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.

Review of 2014: Part 1

January

In the final days of the year I like to look back at everything we've achieved in our modelling at opposite ends of the country.

January 2014 began with Himself putting the finishing touches to our model of Welsh Pony which he built - after a long struggle - from a Mercian Models kit.

It looks better than it runs, which is mainly on account of some distinctly un-centred wheels, and nothing more has been done on it in the last twelve months.

We shall wait until the FR has completed the restoration of the real Welsh Pony, but as they're making impressive progress on that we shouldn't have to wait too long.

It's also amusing to look back and see that the year has been book-ended with me casting interiors for Super Barn carriages.

Back in January this was the first one I'd done.

Himself was also starting work on making our third NGG16 from the fabulous Backwoods Miniatures kit.

February

Progress was so swift that by the next month I was reporting the completion of the rear power unit. I could look at that valve gear all day...

I was cracking on with making a trio of Super Barn carriages for a client with the body parts cast in resin and the roofs cut from an empty super-sized beer can.

It's a hard life sometimes!

The Artistic Director also produced some long-awaited plans for the 3rd & 4th houses in the Oberon Wood estate which were a true work of art as always.

March

It didn't take me very long to get the first of the houses knocked up in styrene.

Himself sent us some 'works portaits' of our completed 138 which, unlike Welsh Pony, moves as good as it looks.

And with the deadline for our next exhibition appearance in September a big push began to try and get the layout as complete as possible.

April

Things started getting heavy, quite literally, in April as Himself began work on the rock faces in Cutting Mawr using real Welsh rock.

May

By this time I'd sent down the 3rd house which was in the process of being positioned on the layout and the landscape built up around it.

The 'Head of Steel' advanced rapidly with track being laid on another new board, the gently curving section which makes up the final part of the big S bend behind Beddgelert station.

June

I was being kept busy making another batch of Super Barns for another client, this lot had to be supplied painted but without interiors.

At the same time I was also getting on well with making the 4th house for the estate.

There are common themes to the designs but they are all different so you have to pay close attention to the plans drawn up by the Artistic Director and cross-check with my on research photographs.

This one required some corrections late on in the build process...

At the back of the layout Himself was making the last of the bridges over the Afon Cwm Cloch.

Here is a shot of him checking clearances with a Garratt and the longest carriage, the Pullman observation car 'Glaslyn'.

 

To be continued....

Christmas Kit

We've had a bit of a tradition going over the last few years that Himself finds a new locomotive kit beneath the Christmas tree.

First there was Lyd, followed 12 months ago by the NGG16 he has turned into 138 which is being painted currently.

And this year we're going back to where it all stated with another one of these....

(I forgot to take a snap of the Five79 (ex-Chivers Finelines) kit for Conway Castle before I wrapped it up. Oops!)

It was the very first OO9 model he made back in 1989 in its orange, black and grey livery dubbed Liquorice Allsort.

It's still going strong a quarter of a century later, although its Ibertren chassis has had a motor transplant, being exchanged for a Mashima unit.

On Bron Hebog, though, it looks very out of place.

Conway Castle played a big part in the reconstruction of the WHR along with Upnor Castle, but all the while wearing the push-pull green livery its had since the early 1990's.

Making a new one has been on my To Do list for a long time now and at last I've got around to buying one,

I do, however, have a small supply of spare Ibertren chassis so we'll be able to have two 'Conk Out's in operation at the same time should we every have the need....

Nadolig Llawen / Merry Christmas

Picture by Barrie Hughes

Swing Time

One of the many reasons that our model of Bowsider 19 has been sitting in the 'Drawer of Doom' for so many years in an unfinished state is a lack of bogies.

All our other vintage FR carriages are running on some decidedly un-heritage American outline Grandt Line bogies, mainly on account of them being the first things we came across when making our model of 17 from a Langley kit 20+ years ago and Himself didn't much like the look of the bogies which came with the kit.

These are starting to show their age, though, and are beginning to fall apart on a couple of the carriages so Himself is looking for suitable replacement.

The problem is there isn't a lot of space under these carriages to allow the bogies to swing, so Himself has be experimenting with some surgery on a pair of Parkside Dundas FR bogies - the correct type for this carriage, in fact - to see if we can get them to fit.

It seems we can, just...

Now the most pressing issue is in what condition will we finish the carriage?

My original intention when we started making it many years ago was to do it as it was running in 1988 - the nominal year we set for Dduallt - when it was the last Bowsider in all-over red livery.

Now that Dduallt is semi-retired and Bron Hebog is out on the exhibition circuit, however, it would make more sense to paint it in its current Victorian plum livery.

What to do?

Ready To Turn Red

It isn't only carriages we've got going through the paint shop at the moment - there's a certain loco ready for some attention from the airbrush.

First though Himself had one final bit to do to finish off our 138 and that was to fabricate an oil tank and pipe for the lubricator, one mounted on the front of each unit.

It has now been dismantled and washed ready for a coat of primer.

Bron Hebog is going to be looking very colourful in 2015!

Primed For Action

Having chided Himself on the pages of this blog last week for going on strike and not venturing into the workshop when the cold weather hit he's been working hard this week.

Our 2nd model of carriage/van 10 has been treated to a coat of primer now along with another duplicate, a model of carriage 116 in its current condition.

This one has been sitting in the drawer of doom for a few years now.

116 has spend a lot of the last couple of years strengthening the rakes on the WHR trains, if memory serves, so it'll be a very useful addition to the Bron Hebog fleet.

In fact it's the 3rd model we have of this mid-1970's prototype, the other two showing it in its original configuration as a composite with the 1st class compartment at the Porthmadog end, marked by a wider window.

The carriage was rebuilt as a 3rd class saloon a few years ago with the window spaces equalised which is the way its been captured here.