Copy Cat

I'm afraid to say I've had one of those periods where not a lot has moved on the project on my workbench - Superbarn 120.

My intention is to start work on the underside of the chassis first and to remind myself what needs to go under there and where I've borrowed one of the fleet of other Superbarn carriages as a guide.

Hopefully its presence might spur me into action.

Table Tops

Sometimes it's tricky to find a task to fill a spare half hour at the modelling bench.

If time is limited you don't want to start on something involved only to have to put it aside as soon as you've started.

This is partly why there hasn't been any progress on the latest Super Barn 119 for a while - that and the need to produce that batch of wagon kits I was working on.

Anyway, I had a few minutes to myself the other night, and wondering what I could usefully get on with, I decided to clean up the interior castings and glue the table tops into position.

I think will try and get the underframe detail fixed onto the floor first before I glue the seats into position - tempting though that is as a 'quick win' - because sometimes the effect of the glue can cause the floor to bow upwards.

As always in this game, patience pays off.

Wiggle Room

No it's not a radical new design of carriage - although it's an interesting idea - it is in fact the chassis of our latest Superbarn 117 on test.

The purpose of the test run is because we've discovered that these carriages, fitted with my own design of proper-sized FR bogies, do not have sufficient swing to traverse the tightest curves on Dduallt.

Previously, when we have run superbarns on the layout, they have all been fitted with Parkside Dundas Vale of Rheidol bogies dressed up to look (not a lot) like FR carriage bogies.

Although the new FR bogies were fitted to carriage 119 it had only run on Bron Hebog, where the geometry of the curves is more generous.

The root of the problem is the way the frames are inset below the doors at either end - a consequence of the designer attempting to squeeze the absolute maximum amount of carriage into a loading gauge designed for horses and slate waggons!

Himself has been hacking away at the underneath of the chassis to give the bogies a little more wiggle room.

He sent me this picture, but now I think about it I realise that he didn't actually say whether or not it was a success....

Spot The Difference

Once again 'Waller's Law' - which states that no two FR carriages are identical - has been proven to be true.

I have found the difference between Superbarns 119 and 117, but I had to do it the hard way.

The prospect of a couple of hours modelling time over the weekend was the perfect opportunity to tackle one of the jobs which requires a lot of concentration and, ideally, no interruptions: bending and fitting the truss rods.

I've been expecting to be caught out ever since someone - who should know better - told me the two latest carriages (117 & 118) would be identical - that was the word he used - to the previous one (119).

And in most respects this appears to be the case, but if you stare closely at underframes, as I do (that's underframes) then you'll see that 117 is a new hybrid Superbarn.

The truss rods, in terms of the point at which they disappear behind the frame, are the same as the first series (103, 121 & 108) but the design and position of the supporting posts is the same as 119.

As you can see in this photo below.

I didn't realise this, alas, until I had spent an evening making up a set the same as 119 with the ends of the rods staying below the frame and being anchored in boxes at either end.

So I had to spend some of the following afternoon ripping off the old ones, re-bending them, drilling yet more holes in the floor and fitting them.

And now a well-placed source tells me that 118 is going to be different again.

As the kids say these days: Sake!

Aide-Memoire

It isn't only Boston Lodge which has a problem producing identical carriages.

Left to my own devices there's every chance my latest Super Barn 117 would turn out rather differently from the previous one, 119.

Fortunately, now that Himself lives just a few miles up the road, it is easy for me to raid the stock boxes and get hold of a previous model to aid my memory.

Although the body sides have been cast from the same moulds there's lots of potential for deviance when it comes to things like the depth of the frame which sticks out of the bottom or the detail of the bits and pieces beneath.

So it's invaluable to have it on hand to refer to and cross-check against, the only challenge is to make sure that it doesn't sustain any accidental damage which is all to easily done around a workbench full of sharp tools, bottles of solvent and a house inhabited by young children and a periodically psychotic cat.....

Super Barn Signed Off

While I was down visiting the rest of the family over Christmas I took the opportunity to deliver the model of new Super Barn 119 which I was working on in the last months of 2014.

My part in the build is now over and Himself will finished off the remaining jobs which include a brass roof skin, handrails, the vacuum pipe and hoses and the bogies.

The last thing I did to it was to add the bits and pieces under the floor including the battery box, fuel tank for the heating system and something to represent the bit of the brake gear which can be seen hanging down beneath the frame.

I was also shamed into rebuilding the support struts for the truss rods following some feedback from a friend on the FR that the first attempt didn't look quite right.

Well, we can't have that!

Review of 2014: Part 2

July

The second half of the year began with Himself starting work on the very final scenic board of the layout which leads into the fiddle yard at the southern (Aberglaslyn) end of the layout.

In a matter of a few days it had progressed from bare Mod Roc to the top coat of plaster and walls and grass being added.

While that was going on I was working on a 5th SAR / WHR wagon kit, this time for the V-16 brake van.

This shot shows one of the masters for the sides made out of styrene with the waterslide rivet transfers being added.

August

Although we had now built all the scenic boards which make up the complete layout the fiddle yards at the back were still outstanding.

With just a few weeks to go until the exhibition in Woking Himself got down to work designing and constructing them.

He was also starting to add some of the finer details on the other parts of the layout like these complex gates around one of the farm crossings.

They were all made up from styrene strips.

I was also making up more of my resin wagon kits for clients who wanted them ready to run.

This is a pair of NGY ballast wagons.

September

For the first time in a while I was able to start work on a model for the layout, having spent a number of months fulfilling an agreement with a client for a rake of wagon kits.

The subject was the WHR's latest carriage produced at Boston Lodge, 2046.

Here are the major component parts fabricated from styrene before it was assembled into a body shell.

On the layout, Himself had painted the two new houses I made earlier in the year and fixed them in position in the estate scene just south of the station.

As you can see there are many more houses still til be designed and made...

And so finally, towards the end of the month, the big reveal!

Bron Hebog made its debut as a complete (but not finished!) layout at the exhibtion in Woking.

Take a look back through the blog to find more pictures from that weekend.
 

October

I didn't get to join the team at the exhibition and would have to wait until Hull in November for my first glimpse of the completed layout.

By this time I'd more or less finished my model of 2046.

My next project was something which had been on the To Do list for many years - the Match Wagon which carries the tools for the KMX Tamper.

The basis for the model was a OO9 Society kit for ex RNAD wagons which had a new superstructure built out of styrene on top of the chassis from the kit.

It took it with me on a visit home to set the height of the coupling against those on the Tamper.

I also carried with me a 2nd model of the KMX which I'd been slowly building over the last couple for years for a client who was involved in re-engineering the machine for the WHR.

I couldn't resit the chance to photograph the two of them together.

November

The main focus on the layout was completing some of the finer scenic details such as the livestock grids which protect the many level crossings around the layout.

Unable to find some styrene sections of the right profile for the job I ended up casting many dozens of lengths of section out of resin.

This is just one half of one crossing - there are many more to go...

By this time I had also completed and painted the Tamper match wagon

And so to the exhibition in Hull...

Once again there are lots more pictures elsewhere on the blog if you want to go looking for them.

December

So in the last few weeks of the year I've been working on another carriage, this time the brand new updated design of Super Barn 119 which has recently entered service on the FR.

The word is there will be more of these emerging from the carriage works at Boston Lodge very soon so I've taken the precaution of making masters and casting this one in resin in the expectation it will be easier to make subsequent ones.

If the FR alters the design in the meantime there will be trouble!

The shape and arrangement of the windows are the major change from the original 3 Super Barns so I was able to use my castings for the seats and tables from the earlier carriages with no problems.

And currently Himself has started work on the backlog of incomplete carriages which has built up over the last couple of years while he's been concentrating on locomotives and the layout.

 

So there are the highlights of our modelling during 2014. Many thanks for visiting the blog and taking a look at what we're up to, we hope you'll stick with us and maybe come along and see us out on the road in 2015.

Happy New Year.

Tricky Truss Rods

Another one of the big changes on this 4th FR Super Barn, the new 119, is a new design of truss rod - and it's a bit of pain to model.

Most other carriages have two plain support posts which descend from the frame but the ones on 119 have a triangular design.

Not only that, but the truss rods themselves have anchors mounted below the frame - square boxes which the ends disappear into - instead of continuing on up to an end point hidden inside the frame.

So how was I to replicate this?

The proper way, on course, would be to mount some boxes with holes drilled into which I would poke the ends of the truss rods.

However I saw a number of issues with this.

I would have to drill holes at an angle in a small block of styrene. Tricky.

As well as bending the angles in the brass wire - which his always something of a trial and error process - I would also have to cut them to length very accurately. Again, tricky.

And unless all this was positioned perfectly I foresaw a chance that there would be a lot of strain in the structure, either on the boxes representing the anchor points where they are glued to the frame or where the wire is glued to the support posts.

So in the end I decided to cheat!

You can see in this picture that I've mounted the truss rods in the same way I have on every other Super Barn,

There is a more-or-less 90 degree bend just beyond where the anchor point is supposed to be, and some styrene strip is glued in front and along the bottom to appear like a solid box for those who aren't looking too closely.

You can call me a coward if you like.....

Soft Furnishings

I managed to eek out the last of my resin to cast a set of seats and tables for the new Super Barn 119.

I'm pleased that the seats which I produced for the first trio of Super Barn fit perfectly in this redesigned carriage with the seat backs lining up exactly with the window pillars as they should.

This is more remarkable than it may appear because you have to take into account that I had to draw out my own plans for this model because Boston Lodge does not appear to have anything approaching a drawing of its latest carriage, only a 'back of a fag packet' sketch as I previously posted about.

So clearly I got my calculations and scaling spot on.

While on the subject of furnishings I should perhaps explain and apologise to any reader who has become a little bored that there's only one project on the go to blog about at the moment.

What's Himself been up to you may wonder?

Well, after our return from Hull, Himself has finally had to give into to demands to refurbish the spare room cum office cum modelling room, a task which he has managed to dodge and defer for the best part of two decades.

The problem is now he's finished it the domestic authorities have ruled that he's not allowed to model in there any more lest he should contaminate the new carpet with paint spills or solder splashes!

So he is banished to the garage which has been rather chilly of late, and you know how pensioners feel the cold....

Re-Moulds

Before I can cast the seats to go in 119 I need to renew the mould.

This is the third mould I've made from the master now.

I usually reckon that each one is good for around 20 casts, but with each Super Barn carriage needing 7 sets of tables and chairs you can see that I have to produce a new mould after every third carriage or so.

Because the seats are quite deep - at least 1cm high - the mould swallows a lot of RTV rubber, about 30g, which is usually enough to make a mould for a typical SAR wagon side.

So I can get many more wagons out of each mould than I can carriage interiors, which I suppose makes these seating sets less efficient to produce.

That said it's still much quicker and easier to cast all the seats than it is to make them from scratch.

Loving The Jobs You Hate

There are times when you just have to grit your teeth and get on with the more boring bits of a model build.

For me this is invariably the corridor connections.

In my book they're absolutely essential items to getting the look of modern FR / WHR carriages right.

I have seen quite a few models of FR Barns made from the various brass kits on the markets but hardly any of them have had the hinged extensions added on let alone anything which represents the rubber folded and fixed at the ends where they rub up against the neighbouring carriage.

And no matter how well made, or well painted the carriage it just looks wrong.

(Unless, of course, it's a Barn in its very original, teak-liveried condition)

And that's why I think it's worth going to the effort of making them, but I won't deny it is an effort.

Each piece - and there are 6 of them needed for a carriage - is made up of 4 bits of styrene, so that's 24 pieces in total to be glued together and shaped.

I've written a full step my step guide on the blog before so have a search back through the posts if you're interested in having a go yourself.

Even when you've done the fiddly part of gluing together the U section (rubber bit) and fixed it into the main piece which connects to the carriage end you've got to shave it with the scalpel blade, file and finish it off with emery paper to give it a convincing, rubbery appearance.

Floor & Ceiling

I've been making steady progress on the new 119 with the floor and the main part of the false ceiling going in this week.

The Super Barns have a very distinctive skirt beneath them. On the real carriage it's the frame, of course, but in model form it makes more sense for it to be attached to the chassis and slip up inside the bodyshell.

The false ceiling is not as vital on a resin carriage as it is on a styrene one, where it is crucial to keeping the sides straight.

As I described last time, the resin carriage sides are much more rigid, but there's no harm in using the same laminated design with the lower half providing a lip which the top of the bodysides can be bonded to when the carriage is complete.

(Our Super Barns have a brass roof skin unlike all our other carriages)

Next I think I shall make the corridor connections - always one of my least favourite jobs....

Super Barn Bodyshell

One of the advantages of casting carriage sides out of resin is how rigid they are.

The picture shows the eight parts which make up the basic bodyshell of 119 glued together.

Now if these were made from styrene rather than cast the sides would be bowing inwards like two bananas placed side by side.

With resin, however, the body sides stay straight and will stand much more robust handling.

The downside of resin is that it is much harder to glue the parts together the styrene - they do not melt into each other the way the soft plastic does - and the bond is very brittle.

Drop the carriage side onto the floor - as I have been known to do, alas - and the shock it will break it clean apart.

Anyhow, it's not looking too bad, is it? Time to make the floor / chassis now.

All Cleaned Up

Cleaning the flash from the new Super Barn castings wasn't as tiresome as I had feared - those big windows make a huge difference to how long it takes.

It also helped that they had been cast with very little excess resin so the flash was extremely thin and easily removed with the tip of a blade.

With the open back mould there will always be a film of resin trapped between the mould and the perspex sheet but there can be quite a variation in the thickness.

With a poor cast it can be up to 0.10" thick sometimes but with a good one, as these were, it's so gossamer thin it can be virtually transparent.

I'm looking forward to gluing the bits together later this week if I get a chance.

Super Barn Set

One of the really good things about casting is that once you've made the masters and the moulds you can produce all the parts needed to make a model very quickly.

A few minutes work last night, spread over the course of an hour or so, resulted in these bits which will make the bodyshell of my new Super Barn 119.

I say a few minutes work because once you've poured the resin into the mould you can go away and do something else for 20 minutes while it cures.

The flip side is that making a model of a carriage, with lots of windows like this one has, means all the time I saved by casting the pieces will be eaten up by having to remove all the flash from the apertures.

And that's the next step.

Pretty In Pink

The masters for the sides of new Super Barn 119 are made and cooking in a bath of rubber solution.

Beneath all that pink goo, which takes around 24 hours to cure, the masters are glued onto a piece of thick styrene and a box is built up around them.

It is important that the master is bonded properly, that it's completely flat and there are no gaps beneath it that the RTV can flow into because that would ruin the mould.

For that reason I glue it with a generous wash of limonene, which is a very gentle solvent that takes a few minutes to make a sold bond, and squash it under a tower of heavy hardback books to try and ensure there are no gaps.

To save on precious stocks of thick styrene I double up so there is a master on either side.

Obviously enough you can only use them one and a time to make a mould otherwise all the liquid rubber would run out when you turn it over and make rather a mess....

Beginning Beading

I've been carrying on working on the masters for casting some sides for a model of the latest FR carriage 119.

I'm planning to use the same moulds I made for the ends and doors of the other three Super Barns so I only have the two main sections to produce.

Having made up another 1st stage outline, and stored them squashed in an old photo album to keep them nice and flat, I removed the first one and began adding the 2nd layer with the beading detail.

I've had to cheat a little bit here.

On the real carriage the beading on the lower body panels sticks out further than the detailing on the window pillars, and this is most noticeable on the very end pillars where there isn't a strip running all the way up the way as I have had to do it here.

The thing is, if I didn't put a strip at the end it would make all the rest of the pillars look odd and it also serves as an easy way to get a clean divide between the red and the ivory colour when painting without having to resort to some extremely fiddly masking.

It also matches every other FR carriage that I've made so it looks consistent.

I know the rivet counters won't be happy, nor the beading buffs (if such people exist?) but as I've written here on the blog before I believe modelling is all about creating the best overall impression rather than having something accurate to the most minute detail bit sticking out like a sore thumb against everything around it.

A Start On 119

Having made a sketch plan of the FR's latest carriage, 119, before we left for Hull I stole half an hour at my modelling desk last night to make up the first layer of the first side.

It's quite different to any of the Super Barn carriages that have come before ir.

Although outwardly similar to 2046, the latest WHR carriage, 119 has window pillars which are 50% thicker than most other modern FR vehicles.

I'm supposing that is because the body is entirely wooden framed and is an effect of having fewer pillars - 2046 in common with the other modern WHR vehicles has a steel skeleton which is then clad in wood.

So for me that means using 0.60" strip as opposed to my usual 0.40". In one way it's good because there's more styrene in contact at the bonding points at the top and bottom of each pillar but it's going to take some getting used to when looking at it.

My intention is to use the two sides I make up as masters for making a pattern and then resin casting copies to make the model from in the hope that the following carriage in the series will be more or less identical.

It's one heck of a gamble.....

DIY - Design It Yourself

I have often said in jest that I suspected the carriages produced a Boston Lodge Works were designed on the back of a fag packet, but now I know this to be true. Well, near enough.

Next up on the list of projects to be tackled is a model of the FR's latest carriage, a modified Super Barn 119.

I approached my usual source in the hope of obtaining a set of plans but all they could come up with this time was a scribbled note of the basic window pillar positions on a sheet of graph paper.

You couldn't even go so far as to call it a sketch.

Fortunately that's all the information I need. I have a drawing of the 1st generation Super Barn (a plan which was redrawn after I pointed out it bore no relation to the carriage they actually built!) plus I also have our models to work from. So there are enough known knowns, as it were.

So the other night it was out with the faithful old drawing board and a nice sharp pencil and created an outline drawing of the carriage in 4mm scale to work from.

Lots of other people, I suppose, would have knocked this up using some free CAD program but this is a very low tech operation.