Off My Hands

I've done as much as I can on 2047 and handed it over to Himself to finish off.

That innocent phrase - finish off - involves a lot more than you might first imagine.

There's the handrails which go either side of the entrance doors to be soldered together from brass wire, which probably Himself's least favourite job.

The bogies will need couplings fitted, which may well involve grafting on an extension to the shaft.

There is the glazing to cut and fit and the roof to glue into position.

Then, and only then, will he be able to begin to think about priming and painting it by hand.

It will be finished off with transfers, a coat of varnish and the interior populated with a few people.

(Only a few, mind. Have you see how pricey they are!)

So as you can see, it's a real team effort.

ROTY - Part 3

And so to the final part of our review of the year.

September

The three days we spent in the Goods Shed at Dinas exhibiting Bron Hebog and Dduallt side by side were the highlight of the year for Himself and I.

It was a major effort to have both the layouts there and we couldn't have done it without the support of a great team of helpers, so thank you once again to Graham, Max, Huw and Chris.

We also gave a debut at Dinas to the water tank wagon which has now been lettered and varnished by Himself.

October

After the upheaval of the exhibition and the effort to complete models to use on the layout I spent the early weeks of October catching up on a backlog of orders for my South African wagon kits which I cast in resin.

I also found the time to put the finishing touches to the farmhouse which had been shown incomplete on the layout at Dinas.

November

11 months after I'd begun work on them Himself finished painting carriages 11 and 12.

We had a little disagreement about the colour he chose for the droplights.

I won in the end and they've since been repainted in a shade that is more to my liking.

He spent a number of weeks convalescing from an 'intermediate overhaul' but once he was able to get back into the workshop he painted a couple of Barns which had been waiting in the queue for the paint shop for about 5 years!

December

In recent weeks I've been working through the backlog of buildings which the Artistic Director drew up plans for earlier this year.

One of them, which only took a couple of days to knock up, was this small outhouse which sits next to the farm house.



We rounded off the year with another of the projects which was begun at the turn of the year.

Himself had done a rough paint job on Conway Castle ahead of the appearance at Dinas but it still requires lining out.

His first attempt involved some home-painted and home-cut waterslide transfers to match the two-tone green colours with commercial yellow lines on top.

We weren't entirely happy with them and he's going to try again with some even thinner ones.

That's just one of the projects lined up for the year ahead.

All that remains is for us to wish you a Happy New Year and thank you for coming here to read the blog in 2016 and look forward to welcoming you in 2017.

ROTY - Part 2

Welcome to the second instalment in our review of the modelling year

May

Himself began a new project this month.

 For a long time I'd been intending to replace our models of the original FR bogie carriages 15 and 16 which I scratch built in styrene over 20 years ago and which were finished in late 1980's liveries and so really not suitable for running on Bron Hebog.

If these lovely Worsley Works etches had been available back in the 1990's then there is no way I would ever have attempted to scratch build such an intricate, panelled carriage myself!

This is number 16 which will be finished in the 1920's Colonel Stephens green livery.

Himself was also working on redesigning the fiddle yards on the layout with overlapping upper and lower yards to allow us to run full-length WHR trains.

June

I'd been working away on that row of houses for a few months and at last we had a row of three almost ready for painting.

I find I can get a little bored when working on one project solidly like this, so I decided to put the house building on hold once the 3rd one was complete and resumed work on the Garraway Set which had been on ice since the start of the year.

11 was assembled and a roof fitted before I began work on the interior.

July

It's becoming a familiar theme, but once again I gave myself a kick up the backside and resolved that the time had come to begin building a model that I'd been planning in my head for ages.

And so in the space of a few weeks I produced this model of the WHR water tank wagon which was built up on a DZ wagon chassis.

The tank, if you were wondering, was made with a length of 22mm plastic plumbing pipe.

The Artistic Director had one of his periodic bursts of activity and produced a mock-up of the Cwm Cloch farm house before finalising the design for me to build.

Here it is placed on the layout to check for fit and scaling.

August

Redesigning the fiddle yards was turning into quite a marathon project.

Himself spent making weeks wiring up these control panels at either end.

At the other end of the country I started work on building the farm house with the intention that even if it would not be finished we would at least have something presentable to place in the space for the big event of the year which was coming in September - taking both layouts to show at the WHR Great and Small event at Dinas.

And that's where we'll pick up for the final instalment of our review of the year.

ROTY - Part 1

It's always interesting in the last few days of December to look back at all the modelling - and blogging - we've done over the course of the year.

I'm always surprised by both how little and how much we've achieved.

Often I'll look back and see that a model that we've only just completed was started in January and in other cases we've finally finished off something that has been lying part-built in a drawer somewhere for years.

So here, then is the first part of the Bron Hebog Review of the Year.

January

Himself began 2015 by getting down to work on painting our 3rd Garratt, 138.

We'd chosen the colour of the red together at the the exhibition in Hull a few weeks before (he's never been good at reds) but at this stage I had a few doubts about whether I'd got the shade quite right.

I was getting started on a project I'd been thinking about for many years, to make a replacement pair of models of FR carriages 11 and 12 in their current condition.

What finally spurred me into action was the recent death of legendary FR GM Allan Garraway.

During FR Vintage events these carriages run in what's known as the Garraway Set and so I felt it was really time I got around to making them as a little tribute to him and his huge contribution to making the FR what it is today.

February

Turns out I really didn't need to worry about that shade of red at all!

Himself finished painting and lining 138.

It looked truly magnificent!

He also began on one of the Christmas presents he received.

This was my not-very-subtle way of ensuring that another of my long-term projects - an updated Conway Castle - got started.

March

Some things never change - I was building houses for the layout!

This was the early stages of a row of houses that run in front of the cutting into Goat Tunnel.

As spring sprung it became warm enough for Himself to venture into the 'Grandad Cave' again and he began filling the Afon Cwm Cloch with fake water.

April

As you can see, I was making good progress on the houses this month.

All of the houses in the Oberon Wood scheme are different and not one of them is what you would call a conventional house design.

On the other hand, with over a dozen of the to make, at least I could never complain that the task was becoming repetitive, even if it did involve a lot of head scratching some times!

April was show time again!

We took the layout to a show at Crawley and 138 made its public debut.

Apologies if this sounds a little conceited, but it doesn't half look good!

We'll look back at May - August next time.

Annie & Clarabel

Our latest pair of carriages are finished! More or less.

There are just a few minor tidying up jobs to complete on them.

It's Himself who has christened them after the famous Awdry vehicles and I think it rather suits them particularly since I hope they will spent quite a lot of time being dragged around by a bustling little blue engine on Bron Hebog.

If the truth be told I'm still not entirely convinced by the colour on the window droplights, I still maintain it should be more of a brown shade but that aside I'm delighted with the quality of the finish.

What do you reckon to them?

The Camera Never Lies

Colours are the only things that Himself and I ever fall out about.

The disagreements are usually confined to shades of green and brown, so 11 and 12 in their current vintage livery are fertile ground for disputes.

The colour in question is the droplights in the windows.

These days they tend to be painted rather than varnished.

Photographs would suggest it's the same reddish-brown as on the ends.

On the models although the colour we picked looks alright on the ends I'm still not convinced it's right on the windows - it looks far too pink-ish to me.

This is where it doesn't help being 400 miles away - I only have the photos to go on and I'll have to hope they're misleading.

Anyway, the bodies have been varnished now so I'll just have to put up with it - unless we want to fall out again....

Coming Along Nicely

Himself is cracking on with painting 11 and 12 and they're really starting to look the part.

11 in particular looks so iconic with the ivory highlights around the observation windows and the deep green all the way up the duckets on the guard's van.

They are both quite complicated carriages to paint but even now I'm pretty confident they're going to look terrific when they're finished.

Completing these two in this livery has been a very long term ambition but I think it's going to be well worth the wait.

Primed Pairing

Since I last posted about 11 and 12 they've made a lot of progress with both of them now in primer.

I find you don't get a proper sense of how a model has turned out until you see it with some paint on it and I'm very pleased with how they're looking.

The cast duckets look very nice and Himself has done a great job on the underframe on 12

As I've written before many times I'm not a rivet counter or a fine-scale freak and my usual test is whether a model has to look for the real thing - and I think in this case they do.

The Odd Couple

I've done all I'm going to do on 11 & 12 - now they're going to be sent off for Himself to add the finishing touches including glazing, an underframe on 12 and, of course, paint.

(Oh, and the small matter of bogies!)

At one time these carriages were identical, starting off as luggage vans, but over time they've ended up looking very different with 11 undergoing major cosmetic surgery and 12 having a radical operation to stretch it.

Now they're very much the odd couple.

My 12 now has an interior which was quite straightforward to make and fit.

Both carriages have also had their footsteps added and the electrical connections.

(I'll let Himself add the vac pipes because he makes them better than me.

11 has also had the handrails fitted at the back which are in place of the standard FR corridor connections.

Whether they will be finished in time for Bron Hebog appearing at the WHR Superpower event in September remains to be seen.

All I know is it's out of my hands now.

Future Plans

So what's next on the agenda?

Well, I've still got plenty of projects that I want to get completed in time for our appearance at WHR Great & Small II in September.

First priority is to build the interior for my model of carriage 12 (our 3rd incarnation of it) which is supposed to look something like this.

It's relatively straightforward so I'd like to think there's not much more than a week's work in that.

There are a few other foutery details to finish off on both of those carriages, like the vacuum pipes and the electrical connections, and then I shall send them off to Himself to fettle and paint.

I am also determined to get my WHR water tank wagon finished in time for the show at Dinas.

So far I have acquired the tube for the tank - for free! - and cast the main chassis block in resin.

What I need to do now is get hold of a Dapol oil tank wagon kit to rob it of the end sections and summon up the motivation to get on with it.

I also have designs for another two of the Oberon Wood houses ready and waiting.

The next ones on the list are those nearest the entrance to Goat Tunnel which begin a row heading down towards the front edge of the layout.

And when they're done, looming on the horizon like a recurring nightmare is new observation carriage 150.

I feel a headache coming on.....

Twelfth Night

I managed to put in a couple of hours work the other evening to assemble the parts of number 12 into a body shell and fit the chassis and roof so it looks like a carriage now.

Before I could do that, however, I had to make up the corridor connections on the guard's van end which are rather unusual and more of a challenge to model that normal.

Perhaps because of the heritage value of the carriage / van (?) the usual side guards formed of a plank of wood with a folded rubber section are not mounted directly to the woodwork at the end of the carriage but instead are hinged on metal frames so they sit clear of the body work.

I don't know the reason why. I wonder if it is to make them easier to remove, or the mounting points less obtrusive, so the carriage can be turned out with a more heritage appearance when required?

Maybe someone who knows could enlighten us?

Anyway, the main issue for me was how to replicate this feature?

I decided in the end to drill holes into the styrene and insert short lengths of 0.5mm brass wire and drill more holes in the end of the carriage, very carefully so they lined up accurately, so they would sit proud of the body shell.

I also managed to find the time fit the roof skin to number 11 as well.

Interiors next, I think.

Look out

A reader of the Bron Hebog Facebook page asked me how I was going to make the master for the guard's look out duckets on 11 & 12 so I thought I should show you some step by step pictures.

Instead of trying to carve the curvy shape out of a solid block I prefer to build it up with a framework with a thin styrene skin over the top.

In the first picture below you can see I'm making it up on a thick section of styrene because it's going to be used as a casting master.

I'm using 0.60" seize styrene and I've laid out the formers for the flat, square upper section of the ducket.

The bars on the outer edges of the top section are inset because this is going to form the tiny window opening - you'll see the effect when the skin is placed on top.

I've quartered a piece of styrene tube and glued that along the top - with a slight lip - to represent the tumble home at the top and the very bottom bar has been shaved a little with the blade of the scalpel to round off its edge.

Next I glue on a 'skin' to the exact same width as the framework.

It's quite thin. I've chosen 0.10" sheet. You'll see why in a moment.

You can also see how the window opening is there now.

In this last shot which shows the completed ducket you can see that I have pressed the tail of the skin down and glued it to the backing piece to form the distinctive curvy profile and chopped it off at the bottom.

I have also added some thin beading strip and filled the gaps with Milliput.

Now it's ready to have a box built around it and be covered in gooey moulding rubber mix.