from the picture . I doubt most people will even notice them from a normal viewing range unless thy deliberately set out to nit-pick your fine efforts.
Chin up, my friend and ease off on the self-criticism - I just wish I could do half as well !

Roger

 

[jonte]

Good stuff, Jon - it definitely looks the part and that is what counts. I doubt anyone will notice those alleged solder residues that you mention. I cannot honestly detect them from the picture . I doubt most people will even notice them from a normal viewing range unless thy deliberately set out to nit-pick your fine efforts.
Chin up, my friend and ease off on the self-criticism - I just wish I could do half as well !

Roger

Thanks, Roger

Jon

 

[jonte]

I just wanted to share this part of the roof build with you, fellow Westerners, as it was something I’ve been a little anxious about: would the roof fit between the pillars without having to tweak them with perhaps the creation of more drilled holes?

I’d measured and measured and……before creating the ‘A’ frame/beam jig, knowing once it was created there was no going back without a lot of faffing and a major blow to one’s confidence, so biting the bullet, I selected one of the roof sections - I’m about to join these together but it’s currently windy here (you get the idea) - and tentatively nursed it out to my den to check for fit. Thank goodness: it does

I took the opportunity to photograph the evidence and couldn’t resist seeing what it looked like against the Triang-Rovex hybrid station building:



Still a little TOO green

It was designed so that each frame sat atop its associate pillar, however, I noticed quite early on in the build that something wasn’t quite right: but I’d started……..

With me as Chief Engineer of this made up section of the former Chester & Birkenhead, you can’t have infrastructure, stock, permanent way AND precision

Thanks for looking.

(A much relieved) Jonte

 

[Roger Pound]

There you go, Jon - all's well despite your earlier worries and it looks absolutely cracking! Remember, none of us are perfect - not even those who think they are ! As they say up here - the job's a good 'un .
Cheers,
Roger.

 

[simond]

yep, that works.

I tend to agree, even the grubbier bits of the Mersey side of the Wirral were not that green...

 

[Simon]

That looks terrific!

 

[jonte]

There you go, Jon - all's well despite your earlier worries and it looks absolutely cracking! Remember, none of us are perfect - not even those who think they are ! As they say up here - the job's a good 'un .
Cheers,
Roger.

‘…..a good’un’ will more than do for this train set

That’s an endorsement I’ll take all day long, Roger

Many thanks,

Jon