The Headshunt - Taking a Fence (in place of a wall)

As I demonstrated last time the use of a small mirror appeared to resolve my issues with how best to photographically deal with the apparent 'gap' at the left hand end of 'The Headshunt' when pointing the camera in that direction. However the existing wall that represented a bricked-up gateway and pillar was not the best thing to reflect as it just looked odd. Having considered a timber building of some sort, I eventually realised that I was over-complicating things and instead settled on a low-key replacement in the form of two scratchbuilt fence panels made from bass wood. 

Although this looks like a post, rail and board fence it is in fact a cheat, the horizontal members are actually one sheet with cut-outs around the posts and the boards are scribed sheet rather than individual. This double layer of opposing grains made the piece quite strong. Nail marks were made across the planks using a track pin in a pin vice. I deliberately chose a pattern of fence that had a gap in the boarding where the upright stood. The reason for this choice becomes clear with a mirror, camera and slight touch-up 'in post'...

Not the clearest of pictures but it shows the effect well, the gap by the post makes the gap where the mirror sits blend right in!

Colin 

Tramcar Triumph

The O9 tramcar was varnished in a spare moment on Christmas Eve, using Halfords matt lacquer as an alternative to Dulcote or a Humbrol aerosol. This is the first time I have used this product and the verdict is that I am pretty impressed with it, having just a little sheen that is not inappropriate for coaching stock or locomotives.

With the paintwork completed and festivities out of the way I moved on to a list of tasks to further completion: 

• Fitting the controllers and brake handles in place on each balcony
• Fitting 7mm NGA door handles on the centre doors
• Flush glazing the side windows using 20 thou styrene fixed in place with Kleer. The door drop-frames have a band of chrome trim along the top using a sliver of car body trim strip
• Weight (self-adhesive window lead) added in pockets between the body sides and seat supports
• Figures fixed in place in the centre compartment and balconies

There was some hesitancy over a suitable driver figure (or figures...) Five candidates were prepared for this task! Left to right, they are:

1. Chinese Preiser copy in a slightly soapy plastic. Used in initial testing of the seating and generally good, but not 'hands on' enough for my liking as the main driver.
2. Monty's Models industrial diesel driver, posed with this hand on the controls. Whitemetal, so to balance him out...
3. S&D Models young man, relaxed pose for the back platform.
   I then started to worry about the whitemetal figures adding weight in the wrong places, high centre of gravity etc on the Kato bogie chassis so looked for a plastic option again, leading to...
4. Chinese Preiser copy (old man with stick) in hard plastic, modified to seated position with hand on the controls and head-swapped. Enthused I also created...
5. Chinese Preiser copy (young lady hand in hair), modified to seated position with her other hand on the controls.

Whilst the plan was to use 4 and 5 at either end of the car, I did wonder if someone with a hand on controls at each end might actually look too much, so the end result was 5, with 1 at the other end, relaxed but poised hand on knee to take control. It is rather a good job that I had created the lady driver, as when it came to it, despite careful measuring and checking, no.4 was a little too tall for the space and looked wrong. I'm sure he will be useable elsewhere, he nearly got lined up to drive the A1 Models 'Albert' but as the driver of that will be barely visible that seemed a bit of a waste.

I had a little setback fixing the roof in place when I found that the glue I had used had failed, it was an old tube of solvent-free UHU that has clearly seen better days, not drying out. So I cleaned up and applied from a fresh tube, held everything in place with elastic bands whilst drying and this time it seems to have done the trick.

With the figures in place I added some more weight in gaps identified around the Kato chassis and then popped the Kato 11-105 in place. The roof was then added as described above. If I have one minor gripe with the finished model it would be the join between the coach sides and roof, however at "normal viewing distance" this is a lot less noticeable than in the photos.

Whilst I have applied a minor amount of weathering along the edges of the fake clerestory on the roof (as this would be a place unlikely to get cleaned) I have yet to add any weathering anywhere else other than a wash on the Kato bogies to tone them down. I will no doubt add something subtle in due course. For now it has taken a spot in the display cabinet for admiration. 

Colin

Tramcar Roof Refinements

Having added the nicely curved bulkhead top pieces to the body of the tram I realised that something similar but smaller was required under the roof, both to align with the end of the carriage sides and at the end of the overhang. More pieces of 40 thou styrene were marked out, using the template made from one of the old bulkheads for the top and an A1 Models etched cab front for the bottom. These pieces were then fixed in place, carefully measuring for the inner ones. I also added a strip of 30 x 60 thou styrene over the balcony openings to give some substance the imagined framework.

With the roof in place the effect looking upwards is that there is a frame under the roof holding it all up... However the ends of the roof needed some attention to give the impression that the roof is formed from a thinner material than the edge of the Dapol moulding.

With the roof ends filled with Milliput and smoothed back once set, a strip of 15 x 20 thou Evergreen styrene was carefully glued into place (along the 15 thou side) following the curve of the centre section of the roof. Left overnight to set, the following day this was softened with solvent and gently curved around the roof edge profile. Left to set again this was trimmed to size and more Milliput added to fill the join between roof and extension. Smoothing off followed once the filler was set and a little shaping of the bottom corners finished off the job. 

With the roof pieces in place the next job was to add the headlights to the front dash. These are Details West mouldings (LT 1015) designed for an HO scale EMD machine but work just as well in O9. Being clear plastic they don't photograph well... They have separate lenses that will be fitted after painting, one thing I had not realised is that there is no back to the headlight moulding hole so I have subsequently added Araldite as a filler so that the plank effect does not show through.

The holes for the door handles were drilled into the side using a 0.7mm bit and opened out a touch with a cutting broach, to suit 7mm NGA door handles, to be fixed after painting. With all parts in place we might be ready for a good scrub down and a trip the paint shop

Colin

Tramcar Tribulations

Time to catch up with the O9 Tramcar project. The Milliput around the joins has now been smoothed back, most noticeably on the fake clerestory on the roof. I was then able to add the resin sides to the plastic superstructure, fixing one side at a time using Araldite, clamping along the bottom of the sides to get a firm bond and to straighten out any warping in the resin parts. 

Whilst the Araldite was out I created an impression of handles on the controllers and brakes by creating a blob using the end of a cocktail stick, they are not perfect but should look OK once painted.

Sadly the more I looked at the tram after taking this photo the more something did not look right - Trying to tie in the bulkheads with the window dividing bars was showing up a discrepancy between the two bulkheads and the more I looked some of the bulkhead window openings appeared wonky and I had doubts about the squareness of the whole thing in places. 

So I took the sides off, and re-fitted them, but the issue still wasn't fixed and more drastic action followed with the sides coming off again... After trying to work with the existing seats and supports I opted in the end to clear the decks between the front seat supports and start again. New supports and seat bases were created from 40 thou styrene and new side supports cut from 60 thou x 3.2mm Evergreen strip.

I started work on two new bulkheads, 10 thou styrene backed with 30 thou strip and sheet sections. The intention was that they would be thinner than the originals and align directly with the window dividing bars. I had made the window openings taller than the originals - too tall in fact as I had to reduce them along the top edge. However on offering them up into position I found that the outer supports, combined with the thickness of the sides, just looked too bulky.

So I had a bit of a rethink and the decision was made not to have a bulkhead but instead just a seat back. In a lazy mood I decided to use more Chivers seat back mouldings, "borrowing" these from a kit in the stash (you get one spare in each kit so I'll have to owe this kit one!), setting these in place with careful measurement against the sides and the window dividing bar location.

In front of the chassis can be seen the parts that will replace the top part of the bulkheads, cut from 40 thou styrene using the better of the old bulkheads as a template. The triangular pieces will re-enforce the joint with the sides and provide a greater gluing area.

The resin sides were then Araldited back in place and unlike the earlier attempts both were fixed in place at the same time and less clamping pressure applied - I realised that this may have contributed to the warp apparent in the original attempts. 

With the sides in place I them added the upper divider parts into place, again using Araldite, having carefully marked their position directly above the seat backs. The roof was used as a guide to get the height correct. With these parts set I then added new 60 x 40 thou dividers in the side windows, directly in line with the edges of the seat backs and looking a lot neater than their predecessors. Despite saying there would be no bulkhead I then added an upright of 40 x 40 thou styrene from the centre of the seat back up to the roof support to tie the two parts together.

I do not intend to glaze the new openings, I feel that the new arrangement here is a lot better than the original and certainly gives the central compartment a more airy feel than it had previously (in fact it had looked rather claustrophobic).

Work has now moved on to the roof - adding false roof supports on the underside. More soon...

Colin

Clerestories and Controllers - O9 Tramcar Progress

We last saw the O9 tramcar build with the bulkhead panels in place on the floor and some seat supports in place on the platform ends. The seats are now in place either side, made from Slaters planked styrene backed with 20 thou sheet and add further strength to these areas. 

Either side of the end dash panels I added lengths of 60 x 60 thou quarter-round Evergreen section to give a pleasing rounded appearance to the corners. These overhung the headstock pieces a fraction so some packing was added to even these out. Once parts were set in place everything has been tidied up around the edges. Behind the headstocks pieces of 40 x 40 thou strip fill the step openings leaving a clear area for the side panels to be added.

Up on the roof I decided to add a clerestory, of sorts... Not a proper fully-built job as you might expect on a full size tram but more of the bump-in-the-roof you might get on miniature railway stock. This needed to have the same subtle curve as the rest of the roof and the best piece for the job was the bit I had removed to narrow the roof down! As previously explained this was cut 2mm too short so I have had to make up the rest with 40 x 60 strip and Milliput will be deployed in due course. I think even if the cut strip was wider I would have faced it either side to neaten the edges so just as much filling either way... Once set the ends of the clerestory strip were filed down to gently curve to the roof edge.

Jumping ahead a little, I was able to balance the sides and roof into place with a figure on the balcony to prove there is room. In fact a small selection of figures have already volunteered for duty, I daren't tell them of the horrors some may face to clear the motor. Please excuse the gap at the top under the roof, that will not be there in reality!

With body construction tasks now largely complete, work began on some suitable control gear for the platform ends. Rather than lots of pictures of tiny pieces on the cutting mat I have created a montage...

Top Left: The control boxes started life as 5mm square Plastruct section, but as this was a bit intrusive I cut one side off to make it 5 x 4 mm. Top and bottom I added some 3.3mm x 60 thou Evergreen strip offcuts inside the section and a top from 30 thou styrene. Once set this was neatened off.

Top Right: The handles for both control boxes and brakes were shaped from 0.7mm brass wire. I filed the top of the horizontal section flat on the pieces destined for the control boxes and for both components bent this section to a slightly curved shape. For the handbrakes short sections of brass tube were cut to make a collar at the top and a base. The parts seen here are actually the extra set that were created quite by accident as parts were rejected!

Bottom: The control boxes were drilled 0.7mm top and bottom and the wire threaded through. The excess at the bottom forms a locating pin and holding point during painting. The handbrakes were carefully soldered together with the addition of a split pin under the top collar to help secure the part to the dash panel.

Once the soldered parts were cleaned up I drilled two holes in each platform, one central and one towards the right hand side. In order to take the now cut-down split pin a hole was drilled in the dash panel but from the outside due to restricted clearances. This will be plugged and filled from the outside in due course.

The stage has now been reached where the next step is likely to be Milliput in a multitude of places...

Colin

October Spawned a Tramcar

Having decided that the outline drawing in my last post was pretty close to what I wanted to achieve on the Kato bogie chassis, last week I slowly started to gather the materials required to start work. Immediately I was taken back a good few years to the early days of my O9 modelling, finding odd bits here and there that would become something other than their manufacturers intended. One sign of real progress is that some of these parts were actually intended for O9 rather than other scales.

From the spares box came the good side from a pair of Avalon line coach sides that Peter Ledley (of Clee Valley Railway fame) had passed on to me. This was cut either side of the centre door, the solebars removed and the cut ends made good with styrene strip. A pair of Chivers O9 coach ends were cleaned up and spare seat backs from the same source cut down in height to 7.5mm to be used as seat supports.

The floor piece is from 40 thou styrene, 22 x 70 mm with a cut-out for the Kato chassis. Plank lines are scribed on what will become the balcony ends. Solebars were cut from 3.2mm Plastruct channel, actually the second attempt as the originals were 3.2mm deep 60 thou Evergreen strip, but looked too plain and would have been set quite far back behind the Avalon sides. They were re-cut as strip to go above the solebars between the seat ends.

The floor, ends and solebars were assembled, followed by adding the seat end pieces, re-purposed as seat fronts to hide the Kato chassis under the seat. I hesitated adding the pieces planned along the top of the floor between the seat fronts as I realised they might make adding the bulkheads between the balcony and saloon a little more difficult.

After cleaning up, the Avalon Line coach sides were modified by adding a central window divider in each of the windows, using a length of 60 x 40 thou Evergreen strip carefully cut to length and superglued in place. These dividers would align with the bulkhead/partition pieces, which would be scratchbuilt parts. The new dividers were marked out on 20 thou styrene, with 10 x 40 strip used to make the window frames, very much in the manner that the masters for the Avalon coach kit were made (maybe in this case with a little less care...). Once set overnight the windows and lower cutout were cut out, then the pieces cut from the sheet. At this stage the top edges of the 20 thou sheet had been marked out to use a Dundas VoR roof for the project, but as can be seen, the final profile of the 40 thou material backing the parts is rather different...

Which brings us to story of the roof. When I had drawn out my concept drawing I had planned to keep the overall width to that of a Chivers coach kit, which just suited the Dundas roof. When cutting the floor piece and all the other parts that would sit between the sides, I forgot to take into account that the Avalon Line sides are a good 0.5-0.75mm thicker, i.e. there should be a rebate in the floor... I was also starting to think a flatter roof profile would be bit more "tram like" and to cut a long story short, after rejecting an already-converted version as being too narrow, I pinched a new roof from a Dapol Railbus kit. It was cut to length, oddly the length between sets of ventilators was just right, and then narrowed. I miscalculated here taking 6mm out, then having to take a further 1mm from each side. Glued together with a strip of 40 x 156 thou Evergreen strip below the joint, it was set aside to dry.

Whilst that dried I fitted the bulkhead partitions into place on the floor unit, having carefully measured their location in relation to the sides. The lengths of 60 thou x 3.2mm strip were further cut down to fit in-between and add strength to the central section. In between the partitions and the seat fronts I added squares of 40 thou styrene that will eventually support the balcony seats, but also add extra support to the bulkheads.

Just visible in the shot above is the construction of the rear side of the bulkhead partitions, a 40 x 40 thou strip runs from the motor cut-out, through the window divide and right up to roof level, with panels of 40 thou sheet in either quarter above and below the windows. This was a neater way to get the strength required in these parts. As some of the lower pieces are visible through the side windows they have a planked effect scribed in to represent the seat backs.

More soon, this is progressing well... 

Colin

A Tramcar Doodle

It seems like only yesterday, but turns out to be a number of months ago (four to be precise), I was looking at ideas to build an O9 railcar on a Kato bogie chassis. I had hinted at another design to come, which would essentially have been a pastiche version of my Dapol railbus conversions. That has not been drawn up, however with time on my hands I had another look over the various ideas and parts to hand and drew up something that ticks many boxes.

This is very much an evolution of the tramcar-like "Chivers Jubilee" design but actually incorporates the Avalon Line coach sides as well. The large windows would be split in two by the (scratch built) divider between balcony end and saloon. The ends are envisaged as the Chivers coach ends with the planking plated over, and the roof the Dundas VoR moulding. The chassis will be better hidden in this configuration and there is the potential to maybe have mesh panels in the end doors rather than solid, or even to leave them open if it looks OK and is strong enough.

A number of people had echoed my thoughts that the previous design was rather Volks-esqe, this continues that theme but is none the worse for it. I can envisage it jollying around sand dunes or in a private garden!

Colin