Pic Of The Week 6

A very unusual shot of Taliesin at the bottom of the spiral this week.

Although the picture is shot from quite high up, compared to the others in the set taken by Chris Nevard which were mostly at rail level,  it is not a view you would normally experience viewing the layout with the naked eye because of the effect created by the wide angle lens.

It is perhaps the picture in the set which shows the layout as just that, a layout, rather than creating the illusion of reality.

The rather garish colours of this selection of vintage carriages distract the eye as well, I think.

Taliesin looks very nice, though.

Fe203

The chemists among you may have already cottoned on to what this post is about - Red Oxide. Paint, that is.

The first of the B wagon kits I have assembled for clients have been given a coat of paint prior to being dispatched to their new homes.

This is one of the standard freight wagons. I am very pleased with how well the resin transfer rivets have cast and stand out on the painted wagon. (click on the image for a closer look)

And one of the WHR Bike Wagon versions.

I always think the splashes of yellow paint on the brake wheels and the handrails brighten up these rather humble, workaday wagons. The latest six delivered to Dinas are even smarter with the outer V hanger on the brake gear picked out.

By comparison the DZ wagons look slightly dull. This is one with the new South African ends I have started producing. Again the new rivet details stand out well.

These three wagons are sitting on diamond frame bogies, which the client has chosen. I'm hoping the first of the Bettendorf bogies, which will be the usual ones supplied with this kit, will arrive within days.

For more details, including contact information, click on the link on the right hand side of the page to the Boston Largs Works site.

Baby Steps

I cast two B wagon kits the other day.

Now, that may not sound very impressive on first reading, but taking into account there's a one week old baby in the household I think that's not a bad effort at all.

It might be that resin casting is the perfect form of infant-friendly modelling because the processes can be divided up into elements lasting no longer than 2 minutes a time, and even the stroppiest baby, and the most highly-stressed parent, can manage to wait a hundred seconds or so for the cause of the present distress to be addressed.

Once the two resin fluids are combined you mix them for 30 seconds and only have another 90 seconds or so to pour them into the mould before it begins to take on a syrup-like consistency. Then they can be left for around half an hour, or as long as you wish beyond that, before de-moulding and repeating the process whenever Junior next allows you 120 seconds free time!

Pic Of The Week 5

If you enjoyed last week's Rhoslyn Bridge moment here's another one...

This week's Nevard masterpiece captures Vale of Ffestiniog descending the spiral whilst Lyd runs in from Tan y Bwlch.

What a lovely looking machine 'The Vale' is!  So much thought, care and attention clearly went into the adaptation from the original centre cab & bonnet design of the Funkey. It will prove to be a narrow gauge classic, of that I am certain.

St Bettendorf's Day

Let us celebrate the patron saint of 009 resin casters.

At long last the designs for the bogie etches for the bogies for the B and NGY wagons dropped into my inbox courtesy of that very helpful man at Narrow Planet.

It is a simple fold-up design just as with the diamond frame bogies for the DZ wagons. Brass bearings are soldered into the holes to create the axleboxes and hold the wheelsets in place.

Once I have a prototype etch the next step will be for me to design some false axleboxes and centre spring details which I can cast in resin to be glued on top of the brass.

Hopefully it will look something like this.

I will keep you appraised of developments.

Problems With Pipework

Himself is unhappy - our modelling is getting too life-like.

The cause of his distress is that after 20 years of 009 carriage building I have started to take on the habits of the real Boston Lodge craftsmen and never make anything the same way twice.

This he discovered while adding the vac pipes and other brass details to out latest carriage 121.

It turns out that I have built it differently to the first Superbarn 103.

On 103 the false frame and the footsteps beneath the doors were attached to the floor / chassis unit which fits up inside the body.

With 121 I bonded these details onto the bottom of the bodyshell, which has caused difficulties in attaching the brake pipe.

If it is stuck onto the bodyshell then it will prevent the chassis being removed.  But there was nowhere on the chassis to attach it.

After much cursing of my name, no doubt, here is the solution he came up with - note the extra blocks on the bogie bolsters...

I have also been ticked off for having made the truss rods and posts they sit on too low so the carriage would have fouled the track. These have been duly shortened along with the crank on the pretend brake cylinder.

Ooops!

He has also added the gutter pipes at each end and the whole carriage is looking pretty good now despite all the booby-traps I appear to have built into it.

Dinas Or Donnybrook?

I've got a pretty sizable collection of SAR NG wagons on the workbench at the moment.

Most of them are not 'mine', they're some of my resin kits which I am putting together for some favoured clients as 'added value' products.

As I looked up from by workbench towards the shelf where all these are stored I was struck by the thought of how, six months after I started this kit producing malarkey, it will now possible to create a very authentic South African NG scene in 009, in addition to modelling the modern WHR.

I believe some of my customers are intending to do just that, with some making noises about double-figure orders for the NGY ballast wagon and B wagon kits.

Prominent in the shot above are the two kinds of DZ wagon with the original height ends and the cut-down low ones.

I am also very pleased with the way the resin transfer rivets have cast on the latest version of the DZ.  The look particularly effective along the long run along the top of the doors and on the distinctive curved hinges.

Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I receive the etches for the Bettendorf bogies to go along with the B wagons and the NGY's and I can get both kits into full production.