why I don't like modern models.....

I rather like my old Dublo and Triang models as you may have guessed if you've read anything prior to this.  They look reasonably the part (they are at least the right colour and shape) and run well, more important however is their tinkerability.  By this I mean you can strip one down no problem, re-assemble it with a modicum of care and, due to the lack of bits, 95% of the time it will run as well as the day it was made.

I decided to have a decent running session tonight on my On30 American narrow gauge layout (my main modelling concern at the moment).  Everything was fine until it came to move the Bachmann railbus out of the station.  It didn't, just sitting there whirring away.  The final drive had gone phut.

My first fear was stripped gears, bachmann US models tend to have this affliction, due to the gear material but I'd never heard of it in this model.  I opened the gearbox up and found the final drive gears had so much sideways play in them they had both disengaged, why they took so long to do this I don't know.

My solution was to slip card packing between gear and casing to keep it in mesh, this worked but now the drive was too tight and the thing struggled to move.  Out came the card, but now it was making a nasty noise so I tried to remove the gearbox, failed halfway, put it back in and now it was making a truly terrifying buzzing noise.

Nothing for it, a total strip down was necessary.  I dug out the exploded parts drawing and was amazed at the complexity of the thing.  In the end I just started dismantling as I found it.  Eventually I got to the motor casing and found the cause of the issue, I'd bent the motor tail shaft and the flywheel was now executing a spectacularly wobbly arc.  I bent it back as best I could and re-assembled.  It now runs as smoothly as before but any more than a scale 10 mph and the thing buzzes like a circular saw, I decided to cut my losses and leave it at that as I never run it fast anyway.  I'm contemplating taking the Xuron track snippers to the shaft and just doing away with it altogether.

Detail is lovely, and this railbus has lots of it, however it makes getting the thing apart without damage impossible and I do like to have a model with ease of maintenance.  I can't see models of the day running in 50 years time if the mechanisms are as awkward to look after as this one is, as people simply won't!  The possible exception is the On30 mogul by Bachmann, that is a very robust model, and is part of the reason 3 of my loco's are based on them.

Dublo got it right it seems.....

lining out

Went to Warley at the NEC today, had a very pleasant day hunting down Dublo bargains, trying to avoid the industrial kits at Mercian, chatting to Phil Parker, watching mad class 73s take off on their own and chatting to my colleagues from Guildford Model Engineers.

I have been lining the County project out.  For this I used Modelmasters lining transfers, nice and easy to use, you cut as much as you need, and fix it in situ, they do try to fight you but persistance and a bit of tenacity (and not a little language) pays off.  I did have a couple of cock ups, like when I puffed sharply to clear some dust and the line I just applied flew off the model to oblivion.  Learnt to stop doing that sharpish!

I'm sure anyone who knows will be able to see that the splasher lining is a cheat.  I couldn't easily replicate the double line in the space available and I didn't really want to line out the top, line out the bottom and then disturb what I'd already done.  I therefore have simplified it a bit (Dublo would have done this is my excuse, and I'm sure Dad won't mind) to one line at the top.

I've varnished the bits I've done to protect them from handling.  Once the models completely lined I'll varnish it, wash it and apply another coat to get the depth.

painting the neverwassa

I have been painting the County, and have been doing it rather differently to how I'd normally do it (i.e. spray paint).  Dublo locos, especially the earlier ones all had a hand painted finish to their paintwork.  I don't know if this was the case, I imagine they must have been sprayed but I may be wrong.  To replicate this I brush painted the body with Humbrol satin black paint.....which came out matt.  Hmmm how did that happen.

It doesn't matter, as I will be varnishing the model afterwards.  I'm currently lining out the loco, with Modelmaster lining decals.  I'm not keen on lining, I've done it in 7 1/4" gauge but never OO (all my locos have been goods black!).  So far its gone ok, not brilliant and certainly not Dublo standard but it looks ok to me. 

I have varnished the body with Ronseal satin floor varnish.  Left in an airing cupboard this will go very thin, and is easily brushed on.  This sounds rather cavalier but there is a reasoning to it, Dublo did market some models with a gloss finish for a time, and the County appears to be the same in appearance now to these gloss models. 

The nameplates have arrived from Modelmasters too.  They are excellent (never bought any from them before) and as soon as I've figured out how to fit them (you'll see!) they'll go on.

Pictures when its tidied up and the varnish is dry, in the meantime, here is a gloss N2 to show you what I mean, the livery is the same too.

A Dublo Neverwazza

My Father and I love our Dublo 3 rail, we've got stacks of it hidden away and lately I've begun buying more of it.  The idea is to build a layout later this year but that can wait for another blog post.

The thing with Dublo is, the range does rather constrain you as to what you can run.  Once you've bought all the common stuff you're stuck with either duplicates or a limited fleet of engines if you can't pay £400 for Ludlow Castle.  Lately it seems to have become the thing to re-number or repaint locos ala Wrenn fashion and once I'd acquired a couple of these I rather liked the idea (as long as it stuck to what I call the "Dublo way").

Neverwazza's as they are known (because they never was made by Dublo guv'ner) have been slowly creeping into our collection and have really added some interest to it.  Take Dad's beautiful professionally painted Caledonian liveried N2 (my 50th birthday present to him) for instance, it looks amazing compared to drab BR liveried stuff!  I myself have a London Transport liveried one and that looks jolly good too.

I saw this on eBay and was immediately on its case.  It looked like too good a opportunity to miss and I'm glad I've got it.  In short its a real Neverwazza, but in total Dublo fashion.  Its a Castle boiler and cab, shortened where necessary and affixed to a 8F footplate, with brass bits attached to make the distinctive splashers.  This all sits on a scratchbuilt chassis (Romford drivers, X04 motor) with the cylinders provided by a Graham Farish OO gauge (yup I really am that sad I can tell this) prairie tank.  The Dublo Castle bogie remains unaltered.  All this sounds like a horrendous mongrel but it really does look like a County.

After a oil and a clean the chassis ran very well (good start) and the wheels would run on Dublo 3 rail track (even better start).  The plan is (and I've already painted it so watch out for that in the next post) to get an 8F tender chassis and stick a Bachmann or Hornby Hawksworth tender body on it to create the tender and also convert it to 3 rail.  Livery will be BR black, I've ordered the name and number plates, it will become County of Somerset (where Dad is from) and presented to him at Christmas.  Hopefully it won't take long!  The outcome will be a Great Western County, more or less as Dublo would have done it, and best of all, nobody else will have one!

Catenary making

I'm sure if anyone had watched me make this they'd have been laughing rather a lot (until I sent them for tea that is).  I made some catenary masts the other day, simple things from K&S brass tube and rod.  These were set into holes drilled in the baseboard and a wire fed from the base of one of them, this formed the power supply. 

I then turned to getting the wires up.  This sort of follows the Sommerfeldt system.  They advocate putting a loop at one end of the wire and doing the same at the other end.  I decided I'd do that at one end and solder the other end.  The loop helped keep the thing up while I did the other end, and the small 3D printed boxcab was shuttling up and down the wire finding all the bugs.  I learned two things:

1) Don't try and make a curve that follows the track, it doesn't work like that.

2) Don't get any solder under the wire, the loco will find it and be merrily tossed off the rails.

3) It is best to follow American practice (good job I model American then) and have the wire sag.

All in all, a good hour spent soldering (and swearing).  Below is a little drawing I did of a catenary post, more for my memories sake than anything!

Much to my delight it all works, with a good healthy voltage being delivered to the motor.  I will admit the track also supplies the power, but the pantograph does work and provides a more reliable pick up.  I was most delighted that none of the steam locos ripped it all down, not sure what the clearance is supposed to be in American narrow gauge, but it looks far enough!

a small diorama

I am a member of the Great Cockcrow Railway, a 7 1/4" gauge miniature railway in Lyne, Surrey.  It was decided that we could promote ourselves better, so a stand was provided at the Egham and Staines model railway exhibition, with myself operating a portable track outside with my engine Lulubelle.  The stand was very good, lots of pictures, a laptop playing the DVD we sell, a "name the part of the engine" competition and even a small loco!

We also had a diorama of "Jungle Halt".  This was built by myself and fellow Cockcrow-ite Steve Trower.  Its nothing more than a bit of old shelving with some Hornby set track left over from a train set pinned to it.  This didn't require any weathering as GCR track is aluminium on black plastic sleepers! Steve layed the track and built the foundation of the scenery (including the rather natty little station platform), whereas I did the green bits.  This comprised mostly of assorted Woodlands Scenics scatter and clump foliage.  The trees were sea moss sprayed with aerosol glue, then rolled in a mix of scatter and clump, they were then glued to the back scene.  This was a bit of a bodge, simply painted white, but we ran out of time!  If I could change anything it would be to sort the back scene and get rid of that awful "edge" along the bottom!

The loco is an old K's GNR Atlantic (Steve's) painted in GNR livery and numbered 1442 for the simple reason that we have it at the GCR!  The coach was knocked up by Steve out of thin ply emulating the real coaches.

Animals were Kinder Egg things.  Jungle halt is populated on open Sundays by lots of stuffed animals!

It was the second time I exhibited a model I had built, though this one was a team effort.  Its currently in store for the next time, but it did rather set into motion the idea of a larger "Cockcrow" layout.....

Tiger Tank

Its not all trains here, theres a fair bit of artillery too!  When I was in the first year of my apprenticeship I got into 1/16 tanks.  I bought one of the cheap Heng Long Tigers and systematically rebuilt it entirely.  It ended up getting upgraded suspension, new gearboxes and new electronics.  I got a bit ambitious and fitted a winking machine gun that operates at the same time as the sound effect plays.  It weighs rather a lot, and does perform rather like a real tank due to this. 

Tanks are excellent weathering fodder, I made this one a bit grubbier than most would, but it came out rather well.  I wouldn't recommend getting into tanks unless your very very keen, you lose so much money in postage and packing for all the new bits that you will never get it back if you sell the model in the future.  So I'm stuck with this one (and the other three).

Shame ; )

box cab nearly done

I have been beavering away on the box cab, and it is now at the point where it can pull trains.  The loco has been detailed and painted, I decided on a nice yellow in the end, one of the Humbrol acrylic spray range.  That coupled with the grey running gear and roof to me shout "Union Pacific", a railway whose bright livery I've always liked, though this one won't be pulling 50 car trains any time soon.

The roof detailing is scrap box plunder.  Hatches are cab doors from a Bachmann Ivatt 4MT, and the vent is off an RAF fire engine and ambulance set that provides me with all manner of bits, the kit itself is hopelessly incomplete so at least some of it is of use.  I did fit the two bulkheads inside, these are plasticard and form a box within the body, further bracing the printed body and providing a convenient place to stick ballast weights.  Handrails were fitted, using some brass wire I keep for such things, I used photos of real box cabs to get a suitable amount of them on.

Once I'd got the bits all glued on I set to and began painting.  This was something I was apprehensive about.  There isn't much on the web about spraying these 3D printings, and I was worried my work was going to be ruined.  In the end all I found was it took more coats of grey primer than usual to achieve a decent result, the manufacturing process leaves the surface slightly porous so you have to spray around four coats on.  I considered using filler primer but it would have obliterated details.  I followed this up with four coats of Humbrol yellow and left it alone. 

One thing new to me was the masking tape I used.  For this model I decided to see what Tamiya masking was like and it is excellent, it doesn't rip the paint back off and leaves a good edge.  Once the masking was removed I brush painted the underframe and roof with some Humbrol enamel (92 for you paint afficionados out there).

Pantograph back on (connected to the SPUD with a gold plated connector, no messing around) and my favourite self adhesive weights inside and it ran perfectly.  I found I over ballasted it causing the thing to run like it was clockwork, though causing the SPUD to get rather hot.  I've removed some weight and all is now well.  Couplings are just standard Kadee number 5's.

Just glazing to do and then I shall have to make some overhead and see if my pantograph works!  I'm now thinking a bogie version of the same would be good.

Overhead wires and 3D printing

I have long been fascinated with the notion of working model catenary.  As a youngster I would look at the Triang and Hornby catalogues and wish I could have such a system.  I decided to add a short extension to my On30 layout to provide extra storage space (same old situation, too many wagons not enough sidings).  Originally I intended to make this a car float (train ferry in this country) inspired by Egham and Staines "Fraser Mills" though I had no intention of making it work!  I then decided that a working overhead would be more fun, and provide the impetus to build another exhibition layout (you'll learn about my first and only one day!).

So jumping straight in I decided what I needed was a quick to make loco to test my embryo catenary making skills.  Phil Parker had introduced me to 3D printing via his excellent blog, and it seemed a good cheap way of making a loco.  I thus ordered a box cab diesel body from Shapeways and waited for it to turn up.  First impressions were good, the shape was nice, and it seemed strong enough to withstand me working on it.

Construction thus far has been very simple.  It consists of the body which via some little plasticard ledges sits on a square piece of plasticard.  This sits on a Tenshodo Spud to provide the go.  Some plasticard side frames with rudimentary axlebox covers complete the bottom half, and a plasticard box sits atop the roof.  This supports a 50 year old Fleischmann sprung pantograph which I have fixed with nothing but friction, enabling it to be removed for maintenance.  A wire from this will be led to the Spud in due course.

All that is really left to do is adorn the loco with some handrails, air tanks on the roof and fit some inner bulkheads to add some more strength and to break up the interior a bit.  Then its a case of dusting it with grey primer and painting it some nice offensive colour. 

I'm thinking orange.

raw beginnings

Not a model built by me, rather one that belongs to my best mates grandfather, who bought it at a model fair.  Apparently there was a whole raft of things that had been built by the same chap, all looking as....impressionist...as this one.

What we have here is an LNER P2, grafted rather cleverly I thought onto an old Triang Hornby A3 chassis which has had an additional coupled wheel slotted into it.  One wheelset is flangeless to enable the thing to get round a train set curve.  The tender is your bog standard Hornby offering.

The body is grafted out of a bit of (from what I could see) drain pipe, with lots of plasticard, UHU, Bostick and not a little hope to form a rough approximation of what I always thought was Gresley's best looking design.

Why do I show you this model?  Well as I'm starting a blog I thought it best to show a model where someone who despite having apparently little skill in the scratchbuilding department has strived to build a model of a loco they couldn't otherwise have.  It has many deep seated problems, not least the fact it wouldn't run properly, but they had a go, and thats comendable.  I think for that reason its worth tinkering with to get it to run.

My best mate was extremely rude about the model, I felt sorry for it, but not so sorry as to offer it a home.....

New blog type thing

with many models on the go, and being one for sharing how I do things (or not!) I decided to put fingers to keyboard and write a blog showing some of the things I make, as well as some of the toys I play with.

enjoy

Matt