See the Light

I've always planned to add some street lights to 'Shifting Sands' but finding the right design and look has taken some time. Ideally I'd like some concrete tapered columns but couldn't see an easy way to produce these (although 3D printing may of some possibilities if anyone wants to try...). Last year I spotted a light in Ulrome, on the East Riding coast, that offered some possibilities:

Now I suspect this is on private land rather than part of the council set-up, but it ticked the boxes for the '
look' I was after. What follows is not an exact copy but an 'inspired by' lamp.

Here are the raw materials, K&S 1/16" brass tubing, some larger (I believe 3/32") brass tube that telescopes over, Evergreen 1/8" styrene tubing, brass drawing pins and a Modelscene 4mm scale lamp.

The first step is to upscale the lamps from the 4mm product. Each shade was drilled in the centre to accept the drawing pin and the lamp holder was carefully cut from the post, cleaned up and drilled to accept the 1/16" tubing.

The 1/16" tubing runs through the whole height of the lamps. I cut the length of tubing in half to 6" lengths, giving a good length of tube to go through the baseboard and a lamp height of approx 125mm. I cut a 50mm length of the 3/32" tubing and soldered this in place 45mm from the top of the pole.

The final step was to add a 28mm length of the 1/8" styrene tube to form the base of the lamp post, this was drilled out with a 2.5mm drill bit at the top to overlap the brass tube and given a slight angle around the top. Both the bases and lamps were fixed in place with Araldite, although the lamp shades and drawing pins are still separate parts at this stage to aid painting.  On each base I added a 12 x 4mm inspection cover from 5 thou styrene sheet.

The lamp post are now ready to paint and plant on the layout, but that is for another day!

Colin

Back at the bench

You may have noticed from the three month hiatus this blog appears to have had that I've not had a lot of modelling time of late, but in those odd moments I caught I considered, or rather reconsidered, the chassis I had used under the second A1 Models loco build.  The kit is promoted for the Kato mechanism and both my kits had an appropriate baseplate in plastic for this.  Putting myself into the frame of mind of "what would I do coming to this anew with a Kato in hand?" the result was this chassis frame, caught here after overall application of grey primer and then red primer on the "buffer" beams:

This frame uses the A1 Models plastic baseplate (which I was surprised stuck OK with Humbrol liquid poly), and 40 thou styrene frames and buffer beams.  The axleboxes and springs are from Cambrian Models 4mm scale mouldings with hangers fabricated from evergreen section.  Coupler pockets from MicroTrains couplers are scratchbuilt as before and the cab interior pretty much replicates the version I built on the Bachmann frame. Cab detailing would later be appropriated from the old version.

The new frame was sneaked into the paint booth for varnish just before we went on holiday, so the Dullcote had a week to dry before weathering.  The overall result was this:

I am much happier with the way this now looks, the old frame looked a bit too 'stumpy' and I don't think that was helped by the grey paintwork.  Of course I could have just painted the old one black and saved some work....

The frame has been weathered lightly to match the loco body and highlight the spring detail, those Cambrian mouldings are quite detailed! Inside the cab the controls, cushion and driver have been transferred over from the old frame, with only minimal touching in required:

Of course, although I planned for it to be as simple as possible to describe and build, I did perhaps over-detail in places, and didn't take any progress shots of the build. So I then went on a quest to develop an even simpler version, but more about that another day!

Colin

A few bits and bobs left over... (in honour of Dave Lister)

"There's a few bits and bobs left over, but its always the same when you do a bit of do-it-yourself, isn't it?" Wise words from the guy who mended the Chicken Soup machine on the 'Red Dwarf'...

But it is indeed true.  Having completed three Dapol Railbus/Drewery Shunter loco bashes over the years I have rather a lot of left over parts, including spare window-wide panels and the sliding doors by the plenty. Some time ago I hatched a plan to use these, plus a complete new kit, to make an O9 railbus, as previewed here in 2012. Last November I did actually start to put together the parts for this project, however, despite making up sides (one side with doors, the other without), and front ends, something didn't quite gel.

Having put all the parts to one side, on re-examination I decided not to go ahead with the railbus and I took apart many of the parts and sought out how to recycle them. The door-less sides and ends, plus roof, were re-purposed as parts for a diesel loco with Evergreen 'siding' used to make grilles, and subsequently sold on as I couldn't see me completing it any time soon...

So what to do with all those window-wide panels...  well, would you believe that the width of a window frame from a Dapol railbus kit matches almost exactly the width of the Chivers seat moulding?  You may ask how I found that out, but kicking about for ideas I somehow offered the Dapol parts up to the Chivers kit... What you see here is actually the window panel with the bottom half of the side cut off and then turned upside down so that the top panel replaces the armrest of the Chivers kit side. The roof is made from further Dapol left-overs.

Inside I have created a footwell for the middle doorways to give a bit more legroom for passengers, this modification could be applied to other Chivers conversions.

After a lot of fettling and filling, sanding etc the coach was primed and I think the overall result justified the work involved, it is almost impossible to tell it is a kit-bash. The roof is currently loose-fitted to allow access to the interior for finishing off, hence the gap!

With a few panels and all the doors still left over, I looked for a further project to use up some parts. This coach started life as eight (much modified) doors and two side panels, plus a roof offcut.  The underframe is scratchbuilt in styrene, incorporating a much cut-up wagon bogie to hold the axles. 

It is based loosely on coaches built by the Parkinson's for the Southend Miniature Railway in the 1920s (to a similar style to the Great Yarmouth/Sutton bogie stock) - but my model is somewhat larger than scale, despite which you can't actually sit a figure in it... not to worry, my plans possibly see it as a static item, awaiting restoration. A comparison with the Chivers conversion shows they are about the same height but different window lines.

Both coaches now await painting but colours and finishes depend on future use...

Colin

Come in number Eight...

I'm pleased to report that the second A1 Models locomotive is now complete, seen here posed on 'The Headshunt' diorama....

As can be seen above, I've added the windscreen wipers and number plates, and I have subsequently applied some light weathering, in the form of washes on the underframe and buffer beams and dry brushing over the grilles, bolt heads, edges etc. 

Having a play about with photo angles on the recently completed diorama.  I hadn't expected this angle to work so well!

I couldn't resist the opportunity to compare the two versions of the kit before the bigger one departs to pastures new, the smaller one is definitely closer to how I imagined this kit would look when I first suggested it to John Flower.

"I'm an industrial locomotive, I look down on him.."

"I'm a pleasure railway locomotive, I look up to him..."

Colin

Watching 'The Headshunt' / A1 Models Hunslet Update

I don't plan to add much more to the diorama 'The Headshunt', but a couple of additions that I've made this week can be found in this update. The figure is a Phoenix example from S&D, I've had him from very early in my 7mm modelling days and was one of a couple on which I used the black undercoat painting technique. He isn't permanently attached so in theory there could be an array of alternative figures to stand here! The other addition is rubbish... a black bag full, up against the wall, this was sculpted (badly) from left over Milliput from a filling job.

But just what is that chap looking at? This maybe....

As a taster of how the diorama can be used for photography, my almost complete, second version, A1 Models 'Hunslet' poses for the camera. I was in the process of getting her prepared for a trip to Peter Leadley's Clee Valley Railway at the Cleethorpes exhibition, although there are still a few details to add and weathering to tone down the livery.  

The boffins in the Shifting Sands workshop had rigged up a suitable coupling for use on the CVR allowing the loco to run solo, its performance impressing the CVR operators.

Colin

Completing 'The Headshunt'

I've been adding a few more details and finishing touches to 'The Headshunt' photographic diorama.

As the scene represents the end of a station area I have included appropriate signage on the barrier at the end of the platform.  This is from an old Lithoplan 4mm scale set of signs but seems large enough in 7mm scale!

Another small detail that was required was a linkage between the RC Link point lever and the point, this is a piece of brass strip bent to shape with a Grandt Line bolt at one end.

As hinted at last time, I have tweaked the ballast in places to build up the levels, and also added some more Silfor grass tufts along the edges of the ballast at the far end, adding some more detail but really just to hide some awkward patches in the ballast cover!

I have tidied up around the edges of the scene, using a black surround, a contrast to recent efforts in natural wood, I have used matt black paint. In typical fashion I have added the diorama name in dry-print lettering to the front edge and protected it with matt varnish.

There are a few extra items to add in due course, not least a removable figure to stand by watching proceedings, however the diorama is now largely complete.

Colin

Cluttering up 'The Headshunt'

Time for a catch-up on 'The Headshunt' diorama.  I managed to build up and prime the concrete fence to add to the front right-hand corner of the diorama.  This is from the Ratio/Peco mouldings, with added horizontal divisions scribed on.  Whilst the primer was out the RCL Hudson point lever also had a waft of paint ready to paint up to add to the scene.

Once painted and weathered the fence was set in place, complete with a few slabs piled up alongside it (left-overs from the Skegness inspired diorama last year), and a spare bogie frame (modified Avalon Line).  The plant life is starting to grow too, courtesy of Noch/Gaugemaster laser-cut products.

Along the back wall one of my piles of redundant track has been formed, made up from modified Peco parts.    

Further details have been added towards the left hand end of the scene.  The fence at the platform end is a modified Slaters product, the oil drums and pallet are Knightwing and the bag of stone is a Skytrex product.  Invasive plantlife is a further Gaugemaster laser-cut item.

Both the view above convinced me that I needed to put a little more attention into the ballast, which was duly added to and weathered to blend in to match.

Colin