Keeping Up Appearances

Posted on June 22, 2011 by bawdsey

08402 shunts Albion Yard

In the previous post I mentioned the next big thing will be the backscene. Well the photo backscene has arrived and I’ve been trying it out today. The early results are quite promising, though an issue with it is the satin finish of the image, even with one coat of matt varnish in certain light there is still a pronounced shine to the image which I’ll have to get rid of.

The image when placed behind the layout changes the appearance dramatically which is partly what I wanted to achieve, it works better held away from the board edge rather than butted up to the layout frame, so some more thought will be needed on how to mount it effectively. The color isn’t too bright and some of the trees have a late summer early autumn color to them which I quite like. The location on the layout of this shot is the same as the Pannier below, so you can get an idea of what the potential finished application will look like.

Posted in Airfix, Bachmann, canon, Canon G10, Exhibition, Forest of Dean, hobbies, Hornby, Kalmbach, Layout, life, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Modelling, OO Gauge, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Work in Progress

Posted on June 18, 2011 by bawdsey

3737 arrives in Albion Yard

This 37xx is appropriate for the Forest of Dean area, based on a image from the Ben Ashworth collection. It’s a Bachmann model but has been modified with a South West Digital sound chip and speaker from a standard non-dcc version. I don’t often use DCC, though it’s been interesting as an exercise in getting a chip and speaker into a small locomotive and them remaining hidden. Albion Yard operates as a ‘one engine in steam’ branch, so whilst DCC certainly has its advantages on larger layouts with multiple locomotives, on Albion Yard the benefit is negligable, theres certainly no improvement on ‘control’ over my DC controller.

The buildings in the background are Howard Scenics products from Freestone Accessories. They take a while to make up but are well worth the effort. Theres a few more houseback kits to do in the next week or so. I’ve also been making the screw couplings for a good few items of stock both for Albion Yard and Bawdsey. I’ve now settled on couplings from Masokits, which make up easily and with seven pairs per etched sheet are very good value for money. The next ‘big’ item for the layout is the backscene, and I’m waiting for a printed one to arrive, not sure how it will turn out I’m still in two minds as to whether to hand paint one, that final choice will be made once I’ve got a lighting rig sorted too.

Posted in Airfix, Bachmann, Canon G10, Exhibition, Forest of Dean, hobbies, Hornby, Layout, life, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Modelling, OO Gauge, Photography, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

‘Albion Yard’ Cinderford, Glos.,

Posted on June 13, 2011 by bawdsey

Forest of Dean Pannier

In pretty much the first posting on this blog I wrote that work on Albion Yard had stagnated, I’d also had an accident with the layout in storage damaging some of the track, and that has pretty much been the case until today. Having made space in the garage I re-assembled the layout with an idea of make or break. Part of this had come from a visit to Gloucestershire to see a friends new layout in development, based on a large US roundhouse, and chatting to other friends over the weekend at Roy Jacksons ‘Retford’. Two things were apparent, that I’d done a lot of work on Albion Yard and that it was close to being finished, (obvious really, but sometimes you see can’t see the wood for the trees), and secondly that there was still a good amount of useful development and practise to be gained from completeing it, particularly with other projects I have in mind. Seeing the roundhouse and some of the lighting and display ideas we talked over and tried out, fired up the enthusiasm for finishing Albion Yard.

Whilst at Gloucester we drove across the Severn and into the Forest of Dean, and area that has held a considerable amount of interest for a while. I was looking for various bits of the Forest Railways, and it was only today messing around with Albion Yard in the garage that it dawned on me what to do with it. Whilst the layout has not had any ‘focus’ it’s been useful to use it as a photography set, and has been used often to shoot stuff for the interweb and occaisionally magazines. Today the lack of focus snapped into a clear vision of what it should be, and the fact that there was little prototypical direction as such was apparent as part of the reason for the stagnation. It hadn’t mattered if I didn’t do something because there wasnt a need for any regional or specific layout design element to show through, and whilst it was ‘OK’ it didn’t have that spark to work on it. From the field trip and the weekends discussions, I realised that the layout could be ‘placed’ at Cinderford, and therefore I had something to ‘build’ with a clearer idea as to what the final layout should be. At Cinderford there was a flat area at the north end of the town, which is now an industrial area, this is where the layout will sit. I can now have a low backdrop of hills and trees and many of the buildings I’ve built previously will work on the layout as is. There’s scope for run down light industry units and it will be set in the early to mid sixties again giving a specific focus for the stock and locomotives.

Winter ...

I’ve also been fortunate enough to get access to a very good selection of ‘Forest’ images of the era which will help in building the atmosphere. So I now have a clear direction of what I want from the finished product, and it’s taken nearly nine years to get here. However thats not a bad thing, I’ve tried lots of things along the way, and two other projects should also dovetail into this resurection of Albion Yard.

For the first time in a long while theres a very definite path for this layout ahead, and again it’ll serve its purpose as a test piece for me, and I’m quite excited about that!

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Waterslide transfer or decal application.

Posted on May 22, 2011 by bawdsey

08 leaves Bawdsey with short mineral trip train

Of late I’ve had the pleasure of helping out on Roy Jacksons Retford layout. Roy’s vision is to see Retford as it was in the late 1950’s, this includes the trains and their correct formations as well as the scenic side. I started weathering my own stock quite early on in my modelling development, and in the depths of the redundant stock I had some of my own wagons, which I had decided would need a re-work for my own layouts Albion Yard and Bawdsey. Once I’d got happy with the technique I showed it to Roy, as I felt that the mineral wagon trains would benefit from a similar makeover. Roy’s wagons had been built in the very early 1970’s, were in trains of about 30 or so and had previously operated on his Gainsborough Central layout and then the High Dyke and Dunwich projects. To be able to give an individual look to each wagon was an essential element to the project, also to do it efficiently and without any invasive work on the wagons. After all a good proportion had been working without problems for in excess of thirty years, and the last thing we needed was to affect that reliability.

Starting point

The first thing I did was to get the materials for the project, these involved a couple of tools, paint and transfers. A Scalpel with a new C10 blade. A glass fibre pen and plenty of the pen refills, these two are the base starting point on the project. Pairs of surgical gloves to protect hands from glass fibre shards. Assorted enamel and acrylic paints for detail weathering. Aerosol spray cans of Halfords Matt Black, Halfords acrylic laquer and Vallejo matt varnish, together with masking tape.

Number and lining transfers from Cambridge Custom Transfers Sheet BL1 including black backing patches, sheet BL7. MicroSol and MicroSet decal softening solutions.

Many of the wagons still had the Airfix Decals, some of these were removed completely, others which could be saved were scratched or brushed clean, taking care to scratch away the thick Airfix carrier transfer film. As we were looking at trains of thirty or so wagons that pass through the scene, we wanted a ‘mass’ appearance rather than specific individual wagons, so having the same number re-occur occasionally is unlikely to be noticed. For this example we’ll look at taking a heavily weathered wagon back to nearly new. The first shot shows one of the typical starting points, the first job is to remove the Airfix transfers, once that is done then wearing the gloves you can start to cut away the original paint.

Cutting away enamel wash with glass fibre brush

Its a good idea to also have a plastic container underneath the wagon to catch the broken fibres to keep the bench clean and safer, a glass fibre splinter can be very painful and aggravating. Depending on the amount of paint you vary the brush pressure to cut the paint back, and as a rule keep the strokes vertical, this will give a realistic look as the original coat comes away. The brush allows you to get into the corners by the hinges and framework, it also leaves some paint there which adds to the effect. Once I have a bare wagon I repaint the chassis Humbrol 33 matt black by hand, if the wagon inside needs doing I give those a coat too, again remembering to keep brush strokes vertical, so any streaks show the correct orientation. You can also mask the top of the wagon and use the Halfords black spray to do the wagon insides if you have a large number to do, when I was working on a batch of about eight or more that’s the way I usually did it. At this point you should have a wagon with a matt finish from the glass fibre brush and some corrosion left in the corners where the brush can’t reach. You can add to these areas with more patches of rust, hand painted and then cut those back too, if you’re not happy with the result. It takes about half an hour or so to get the wagon to this stage, once you’re comfortable with the technique.
You are now ready to apply the transfers. With waterslide and most other types of transfer they adhere better to a gloss surface and the easiest way to do this is to spray them. If you don’t have a gloss surface then it is very easy to see the carrier film, and ‘silvering’ occurs where you have pockets of air preventing the transfer seating properly and the shiny carrier film shows at most viewing angles. To help minimise this I use the Halfords acrylic laquer, it goes on easily and doesn’t affect the underlying plastic. I make a very simple mask from the tape, to protect the wheels and couplings and then spray the sides from about nine inches with the laquer.

Masked underframes for body lacquer application

I dry this with a hair dryer, and then give another coat and do the same. This gives a hard and gloss finish for the transfers to grip to. Cut as close as you can to the actual writing or logo on the decal to reduce the amount of film you have to hide. For these minerals I used CCT’s black patch transfer sheet (BL7). This is a sheet of plain gloss black that you cut to size which your numbering decals will go on top of. If you’re doing a batch of wagons as I was, then cut enough, plus a couple of spares to do all the wagons you’re working on.

Use a very sharp blade to accurately cut the decals

Applying pre cut number patch

In the best traditional manner, use lukewarm water to dip the transfer in to release it from the backing paper. Once it’s started to slide I put a light wash of Microset decal solution on the area where the transfer will go. This starts to cut the oils in the paints and helps the glue on the transfer grip the surface. This helps the transfer conform to the model surface and minimizes the amount of air that can get trapped underneath. The numbers, wagon weight, tare data and white end stripes are all on CCT sheet BL1, and they are all printed on the same sheet of backing film. I use a scalpel and ruler to cut as near as I can to the markings, leaving a minimum of the backing film surrounding the printed areas.

Applying wagon number over patch

If you are applying a decal across planking, or a compound curve like an HST nose for example, then Microsol works in a similar fashion as it softens the transfer so it’ll conform to highly irregular shapes.

End door indication

Leave the transfers to dry completely. Once they’re dry check for any ‘silvering’, if you find any use a pin to prick the silvered area and dab Microsol on it, that will release the air and allow the transfer to settle on to the model so you lose the silver effect. You will now have a glossy mineral wagon, and the fastest way to give it a matt coat is again by spraying them. Vallejo make a matt varnish that is available in a spray can. This is also an acrylic and will provide you with a good topcoat cover that is a very dull matt crucially will not affect the models plastic, paint, laquer or transfers you have already applied.

Ready for matt varnish and final weathering

This technique has given us the opportunity to quickly change the appearance of many wagons, which in turn has greatly enhanced the effect of a long train of mineral wagons being slowly dragged across Retford’s characteristic GN/GC level crossing by a suitably tired and filthy WD 2-8-0.

Cambridge Custon Transfers
http://www.cctrans.freeserve.co.uk/

Posted in Airfix, Bachmann, decals, Exhibition, hobbies, Hornby, Layout, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Modelling, review, Uncategorized, waterslide | Leave a comment

Parkside Dundas NE Horsebox Dia.5

Posted on April 11, 2011 by bawdsey

Parkside 4mm NE Horsebox Dia.5

This weekend I was fortunate enough to have sent to me three of the latest Parkside kits for the NE horsebox Diagram No.5. The kit comes as standard with ‘Romford’ OO wheels and top hat bearings, however for my personal preference I ordered the EM gauge Alan Gibson replacements which were packaged in with the kit. No decals are included in the kit as is normal in the Parkside 4mm range, I sourced the decals seen on the above image from CCT transfers in Cambridge, sheet CC64. The kit is moulded in grey and black plastic, all the examples in my kits were clean of ‘flash’ and with no significant mould lines evident.

The body is a typical type of van construction, with the two sides and ends making a box on the floor of the vehicle. The floor, ends and sides are marked with letters to ensure that van body is built correctly. The instructions are simple and clear, identifying specific components well, and outlining areas where work is needed on the kit parts, drilling step mountings for example. The chassis is rigid, there is plenty of room for anyone who wants to make compensated or sprung variants, though this means working that process by yourself, the kit not unreasonably catering solely for a rigid chassis.

Build sequence is logical and there are rebates in the body side to fit the glazing. The most difficult part is the hopper window, and I’d suggest cutting those as the first task, but fit thjem last. If you build the body first it is quite difficult to test fit the hopper glazing with the hoppers in place. The only change I’ve made to the kit is to fit turned steel buffer heads. The kit comes with plastic heads supplied, which look a little coarse compared to the rest of the kit, this simple change makes a huge visual difference. The kit shown was painted with Halfords paints, Red Oxide primer, followed by Vauxhall Carmine Red, and then Matt Black for the chassis and ends. All masking was completed using Tamiya Masking tapes.

Parkside PC83 NE Horsebox Dia.5

http://www.parksidedundas.co.uk/index.html
http://www.cctrans.freeserve.co.uk/

NB: All reviews here are of products bought by myself, rather than supplied by manufacturers or suppliers.

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Book Review: Ian Futers Modelling Scotland’s Railways

Posted on March 5, 2011 by bawdsey

Modelling Scotland’s Railways By Ian Futers
£18.95 ISBN 978-0-953844-88-3
112 pages illustrated, Soft Bound Card Cover
Santona Publications Published 2006

Ian Futers has been active in both writing and portraying the railways of Scotland in model form for the past 30 years. As such, with his broad knowledge of the prototype and modeling ability he’s well qualified to write about the practicalities of modeling Scottish and Borders prototypes. We start with an introduction to the author and describes how his personal interests in the railways of the northern United Kingdom developed. It’s written in an engaging style where you get a clear feeling of the authors passion for the country, knowledge of the subject, and why he’s modeled these prototypes for so many years. The authors primary era’s of interest fall very much within the scope of this magazines readership, so it will particularly appeal to the Scottish railway enthusiasts amongst you.

The books nine chapters break Scotland into logical areas, there are six regional chapters from the borders in the south, the central belt and to the north east. There are two further chapters the first titled ‘Quintessentially Scottish Railways’, and the second dealing with mainline running. Here the author discusses the history of Scotland’s railways and some of what makes them unique. Despite the wide range of geographical and company history variations this is covered very well. The main emphasis of the book follows the author’s primary interest of secondary and branch lines of the region, rather than the mainline network. The book is none the poorer for that, and a good part of the secondary and branch details naturally cross over when mainline operations and history are discussed.

The authors own modeling experience of smaller layouts is particularly useful for a beginner. Most of us start with something small, if you’re interested in Scottish prototypes and haven’t much space, then there’s plenty of well illustrated examples. Within each chapter there are several examples of stations for that region. Each has a track plan, dimensions, and a couple of images of either the prototype or a well constructed layout of a similar genre. There’s an element of discussions on operations and appropriate locomotives and stock that can be used. Its worth bearing in mind that it was published in 2006, so you won’t find references to some of the newer and scheduled Scottish models such as Heljans Clayton. Most of the layouts are discussed as 4mm/OO gauge projects, but the author also covers N gauge and O gauge options within the text. To complete the book there’s a small section of appendices covering a locomotive chronicle, useful society’s addresses, and websites for further research, model manufacturers with specific Scottish products and a bibliography.

For such a broad title and subject matter, this book covers the subject very well indeed. There is plenty of material presented in a manner that encourages the reader to search out more information, or indeed with the track plans and quality of the images, get started straight away. If you have an interest in Scottish railways and are looking for inspiration and ideas to start modeling something with a real regional feel to it, this book has much to recommend.

Scottish Layout Projects By Ian Futers
£12.99 ISBN 978-1-907094-19-4
64 pages illustrated, Soft Bound, Card Cover
Santona Publications Published 2009

This is the second book by Ian Futers by Santona on Scottish Layout design.
This new book follows logically and gives fourteen examples of layouts to consider ranging from Rothbury in the Borders region of Northumberland, to Kyle of Lochalsh in the North West. The writing style is fluid and an easy read, whilst this is the second book, it works as a standalone publication in its own right.

The majority of the plans are secondary or branch line schemes in keeping with the authors primary interests, and cover examples from all the geographic regions of Scotland. Eras represented cover up to the present day with the Kyle Plan and Gretna Junction on the West Coat Main Line. All the plans are to an imperial scale, but the author does note that these are a reasonably accurate guide, the final configurations should be worked out with track templates or the components themselves. The plans are color illustrations, with footnotes describing the era, scale each plan was drawn for, and loco classes that would normally work the proposed scheme. This gives a very quick idea of what a modeler will need for each plan. Some of the schemes have a 3D artists sketch to help the reader visualize the finished layout. Illustrations cover color and black and white prototype images, also a selection of model photos appropriate to the plan being discussed. Ideally it would have been nice to have pictures for each scheme, even if just thumbnail type images, however this doesn’t detract from the overall usefulness of the book.

The strap line on the cover is ‘More plans, ideas and inspiration’, and as such it describes the book well. For modelers wanting to explore what the region has to offer in variety, this book covers the subject matter well. To get the full benefit from it, particularly for a beginner or someone new to Scottish prototypes, we’d recommend reading the first book too.

Posted in Bachmann, book, Exhibition, hobbies, Hornby, Ian Futers, Layout, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Modelling, review, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Book Reviews ‘Dja no wod id iz yet?’

Posted on March 3, 2011 by bawdsey

As modellers, many of us have analogue reference sources as well as using ‘tinterweb’. I frequently head for the bookshelf before a web search, and the thought occurred to me there are a few tomes which I have that may not have ‘normal’ exposure so to speak, but may be useful or of interest to others. This is the first of a few that I’ll put up and see how they go.

Painting Backdrops For Your Model Railroad
Mike Danneman Card Cover 79 Pages 200 colour illustrations
Kalmbach Books ISBN 978-0-89024-705-1 $18.95

Kalmbach Books is a major American publisher, part of their stable includes the well regarded Model Railroader magazine, so they have a well established reputation for high quality books and magazines. Sometimes the UK modelling scene is a touch introverted and focuses on home grown products. Whilst that is good in many ways, it is always useful to have a look at what goes on in other regions, as many techniques and ideas are equally viable in a British scenario.

Mike Danneman is clearly a talented artist, in this well illustrated and easy to follow guide, he takes the reader through the design and building of a backdrop as well as the physical painting of the scene itself. Before getting into the actual ‘work’ of the book the author discusses tools and tips that will make the painting easier including an element of research. Each type of scenery, mountains or flatlands for example is covered in a step by step colour illustrated guide, with logical and well written captions.

The geographic scenery is all of North American origin, that doesn’t detract from the usefulness of the book, all you need to do is think a little laterally and transpose the type of terrain and foliage to a UK setting. A few examples would be eastern mountains relating to rolling wooded British countryside, the flat Midwest to East Anglia, and the rockies to Highland Scotland or North Wales. Not only are the geographic forms covered but how to give them depth and distance, two vital ingredients of a convincing backscene. Also covered are cloud formations, buildings and urban areas, and the blending of the 3D and “D element where the backscene and the model meet. There is a brief look at digital imaging too, highlighting some of the advantages and disadvantages of the medium for backscene production.

This is a well produced illustrated and written guide, the techniques are relevant for the UK modeller, and if you want to paint your own backscenes to help give your layout a unique impact, this is a book worthy of consideration.

Posted in book, Exhibition, hobbies, Hornby, Kalmbach, Layout, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Modelling, review, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

More 3F’s

Posted on February 19, 2011 by bawdsey

Following from my earlier post I’ve now sourced a second 3F, this being a ‘keyhole’ variant, so called due to the sandbox filler which is visible in the lower centre of the side tanks. That sandbox filler looks a bit like the keyhole in the side of early tinplate Hornby O gauge, hence the nickname. I’ve got a further keyhole variant on the way, and will source another plain tank version for a sequence build later in the year. In the mean time I have to source some more data, the WSP book is being looked for at the moment, a few more Brassmasters detail kits, some bits from Mainly Trains, and a real one. Fortunately there are a few at the Butterly Midland Railway centre, so I may be able to crawl over one of theirs.

The RHS locomotive is as it comes, the LHS loco has had the body dissasembled, the rear window bars removed, cab roof vent removed and cab sides thinned. I’ll now await Mrs postie to deliver the other goodies.

Posted in Bachmann, canon, Canon G10, hobbies, Hornby, Layout, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Modelling, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

3F’s, Fowler, Finescale, and F …

Posted on February 2, 2011 by bawdsey

Bachmann 3F

Bachmann 3F

This evening I’ve started on a Brassmasters 3F Jinty upgrade. The idea behind this is for a Gloucestershire based BLT layout based on Barry Norman’s plan of Dursley. Hopefully it’ll provide a showcase for a couple of new ideas on presentation, and a introduction to the ‘finescale’ mindset, which I see as an ‘improving yourself and models’ concept, rather than a strict adhereance to a set of dimensional or scale criteria.

It's not just swearing, it's M&S swearing ...

The kit comes as a sheet of nickel silver etchings, with a few white metal castings. The first task to do is to get the locomotive apart, Tim Shackleton in his MRJ article remarked on how difficult this is to get to the cab, and he’s not wrong. This bit of the upgrade can certainly have you tiptoeing through the garden of the English language. I’m awaiting a second set of etches and hope to obtain a ‘keyhole’ 3F variant and I’ll add a step by step sequence, as I tear that one apart. It is one of those jobs however where if you’re personally wary of breaking something, getting into the cab perhaps should be avoided. The rest of the upgrade will work just as well without this additional work. I’m in two minds as to whether I should change the wheels to Gibson wheels to improve the look, functionally there’s nothing wrong with the Bachmann Chassis, but if I’m doing this extra work on the body and chassis, then theres good reason to include the wheels as well.

Next job is to check some prototype shots for Gloucester 3F’s and pick a couple of candidates to use.

Posted in Bachmann, Canon G10, DCC, Exhibition, hobbies, Hornby, Layout, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Modelling, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Rural idyl

Posted on January 29, 2011 by bawdsey

A lot of my modelling has recently been done associated with projects for magazines, books or for a couple of mates layouts. All this is ok but this week I’ve just built something for the fun of it. For a future undefined project I wanted to make a rural station building, and the ‘old box of stuff’ in the corner got ‘a coat of looking at’ as Mr Jackson puts it. In said box was a Ratio GWR four wheel coach.

That was my starting point, I’d also found an image that showed a grounded coach body in use as a station building, but with doors replaced by shed type doors and plenty of the windows blocked out. That gave the inspiration to do this particular model, together with raiding the spares box. The roof patch repairs are made from toilet roll which gives a good tarpaulin type of effect.

Now all I have to do is finalise the detailing and repaint it, the undercoat I normally use has reacted with some of the plastic, so it may be a rogue can. Its going in the bin and a fresh one bought once I’ve done the repairs ….

Posted in canon, Canon G10, Exhibition, hobbies, Hornby, Layout, Model Railroad, Model Railway, Modelling, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments