GWR China Clay Wagon (and other stuff)

Hello :o)

I know I am not the fastest of modellers but I like to think that I am one of life's plodders and usually methodically work through the little projects that I put in front of myself. One of these projects which fortunately is comming to an end is a initial batch of 4 GWR China Clay wagons.

This project came about through seeing other people experimenting with various 3D printed wagon bodies so I thought to myself perhaps I should give it a go. The result of this was the 3D model you can see above which came to life through a drawing I found online here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/foxfield/gwr_china_clay.htm 

Once I finalised the design it was then uploaded to Shapeways here:

http://shpws.me/IZAa

I found that once uploaded it worked out much cheaper to add multiple parts to the single file so I doubled up the quantity of bodies to make it slightly better value. 4 bodies were then promptly ordered. I don't know if anyone else has noticed but the quality of Shapeways parts, especially in FUD has greatly improved recently, so when the bodies turned up all they really needed was a dunk in an ultrasonic cleaner and a light sanding in a couple of places with a file. Once I was happy they then had a coating of grey primer.

Next up was the chassis for them. Fortunately the 2mm Scale Association produces an etch chassis (2-361) which works out to be a really good fit on the wagon bodies and 4 of these were soldered together over a period of just over a week.

So above is where I have got now. They need transfers, couplings, and weathering, but I am very happy with the results so far. I have made the bodies available for anyone to order so if anyone else fancies a go at these then all the bits are there.

Other bits and bobs I have been working on has been mainly signals. More precisely the 4 starter signals I need for the layout. These have now got the little LEDs fitted and I have made a start on the details for them.

Julia :o)

Trees!

Hello :o)

The trees for the layout have been one of those things that I have dabbled with in the past but never seriously sat down and tried to get any number of them done. Highclere being a quite large layout for its scale needs quite a few of them of differing flavours to fill out the countryside. This weekend was spent producing a few more...

Now I know this guy Stefan has been posting pictures on a German forum for a while and there have been links to his work posted in various places in the past but for some reason last week I switched on Google Translate and sat down to read it.

http://stummiforum.de/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=50628&start=825

His work is amazing, it might be all purely for photographic reasons but there is no doubt he knows how to model, and model things extremely realistically. This has been an inspiration to me and after reading a few how-tos he has posted within his thread I wanted to give it a go.

The picture above was my first attempt. Now me being me I decided I knew a better way of making them and deviated a bit from Stefans methods using my static grass applicator. As you can see the results werent upto much.

So it was back to the beginning and I tried again. I will not go into too much detail as its described on Stefans thread but as you can see from the above photo the assembly of a tree is really easy. The green wire is simply wrapped around a central wire and looped out in regular intervals, there loops become the tree branches later on. So by this evening I ended up with these...

I am really pleased with how they have come out. The differences I did were I used some Brass multistranded picture hanging wire as the main trunk wire instead of a single stranded one, and I used some PVA glue covered in some Treemendus Bark Powder (http://www.treemendus-scenics.co.uk/tree-kit-order/) which gives a very good representation of Bark.

I have still got loads more to make though but at least I have the confidence I can do them now. It has also taught me that sometimes it is worth following other peoples instructions as well!

Julia :o)

Highclere progress

Hello again.

I hadnt planned on putting another post together so quickly but I felt it might be worth it considering the comments that were made on my previous blog post. This is how the layout (well, one board of it) is looking after this weekend...

This is how the signal box and lineside hut are looking now. As I mentioned in the previous post I had reworked the hut to remove most of the weathering. I also took the opportunity to darken the brickwork a little as David had suggested. I didn't remove all the weathering though and I personally feel both buildings look better for it. Of course comments will be most welcome.

Above are a couple of (not very good) photos of me playing around with the lights inside the signal box. Trust me, it looks loads better in the flesh!

I have also made a few more small bushes using some picture hanging brass braided wire. They aren't based on any particular type of bush / tree but I feel they add some much needed intermediate height to the layout between the grassland and the trees. Its worth pointing out at this time the trees on the layout aren't in their finished position, they are pretty much being stored on the layout for now as it seemed the safest place for them. There are loads more to make (at some point).

Finally an overview(ish) of how the board looks right now. Still lots and lots to do...

Julia :o)

Aiming for some Atmosphere Part 3

Hello Again :o)

I have had one of those weekends. You know the ones where you spend virtually the entire weekend sitting around pondering things, doing household chores, and generally avoiding the modelling bench. All until Sunday afternoon when you try and cram everything you wanted to get done into a short time before the weekly grind of work comes around. Sometimes things work out, fortunately it feels things worked out for me...

The ends have been bugging me, its the thing that has held this engine shed up a bit. I have been trying to work out how to add the windows and also how the middle beam bit fitted together. I made a start using photos and things as a guide and its looks reasonable alright to me. What do you guys think? There is obviously still lots of work to do.

I have also tried to finish off the floor / ground bit and today I spent a bit of time with some filler and paint and above is the result. This is classic me, throw all sorts of different paints at something until it looks about right to me. I could never repeat exactly the method but it did start out with some suede effect paint, then the fun started! I am happy with the result, especially as it was semi-rushed and total guesswork really.

Finally, as with the previous posts, below are a couple I took (with the camera on my phone) t remind myself why I am dong this...

Julia :o)

Aiming for some Atmosphere Part 1

Hello.

For a while now I have had the idea in my head to create a little something that can be used purely for taking photos of engines. The inspiration came a while ago on RMWeb in the form of a roundhouse diorama which has also recently appeared on the cover of the excellent 'Finescale magazine. The photos just oozed atmosphere and really appealed to my sense of modelling and what I like trying to achieve.

With these images in my mind the opportunity came at the N Gauge show where I spoke to Maurice and Mike of Osborns models to see if they could laser cut something I could use in the form of a GW Engine Shed. A short while later I was the proud owner of one shed which I posted about a few posts ago.

So, it was down to me to turn it into something I could use. I started with the roof by CNC cutting out a bunch of roof trusses out of plasticard sheet (which I previously posted about). This now brings me to todays post...

The reason I chose styrene for the roof trusses is so I can easily glue them to the existing laser cut wood. Above you can see them glued to half the roof.

There is still plenty to do but this gives an idea of what I would like to achieve. The long wall will be removable so you can get a camera inside.

This is what the roof currently looks like. I haven't figured out how to do the channels for the smoke yet (I am sure they have a proper name!).

Finally the two photos below hopefully give an indication on what I am aiming for...

I think there is glimpses of atmosphere, fingers crossed it gets better with time...

Julia :o)