Timber!
A fairly big day in Glenmutckin’s life today; the start on baseboards.
As I mentioned in the last post; a couple of my team who help on Portchullin made the mistake of both criticising my carpentry skills and then admitting that they ran a joinery business. I guess you can see that they thus talked their way into a task and we spent day one in doing these today.
I know that a bad workman blames their tools; but by god having all the proper kit makes things much faster and a great deal more accurate!! To say nothing of someone who knows rather more about joinery than I do!!
The intended design will be predominantly open design around a skin of ply. Initially a rectangular box is being made, as above. After we have made the first batch of these we will then laminate a further layer of ply around this to provide the material to support the raised scenery and also to house the rebates for the pattern makers dowels – when we have done it hopefully the pictures will make it more clear.
We got three of these boxes made today; here are two of them – what is particularly pleasing is that they are perfectly level across the joint (see the bit of timber laid across the joint). This is an area that I really did not get right on Portchullin and I note that lots of other modellers don’t either – right up to the famous person modelling Leamington Spa.
So thanks Tim and Julian – I am sure some signals can work their way back!
And a small plug for my hosts; if you are looking for a powered loft ladder; give them a try http://www.st-joinery.co.uk/electricloftladder.html?gclid=COfvoN-HyrwCFYWWtAodjCQAcw
Where did we get to…………?
When last I updated you on Glenmutchkin, we were making the legs. These have been reassembled and look like this:
They are not yet finished as I wish to make a mount for the support girders; so it will soon be time to prevail on my brother again!! However, I have been tinkering with plans and have come up with the baseboard layout and a rather tidier rendition of the basic plan:
A little unusually, I am making the layout two boards deep as I am trying to get a lot of “depth of field” in the model. Portchullin works very well in this regard to the right side where there is a bank and you do not see the back of the layout but less so in the station building area or across the bridge. The depth of field is intended to try and overcome this but I will be having quite high hillsides behind again for much the same reason.
I am hoping that I have been able to book a bit of time in some friend’s joinery shop this week to make a start on the building of these. Five of the boards are relatively simple; the last two (nos 3 & 7) a lot less so. One of the chief areas that Portchullin lets itself down on is the quality of the baseboards – compensation/springing is a must on steam locos for example! My friends (Tim & Julian) pointed this out with some vigour and told me that they really knew being joiners…………well you can see where that led for the next layout!
Every favour has a price though; so I am down to build something in return for them!
Wetting Your Appetite
Slightly less modelling of late; although I did manage to get a Shapeways order off for the elements of the loading crane, signals and water column and I hope to do the same with an order for etchings tomorrow.
With Christmas coming up, we have done a little travelling done to visit people and we popped down to see the old man on Saturday. He has now had all of the proofs for his next book back and they look very good. Those of you who have seen his previous books will know that there are lots of photographs, drawings and text; laid out in a logical and easy to use fashion. They are designed to be books for modellers and I think they succeed.
So this is what it looks like; the expectation remains that it will be launched at the Glasgow show in February and judging by the proofs things are on target for this:
The reason we are cracking on with doing the family is that we will not be here for the Christmas and New Year; we are off to somewhere exciting; where the trains look like this…………………….
and go through scenery like this………..
So no more posts until the new year………………………
Merry Christmas!
More Computer Work……….this time a yard crane
In the summer, my 16 year old decided to rejoin the human race (having spent the previous three years on the planet “grunt”) sufficient that he and his mate decided that they might actually want a week away with a boring middle aged bloke. So after some discussion, we decided to go and get some “fest” in at Edinburgh, cycle the Dava way, bag a couple of munros and take in a distillery tour or two.
We stayed at Aviemore so I went on one of my photo recons and whilst I must have been past it several times before I found this rather nice yard hand crane.
I thought it ouzed atmosphere and would make a lovely little model; so I have had a bash with it – again trying to use modern means to make it so that it could be replicated if need be. So other than what I think is a brake at the rear (which I forgot until I loaded the picture up above) I think it is done.
The base piece, sides and the cowl that goes over the base of the main wheel (the green bit) are intended to be etched; the rest will go down the route of 3 D printing again.
So it is time to spend some money with Shapeways and PPD again……….. I have also done some work on the other things that I had etched and printed before; hopefully they will have the little glitches sorted this time; a little present for myself for Christmas!
A Week on Tour – Part 2; Strange Happenings at Warley
The other section of my travels last week was with Portchullin to Warley.
It mostly behaved itself; although I did seem to cook a servo board on Sunday lunchtime; which did annoy me lots as until this time we had all of the signals working which was a first.
We ran diesels all weekend, although we could not resist getting the Small Bens out to stretch their legs. So two examples of chequebook modelling………. Ben Alligan at the front and my father’s Ben Clebrig at the back
And to complete the Highland outing, Paul Bannerman’s (hard sweat not chequebook) model of a Yankee tank was out too.
A week on tour – part 1; way out west
I have been on travels a bit this week, firstly work took me down to Bath so I took the opportunity of visiting the Bristol/Avon area group of the Scalefour Society. They meet weekly (I think) and tend to rotate around different venues – in this case they were at Paul Townsend’s for a visit to his layout Highbridge for a bit of a running session.
There seemed to be a preponderance of things called diesel hydraulics; not too sure what they are:
But there was some more sophisticated trains there:
Highbridge is a good layout, based on the station of that name. This was where the S&D cross the GW main line from Bristol to Exeter which it did on the level as the two lines passed under a bridge. It resulted in some rather complicated trackwork which is very model-able; even if there is some of the wrong type of green………
It is a well modelled layout as this shows:
If perhaps a bit spoilt on the night by my mo. Being done for prostrate cancer charity; so if you are feeling like this is a good cause then make a donation here
Thanks to Gordon Ashton and Tim Venton for the photos.
Chequebook Modelling – a Wee Ben
I don’t know whether this is a serious admission or not, but I have been doing some chequebook modelling – and my crime is rather more serious than the latest Hornby offering………………
………and it cost rather more than an offering from Margate too!
I commissioned John James to build this about two years ago (that is how long a pro builder’s waiting list is if they are any good) and this was delivered a couple of weeks ago. 14413; Ben Alligan – constructed as she was in the mid 1920’s so in the fully lined crimson lake and jolly fine she looks to I am sure you will agree.
But, there is a problem with her…………………..she has names. The LMS perpetuated nearly all of the Highland’s names that were still applied to the locos at the grouping (I can think of only one exception – Lochgorm) and continued to paint them on the splashers. We hunted around for a sensible letting and did not manage to find any where the font had the right serifs and slightly unusual massing of the down stroke of the leters, so John omitted the names of this and another that he built for my father (Ben Clebrig if that is of interest to you). That has meant that I have been fighting with CAD again and I think I have got close enough for my purposes (in 4mm, these are less than 2mm high!).
So once I have sorted out the right radius for the name (I think the Ben Slioch below is on a slightly too shallow an arc); then I will have a go at printing my own transfers. I have the appropriate paper, so lets see how we do!
One of the fun things with the Bens is choosing names for mountains that I really enjoyed climbing; Ben Alligan was probably around my 30th Munro and is a fabulous climb. If you do it, you have to do the full circuit and finish on the Horns of Alligan – a bit of a mild scramble, not as airy as Aonach Eagach (which I have done) or the Cuillin (which I have not!); but still a jolly fine climb. Oh and on a clear day you can see clearly to the outer Hebrides – fabulous in the blue sky.
The Horns of Alligan looking east.
Cutting and Shutting
I wished to use builder’s trestles for the supports for Glenmutchkin as they fold down, are very sturdy and durable (and are fairly cheap). But, I also wished to go for a fairly full depth on the layout and they only come in the one depth (about 26 inches). This meant I needed to cut and shut them, to make them into a stretch trestle.
Fortunately, my father in law was over at the weekend, and he has had 40 years in the motor trade so could tell us a thing or two about how to cut and shut (sorry Bernard!). So, coupled with my brother and his welder, we have managed to cut and shut the first three trestles (the others do not need the same treatment).
Here is my brother James hard at work on the smaller of the three.
I need to sort out a better means of storing Portchullin’s lighting pelmets. One of the lessons I have learnt from Portchullin is that it has too many odd shapes and insufficient thought on how it should be stored/transported.
Cutting the first Sod
Tomorrow should be a big day for Glenmutchkin, because if my brother remembers we will be cutting the first sod of the layout building.
Now all good railway lines start with a ceremonial cutting of the first sod by the Duchess of something or other; typically with a nice silver spade and after which everybody retires to the local hostelry for a fine dinner…………….whilst the navvies start the really hard work. Well we probably will only be different by dropping the silver spade.
More seriously, as long as he does not get blown away in the forecast storms, my brother will be bringing his welding kit over with him, so we can make a start on the big chunky bits.
Welding kit……………on a model railway; am I going crazy? You’ll have to come back to find out!
Hopefully to be ready for Warley
Slightly prompted by a comment on an early post, I have completed a BR (S) utility van; which I think British Rail called NQVs.
This was made from a Parkside kit, with a chassis from Masokits. The former were so simple that you hardly need instructions but the other was less so and it was a bit of a pain to find that it came with only quite limited instructions – I wonder if I did not get the full pack as Masokits are normally fairly good?
The other things that I changed with it were to avoid the use of the really grotty buffers from Parkside and used some very good Lanarkshire Models buffers – but I have managed to break a drill bit on one, so I may be stuck with one end being unsprung. I also changed the rather poor handrails over for 0.45mm wire. I have not done the rainstrips yet, but looking at this picture I am going to have too!
So it should be to the paintshop tomorrow. Hopefully by the time I have finished it will look like the one in Paul Barlett’s photo thus: http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/srcct/h11744058#h11744058
It should be done for Warley, which is Portchullin’s next outing.
highland miscellany 