Thinking in the Box

Taking the planning for the wrapping paper box project a step further, last weekend I mocked up the v3 Inglenook using the actual board parts and real points and stock to see if it actually worked in practice rather than theory. A few scraps of ply also got involved along the way...

The passenger coach here is substituting for a longer wagon, to test for some variation in the stock used. However the option is there for short passenger workings into the headshunt. I am conscious that the Lister is a fairly small loco and others, such as my Simplex, are a little longer - there isn't much extra clearance in the headshunt once the end of the board is taken into account plus any scenic treatment.

One option would be to have the board open-ended at the headshunt end to give a little more breathing space. This would provide a nice contrast with the necessarily closed-in sidings end. Here I've mocked up the positions of the wall and shelter leaning off it, but more importantly there is clearance in the sidings to allow three wagons to sit behind a magnet but still be recoverable beyond it.

Thinking back to the headshunt issue, a week on I opted to mock up the other possibility to breathe a little extra length into the space. This uses a second 'Y' point in place of the right-hand point and this affects the angle of the headshunt and the angles and curvature in the sidings. What it does not do is help me re-use the right-hand point that I intended to use from a previous project!

In many ways I think I prefer the way the sidings sit in the version with the right-hand point and having had another look today I think it should be possible to remove about 1/4" or rail between the two to squeeze a little more out, and angle the headshunt into the corner. We shall see...

Colin

Living in a Box

At Christmas, after a well-placed hint, I received a Scale Model Scenery baseboard kit designed to fit into a 'Really Useful' wrapping paper box. The intention is to produce something that can (hopefully) live in and be operated in the house. possibly as a 'desk sitter', although clearances may be on the tight side for that ambition. I haven't built the board yet but marked out the space (730 x 207mm) on some Amazon packing paper and played about with point templates, various rulers and a bit of post-production to run through a few options. 

The obvious one is an inglenook, a "standard" 5-3-3 seems possible but the second version is more a 4-4-2 with a shorter headshunt, the idea being that the rearward longer siding could have a rough platform to receive a simplex and a couple of 4w coaches from a fiddle stick run-off connected top-right.

The next option is to go for two points facing each other, along the lines of my earlier desktop-sitter 'Upcycle', again a passenger operation ought to be possible to the rear right hand line using a fiddle stick connected top-left. 

It's not too far from there to what to me is a very familiar plan adding another point... I have described this as 'Tragbar' as it is a mirror of an arrangement popularised in Scale Model Trains by the late Chris Ellis building the build of a layout of that name. It is more familiar to me as my Dad and I built a layout to this plan many years earlier called 'Chetley'. We hid the line top-right as a fiddle yard on the board but again this idea uses an optional fiddle stick. 

Next is a version of the plan I was previously looking at on the small cork board, a loop and siding. Whilst all of these plans benefit from a fiddle stick, this one requires it for full operation. However it would be possible to shunt it as a tuning fork without it for a quick operating session.

The final plan is actually a return to the Inglenook theme and has been created more recently than the other images. This switches the fiddle-stick line to the longer siding and the headshunt is a dead end. In some ways I prefer that as it creates a real restriction to the length rather than the possibility of cheating off down a fiddle stick! 

To fit in the box the board doesn't actually have much height to the backscene boards, 95mm - so buildings are something that have to be considered carefully. We are in the territory of huts, grounded van bodies and high walls. I envisage the line at the back running behind a wall, that get's higher and then has a lean-to over the middle line. Some shrubbery behind the back line would make it's disappearance complete as it wraps over the hole in the sky...

More soon...

Colin

Sitting Comfortably?

The driver of the Lister was not alone in his journey through the paintshop. For company he had the passenger and baggage for the 4w coach for 'odsock Corner. He's a 3D printed figure from 3D Printing for Charity (Facebook) raising money for the Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance.

He looks very relaxed in his shorts and cap! I could see a hint of a beard in the print so painted this in accordingly. The bag is from a set of Prieser unpainted figures bought in Shifting Sands days, both were finished in a similar way to other items in the recent batch, dry-brushing colours over a black-grey wash.

Colin

Odsock's Lister in Green

I had originally intended to reveal the painted FK3D Lister a few days ago but the original set of photos revealed a chip in the paint on the driver figure's hat and I just couldn't un-see it... hence repairs and a re-shoot. As a bonus that time gap allowed me to fit the couplings to the model and properly finish it off.

Normally when painting a locomotive model I use a process of primer> main colour (spray or by hand)> and then ancillary colours, but for this model I wanted to try something different, more akin to the way I might paint an item of machinery or a figure. Once the grey primer was on I ran a fairly heavy black-grey wash over the model, making sure it sat in the many crevices, angles and recesses of the print. I then masked off and painted the coupler blocks and brake wheel, firstly red-brown as an undercoat and the dry-brushing red over the top. Similarly the bonnet front was masked off and dry-brushed with several coats of a light grey. The intention was to allow the darker colour to remain in the recesses and add depth.

With the paint on the coupler blocks, brake wheel and bonnet front fully dry, I then masked them off to protect then and started to apply the green. Vallejo 'Flat Green' is the order of the day (again!) with a spot of a darker green added in to make a future stage easier. The colour was applied with a large flat brush and was again almost dry-brushed. I was particularly keen not to flood the solebar areas with colour as my intention was to use the dark grey base to provide some extra shadow and create an impression of more depth. The darker wash also shows around the grilles on the bonnet and in may other little spots.

The green had covered in one coat, but I then ran over it again very lightly with the undarkened colour, subtly highlighting the edges of raised detail. Other details such as the gear lever were picked out in appropriate colours and some extra dirt effects added in places. The 'Lister' logos on the bonnet side were dry-brushed in the light grey and I attempted to do the same in green to the 'AUTO TRUCK' lettering on the front. Meanwhile the driver had been painted, again dry-brushing over a dark grey wash, using subtle colours so he doesn't stand out too much. Everything was treated to a spray of Humbrol acrylic matt varnish to seal it all in and give a flat finish.

Finally my attention turned to the couplings. The print does have NEM style receptacles designed to take a Peco coupler, but not at "standard" height. I did try a Greenwich NEM style coupler but it didn't locate properly and even if bent down to the lower height would have stuck out a fair way. In the end I have used a pair of standard Greenwich couplers (the ones I had actually used to experiment with on O9 models a few months ago) located at the base of the block and bent upwards to the correct height. A rather unusual modification is that the loopholes that usually hold the coupler loop have been bent upwards and actually now help locate the coupler into the coupler box. A new hole was drilled in the shortened shank and a Peco trackpin through the coupler block, secured with superglue, holds the coupler in place. 

Colin

Junkbox Jury - Painted Decay

Paint shop capacity finally became available last week to give the "dismantled diesel" some paint. You may recall I built this in the backend of last year, mostly from the remains of incomplete projects. If I'm being honest I'd ben putting off painting as I wasn't sure how I could get the look I wanted. Thankfully the work on the Lister pointed most of the way and the job was actually completed over a small number of sessions.

There are two areas of the paintwork I am particularly proud of, both as a result of careful masking throughout the painting process. The first is the two bonnet doors that have seen a recent coat of primer, which were masked off pretty much throughout the painting process! With these areas masked everything else was given a coat of dilute black-grey as a basis for what would follow, and once dry the light blue of the bonnet was effectively dry-brushed on, leaving the black-grey showing through in the ledges around the rainstrip and grilles. Some really pleasing accidental effects were the runs under the grilles, the brush just missed those lines!

The second masking effect is the red oxide primer bordered with grime where the coupler blocks were once fitted. The bufferbeam had been primed in red oxide and the rectangular areas around the bolt holes were masked off prior to the grey wash. Masking was left in place when the red bufferbean colour was dry-brushed on which left the grime marks above and below the area. The masking was then removed prior to other weathering effects being added, including light brown washes, gunmetal over bolt heads and Citadel 'Typhus Corrosion' in selected areas around bolt holes and the exhaust pipe hole.

In the cab area the panel with the controls was given a weathered wood effect, we have to assume this was left in place, propped up on the bonnet, when the cab was removed. The chequer plate on the floor was dry-brushed with gunmetal to give it a metallic look, which spread to a patch where the doorway would have been. After some overall dry-brushing, including green-grey applied upwards from the bottom of the model to give it the effect of having been outside in grass for a while, I was satisfied with the result. A coat of Humbrol matt varnish was applied in the one day of sunshine we appear to have been allocated this year and whilst I may add some weathering powder effects in due course, I don't want to go over the top...

More soon...

Colin

 

Odsock's Lister

Although my intention had been to use the Abbey Light Railway style Simplex on 'odsock Corner the reality is that it may be a little too big for some of the clearances. It does get around but only just, so something a little smaller would be more suitable. That same Christmas a couple of years ago I also received a print from the same source (FK3D) for a Lister, and I have now started to work it up into a useful locomotive. 

The print doesn't need much work, most of what I have done isn't really visible, but I did find that I had to scrape away a bit of material underneath to get the Kato 'core' to fit. Part of me thinks that it ought to go in a bit further but I don't want to push my luck... As always a coat of grey primer really enhances the print, there is a lot of detail on there that you cannot see when it is reflecting the light!

Underneath the squeezed in Kato chassis is visible. I have drilled out part of the balance weights at either end of the body, but for different reasons. The right-hand end was in order to add 'liquid lead' as part of a scheme to counter-balance a whitemetal driver (the bonnet also had a suitable compartment opened up and filled). The left-hand end was to reduce the weight a little, although it could be used for weight if another driver is ever used. The weights were secured with slow-setting epoxy.

The body separated from the chassis. As the base plate used was from a 11-108 chassis, moulded in shiny grey plastic, I have carefully prepared it with 1200-grit wet and dry, cleaned it up, primed with plastic primer and then top-coated with matt black aerosol paint to get a hard-wearing, matt finish. The 3D printed top clip, that holds the motor in place, was also treated to this finish, as both are visible at certain angles.

The driver is from the 'Heroes of the Footplate' range and is a casting I've had many years, his right arm is adjustable and has been in a number of different positions as he's been offered up to different locos over time. Adjusted again, it sits naturally over a control lever. His right foot is on a pedal that had actually broken off the print, it was shortened to suit before being added back in place. I had to build up his posterior with Milliput to sit neatly in the tractor style seat. He's held in place by a combination of holes in the footplate to accommodate 0.5mm brass wire in his feet, and a rather painful looking spike in the centre column of the seat...

Whilst I said I hadn't done much to modify the print there was one thing that I did change. The tops of the axle 'W' plates had triangular cutouts where they should have continuous sloped sides, so these were filled in with Milliput and carefully smoothed to shape. The only other thing I changed was to replace the gear lever with a Peco track pin with a touch of epoxy to shape the head, as the original seemingly "vanished"...

Painting has now commenced, so the usual rule applies until you see it again!

Colin

 

Odsock Wagons - The Black Dogs

Modellers setting out in O9 today may not appreciate the influence that the Black Dog Mining and Avalon Line ranges had on the scale over 20 years ago (double-checks calendar...). Of these last two wagons from the 'odsock Corner batch, the mine tub actually incorporates one of the first Black Dog chassis I bought and the 6ft 2-plank is to the same design as another of my other early purchases. 

The mine tub was originally completed 9 years ago (checks calendar again...) and whilst the body was new the chassis had been around the block a few times and the openings I had previously cut for MicroTrains couplers were filled back in. This view from 2017 shows it with Black Dog coupler blocks fitted to add further character. They have now been removed as part of the most recent rebuild. Always a bit of an outsider in the fleet, it was designated a "display" vehicle and even had it's own little diorama for a time.

The 6ft 2-plank is intended to run with the passenger coach and was intended as a luggage trolley similar to that pulled by my railcar. However, wanting to be different this time the load is just accumulated "stuff" at this stage and at present is only placed loosely. The bucket is a West Hill Wagon Works example and the bag of rubbish is a carefully sculpted Milliput artwork...

Both wagons are pretty similar underneath, lead window strip is used for weight with clearance for 7mm metal wheels in place of the Peco originals. As I have pointed out before these really lift the look of the Black Dog chassis. They also make it really easy to fit Greenwich couplers as they only require a small slot in the buffer beam level with the inner frame.

For the first time I now feel that I have a coherent fleet of non-miniature railway rolling stock in O9. For now they are assigned to 'odscock Corner but who knows where they may end up in the future?

Colin