Snailbeach - at a Snail's pace!

I received a couple of Dundas Snailbeach wagon kits as a Christmas gift from my Dad after I mentioned that I might get a couple of the Peco ones when they came out. What I had forgotten to say is that the reason I was interested in them was based on them being RTR and that the kit had something of a "reputation"... 

Between Christmas and New Year I started to build one of the kits, which has been an interesting build process to say the least. Any hopper wagon in kit form will be tricky, more so from what must be among the oldest moulds in the range. I probably took away too much material on the insides of the joints, you can see some of the styrene strip infill on the inside. A few mistakes have been made, such as scribing plank lines into the inside of the upper sides, thinking the old tooling just didn't feature them... before discovering that the real wagons had metal linings, and having to fill the lines back in! 

I paid particular attention to the ends of the chassis, refining the shape, adding a 5 thou overlay wrapped around and adding new bumpers from Evergreen channel section. I have added some deliberate distressing on some of the planks and some very dubious looking brake gear, with the proviso that it isn't a Snailbeach wagon but one supplied to the Old Quarry Line. 

One area where I did make a change was at the left hand end of each upper side, trimming the corner plate back by approx 1mm to line up with the plate on the angled section and also making each end section equal in length. I have had to add new bolt heads harvested from another Dundas part that was redundant. All painted up in primer it looks OK, and you can see some of the distressing I added to the planking. 

Wanting a finish that would differ from any future RTR companions I applied a weathered wood effect, including some planks in "wood" colour and some in grey, black-grey and brown washes. The ironwork has been painted black-grey with brown/rust washes. The interior metal plating is finished in a base rust colour with various stippled effects. The hopper is seen here after varnishing but before weathering.

Once varnished the additional weathering and finishing work was completed. This is largely dry-brushing on the exterior using a grey/cream colour in an attempt to represent a wagon that has been in a quarry environment, along with some gunmetal dry-brushed on the axleboxes.

Unfortunately the lighting has picked up the plank lines I scribed and thought I had subsequently filled, you cannot really see them at normal viewing distance.

Inside the wagon I have added a representation of load remains, starting with the leftover mix of the acrylic paints used for the dry brushing and a dab of household filler. Once dry weathering powders were added to vary the colour a little and spread the effect further up the wagon sides.

Greenwich couplers have been added at ether end, I could perhaps have moved them in by another 1/2mm but wanted to ensure that the loop did not have any interference from the bumpers when lifting.

No doubt the forthcoming Peco model will be quicker to get into service, but a lot less individual!

Colin

 

The Imposters Return - In Colour!

Sorry, despite the name this is not a forgotten ITC TV series from the 1960s! 

I cannot quite believe that it was September when we last saw these two wagons. In mid December my attention returned to them and I decided to reverse the earlier decision to fit a simple coupling system of loops and hooks, opting instead to fit MicroTrains couplers after all. This would entail a little surgery to the headstocks in order to accommodate the draft boxes.

With the openings cut at the correct heights Milliput was used to create a level, solid area behind the headstock of both wagons. On the longer one this is key to giving an area that can be drilled to take the mounting screw, on the shorter wagon it is just to stop the draft box tipping backwards. Once set, holes were drilled centrally 1mm back from the front face of the headstock, taking care not to drill through the floor... On the longer wagon part of the hole is in the styrene headstock, part in the Milliput, no doubt a bit in the lead weight and then into the styrene floor! The holes were crudely 'tapped' using a MicroTrains coupler screw ready for when couplers are fitted.

Before Christmas the two wagons progressed through the paintshop. The shorter wagon in Humbrol red-brown and the longer one in grey. New Years Eve again provided the opportunity to apply Humbrol matt varnish from and aerosol. There is still some weathering work to do, notably on the coupler pocket on the grey wagon! 

The shorter wagon has brown couplers, from a pack I picked up in desperation at some stage. The previously completed "matching" wagon carries the other pair. This set had been on my Chivers Theakston wagon, but had never looked quite right. I had fitted this wagon with Bemo 7mm wheelsets that I had acquired from 009 sales at a Mansfield members day a few years ago, but it always looked a bit tip-toed and out of balance with other stock with the couplers hanging under the buffer beam. Playing about I popped a set of Peco wheels in and sat it alongside the short wagon it had donated it's coupling to.

It now seemed to sit a little happier alongside the other stock, so I may look at fitting different MicroTrains couplers (1023's) and it may have a place on the future layout. I have previously conjectured about using a Black Dog mine tub in an agricultural setting for the disposal of manure etc, but rejected it as it looked out of place with other vehicles. The Theakston could fulfil this role... 

A wagon assured a place alongside the new stock is my tool wagon. Probably last seen on the blog in Exmoor on Tour as a coupling adaptor. The chassis already matches that on the new grey wagon and the opportunity has been taken to refine the strapping detail and add Grandt Line hinges on the roof doors to match the open wagons. 

With all that work a repaint was necessary, this gives a chance to change the colour and I have chosen to go down the route of something a little more unusual...

Colin

Bumper Bungalow Update - Painting and Finishing

A patch of reasonable weather a week or so before Christmas allowed the workshop to be used for spraying without having to warm it up too much, giving an opportunity to give the bungalow a full coat of primer. As ever the primer brings all the different materials together as one and forms a good base for what follows. Throughout painting I have tried to use the principle of applying washes and near dry-brushes wherever possible, avoiding "solid" colour if I can. 

The roof tiles were given a wash of Vallejo 'Black Grey', then almost dry-brushed with a mix of Vallejo 'Hull Red' and a terracotta shade that I had bought especially for the job. A further wash was then followed by dry-brushing with the terracotta shade, actually Army Painter 'Tanned Flesh'. This was bought especially for the job after my home-brew mixes failed to get the right shade.

The concrete render started out as Railmatch 'Concrete' with a touch of grey added, then washes of brown, black-grey and dry brushing with light grey and sand shades. Generally the old Airfix render mouldings come out rather well! Window frames were painted away from the model in Vallejo 'Olive Green', dry brushed with the same manufacturers 'Green Grey'. The same treatment was given to the sills on the wall mouldings. Windows frames were fixed in place once most of the painting was complete.

The 'Tanned Flesh' paint formed the basis of brick and chimney pot colouring, and once painted the chimney stacks were flashed into the roof using pieces of foil harvested from an egg-shaped Cadbury's product available in the early part of the year. With painting completed before the Christmas break I waited on a relatively mild, dry day to matt varnish everything...

That mild, dry day turned out, rather unexpectedly, to be the afternoon of New Year's Eve. Humbrol acrylic matt varnish was applied from an aerosol giving a pleasing finish. The next step was to add some moss and bird deposit effects to the roof, both for realism and to try and hide some of the dodgy tiling that I can only blame on myself...

Vallejo matt medium was applied to areas that needed moss adding and a blend of fine foam scatters scattered on through a sieve. Once dry various green, yellow and grey acrylics were stippled on to add to the effect.

That shot really does show that the roof tiles are far from perfect...

After the New Year weekend the bungalow got placed to one side as I got involved in some wagon projects (more another time), but I have finally got around to adding the glazing to the windows. This uses 20 thou clear styrene, fixed behind the frames using Kleer.

The front door and two of the narrow windows (to represent the bathroom and toilet) were "frosted" by sanding both sides with wet wet and dry paper. I think some internal partitioning might eventually be required to stop the see-through effect, and of course some curtains on the windows to stop you seeing in too far, and depending on how it is eventually used even some grunge inside or out of the glazing.

Overall I am very pleased with how this had turned out. Although officially a project with no place, it has proved a useful refresher in building colouring and techniques that will be useful for future 7mm scale work...

Colin

 

Merry Christmas from O9 Modeller

It's that time of year again, 'Christmas Tree Halt' sits on display in the living room as a little bit of entertainment and has also made an appearance in the third issue of the 'Micro Model Railway Dispatch' edited by Ian Holmes. You can download a copy here: MMMR Dispatch 3 

On the workbench the Dapol bungalow conversion has been receiving various paint effects, which have been transformational in how it appears. I will explain these in more detail at a later date, but at the moment it is awaiting a coat of matt varnish to seal everything in place. The Christmas period generally sees the workbench slow to a halt, so it will likely be the new year before this is applied.

Once back into the swing of things there will hopefully be some progress on a layout in one form or another. Until that time, I'll wish all O9 Modeller readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Colin

 

Bungalow Bodgery

Years ago, back in primary school, our class topic was buildings. A friend of mine told a story of how he thought the Bungalow had got it's name, when housebuilders ran out of bricks and the foreman just told them to "bung a low roof on!" Whatever the truth, it came to mind when working on this project...

This is a project that doesn't really fit in anywhere in my longer-term plans but has acted as an effective time-occupier, having off and on for many months. It nearly got thrown in the bin earlier in the year and has only really come together properly in the last fortnight. The starting point is the Dapol C027 Detached House kit, this particular example having been acquired at a toy fair for a couple of quid.

Somewhere I had read that this kit could be converted to a bungalow and I was intrigued to have a go...

Aside from the obvious conversion to single storey, I have added a 3mm strip of material to the base of the sides, largely to give a footing that could be buried in the ground rather than to add any extra height. Elsewhere I have adopted a principle of refinement of the kit parts wherever possible. For example the chunky window frames were thinned by sanding them against a flat surface, then adding opening frames from strips of 5 thou styrene. The doors were given frames from Evergreen strip, and panel lines scribed in, door handles and letterbox etc added. Doors and windows are presently loose to aid painting (blu tac is holding them in place for the pictures).

One window on the right-hand end was made smaller as it conflicted with the chimney stack. This was nothing to do with cutting the kit down, even the original upper storey had this issue! The join can just be seen but I think paint will hide it.

The main chimney stack has a new top with Wills pots and a strip of Slaters bricks towards the top to add relief, the shorter stack is half size as I only had one half in the pack and had to double-up. This has a MicroTrains truck pin as a capped stack.

Working on the roof nearly ended the project, the moulding was poor with little lumps all over it, as does the one on the Dapol website so this may be a damaged tool. Sanding this smooth destroyed a lot of the detail and I ended up scribing it back in (not my greatest work). I also removed the half-row of tiles from the bottom edge as they looked ridiculous! This destroyed what there was of a gutter so guttering and downpipes were later added from the Wills building accessories pack. These are a massive improvement visually. The kit roof lacked any capping strips so these were added to all joints, scribed from 10 thou styrene.

Of course, in best DIY fashion, there are a few bits left over...

Some of these will go into the bits box, even those chunky window frames might come in useful somewhere as they are accurately moulded shapes. The more damaged bits of wall and failed modified windows are likely to go however, you cannot keep everything!

Colin

The best laid plans... can be changed

The appearance of 'Brooking Vale Brewery' in the latest 'Modeller has prompted some further thought about my stalled O9 micro layout project. Although the builder of that layout did not reference it, I was reminded of my source material, Julian Andrew's United Brick (Avalon Brickworks). I revisited this to see what it was that didn't quite gel for me, aside from issues about a credible scenario... I realised part of the issue might be that I had watered down one of the elements of the original (and many of it's imitators) by moving the inner siding towards the running line rather than it going towards, or even through a building in front of the backscene. Indeed I had physically moved it forward twice since the track was first laid.

I pondered what could be done if I swung the siding into a 6" radius curve and to move the Petite Properties structure to this location. So I drew out a 6" curve on good old cereal packet and also created a new mock-up of the structure as I realised it would look better reversed. By moving the bigger tree forward from the backscene it potentially hides the line running through the backscene a little better.

I have used part of the older mock-up to disguise the right-hand-side curve. I think I would actually go for a slightly taller, maybe wider, but definitely more bland structure here, possibly in corrugated material. The key to this structure appears to be that is should be seen but not to draw the eye to it, and the more I think about it the more the Petite Properties kit would not meet that criteria!

I still think I am some way off (re)starting this build. Whilst it remains an aspiration to complete it, having worked on the Christmas pizza and taking great delight in the simplicity of it, part of me yearns to do something quite simple and accessible for my next project, but I am not sure what...

Colin

Santa's Gotta Brand New Sack

The presents in the open wagon on 'Christmas Tree Halt' were troubling my mind a few weeks ago. The reduction in size of the originals was the obvious solution at the time but part of me wondered if the eventual solution was to have a sack of presents represented in the wagon. I thought nothing more of it until I took a trip to a local model shop that is sadly closing at the end of the year (http://www.thegoodsyard.co.uk/). I was hoping to get some 009 flexi track but they were out of stock, however I did pick up a few bargains...

All were in the £1 box and being 7mm scale I was going to pop them in the "some day" box. I've no idea who NMB Models are/were, address on the back in is Immingham, but the more I looked at those sacks once I'd returned home the more it occurred to me they could be the answer to a present wagon load in 4mm scale. Even the smaller parcels might pass as presents if painted up in a suitable way...

In order to create the new load I started with a piece of 20 thou styrene scribed as a false floor, to hide the fact that inside the wagon it still has 7mm scale planking. I arranged the sacks to overlap, filling the area underneath the left-hand sack with Milliput, carefully shaped to match the casting. The parcel castings were cleaned up and used as larger presents (must be train sets and TVs!) to fill the gaps. I adjusted two of them in size to give a little more variety. All were placed carefully with the label hanging downwards.

After a coat of grey primer I gave everything a wash of watered-down Vallejo grey-black and once dry carefully picked out the floor planks in timber colour, and the sacks in a slightly darker red shade than the final shade. The presents were picked out in different base colours and then the actual red shade almost dry-brushed over the sacks giving a pleasing depth effect. the ribbon on the presents was picked out in Vallejo brass, as I had no gold to hand!

Once varnished the load was slipped into the wagon, it isn't glued in place but is a tight enough fit. I'm really happy with how this has come out, whilst the old present load worked to a degree I think this actually looks better and is more in keeping with tone and texture of the scene as it exists.

Colin