'Avalon' - a midweek extra

These photos were meant to be pretty much the final ones of 'Avalon' with it's new LRS/Narrow Planet plates in place, but I realised that despite my diligent work, there was something missing...

There is no provision on the model for an exhaust! - so along with adding a wire to the couplers to meet a MicroTrains equipped wagon, I am now adding a suitable pipe from brass tube in front of the cab.

A quick look underneath reveals that I actually primed the chassis frame despite it being invisible in any normal circumstances. It somehow felt more complete that way...

More soon.

Colin

 

Parking up the Mini

Perusing Phil Parker's blog I spotted that he had recently completed a 7mm scale Mini from the Airfix/Heller kit. It is a later model than my Mk1 but interesting to see an alternative approach to modelling one. It did prompt me to carry out one more job on my model, to secure it in place on 'Odsock Corner. But before that I did a little extra painting and scenic work to add a moss effect to the top of the wall, having realised it still looked far too clean! 

So last weekend Saturday morning started with the Mini on it's roof with 1mm brass wire poking out of two of it's tyres... Before going any further, you may notice that I have added some body colour paint to the chassis piece under the front and rear bumpers. This was a result of a review of some more prototype photos and by Phil's model. It looks a different shade here under the light but in place on the layout it is not noticeably different.

I had been wondering for some time how to fix the Mini in place without actually sticking it down. For the Vauxhall Astra on 'Shifting Sands' I used the screw hole that previously held it into the packaging and a suitable bolt through the baseboard. No such luck here... and my original idea to use long 12 BA bolts into the tyres failed when I realised I had nothing long enough. I calculated the thickness of the baseboard and other layers to be getting for 20mm! Using a template I drilled into the tyres and fixed the rod with epoxy resin. It is seen below checking all is well prior to the next stage.

The template was then used to locate and drill the holes in the layout, initially at 1mm but then to 1.5mm to allow a little leeway and for the differences in materials (the wires tended to get stuck having gone on a wander through the foamcore layer over the main ply baseboard top). Here I have held the template using a cocktail stick in the first hole and I am drilling the second hole.

With the holes drilled I positioned the car and then undertook one of those jobs that needs three hands... I held the board on it's side, pushed the car down to the road surface and underneath, slid the inside of a small chocolate block connector over the wire and screwed it on tightly. Did I say three hands? make that four... This actually the system used on 'Shifting Sands' to hold the lamp-posts in place and allows for the Mini to be removed if required at a later date.

Whilst carrying out this work I decided that at some point soon I'll paint up my two remaining Pigeon castings to add to the wall ready to take aim at the car having no doubt added more mess to the wall!

Colin

Avalon Loco Progress

Work is progressing well on the reworking of the pre-built Avalon Line loco.  Although I want to keep as much of the original paint finish as possible, I felt that the all-encompassing grey finish needed something to both break it up and add some colour. The obvious and realistic thing to add was an area of red to the buffer beams and/or the coupler blocks. In the end the latter were carefully masked off, only to find that I had no red oxide primer to hand...

After a trip to the local motor factors Hycote primer was applied and then two coats of red acrylic paint.  At first this looked rather stark but with matt varnish and weathering applied they have blended in rather well. The tool box in the cab also benefitted from a touch of colour, a metallic blue and one of the in-cab levers gained a red handle.

Meanwhile I had to source a suitable driver figure. I suppose Although I have some 3D printed seated figures none are in a driving pose but I also have a small stockpile of whitemetal and plastic figures to use...  I seem to recall that this figure was likely bought in Burton Town Hall, but at one of the DEMU shows rather than the 7mm NGA convention where I would have seen Howard and Steve and not bought models like this! 

You may notice that he's had a little surgery (and was a pain to photograph)..

The cap pulled over the eyes to the nose really struck me as not great for any driver, it was only after trying to pose the arms that I realised that maybe the manufacturer meant a road vehicle driver rather than a locomotive driver, and that was his chauffer's cap!  The new head, secured with a short length of 0.5mm wire, was sourced from my oddments of plastic figures and is of Preiser origin. 

What was originally supposed to be a jacket and trousers has become a boiler suit. Painting was my usual primer/dark wash/almost dry brush of colours and to ring the changes the main colour is green, contributing to the splash of colour methodology. His hands are rather big (maybe he's wearing driving gloves) but I don't think is too noticeable once he's in the cab. He looks like he's in control of the loco even if he hasn't got a full grip on the controls.

More soon, as that final picture reveals, things have progressed well...

Colin

Avalon and Austria

Last seen on arrival in January (An Avalon Arrival), work has finally progressed on the pre-built Avalon Line locomotive that I acquired from 7mm NGA secondhand sales. Since the last post my theory that the model had been built and finished by Steve Bennett has been confirmed via a contact on Facebook. Apparently there were several models in the Avalon and Black Dog ranges finished in this way for direct sale, making this an interesting bit of O9 history.

I also left the last post on a bit of a cliffhanger in relation to my plans to power the model, whether to try and repower a Farish 08 chassis or investigate using a Halling 21mm wheelbase unit. As you might guess from the title, the Halling unit won. Due to the way the postage charges work it makes sense to order more than one at a time, so I acquired units for some other projects too.

As they come the modern Halling units are tiny, even compared to the Kato 'core' from their modern chassis. There really isn't much to aid fixing it in place in your chosen model so I had to carefully plan how it would fit into the void of the model. The solution is seen below... 

Taking things at first principles, I opted to create a sub-frame and carefully measured the space available under the loco body and the space the chassis required to 'clip' into something (there are clips either side of the motor). With a few scribbled plans I found could suit both (just), with only 1.5mm difference at either end. I marked out and cut a piece of 40 thou styrene to which Evergreen strip was then added above and below this to strengthen it. Once set a "nibble" was taken at either end to fully clear the worm gears. Below this recess is a small 20 thou piece that firmly holds the end of the chassis under the worm.

Platforms extend at either end sit onto the positions within the body designed to accommodate the Farish chassis. The joins for these are re-enforced to hopefully prevent sagging. Two tiny screws in opposing corners hold the sub-frame in place within the loco. In the recess above the frame I added some adhesive window lead strip to add some weight, and also added more strips behind the sideframes of the body. A further piece of lead in the bonnet end is ready to counterbalance a whitemetal driver figure, currently undergoing surgery!

More soon.

Colin

 

Sign of the Time

The office at 'odsock Corner now has a sign to indicate to all lost souls where they have ended up. However, it may not assist their confusion...

Whilst I could have created this sign and the ghost letter effect entirely on the computer I actually went down a more convoluted, yet practical route by starting with an actual sign. This uses a wooden sign blank purchased from The Works (cut-down to three planks from four) and self-adhesive cardboard letters from Boyes. 

The sign blank was sprayed with grey primer and sanded to a weathered effect, whilst the letters were temporarily fixed to a scrap of cardboard and sprayed black. The letters were then stuck to the sign and because the adhesive wasn't that great, the whole thing was then sealed with diluted matt medium. The letters were then dry-brushed with grey emulsion from a match-pot to give them a worn effect.

The intention is that the bottom plank will eventually have some extra info added such as scale/gauge info. However I needed to leave it blank to create the model sign... 

The next stage was to photograph the sign square-on on the back step of the house in daylight (but not bright sunlight), adding in an unpainted 'H' on the bottom plank in order to create the ghost letter on the final sign. This photo was then manipulated in my editing software to create the signs for the model, moving the ghost letter to join the top plank and carefully blending the join.

Three sizes of sign were printed on glossy photo paper, which was given a coat of spray matt varnish and left to dry overnight. The middle size was chosen and cut out with the raw edges touched in with a pencil. The resultant signs were then fixed in position and matt varnish run around the edges to kill the shine from the pencil.

As part of the same exercise I also created some small 'Private Keep Out' signs for the gateway, these were created entirely in my image software but treated in the same way as the nameboards.

I'm not sure if the rabbit will pay any attention... 

Colin

Tyred

I realised that a feature of the Mini was not really apparent in the pictures posted recently. As a fairly cheap model the tyres left a little to be desired, moulded in hard plastic with no representation of tread around the circumference. Realising I could not easily and reliably scribe this detail on to the model I opted to create the effect by weathering.  

So I found myself cutting very thin strips of masking tape and wrapping them around the wheels, one centred and one either side. In fact I did this twice as during the first attempt I realised the strips were not thin or consistent enough. I then dry-brushed the effect of driving on a dusty roadway onto the treads of the wheels, and once dry removed the masking...

To my surprise the effect, although subtle, works! Not bad for an idea sparked by looking at my car tyres after a trip down the lane to the Sherwood Forest Railway...

Colin

Three Pound Mini

There is a new arrival at 'odsock Corner in the form of a Mk1 Mini tucked to one side of the lane. It's very unlikely anything will be able to get past!

The original sketch from many years ago that was eventually brough to life as 'odsock Corner did indicate a vehicle could fit here, and I teased an ice cream van in the space last year. However to be as practical as possible in the daft space a smaller vehicle was going to give a better balance to the scene so I sought out a Mini. After some research into the various options in 1:43 scale I opted to go with the Lledo Vanguards model as I felt the shape looked about right. A trip to a local toy fair before Christmas found one in the original packaging for just £3.00.

It is quite a basic model, I think later versions were probably improved a little but the basis was there for some modelling work to create something unique. Creating a reasonable "layout" model from a cheap diecast is the sort of thing the late Chris Ellis, editor of Sale Trains and Model Trains International, would have encouraged. The model required old-school dismantling using a power drill to drill out the rivetted joint underneath the bonnet and then unclip the rear registration plate.

I failed to take any work in progress shots but the notable work included:

• Fixing the front wheels with a slight steer to the right and sanding a flat into the base of the tyres so the model sits better on the road,
• T-cutting the paintwork on the body to remove imperfections in the surface (I picked this tip up in one of Gordon Gravett's books) and carefully removing paint from handles and trim reveal the metal surface,
• Spraying the body, chassis and interior with Humbrol matt varnish, subsequently re-coating the body in Halfords matt lacquer as it looked too matt (!),
• Weathering, including the wheels (more about them another time...) and a few bird deposits to hide lumps in the paint on the roof,
• Adding (HO scale) windscreen wipers over the moulded originals and weathering the screen.

Finally everything was re-assembled and the drilled out rivet filled with Araldite and clamped together whilst drying. 

A few other additions of note are the usual Araldite on the headlights and some printed items in the form of a newspaper and crisp packet in the front window and a Tesco carrier bag on the parcel shelf, These came from a Scale Model Scenery print-at-home sheet printed on matte photo paper. The registration plates were created using an online generator for real plates, screenshot and manipulated to size and printed on glossy photo paper. In all these cases I have peeled back the layers at the back of the paper to make it thinner with less of an "edge". The registration plates had the edges touched in with a pencil to hide the whiteness.

All in all this has been a very pleasing project. Whilst the result may not pass really close scrutiny (especially the windscreen wipers) it is really at home on the layout.

Colin