David's Workbench

[Tullygrainey]

Out of adversity comes innovation!  Nice work with the buffers and couplings David. Fly is looking pristine again.
I get the same feeling about that first paint coat - too bright and too shiny too in my experience. Toy-like. But it soon comes in, as you say. Looking forward to seeing Fly gather a little road dust. 

Probably best not to think too much about the cost. It’s a small price to pay for the pleasure of building something and then looking with a bit of pride at what you’ve achieved. I think Fly has come in at a very reasonable cost. One of the advantages of taking as long as I do to make anything is that the cost is well spread out and less noticeable Incidentally, my most recent 4mm rtr loco purchase cost £325 including postage. I don’t do that very often. 
More power to your soldering iron. And your Black & Decker

Alan

[David Holman]

Thanks Alan and everyone. Forgot to add the £40+ for lining transfers to the bill, but as you say, it is what it is and the main thing about indulging in creative hobbies is the satisfaction it can bring. Well - mostly!

[Galteemore]

It’s kind of worth it when all done ….Fly is coming on really well, and will be a splendid addition. I did find the green a bit ‘in your face’ when applied, but the lining and other paintwork detailing softens the effect. Great to see it at this stage.

[David Holman]

 Only a few things left to do on Fly now., albeit one of them being the lining. Other things done in the last couple of days are:

• buffer beams painted red, with screw link couplings added
• buffers themselves have had their shanks turned down in the drill and for now, just push fitted in place
• cab interior has been painted black to waist level and cream above
• driving wheel spokes have been brush painted green, while the rims are now dark grey. Wheel nuts are currently not in place to aid painting.
• Dark grey [a 60/40 mix of matt black and gunmetal] has been used to also paint the smokebox, footplate and chimney
• Likewise the cab roof, as yet unfixed
• Background of the name and number plates painted black
• Coupling rods are now gunmetal
• Sandpipes have been painted copper
• Other items have had the paint scraped/filed off to leave bare metal. These include the handrails, raised letters and numbers,, plus the vacuum pipe around the front of the smokebox.

 Fly still looks very green, but these details are certainly starting to tone things down, so am very much hoping that the lining will do this even better.

[Bob49]

Looking good

Marc

[Galteemore]

Really coming on nicely. Looks so different to the J26 form! 

[David Holman]

Thanks, I think it's really just the Terrier type chimney, as everything else is pretty much the same, though the smokebox door is also different of course.  The lining should also make a difference, but as you know, it is no quick fix!

[David Holman]

 Lining can often be, quite literally, a pain in the neck. I've tried most methods over the years: transfers [pressfix, meths fix, waterslide], various lining pens [Bob Moore, bow pen, etc], even a bit of brush lining and I've grown to hate them all in equal amounts! Therefore, it is not without a fair bit of trepidation when it comes to a MGWR engine. Just look at it...

... side tanks, bunker sidescab sides, boiler bands, valences, wheels, plus of course the cab front/rear and bunker rear. This is the real Fly and it is interesting to compare its working lining with that of locos in 'photographic grey' - seems there was a bit of variation between locos at times. Most of the lining is white/black white and I resort to Fox Tranfers for the necessary pieces, which you can see below:

 As you can see, they provide corners of two different radii, plus a couple of more random curves and arcs which are useful for splashers. They also do circles of different radii in just black or white, which are not just for wheels, but also other odd shapes that the MGWR are keen to include where they can!

  By and large these water slide transfers are fairly user friendly once you get used to them, though the process is not without rude words and increased blood pressure at times!

 I started with one of the corner pieces - a bit of a pig the first time round, but it gets easier with practice. The problem is  that the transfer wants to fold over itself, becoming increasing hard to untangle until you are forced to throw it away. However, once in place, you can then go on to add the straight bits, which are easier to manipulate, provided you keep the lengths to no more than 3-5cm. Happily, they are easy to join up to make longer lengths without the joint being apparent.

 After that, it is a case of repeat ad infinitum, or so it seems because there are at least 36 rounded corners. Thus far, I've taken about three hours to do one side of the tank and bunker, along with the boiler bands. Hopefully the practice on the straight and rectangular bits will eventually help me when it comes to the cab sides and valances. The pictures below show progress so far, along with a comparison to my D16 4-4-0 Wolf Dog. Interestingly, despite the paint code being the same on both rattle cans, the green on Fly seems noticeably brighter, so it is perhaps just as well that Northport Quay will be one engine in steam and they won't often be seen side by side.

[Tullygrainey]

Absolutely beautiful!

[Galteemore]

Looks fabulous David. Stunning little loco. 

[KMCE]

Seriously impressive.  Lining is one of those areas I try to avoid as much as possible which is why most of my locos are in GSR grey, with simple grey wagons. 

I do need to put some effort in though, and the intention is to paint my 2-2-2 in DSER colours and apply lining..........well, some time soonish!!!

[David Holman]

 Am taking a break from the lining, not least because its given me stiff neck. However for a recent birthday, persuaded my wife to buy me the Dremel Motosaw. And very nice it is too.

 It comes in a robust plastic case and can be used as both a bench tool [as illustrated] or just hand held. Not sure I will be doing the latter, but it can certainly do the business with a variety of materials, depending on which blade you use. The coarse ones will easily cut plywood, MDF and so on, up to around 3-5mm thickness. The finest blade [actually only 10 teeth per cm] can cope with soft, non-ferrous metals down to 0.2mm. Thus far, have tried it on some 0.5mm brass and nickel silver sheet and it should save me a lot of effort cutting out loco frames and on other scratch building work. Dremel, but the way is an off shoot of Bosch, so hopefully that augers well for my latest toy.

 Another nice present is the Michael Whitehouse & Peter Lemmy French Narrow Gauge Album. At just over half the cost of the T&D tome, it is very good value, with some stunning photos and lots of informative text too. It is perhaps just as well that Patrick Whitehouse extensively toured Ireland, or I could easily have been tempted into things the other side of another narrow stretch of water!

[Tullygrainey]

That is a nifty tool. I could probably do a fair bit of damage with one of those

[J-Mo Arts]

Many happy returns David! 

[Northroader]

French narrow gauge,, eh? There is a very tasty web site……

http://www.passion-metrique.net/forums/index.php

 

[David Holman]

The E class project plods on, not helped by recent hot weather hereabouts - stuff gets done in the morning, or not at all. I guess it is about three quarters done in terms of lining, but after that, there is still the crew and cab glazing to fit, along with some coal in the bunker, some general tidying up and a bit of light weathering. Indeed, I reckon that painting and finishing will probably take as long as actual construction in the end.

 The current tools of the trade are shown above. Craft knives and steel edge for cutting out bits of transfer, plus fine paint brushes and a cocktail stick for persuading each piece to go in place. The bottle is Humbrol Decalfix. The cotton buds are useful to help transfers come off the backing paper and are a useful halfway house to finding you have left the piece in water too long and it has floated off in a tangle. 

 Straight bits are easiest, corner pieces can be a real pain because they seem to knot themselves far too readily. Some of the lining has been cut so that it is just a single white & black stripe - as per the cab sides, front and rear. Valences likewise. Driving wheels are a bit work in progress - used a single white transfer on one side, but this proved such a faff that have had a go with a white gel pen on the other side, though this looks like it could do with toning down a bit.

 Note that the cab roof is still not fixed, though I have used a scalpel to scrape away the paint on the spectacle surrounds to show the brass beneath. Below is a picture of Fly alongside my J26. The latter is a real plain Jane by comparison & it is interesting to compare the two models as, apart from the obvious paint job, the only major differences are the smokebox and chimney.

 

[Bob49]

I managed to get a good look at a Dapol B4 tank yesterday. I was intrigued to see they held the roof on with twn nuts glued to the roof and two magnets attached to the inside of the cab. The magnets didn't actually come in contact with the nuts so there was no alignment issues.

Marc 

[Tullygrainey]

Very fine job indeed, David. The lining looks really well. I know how challenging (and frustrating) that can be!

[David Holman]

 Fly is at last about as finished as any model is likely to be - the recent hiatus in modelling work partly down to a week on the Costa Brava and as a retired teacher I reserve the right to avoid going anywhere in the school holidays. Partly cost, partly avoiding former customers...

 Anyway, the remaining work was initially about getting the lining on the other side of the loco done, then adding a few final details. The latter have included things like the pair of lamps on the buffer beams, crew and one of those Spawns of Satan, the safety chains and hooks. These really are a pain in the primary orifice and I must either decide to omit such things in future, or reconcile myself to the fact they they will take at least four times as long as I want to spend on the job.

 The other task was a bit of light weathering. Earlier this year, was delighted to find the following set. Now produced by 'Finishing Touches', it looks very similar to one sold by  Roger Freestone quite a few years ago. I think it is made of of little make up tubs, and as can be seen, there is a nice range of tints. I use the darkest rust on brake blocks and guard irons, then lighter greys and buffs on the footplate, smokebox and cab roof to suggest general daily dirt and the effects of smoke.

 Fly now looks like it works for its living, while retaining a well cared for appearance. While far from perfect, it is certainly a pretty little engine. I haven't properly logged the time taken on painting and lining, but would guess the latter has taken about the same time as overall construction, so about 60 hours in all.

[Galteemore]

Very smart little loco David. You’ve made a lovely job of her.

[Tullygrainey]

What a little gem! Lovely work David and a fine addition to the fleet. Nice delicate touch with the weathering. Thanks for the info on the powders. Must look into those.

[J-Mo Arts]

Lovely work! 

[David Holman]

Nearly three months since my last workshop post! Main reason for this being layout work, but in amongst all the testing of stock [and in particular the Alex Jackson couplings], the last few days have begun addressing the cosmetic aspects of my stock. Some of my locos and stock are veterans of 40 shows with Arigna Town, while being the custodian of some of the late Richard Chown's stuff means these can be over 40 years old. Indeed WL&WR  0-6-0 'Shannon' is now nearly 50.

 Anyway, one item certainly in need of some TLC was Richards's GSWR brake van. As can be seen from the photo below, it has certainly suffered from the ravages of time:

 Mainly this was down to broken steps, plus a missing brake shoe. Stock on the vast Castle Rackrent system certainly had to work hard for its living! Construction of the brake van was very much of its time, with a piece of wood used as the floor, to which various pieces of plastic sheet were added to build up the body, plus whitemetal castings for things like axle boxes, buffers and the like.

 The steps were all plastic, so I simply repacked like for like, but with the advantage of having cyano as an adhesive. A touch up of the paintwork and all now seems well again, though I really ought to add a running number, weights and so on.

 Note the fixings for the AJ couplings on the brake van. Richard seems to have favoured a U shaped piece of brass strip, screwed to the underside of the wagon, to which the coupling wires were soldered. In the last few months, I've made dozens of the things [add adjective of choice here, maybe] & have been slowly getting my head around how to make them work well.

 Maybe I should have bought the book [yes, there is one] and certainly could have been more analytical and less trial and error, but am at last getting there. The basic shape is shown below:

 This is in 1mm brass wire [for clarity], rather than the 28swg steel piano wire I actually use. The 'nose' is the important bit, being 10mm long, with a 180 degree fold to create two 5mm arms. The top one is bent 45 degrees upwards and 30 degrees to the right. This bit keeps two adjacent couplings apart [especially once uncoupled]. The lower arm [bent at 60 degrees downwards] is the hook that couples two vehicles together. Happily, these angles do not need to be precise.

 It should go without saying that the rest of the wire should be both straight and on the centre line of the vehicle - especially the part that projects beyond the buffer beam. For some reason, the one shown below had to be replaced - I'll leave you to work out why!

 Probably the bit that causes me most pain is the soft iron dropper, which is used to uncouple a pair of vehicles over an electro magnet [via a push to make switch]. Getting the length of this right is critical. Too long and it fouls the magnet/shorts on the rails, etc etc. Too short and the magnet will not be able to attract it. I really ought to have managed to make a jig for the [insert expletive here] things, though by moving the arms together or apart, a degree of adjustment is possible.

 The third item is a U shaped piece of wire needed as a 'stop' to prevent the accentuator being pulled down too low and catching on the track. The latter goes over an axle [apart from on locos], while the former is fitted just in front of the axle.

 Everything else about the AJ coupling is simple [!] alignment. Fine if you only have straight track, but ever tighter curves start to create problems. I have at least made a simple gauge to check the vertical and horizontal alignment of the coupling wires - essential when stock is repeatedly taken in & out of storage boxes, for even a millimetre or so misalignment means the coupling will not connect.

 It can all be a pain in the fundament, but when working well, the AJ is very effective and I'm glad I have persevered. Very unobtrusive, and [unlike the Dingham] not 'handed', so it goes nicely with my turntable fiddle yard. Less precision is required in terms of sighting the uncoupling magnets and AJs will even uncouple wagons on the move if you drive slowly. If I'm honest, I would still be happy with three link couplings and the hand from the sky, but this is really not appropriate for a front operated shunting layout, so AJs it is.

[Tullygrainey]

The brakevan looks well. You deserve a medal for your perseverance with those AJs. I think I’d have given up long ago. But it’s clearly been worth all the effort. 

[David Holman]

 As with the layout, I've pretty much finished tinkering for now, though one final bit of work before Uckfield has been to fit AJs to SLNCR bogie No 10, the famous [or should that be infamous?] saloon which did not benefit from any internal lighting - as evidence by the lack of a cable conduit on the roof. There were three similar coaches [No9 was a brake third], built by Hurst Nelson in 1928 to replace some six wheelers damaged in the Civil War. Among their many foibles were doors that were hung on the right, first class compartments split longitudinally into smoking and non-smoking compartments, plus the archaic clerestory roof and the fact they were less than 45 feet long - the latter ideal for a small layout like NPQ. In the 1950s Brake 3rd No9 had a bit of a repaint, but No10 stayed in pretty woeful condition, so this is how I've represented it.

 Originally, I'd not tried to fit AJs to this coach, as there didn't seem room on the chassis, particularly with the bogie pivots being in the way. However, another look showed it should be possible & so this has proved, though I've had to chop a couple of sections out of the bogie frames to allow the coupling wire to move up & down. The 6w brake third is currently now in reserve.

 

[David Holman]

 Having opened the packets of Donegal wagon kits, very soon found myself stuck because of a complete lack of wheels. Clogher Valley Railway wheels, as per Fintonagh, were 2' diameter = 14mm in my chosen scale. However, both the Donegal and Swilly used 2'7" wheels, which creates a bit of dilemma. 14mm wheels are not a problem because in 4mm scale that equals 3'6, which  is what I have used on Fintonagh, but 2'7 wheels work out at about 18mm, which is 4'6 in 4mm scale and the only things that might work would probably be spoked tender wheels of some sort.

 Fortunately, Slater's do 7mm narrow gauge wheels of the correct diameter and given that all the coaches and wagons I now want to build use this type of wheel, I decided to go ahead and order 15 sets. Slightly painful, because it came to £180 - just for a few wheels! Solace comes from the fact that £180 barely buys a 4mm scale locomotive these days, while I will have the means to underpin three coaches and a dozen wagons from my hard earned.

  So, while waiting for the wheels to arrive, I decided to make a start on a couple of Swilly coaches. As is my want, the basis for these are the Alphagraphix card kits. Their dimensions seem right, so have begun transferring these to some 20thou [0.5mm] plastic sheet. At the same time, I dusted off David Jenkinson's 'Carriage Modelling Made Easy', a much thumbed tome over the years & which is invaluable for this sort of work.

 The photos below show progress thus far. Scratchbuilding a coach is certainly not a quick fix, with the marking out alone something that certainly tests patience, eyesight and hand/arm muscles. Woe betide if you get something wrong at this stage too - been there, got a draw full of T-shirts and created many new, colourful combinations of rude words...

 So far, so good though & will expand on the techniques in the Jenkinson book as we go along.

 

[Galteemore]

That’s serious marking out David - piece of art in its own right! Been busy with Jenkinson myself of late and reminding myself of how to shape a turnunder. Gorgeous shots of Hazelwood.

[David Holman]

 Anyone need any 20thou plasticard rectangles?

 David Jenkinson's book reckons that creating a pair of coach sides is more than half the overall scratch build - and he's not wrong... One reason the marking out took me so long is the lower sides are panelled, which made for endless scribing, while being very careful about it too.

 The next step was to cut out the window openings. To make life easier, I pricked the corner of each window, in the hope of not slicing through sections that don't need this. A result of this bit of work is multiple small rectangles of white plastic mentioned earlier.

 While in the middle of this, the post arrived with a package from Slater's - my 2'7", 3ft gauge wheels. The impetuous side of me meant I had to transfer my attentions almost immediately to the three wagon kits from Alphagraphix. Brake gear aside, these are fairly straightforward & I wanted to get an idea of how larger wheeled stock would look alongside my Clogher Valley wagons. The answer to that is 'not sure', but as they are unlikely to run together, hopefully this won't matter. 

 Only two of the wagons are Donegal, by the way, the one on the left is a Swilly.

 

[Patrick Davey]

Fabulous all round David - the carriage marking out must take forever, have you timed it?  Using a calendar perhaps.....

I can safely say I would be very unlikely to have the patience for this kind of meticulous work although the results are undoubtedly spectacular.  Watching progress with interest!

[David Holman]

Thanks Patrick. About a week so far, broken up in short spells to make it tolerable. Fifteen hours or so? Sometimes 30-60 minutes in the morning, often a couple of one hour sessions in the afternoon, otherwise a stiff neck can be the result, as per this morning. Herself was out most of yesterday, so probably did too much. Lesson without words!

[Tullygrainey]

10 hours ago, David Holman said:

Thanks Patrick. About a week so far, broken up in short spells to make it tolerable. Fifteen hours or so? Sometimes 30-60 minutes in the morning, often a couple of one hour sessions in the afternoon, otherwise a stiff neck can be the result, as per this morning. Herself was out most of yesterday, so probably did too much. Lesson without words!

That medal you earned for persevering with the AJ couplings… I think we should add a bar to that

[David Holman]

 After all the concentration of marking and cutting out the sides, what follows is fairly straightforward and [relatively] quick.

 First job was to separate the sides after which attention moves to making an inner shell. This is really little more than a plastic box, with openings in the sides to cover the main door and window areas. Assembly includes the ends and internal partitions to provide strength and squareness, though using 40thou/1mm sheet helps too. The picture below is from the Jenkinson book which hopefully helps explain things.

 Swilly coaches had a small amount of tumblehome in the lower part of the sides, so to make this strips of plasticard are added longitudinally at the top and waist line, then once everything has set, the carefully prepared outer sides are fixed to the inner shell, starting at floor level, then carefully adding to the waist line and eventually the roof line. After this outer end pieces are cut and fixed to hide the gaps.

 Thankfully, the panelling on Swilly coaches is all square corners, so this can be added using 20x40 micro strip. This is [mostly] fairly therapeutic after all the previous marking and cutting - you just need to be careful to avoid leaving smears and finger prints if you are over enthusiastic in the use of solvent - which is D-Lemonine by the way. Note too the drop lights on the doors, which are rectangular pieces of 20thou, fixed behind the outer opening.

 The final bit of work thus far was to add the guard's lookout, never my favourite exercise because of the awkward shapes, but with more than a bit of muttering and grumbling, one side eventually got fitted. That will have to be that for a few days, as attention turns back to getting Northport Quay and final preparations for its debut at Uckfield next weekend.

[KMCE]

That is looking excellent.  It clearly takes a level of patience that I would not be able to demonstrate - give me CAD any day!!

Ken

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Beautiful workmanship David, fair dues.

[Patrick Davey]

Inspirational stuff as always David!