murrayec's Projects

[murrayec]

8 minutes ago, popeye said:

Amazing, You must be glad that's over, it's a lot of hours of your life.

Hi popeye

Yes, I am delighted. I stopped counting the hours about halfway through as that was getting scary, I just concentrated on having fun! well most of the time.

Thanks for your comments & support along the way, and to all others that did the same. Having this thread going at the same time as the build added another dimension to model building, looking forward to showing the work and getting feedback & discussion really helps.

Eoin

[David Holman]

A build of epic proportions! Both enjoyable and enlightening to follow, with all sorts of clever hints and tips along the way. Most of all though, a fabulous model with quality all the way through. Well done. REALLY, well done. Be very proud.

 So, what's next dare we ask?!

[murrayec]

16 minutes ago, David Holman said:

A build of epic proportions! Both enjoyable and enlightening to follow, with all sorts of clever hints and tips along the way. Most of all though, a fabulous model with quality all the way through. Well done. REALLY, well done. Be very proud.

 So, what's next dare we ask?!

Hi David

Thanks, yes its great to get it complete, its been in my head for the last 4 years and its probably going to take some time to get it out! The client will also be delighted.

'What's Next' - I'd like to get back to finishing the development of the 'Hibernia' kit, which features earlier in this thread. I recently conserved the Fry Hibernia model for the new museum in Malahide and now my version is back out of the attic! Though I have a number of jobs that have to be done- Gauge 1 Class 800, Gauge O Class 800, B2 Class 400, GNRi Class 43, CIE D19, Gauge OO Laminates and.......... oh my G,

Eoin

[flange lubricator]

Super job topclass modeling

[PJR]

Truly a master at work, well done, super looking model.

[John-r]

Eoin,. I have seen some fantastic models built before, however this is simply a class apart, just stunning, and to watch its progress from start to finish.  Well I can say no more, just brilliant

john.

[murrayec]

Thanks guys for your comments and that you followed it along, as I said above- knowing your following it and getting feedback makes the fun even greater....

Eoin.

 

Edited July 3, 2019 by murrayec

[Broithe]

Yeah, you're definitely getting the hang of this now...

[murrayec]

Just now, Broithe said:

Yeah, you're definitely getting the hang of this now...

Thanks man, and great to have your support to

Eoin

[Warbonnet]

Absolutely superb Eoin! 

(Have the A4 partwork if you fancy losing the rest of your sanity) 

 

[murrayec]

1 hour ago, Warbonnet said:

Absolutely superb Eoin! 

(Have the A4 partwork if you fancy losing the rest of your sanity) 

 

Thanks Fran

I'll come back to you on the A4!!  there is a lot of stuff queued up for the workbench and current stuff to be finished first......

Eoin

 

[Broithe]

3 minutes ago, murrayec said:

Thanks Fran

I'll come back to you on the A4!! 

Oooh!

Will it be live steam?

Or is that just for the catapult?

[PorkyP]

Just had a look at this, stunningly astonishingly good mate !

Like the other fella said tho..would look very well in Blue..! 

[murrayec]

Re-visiting the Martello Tower thing- I have a few orders for these going back a number of years, sorry guys! I recently got stuck back in and set about making them up.

This is Version 1 of which this workbench's first post featured;-

After constructing it and going to the trouble doing the gun n all I was disappointed that I had not considered at the foam cutting time of putting in the 3 alcoves in the parapet wall, one was for the stair access to the roof battery, the second was for throwing out hot shot from the furnace to shoot in the cannon, and the third was for access to the machicolation which guards the front door by dropping hot coals from the furnace and other things down on attackers at the door.

I had a representation of them in painted styrene but no one could work out what they were, see second photo above to the left! So this time Version 2 will have the three alcoves......

Version 2.

Suitable blocks of 50mm thick Polyfoam were cut out, each tower is made of two of them stacked. Note;- fumes from this stuff is deadly and I use my workshop extract system to avoid breathing it in, that's the thing at top of picture.

This is the template I use for doing most of the body cutting, a piece of card with guide lines plotted on, with a centre pin for holding and rotating the foam, the card is set up on the hot wire table with the clamped angle and square to guide the card into place when doing the cutting.

The first cut is the 4deg side face of the tower, the foam block are held together with double-sided tape, stuck on the pin, slid into position when the wire is hot and then rotated.

This is the machicolation part being cut out again the foam is stuck on the pin and rotated, the outside cut is 90deg and the inside is 4deg to match the tower side.

Machicolation part being stuck on with Deluxe Super 'Phatic glue.

Corbels for the underside of the machicolation being cut out using a card template.

Setting up for the parapet cut at 29deg, the cut goes into the marked line and then the tower is rotated to cut all round. Again the metal angle and squares are used to guide the template into position before doing the rotate cut.

Done, parapet cut. When setting the foam into position things can get a bit dodgy and over cuts happen as you can see in the parapet a bit of a gouge, this will be filled later as there will be a few more of these!

Next was to cut out and size the roof stuff comprising of 3 parts- the two racer upstands for the gun carriage to run on and the floor for the gun crew. All cut on the template by rotating the foam and then cut to appropriate height.

And fitted.

Next the cut for the door, done on the template which has a cut out to guide the wire.

Then the cut out piece is cut to fill in the lower section, again the cuts will be filled later.

The racer parts, the door and ladder are cut out of .5mm styrene on the Silhouette Cameo cutter, as the outer race part will be used as the template to cut the foam adjacent to the alcoves.

Setting up the .8mm cutting wire to do the alcoves, this is designed to do two jobs- cut the alcoves and the access passage between them, this is done by inverting the tool for the second cut!

The first cut is the passage, the tool is setup at the appropriate height, the tool is also held with two bits of pcb board on the non copper side to stop it going wavy and it's dimension changing when it gets hot, the foam is held in a pocket made from cardboard and a bit of the tower off-cut which has the 4deg profile, the foam is left free to rotate in the pocket to do the cut. Again guides are set up so that the foam can be pushed onto the tool, then rotated and then pulled back to complete the cut.

And cut. I had to add a holder for the tool as I kept the temperature of the wire down for plunge cutting and the foam was deflecting the tool sideways.

next the tool was inverted and I set up for cutting the alcoves, this was a tricky one as the alcove roof had to fall downwards in line with the parapet angle so that the tool would not cut up through the parapet - a few practice runs and all was....

OK, alcoves cut.

The outside racer foam was cut using the styrene part mentioned above as the template, the cuts were refilled with the off cuts sized to suit the level of the passage way floor which is in the foreground and was cut freehand with a paper template pinned on top to guide the wire.

Passage way floor installed.

Racers and crew floor installed, the right hand alcove will have steps down to the passage way level

'Racers' in our language are the 'Tracks'

Thats all for now

Eoin

 

[Noel]

Clever, innovative, effective master modelling

[David Holman]

So, not just good with brass then! Not surprised...

Unlikely I'm ever going to make a Martello tower, but fascinating to see the thought processes behind its construction and an inspiration in terms of always aiming for the highest standards.

[Mayner]

Iain Rice and the late Bob Barlow modelled a 4mm Martello tower on their Orford Haven layout in the 1980s.

As far as I recall the tower was turned from a piece of mahogany and modelled in a derelict condition with the lead partially stripped of the roof exposing the roof structure, the back story was that the tower was used as a lock up by Customs after the Napoleonic wars.

[Georgeconna]

man alive that's unbelievably nice!

 

[Midland Man]

Just now, Mayner said:

Iain Rice and the late Bob Barlow modelled a 4mm Martello tower on their Orford Haven layout in the 1980s.

As far as I recall the tower was turned from a piece of mahogany and modelled in a derelict condition with the lead partially stripped of the roof exposing the roof structure, the back story was that the tower was used as a lock up by Customs after the Napoleonic wars.

Turned in mahogany. My cousin works with wood and that could take days even weeks just to get it right. Great stuff @murrayec.

Edited April 22, 2020 by Midland Man

[irishthump]

@Eoin

Where do you source the blue insulation foam? I've been looking for it for ages and couldn't find it!

 

[murrayec]

44 minutes ago, irishthump said:

@Eoin

Where do you source the blue insulation foam? I've been looking for it for ages and couldn't find it!

 

This stuff I had in stock which I bought as a job lot of various thickness off RPM who were selling off O'Sullivans Art Supply stock when they closed down a few years back, but I have used polyfoam board from Build4less, which one has to buy in a pack of several 1200x600 sheets at about €80.00 for 50mm, they do different thickness also. When compared to what O'Sullivans used to charge for one sheet of 'Art Foam' it is really good value and a lifetime supply!

https://www.build4less.ie/catalogsearch/result/index/?ajaxcatalog=true&&q=Roof+insulation+board

Eoin

[irishthump]

14 minutes ago, murrayec said:

This stuff I had in stock which I bought as a job lot of various thickness off RPM who were selling off O'Sullivans Art Supply stock when they closed down a few years back, but I have used polyfoam board from Build4less, which one has to buy in a pack of several 1200x600 sheets at about €80.00 for 50mm, they do different thickness also. When compared to what O'Sullivans used to charge for one sheet of 'Art Foam' it is really good value and a lifetime supply!

https://www.build4less.ie/catalogsearch/result/index/?ajaxcatalog=true&&q=Roof+insulation+board

Eoin

Thanks Eoin.

Yeah I normally use the yellow insulation board but it can't be cut with a hot wire cutter and the surface can be quiet pitted.

[murrayec]

A bit of filling, sticking, n scoring the Martello Tower over the weekend!

I used Deluxe lightweight foam filler to fix some of the through cuts and other bits.

Filling dry and sanded the next bit of detail to the parapet was added, this photo is of setting up a guide line to stick on the detail.

Detail on.

The corbels to the machicolation being stuck on.

Steps for the roof access being cut with a card template to guide the hot wire.

I decided to forgo using the styrene racer detail I cut out earlier, I reckon the foam looks better for the granite appearance, so I bent up .8mm steel wire to make the racers which will be stuck down after they are painted a rusty colour. The photo shows using the styrene parts for sizing the steel wire.

The upper n lower sections of the tower were finally stuck together and set up for scoring the stone coursing, done on the setting card with centre pin to rotate the tower and then marked the coursing with a sharp pencil lead on the height gauge.

Horizontals complete.

Verticals done by freehand.

The radial scoring was done by making stencils from the drawing to mark off the divisions, five were needed in all.

Coursing detail done.

And finally a coat of Foam Armour is applied before starting to paint.

A few more bits of filling is required in the rooftop gun platform area which will be done after the first coat of paint.

Eoin

 

[Midland Man]

WOW just wow

[Broithe]

20 minutes ago, murrayec said:

 

 

 

Looking a bit more "Star Wars" than "Napoleonic Wars"....  

[murrayec]

3 minutes ago, Broithe said:

Looking a bit more "Star Wars" than "Napoleonic Wars"....  

If the foam was orange it could have been Covid......

Eoin

[David Holman]

Great to see things made with so much precision.

[Bentleypat]

Simply outstanding workmanship by a Master Craftsman. No superlatives do full justice to your endeavours, Eoin. It’s a privilege to chat when we meet occasionally!

[WRENNEIRE]

[Georgeconna]

Bloody hell that looks great, I like the how I did it pictures too. Where do you pick up that blue foam these days?

[Noel]

Yes its bizarre there were even some of these gun towers on the River Shannon near Banagher and MountShannon, who an earth were they afraid of coming up river? The Vikings managed it over a thousand years ago, but I can't imagine the French or Spanish wanting to get up to the inland bogs, there were no cities inland. Ships could easily get up as far as Limerick, but not really beyond due to Doonass falls. Killaloe was the ancient capital of Ireland but that was many centuries before Martello towers were even constructed in the 19th century.

[Galteemore]

Mind you, General Humbert led a French army across Connaught in 1798 - including along the future SLNC route between Carrignagat and Dromahair! Not sure if the British artillery pieces he dumped in the River Bonet are still resting in the murky depths...

[Midland Man]

You have to remember that a a lot of murder was done when the Spanish or French failed to win. I once heard a story of a Spanish with 700 people on it. Only one person survived after the British captured them because the Brits killed the rested. The Spanish who did not get captured had family's with the local thus having people from Belmullet or Cliftan with tans in the 1880s!

[Noel]

2 minutes ago, Midland Man said:

You have to remember that a a lot of murder was done when the Spanish or French failed to win. I once heard a story of a Spanish with 700 people on it. Only one person survived after the British captured them because the Brits killed the rested. The Spanish who did not get captured had family's with the local thus having people from Belmullet or Cliftan with tans in the 1880s!

Well years ago scientists in Trinity doing genetic studies proved that most of the population outside of 'the pale' are not celts, but rather descended directly from basque's of the iberian peninsular.  When descendants of homo erectus species migrated from Africa to northern Europe they took two routes one through the middle east and the other by sea around the iberian peninsular. Apparently this western route populated Ireland thousands of years before the rest of northern Europe. The Trinity study explains the skin complexion, facial shapes and body mannerisms west of the Shannon which are scarily alike people from the Basque region of Spain.

[Broithe]

11 minutes ago, Noel said:

Well years ago scientists in Trinity doing genetic studies proved that most of the population outside of 'the pale' are not celts, but rather descended directly from basque's of the iberian peninsular.  When descendants of homo erectus species migrated from Africa to northern Europe they took two routes one through the middle east and the other by sea around the iberian peninsular. Apparently this western route populated Ireland thousands of years before the rest of northern Europe. The Trinity study explains the skin complexion, facial shapes and body mannerisms west of the Shannon which are scarily alike people from the Basque region of Spain.

There are few places where the current inhabitants are direct descendants of the original settlers.

Iceland may be almost the only one around here.

Facial shapes and body mannerisms west of the Shannon are just scary...