Shafted!

I’ve been putting in a few more hours working towards finishing off my own model of the Romanian ballast wagon. I posted last week about adding some invisible details and that’s what I’ve been getting on with.

I say invisible, but what I really mean is the sort of details that you probably wouldn’t notice were missing if they weren’t there because you probably never realised they were there in the first place, if you see what I mean.

That’s how I’d class the levers / cranks which hang from the largest of the control shafts along each side of the wagon. It’s the actual shaft that’s the vital detail – you’d certainly notice if that wasn’t there.

It’s a fiddly task because it means making and then bonding some little bits of styrene at right angles to a horizontal rod. You’ve got to start by filing the end of a piece of styrene strip to the shape of the shaft – and the strip you’re working on is only 1.5 mm wide.

Next cut it to 5mm length and drill a tiny hole at the other end to receive a small piece of wire and file it to a wedge shape, rounded at the other end.

After you’ve made 8 of these they’ve got to be glued in place to line up with some more holes you’ve drilled on the doors at the bottom of the hopper. Oh, and make sure they’re all sitting at the same angle on the shaft. Like so...




Then, with some surgical tweezers, attempt to link these levers to the hoppers with some small lengths of brass with a little bend at one end to hook through the hole at the end of the lever and dab with superglue to secure.

And you end up with this...



Not that anyone will ever notice....

Modelling vs Masochism

As a diversion from the ballast wagons I've been adding a few more details to the tamper. (Is that still not finished?)

Well, this bit had to wait for the soldering iron to arrive. Can you tell what it is yet?



That's right, got it in one. It's some kind of pipework. Electrical or pneumatic? Sorry, not a clue, though I suspect someone will soon put me right.

Anyhow, as you can see below, this side of the tamper is riddled with them. (There are none on the other side)



For these I used very thin brass wire. I don't know what size it is, all I can tell you is it's the stuff which is twisted together to form the wire you generally use to hang pictures.

It's not the neatest bending or soldering you'll ever see, but then again, take another look at the picture of the tamper and you'll see the actual pipe work / wire loom is a bit of a mess too.

I haven't included every cable/wire on the model but to do so would be awfully fiddly and I've always maintained that making good models is about convincing the viewer what their looking at is an accurate model rather than rivet-counting perfection. I'm a modeller, not a masochist.

Anyway, here's how my efforts look on the model and you can judge for yourself.

Ce Parere Aveti?

Translation: Romanian for 'What do you think?' (according to Google at least)







This is the 'customer' version of the WHR Romanian ballast wagon ready for dispatch.

My own model still has some additional, barely visible, details to be added before the handrails are fixed on.

Apologies for the cross-posting for anyone who's already seen these snaps over on the Boston Largs Works blog.

At Last...

You may deduce from the picture below that my long awaited packaged arrived today (at 1pm if you please) and I spend a happy couple of hours completing the handrails for the Romanian ballast wagons.

Oh No, Not Again!

A mildly frustrating situation: a whole day free to model but not a lot to model with.

I'm awaiting supplies of styrene tube and some small brass strip for the ballast wagon but it seems the UK's postal service still in a a state of chaos caused by the snow and the long run of festive bank holidays. I was told a package was posted in England on Hogmanay (that's New Years Eve for the rest of the English-speaking world) but it has still to arrive here. I'm beginning to consider investing in a carrier pigeon....

With that off my chest let me tell you about today's technological breakthrough. A potential solution to that most infuriating of modelling accidents - knocking over one's bottle of plastic cement!

This happens to me not infrequently and matters were brought to a head this morning when a careless arm movement once more sent it toppling across the workbench. And as you can see, at this price that's not something you can afford to have happen too often.



Matters are not helped by the design of the bottle which has a centre of gravity not dissimilar to Katie Price wearing six inch heels. While south of the border for Christmas, however, I notice that Himself has thought of a neat solution to this problem and so I have shamelessly copied the idea.

It's basically nothing more than a box made out of thick styrene on a wide square base made just big enough to slot the bottle into. The base can even be screwed in position on your workbench for total security.



I'm hoping it'll prevent a lot of wasted cement and also a lot of foul language!

(I'll save that for the Royal Mail!)

Strike While The Iron's Hot

My adventures with the soldering iron continue as the final details are added to the Romanian ballast wagon.

The object of this latest epic battle between ambition and inexperience are these hooped handrails which are positioned either side of the platform at the Caernarfon end of the wagon.


Soldering brass is a very steep learning curve for me and fabricating details like these demands a very different approach to what I’m used to with styrene.

The biggest challenge is holding such pieces in place while you join them without them altering position or me ending up with 3rd degree burns on my fingertips.

To a great extent I’m making this up as I go along so I don’t know whether the technique I’ve used here is conventional or to be recommended.

Because I needed to make joints in close proximity I decided to use detailing solder with a lower melting point which requires much less ‘iron time’ although the joints may not be as strong.

I decided to try and copy a technique I’d seen used with solder paint many years ago by a modeller much more skilled than me.

I ‘pre-loaded’ the back of the horizontal pieces with a thin layer of soldier, then I laid the wire hoop in position on top, put a generous dollop of flux on each point of contact and gave each one brief dose of heat.

The flux sizzled, the solder ran and just before the heat transfer along the brass wire reached my fingertips the joints set enough for me to let go.




I’ve probably used four times more solder than I needed to but nevertheless I’m quite satisfied with these for only my second outing with the soldering iron.

Old Boy's Toys

I wasn't the only one who found modelling related presents under the Xmas tree - Himself has also had a visit from Santa.

They included a clamp stand to transform a hand hand mini-drill into a pillar drill which should ensure his apertures are perfectly perpendicular in future.

And he's wasted no time in playing with his other new toy, a rolling road set.



These are the power units from NGG16 87 on test. The model is in the process of being painted.

The rolling road units are produced by an Australian firm DCC Concepts