Thingamajigs

Started work today on what I know now to be the guides for the tamper head when working on curves and points.

Each one is going to be fabricated out of dozens of pieces of shaped styrene.

I've begun by making up the two main vertical rams.



And here they are in place.



Very intricate work but very satisfying.

The Big 5 Oh

The celebrate reaching 50 posts - or to be pedantic, passing, because this is the
51st - I've added a gallery of shots of Bron Hebog's predecessor Dduallt on an extra page.

You'll find it through the link on the right hand side.

Mystery Mechanical Bits

Now the tamper head is in place my next task on the KMX is to install some mechanical bits in the next bay along.



Unfortunately these are rather unlike the resin castings from the OO kit I obtained so it looks like I'm going to have to scratch build them. Hey ho! They'll be a lot easier than trying to build a tamper head from scratch.

I have to confess, I have absolutely no idea at all what these particular hydraulic thingamajigs do.....

A Tamping Head Start

Sporadic progress on the KMX Tamper in between work on the contract for the 7mm ballast wagons (see the other blog for the latest on them).

Today I put together the tamper head assembly. I've used some resin castings from a OO kit for this on the understanding that the mechanical bits of the WHR's narrow gauge Plasser machine are the same as the standard gauge versions. And the good news is it holds true for the model versions too.

Weighty Matters

Some microscopic progress to report on the KMX tamper this week.

As a 'just in case' measure I've decided to add weight discreetly wherever I can inside the styrene body. The machine won't be required to haul anything on the layout, of course, the idea is that greater mass will help ensure reliable electrical contact between wheel and rail.




Here some pieces of a chopped up scrap whitemetal kit have been glued onto the back of the engine compartment.

By Popular Demand...

I've received some requests to see some more pictures of some of my completed models so I thought I'd post a sort of greatest hits collection here.

If you'd like to know any more about any of the models featured here add a comment and I'll post a caption about it.

Enjoy!

Compartmentalised

A few months ago I decided to try to complete all my half-built projects before starting on any major new ones.

The long process of painting the Cherry Picker is almost complete and now I've got my hands back on the KMX Tamper (after Himself produced a magnificent brass roof for it) I'm setting out to add the rest of the missing details.

It's going to be one of projects when you're never sure when to stop adding details. The sides and innards of the machine are riddled with hydraulic pipes, hoses and wiring but I do feel that in the smaller scales like 4mm sometimes a little less is better than a bit too much. Better sometimes, I think, to identify those details that define the prototype and emphasise those and avoid making it all look cluttered.

Or is this just me trying to excuse my lack of super-detailing skills?

Anyway, I've made a start today on the engine compartment. This is asymmetric with this side - what Boston Lodge would call the Clock Side - fully enclosed behind removable panels. This is the best side for the modeller because it provides a nice hidey-hole for the motor, in this case a butchered Kato 'Shorty'.



The other side - the Engine Side - is more open, as you can see.



There are a few more gubbins to add to fill some the space but you'll probably still see the motor through the gaps. Of course on the real thing it's the diesel engine which you can see so we'll have to try and paint the Kato motor cover to look something like it.

I've Created A Monster

A little melodramatic perhaps, but I just wanted to point out there's a monster entry over on the Boston Largs Works blog giving a blow by blow account of building a carriage, if anyone's interested....

Airbrush Action

The ballast wagons have had some attention from Himself and his airbrush.

Here are a couple of ex-works shots.



And posed next to a (Worsley Works kit-built) B wagon for comparison..



The next stage will be to give these a good dose of weathering because these wagons are the humble and heavily-worked of the WHR fleet.

Big Barn Farm

My work schedule has conspired against much modelling getting done in the last week. Most of the time I have had has been given over to another outside contract - a model of the FR observation carriage 100. You can read about progress on that over on the Boston Largs Works blog.

The slow painting of the cherry picker continues. Just some of the finer details remain to be touched in now.

Down south the tamper roof is completed and the Kato chassis has been wired up and tested. Apparently it goes like a rocket, but unusually combines this with good slow speed performance as well. Clever, those Japanese....

So in the absence of anything more interesting to report, dear reader, I thought I'd share a couple of pretty pictures with you.






This is the big modern barn from Bron Hebog which you may recall me blogging about a few weeks ago. The model was researched and made before we discovered the farmer has recently added an extension.

The original plan was for me to take the scalpel to it and graft on an extra section. After some reflection on this and other changes at Beddgelert for the 2010 season we decided to leave the layout frozen in 2009 condition.

The model has been returned to me with a view to making the changes and had been languishing in a box on the shelf. A few weeks ago I realised I still had it and took these snaps before sending it once more back to Oxforshire.