One Man and his Tub

My last post hinted at a micro-diorama featuring a Black Dog Mining mine tub. The body was painted a few years ago using a salt weathering technique to give a patchy rust effect. Originally on a Black Dog chassis it never really looked right, so I had planned to fit it to the KB frame with a mind to using it on the layout project I started at Easter. That has stalled and the use of KB based stock has now largely been ruled out. However, I opted to finish off this build with a diorama project in mind, and here it is, all 85 x 70 mm of it...

 

The chassis was painted with red oxide primer, then given various rust effects by stippling on paint in rust shades, then wetted, salt applied over the rust areas and once dried sprayed with matt brown paint. With the salt removed some dry brushing and weathering powders have enhanced the finish. The wheels have also been weathered, not that you can see them here!

I felt that it needed some sort of context to be displayed in. My original idea had been some sort of mine entrance, with the intention of laying the track using KB Scale components to 14mm gauge, as doodled here.

I wasn't convinced that I could convincingly get the height of the piece to look right, but I liked the look of the slope down on the front left corner, something I had experimented with a couple of years ago on a test piece I had made using polystyrene. Ironically this was also made with the mine tub in mind but never completed and only used for test purposes.

I stripped off as much of the old material as I could (recovering some of the tufts in the process) and started the rebuild, cutting back the polystyrene at the left edge and right rear, and adding 5mm balsa wood cut to shape in it's place to add the height. I added some rocks cast in plaster of Paris some time ago, made in impromptu baking foil moulds to use up something the kids had been working with. The rocks and balsa were blended in with modelling clay with some texturing added.

The rocks were then painted dark grey, followed by lighter shades through to a final dry-brushed light grey/cream shade. The next step was my usual scenic mix (brown-ish paint, filler and PVA) with Woodland Scenics earth sprinkled over whilst wet. Once dried I added hanging basket liner and some recovered Silfor tufts, treating the hanging basket liner with areas of scatter applied over hairspray. A couple of Martin Welberg weed tufts were also added to add extra textures and a couple of bits of sea moss bush that were surplus from previous projects were also used.

 

A few bits of the original ground cover can be seen in places around the track and in the front dropped area. My usual timber surround has been added, but rather than following the lay of the land it is lower in height with the exposed edge of the scene painted a neutral grey. I think it works reasonably well...

Colin

The State of Play

I've deliberately not dwelled too much here on what one railway modelling magazine has called the "current heath emergency". There have been no great proclamations of "lockdown projects" and if anything my output has slowed over the last few months rather than increased. There have been odd exceptions, Easter weekend laying track for a Julian Andrews inspired micro layout being the main one.

You may be wondering what has happened to that, ironically labelled as "getting something moving". Well a perfect storm of issues with finishing off the primary locomotive, then issues with some of the intended rolling stock and a heavy dose of despondency have kicked it into the sidelines for the time being. One day it will be completed, in some form or another, but whether it is the next bigger project to emerge is another question completely.

So I started on the Ashover coach on 009 as a distraction, I think issues with other projects going awry  led to me build it practically out of the box before eventually realising I wanted to make some changes. I finally plucked up the courage to make those changes step-by-step and it is now in the paintshop, but not before examining my acrylic paint collection and realising it was deficient in useable creams and light blues. A socially-distanced trip to Boyes saw me acquire a likely ivory shade and two different blues to try from Vallejo and Citadel. 

The present thinking is that there may well be a LCLR-themed micro-diorama for this coach to inhabit, using a Wills station halt kit to represent the wooden platform at South Sea Lane station. This might not seem very ambitious but it seems achievable. Perhaps the future is better represented by these focussed set-pieces rather than anything bigger and operational?

The other factor at play in the current climate is the need to use my workbench 5 days a week as my place of work. This looks set to continue for at least the rest of the year and maybe beyond. With some additional equipment now in place this does clog up the space a little, I've settled on a weekdays/weekend setup that does allow some modelling on weekday evenings. As an aide to this I've made myself a work tray from a piece of furniture board (actually a piece from an Ikea unit) and some of the last of the lovely veneered ply I have that came from an old wardrobe.  A lip of quarter round strip under the front edge locates the unit on the desktop, and I've cut down the chunk of wall-planner to fit on top!

I've included a couple of pockets at the back to hold bottles to but haven't gone overboard with paintbrush holders etc. A couple of coats of varnish have given the inside an attractive finish, whilst the outer edge is painted dark brown over the top of the veneered side of the ply, as the veneer has worn away in many places due to joining/sanding/drilling etc.

After the end of each session the work tray can be moved under the desk onto the top of some stacking crates, ready for use the next day. Whilst not an excuse to be untidy it means that work in progress can be left out to some degree.

You might just spy a Black Dog Mining mine wagon on a KB Scale chassis, a leftover from the failed wagons for the "getting something moving" project. This is due to feature in another micro-diorama piece, and it might be sooner rather than later...

Colin

The Humberston Amendments

After much deliberation as to how good a job I could make of it, I removed the drop-frames in the windows from the ex-Ashover coach. Using a 0.5mm drill bit a hole was drilled in each corner of the frame and with a new blade in the craft knife I carefully cut around the edge of the frame. This removed the frames quite cleanly and any tidying up was achieved with an emery board and one of my home made sanding sticks.

Some reconstruction work was required to create the LCLR style frames. It's nowhere near the amount of reconstruction the real thing has received! The more I look at photos the more I can see how the non-platform side of the coach currently in use at Winthorpe is in effect totally new, replacing the side removed when the coach was used as a stand at a sports ground. As such the model will never fully replicate the prototype, but I can live with that.

Having removed the moulded drop-frames I replaced them with a representation of the LCLR window frames. I've made an allowance to semi flush-glaze by leaving a 20 thou recess at the back of the new arrangement, to achieve this another brass template was created to assist. The new pieces started with the sill cut from 10 x 30 thou Evergreen strip, then the inner beading from fine strips cut from 5 thou Evergreen sheet. A further strip of 5 thou material has been added across the top of the side to represent a strip that on the prototype is attached to the roof. This is supported over the doorways by a strip of 30 x 60 thou styrene reduced down on one edge.

The end windows had a new insert along the bottom edge from 10 x 20 thou strip. I've also added lamp brackets at both ends in the LCLR position, and representations of the bolt heads on the corner post from 0.5mm styrene rod. On the side with doorways further slices of rod represent the fixings at the end of the handrails (removed at the moment to be reinstated after painting). I've also added a representation of detail to the base of the brake handle using an EDM Models bolt head/washer and a slice of larger plastic rod.

I have opted not to alter the tiebars and to accept this as a compromise, I've also decided not to add air brake pipes etc, these were only added in the 1980s and I can only find evidence of this vehicle having an air brake pipe at one end whilst at Humberston, but both ends at Winthorpe. As these details are a bit ambiguous I have left them off, but they could be added at a later date if required.

Colin