Mike Trice's 4mm Workbench

Mike Trice

Western Thunderer
I have added a couple more videos. In hindsite there are some aspects that could have been improved, one of which is to try and zoom in on what I am doing and try and stay in frame. With that in mind I have attempted to supplement the first four videos with closer images and almost got away with it:


 
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Mike Trice

Western Thunderer
Lined the other side today. Why is it when the process is not being videoed it goes smoothly?

I have today uploaded yet another video, the last of the planned ones, covering how to hone a cheap ruling pen:

This is a subject that is not well covered elsewhere, so I hope it helps.
 

Mike Trice

Western Thunderer
I promise to make this the last post on honing/dressing a ruling pen before getting back to construction. My last video uploaded to YouTube covered how to hone a cheap ruling pen. I took some drastic action to get it into a working state, but what happens if you have a better quality pen to start with?

For years I have kept a lookout for old drawing instruments at boot fairs, antique fairs and online auction sites. Generally speaking the older instruments are usually of a finer quality and need to be dressed with a little more finese that I did in the YouTube video. As I wanted to be able to add closeup images I decided simple photographs would suffice along with some descriptive words.

My starting point for this exercise is an unbranded pen bought as a job lot. As is often the case it has no handle however the blades are in good condition and nice and thin:
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I mentioned in the video that I have been known to make a new handle out of aluminium tube. In this instance I also needed a length of brass tube to act as a spacer. Both were cut to length:
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5 minute epoxy has been used to glue the inner and outer handle together and to the pen:
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Only 1200 grit wet and dry was used in the dressing process along with a good magnifier:
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As in the video the blades were carefully reshaped:
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Under magnification the tips look like this. The tip ends are a slightly different profile:
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The tips are slightly different lengths. Some thinning of the blades can also be done:
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Using 1200 grit wet and dry the first task was to get the tips to match so they are the same length:
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and the same profile:
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Working slowly and with constant reference to the magnifier I have refined the tips with the 1200 grit smoothing them off and thinning the edges:
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With the pen prepared I could now try and see what it could achieve. It also managed to draw thinner lines but the pigment in the Humbrol Enamel could not be seen:
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Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Dave, I think you'll find that's actually Manchester - according to astrophysicist Prof. Brian Cox (Royal Society lectures a couple of years ago).
Dave.
 

Mike Trice

Western Thunderer
Today I added the Fox transfers. You will be pleased to hear that I have NOT done a video showing it!

I spent a lot of time trying to work out the locations for the various transfers before applying and this is what I believe to be the case.

The "3" class designators on the door lower panels are centred vertically between the horizontal beading over the whole letter form (gold and shading). Letters on the upper waist panel on the other hand are vertically centred over just the gold.

Unfortunately I do not have photos of both sides of the D186 to verify this but it would appear that the Doncaster practice was to start centering the lettering over the left most full width window for these vehicles then the numbers were applied so that the last number is spaced the same distance from the beading as the "L":
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On the opposite side the number is centred over the right most full width window with the "L" of LNER spaced to match the spacing between the "8" and its beading. Hope that makes sense. IMG_2412.JPG
 

Mike Trice

Western Thunderer
Time to add some weathering. A pin-wash was made up using white spirit and Payne's Gray and Lamp Black oil paints. The wash was applied along areas that the prototype would collect dirt and time left for the white spirit to evaporate off. Finally a cotton bud was used to clean up the panels hopefully leaving the grot in the details. As viewed here I am happy with this:
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In close up however I think I will do some further cotton budding: IMG_2420.JPG IMG_2423.JPG
 

Mike Trice

Western Thunderer
Finally found some time (and enthusiasm) to continue the Gresley coach.

The MJT floorpan, bizarrely, include etches for the roof destination board brackets (had spare space on the etch). These were curved to match the roof profile and stuck in place with superglue:
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The body then needed masking so I could spray the roof so I started by running a length of 3mm Modelcraft masking tape along the cornice:
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A piece of kitchen foil was then folded around the body and secured to the cornice with 6mm masking tape:
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The ends were folded over and masked accordingly:
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Humbrol maskol was then applied over any part that was not already masked such as the top of the door cornice plates and the cornice over the ends. Maskol was also applied to any joints in the masking tape that did not look very secure (the tape does not like sticking to itself):
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The destination board brackets being brass were given a quick blast of Halfords' Primer.
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The roof was then sprayed with a Vallejo Black/Grey with some Flat Earth added and Vallejo airbrush thinners and when dry the masking removed:
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After that photo was taken I saw some areas where I had not made a good job of the masking and the roof colour had strayed onto parts of the cornice and end. Very please to discover that some Vallejo air brush thinners on a cotton bud cleaned it off beautifully.
 

Mike Trice

Western Thunderer
Things have been very quiet lately as far as my Workbench is concerned. I have given into temptation and bought an Anycubic Mono X 3D printer with a view of being able to print larger objects on it.

For more years than I can remember I have had an obsession with the LNER Coronation Observation Car (the original beaver tail version). The Mailcoach kit failed to capture the graceful curves of the original so with the new Mono X in mind spent more hours than I like to admit working on a 3D printable version of the beaver tail in 4mm.

My original idea was to print it in three main parts thus:
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Problem is it suffered quite a lot of warping and took a lot of straightening to rectify. The situation has been helped by the gluing of the chassis and interior into one unit:
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I am still experiencing some warping issues but am getting there:
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Forever going through my mind is how to paint this, the issue being the chrome trim?

I could paint all the body colours and then somehow line the chrome trim although when I have done this in the past it has not looked very convincing. An alternative is to mask the painted panels and spray the trim. Another option I considered is to spray the trim first then mask that off and spray the individual panels, probably an easier masking job.

The other issue is finding a suitable "chrome" look paint which needs to contrast with the silver roof. I then discovered Molotow Liquid Chrome pens and ordered a 1mm version. Initial trials look promising so that would suggest the first option i.e. painting the panels first then finish with the trim.
 
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