Movember meets Mini-Mo

As promised, here's the driver for SMR no. 3, with his topical Movember 'tash keeping his upper lip warm:

He's a mix of Preiser parts, mostly from the Luftwaffe ground crew set, but with one arm from another figure.  The basic limb set-up dates back a couple of years but all the detail and finishing is new. He was painted in record time, completed in one session rather than the spread over several days approach I usually take with multiple figures in paint.

In fact, his Mo almost looks better in pictures than mine!

Colin

Come in number 3....

....your time for overhaul is here!

You have to feel a little sorry for nameless SMR no. 3, clearly the workhorse of the fleet with a somewhat up and down existence, as the pictures below will show.  The Kato chassis underneath is often borrowed to try under new build locos, and quite frankly the cracks were starting to show, especially one in the main frames. A long overdue overhaul was in order, but first, a history lesson from the 'Shifting Sands' archives.

No. 3 (because it was the third O9 loco I built), came into my hands from Clive Mortimer, a well known scratchbuilder of 4mm scale diesels, many of the rarer designs that the ready-to-run manufacturers are only just starting to see the benefit of.  Clive had visions of the 'Great Ouse Valley Railway', a Romney style outfit in the east of England.  This loco, and several coaches, were the only manifestations of it in O9, but he later restarted work in 12mm scale on OO gauge track.  One day his vision may come to fruition!

No. 3 arrived without any form of chassis, and I quickly put together a frame to fit around a Roco HOe mechanism.  I had to add bonnet side extensions to cover the motor:

Painted bright yellow, the loco gained the nickname 'Yellow Perril', hardly original but it suited!  There then followed my period of O9 indecision, where I almost gave up, started making static models and dioramas, then changed my mind.... By this point, I had altered the side frames to show the Roco ones underneath, but the chassis moved on to another loco (as seen here), and a dummy chassis featuring 4mm scale wagon axleboxes was built.  A bit Lister-like if anything:

After I had restarted work and was planning what became 'Shifting Sands', the loco had fallen into disuse and was eventually given an rebuild that featured many new parts.  The chassis frame was from Knightwing components (and had been built on-spec for another project), whilst the cab sides were a pair built initially for 'Jay' but replaced on the final model.  At this stage only the bonnet front and top, cab front and rear are the original parts, the rest was new build and replica:

With the varnish yellowing the coat of blue paint worn after the rebuild, and the cracked frame to repair, it was clear that the overhaul would need a repaint to go with it.  What was unexpected was that the cab would be modified again to an open doorway, inspired by 'Redgauntlet' at New Romney (which I suspect inspired Clive in the first place).  So here we are, awaiting the paint shop, where the colour will again be blue but the shade darker, pretty much the colour she arrived in:

Opening the cab up meant a new interior and new driver, as the old one had been compromised to fit over the Kato chassis.  I'll get a picture of the new recruit (the usual Preiser airman mash-up) posted soon, but needless to say, with it being Movember, he has a 'tash!

Colin

A Movember Plea....

I don't normally write about non-railway things here, but for a change I thought I would....

A group of Gents in my workplace are supporting 'Movember' this year in support of one of our colleagues and men's health issues in general. Now I'm normally a clean shaven sort of chap so this is something of a novelty for me, especially as my plans for a pair of Bradley Wiggin's tribute sideburns were vetoed over the summer.  So here we are, eight days of continuous growth (I had to start properly on the 3rd due to a family photoshoot booked some time ago):

Not to be left out, the little chaps in the railway cupboard have got involved.  Following a suggestion by a Mo-Bro at work that "before you paint that train, put a moustache on it", the chief engineer, himself a moustache grower, put together a headboard for the A1 Models O-16.5 loco....

Thanks,

Colin

Distractions?

Whilst there have been a few O9 based projects on the O9 Modeller workbench recently, they haven't really been anything two blog about.  There have however been a few other projects in other scales and gauges.  This 4mm scale Parksde Dundas 'Vanwide' has been completed over the last few weeks, whilst it was built several years ago, it has remained unpainted ever since.  It missed out on being completed with several others early in 2010 due to missing axleboxes, however that issue is now resolved and the paint job completed.  The painting is largely washes of Games Workshop 'Citadel' paints over a red oxide base. Hopefully it will match up with it's sisters when it arrives at it's new home.

In fact, the 4mm scale project jumped the queue for the paintshop.  Back in August I had completed an A1 Models etched brass kit for an O-16.5 loco, one of their basic kits designed to fit around a Bachmann 'Underground Ernie' mechanism.  I'm not too experienced with brass so this was something of a test piece.  The body went together well, but I then decided to build a complete chassis unit in brass that could accommodate either the intended chassis or a Tenshodo 'Spud'.  This was really pushing at my brass working skills and I almost gave in, but in the end I persevered and the end result is satisfying.  Adding some bits and pieces from Black Dog Mining  and a scratchbuilt cab interior has completed the look of the loco.

The reason it hasn't got any further is simply one of colour - I can't decide what the final livery should be, but don't worry, experiments are in progress.... Having built this kit (and it's home brewed add-ons), I feel confident to tackle some O9 brass from Minimum Gauge Models, and you won't have to wait too long to see the first results.

As to what I plan to do with an O-16.5 loco... I haven't quite figured that bit out yet!

Colin

The ones that got away... No.6 'Big' Coaches

A long time ago, well, January 2005, my O9 modelling was in something of a state of turmoil.  Having found that my earlier models were perhaps too small to represent modern 15" gauge stock (and the more important issue of getting decent figures small enough to sit in them) I was searching for a way of creating larger models that were still 'miniature' in style but definitely more 'Minimum gauge' in size.  Everything before this point had been pretty much kit-bashed from Keil Kraft, Dapol and Tower Models kits, but this would be something new, all-scratchbuilt for the first time.

Compared to what went before, this was big!  It scaled out somewhere just over 20ft long, I did fret about this for some time, asking for some real dimensions via the 'UKminiaturerailways' Yahoo group got an informative answer from Michael Crofts, owner and operator of the Perrygrove Railway:

"Your coach length is fine.  Perrygrove coaches are based on standard steel stock so they are 6m long, near enough 20'. "

As can be seen in the picture, I was also building a diesel loco of matching proportions.  This eventually was completed and sold.  What happened next was that with growing confidence I started to build a replica of the Ravenglass & Eskdale tram loco 'Flower of the Forest' and the rest, as they say, is history.  When the final design for 'Shifting Sands' started to come together it became apparent that this coach was too big for the curved concept and it was  sadly scrapped.

Moving forward to May 2008, another 16 seat coach emerged from my workbench, but this time with a purpose.  Miniature railway enthusiast and engineer Craig Gluyas was drawing up several design proposals for real 15" gauge stock and sent me the CAD for a 16 seat coach design, featuring end 2-seat compartments.  In a rash of enthusiasm I built a version in O9, the excuse being that it could be shown to potential customers.

Again, this was not completed as planned and suffered from some warping in storage, so it had to go, although an attempt was made to rebuild it into something for 'Shifting Sands' first.  The bogies, which at some point after the photograph gained some axlebox covers, did survive and in much modified form have been used recently as cosmetic sideframes on MicroTrains bogies as a new set to go under the 'Shifting Sands' mess van.  It was during this process that I remembered these two coaches, prompting this ramble....

Colin

The day we went to Derby

Back in January 2009 we took 'Shifting Sands' to the 7mm NGA members day in Derby.  This friendly 1-day event gave me the opportunity to take some photos of the layout at a show, not something that I usually manage to do.  Looking through various pictures of the layout to illustrate a forthcoming article for an Association publication, I almost used a couple of shots from the day. Sadly they didn't make the final cut as they didn't fit the theme of the piece they were to accompany.  A shame really, especially as I had spent a little time in Photoshop on one of them....

Overall view of the layout at the Derby 7mm NGA event.

'Jay' ready to depart from the station.

'Pandora', 'Thunderbolt' and two 4w coaches outside the sheds.

'Thunderbolt' and Photoshop.

Colin

Bits and Pieces

A mixture of recent workbench happenings...


The various bits to fill the Sherwood Forest-style open wagon have now been added to the wagon.  The tool box is a Black Dog/Sidelines resin casting (depending on which scale you use it in!), as are the re-railing ramps. The spanner carelessly left on top of the box, and the hammer are Duncan Models castings.  The jerry can is a Cararama moulding from the garage set used as an interior to a building on the never-completed Misterton Fen Tramway.  The wagon load is now, well, loaded, I've used 'tacky wax' to fix things in place:

Turning to the out-of-use bogies, I spent some time treating and painting the Parkside wheels to make them look less model-like.  Rather than paint them all over I opted to blacken the axles using gun blue, then spent some time flicking rust colour paints at them using a toothbrush (as per a recent article in 'British Railway Modelling').  Whilst this didn't perhaps give the build up of colour I had hoped for, the effect is actually there, just very subtle.  A spray over with the Citadel 'Purity Spray' killed any shine and I actually think they do look like used, but not abandoned too long, bogies:

Just to prove that you do see this sort of thing lying around, I took this picture of a Severn-Lamb bogie frame in the engineering yard at Lightwater Valley last week (with permission):

Finally, a quick update on 'Kestrel' as the painting process draws to a close and the glazier is on stand-by....

I've added a little dry-brushing in places to overcome the slightly less than satisfactory after-effects of the varnish spray.  I think I'll get away with it....