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

 

Junkbox Jury - Primed

I have been rather remise in not keeping you up to date with the progress of various models, but progress has been rather slow as priorities change and new whims took charge. The dismantled diesel has at least had a coat of primer, which as ever brings together the various materials to an even finish. As there will no doubt be red on the bufferbeams somewhere, and possibly the need for red primer to appear underneath where the coupler would be, I also masked off and sprayed red oxide primer onto those areas.

From the cab end the various bolt holes show up rather well as does the gap where the gearbox should be. This work was completed in October but I then got distracted and it has now possibly missed it's place in the paintshop queue until the new year. That does however give me the chance to refine a few painting techniques elsewhere as I'm a little out of practice!

Also now primed is the passenger carriage for 'Odsock Corner', which has been waiting for a dry(ish) day to head to the workshop for primer. It is now a lot easier to photograph, although I refrained from fitting all the seats back in place for the photo. You can now see the boltheads on the solebar which supposedly hold the axleguards in place.

Livery for this will be light blue, the jury's still out on whether to go for the Lincolnshire Coast style blue to match my FK3D Motor Rail or something more subtle...

More soon, including the distraction(s)!

Colin

Junkbox Jury - a Tale of Two Coaches

Another raid on the junk box (well, it's more of a drawer...) revealed a half-started wagon body, 56mm long and 26mm wide, with a single-plank top. I started to consider using it as the basis for a 4w coach for use behind my FK3D Simplex on 'Odsock Corner' so I carefully removed the sides. However there were traces of damage along the floor edges so to make a fresh start I re-scribed the planking on the other side.  

The style of the coach follows that which I described in the 7mm NGA's 'Going Minimum Gauge' and I opted for a total coach width of 26mm, thus reducing the floor to 24mm wide. Side and end pieces were marked out on 40 thou styrene and rather than the 18.5mm height I had used in the article, I reduced this to 16mm. When mocked up next to the loco it looked too low, so new set was produced 18mm high and duly assembled. Seating planks came from another wagon floor previously scribed onto 60 thou material and cut to 24mm x 8mm sections.

Having assembled the body I realised I had dropped a clanger. This was meant to be part of a project to introduce a few 28mm wide vehicles into use. So another pre-cut floor was found, but this was a little shorter, even after adding an extra plank (from yet another floor, I can't help myself!). The new floor was 26mm wide and again a set of sides and ends were marked out at 18mm high and assembled around it. The rest of the other floor became more seats. Seat supports on both vehicles are 20 thou styrene cut to 8mm tall and set around the back and edges of the seats. 

Where the shorter, wider vehicle differs from the first is the underframe, using 3.2mm channel section and 4mm deep 40 thou bufferbeams, whereas the first uses 3.2mm 60 thou styrene strip for both.

The second vehicle is much better proportioned when sat with the Simplex so detailing continued to bring it closer to the paintshop stage. On the bufferbeams I added slithers of 25 thou styrene rod to represent bolt heads in line with the solebars and above the coupling area. Further bolt heads were added on the solebars above the axle box locations, but you cannot quite see them in the picture!

A Peco N gauge 15ft wheelbase chassis had been attacked modified some time ago to accommodate Mathieson 7mm wheelsets, remove all the brake gear etc and shortened at either end. It fits almost perfectly between two platforms added behind the bufferbeams to support the couplings. The axlebox and spring detail was removed and replaced by 4mm scale castings from 51L/Wizard Models. The chassis and weight were secured in place with epoxy adhesive, but not before extra weight was added along the edges using self-adhesive window 'lead'.

If it ever stops raining I will venture down the garden to the workshop to give it a coat of primer.

The original build will be put to one side for future development. There is a slight irony that in trying to use up the contents of the drawer I've created a new, fairly complete, candidate for it...

Colin

Junkbox Jury - Dismantled Diesel

The next excursion into the junk box revealed several disparate scratch built locomotive components, namely a collection of parts to make up a chassis frame to fit a Kato mechanism; A1 Models bonnets from a couple of incomplete builds and a set of parts to build a long bonnet using a cut-down Dapol railbus roof as the top. In the same vein as the wagon chassis in the previous post, I decided to create a locomotive that is not currently in operational condition.

That might be an understatement... as it appears to be missing a cab, gearbox, wheelsets and who knows what is/isn't under the bonnet!

The chassis parts were assembled pretty much as I would if building an actual loco, although cut-outs were made where the axleboxes should be rather than add any. Holes mark where the spring hangers and coupling block would be located plus a few random extras for good luck. This is very much a case of detailing by removal of material rather than adding it.

For the bonnet I originally planned to use a small A1 Models bonnet from a kit designed for a Tomytec chassis (see Only the Slim Need Apply). This looked a little too small for the frame so instead I used most of the set of bonnet parts I had previously created, shortening them to fit. The already narrowed railbus roof was still a little too wide so another section that had been split back into two was narrowed further, creating a pleasing peaked shape. The filler caps (Dapol Drewery crank pins) from the A1 bonnet were purloined for the new build.

The cab area is again a series of recycled material and more holes, the latter representing where the brake column and seat would have been. The sheet leaning against the back of the bonnet came from the same A1 kit with detail that I had added, the chequer plate a scrap of etch previously used on another build and flattened back out. A few railbus kit bits were also added to give "just enough" detail.

This actually became a quite enjoyable project, adding details such as the recessed filler cap and the side grilles, which are in a trademark style common with a lot of locos that I have built over the years, as featured in Some I Made earlier.

There are still a fair few bits in that junk box, including that narrowed bit of roof. Whatever next?

Colin

Junkbox Jury - Wagon Bashing

A few weeks ago I hinted that some wagon tinkering could be on the cards in the wake of my experimentation with Greenwich couplers. In passing I mentioned that there were a couple of experimental wagons started some time ago, so they were brought out of storage to see what could be done with them. You could call it a dive into the junk box...

The first was a short (5ft) wagon, currently a flat but only because it got no further! The chassis under this is a Peco 15ft unit cut-down to a 14mm wheelbase, previously under a modified RCL skip frame. It was a little unloved and has now gained fake 'Hudson' style axleboxes assembled from styrene sections.

Sorry that isn't a great photo due to all the white styrene... At present this is as far it will go pending further developments but it could end up with sides and/or ends in due course. Other than the new axle boxes the only other work completed was to fill in the cut-out in one bufferbeam that was designed to set the coupler at the higher position, to match the other end at the lower height. I didn't spot that it actually had acquired odd wheelsets until after taking the next photo...

The other was a 6ft wagon, again a flat by default, but designed to use Chivers Finelines 'Theakston' axleboxes, subsequently removed. The frame was too narrow to put a Peco chassis within, so I opted to remove the floor and save it for reuse, and then create an abandoned underframe with the remainder. The axle boxes are missing, leaving boltholes and the odd remaining bolt, using some EDM mouldings and Grandt Line versions on the frames. I had intended to use this on 'The Headshunt' to replace the damaged Hudson flat, however it soon had company...

The damaged remains of another Hudson frame surfaced... This has had the slots cut for MicroTrains couplers filled with Milliput and smoothed to shape. The intention is now that this will be destined for 'The Headshunt' and the scratchbuilt frame prepared for future use elsewhere.

Once I had started the dive into the junk box more potential uses for started-but-unfinished projects came to mind, we'll take a look at another in a future post.

Colin