Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

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BertieB
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Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by BertieB » Fri Dec 20, 2019 10:08 pm

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A bit more filling, sanding and filing I guess. The smoothness of the primer shows up all the horrors
A bit more filling, sanding and filing I guess. The smoothness of the primer shows up all the horrors
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Festive Greetings from a fantasy world of semi-scale, 3’11” gauge British Railways, with a new build based (rather loosely) on the BR 2MT.

It’s a caricature, obviously: wrong gauge, shortened boiler (the wheelbase of the motor block isn’t really long enough – but if it was, it would likely have problems negotiating the curves) and featuring ‘approximated’ (or missing) detail. It still manages to convey something of what I like about the original though, despite the dodgy bits. My central conceit, however, is that these sort of issues aren’t necessarily obvious when they’re trundling round the garden anyway.

It’s mainly plasticard, with a few (narrow gauge and G3) fittings. The chassis is from a broken Bachmann mogul, bought some time ago from the well known auction site. Length is a little under 560 mm (22”) overall. It’s surprisingly heavy, though unfortunately, possibly too much of that weight is the tender. We’ll see. It’s battery powered with Deltang R/C.

Estimated total cost would be approaching £300, I suppose, though spread over the eighteen months or so it took to do it (I was busy): way more expensive than anything I’ve built before (shopping list of motor block, R/C, batteries, white metal components, Piko tender wheels and so on).

I’d been toying with painting it crimson / BR maroon but decided, reluctantly, it would be (a) too hard and (b) inappropriate pulling green coaches, or goods wagons, anyway. So it’ll be lined black, again. I do like that early BR emblem though (especially on black), it’s just about my justification for the whole garden railway project really. Well, almost.

But I’ll have to wait for better weather to reassemble the cardboard box spray booth outside. I’ll have a few months to ponder a video, too.

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by Peter Butler » Fri Dec 20, 2019 10:30 pm

You are a master in the use of Plastikard, some areas of touching-up to do, but that is always the case, so be proud of what you have done.
I know nothing of the prototype but it looks most believable to me!
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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by LNR » Fri Dec 20, 2019 10:35 pm

Hard to believe that is plasticard, wonderful modelling. Well done.
Grant.

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by ge_rik » Sat Dec 21, 2019 8:51 am

Another mini masterpiece. Your attention to detail is immaculate. Looking forward to seeing her in her final livery and the first video of her in action (with or without cat 🤭)

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by philipy » Sat Dec 21, 2019 9:49 am

Brilliant!
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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by invicta280 » Sat Dec 21, 2019 12:45 pm

I've fallen in love with this one already.
A classic example of the maxim that the character of the thing is what makes a good model more than exact dimensional accuracy. It certainly has the utilitarian chunky appearance of the 2MT.
What thickness of styrene sheet do you use for the for the main body areas, for example the cab sheets and tender sides?

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by ge_rik » Sat Dec 21, 2019 7:39 pm

invicta280 wrote: Sat Dec 21, 2019 12:45 pm I've fallen in love with this one already.
A classic example of the maxim that the character of the thing is what makes a good model more than exact dimensional accuracy. It certainly has the utilitarian chunky appearance of the 2MT.
:thumbup:

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by BertieB » Sun Dec 22, 2019 1:05 pm

Thank you very much for all the flattering comment. To be honest, I’d feel a bit awkward claiming too much expertise here though: I make all sorts of messy mistakes and miscalculations - I just haven’t posted photographs of the worst of them!

The structure is largely 2mm plasticard sheet (from 4D Models at Aldgate), glued together with Plasticweld - but there’s also plastic tube (including the boiler), strip, angle, rod, mouldings; wire; plastic and white metal fittings (usually not quite the right size) as well as other weights of plasticard sheet.

2mm cab sides with enlarged window cutouts, for example, are glued to an outer 0.5mm plasticard layer which features more precisely scalpel-cut windows. Tender frames were handled similarly. I try to use double thicknesses of 2mm sheet or strip for important joints, or where they need to be sanded to shape (like the corners of the cab roof).

Much of the detail (such as it is) is usually approximated, with the materials available, using photographs as a guide.

It’s been fun (and probably therapeutic) doing it - and generally, I‘m quite pleased with the ‘solid’ and ‘chunky’ appearance of it sat on the track, despite the ‘dodgy bits’. Cheers!
Last edited by BertieB on Sun Dec 22, 2019 10:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by Peter Butler » Sun Dec 22, 2019 10:07 pm

Your technique sounds very familiar to me, I use similar materials and work from pictures/photographs rather than engineer's drawings. As they say,.... 'if it looks right, it is right'....
I prefer Dichloromethane solvent as it does a great job of permanently welding the sheet together.
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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by BertieB » Sun Dec 22, 2019 11:35 pm

Peter Butler wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 10:07 pm “I use similar materials and work from pictures/photographs rather than engineer's drawings”
Thank you, yes.

My stuff isn’t to scale, of course. I have a basic loading gauge height and width established but to determine key model dimensions I do have to do my own simplified drawing or adapt a published original to fit, for example, smaller wheels and / or the reduced wheelbase of the motor block to be used - but detail tends to come from photographs (and then my ability to cobble up something a bit like it).

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by Andrew » Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:52 am

invicta280 wrote: Sat Dec 21, 2019 12:45 pm I've fallen in love with this one already.
Me too! I think that's my favourite of your work so far, it's wonderful. I'm a fan of the smaller BR standard locos too, and this really captures the essence of them, I think. It will look absolutely splendid in lined black, I'm very much looking forward to further pictures...

All the best,

Andrew.

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by SimonWood » Mon Dec 23, 2019 9:03 am

invicta280 wrote: Sat Dec 21, 2019 12:45 pm A classic example of the maxim that the character of the thing is what makes a good model more than exact dimensional accuracy. It certainly has the utilitarian chunky appearance of the 2MT.
That's definitely what I find appealing. I am really enjoying these semi-scale BR models - a wonderful bit of imagineering.

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by tom_tom_go » Mon Dec 23, 2019 9:38 am

I reckon you could fool people into thinking that tender is a brass kit.

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by BertieB » Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:06 pm

Thank you all for your encouragement. Appreciated.
Andrew wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:52 am “...I'm a fan of the smaller BR standard locos too...”
Yes. I saw the pristine 4MT 2-6-0 at the North Norfolk Railway not that long ago and now (along with any of the Bulleids, obviously) it’s on my shortlist for the Most Agreeable Looking Locomotive award.

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by RobRossington » Wed Jan 01, 2020 10:08 pm

I think this is my favourite of your builds so far. Really nice loco!

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by FWLR » Mon Jan 06, 2020 9:28 am

Excellent build. I love the way it looks in every way. Like Peter and others I suspect, I don't have much knowledge, if any! on what is correct or not. But who cares, if you like it that is all that matters. It's for you after all Bertie.

Like Peter too, I use Dichloromethane solvent, it's quick and easy and it also doesn't have any nasty smell with it that lingers, especially with Anne and her Bronchiectasis.

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by BertieB » Mon Jan 06, 2020 9:41 pm

FWLR ~ Thanks very much! Obviously, I enjoy doing these things and I can’t be overly concerned with what's accurate or 'correct' (because they’re not) but, I suppose, I do get frustrated with my own unforced errors and silly mistakes. A couple always seem to creep through...

I hadn't been aware of Dichloromethane but as I started typing it into the search engine, all sorts of horrendous hazard warnings appeared! Is this of general concern?

Given that my 'workbench' is really the kitchen table, I guess I should probably leave it alone.

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by GTB » Tue Jan 07, 2020 7:57 am

BertieB wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2020 9:41 pm I hadn't been aware of Dichloromethane but as I started typing it into the search engine, all sorts of horrendous hazard warnings appeared! Is this of general concern?

Given that my 'workbench' is really the kitchen table, I guess I should probably leave it alone.
Personally I won't use it as a glue for polystyrene, as there are safer alternatives, but the paint stripper I use now and again contains it. I treat that with respect and only use it outside, or just inside the open garage door if it is raining.

For glueing polystyrene sheet and mouldings I use either MEK, or Limonene. If I have to glue ABS parts I keep a bottle of THF (Tetrahydrofuran), as I can no longer get Plastruct Plastic Weld locally.

All solvents screw around with your body to some extent, usually liver, kidneys or nervous system and some are carcinogens. It depends on how much you use and how well ventilated the work area is kept. DCM (dichloromethane) is on both the IARC and NTP lists of probable human carcinogens for instance, but the solvents I use aren't. As you've done, check the Safety Data Sheet if unsure of the safety issues of a given chemical.

Humans have a lousy sense of smell and just because you can't smell a solvent, doesn't mean it's at a safe level.

Regards,
Graeme

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by BertieB » Tue Jan 21, 2020 3:01 pm

A few weeks later and it now has a couple of coats of Wilko spraycan black and Humbrol varnish.

And at the risk of arguing the bleedin’ obvious, things look different when you paint them another colour. The removal of the US style white band around the wheels, for example, must have overcome some sort of powerful, optical illusion magic, as the wheels now seem much smaller (they are small, of course).

And perversely, it seemed to me that the initial black satin finish, with full-on, lined, mixed traffic finery, actually emphasised the toy-like proportions. The matt finish has sobered it up a bit perhaps.

The lining, numbers and so on were printed on to white, DIY waterslide decal paper from ‘MrDecalPaper.com’ which, I’m pleased to say, seems to deliver more consistently usable results from my cheapo HP inkjet than other papers I’ve tried. Needed a bit of touching up here and there but not much – edges mostly.

I don’t even attempt weathering but want the sort of crisp, simplified finish (and helpful absence of difficult detail) you might see on architects’ or industrial designers’ models. Hope to achieve it one day.

Unfortunately, I then went and knocked it off the coffee table... Repaired now but the right hand side is slightly skew-whiff. It’s not too obvious but I’ll have to make sure it only goes round the garden clockwise.

The Deltang stuff is yet to be installed (I’ve been advised to use a smaller battery, not 14.4v) and the garden’s in a terrible state, needing a load of work and a few trips to the dump, which I’m not up for doing right now. I suppose it might be a while before l actually get to give it a go. Let’s hope it works!

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Didn't like the original, fifth picture – so I’ve replaced it with a couple of new ones. Even though it looks a bit N-gauge
Didn't like the original, fifth picture – so I’ve replaced it with a couple of new ones. Even though it looks a bit N-gauge
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Last edited by BertieB on Wed Jan 29, 2020 6:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Semi-scale BR: almost a 2MT

Post by invicta280 » Tue Jan 21, 2020 4:06 pm

There's something about a well proportioned mogul (or a 2-6-2T). This, like the N class, is a winner.
Looking forward to whatever rolls out of your workshop next.

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