Scattergun Distractions - Gadzooks, I appear to have gone normal

Neil

Western Thunderer
Let there be light.

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Well most of them anyway. The lights are small slices of tube, part of a bulk assorted pack from China via e-bay. Once fully set in place I'll be making a filing plate so I can reduce them all down to the same depth. I still need to create the nose side lamps which are faired in to the rounded corners. Potentially a bit fiddly so I'm going to wait until I'm a bit fresher.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
This week I have been distracting myself by making a start on the masters for a new 009 resin kit, a railbus of vaguely Ford model T appearance. As it will have a roof rack, I thought I'd better master up some odds and ends to fill it up with. So far I'm a way through a selection of cases, trunks, hat boxes, produce trays and tea chests.

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In 4mm scale these things are tiny (they are to scale, I've taken measurements from things we have at home and stuff from the internet) so it's been reading glasses and the desk top magnifier to the rescue. Here's a close up of the tea chest with it's tiny layout paper overlays.

baggage 2.jpg
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
My scattergun is set to 'full auto' at the moment; the latest victims in its cross-hairs are this pair of O&K MV9 shunters by Fleischmann.

o&k 01.jpg

When finished they'll keep the ex CSD shunter company at the Belgian inland port of Ennui/Verveling. They were an e-bay bargain buy at £36 for the pair, I was doubly pleased as these are the less compromised version produced by Fleischmann. My initial idea was to strip both back to the factory finish and flog one to pay for the other, but they run so beautifully that I'm going to keep both.

As you can see from the photo, the well applied gloss blue finish had been largely stripped from one yesterday. This morning both are covered in Modelstrip and in plastic bags on the draining board in the playroom. I'd like to improve the end hadrails from the metal pressings that are part of the buffer beam and at the same time address the hole left below the coupler. The big question is what colour to paint the pair?
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Hells Bells - they are a good looking pair.

Thinks, G1 version would look great in garden - aaaaagh!

Look forward to seeing progress:thumbs:

Simon

Colourwise I'd be most tempted by a faded powder blue, or the trusty "Vauxhall Reed Green", choices, choices
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Hells Bells - they are a good looking pair.

Thinks, G1 version would look great in garden - aaaaagh! ....

Decent drawings available here.

.... Colourwise I'd be most tempted by a faded powder blue, or the trusty "Vauxhall Reed Green", choices, choices

Ordinarily faded powder blue would be near the top of my choices, but the CSD chop job will be sporting this shade as a work weary representation of it's original livery (so I can also have the red star). I'd like to differentiate the pair of O&K shunters, giving them proper company colours once I work out what they were likely to be in the late seventies, bearing in mind that:

a/ the Port of Verveling is totally ficticious

b/ whatever house colours I choose, I want some scope for minor variation.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
This week I have invented a new tool.

I've been busy making masters for a new resin kit, a railbus, part model T but with slight Emett overtones. The body sides are two layers of 20 thou plasticard. The outer layer had the outer frame size of the windows cut in this was then backed with a blank piece of 20 thou, which once set had the droplight frames cut out leaving a border. This was done pretty much freehand and was a complete pain in the arse.

bus 01.jpg

I needed to do something similar with both the windscreen and rear windows to represent fixed framing this time. Looking at my collection of tools the penny finally dropped and I came up with this.

bus 06.jpg

It's a piece of square brass tube, a close fit over a good sized sewing needle. The needle is gripped in the pin vice, the tube just sits over it. The depth of the needle is adjusted so that only 10 thou is sticking out, this is the hardest bit of the whole operation. The windscreen was cut out of the top layer, and backed with a blank as before. Once set the needle was run round the inside of the windscreen and cut an even parallel line set in from the edge by the wall thickness of the tube. Easy then to follow the scribed line round with the point of a craft knife and break through.

bus 08.jpg

Makes a difficult job a doddle.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Whilst I pause to sort out a dropped bollock vis a vis resin cast railcar roof orientation, I've picked up the CSD shunter from the towering to do pile. First up was to arrange a fixing of my home made mechanism to the footplate. A lug on the front and a tab on the back fixing to, at the front a captive nut and at the rear into a fabricated slot, soon sorted that out.

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Next I marked and cut out a new pair of buffer beams, the Piko originals being beyond recycling into anything approaching the style of the real thing.

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Dropped bollocks must be catching because I ended up with the buffer beams 0.5mm too shallow. However the beauty of plastic surgery is that it's easy to weld in a suitable sized microstrip, and make good any surface imperfections with filler and emery. This will be my first task this afternoon.

csd 39.jpg
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
The CSD shunter totters towards completion; the past fortnight has seen both rattle can primer and Humbrol enamel paint being applied. Next colour to make an appearance will be the red of the hazard stripes.

csd 40.jpg
Footsteps front and rear were fitted before the painting got under way, as did a simple bolt tapped into plasticard fixing for the cab and bonnet assembly to the footplate. The most recent task has been to fabricate handrails from various nickel silver wire (not a favourite job) and to fit those specifically for the bonnet side and end. The other handrails will have to wait the completion of the warning stripes.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Neil,

Have you sourced a suitable red star for the front yet?

steve

Yes and no. I've been advised that there are many military modelling options for correct sized transfers, but I'd really like a raised plate like that in the photo above. On the computer I have stored in the image files a red star which I can print out at a suitable size and use as a template for cutting out a flat plate star, but as yet I've found nothing that would give the sculpted look of the real thing.
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Neil, you might look at the various items available for the jewellery hobby. I didn't do an in-depth search, but I turned up several 3D star items.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Thanks Heather, I'll pursue your suggestion.

Today I've been applying more colour. First to tackle were the red hazard stripes. I found an image on the internet of a set of stripes, radiating out from a solid triangle in the centre, and downloaded it into 'Inkscape'. Over this on another layer I drew a box of the same dimensions as the buffer beam. By going back to the stripes I was able to adjust their size until their disposition in the drawn rectangle matched that of the real ones on the buffer beam.

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I printed off a few copies, cut one out and laminated it to a sheet of 10thou plasticard using double sided tape. Ever so carefully I cut out the red stripes, but only in the area bounded by the box I had drawn.

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On the rear face I stuck some lengths of 80 thou square strip to register the paint mask to the buffer beam.

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Red paint was stippled through similar, but with slightly more paint, to dry brushing.

csd 45.jpg
Not perfect (I actually cleaned this one off and when dry started again) but the second go on the front and the first on the rear are a good base to tidy up from.

The shunter body has also been in the paint shops. A first thinned coat of Humbrol powder blue went on this morning. A few more days and I'll follow it up with a second before I start the detail painting and weathering.

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Neil

Western Thunderer
Thanks Steve, but I think either I need to refine the process or practice some more, or both. If I could arrange to fix the mask all the way round its perimeter it might work better spraying rather than stippling.
 

steve1

Western Thunderer
Perhaps some bright spark could come up with etched brass(?) templates for wasp stripes and sell them?

I was thinking of my earring collection over the years but Heather beat me to it on the red star idea!

steve
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
This week's additions have been more paint, tidying up the red stripes, a further coat of blue on the body and the appearance of blue on the underframe. I've also stuck the handrails on; here are a couple of snaps.

csd 47.jpg

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Jordan

Mid-Western Thunderer
If part of the 'wasp stripe' process involves printing, why not print onto that waterslide/decal paper you can buy? Spray with an inkjet 'fixative' & use like usual transfers.
Mindyou I can see the potential for "worn/chipped/faded" stripes using the stipple & stencil method. :thumbs:
 
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