Letter From America

Running out of supplies when you're halfway through a project is always annoying.

It is even more irritating if the trader you use has an erratic turnaround time on your order. It's nice when you order something online to be confident about knowing when you're going to get your bits.

That's why I always order my resin rivet transfers direct from the makers, Archer, in the USA even though I have seen some traders selling them at exhibitions in the UK.

Their delivery performance is really very impressive considering where there are based and how little it costs - $3 air mail -  and they generally arrive here in less than 5 working days.

In fact, I recently ordered some components from a UK based firm and transfers from Archers, on the same day, and their package reached me from the States many days before the item from our own wee island.

What I need them for is to complete my own fleet of DZ wagons for Bron Hebog.

I've got 3 wagons to rivet up. I'd completed 4 out of the 6 sides when I ran out of the right size of rivets.

Now this package has arrived I can get on with finishing them off.

Himself is due to come to see us in Scotland in a couple of weeks so I hope to be able to hand them over to him them to take back and paint.

Destination Dinas

We are delighted to have been asked to show Bron Hebog at the WHR Superpower event in September.

It will be the layout's second appearance in Gwynedd having been shown, in a very embryonic state, at an exhibition in Porthmadog back in 2009.

Hopefully Himself will be able to find some time - in between stints in Wales volunteering on the real FR /WHR - to progress the layout beyond how it was shown at exhibitions in 2012.



The whole team will have a role to play in this extension. The Artistic Director (Francis) is working on plans for the models of the Oberon Wood houses at the southern end of the station, below Goat Cutting, and as soon as I get my paws on them I will crack on with building them.

And Himself is the process of getting the builders in to extend his workshop. When that project's completed he will have room to put up more of the layout at any one time, so its hoped that will accelerate progress.

We all look forward to seeing you in September.

Pic Of The Week

I'm introducing a new weekly feature for the blog for 2013.

For most of the last two years regular readers have enjoyed (I hope?) the Model Of The Week posts showcasing items from our collection of locomotives and rolling stock we've built up over the last 20 years.

But for the moment the well has run dry, not because of a shortage of models but due to a lack of decent photos of the ones that haven't been featured yet.

So instead I've decided to give you a chance to take another look at the amazing pictures of our first 009 layout Dduallt taken by Chris Nevard last year in the shoot for Model Rail magazine.

It's getting on for six months since I first saw these images and they still blow me away every time.

I am amazed at the way Chris has managed to make such small and relatively crude models look so lifelike employing nothing more than innate skill in the use of a camera and lighting - and just a hint of computer wizardry on the smoke effects.  I feel very privileged indeed that we were able to have him come and train his lens on our layout - and someone else paid for it!

So let's start off with a shot of Merddin Emrys setting off north from a station stop:

I'll be posting another of the pictures next week and they will eventually all go up in a gallery on the blog.

Bend & Twist

Do you find that you get 98% of a model done and then it sits on the shelf for months before you finally get around to doing all the little jobs needed to complete it? I do.

My 3 DZ wagons for Bron Hebog are a classic example of this.

The missing items were rivets (now in progress) and vacuum pipes.

Making vacuum pipes is one of my modelling pet hates and so it usually gets left until the point where my irritation at seeing an incomplete model on the shelf above my desk exceeds the disinclination to pull out the soldering iron and the brass wire and make some.

One of the DZ's - 1412, I think - has been recently rebuilt at Boston Lodge with new removable ends, and a unique under slung pipe arrangement, so there is no upright in the way of any loads that may hang over the end of the wagon.

It took a lot of trial and error, bending, straightening and re-bending to coax the 0.7mm brass wire into something which looked vaguely like the serpentine shape of these 'bags'.

The next step was to replicate the flexible hose, which we do by demolishing the coils from a Peco point motor and twisting the very thin copper wire in a tight spiral around the bent brass.

I believe that when Himself makes the pipes he twists the copper around a straight length before bending it into a vac bag shape.

I've tried doing it this way but found that I either end up flattening the copper twists in the jaws of my pliers or the spirals spread apart as the brass is bent.

So now I shape the brass wire first and then twist the fine copper wire around it.

Here is the wagon with the vac bags in place at both ends and a connecting run of brass wire.

Dot To Dot

Applying rivet transfers is one of those tasks that requires total concentration and which really clears the mind and relaxes the body - or at least I find it so.

While the family were otherwise amusing themselves for an hour or so (a rare event as most of my modelling is confined to the hours when I've got the house to myself) I dug out my pack of Archer's rivets and stuck them onto one side of one of my DZ wagons destined to join the Bron Hebog fleet.

As you can see there are quite a lot of them.

The long runs along the top of the doors are the simplest. It's the messing about with the door hinges and all the little groups and odd ones and twos along the bottom frame that takes the time.

Here's a shot of it with all of them in place.

By this time I was started to get a little cross-eyed and so it's probably just as well that I've decided to let these dry for a day or two, and then I will give them a coat of clear varnish, before I tackle the other side.

The last thing I want is to turn it over without them fixed firmly in place because there's a real risk I will end up knocking some of them off as I work on the other side.

Were that to happen riveting would most certainly no longer be a relaxing and soothing job...

DZ Derivative

I do my best to keep my customers happy. For many weeks now some of them - you know who you are - have been politely but persistently badgering me to produce alternative ends for the DZ wagon kit to represent the more common version seen in South Africa.

These are taller with a slope at each side at the top which make the look much more like mini B wagons.

I've finally got around to knocking up a master. Here it is next to one of the WHR-style ends.

It is yet to have its resin rivet transfers applied, but work is advanced enough for it to break cover and for me to be able to announce that when the next batch of DZ kits are produced customers will be able to order them with either type of end.

B Wagon With Extra Brass Bits

I managed to sneak away to the modelling bench for a few minutes during the festive season to put the finishing touches to the first of my resin B wagons.

This involved drilling out the small holes marked in the casting along the frame and creating the grab rails out of 0.5mm brass.

There's quite a lot of them - 14 in all.

The final touches are the hexagonal hand brake wheels - the B wagons on the WHR have retained them at both ends, it seems, unlike the DZ's - and the door stops that hang down in the middle from the frame.

These are not the delicate castings that you'll find on my DZ kits but instead is a bent strip of metal bolted on to the frame. (A lot of the DZ's had this type of stop too). I created mine by the simple expedient of snipping a bit of the waste brass from the brake gear fret, bending them in the jaws of my pliers and super-gluing them on.

That's pretty much all I can do on the B wagon project for now until the test etches for the Bettendorf bogies arrive.