Yr Hen Felin & Yr Orsaf Newydd

[gilfachphil]

How many times should one measure before cutting?

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Skylark on her first day of running on the new layout poses against a blue sky

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and she arrives at the hinged joint and is clear of obstacles (please don’t ask how many false attempts preceded this success!).


Phil

[FWLR]

Looks great running on the line.

Have you tried a video yet Phil, it's really easy to post.

[gilfachphil]

Not always one to hurry to get something finished I have done some work on two Plateway Models balcony coaches bought at Llangollen in May. There is a picture of a finished one on an April 2nd post - page 7 I think.

The kits have lots of parts, some of them quite small. Here is one seat and one luggage rack, leave aside for now!

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Here are most of the large pieces of the two compartment coach, there are as many again for the guard's van, having been given a coat of MDF sealer, this raises the grain so a gentle rub down with fine abrasive is needed and a second coat if you feel like it.

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The nearest piece is the floor of the two compartment coach which has been stained, next is its roof then six pieces which glue together to form the sides. Further down the bench are its ends and a central partition and two balcony ends. The panel next to the roof is the middle layer of the three, this was stained with a darker wood dye. The outer layers of sides and ends were all painted with antique pine varnish. The window frames (12) were stained to match the middle layer.

A piece of glazing plastic was glued to the outside of the inside wall of the coach using canopy glue and allowed to set. This then had the stained middle layer of the wall attached using wood glue, the tops and ends line up but the inner wall is shorter. Lots of spring clamps and a couple of bigger ones and length of timber were used to hold the assemblies flat on a granite worktop saver while the glue dried.

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The next stage is to add the window frames which fit inside the holes in the middle slice up against the glazing, canopy glue was used again, after which the outide layer can be glued in place.

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This shows both sides of the sides!

The ends are only two layers with a piece of glazing in between in the door windows.

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This shows two ends. Note that I have drilled for the door handles before assembling the body, much easier than once the coach is complete. The handle is from Jerry Irwin via Ebay.

That'll do for now,

Phil

[gilfachphil]

A bit more progress.

Having plenty of clamps is always a good idea!

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Result of first gluing

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Phil

[FWLR]

Looking good that Phil, having loads of clamps are always needed when building anything I find.

I got from my local postman a few years ago now when I first started getting into 16mm, if he could let me have some of his elastic bands, you know those that get thrown away when they have a bundle of letters or parcels. He gave me a couple to start with, but the next day he brought me so many different sizes, I use them a lot now along with the clamps.

[Old Man Aaron]

Beautiful little coaches, those. I'd best not watch too closely, or I'll be ordering a pair before I know it!

[gilfachphil]

Onto the duckets for the brake coach, which also has balconies so the guard may look out from there but if it's raining ...

The sides of the duckets are two pieces glued together. The kit includes an internal window sill which holds the sides at the correct spacing. I made up a similar piece for the tops of them to aid getting the box square.

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This shows the sides and spacers glued together, using the side wall to get the shape correct, once dry the upper view shows the two pieces of front cladding being added. Once all had set the duckets were removed from the sides and a coat of varnish was applied, allowed to dry and then sanded gently before adding a second coat.

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This thens shows a finished ducket and a side with it being glued in.

Phil

[Andrew]

Beautiful little coaches, those. I'd best not watch too closely, or I'll be ordering a pair before I know it!

Ditto!

You're making a lovely job of those Phil!

[gilfachphil]

Thanks Guys,

I think I am much more confident about these having done the first one. Experience shows lots of ways of making things better/more easily and I hope the more detailed posts may be useful to others,

Phil

[gilfachphil]

On a different topic:-

The garden layout has a station platform taking shape on the large table. It has a core of UPVC fascia board which has probably appeared in some of the pictures so far. This is topped with a layer of 3mm recycled plastic board. I have been wondering what I could use to cover the platform faces and at the Swansea Model railway Show on Sunday I found some sheets of embossed plastic on the Squires stall.

These I sprayed with red oxide primer then once dry used a squeegee to scrape diluted acrylic paint across the surface and into the mortar lines.

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I then worked with a cheap foam roller and some walnut wood stain to darken the sheets

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That was looking quite good I felt. I cut strips to the height of the platform face. At the ends I used wedges of timber screwed down front middle and back to create the slope. The strips I have glued in place with solvent based UHU.

It's looking like this now:-

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Much better I think.

Phil

[Peter Butler]

Looking very good Phil.... sorry I missed the Swansea show, busy elsewhere!

[FWLR]

Thats such a brilliant idea Phil, well done.

Did you get any information on where we could buy them from.

[gilfachphil]

Sorry Rod,

buy what from?

It was so good to meet you at Llanfair and Welshpool and to be able to put a face to the posts.

Phil

[gilfachphil]

Another example where the experience of having previously built one of these coaches suggests an easier way to do it next time!

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Each coach has handrails fashioned from copper wire at each corner. On this coach I drilled the holes by hand in the fully assembled coach (not sure why they are not just laser cut into the kit), this time as I am making the two coaches I decided to batch make the handles and drill the wood before assembly.

I expect we all have our favourite home-made jigs and useful bits of wood. The holes were made on the pillar drill using a 1.3mm bit and a high tech jig. First the jig was positioned to make a hole 3mm from the top. Having made up the handles one was used to mark the height of the second hole in pencil on one of the ply pieces. The jig was repositioned and the second eight holes drileed:-

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The last picture shows a block of beech which comes in for many uses. A 1.3mm hole was drilled 18mm from the edge into one of the slots, the wire end inserted and it was bend along the slot and down the side where it was snipped off at a 6mm mark. The wire ready to bend, a handle, a piece of ply with holes and another with handle inserted.

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Phil

[gilfachphil]

Hiding under here

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is this

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the kit does not include spacers for the sides of the chassis frame so I made up my own. This is the guard's van floor from underneath

Phil

[FWLR]

Sorry Rod,

buy what from?

It was so good to meet you at Llanfair and Welshpool and to be able to put a face to the posts.

Phil

It was great meeting you to mate. We were having a brilliant chat at Welshpool Station, they even held up the train from going because were chatting so much.

That embossed sheet you got from the Squires stall.

[FWLR]

Really neat way of making the handles Phil

I have so many jigs for this and that it takes me awhile to remember what there for

What kits are those your building, I would have thought spacers would be included..

[gilfachphil]

Hi Rod,

they are Plateways kits. I did ask Michael Murray who's company it is one time and he said he'd stopped including them for some reason. Easy enough to batch make enough for several vehicles once the machinery is set up.

I put the wheels further apart than the kit suggests to make the wheelbase a bit longer so the burnt on rings are on the inside of the chassis rather than outside, they are details for where the axle boxes are meant to go.

Phil

[gilfachphil]

Sorry Rod,

buy what from?

It was so good to meet you at Llanfair and Welshpool and to be able to put a face to the posts.

Phil

It was great meeting you to mate. We were having a brilliant chat at Welshpool Station, they even held up the train from going because were chatting so much.

That embossed sheet you got from the Squires stall.

It's not a Slater's sheet as far as I know, it's bigger than theirs. It was in a box of assorted anonymous plastic sheets. You probably need to rummage on theur stall somewhere though if you give them a call. The sheets were £3 marked down from close to £5 if that helps.

Phil

[gilfachphil]

Chair production

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Phil