Rob's Workbench

[Robert Davies]

Great work rob!

I recently gave a crack at a scratch bult 4 wheel timber wagon and now compared to yours it looks awful

 

I was just looking at your timber wagon, and thought it looked pretty OK to me - p'raps it could've done with being built on a longer wheelbased chassis, but all the elements are there ...and it's all yours!

 

-Rob

[Robert Davies]

Hi Rob,it's great to hear your story and thanks for

sharing.This hobby is great for keeping us all on the

straight and narrow,and keep up the good work.

I think you are like a lot of us and got bitten by the

GM bug.I am a postie myself,and while doing a duty

near Wexford town a good few years ago

saw a double headed baby GM ballast train and nearly

Drove the van into the river Slaney rubbernecking the

Train!.

Eamonn

 

Aye Eamonn!

 

The job was definitely good for spotting and seeing the unusual The knack being to keep one eye on the road to avoid being part of the unusual yourself!

 

-Rob

[RedRich]

Hi Rob,it's great to hear your story and thanks for

sharing.This hobby is great for keeping us all on the

straight and narrow,and keep up the good work.

I think you are like a lot of us and got bitten by the

GM bug.I am a postie myself,and while doing a duty

near Wexford town a good few years ago

saw a double headed baby GM ballast train and nearly

Drove the van into the river Slaney rubbernecking the

Train!.

Eamonn

 

I might be passing through your neck of the woods Eamonn in a few weeks. Just wondering what kind of rail traffic I am likely to see.

 

Rich,

[BabyGM]

I was just looking at your timber wagon, and thought it looked pretty OK to me - p'raps it could've done with being built on a longer wheelbased chassis, but all the elements are there ...and it's all yours!

 

-Rob

 

Thanks

[enniscorthyman]

I might be passing through your neck of the woods Eamonn in a few weeks. Just wondering what kind of rail traffic I am likely to see.

 

Rich,

Just boring plastic railcars Rich.

Do call for the tea if you get a chance.

[enniscorthyman]

Aye Eamonn!

 

The job was definitely good for spotting and seeing the unusual The knack being to keep one eye on the road to avoid being part of the unusual yourself!

 

-Rob

Seeing the unusual is right.on some of the old Ruth's I did

I had to collect mail-parcels from Enniscorthy station and

Was always on the lookout for something in the sidings

such as cement or ballast.Sometime in the mid 90s I

Had the joy of seeing 078 returning LE back to Dublin

and got so caught up forgot to collect the mail bag that

I had been sent to the station for.No phone cameras

back then!.

[RedRich]

Just boring plastic railcars Rich.

Do call for the tea if you get a chance.

 

Cheers Eamonn and thanks for the very kind offer for a cuppa. If I have time I'll give you a bell in advance.

 

Rich,

[Robert Davies]

A little something to run behind 112 to make it feel at home

 

or, something I found in my stash in the garage one day....

 

Some Lima Seacow ballast wagons, got the old strip down, undercoat and relivery - just waiting for some of Weshty's transfers to arrive to finish the job off

 

 

They were originally EWS livery from the days when I had a loop of track that went around the patio and rockery.

 

 

I wonder if there's a clues in the NIR ballast wagon pic to indicate what my next victim may be?

 

-Rob

[Glenderg]

Nice work rob, any more shots of the patio loop? Are you going all container-tastic on us?

[BosKonay]

Post a few how to pics on the grabber - I've one to start myself!!

[RedRich]

Smashing work on the Seacows Rob, they look spot on.

 

Rich,

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Great work Rob:-bd

[Robert Davies]

Nice work rob, any more shots of the patio loop? Are you going all container-tastic on us?

 

Thanks Rich, I've had a dig around but the patio was a house move ago, and I cannot find any more

 

...and yes a Kalmar ContChamp Container lift is next up.

 

Post a few how to pics on the grabber - I've one to start myself!!

 

That might be tricky in that it's half done already - I started it and left it - there are one or two important 'gotchas' that I've found - when you come to do yours, give me a prod and I'll update the thread with the details, if I haven't already!

 

Thanks Anto and Rich (Red one!) for your kind words - not a patch on your work, but it keeps me off the streets

 

-Rob

[Grange Castle]

Have to agree with the lads great work ! Wish i had the skill !

[Robert Davies]

Thanks Grange Castle

 

Skill? I don't know about that... Time and the odd technique picked up over the years, maybe

 

Talking of which....

 

All my work is brush painted, and masking off and painting lines for brush painting used to be a recipe for disaster for me, until I was taught this little trick:

 

The Bodger's Guide to Masking and Painting...

 

Take those ballast wagons, where the sole bar meets the hopper there's a black line all the way across the bottom of the hopper. What with all those vertical stanchions crossing that line that looks like a recipe for heartache, with the black leeching up the stanchions under the masking tape. This is where the trick comes in - mask up the wagon as normal, but before you apply the black, apply a light coat of the yellow first. This seals the tape, and if any should leech under the tape, it doesn't matter because it's the exactly the same as the colour underneath. Let that light coat paint dry thoroughly, NOW brush or spray on the black. When you come to remove the masking, a perfect line will be revealed

 

-Rob

 

ps If you're working in gloss or metallics, it may be best to use a light coat of gloss varnish as the masking 'sealing' coat.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Robert Davies
another thought...

[RedRich]

Some very sound advice Rob, thanks for sharing. Some railway vehicles are hand painted in the 1ft = 12 inches world.

 

Rich,

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Great tip about the varnish Rob. I've learnt something new today

[Robert Davies]

The Murphy 201 is a very nice model but exhibits a few compromises.

 

One that has bugged me for a while is the lower front where the coupling does or doesn't protrude - Oh and that h-u-g-e grey coupling that Murphy supply

 

So I had a look, I ran the loco around the tightest radii curves that I would be prepared to tolerate, and noticed something - the coupling never gets anywhere near the left or right ends of the slot in the front of the loco. I took a look at the supplied blanking plate, and cut the centre out of it, and attached the outer pieces to the loco the result being that it doesn't have the 'wide mouth frog' look any more - But still something bugged me, the coupling, so I swapped it for a smaller Bachmann model - the total result being:

 

 

 

The exhaust silencer on GM/EMD euro locos only looks pristine for about a day and a bit - then the paint burns off, followed by heat burnishing, followed by oxidisation - so I had a go with paint and weathering powders at replicating the 'in service exhaust silencer' look. The flash piccie is a bit harsh, but it's turned out OK to my eyes I think. The actual soot staining was copied from a pic on Eiretrains site, though not of 229 itself.

 

 

 

 

For completeness my beet wagon colouring experiment - but the story etc is here: http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/1203-Beet-wagons-what-colour-were-they

 

-Rob

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Rob have a look at my 201's I just cut a small hole in the blanking plate and glue in a square piece of plastic tubing the same size as the coupling holder. You can then just push fit your couplings in place

[Robert Davies]

Rob have a look at my 201's I just cut a small hole in the blanking plate and glue in a square piece of plastic tubing the same size as the coupling holder. You can then just push fit your couplings in place

 

I'll give your 201s another once over - I remember reading about your system a few months back, back when I was more nervous type about this modelling lark.

 

I've a feeling I'll be surreptitiously introducing a Bachmann coupling to the evergreen plastics stand in the local model shop...

 

Ahem! Moving right along now.

 

-Rob

[scahalane]

excellent work there Rob, keep them coming.

[Guest hidden-agenda]

Your getting a right rake of wagons together Robert just looked at the timber wagon (i missed it due to work ) nice job and kebab skewers from tesco hacked up for a load might be to your liking.

[Riversuir226]

Excellent work Rob, many thanks for the handy painting tip. Keep up the good work.