Yorky D's Küchentisch - North Eastern - Boing! said the pantograph...

[Yorkshire Dave]

Having seen detailed Lima O scale class 33s around this forum I thought I would have a go at detailing one. So I acquired a Lima 33 and a PRMRP detail kit in order to do so.

But oh no ......... the Lima 33 is not correct for 1:43.5. However, the length is correct for 1:45 but the width .......

After perusing the various 'Crompton' publications which sit minding their own business on my bookshelf I worked out the 33 needs to lose 6mm from the width to slim it to 1:45 scale. Armed with this information I proceeded to attack the body shell. Alas I forgot to take a 'before' photograph.

The ultimate aim of this exercise is to build an all axle drive using SDMP/Finney7 drive components with a centrally mounted Canon 1833 motor and ESU HO Loksound decoder. If successful this will be the basis of the drive system I'll use in my P48 ATSF U23B.

My approach was to cut the front windows out as one piece with a micro saw. The unmodified windows are at the bottom of the slimmed body.


Once the front windows were removed from both ends the 6mm to be removed was marked out on the roof and ends, masking tape was used to provide the cutting lines and then away with the saw. The saw I used was a Trumpeter mini razor saw.



The two halves were then roughly cleaned up and glued together ensuring they were square and at the correct width. The resulting gap then filled.


Once set the radiator openings were removed and as I'm converting this to a late 33/0 the exhaust port was removed and the baffle box filled. The beading around the cab side windows was also cut along the door opening and the fixing holes in bottom of the door filled. One thing I did notice is the louvres are not as subtle as those on my GP9. Then I suppose these are a rather prominent feature of early EMD diesels.


This is one end completed with the narrowed window pillars. I also replaced the upper gutter and the window gutters with Evergreen styrene strip. The original shallow curve can be seen below the new roof gutter. It is evident more filling is required but I will wait until the first surface primer layer has been applied which will reveal any other areas requiring attention.


This one shows the new windows and the original windows. I used a black marker pen on the lower set of windows just to see the effect.


At the time I did not have the £££s to purchase a JLTRT 33/1 . However, in hindsight, with the work I'll be doing on this one I may just as well have.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

This is something I've been meaning to build for ages and finally got around to it - mounting all of my programmers onto one board and a folding DCC programming track....

It's made up from pine shelving and has a P48 and standard O scale tracks.







The Roco basestation and decoder programmers. The programmers are mounted to the board with velcro.



The whole ensemble folds up into one of these.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

A further delivery today...

Fine mesh by Aber ordered from Hannants. The sheets are roughly 75 x 45mm.


So this is what I was originally going to use for the radiator grille...... yuk

This is what I used eventually . Aber S 12.

A bit of a no brainer really......

.....and here's a comparison of the Aber mesh on the left and the finest I had in my spares box on the right. Aber fine mesh.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Bouyed with the satisfaction scratchbuilding the SECR 4 plank dropside wagon my attention was drawn to what other wagons I would like to have from the LCDR and LBSC stables in my collection for fun...............

Rather than hunt around for 7mm kits (which probably only exist in another universe) I ordered some parts.... and this lot arrived the other day.

As I'm looking to build some LCDR and LBSC prototypes I set about making some patterns for solebars and buffer beams simce my intention is to centrifugally cast these in whitemetal.

The patterns were made up from Evergreen sytrene strip (pictured above) and Ambis etched crowns and strapping applied. The solebars I have made so far are from top to bottom: LCDR 9' 8'' wheelbase, LCDR 9' 3'' wheelbase (this is for a passenger rated van) and LBSC 9' 6'' wheelbase. Buffer beam is bottom left and the central 'H' chassis support is top right.

The LCDR and LBSC solebars are different lengths to suit the prototype vehicle and the wagon and van bodies will be built in the same way as the SECR 4 plank dropside.



The idea is to make construction easy so I designed in locators to provide a square chassis with the buffer beam and 'H' support being universal.




Other solebar patterns yet to be made will be a SECR 9' wheelbase and some more for LBSC wagons.

Next up will be making the silicone master mould from which the castings will be used to make the production mould.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

The Tour de Yorkshire passed through today on their way up Cote de Goose Eye (or Game Scar Lane to those who know).

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Mouldy Old Dough - anyone remember Lieutenant Pigeon....

Well today it's been less of the old dough and more about mould making.

The patterns I made earlier have been placed onto the silicon in the mould can (made from car brake drum) with the plug, gate template and acorn nuts. The latter are there to lock the two halves when casting. The second silicon mould layer was placed on top, followed by the lid . This was clamped and the whole ensemble placed in the oven for 1 1/2 hours at 100 deg C


After cooking an cooling down the mould was ready and it is here with the gates cut to the parts.


And before the gates were cut.


Close up of one of the solebar ends.


The spin casting machine (this is the prototype still in use).


Smelting pot and ladle.


Mould clamped in position between the two plates.


Now the magic.


The end result.


Close up of the detail.


I'm pretty pleased with the results and now have a source of LBSC and LCDR solebars and buffer beams.

Next is making up some brake gear to cast with the Metropolitan Railway solebars.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

......aka Birmingham New Street.

Somehow it doesn't quite have the same romantic allure or grandeur as it's namesake in New York but I snapped this (mobile phone) on my way home from Aylesbury today after travelling from Princes Risborough to Birmingham Moor Street. I just liked the reflection in the of the approach trackwork on the station facade, however it's still as gloomy as ever at track level.


And on the way down on Friday I shot these in a hurry at Moo-er translation - Moor Street after legging it from New Street as this was my train ready for departure. Surprisingly in today's penchant for multiple units, a loco hauled push-pull set with a good excuse for only lightly weathering the undercarriage. Personally I think it would all look better in the livery of the parent company i.e. DB - including Arriva, Cross Country and Grand Central train sets.


Although I'm no GW fan it's good to see this station preserved albeit with some modern furniture and the loss of some awnings. And I was also impressed with the Art Deco architecture at Leamington Spa (no picture of this ).

And for those short of space in bays - just build around rail built buffer stops . These are the remains in the Aylesbury bay at Princes Risborough.

And whilst in Aylesbury I watched a belter of a thunderstorm last night (both taken close to midnight with the limitations of the mobile phone) .


It was absolutely tipping it down at this point.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

... Bothy - and not the famous 80's Ashes victor either.

It's another project to add to the various uncompleted ones . This time it's the Intentio 7mm Bothy kit.

Before construction, the first thing I did was to lay the brick panels face down on the concrete path and hit the reverse with a hammer to add some relief into the brickwork. In some areas I was a bit too heavy handed so the result looks like battle scars which I'll probably hide with a notice board.


The kit itself is easy to construct and this is the shell.


One detail item I wanted to recreate is a corner which has been clouted in an accident and disturbing the brickwork. To achieve this I carefully cut around the brick courses to release the corner and removed the outermost brick in order to re-site.



Once the glue had set the ensemble was given an undercoat of Vallejo German Red Brown (Rot Braun RAL8012) surface primer which highlights the areas for tidying up - namely the corner bricks - and provides me a suitable base on which to apply the brick colours. Having said that the colour is very similar to the bricks I've seen on Victorian terraced houses in areas of Leeds, Nelson, Rochdale and Manchester to name a few.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Some more work on the structure trying to make it look worse for wear.

This time trying out a MIG (now defunct) concrete pigment. Just mixed it into a paste and applied to the building. Once dry wiped it down with a just moist cloth to remove the dust from the brickwork leaving the mortar behind. Prior to this I painted a course of bricks about 2/3 up the wall and the capping bricks on the foundation courses brown. And the alternate corner bricks on the six outer corners painted a buff colour.




The pock marks on the wall somewhat stand out so I'll retouch some these with a brighter brick red colour so they appear recently broken. There are also some diagonal scratches which will also be retouched.

The photos show the building to be rather white (photo taken in late evening so I opened a stop) as if the salts have leached and again I can always remove some of this with a damp cloth - that is if I want to.



And the walloped corner....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Done a but more work today.....

Doors and window frames have been added. Doors require door handles and keyholes.


An attempt at a broken sill.


And a crude repair to some broken panes.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Some more work on the doors and windows.

Glazing added and suitably dusted. The glazing was rubbed down on wet 'n dry emery paper to make them translucent (apart from one pane seen later) and after installation was given a brown wash. Once dry they were dusted with a MiG dark grey pigment.

Door knobs (brass pins) and keyholes (made with a knife point). With an attempt at wear around the latter.



An attempt at a cracked pane in the upper sash and one part cleaned in the lower sash to peer into the building.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Thanks Jonte.

This is something I've always wanted to try out - building a laser cut kit, weathering brickwork and an ill-maintained building. However there's no layout yet on which place it though.

Now for some chim chimneys.... spent a couple of hours building and painting these today.

The whitemetal chimney pots were drilled out as far as I dared and I decided to have one broken. This was the same height as the single pot and the removed pieces have been retained ready to place in the gutter (when added) with one or two shards on the ground.

The mortar base on which they are resting is made up from filler and painted with a mixture of Vallejo Stone Grey and Middlestone. The pots were painted black inside and then weathering powder applied to obtain the dusty soot effect. The rim was touched up along the edges to make it appear as if had recently broken. The terracotta colour is Vallejo basic rust oxide from their Panzer range.




This one has a nice lump of soot ready to fall back down to the fireplace.



Next - the roof....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Broken chimney now corrected....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Spent some time adding the slates and bedding in the chimney stacks.





Now needs some guttering and downpipes....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Spent the weekend down in Bristol and PX'd all my Olympus OM 35mm gear (3 cameras and assorted lenses) for two Fuji lenses to go with the recently acquired Fuji XPro-1 camera courtesy of Steph D.

The following day we winged a trip so see how far west we could get and have a reasonable day so we ended up in Kingswear. The final leg by steam train from Paignton hauled by some blue GW thingy called Ted II.

However the best was this one - a pannier tank in true colours entering Kingswear (it's a shame they polished the safety valve casing brass instead of leaving it LT maroon . Added to which they should have retained the LT duty number brackets on the smokebox door and tripcock gear).



Naval College


PS Kingswear Castle


Anyway it was a lazy day with the Kingswear beer festival, a pub lunch accompanied by some live Jazz, a trip across to Dartmouth on the ferry and testing the new toy and it's lenses.

Aye-up - even saw t'Northern Belly Belle charter train from Cardiff t'Par.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

No, not Captain W E Johns unpublished Sicilian adventures of his famous pilot - but two Intentio kits on the bench...

One to complete this - Biggleswade GNR goods yard weighbridge office (photo from Biggleswade History Society website).

The kit contents - the weighbridge plate is in addition to the standard GNR weighbridge office kit.


I called by the Vintage Carriage Trust Museum at Ingrow today to visit their magazine store (paper ones, naturally) to search the back numbers and purchased this issue....


...... as it contained this plan of Biggleswade GNR Weighbridge Office



And the other kit is the standard SR concrete footbridge......

This is a mixture of laser cut MDF for the supports and Trotec acrylic for the sides and steps. I've never come across Trotec before and it'll be interesting working with this and finding out what sticks it together.


Also thrown in were these - and I thought it was 1st April - GW signs . These are also cut from Trotec acrylic white and black sheets. The direction signs are all right (or left) handed. A useful addition would be a left (or right) hand variant.


More to come.....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Those plans for the Weighbridge hut are incorrect. The roof pitch in the drawings doesn't represent the actual building. Philip says in the article that a roof pitch of 50degress is unusual. He is right, because the roof pitch isn't!

Thanks for this snippet. I picked up the mag for the two photos - especially the one showing the rear.

Would the fireplace have been at 45 deg in the corner of the room?

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

A start has been made on the weighbridge.

The outer shell - a relatively simple construction with the four pieces interlocking. Thinned PVA was run into the four inner corners and then left to set after ensuring all was square.


The inner shell - again a simple construction following the same process as above.


The two plinths were glued together and the steps 'worn'.

A painting test for the brick colours carried out. Vallejo acrylic paints and varnishes and pigments from Ammo by Mig Jimenez are used throughout.


The cream bricks are a mixture of buff and white acrylics. The white removes the intensity of the buff and I sparingly mixed in a tad of light rust just to add a bit of variation (just noticeable towards the bottom right).

The blue engineers bricks started with a base coat of black/grey followed by a wash of dark blue. Once dry the side was given a coat of satin varnish. This is to seal the paint and leave a slightly glazed sheen to the brickwork.

The mortar is a mixture of dark grey and concrete pigments mixed into a paste with water. This was painted onto the central section as seen. After drying it was removed with a slightly damp cloth leaving the mortar behind (a patch has been left to show pigment mix as applied). This does not remove it completely from the brickwork but leaves sufficient to give the appearance of some weathering.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Carrying on with the build the next step was to paint the base and steps a sort of concrete colour with a black and brown wash applied. This will provide the base on which the final weathering will be applied once the weighbridge is complete.



This is the inner carcass on the base and the door painted black (in deference to the Rolling Stones it wasn't initially red).

The cream and engineering blue applied, sealed with satin varnish. Once dry the mortar mix was applied and wiped off when dry.


Close up of the front window sill. Here I rounded the corners before installation.

Onto the end window which was added during the building's life as it did not exist when built. This is as cut and provided in the kit.


This shows the teaks I carried out the the end window lintel to match the the photograph.


The original of the above.


And finally the chimney. Again this was a relatively simple construction with the four sides locking an internal cap (the cross shaped piece below the chimney). The brick embellishments are the five rectangular pieces at the bottom of the photograph.

Painted and it still requires the cap and pot.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Hi Jonte

As requested.

These are the basic colours I use for pre-war and 1950-60's concrete. The grey smooth concrete seen today is a more appears less common during the period I'm depicting.


These are the washes and colours used later in the process.

The palette. I tend to mix up the main concrete colour with Middlestone and Buff and randomly add a touch of Stone Grey and White to vary the tone. There's no hard and fast mixing ratio - I just mix the colours until it looks right to me.

This is the basic colour applied to MDF and on a piece of rough card.

Once dry I apply a wash. This may vary depending on the effect I'm after. Here I have used Oxide, none and a Brown wash.

I then wiped the excess off

Then I drybrushed a mix of Buff, Stone Grey and a touch of Yellowish Rust. The latter gives a slighly pink effect some concretes have. In some cases I will apply a further Grey/Brown wash to simulate the dirt into the lower areas.


Having seen the effect on the rough card I may end up using this for hard standing areas and the linear effects almost replicate hand tamped concrete where a length of wood has been used as a float.