7mm On Heather's Workbench - three is a magic number

[Heather Kay]

No apologies required, Steph. It's all part of the fun of trying to interpret photos in order to get the details as correct as possible.

I have completed the ends for all three coaches now. I have to admit I have reservations about the JLTRT rubber bellows mouldings. They are variable in quality, and inconsistent in dimensions.

To aid with constructing the gangways, I came up with the notion of making a balsa former to fit into the bellows to hold them to shape while the etched plates are attached.



It sort of worked. I say "sort of" because of the variation in the bellows mouldings, but the idea is sound. Initially, I made the mistake of making the former a really tight fit, the idea being to hold the bellows to the actual size of the etched plate apertures. The problem here would be removing the former without causing damage to things. I trimmed them down so they were a reasonably sliding fit, enough to support the bellows but small enough to allow for removal after the glue had set.

There is a back plate, which fits to the coach end, and a front plate which represents the connecting surface. The back plate has an etched rebate, into which the bellows fits, fairly neatly. The front plate, however, has to sit over the bellows. This means the gluing surface is effectively the edge of the etch itself. I am not terribly happy with this, but providing the client isn't clumsy they should survive most handling events.



Dimensional accuracy of the rubber bellows is quite poor. One moulding may be a good fit, while the second from the same pack may be short in height. The consequence is gaps appear at the top and/or bottom.



Theoretically, it should be possible to stretch the moulding and clamp it while the glue grabs. In practice, this isn't a workable solution, for various reasons. The moulding likes to try and return to its original size, and there is a risk it will distort the outer plate when it does so. The mechanical strength of gluing the thin edge of the etch is also questionable.

View attachment 22543

Here you can see the gaps around the bellows. I am hoping the gaps around the top will be masked by the canvas cover I'll add after painting. The gaps around the sides may be hidden by the painting, and the gap at the bottom could be masked by a floor plate, which I could extend outwards slightly.



Moulding distortion, which is all but impossible to rectify by gluing and clamping. It's not that I can get better bellows. Each pair I've received from JLTRT has exhibited the same issue. I'm not sure if there's a better supplier of such things. How do the CPL ones match up?



You could drive a bus through that.



Anyway, here's a pair ready to stick to the coach end. Aligning the gangways on the end could be a bit hit and miss. As it turned out, I had decided to trace around the inside edge of the back plate onto the coach end, because I was adding door handle detail to it. The traced outline allowed me to locate and glue the finished gangways in a repeatable fashion.



Finally, for now, the JLTRT steps and lamp brackets are designed to be glued into moulded slots. The steps each needed a clean up with a fine file to make a nice fit (twenty per coach... It's a wonder I'm still sane). The lamp brackets wouldn't last five minutes in service. I took the precaution of soldering a short length of 0.45mm brass wire to each bracket so it fitted into a 0.5mm hole drilled next to the slot. The CPL versions fold up with a nice fixing plate - I know this because I used them on the D94. If you recall, the D94 had some issues with the etches, such as solid compartment windows and missing end steps and lamp brackets.

Notice anything else missing? There are no representations of the grab handle fixings. I considered adding this detail, but the diagonal handle doesn't leave a lot of space near the outer edge. As there's plenty of clutter on the ends, I felt they wouldn't really be missed.

I suppose it's time to get the airbrush out.

 

[Dikitriki]

I have to say that I find those gangways really disappointing - that's the production values, not your build. I don't have an answer, and my Gresleys have stalled at that point for the same reason while I ponder a solution.

How did Graham get on with his Gresleys? Or has he not got that far?

 

[Heather Kay]

I have to say that I find those gangways really disappointing - that's the production values, not your build. I don't have an answer, and my Gresleys have stalled at that point for the same reason while I ponder a solution.

I'd put the end plates on, but I think that would look wrong in a train. Once coupled together, albeit with a gap between them, I think they'll probably pass muster. In a semi-permanent rake, the traditional black card concertina might look okay.

I have to bear in mind the ends are black, so that may hide a multitude of sins.

Anyway, I am now about to disappear into the upstairs workshop to sweat out a few pounds while I prepare the spray booth for getting some paint on the sides and ends.

 

[Ian G]

Crepe paper over the top of the bellows coloured in with black marker will help.

Ian G

 

[Simon]

I admire your patience and perseverance in wrestling with those corridor connections Heather - no fun at all

It would appear that even these high end kits can still prove to be an excellent promotional tool for scratchbuilding

However I'm sure these coaches will look absolutely superb once you have finished them

Simon

 

[Heather Kay]

Crepe paper over the top of the bellows coloured in with black marker will help.

I was thinking precisely the same thing.

It would appear that even these high end kits can still prove to be an excellent promotional tool for scratchbuilding

In some ways, it's a disappointment. At some point in these kits' existence, the gangways were probably superb renditions. During the intervening decade or so, expectations have moved on.

In another way, I think it's a good thing modellers are asked to work a little to achieve the required ends.

<rant mode on>

Buying a completed model and plonking it on the layout, while it satisfies the inner child - and there's essentially nothing wrong with that, or buying RTR models if that's your thing - can be construed as a lazy way out. I have never taken something out of the box and run it without at least changing the couplings and applying a little weathering.

Being utterly satisfied with what the manufacturer sees fit to provide doesn't extend the craft of modelling. There's an art to producing a convincing model. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, if you wanted a model of a specific locomotive type or different livery you had to either modify one that was available, hope a small manufacturer might make a kit, scratch build or go without. Now, you just wait for Heljan/Bachmann/Hornby to produce the goods. I fear some of the art and craft of our hobby is being lost on many with the cornucopia available at the end of a credit limit.

<rant mode off>

 

[dibateg]

I wonder how flexible those rubber mouldings are Heather, I used CPL gangways for my LMS set with card bellows. They don't quite have the fidelity of the rubber ones, but with solid endplates they allow plenty of movement and flexibility for any reverse curves they might encounter.

Best regards

Tony

 

[Ian G]

Their was an artical in either the model press or a book about using foam rubber in the top part of suspended gangways, to give the right apearance of the gangway.

Ian G

 

[Heather Kay]

I wonder how flexible those rubber mouldings are

The mouldings are not that flexible at all. In fact, they might just as well be solid plastic for the good they do. Knowing the options available will be useful down the line, and I must make sure to ask clients about their preferences.

As an aside, Best Beloved played with self-connecting gangways some years ago. They were a mishmash of concertina card and ABS/Cavalier whitemetal endplates, with a magnet or two behind the face plate. When you brought the two together, they coupled and behaved "just like the real thing". They would have been ideal for semi-permanent rakes of coaches. All we had to do was work out a decent close coupling system that would pass muster.

 

[Heather Kay]

The time has finally arrived where I start to get paint on the coach bodies.

I've got a nice shiny compressor for my trusty Badger 200. I started out simply spraying Humbrol matt black on the coach ends, in order to get my eye in and the compressor set up. I'm glad I decided to try the ends first, because the compressor needs dialling back to get the pressure right. I think I'll need to spend a while testing things on some scrap material to get it right.

I've also invested in some replacement parts for the Badger. Squires stocks the complete range of spares, so I've got one of each medium and fine needles and head assemblies, new colour cup and a couple of 50cc paint jars heading this way.

 

[Heather Kay]

The paint shop is in full swing.

The ends have enough paint on them now. They are under cover and will be left at least overnight before a coat or two of satin varnish to seal things. Detailing, like the gangway rubber, subtle weathering on the buffing plates, picking out lighting cables and door details, will be applied by brush later.



In the background of the first shot can be seen the sides. An initial light coat of BR cream has been applied.



Everyone has their own techniques for painting. I prefer to put on multiple thin coats to the required depth of colour. Multiple coats of enamel, with quite lengthy drying times between coats, is a comprehensive lesson in patience. My feeling is I am more likely to spot a problem and be able to rectify it. There's no finesse to a rattle can, to my mind, though I understand those who can get good results that way prefer the speed. It's horses for courses.

Anyway, I plan to cover each side completely in the cream before I mask off and apply the red. I worry the tin of Precision "blood" is a little on the maroon side, so thin coats on the cream may let me achieve the brighter red I expect to see with this livery. Hopefully.

With a fair wind, painting will be completed this week. Lining and lettering soon after, then glazing, then final assembly shortly thereafter. I'll be pleased to see the triplets delivered.

 

[Heather Kay]

In my excitement of getting paint on things yesterday, I completely forgot to note how I masked out the windows. As Baldrick might say, I had a cunning plan.

The glazing provided in the kits is something called Veralite. It's a clear plastic sheet, about 0.5mm thick, which appears to be run through some kind of mangle in order to punch out the window shapes. Each coach I'm building has a different pattern of windows, but each kit contains a standard large sheet with all the variations of window size punched out ready to use.



The sheets are far from flat. In fact, they're very distorted. With patience, I am sure you could pick out suitable windows that are flat enough to fit into the moulded rebates in the coach sides. However, the banana-shaped sheets was one of the first things I spotted when I inspected the box contents, and prompted my suggestion to the client we look at real glass instead. As may have been noted in my JLTRT BR MK2 threads, the glazing lets the whole thing down, and I'm absolutely certain the Colletts would have been ruined if I had persisted in using the supplied glazing.

I intend to use the pre-cut glazing to provide shape and size templates for trimming the glass later in the construction phase. Meanwhile, my first "cunning plan" was to use the stuff as masking material. I mean, it's designed to fit the windows, so why not use it?

Well, it sort of worked. As it turned out, tape had to be used to restrain things anyway, but I like to think at least the rebates are properly masked out and won't need much retouching later. In any case, it proved to me the pre-cut stuff wasn't quite as accurate as it might seem. There was some variation in dimensions, and the subtle difference between a door droplight and the toilet glazing is impossible to tell at a glance.



I opted to leave the protective sheet on the glazing. I don't intend on using the stuff later, but it makes it a bit easier to locate on the bench!



As I said, tape was still required to hold the glazing in place. The minor dimensional irregularities meant that some units snapped neatly in place, while others flopped about like crazy. Where I'd opened a droplight for the brass inserts, the glazing material was a loose fit, obviously, and left a gap at the top or bottom. The whole idea of bunging up the window apertures is to prevent excess paint getting on the painted interior sides, so masking tape had to come into play anyway.



The proof is in the pudding, as they say. I'll only know if the "cunning plan" worked once the painting process is complete. Speaking of which, I must hie me to the paint shop and get a-spraying!

 

[Heather Kay]

A quick update on progress.

The ends have been painted black. The rattle can satin varnish I was using decided it would just stop. I went to fresh can and would you believe it did exactly the same thing? On to the third, and finally managed to get some varnish on them.

When it had dried, it looked b****y awful.

So, I carefully sanded what I could reach between the detailing. They then got a brushed coat of matt black enamel on the workbench, and today I brush-coated satin varnish on them.

Meanwhile, the airbrush has more or less been behaving itself. All six sides now have a total of three coats of cream, and are beginning to look rather nice. I'll leave them be to dry and harden off - the extra warmth from the outside world helping the loft for a change - until tomorrow. Then I'll bring them down for a close inspection and sanding of any grollies, and if required a further coat of cream. If things are fairly clean, I'll mask out for the red coats.

The saving grace of the early BR coach livery is it doesn't have all those finnicky corners to line!

Once the red's done, which will be Sunday at the current rate of progress, I'll find a way of getting a gloss varnish coat on without rattle cans randomly stopping part way through. Won't be long before lining and lettering, so I'd better dig out the client's requested running numbers!

 

[Dog Star]

Heather, I shall assume that the rattle cans have not stopped because there is no more paint or propellent - in which case a blockage of the nozzle is the most likely cause of the premature end-of-usefullness for the spray cans. Accepted wisdom is to invert can after use and press spray button until no more paint can be seen in the spray mist; this works most of the time and keeps the nozzles clean. There are times when a more drastic approach is required if a can is to continue as a source of paint. After inverting a can and clearing the spray nozzle of paint I remove the nozzle from the can and drop the nozzle into a glass jar which contains cellulose thinners (attach lid etc.). A few hours in the thinners and a vigourous shake - preferably wtih lid in place - ensures that there is no hardened paint in the nozzle.

Even after a can is empty of paint / propellant I retain the nozzle and leave it soaking... you never know when a replacement nozzle is needed and with manufacturer's ability to change nozzle type dependent upon the wind direction then a range of spare nozzles is a boon.

regards, Graham

 

[Heather Kay]

Graham, sound advice. In this case, my first reaction was to try a fresh nozzle from another can. Something else is causing the blockage, because the fresh nozzle didn't resolve the problem. There's a lot of paint left in the can, which makes it more annoying.

I think I am going to have to source decent varnishes I can airbrush. I used to use Rowney's artists' range with some success. I may have to go back to them. Interestingly, my preferred thinner (bog standard household white spirit) had the fortunate side effect of flattening the Rowney matt varnish even more.

It's not that I don't get on with rattle cans. I think they just don't like me.

 

[Dog Star]

In this case, my first reaction was to try a fresh nozzle from another can. Something else is causing the blockage, because the fresh nozzle didn't resolve the problem. There's a lot of paint left in the can, which makes it more annoying.

I understand what you are saying... very frustrating. The same thing has happened to me with a can of railway colour, the can did not spray from the off. I took the paint back to the seller at a subsequent exhibition and described the scenario - the can was replaced without question. Only afterwards did it occur to me that the retailer would have a good idea of the weight of an unused can, maybe you can use that concept to support a "not fit for purpose" claim for replacement.

regards, Graham

 

[Steph Dale]

Hea

Graham, sound advice. In this case, my first reaction was to try a fresh nozzle from another can. Something else is causing the blockage, because the fresh nozzle didn't resolve the problem. There's a lot of paint left in the can, which makes it more annoying.

I think I am going to have to source decent varnishes I can airbrush. I used to use Rowney's artists' range with some success. I may have to go back to them. Interestingly, my preferred thinner (bog standard household white spirit) had the fortunate side effect of flattening the Rowney matt varnish even more.

It's not that I don't get on with rattle cans. I think they just don't like me.

Heather,
I've tended to use Ronseal varnish on my stuff. The spirit-based one thins very nicely with Humbrol enamel thinners. It's available in a variety of finishes and is very tough when it's hardened. Good results through either Badger 200 or Anthem.
Steph

 

[Heather Kay]

Ooh, hadn't thought of that, Steph. I'll check out the range next time I'm near a hardware store. Thanks!

Graham, I really should take the cans back to the store, but I bought them a while back and didn't keep the receipt. It's possible the storage conditions in the loft have been detrimental. I console myself they - Humbrol enamel varnishes, matt (which never is), satin and gloss - were not that expensive. I'm frustrated rather than hugely out of pocket.

 

[Heather Kay]

The state of play so far:



The E127 sides look okay. I think the colour is perhaps a little too yellow, but I can't argue with what's in the tin.



Close-up shows a little bit of orange peel effect, and some pesky dust particles.



All the photo references for the "blood and custard" livery on the Colletts show the dividing lines between the colours to be an inch or so below the tops of the doors and just above the centre hinge. It couldn't be that simple, could it? Could it be a nice straightforward run of masking tape, no fiddling, no trimming? Of course not. NQLTRT strikes again! Every coach appears to have the centre hinge too high.



I guess there'll be some paintbrush retouching once the carmine has been dried. Speaking of which, as I type, the first blush is baking in the loft. I'm itching to get the next couple of coats on, but I must be patient.

 

[Heather Kay]

Second coat done. I think we'll need a few more to get the depth of colour right. It's a bit magenta still.