Building the Romney Scooter - 2

Someone seems to have stolen the last two months, honestly.... alternatively, if anyone could explain to me where they have gone I'd be grateful....

The workshop eventually warmed up to allow primer application and subsequently a coat Halfords aerosol yellow over the warning panels (with suitably improvised masking) in order to give a gloss base to later apply the Fox wasp stripe transfers to.  I opted for 1970's style green, which was brush applied (a blend of Citadel 'Snot green'* and Vallejo 'Black green').  All other colours were also brush applied and were all acrylics except the red, which was a Revell enamel.  Varnish is Railmatch matt from an aerosol.

Once painting was complete and left to dry for a few days, I added glazing - 10 thou clear styrene held in place and coated with 'Kleer' floor polish, added Araldite to the headlights to make them look like light lenses, and also fitted the exhaust, load and roof in place, added weight in the cab and bonnet and fitted the Kato chassis in place with 'tacky wax'.

Since these pictures were taken I have added MicroTrains couplings and lightly weathered the model to a 'day to day' condition.  More pictures soon, hopefully with a more interesting background....

Colin

*which prompts the statement "oh yes it is!"

I'll get my coat....

Re-roofing the 'Romneys' - Completion

Just a quick update, some warmer weather a few weekends ago allowed access to the workshop at at reasonable temperature so the new 'Romney' roofs were primed, painted and varnished.  Following this they were fixed into position on the coaches and lightly weathered.

I'm very impressed with how these roofs have turned out, given that in the past I have not been confident to use the Dapol/Hornby surface as it came due to the problem of hiding the joins.  However, I've managed to loose them well on these (I put this down to employing a little more patience in rubbing down and re-filling), so these may form the prototype for future roofing work.

Colin

A pleasant diversion on the way to somewhere?

As those who have observed my construction of the Unit Models wagon kit may have mused, I seem to be on the cusp of one of my industrial/agricultural minimum gauge phases.  Those who know me well will know that these periods don't often last that long, this time might be different, we'll have to see!

At Narrow Gauge North a conversation with Steve Bennett of Black Dog Mining about what O9 bits he had to hand resulted in the purchase of two wagon bodies that by close of play that same day had been attached to two chassis from my stockpile and were ready for painting:

The biggest/longest part of the build was cutting out the mountings for MicroTrains couplers....

A few weeks ago I had started an experiment in building O9 wagon bodies from Basswood, a technique I had wanted to play with for a while.  I hadn't got that far really, but a spare floor that I had marked out to fit a 5ft Black Dog Mining Chassis has been put into use to rebody my chequerplate flat wagon (itself a throw-together of surplus bits).  All the staining/painting/weathering work on this was completed in an afternoon:

Who knows where it will all lead?!

Colin

Building the Romney Scooter - 1

When Allen Law launched his 'Minimum Gauge Models' range the one that caught my eye was the RH&DR 'Scooter' to fit a Kato mechanism.  The Scooter, or PW2, has been an item of Romney stock that I've known about for years, my late 1970s/early 1980s guidebook to the line shows it at Hythe next to one of the famous Pacifics.

I've only met the machine (I hesitate to say 'locomotive') once, on it's only trip away from home to date, to the Kirklees Light Railway in September 2011, where it operated with 'Redgauntlet' on the shuttle services.

The MG Models kit includes a number of compromises, some can be overcome to a degree but I think that you just have to accept that this isn't going to create a fully accurate rendition and just get on with it.. I have made several alterations and additions to enhance the kit as it comes.  Sorry there are no real "in progress" shots, I just wanted get on and build.  Here's the model, my guidebook, and a useful photo downloaded from the internet:

A closer view of the model, the biggest compromise of them all is the wheel positions, they should be right at the ends of the frame, the real machine is built on a former 4w coach chassis:

Head on view.  The handrail is one of my additions, as are the buffers, a bargain find at a recent exhibition:

Side view, I replaced the etched grille with a finer mesh from the scap box (dating back to an old MTK kit eons ago). I've added strips to the edges of the roof, and along the bottom of the cab sides, to represent the door sliders on the real machine:

I've scratchbuilt an exhaust from brass wire and tube, the real thing seems to have one formed from plumbing parts...:

After a pause in work I added the de/re-railing bars under the bufferbeams, made from scrap brass and some rail, soldered together in a jig.  They are too long in the photo, now corrected.  Ironically I have had to superglue these to the buffer beams as I've used plastic infills to tidy up the slots for the MiroTrains coupers and provide a mount for them behind the bufferbeam.  Headlights on the cab front and rear have been made from HO scale truck wing mirrors on a homemade mounting :

I did manage to find space for a customary Dapol part in the grouping created to cover up the part of the Kato chassis that pokes out into the rear compartment.  It's joined by a Merit 4mm scale postal sack in a new life as a bin bag:

The real loco now sports a hinged cover to this compartment, as seen here at Kirklees:

After some cleaning up both with a glass fibre brush and a good wash, it will be time to blacken the corners and vulnerable areas with gun blue, and then it will be time for primer (assuming the weather wants to warm up the workshop a little!).

Colin

Building a Unit Models wagon kit - 3

As predicted, various levels of weathering have appeared on the Unit Models wagon.  The whole wagon received a thin coat of brown translucent paint, an old product from the sadly missed Penhaven range.  This was followed by a wash of black over the more naturally coloured planks inside.  I then used dry brushing exclusively, some warm rust tones on the strapping, then highlights in two shades, darker followed by a lighter shade.

I've fitted MicroTrains couplings - I do need to touch in the screw head with some black paint, but this may have to wait until I decide whether to give the whole wagon a coat of Citadel 'Purity Seal' varnish once the workshop is warm enough.

Colin

Building a Unit Models wagon kit - 2

Just a quick update really.  The weather last weekend was warm enough to venture to the workshop and waft some primer (sounds so much more refined than blast...) over the Unit Models wagon and also the Romney style coach roofs, acknowledging that for them it was a first coat to find any defects in the filling (which I did...).

I was surprised to find that the Unit Models wagon had a lot more surface texture than was apparent in bare resin form, and not all of it looked too convincing, so I soothed out the sides a little where required, back to resin in places.  At this stage the wagon looked a mess and I seriously considered not going any further with it.  Common sense prevailed and using Games Workshop Foundation series 'Charadon Granite' paint, lightened a little, coverage was no problem, although a second coat is always worthwhile.  Metalwork was picked out in a off-black mixture and the inside in a natural wood colour.  The whole lot now has a coat of Vallejo matt varnish to protect it ready for the inevitable assault of weathering.

Meanwhile, the soldering iron has been in use again lately, but Ill leave that for another day, got to scoot...!

Colin

Building a Unit Models wagon kit - 1

The chance discovery of a very cheap Peco N gauge wagon (for the cost of a chassis kit) at the Pontefract show last weekend led me to buy one of the relatively recent Unit Models O9 wagon kits to see what they are like.  I chose the wooden open wagon with a drop-side door.

On opening the box the kit is in two parts, a chassis frame and body, both cast in resin.

Both parts are relatively flash-free although there are some blow-outs in the casting of the various bolt heads.  I opted to replace these with plastic rod slices as it seemed to be the quickest way of resolving the problem. At 29mm wide this is definitely a 'minimum gauge' wagon and although I had thoughts of trying to narrow it to c.25mm to match my other stock I decided to build it as it came as a 'quick' project to fill the odd spare minute or two.

It was at this stage that I realised that the chassis I had was a 10ft wheelbase one rather than the 9ft version required for the kit.  Ooops.... This was easily resolved by cutting away the centre section of the chassis completely (having stripped away all the N gauge brake gear), which will also allow space for a little more weight between the sections.  The Unit Models frame includes a nifty cut out for the Peco weight to sit in:

As can be seen above, I've removed a 1mm x 5mm slice from the centre of the headstock and added a piece of 1mm styrene behind it in order to accommodate a MicroTrains coupler.  With the body assembled to the frame the wagon is actually complete and ready for painting (which will have to wait for warmer weather to spray the primer).  I've added some wire handles/catches for the drop down door.:

More once painting is underway....

Colin