Multiple small projects

What is your latest project?
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Keith S
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Multiple small projects

Post by Keith S » Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:10 am

Being the dead of winter here most of the time in Canada (thirty degrees of frost this morning) I am not making a great deal of headway on my narrow gauge hobby. In fact I sometimes think I'm just hoarding rolling stock in case they don't make steam engines anymore when I retire.

Nevertheless, I have recently experienced an uptick in my interest level, probably coinciding with having recently cleaned off my workbench AND the recent arrival of the last "16mm today" magazine, which I always look forward to. It's not really sensible to build any more rolling stock until I build some track in the garden, so I thought I would work towards raising the detail level of the stuff I already have.

In 2017 I purchased a load of little detail parts in Peterborough. I also had some from IP engineering in a box already, into which I put the Peterborough hoard and that's where it sat until a couple of weeks ago, when I finally had some time to do nothing in particular. I thought it might make an interesting post on this forum, because it's not really a "locomotives" project, not a "rolling stock" project", nor a "scenery" project. I've just decided to do all the little improvements at once. I have little people to paint, a signal to build, wagon details, and I think I might repaint my "Gladstone" coach to better resemble how the vehicle might have looked in its heyday.

In Peterborough, I bought some vacuum hoses from Brandbright, and smokebox pipework for the imaginary ejector to go along with that from DJB. I bought a smokebox dart for my "Billy" that I think better matches the engine's current appearance, as well as a "MacKenzie and Holland" signal kit, and a crosshead/combination lever kit at the Roundhouse stand. I also bought some little figures.

I've already done some of the detail work on the engine last year around this time.

I decided this week to build the signal kit. Here it is completed, with some rolling stock to give scale. It was a nice kit, as are all things Roundhouse, with nice crisp white-metal castings that required very little dressing with a file before assembly. A simple kit, but it makes up into a nice model.
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So here you can see the little white figures as well as the detail parts on the engine. My next thing to do is to paint the little train crew.
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IrishPeter
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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by IrishPeter » Tue Dec 18, 2018 6:12 am

I had forgotten about the 'Vlad the Impaler' finials on MacK & H signals. I am glad to see someone else who favours red ends on brake vans!

I do not have to deal with the 30 degrees of frost issue very often, we had two nights of that sort last winter, but it is cold, boggy, and unco-operative here in Virginia at the moment, so I am in the basement building rolling stock and making the best of a bad job too.

Cheers,
Peter in Va
Traffic Pattern? What pattern? Spuds out; grain in, but cattle, sheep and passengers are a lot less predictable.

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by tom_tom_go » Tue Dec 18, 2018 9:46 am

Good job with that Keith.

Do you think this signal can be left outside all year round?

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Keith S
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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by Keith S » Tue Dec 18, 2018 7:35 pm

I don't think I will leave it outside here, because it will get buried in snow and possibly damaged if someone, or an animal, tromps on it. There are also a lot of ravens about in the winter, and they steal things.

It's mostly white metal with a wooden rod making up the post. I suppose in the U.K. it would do OK outside if it was painted with outdoor paint and touched up now and then. The wooden rod might warp in moisture I suppose. I don't have much experience with leaving things outside.

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by Keith S » Tue Dec 18, 2018 7:51 pm

IrishPeter wrote: ↑Tue Dec 18, 2018 6:12 am
I do not have to deal with the 30 degrees of frost issue very often, we had two nights of that sort last winter, but it is cold, boggy, and unco-operative here in Virginia at the moment, so I am in the basement building rolling stock and making the best of a bad job too.

Cheers,
Peter in Va
My Father, Brother and I visited West Virginia (I don't know how similar that is to actual Virginia) a couple of years ago to see some steam operations there. We saw the "Cass" railway, and another railway that had a steam locomotive nearby. They were all geared locomotives of various kinds. It was in May and in my neck of the woods the lake was still frozen and still very cool outside: I was anticipating it being very warm in the USA, but of course West Virginia is at a high altitude and as the train went up the mountain, the early summer weather we experienced at the bottom regressed until it wasn't much different from Southern Canada at the top! Had a great time though, I found the people there to be very friendly.

Yes I do like the red end on my van. I don't remember why I chose to do that, but I like a bit of colour.

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by FWLR » Thu Dec 20, 2018 8:05 am

Nice photos Keith. Like the signal, it does look great.

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by IrishPeter » Thu Dec 20, 2018 3:24 pm

I keep meaning to go up and have a look at the Cass Scenic Railway, but it hasn't been possible so far. When the missus feels more like travelling we will take a trip. Geographically Virginia is divided into the Tidewater, the Piedmont, and the Valley. The Tidewater and the Piedmont as relatively flat, agricultural, and open like my native Lincolnshire. I live in the Valley between the Blue Ridge and the Appalachians, which is a fertile valley settled by Germans and Ulster Scots. It is cooler and higher than the Piedmont. Coming down the Waggon Road (now US HWY 11) from Pennsylvania the Ulster Scots tended to settle to the west of the road, and the Germans to the East. I am firmly in German territory, and live across the street from a Lutheran Church founded in 1772. The state line running along the front range of the Appalachians, with the valley floors being at about 2200' rather than the 1250' we have here, so I am not that far from the WV line. Like most of Appalachia it was settled mainly by Ulster Scots of an independent turn of mind. It is hills and hollers up there, and there are areas that are quite stunningly beautiful, as well as areas that have more than their fair share of social problems.

Peter in VA
Keith S wrote: ↑Tue Dec 18, 2018 7:51 pm
My Father, Brother and I visited West Virginia (I don't know how similar that is to actual Virginia) a couple of years ago to see some steam operations there. We saw the "Cass" railway, and another railway that had a steam locomotive nearby. They were all geared locomotives of various kinds. It was in May and in my neck of the woods the lake was still frozen and still very cool outside: I was anticipating it being very warm in the USA, but of course West Virginia is at a high altitude and as the train went up the mountain, the early summer weather we experienced at the bottom regressed until it wasn't much different from Southern Canada at the top! Had a great time though, I found the people there to be very friendly.

Yes I do like the red end on my van. I don't remember why I chose to do that, but I like a bit of colour.
Traffic Pattern? What pattern? Spuds out; grain in, but cattle, sheep and passengers are a lot less predictable.

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by Keith S » Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:28 am

I've been up to some more small stuff on my workbench, on my list of little odds and ends to finish up. I've painted some of my little "model town" people I bought an assortment of at Peterborough in 2017. I wasn't looking forward to this but it's actually quite fun. They come in a ghost-like white colour. First I paint them all black and then pick out the details with small brushes. It's more fun than it looks because when they are all white they don't have much personality but then as their faces appear, I can't help making up little stories for them... or at least imaginary personalities. In this picture some of them are sitting on the roof of my Brandbright coach because their seats in the Gladstone car have been removed. The lady in the brown dress is very pleased because she is on the train in order to do some shopping. Her husband is not very pleased, for the same reason. He would rather be having a pint with his mates or watching football. The young woman is on a day off school and is going into town to see a friend.. but she didn't tell her Mum the "friend" was a boy.
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The driver is on his first morning back from the week-end, which explains his clean boiler-suit. Despite his "Wot'-yew-lookin'-at?" expression, he's not a bad guy. Maybe a bit rough 'round the edges, but he keeps his loco clean and knows what he's doing. I like him.
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I haven't made up my mind about the guard. If his smile is genuine, then perhaps he's a bit simple. But to my mind, he looks as though he has a bit of a secret- It's more of a smirk, like he's feeling smug about something but is keeping it under his hat for now. But I will reserve judgement. Maybe he's just a bit drunk and is trying his best to hide it. I've used little pins to simulate rivets on the bracing on the sides of the van, put frame-irons on the sole bars and a lamp-chimney on the roof. Also a little pointy thing on the stove chimney to keep rain out.
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Here are some of my goods wagons. They're from IP Engineering and I've had them for years but I just finished adding frame-details to them. I still need to build some brake rigging under the box van and I have another open wagon that needs these details added.
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Finally, here is my "Gladstone" car from IP Engineering. I built it about five years ago, and at the time I liked the plain brown "wood" finish. However, I did add a full plush interior to the first-class middle bit, and I've decided that the whole car would look nicer in the prototype's current restored "blood and custard" scheme, so the seats in the open ends have been removed and the windows masked for painting. Also I did not like the "anti-hogging" braces in the kit- it was just very thin plywood simulating the steel rods, and in photographs it seems to me the stick-outy bits on the model are actually full timbers running the width of the car in real life. So I cut off the external bracing and have added the transverse timbers. When the paint is done, I will use brass wire to re-do the bracing rods, with some bits of aluminium tube on the middle bit to simulate the big bottle screws that tension the rig on the real one. I like this coach and am excited to see it in its new colour scheme.
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That's it for now, although there are more things in my "to do" box before I'm done!

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by philipy » Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:22 am

Very nice all round, Keith.
I'm a bit of a sucker for small details and the way you've painted the sweater on the guy on the roof is a masterpiece! Well done.
Philip

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by Keith S » Tue Jan 08, 2019 7:57 am

Ha ha, thanks, I'm glad you like the guy's sweater. I don't have many colours in my paint box at the moment and I felt sorry for him, having to go shopping with his wife in a hairy brown jumper, so I used the black, blue and white paints to give him something a little more cheerful. He doesn't look any more impressed but at least he has a nice sweater.

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by pandsrowe » Tue Jan 08, 2019 8:38 am

I'm very envious of your figure painting skills, your eye sight and steady hands are clearly a lot better than mine. I particularly like the pullover that the gentleman on the carriage roof is wearing, that must have been quite difficult. I'm afraid if I had painted that it would have been a simple single colour.
Phil

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by FWLR » Tue Jan 08, 2019 8:53 am

And me also. :roll:

But brilliant work on the painting. :thumbright: :thumbright:

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by tom_tom_go » Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:11 am

Nice collection of stock and jealous you have a workbench that long to display them all on!

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by Peter Butler » Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:11 am

Good to hear items so well described.... e.g..... 'stick-outy bits'. Those are the kind of technical terms I understand!
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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by Andrew » Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:35 pm

Hello!

Some great work underway here, thanks for the updates - your rolling stock's looking great. Like Tom, I'm envious of the space you've got there - and your tidiness too! When I want to pick-up a half-finished project the first challenge is usually finding it!

All the best,

Andrew.

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by Keith S » Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:25 pm

Thanks for the encouragement guys but I have to confess something- the reason I have all these little activities piled up, and the reason these figures and detail parts are from Peterborough 2017 is that for a whole year, my workbench was so disastrously messy that I avoided even showing my face in the room, unless it was to dart quickly in and out to grab a tool or something. I am terrible at picking up after myself. One day I decided I'd had enough- I could feel the waves of untidiness emanating from the basement- so I went down there, tidied it all up, and discovered all these little bags of details and small kits and figures buried under all the mess. That's why my bench looks nice in the pictures. I'm trying really hard to keep it that way for a while.

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by Keith S » Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:54 pm

Here is the latest in my "project" to improve my rolling stock- my Gladstone car, which I built several years ago. At the time, I didn't want my rolling-stock to be particularly fancy-looking and I painted it in a dark varnished-wood look. Now, however, I feel like the coaching stock on my railway should look nicer, and also the real Gladstone car, while it was an unexciting brown colour during its restoration, looks much nicer in its "blood and custard" paint scheme. So, I've bee working on the model.

I noticed on the real coach there is some nice quarter-round beading on the sides where the roof attaches. I have recreated this on my model with some 1/16" square balsa left over from a model aeroplane kit ( I keep everything) Also as I mentioned before, the "anti-hogging" bracing (this is what it's called on a ship, I don't know what it's called on a railway carriage) wanted re-doing. After priming the whole thing, I masked the roof and the bottom of the sides and ends, and did the "cream" colour. It turned out nicely enough, but the masking tape was so well-stuck to the windows that I had a very hard time getting it off. Also, it didn't do a very nice job of masking the bottoms, so I've had to scrape some paint off. The result of all this is that now the windows are a bit mucky-looking, as even the soft wood I was using to try and lift the paint has left some scratches. The plastic used by IP, while very transparent and easy to cut, is also very easy to scratch.

Oh well. I've decided that I 'm fed up with masking, so I'm doing the bottom half with a brush, and actually thanks to the laser-etched panel lines, I'm pleased with how that is going. I'm using the boat-building practice of using many very thinned coats, hopefully to achieve a nice gloss.The paint looks a bit washed-out in this picture, because it's only the first coat. Also I have to use what I can get paint-wise, they no longer make the "wild raspberry" enamel that I used on the locomotive and Brandbright coach, and the "field berry" colour that's replaced it has less brown than the former. Oh well again- it's narrow-gauge. I guess my rolling stock will always be a bit mismatched.

The only thing I'm disappointed with is the windows. When I first built the car, I installed a fully-upholstered interior with some velvety-looking blue carpet and red covering on the seats, with brass curtain-rods and red curtains. The trouble now is that if you're close enough to see the nice interior, you're also close enough to see the horrible windows.

To finish it off, I've ordered some Brandbright brass door-handles as they're nicer than the white-metal IP ones, not to mention the real ones are brass. I've also ordered some Brandbright brake hoses (not totally as-per-prototype but hey ho it's got to match the locomotive) AND some scale transfers, as I think the real one looks very nice indeed with its lettering, AND it occurs to me that since I live in the North West territories, I can always say that the letters stand for "North West Narrow Gauge Railway. Ah-ha.

P.S., yes I do intend to someday paint the roof on the Brandbright coach! I just haven't decided on a colour or covering material. It occurs to me that doped tissue- per model aeroplane practice- might look OK once painted.


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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by FWLR » Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:22 am

I have used toilet paper soaked in pva glue to get the look your after, in either black or grey.

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by Keith S » Sun Jan 13, 2019 2:15 pm

How do you apply it? Lay the paper on the roof first and brush on the PVA?

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Re: Multiple small projects

Post by Peter Butler » Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:05 pm

As an alternative I use fine weave curtain lining material, which gives a fine canvas like texture when painted. If applying to plasticard I lay it on the roof then soak with solvent. If used on a plywood roof I paste the roof with PVA then smooth it on by hand. Either way, leave to dry thoroughly then finish the edges by rubbing fine sandpaper in a downward stroking motion.
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