Finished Business - a 15" Workhorse

Last seen a month ago, things have moved on with my O9 4w internal combustion loco build with it emerging from the paintshop. I'd say resplendent but it is clearly a little way from it, being finished in a work-a-day style befitting of a little workhorse, even on 15" gauge.

The first step was a coat of grey primer, allowing identification and rectification of any issues. 

Once tidied the grey primer was overcoated with Halfords red primer as a basis for a red livery, the chosen colour being Citadel 'Mephiston Red' (lighter I believe than the old 'Scab Red'). It is unusual for me to brush paint a loco but on this occasion I gave it a try. Three even coats were required, with a day between coats to dry and very light use of dry 1500 wet and dry to remove any blips in the finish.

The buffer beams were originally going to be yellow with black chevrons, to the point of being white primed and sprayed yellow! But I realised as this may need to represent a machine being used in the 1960s such things had not really reached the minimum gauge at that time so after rubbing down red primer was applied and three coats of Vallejo red applied instead.

The underframe areas are finished in an off black, black mixed down with brown to make it less "black". I had originally used Vallejo black-grey in this area but it looked wrong, although this colour did form the basis of the cab roof.

The headlights were painted off the model and given a fill of Araldite after vanishing. The whole model was sprayed with Humbrol matt acrylic aerosol varnish, taking care to pick a good day weather wise over Easter and not to over-coat whilst wet, which inevitably leads to blooming in the finish. As well as adding headlights after varnishing, the air horn was also added, being pre-painted from a previous life on SMR no.3. The cab front windows were glazed with 20 thou material, held in place with Johnson's Kleer. This is a single piece of glazing so I resorted to using a window weathering colour on the inside of the cab to hide any reflections from it, carefully removing paint from he inside of the portal windows with a damp cotton bud.

Weathering relies on washes and dry-brushing. I'm still experimenting with Citadel 'Nuln Oil' as a wash, using it on the bonnet sides around the doors and louvres. Dry brushing included a lightened body colour on edges of the cab and bonnet and some muck etc around the running gear. The final job was to fit Microtrains couplers, and on finding no built 1015 examples in the box I assembled the last three sets in a pack to build up stock and fitted one set to the loco, blackening the screw head and exposed thread. The visible parts of the shiny coupler boxes benefit from a matt brown wash to tone them down.

With the driver installed, set in place with Tacky Wax, the loco is now complete and ready for running trials. I have not added any weight as yet as the new style Kato chassis is an unknown quantity for me.

Colin

 

Unfinished Business

Just over a year ago I posted about a new build loco project that had stalled in December 2020. It didn't restart until some point in 2021, where a set of channel frames eventually emerged and changes were made to the cab. Although I cannot pin down when the 2021 work took place, it may have co-incided with receipt of the Kato 11-109 chassis on which the loco sits, my first of the new generation chassis. However the loco then went back in the drawer until late February 2022

The 2021 work had given it channel frames rather than plate ones and also a revised cab. I think at that point I had realised that it actually looked too like it's inspiration (SMR No.3), so I made changes to overcome this. Drawing more inspiration from the RH&DR's 'Redgauntlet' I looked towards the original build of that loco, where it sported round spectacle windows on the cab front. My spares box revealed an A1 Models 009 etch that I had attempted (and failed) to convert to O9 but the cab front and roof were salvageable, and were incorporated into the rebuild. All the Feb 2022 onwards work has built on this theme.

As well as the A1 etches I have used parts from the MG Models fret of grilles, louvres, hinges etc to make the hinged bonnet side doors and front grille. Other bonnet details include a RT Models headlight, and filler caps made from Dapol Drewery coupling rod pins. The exhaust was in the spares box, used in a previous test build. The air horn on the cab roof is No.3's original fitting, I think either a Crownline or early A1 Models casting.

A look from the other side reveals that I had to cut the etched grille down and this side of the surround is in fact styrene strip. Under the channel frame the suspension/axlebox units are cribbed from the Black Dog O&K design but with a few differences. I had hoped to use the original axlebox mouldings from No.3 on here but the started to disintegrate on clean up so instead I dug further back in my modelling career to find some etched ones last used on a model I made in my youth. I had to strip layers of Humbrol gloss paint off to clean them up!

Around the back of the cab can be seen the 2021 modifications made to open out the rear window to follow the roofline. Another RT Models headlight features here, the position still echoing No.3. The coupler blocks on the buffer beams are scratchbuilt, but retrieved from the scrap box having been recovered from a previous project.

With the cab and driver figure removed, we can see the rudimentary detailing. The control panel is from the Dapol Drewery kit with a Peco track pin as a control. The gearbox is represented using a Drewery sandbox with another pin. The original sand dispenser forms another lever, purpose unknown! A modified wagon handbrake forms a (brake?) lever at the rear of the cab, and the driver has a thin cushion to sit on. I'd offer more comfort but headroom is limited a little, commercial figures won't fit so he is a Chinese Prieser copy suitable cut about.

Next stop is the paint shop...

Colin

2020 Hindsight

With the end of 2020 in sight the O9 Keef has had a few jobs completed on it and to all intents and purposes is considered "complete" enough to be sat in the display case. Since the last set of photographs I have added (and weathered) glazing, lightly weathered the loco and fitted MicroTrains couplers. These were the first set of couplers I had assembled for some time, I had forgotten what I was missing out on...!

One thing I haven't made any attempt to do is secure the body to the modified Bachmann chassis, it will likely be a blu-tac job. A reminder that the basic 3D print for this loco it available from A1 Models on eBay - and that I have made several changes to model, especially around the underframe.

There is an air of indecisiveness about the future of the model, it almost, but doesn't quite fit with my plans. A bit like 2020 really... I'm really happy that I have been able to continue modelling throughout the year but with hindsight, what has emerged is something of a mixed bag, a collection of individual models that actually achieve no real collective "whole". I started in this vein with MG Models 'Classic' loco, two paint jobs later and whilst it looks OK it might not be what I really want it to be.

Of course 'Beck Bridge' had a makeover to include a backscene, as seen above, which whilst successful it has still not found a real home for display!

At Easter, with time on my hands I started a micro layout based on Julian Andrews brickworks plan, this has never got beyond the initial phase other than a few tweaks as I searched for a suitable aesthetic for the rolling stock, and failed to get the result I wanted using KB Scale kits (nothing against the kits - just how I wanted to use them), and then some doubts over alternative scratchbuilds.

Not everything has been inconclusive, a Meridian Models Ashover coach kit received as a gift actually led to the one completed project of the year, the 009 diorama 'Humberston'. What started as a plain Manilla build of the coach in original condition turned into a customised rebuild of the coach to represent the LCLR modifications and a Simplex scratchbuilt to match, along with a suitable display base with platform and signal.

I hate to admit it but the other real success story was also 009, although the door is open for an O9 reworking for next Christmas!

Don't worry, I'm not about to rename the blog, plans are slowly coming together to revive the O9 micro layout and the locomotive and rolling stock aesthetic might also be resolved. Watch this space in 2021!

Happy New Year to our reader(s)

Colin 
 

Salvation from Frustration

Not long after it was last seen here my O9 MG Models 'Classic' diesel vanished into the workshop, ostensibly for a few finishing touches like couplings, an air horn and a comfier seat for the driver. The works foreman declined to comment on suggestions it had been seen back in the paintshop, claiming he was using a corner of it as his "special projects workshop"... whatever that is...

Truth be told, there was a bit of a bodge in the original version of the coupler housings, adding them after painting was a daft idea, and the amount of handling the loco was getting resulted in a chip through to brass in the bonnet front paintwork. With the frustration of the bodged joint between bonnet and running plate fresh in my mind I opted to add new coupler housings before painting, which resulted in a rather drastic "touch-up" job...

One of my other frustration in recent weeks has been with what would have been rolling stock for the new O9 micro layout, specifically issues I was having re-gauging KB Scale skip frames to O9. With the project in limbo whilst I try and decide which direction to go, the worst victim of my experimentation (which had two melted axleboxes from a daft attempt at pushing the bearings in further), gained a couple of, ahem, modifications. A bit of mucky paint later and...

Colin

Classic in Maroon

Outwardly it may appear that it has been quiet of late on the workbench, in reality there have been a sequence of frustrations...

My MG Models 'Classic Diesel' build contributed a few of these, not least the area that I was least happy about, the join between the bonnet and footplate. I suspect that I haven't got the bonnet sat down into the etched groove properly, and didn't help myself by trying to be too clever when gluing the painted parts into place - I had excess glue ooze under the edge. I tidied it up as best I could in the hope weathering could hide it. I tell myself that a real loco like this would most likely have a bonnet that consists of a frame bolted to the underframe, so there ought to be gap. 

Weathering took two attempts and I think I have got it about how I want it. Its maybe a little too much on the bonnet sides compared to elsewhere but I figured that area would get mucky, especially if the bonnet side flaps were opened up with grubby hands on a regular basis. And it's too late to change it...

The main effect I have been seeking is to enhance the louvres on the bonnet sides, to achieve this I washed over a dark grey, then removed a lot of it quickly to leave a deposit at the base of the louvres. When this was dry I dry-brushed a maroon colour a shade lighter than the main body colour from above - to highlight the top and edges of the louvres. The same colour was used to highlight the edges of the bonnet and cab etc.

Other areas have also been weathered, including the underframe and bufferbeams and the top of the exhaust. I have made a couple of adjustments since looking at the photos, I'm still not 100% on the model but getting there. In theory there are two remaining jobs, to add couplers, and an air horn in the hole I drilled for it in the cab front!

Colin

Adding Character

It's been a couple of months since my MG Models 'Classic Diesel' build featured here, at the time it was put to one side awaiting some inspiration to hit as to what it was going to be used for. With the 'Getting Something Moving' project requiring shorter locos than most of my existing 4w fleet I have been looking at ways of completing the build. Wanting to add some character to the model I opted to look at how I could add some more detail to the underframe area to hide the Kato chassis and create something more realistic. 

My starting point was to look at 'Redgauntlet', the RHDR loco that clearly inspired the kit.

Scouting around the spares boxes I found some Parkside 4mm scale solebars and W-irons, from a poorly-built kit I had picked up at a show for a pound or so just because it had a decent set of Jackson-Romford wheels underneath. After a false start trying to thin one of the W-irons down, which weakened it somewhat, I opted to make the Kato chassis narrower  instead. This was not without incident... Eventually after a trip to the workshop to meet the "big" file all was well! The axlebox units were added to a structure made up from 20 thou styrene and 40 x 80 thou Evergreen strip.

Wanting something in between the W-irons that could be fashioned into a Lister-esque weight below the solebar. I scouted around the spares box and looked through the usual Dapol railbus and Drewery bits. However, what caught my eye was the tool/battery box part from the Knightwing shunter kit. Just one problem, there was only one, despite me building three of these kits over time. Luckily I remembered one was stuck to the back of a redundant tender in the loco bits box so that was carefully pinged off and cleaned up. 

On the loco body I decided to add a box alongside the bonnet at the cab end, echoing a feature on 'Redgauntlet' (on the opposite side to the picture above) and some other 15" gauge locos. This will have a sliding panel added once tidied up, it is only held in place with blu tac in the picture, hence the wonkyness!

I also opted to construct a new, more characterful, exhaust on the other side. This was soldered up and holes drilled in the corresponding positions on the bonnet side. The old hole in the bonnet top has become a filler cap, this is a Dapol Drewery coupling rod pin that had already lost it's hex head.

Just in case anyone thinks the weights look a bit low to the ground, there is an extra thickness of blu tac holding them in place , in practice they will sit at the same point as the base of the Kato chassis.

Colin

Gmeddling About in 009

Prior to exhibiting my 009 pizza layout 'Old Quarry Line' last July I quickly reworked a Minitrains Gmeinder as a spare loco. I had limited myself to replacing the bonnet side vents with a MG Models etch and altering the cab doorways a little to lose the door one side and add a canvas side sheet and wooden planking on the other. This was the result.

It was only meant to be a temporary work-around but I've grown a bit attached to it. However, the cab sides were still jarring a little, they just didn't look like they belonged on a Feldbahn locomotive...

This is where a recent O9 project came into play. I realised the etched cab sides from the 009 cab on the A1 Models test-build did have a slightly Feldbahn-esque look to them. This is the etch as seen on A1's eBay listing.

Offering them up they were a little too wide and a bit too tall, but setting to I managed to cut them down to size, re-drilling the bottom handrail hole as the original was lost in the cutting. Having added the handrails I then realised the real thing would most likely have shorter rails to allow for a removable cab top, so I removed them, re-drilled and re-soldered them in place. Then came the moment of truth, the cab was carefully removed from the Minitrains loco and bathed in 'Super Strip' to return it to bare plastic to make the required changes. With detail removed and sanded flat I was able to Araldite the new sides in place.

Milliput was used to fill the gaps between the etched sides and plastic parts, being careful to try and retain the rivet details on the ends. I opted not to add a split line horizontally on the cab sides/ends to represent the removable cab top. Even so, it now looked a lot more like a Feldbahn locomotive despite still being a very much a freelance interpretation

Painting then followed, I have managed to match the weathering (what little there was) to the original paintwork on the bonnet and I'm really happy with how the cab corners look, the time spent carefully filling and sanding the join has paid off with the rivet detail intact.

The original driver, already much modified from a Dapol example (largely flattened on the other side) has had further surgery to cope with the new door layout. Having infilled the old door opening to the right with styrene before adding the etched sides, he has had a chunk taken out of the back of his right arm and leg to accommodate this (and a chunk from his left arm too). He now sits in such away that it highlights the thinness of the cab sides at the door opening. He is also now an integral driver, securely polystyrene cemented into the cab side rather than relying on glue under his feet!

On the other side of the cab the original canvas cover have been resized to fit the new opening, with planking retained below

Before reassembling the cab onto the loco I was able to resolve the issue of less-than-perfect running I had encountered with the loco, eventually resorting to having the wheels out and tweaking the pick-ups a little. I was also careful to replace the glazing in the rear window with thinner material as there was evidence of the flywheel making contact with the old window.

Colin

Test Build 3 - Primed

My build of the MG Models 'Classic' diesel has now had a good scrub up and a coat of etch primer, covering many sins and allowing the filled joins etc to be examined to see if more work is required.

I'm happy to see that the joins around the top of the bonnet have come up well, the attention to this area with the Milliput was worth the effort. Just to note the cab roof is still a separate part and isn't fitted correctly in the pictures.

Overall the finish is a little less smooth than I would like, but that might just be the atmospheric conditions at the time of the spray. It needs a rub over with wet 1500 grit wet and dry paper but that can wait until a top coat is required. As a test build for an as yet undecided project that step can wait until a clearer direction is known.

Colin

Test Build 1 - Laying down the gauntlet

I'm still in the debating and designing phase for future micro layout projects and as part of that process I challenged myself to think about how an O9 layout might look if I was to create something that didn't use my existing fleet of locomotives and stock from 'Shifting Sands', maybe pushing far further into the minimum gauge ethos rather than miniature railway.

Anything new also had to be easier and quicker to build than previous models too, so it isn't a surprise that I started with a kit, the Minimum Gauge Models 'Classic Diesel'. It's only been in the stash four years... Whilst it has a whiff of the RH&DR's 'Redgauntlet' it is reproduced slightly over-scale with several detail differences.

Construction is largely soldered, I've never been convinced that superglue will give longevity on bonds like those holding the bonnet top in place, even if reinforced with Araldite. The cab roof and bonnet have been left as separate units for now to aid painting in the future, and I will get around to adding an exhaust pipe and front grille.

I chose to not use the layered bufferbeams the kit provided and instead used 30 thou styrene to create new overlays, making it easier to add suitable mounting points for MicroTrains couplers and also to alter the shape to sit closer to rail level.

Thoughts also turned to rolling stock. Whilst some existing wagons could be used, more would be required if I went down a light industrial or agricultural route. My usual way of wagon building had three points of time consumption:

• Scribing plank lines on styrene sheet
• Creating wood grain effects
• Adding bolt detail individually

The chance purchase of a Slaters sheet of rivet details on 20 thou styrene sheet prompted some experimentation. Using this and planking sheet the wagon body on the left was built, eliminating all three points of contention.

However, it looked more like a wagon built from old shed timber than planks, so the version on the right was created, returning to scribed planks on the sides (but retaining the Slaters sheet on the floor). The rivet strips were cut finer this time and the end result looks quite acceptable. On the end Evergreen channel section adds further relief.

So the ideas and options are there for the stock, I just need to work out what the layout might be...

Colin

(no) O9

January rolled on in to February, February rolled on into March... the workbench refused to stir.

Yes, it has been a quiet couple of months where various other things have gotten in the way of railway modelling. However this has given chance for reflection and absorption of various ideas through visits to exhibitions in February, contrasting the overwhelming but often mediocre show at Doncaster and the excellent event arranged at Newark by the Lincoln club.

March brought Narrow Gauge North, where 7mm scale was in the minority but the trade support gave access to the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association sales stand and it was good to catch up with Minimum Gauge Models. Allen had a few new products on show, the one that caught my eye (and snared my wallet) was this etch of grilles, louvres, hinges etc:

I've spent some time in the last week or two on the concept and practicalities of a new project, which will be a new direction but one I've given some consideration to recently for various reasons. I will go into a little more detail in due course but here is some 'concept' artwork:

Of course, what isn't apparent from the sketch is what scale or gauge this will be in... there might be a clue on the heading of this post...

Colin

Introducing 'Up-cycle' - A MicrO-9 Project

As some of you will know, I'm very short on space about the house these days and my workbench lives in a walk-in bedroom cupboard, aka the 'Railway Cupboard', aka the 'Tardis'.  Over the years various schemes have been sketched up to get a working bit of railway in there but most were just too daft to actually build, or would compromise space somewhat.  Last month I pictured the workbench in a rare, tidy moment...

This month it's a bit different:

I've always come back to idea that the best way of getting a working "layout" in there is simply a desk-sitter shunting plank.  So the size is rather pre-determined.  Finding space to store it whilst not in use is the other main design criteria. 

During a week off work in early December I managed to create a workable baseboard based on the principles of a box file layout (which was an alternative at one point) - i.e. three low sides and a base, but dispensing with any folding bits and incorporating some timber under the base for strength and to give the wiring somewhere to run. What you see above is all 29 1/2" x 6" of it, underneath it looks like this, you can see that with some foresight I drilled two 16mm holes in the ply roughly where the slide switches for the points would be:

Almost everything is recycled from somewhere or second-hand, hence the project name 'Up-cycled' (and we know what happened to my last project name..).  The ply was part of some boxing-in we removed from the living room during redecoration and the timber (allegedly pine but I'm not convinced) from a shelving unit I built as a shoe rack during that week off. The strip along the front is some 'J' section timber, marked up as costing me 20p at some point in the past. Everything was glued and screwed/pinned together and the result is a lightweight, strong board. All ply and timber parts are varnished to help avoid warping.

On top of the ply is a layer of 5mm foamcore and then cork tiles, this composite accepts and holds track pins with nothing poking out underneath.  Trackwork is all Peco, the points were secondhand some time ago and the track is mostly some short lengths I picked up for 50p at a recent exhibition, although some short rail lengths were swapped for longer lengths from the spares box to avoid too many joins.  Points are operated and frog polarity changed using slide switches recovered from an earlier project:

The overall height of the sides of the board is 70mm.  This is very low to be a backscene but can be disguised with walls and fences. This is where the second part of my design criteria came into play - any micro layout had to store in a very shallow space above a set of drawers:

All wiring is now complete and test running has commenced using my MG Models tram loco and A1 Models diesel. I hope that eventually I will be able to do a little shunting of sorts and certainly for testing MicroTrains coupling set-ups. This low level shot shows that there is enough depth to also allow use as a photographic backdrop:

More as and when the project develops.

Colin

A Quick Paint Job for Toby

My MG Models "Toby" tram has now received a quick (by my standards) paint job into an appropriate colour scheme.  In fact, from primer to varnish only took a week, but that is more down to luck than anything else.

Prior to priming most of the bodywork was prepared with Birchwood Casey gun blue in order to promote adhesion and hide any future accidental chipping.  The parts were then scrubbed clean for a final time and dried off with a hairdryer.  At the point of priming (using Halfords grey primer) the body, underframe, roof and interior were separate units.  The day after priming the body was sprayed with Halfords Ford 'Tuscan Beige' to get the wooden colour.  Whilst this was drying the roof and underframe units were brush painted with acrylics.  Prior to varnishing the body and underframe were Araldited together.  Varnishing used Testors 'Dulcote' - my first experience of this product and a satisfactory flat finish.

Whilst the exterior was being painted, the interior had a different approach to painting.  The grey undercoat was used as a base, over which I ran a wash of black acrylic paint to sit in the recesses and detail. Once this was dry I dry brushed the engine block with a metalic acrylic shade, ans picked out various details such as air tanks with solid colour.  Once everything was varnished the interior was stuck into the body using Evo-stick.  The roof was then located into position (I had added bent lengths of wire in each corner to locate it), then held in place with elastic bands and Araldite carefully applied to the inside corners and points along the sides/ends.

All that remains to do is to add a little weathering.  Actually, a little more weathering, as can be seen in the pictures, a weathering wash was used over the beige part of the model before varnishing in order to pick out the planking and the recesses of the framework.

Colin

Hiding Toby's Secrets

When we last saw my MG Models 'Toby' tram build it was a basic shell with the option chosen for two grille openings in one side, and I made comment about fitting styrene panels across the doorways to hide the Kato drive.  Just forget you read that bit...

After a period in the doldrums the project has now moved forward.  Having considered converting the body into a rather neat brake van/coach (a suggestion actually made to me by Andy Greenslade when I bought the kit), I went back to basics on the interior and decided that rather than hide what was in there, I would model what could be in there.

Using a combination of parts from the scrap box I have created the impression of a 15" gauge tram-outline internal combustion locomotive which is almost plausible as the sort of thing an enthusiastic engineer could produce!

The basis of the interior is in fact a Parkside Dundas wagon floor, cut out to fit around the Kato mechanism. Onto this I balanced the centrepiece, the engine moulding from an HO scale generator set made by LifeLike.  This is another of Andy Greenslade's ideas, he produced a model based on one of MG Models modern diesel kits which had one of these under the bonnet.  The driver's seat is from a dismantled Cararama Land Rover, sat on supports made from Dapol Drewery shunter footsteps.  The Drewery spares box also provided the parts for the control panel, whilst Dapol Railbus spares provided air tanks, a box (of who-knows-what) and some electrical looking boxes under the driver's seat.

There are a few more tweaks to make but hopefully the project is now heading in the right direction.

Colin

In Toby we Trust

After a period of minimum gauge inactivity I had some spare time yesterday and put together the basic structure of the MG Models 'Tram' kit, an interesting exercise in soldering.  I can think of five different interpretations of this loco design on 15" gauge (many on Lister undeframes) and whilst the kit is not really representative of an individual loco, it is certainly characteristic of the breed.

I have chosen the option of fitting grilles to one side of the body, various different panels are provided and the kit can also be built as a brake van if desired!

Since taking these photos I have filled in the doorways with styrene planking, in the style of the Lister tram loco that used to run at the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway.  These will hide the workings of the Kato chassis.

Hopefully this will be a fairly quick build as there really isn't much to it (he says...).

Just in case you wondered what I have been up to in the meantime, I have been dabbling with a little bit of O-16.5 in the form of a couple of scratchbuilt wagons, simply to prove to myself that you can build wagons on 00 gauge chassis without the end result looking exactly like a 7mm scale body on a 4mm scale underframe.  The one-plank wagon is freelance, with the body built in styrene; whilst the open wagon is a fairly close model of a Vale of Rheidol ex-Plynlimon & Hafon Tramway wagon with the body built in basswood.

Whilst a O-16.5 project is some way in the future, the direction for wagon building is now established and the chassis donor stockpile is growing at minimal cost.

Colin