Kiwionrails' Work Bench

GWR Diag.P23 Ballast Wagons (Continued)
Fairly minor update for the two ballast wagons - they are both now in-paint, and as planned I have painted both in slightly different shades of a very dark grey. - This was really difficult to photograph, as they are so shiny and dark colours...!




The insides on both still needs painting, with wooden flooring & 'rust' body insides. My intention is to do the inside of the sides first, followed-by the floor, as I think that is probably easier to mask.

Regards,

Cameron.

GWR MINK F No.793599 (Continued)
Now that the bogies on the MINK F are basically done, attention was turned-back to the body.

Didcot Railway Centre posted a really good photo of No.79599 in their 'going loco' blog back in January which I'm using as the reference photo. Zooming-in on this identified a difference with that example to what is stated in the kit. - The kit instruction recommends placing some flat-riveted strapping along the bottom-edge of the body, however whilst I can maybe see a slight raised-edge on the first-two panels, the others don't appear to have this (however there is a slight 'wrinkling' in the bodyside metalwork along that rivet line.


In that vein, I attached the flat riveted strip to the first two panels, and will tackle the remainder once painting starts with some Railtec rivet transfers.


Next-up was the vacuum pipe, which is supplied as a very nicely rendered whitemetal offering. You can see that the buffer faces look black in this photo - I used a dollop of thick superglue as a hard filler to deal with the mould-lines I identified in the previous post. These will be further smoothed & shaped with some sandpaper in due course.


With the bodywork now substantially complete, attention now turned to the remaining areas below the solebars...

First-up; the queen posts - these are moulded in whitemetal, however require cross-drilling with a 0.7mm drill to enable threading through the truss rods. Under a powerful magnifying glass I started with a 0.3mm drill to ensure everything was centred before opening out with the larger one. Fortunately the kit is supplied with 6, so you have two spares in case you stuff-up....


As I had set-out the positions of everything before main body assembly, the next couple of steps were less bad than expected... The important thing is to take your time and not rush things.

The first queen post was affixed in-place with a tiny dab of superglue, which was then used as a reference to set-out its twin on the opposite side using a small engineer's square.


This was then followed by using a length of 0.7mm brass wire to ensure the second queen post was nice and parallel in all dimensions - again patience is required, although worth it.


Following the same process on the opposite side, attention was then turned to the truss rods themselves. - Honestly getting these the same shape was a right pain, and a modern release of the kit would benefit from a 'lifesize' template somewhere in the instructions to ensure the angles/lengths were consistent.


After fitting both truss rods, I decided to reinforce the joints with the body with a larger 'dollop' of superglue. As I'd find later you shouldn't put on too much when doing this, as you'll have to grind some of it it back off to fit some of the brake rigging...

...speaking of which - this is a vacuum fitted van, so it was time to get working on this. Although these aren't the most sophisticated mouldings, particularly the vacuum cylinder itself (which is a bit 'lumpy'), it went together pretty nicely all-in.


I still need to get the brake handles and pull-rods fitted, but I wanted to button-out the bogie mounting first.

As detailed in the previous post, the bogie pivots were fitted with a M2 mounting nut & section of brass tube. I was having a think, and discovered that this actually provides a perfect opportunity for holding everything in the correct place during work to get the ride-height dialled-in. - The M2 nut can of course have a bolt screwed into it from either side!. To enable this, I drilled-out a 2mm hole in the body floor, which has then allowed me to bolt-in the pivots from the top-side. What this allows is me to shim-out the pivots whilst adjusting the ride height whilst ensuring everything remains in the correct place (and will do the same during final gluing). The addition of the brass tube to the pivot also assists with this, as it allows the bogie to 'sit' in the correct place under the body's weight whilst things are adjusted.


A final photo of how things sit as-of today;




Other bits & pieces I've noticed from the prototype photos which I'll look to tackle:

• Numberplate & label clip needs adding to the solebar
• Some 'T'-strapping needs adding to the solebars around the doors
• Some other rivet detail is required on the solebars, particularly where the truss rods anchor
• Maybe bodyside door catches.

Regards,

Cameron.

34C said:

You might also want to look at adjusting the vacuum cylinder position. The cylinder was necessarily hung on a trunnion so that it could swing as the piston rod moved up and down within the airtight gland. The result of this is that as seen in your photograph with the brakes fully 'off' the cylinder should be a little further to the left, and the higher side of the base of the cylinder should be on the right. That way the swing of the cylinder will be roughly equal either side of vertical for the full travel of the piston rod.

Most will never notice, but for those of us with mechanical stuff engrained it really 'shouts'...

Click to expand...

Ahh, sod.... you're right.... This is what I get for not checking the locations properly.....

For future reference of anyone else, see the below drawing provided in MRN June 1931! (as provided on the excellent Dave's Model Railway Plans and Articles)


...now to go dig-out the superglue debonder whilst muttering to myself....

Regards,

Cameron.

GWR MINK F No.793599 (Continued)
State-of-play before the debonder gets dragged-out...


One thing I was very concious-on was the impact which the debonder can have some negative impacts on the primer finish, however did find after some wrangling that resulted in pulling-off some flakes unfortunately, but nothing that is irrocoverable...


Unfortunately the removal of the outer vee-hanger ended-up removing one of the queen posts. as well... I also took the opportunity to roughen-up the surface to ensure a key for the new work...


Following a bit of clean-up of excess glue, this was fortunately fairly easy to resolve and affix back in place.


Unfortunately the whitemetal vee hanger got damaged whilst wrangling it off, so replaced this with an etch from Comet/Wizard Models. This also allowed the 'step-in' on the outer one which is present on the prototype..



....aaand now re-affixed back onto the body, along with the vaccuum cylinder. You can see the improvement to the look from the correct step-in on the vee hanger as well as its correct position.



As much as I was cursing you for noticing, thanks for pointing-out @34C, it is the better-for it..!

Regards,

Cameron.

GWR MINK F No.793599 (Continued)
The DCIII brakes were next, As with the main I decided to substitute the supplied vee hangers with some which (I think) were derived from a Cambrian kit.


...The cross-rod and ratchet were then fitted....


...followed by the brake pull-rods...


The remaining T-section was added to the solebars in a similar manner to the full-height ones.


The truss-rod anchor plates were next - they have been fashioned-out of a scrap of paper cut to a suitable size - they don't need to be too thick, and seem to look the part. Unfortunately I noticed after adding these that they should have been under the outside door panel, rather than inside ones. Given how well glued-on the rods themselves are I've decided to leave this as-is, and that the anchor plates would look worse if they weren't in alignment with the rods.





Rumney Models do a rather excellent general wagon detailing etch, this has such things as wagon numberplates, label clips, lamp irons, etc.


These are etched on some very fine brass, thus is important to cut them on a hard surface otherwise you bend them... The label clip on the etch is of a different pattern to that on the solebar, so I fashioned a label holder from some scrap plastic and some more paper for the lid.


The DCIII cranks were fitted, and following a rub-down of the base primer, it is now ready for paint...



Regards,

Cameron.

Hi Cameron,
Had not caught up with your thread / exploits for quite some time. So actually spent some time having a look through from day 1 till now. What a really enjoyable and interesting few hours.
As said on previous posts by both myself and many others on numerous occasions, you have and continue to produce some simply “stunning” work.
It has been really interesting to see how your skills have developed and also the range of models / subjects you have tackled over all these years - a real credit ⭐
It also shows from “little acorns ........”- with obviously limited / basic equipment and facilities to start off with, an incredible will not be beaten attitude (stuburn think you called it at on stage), coupled with an ever improving eye for detail, progressively improving equipment / facilities, what you have achieved.
Also really like your looking back comparisons of same models you produced 10+ years ago, to those being made now, that’s a great approach. This and the detail of your posts also provides great information for others too.
The very occasional “rants” plus occasional disasters like paint spills etc - all made great reading - with associated clear mental images ! Also found your use of CAD, inc your building conversion station to cafe project as fascinating too.
The display cabinet looks great - in the 1st post there were circa 70No items that had been made; in the 2nd post obviously many more, then including locos / etc - how many total now ? (* would be interested to know what you did lighting wise in the cabinets - as have two similar cabinets here, as shown on the Loft thread some years ago; the addition of similar lighting would be ideal).
Keep up the great modelling and look forward to following progress on a more regular basis again.
Cheers for now, Norm

Norman Byrne said:

Hi Cameron,
Had not caught up with your thread / exploits for quite some time. So actually spent some time having a look through from day 1 till now. What a really enjoyable and interesting few hours.
As said on previous posts by both myself and many others on numerous occasions, you have and continue to produce some simply “stunning” work.
It has been really interesting to see how your skills have developed and also the range of models / subjects you have tackled over all these years - a real credit ⭐
It also shows from “little acorns ........”- with obviously limited / basic equipment and facilities to start off with, an incredible will not be beaten attitude (stuburn think you called it at on stage), coupled with an ever improving eye for detail, progressively improving equipment / facilities, what you have achieved.
Also really like your looking back comparisons of same models you produced 10+ years ago, to those being made now, that’s a great approach.

Click to expand...

Thanks Norm, that is very kind of you!

I did something very similar just before I started posting again, and it is definitely very interesting to see how some parts of the tools/techniques I'm using have moved on in the past 13.5yrs since this topic was started!

Norman Byrne said:

This and the detail of your posts also provides great information for others too.

Click to expand...

That was something I found incredibly useful by some other posters I've seen where they actually show & tell you what they've done, and how they've done it - one thing I always found quite frustrating was trying to work out which particular transfers someone had used, as all the main suppliers (Modelmaster, Fox, HMRS, Railtec) ranges are slightly different, and sometimes these differences are needed when trying to do something particular. - As I'm now in the fortunate position of being able to have a range 'in stock' from each, I feel it is important to share what is used, and where.

Norman Byrne said:

It has been really interesting to see how your skills have developed and also the range of models / subjects you have tackled over all these years - a real credit ⭐
It also shows from “little acorns ........”- with obviously limited / basic equipment and facilities to start off with, an incredible will not be beaten attitude (stuburn think you called it at on stage), coupled with an ever improving eye for detail, progressively improving equipment / facilities, what you have achieved.
The very occasional “rants” plus occasional disasters like paint spills etc - all made great reading - with associated clear mental images !

Click to expand...

That was part of my thinking when I did the 3rd Cambrian ballast wagon, is it meant I could do a direct comparison 'across the ages'! - There are others of my early ones which I have on the list to 'do again', including some additional Cooper Craft cattle wagons - the plan for these is to do one 'stock'(ish), but at least one of the others going Rolls Royce with some Morgan Design underframes.

Interestingly some of the 'original' tools remain in-use to this day - whilst I bought a second (albeit cheap) set of needle files about 8 years ago, I've never actually got them out of the packet, and am still continuing to use my originals, as although they're not as sharp as they once were, I've never felt the need to open them.... (and have moved house so many times that I'm not entirely sure where they are currently...).

Assuming you are referring to the paint spillage which 'took out' the original paintjob on the 0-4-0 tender 'tram' engine, I wish I could say that was the only one I've ever had.... there was a sliiiight incident with some (also brown!) paint a few months ago, although fortunately that didn't get any models, just made a mess on the desk...

I have most certainly been described as stubborn on multiple previous occasions, to which I would respond with 'tenacious'!

Norman Byrne said:

Also found your use of CAD, inc your building conversion station to cafe project as fascinating too.

Click to expand...

That is one day something I'd like to tackle some more (including actually building said station 'in real life'), and I do have aspirations to obtaining such luxuries as 3D printers....laser cutters....etc, however living conditions currently preclude that, so that is a bridge to be crossed another day.....

Norman Byrne said:

The display cabinet looks great - in the 1st post there were circa 70No items that had been made; in the 2nd post obviously many more, then including locos / etc - how many total now ?

Click to expand...

Wagons-wise, my spreadsheet tells me that I had a hand in the construction of ~88 wagons, of-which 70 have been flagged as 'complete'. - This includes things such as where I have repainted and/or detailed a RTR model (such as the Siphon G), or taken-over and completed a part-built kit I bought second-hand (Coral A).

Locos has been many fewer, with probably only a handful that I've had input into, which I'd like to do more of at some point, but as much of my kit construction is done during fairly small time windows, that is part of why I've ended-up doing a lot of wagons relative (although tbh it is probably closer to the 'correct' ratio between rolling stock and motive power...!)

Unfortunately there is nowhere near enough space in that cabinet for everything, and I would like to make a larger one at some stage, however that isn't going to happen any time soon...

(there is a caveat that 'complete' doesn't include things like fitting couplings, but am holding-off doing that broadly until I have a layout to run things on)

Norman Byrne said:

(* would be interested to know what you did lighting wise in the cabinets - as have two similar cabinets here, as shown on the Loft thread some years ago; the addition of similar lighting would be ideal).

Click to expand...

The lighting in the cabinet is done using some 5000K 24V 'COB' LED tape affixed to the underside of each shelf, with a small 'down-stand' created to prevent directly seeing it from the front. - The last two shelves still need finishing and I'll try to get some decent photos when I next have them out to finish-off. The shelves themselves are actually replacement ones made using some scrap (literally from the neighbours bin!) chipboard, as it meant I could make them slightly deeper than the originals, which was useful as I was wanting to add the small amount of ballast/grass/etc. The lighting from each is individually plugged into a connector poking through the back panel in the RHS onto a pair of bus wires which go to a cheap LED dimmer attached to the side.

If building the shelves from scratch rather than salvaged bits I would use some "led strip recessed profile" or 'corner profile' to reduce the need for the down-stand, and also improve how well they are diffused.

All the best,

Cameron.

kiwionrails said:

...Wagons-wise, my spreadsheet...

Click to expand...

You have a list! I should have an ABS WWI Rectank converted to a twin bolster 'somewhere', and there's a K's LMS design open fitted with a sheet bar hopefully lurking among the fitted opens fleet; as for the ex-GER (water-softening) sludge tender conversion, hopefully I still have it... Those are the types of vehicle I remember building -koff- 50 years ago...

BR in 1948, 22,000 locos, circa 1,100,000 wagons: over half of the latter for coal movement. The total UK loco fleet was near double that size, with something of the order of 20,000 typically small locos in industrial use, most of them employed in short distance movements of those wagons, many of which were for shifting coal.

Loads of wagons are required. I was much influenced by Don Rowlands (among others) who insisted that realistic modelling needed plenty of the 'ordinary' wagons, which on the steam railway meant majority open minerals, and next in line general merchandise opens.

kiwionrails said:

...'complete' doesn't include things like fitting couplings, but am holding-off doing that broadly until I have a layout to run things on...

Click to expand...

Good move there. Between three links, various bent wire types on the 'Scallop and Whitebait' theme, Dinghams, Kadee, MTL - and here comes magnetic - some of mine are likely on their fifth coupler. (While the NEM coupler pocket is visually intrusive, it does make RTR coupler changes quicker.)

34C said:

You have a list! I should have an ABS WWI Rectank converted to a twin bolster 'somewhere', and there's a K's LMS design open fitted with a sheet bar hopefully lurking among the fitted opens fleet; as for the ex-GER (water-softening) sludge tender conversion, hopefully I still have it... Those are the types of vehicle I remember building -koff- 50 years ago...

Click to expand...

A large part of the reason for creating the list was to help prevent me ending up with duplicate running numbers - more of a risk with RTR stock than kit, but is also so I have the definitive list somewhere!

Similarly I pulled together a list of the 'to build' drawer.....which ended up being much longer than I had initially expected.....

34C said:

BR in 1948, 22,000 locos, circa 1,100,000 wagons: over half of the latter for coal movement. The total UK loco fleet was near double that size, with something of the order of 20,000 typically small locos in industrial use, most of them employed in short distance movements of those wagons, many of which were for shifting coal.

Loads of wagons are required. I was much influenced by Don Rowlands (among others) who insisted that realistic modelling needed plenty of the 'ordinary' wagons, which on the steam railway meant majority open minerals, and next in line general merchandise opens.

Click to expand...

So about 50:1, which I think I'd need to do a wee bit more wagon building to catch-up on...!

I'm trying to keep a good balance between the weirder interesting prototypes whilst still having a good stock of the 'basics' - To that end I obtained a couple of LMS D1666 opens at Ally Pally a few weeks ago which will be making their way onto a bench at some stage.... (branching-out from purely GWR modelling, sacrilege I know...!)

34C said:

Good move there. Between three links, various bent wire types on the 'Scallop and Whitebait' theme, Dinghams, Kadee, MTL - and here comes magnetic - some of mine are likely on their fifth coupler. (While the NEM coupler pocket is visually intrusive, it does make RTR coupler changes quicker.)

Click to expand...

Depending on the makup of the eventual layout, I am currently erring between 3-links and Dinghams - at least very much aiming towards something which is mounted on the buffer beam. But yes, definitely not a decision I'm rushing into...!

Whilst I agree that NEM couplings are convenient, I realllly dislike the look of them (and none of my stock has been built with their fitment in mind, so I would need to do significant modifications to things like DCIII brake gear to enable its fitment.... )

Regards,

Cameron.

GWR MINK F No.793599 (Continued)
I've been fortunate to have had some time off work over the Easter break, so have been able to get a decent stint of modelling in on a couple of 'topics', which will be covered in the next couple of posts.

First-up, the Mink F... As promised, it first needed a quick blast with some more etch primer (Halfords rattle-can variety) to ensure a nice bond to all the additional detail which had been fitted....


...before a nice undercoat of GWR grey...




This was to enable the commencement of perhaps the most tedious part of the build.... you could even say it was riveting....

I used a combination of two different sheets of Railtec 3D rivet transfers; sheet 9228 (1⅛ inch diam, 3 inch spacing), and sheet 9102 (⅞ inch diam, 2 inch spacing). These two were maybe not the absolute perfect sizes for the application in question, however the intention was to ensure that there were rivets in approximately the right places, and I really didn't feel like placing them individually if I could absolutely help it...!

First-up was the band of rivets around the bottom of the bodysides - for reference, the middle panels were all 10 rivets long (useful when cutting them from the sheet). There was some 'poking' required with a toothpick to get the rows straight and in the right place.


Next-up was the ends - the corner pieces were 15 long.


Attention then turned to the solebars, using the reference photo in the earlier post to position things. - I realise these aren't perfect, but it gives the impression I was after. Notice the details are slightly different on the second side due to the vee hanger and vac cylinder being offset to one side.



Similar treatment was done to cover the rivets missing on the buffer beam. These had to be done individually to get the spacing correct.


Next-up is to give a top-coat to blend things in. - The reason for the lack of paint on the second side was due to some faults in the finish that I wanted to rob-down before overcoating,

Regards,

Cameron.

GWR Siphon F (Continued)
Work on the Siphon F has continued slowly with the lettering on the side now being complete.

Unfortunately I have been unable to find any period photos of the Siphon Fs in their earlier 20" livery, however one of my Russel et al books had a nice diagram showing this arrangement for No. 1543, however I elected to proceed with No.1546 in this case.

The HMRS Methfix GWR Goods insignia sheet provide a suitable source for this, however unfortunately it only has a single copy of each letter, so No.1454 & 1455 are not possible without multiple sheets.

Work started with the outer 'GW', which are situated over the vertical framing between the doors.


The running number is next, with the bottom aligned to the middle hinges using some masking tape.


One of the most challenging bits was to get the lettering to sit into the louvres properly. I've historically found the Methfix transfers pretty good at settling into raised detail, however even these needed some coaxing with some settling solution - in this case some Humbrol Decalfix.

(They were still damp for the above photo, and have since settled-down further)

Load & Tare were next, each in the outer-most panels.


.....aaand now to do it all again on the second side.

Regards,

Cameron.

A rather nice & chunky item arrived in this morning's post...


....but need to clear a couple of other things off the bench first...

Regards,

Cameron.

GWR Diag.P23 Ballast Wagons (Continued)
Work on the ballast wagons has continued slowly, with the next task being to paint the insides. The top-edge was masked-up to protect them from overspray...


...and then given a semi-transparent coat of Humbrol 113 rust to the sides. This allowed some of the slight pre-shading I had done to show through.



This was followed by yet-more masking to enable the floor to be painted next (No.110 natural wood).


And following removal of the masking, I'm pretty happy with the effect. - the thin coats allow for a nice natural variation in the colour. One unfortunate thing was that it seems the paint didn't adhere properly with the top edge, so there was some flaking. I'll need to give this a touch-up with a brush in due course...



Regards,

Cameron.

GWR MINK F No.793599 (Continued)
The Mink F is continuing to move along, although I was having some battles getting the surface finish in a state where I'm happy with. I did some rubbing-down with some scotchbrite to get rid of the 'orange peel'.


The other bit I was wanting to tweak was darkening the the colouring slightly to more closely match what I could see in the photo, which I'm much happier with.


I've done some digging, and whilst the majority of the lettering was pretty standard, was struggling to find anything for the "To work between PADDINGTON & BRISTOL" until I came across Sheet 149 from POWSides, which is now on order...

Regards,

Cameron.

L&MR Rocket (Continued)
Work on Rocket is continuing as well, with the main body 'blackwork' being next. This was all brush-painted using thinned Revell acrylics. - I decided it would be virtually impossible to spray due to the amount of masking that would be required!


This was followed by the 'copperwork' - I will need to check which one I used for this, as I unfortunately can't remember.... I however certain that it is not one of the Humbrol/Revell enamels, as I have had bad luck with them in the past....


The 'chroming' the cylinder guides was next, and 'coppering' a pipe on the RHS cylinder which I'd missed.


The brasswork on the body was next, which was done using some rather nice Vallejo VJ70801 Acrylic Metallic Brass paint.
With everything now painted for the most-part, it was time for final assembly... The cylinders were fitted in place to the body with a small dab of superglue, and after turning down and smoothing the crankpins were similarly affixed into the wheels.


I was never happy with the moulded 'stays' for the chimney, so elected to instead fit some 0.45mm NS wire.


This and the crankpin both were 'blackened' using a black marker to ensure the thinnest possible coat - this would be protected using a coat of lacquer


I believe all that is left to do now is fit the crew and 'unite' the loco with its tender. Although I'm aware that the "ROCKET" lettering on the brass plate should be black, I've decided against trying to pick this out, as it is very fine, and I have no confidence that I wouldn't end up just turning the entire thing!

Regards,

Cameron.