Buffers and Baggage

For a while I really couldn't be motivated to get anything going on the workbench, however the weather was really telling me to stay indoors and do something so I came up with a couple of schemes to get started on. 

The first was a reworking a Black Dog Mining (style) wagon as a luggage trailer for the O9 railcar, filling the cutouts for MicroTrains couplers and fitting pre-painted Black Dog coupler/buffer blocks in their place to accommodate a link-and-pin coupler to the railcar. A careful touch-up of the paintwork has made a pretty neat job of the changes.

Of course a luggage trailer needs some luggage, so a root around found a Preiser backpack, suitcase and bag, all pre-painted some time ago. To this I added an older style case using a modified ammo case from a ground crew set, and a bike from a rather basic 3D print I had acquired, possibly from Avalon Line. This filament print required a fair bit of fettling to look anything (and you have to ignore it's square frames!), and I had to add my own pedals from a bent staple and 5 thou styrene. The other side is very poor, but you'll not see that...

Bringing it all together, this is the result with the load fixed in place using 'Tacky Wax', I hope the bike was placed in carefully on top of that luggage! I need to fashion a 'U' shaped wire coupler to engage with the loop on the railcar ends.

The other task I set myself was to add buffers and nameplates to the light green A1 Models "Albert" diesel. I had always planned to have buffers, as per the Littlehampton prototype, but had failed to  scratchbuild any buffer shanks to my satisfaction. At the Doncaster show in February I bought some cast oval Dundas 009 ones, and prepared these in red primer before opting in the end to replace the oval heads with turned 4mm round ones, which in this use really make a difference.

I have also finally named the loco, it begins with 'A' but it is 'Amelia' rather than Albert. These are Narrow Planet plates that had previously done a temporary stint on an 009 Gmeinder. With all of these smaller parts for both projects painted and fitted on the dreary days, finally a nicer day appeared when I was able to give everything a waft of matt varnish over the changed bufferbeams on both projects.

In other news, I'm also having (yet) another try at a mini photo diorama to fit in the light box, but simplifying things compared to previous attempts and mock-ups. I'm even working on some ideas for the project after that... 

Colin

 

The Green Machine

We last saw the A1 Models 'Albert' in a sneak-peek in between painting and varnishing. Following application of a coat of Halfords matt lacquer I've now added the finishing touches, working slowly through a post-it note of jobs. Firstly the windows were glazed using 10 thou clear styrene behind the openings, secured with Johnson's 'Kleer' (old-school formula), and the headlights filled using Araldite. Doing this before the cab and bonnet were glued together meant I only had to make up one mix to do both ends, whereas on 'The White Rose' I had to do each end in turn as the light has to sit facing upwards to set without sagging. 

The headlights squeezed the last from my Araldite so I bought an alternative epoxy product in the local motor spares shop to join the two assemblies together, which seems to have worked OK. On the cab front a turned brass A1 Models air horn was added - this one a version designed with cab front mounting in mind. Deft deployment of the epoxy and careful propping allowed this to be secured in place whilst the cab and bonnet were glued together. 

Despite the matt lacquer the underframe looked a little too shiny so the opportunity was taken to overspray a coat of Humbrol matt varnish to this part, followed by some light weathering in the form of dry brushing. This side-on view shows how the Kato chassis is convincigly hidden by the air tanks and the deep solebar.

Inside the cab I added a driver figure, one of the "rubbery" Prieser clones sprayed in grey primer, washed over in black-grey and then the skin and shirt picked out in appropriate colours. Subtle but effective enough when viewed through the cab windows. The 'L' section pieces provided with the kit have been used to locate the cab and bonnet in place, they are easily adjusted to get a secure grip and good location.

Underneath the chassis can be seen the mounts for the MicroTrains couplers, and the strips of lead window flashing added either side of the chassis to add some extra weight. There is scope to add more here or above the footplate if it proves necessary after testing.

With this model completed and in the display cabinet there are currently no O9 models on my workbench... There is a bit of reasoning behind this, I had a bit of a surprise when I went to put 'The White Rose' away after the recent modifications as I realised I hadn't actually allocated a storage box for it! A suitable box was located in the form of a Peco 009 example, but there is a shortage of space in the stock boxes so I need to have a careful think about what goes where in a limited space...

Colin

'Albert' in his Prime(r)

The A1 Models 'Albert' was given a good clean up with a fibreglass brush, a scrub with Cif and then dried thoroughly to avoid any tarnishing caused by water drying slowly. At this point the box it was sat in gained a post-it saying "gloves on" to remind me not to touch it with bare hands. 

I'd rather not have thing hanging around in that state too long, so after a couple of freezing weeks the "warmer" weather on Monday did allow me to successfully get the loco into primer, with the usual effect of making everything seem 'as one'.

I am really pleased that the joins around the bonnet front and the top of the sides are all smooth and belie the mix of materials. 

This will probably remain in this state for a week or two now, notwithstanding Christmas and the desire to move the tram along in the paintshop, I need to decide on what colour I would like to paint it!

As activity over the coming days is likely to be limited, this will be the last update before Christmas, so I will take this opportunity to wish all blog readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Colin

Developing the A1 'Albert'

When we last saw the A1 Models 'Albert' build I had assembled all of the provided parts and I subsequently started to consider what changes I wanted to make to the basic kit. 

The first addition was a curved bonnet top, using a piece of 20 thou styrene sheet recycled from an old ice cream carton lid (!) Cut to just oversize and sellotaped to the outside of a small saucepan (whilst no-one was looking), then dunked in a pyrex dish of just-boiled water for a few minutes and subsequently cooled. This way used less water than the more obvious route of the inside of the pan and filling it! A 30 x 60 thou strip of Evergreen styrene down the centre and two 20 x 40 strips at appropriate intervals hold the shape, the whole assembly being held in place with Araldite and subsequently trimmed to size.

On the underframe 40 thou styrene was used to make bufferbeams to fill the gap in the etched part. Openings for MicroTrains couplers were marked and cut out prior to fitting. An 80 x 156 thou strip of Evergreen styrene along the top on the inside both increased the gluing area and will provide substance to fix the MicroTrains couplers to in due course.

After looking at a few more photos of 'Albert' at Littlehampton I decided that I could not live with the front grille arrangement. Whilst searching for some other detail parts for the project I chanced upon an Avalon Line resin grille casting. This was about 0.5mm narrower than the etched grille and 0.5mm taller. With the etched overlay removed (it was only ever tacked in place) and the mesh cut away, I was able to clean up and carefully open up the aperture to take the casting. I backed the casting with strips of 20 thou styrene and Araldited it in place from behind.

Prior to fitting the grille in place I marked up, centre-punched and drilled a hole in the bonnet front to accept a turned headlight, with a similar hole on the cab back. The cab front was drilled centrally for a horn or whistle. 

The next job was to fill all the gaps with Milliput, concentrating on the bonnet front and top of the sides, the bufferbeams and cab corner join and roof edges (to smooth out the corrugations). Once set this was smoothed back and I made a trial fit of the headlights (A1 Models 4mm scale mainline diesel turnings). In the process of fitting the front one I realised the resin radiator wasn't straight or central, so out that came to be refitted and refilled. I then added an exhaust from brass tube and some bolt detail to the bufferbeams from styrene rod. I had intended to replicate the prototype's buffers but opted not to in the end.

Further work on the chassis has included adding a rudimentary bench seat at the back of the cab and a coupler pocket arrangement in each bufferbeam to secure MicroTrains 1015 couplers. This involved removing the section of bufferbeam under the opening and replacing with 40 x 100 thou styrene, as the screw hole is centred only 1mm from the bufferbeam face.

At either side of the underframe I had previously Araldited some chunks of styrene, onto which I have added air tanks from the usual sources of Dapol Railbus and Drewery shunter kits. Additional strips of styrene help centre the Kato chassis, although this will need to be secured with double-sided tape after painting.

Progress has reached the stage where it is agonisingly close to being ready to paint, but the weather is not favourable to getting out to the workshop to do so - and the prospect of having to turn the heater on! A further delay here may be caused by the tramcar and its accoutrements currently taking up the  paintshop 'bay' and paint stands...

 

Colin

Building an A1 'Albert'

Back in July John Flower from A1 Models handed me his latest etched O9 kit, based on the locomotive 'Albert' of the Littlehampton Miniature Railway. Although now 12 1/4" gauge this locomotive was originally 15" gauge, built at Windmill Farm in Lancashire, started by Craig Gluyas and completed by Dave Madden and Austin Moss. The kit certainly captures the style of the loco if not all the details and fits on the Kato 11-103 or 11-109 chassis.

This is the etches as supplied, John had only etched four doors instead of six on the main etch so two extra were supplied! An etched chassis frame is supplied, I think this is from an existing 009 Kit. The purpose of the four rectangular pieces top right was a bit of a mystery at first (I had no instructions), but I eventually fixed them to the chassis to locate the bonnet and cab units.

Having folded up the bonnet and cab parts I opted to remove some of the tabs intended to make assembly easier - although well intended and perhaps helpful to anyone using an adhesive for these joints, they made the fit of the bonnet front awkward and the cab roof did not sit correctly at the eaves. The bonnet front was soldered in place inside the sides/top and the cab joined in the corner, having added a length of scrap etch to pack out the join to keep the dimensions of front and sides equal. The cab roof was soldered in place, aligning it correctly took some time due to the etched ridges underneath just being in the wrong place!

The etched grille on the front had distorted in the heat of the soldering iron, but that was a minor issue really. At this point I took the photo above and shortly afterwards spotted my "deliberate" mistake... I had soldered the whole front panel in upside down!

This was promptly rectified before moving on to the next stage, adding the bonnet side grilles/doors and cab doors. These were fixed in place using a thin coating of Araldite in two sessions, one for each side, in order to avoid disrupting one side whilst working on the other.

I have temporarily added the other grille mesh in front of the chequered mesh, temporary as I have identified this as an area that I may wish to upgrade, not least as it seems to float in the space, and also because the real locomotive has a different style of front grille altogether.

I had to do a bit of cleaning up around the cab doors to remove excess Araldite, there is only about 1mm either side to fix to so a bit of spread under the edges was inevitable. I moved the door up as far as I dared so there wasn't a huge gap above it, overlapping by about 2mm at the top and less than 0.5mm at the bottom. The kit can be built with one or both of the doors propped open at 180 degrees and some cab interior detail, it would seem the real loco often runs in that fashion at Littlehampton.

As well as the grille upgrade I plan to add a shallow curved top to the bonnet using 20 thou styrene and some supporting strips. It cannot curve too much due to the cab front windows but should give a better impression of the prototype it is based on. I will also be adding bufferbeams and a few underframe details to finish the model off.

The kit can be purchased on A1 Models on eBay.

More soon...

Colin