Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

The challenges continue to appear along the track for Himself with the 3mm scale 42XX.

The slide bars have been made up and attached to the cylinders and he's also soldered them to the bracket which connects to.....ah....that's interesting....

At first glance you wonder where the problem is, don't you.

The bracket is quite firmly held in position, with the bar along the top sitting in a slot in the top of the frames, and the cross head has been slipped onto the slide bars, with the connecting rod attached, and it all just squeezes past the bracket with a fag paper clearance.

So just the leading driving wheel to slip into place then.....ah.......

That helpful bar on the top of the bracket means the wheel no longer fits.

It's just a construction aid and will have to be sliced off with the cutting disc.

And what's supporting the slide bars and bracket then?

Answer: not a lot.

It's not so much of an issue with the 7mm version of the kit because the slide bars are a white metal casting, but a flimsy brass etch is quite a different proposition.

Unfortunately there are no suggestions about what to do here in the instructions, so Himself will have to make it up as he goes along.

I'm sure he's secretly enjoying it, even though that's not what he says every time I pop over to see how he's getting on.....

Repeat Business

I was intending to do a little work on the interior of Van 51 this weekend, but then a customer got in touch asking if I would sell him some castings for the seats for FR observation carriage 150?

(And at the end of January one never turns down the offer of extra income....)

When I made a set for Gwyrfai it took me the best part of a week but I got these done in a morning.

(It’s amazing what a financial incentive does, eh?)

It also helps that I prepared a second set of rubber moulds in advance so this was proper mass production, of sorts.

Backwoods To The Rescue

A solution has been found for the cross head conundrum on the GWR tank engine - and it took a Backwoods kit to make it happen!

Working with no instructions, and relying on his practicality, Himself has worked out how to assemble one of the cross heads and fashioned a piston from brass wire, and it bends in all the right places.

He still has to decide which of the slide bars to use.

This was the point where another problem with the kit was revealed - there was no rear cylinder cover in which to insert the non-existent piston.

However, some rooting around in old Backwoods kit boxes revealed some spare Fairlie cylinder covers, and would you believe they are a perfect fit for a 3mm scale 42XX!

Trouble In The Valleys

Himself is a man in need of a plan.

He reports that he was getting on well with the 3mm 2-8-0 GWR 42xx tank for the Engineering Consultant until progress ground to a halt.

Note to self: NOT a Prairie - doh!

He had the brakes attached, connecting rods made up and fitted (very fiddly) and all working.

But because the kit is shrunk from a 7mm version the cross heads and slide bars - which were white metal parts in 7mm - are too small to copy in 3mm and a common etch has been supplied in place without much guidance.

So he has some head scratching to do to find out how it goes together correctly.

As as aside, he says it makes putting together an NGG16 look like a walk in the park....

Sitting Upright

I’ve got the last of the chairs for Gwyrfai cast, and while the ladies of the house watched a movie I was informed I would find very boring I snuck into the workroom to glue them together.



The bucket seats have a four legged base to be fixed on the bottom and most of the armchairs get put back to back, and all need a front support added as well.

The slightly fiddly job now is to fix two short piece of styrene horizontally to represent the arm rests, and then that’s them done.

Carriage Cloning

While I continue plugging away with Gwyrfai my mind is turning to the other projects I could be taking on in 2020.

If I attempt to keep pace with Boston Lodge then I’ll need to knock out another WHR saloon.

The last one I made was 2047 and 2048 is already well under construction in Wales.

Unlike the Super Barns, for which I have resin casting moulds at the ready, I’m still making these from scratch in styrene.

The other major gap in our carriage roster is the replica of Ashbury tourist / bogie quarrymans carriage 22.

That’s an easy hit with a scratch aid kit from Worsley Works.

Plenty to be getting on with.

Steady Progress

Casting of the interior parts for Gwyrfai continues steadily.

I’ve managed to get a couple of sets cast each day.

The bucket seats for the front are almost done but I’ve got a way to go with the armchairs.

I need 16 in total and before they can be fitted I have to make the arms from pieces of styrene and glue them all on.

Where It Begins

Now that Christmas guests have long-since departed the spare room at Himself's can return to its role as the training ground for the next generation.

Being something of a hoarder, like myself, he still has a large collection of OO stock amassed through the 70s and 80s before I was responsible for diverting our attention to modelling the FR, and the rest, as they say is history.

Once upon a time all this was part of an extensive loft layout complete with multiple aspect signalling.

Back in those days we were content to use SuperQuick card buildings and tarting up ready to models with a bit of paint detailing was as far as our modelling went.

It was a far cry from scratch building stock and assembling intricate brass loco kits, but it seeded a lifetime interest in model railways for me.

Many people would be rather sniffy about things like these old Lima models now - some of them are still used as the basis for Hornby's Railroad range - but if you're going to be playing about on carpet like this (never recommended of course...) then there's nothing better.

I was also reminded how once upon a time I raided a couple of Pullman cars for the table lamps for our Bodysgallen model....

Seating Production

I’ve begun casting the seats from the new moulds for the interior of Gwyrfai.

These are quite tricky to cast perfectly.

The tiny legs of the armchairs are very liable to trap tiny air bubbles which have to be chased out with a cocktail stick before it cures - it’s not always possible to get all of them out in time.

Fortunately, the armchairs - which are the most numerous of these pieces - are the most reliable to cast.

Think Pink

Until the brass work on the front is done there’s not much more I can add to the body of Gwyrfai but I can start work on the interior.

I will use the same castings for the seats as in the latest FR observation cars, but I think it would be wise to make some fresh moulds first.

I have a master for each of the parts which is fixed at the bottom of a styrene box.

They then get buried beneath an RTV silicone rubber which takes roughly a day to set.

It’s a very simple 10:1 ratio mix with a catalyst which is handily coloured red so you can see it’s mixed through properly.

Plastic Meets Metal

With three quarters of the body pieces for Gwyrfai made I can begin to glue them together to start assembling a carriage.

The hardest bit is still to come, which is making the curved front of the obs end.

On Glaslyn I did this all in styrene, and on the FR carriages I made a master for bottom piece and then cast it in resin.

This time I’m going to try a brass former with a styrene skin.

The plan is for Himself to solder in the window pillars and add on a cant rail at the top, but obviously that has to be done before I can add and styrene, and before it can be attached to the rest of the body.

In the meantime I’ve made a floor piece and a temporary clamp to try and keep the rest of the body in shape as much as I can - it’s very flimsy and delicate at the front just now.

The Thin End Of The Ob

I’m on a roll with Gwyrfai with two sessions in a week!

The second layer of detail has been added on the end piece including the corridor connections which are made up from strips and shaped to look like folded rubber.

The big test now is to make the curved front end piece.

At Last The End

The festive season has been a bit of a washout for modelling, but on the last day of the year I found half an hour to have a go at making the basic outline of the corridor end of Gwyrfai

It’s a fabricated piece and the first job is to assemble the pieces I will need, including the solid lower piece and the top piece shaped to the roof profile.

A really good tip is to use a sheet of glass as your surface and use a metal ruler as a guide to make sure your joints are square and straight.

Also make sure you place only the tiniest drop of solvent on the joint - capillary action will do the rest for you.

As well as the ruler I like to use a couple of very precisely measured off cuts as guides to make sure the windows either side a precisely the same width.

Finally, chop the pillars to the exact height you require and glue the top piece in place.