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Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 1:14 pm
by ge_rik
Looking really good - especially like the fittings which enhance the overall appearance.

Rik

Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 10:19 pm
by TTHLRMatt
What couplings do you use Andrew?

Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2015 10:53 pm
by Big Jim
Anyway, the bloomin' things take so long to make (and take up so much space!) that I've abandoned that idea for now in favour of a single all green train. Apart from anything else, my Russell's still in un-chopped form, so I can just about claim that my line represents the brief period in 1924 before Russell was cut-down but after the carriages had been - which I believe is when they were painted green. The buffet car throws a spanner in the works, 'cos that didn't appear until '27... Don't tell anyone
Stuff the rivet counters!
It's your railway.
I am also surprised that there was enough sunlight in Snowdonia to bleach the lurid colours on the coaches, or did the rain wash it all off? :lol:

Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:22 am
by Andrew
TTHLRMatt:108798 wrote:What couplings do you use Andrew?
Those ones are Brandbright's RSA41 fake choppers - I use those where the real thing had round choppers and RSA40s when the originals were square. £5 each, not bad...

Actually, the coupling height came out a bit higher than I'd anticipated, but I'm hoping I'll get away with it... I need to make myself a gizmo to get it more consistent...

Cheers,

Andrew.

Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:27 am
by Andrew
Big Jim:108801 wrote:Stuff the rivet counters!
The problem is I've discovered I actually like counting rivets!!! Help!

Luckily for me, when I've worn myself out with all that counting I'm equally happy relaxing with a freelance battery engine and a pair of Faller carriages filled with Playmobile figures...

Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 1:02 pm
by TTHLRMatt
In that case Andrew, buy as many sets as you can now. Brandbright are winding down after the AGM!

Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 1:07 pm
by Andrew
I've just seen, and I'm alarmed! I use BB for grab rails, door handles, wheels, axleguards... Help!

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 1:19 am
by JMORG
Sad news for all of us 😞
I have resorted to panic buying castings...
Looks like we'll all have to start making our own handles and wheels Andrew!

Posted: Wed May 13, 2015 10:49 pm
by JMORG
Andrew,
What do you use for your vac pipes?I have some Festiniog carriages that could do with them...

Posted: Thu May 14, 2015 6:46 pm
by Andrew
Hello!

I thought I'd written about my cheapo brake pipes somewhere in this thread, and I've just found it...
Andrew:82366 wrote:the vacuum pipes and standards use my usual method of Wilkinsons garden wire for the pipe and a length of curtain wire (the springy stuff for net curtains) for the hose.  Mine don't connect and the garden wire runs right through the sprung bit, but I pinched the idea from working (well, not in the DVLR sense) ones featured in SMT about 20 years ago.

I generally add a little ring of biro inner near the top of the standard to give the impression of a bit more detail and add just a little chunkiness. The garden wire is slightly underscale I think, should be a little thicker, but it bends to shape beautifully enabling me to recreate prototypical pipe-runs. It's difficult to make it completely straight, but to me that's a good thing as real pipework often seems to feature little kinks here and there. There seem to be varying thicknessess of curtain wire available, not all will fit over the garden wire... Where necessary I fix the whole thing to the carriage body with little split pins (mine came from Screwfix) - you can see one near the bottom of the bufferbeam doing a reasonable job of looking like it's supposed to be there.  The best bit about all of this is the cost - with this method you could do an entire carriage fleet for roughly the cost of a single pair of ready made pipes.
It's still the method I use, although I really ought to make a jig to make sure they all come out roughly the same size!

The other issue that crops up is that they seem to be a bit prone to having the paint chipped off, I guess because standard primer doesn't do a proper job on the galvanised wire. Next time I make some I'll spray 'em with etch primer instead. And if that doesn't work I'll maybe look for another brand of wire...

Cheers,

Andrew.

PS more (WH)WHR rollling stock updates shortly-ish - I'm currently finishing off my Momentum Vehicle, then it's back to the Summer Car...

Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 2:25 pm
by Andrew
Hello again,

A couple of new items of rolling stock have entered service today, although neither has anything to do with the Welsh Highland - both are lettered for my old West Kent Light Railway, which (it seems) continues to exist to justify any urges I get to engage in freelance modelling...

The first is a Swift Sixteen tanker, in grotty green livery:

Image

This was to have been a paraffin-dribbling track cleaner, but my dribbling mechanism wasn't up to much so in the end it just went together in the regular way.

The other new wagon isn't really new at all - it first entered service a few years ago in the livery of Datson's brewery, but the computer transfer paper I used didn't like the undulating body so I stripped that off and gave it a coat of dull old grey. It still carries Datson's fine Kentish ale though...

Image

With those and the momentum vehicle out of the way, and summer approaching, I really must get on with my WHR semi-open carriage now...

Cheers,

Andrew.

Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 5:55 pm
by pippindoo
Brilliant weathering on yon tank wagon!

Posted: Mon May 18, 2015 7:22 pm
by Soar Valley Light
Andrew,

Very nice indeed, both of them, but that tank wagon is a real gem.

Keep up the good work,

Andrew

Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 11:05 am
by Andrew
Morning all,

Building my little Momentum Vehicle got me enthused about grotty little trucks, so I've been working on a rake of three NWNGR/WHR 2 ton open wagons, based on a photo of one sitting at Dinas. There are no drawings (that I know of) of this type, so it's all guesswork.

Here's where I'm up to so far:

Image

The wooden bodies are in the background, with the "ironwork" cut from plastic section) in the foreground. The multi-coloured rivets are nail-jewels, my favourite 16mm discovery for ages - the plus-side of tidying up after teenage daughters!

I got 3000 of 'em (jewels, not daughters) in a fantastic little multi-compartment container for £1.20 - including postage! See http://www.amazon.co.uk/3000-Nail-Mixed ... l+art+gems

There's no fiddly cutting them off sprues, they adhere to plastic with Liquid Poly, seem to take paint well - and they're considerably cheaper than chips... Brilliant!

Enough lavishing praise on sparkly beauty products, back to the (rough, rugged and manly) wagons. The next step is to give the bodies a coat of paint, then to prepare the Binnie running gear and give that and the ironwork some paint too. They should go together relatively quickly I think...  

Cheers all,

Andrew.

Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 3:05 pm
by Dannypenguin
Now those nail jewels are a good idea! :D Will be stealing that one of you don't mind

Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 1:37 am
by Keith S
That IS clever... I will steal that idea too... might dress up my momentum van, which right now doesn't look very realistic. It needs some details. [/quote]

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:54 am
by Andrew
Hello again,

I got round to finishing my little WHR 2 ton wagons yesterday, took 'em out into the garden for a few photos this morning:

Image

Image

As far as I know there's only one decent photo of this type of wagon - the braked one with the tare number but no running number is based on that one. The one with all the unpainted planks was inspired by a photo of Russell with a goods train standing at Dinas - lots of the wagons have replacement planks which have remained unpainted.

I should've spent a little more time on creating drawings before I got stuck in because I've not got the wagon proportions quite right, but they'll do - I'm looking forward to adding them to my slate train for a run, maybe at the weekend.

I've also been working away on my Summer Car which now has its green paint, lettering and door furniture. The latter is a little blingie really, I think the grab rails are black on the real thing, but they brighten up the plain livery. I need to turn my attention to the inside now...

Image

Cheers all,

Andrew.

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 7:46 pm
by Soar Valley Light
Lovely Andrew, really lovely. Those wagons are absolutely full of character, I love 'em.

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 9:37 pm
by tom_tom_go
The 'riveting jewels' is a great find Andrew! Are they rivet shaped though?

Loving your recent photos, great work.

Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:12 am
by Andrew
tom_tom_go:112339 wrote:The 'riveting jewels' is a great find Andrew!  Are they rivet shaped though?
Hello! Yes, they seem to be - although they're "jewels" they don't seem to be faceted. They're perhaps just a little more domed than real rivets - I shall have a close look at some on the bridges I cross on my way to work this morning!

Cheers,

Andrew.