Soft Furnishings

I managed to eek out the last of my resin to cast a set of seats and tables for the new Super Barn 119.

I'm pleased that the seats which I produced for the first trio of Super Barn fit perfectly in this redesigned carriage with the seat backs lining up exactly with the window pillars as they should.

This is more remarkable than it may appear because you have to take into account that I had to draw out my own plans for this model because Boston Lodge does not appear to have anything approaching a drawing of its latest carriage, only a 'back of a fag packet' sketch as I previously posted about.

So clearly I got my calculations and scaling spot on.

While on the subject of furnishings I should perhaps explain and apologise to any reader who has become a little bored that there's only one project on the go to blog about at the moment.

What's Himself been up to you may wonder?

Well, after our return from Hull, Himself has finally had to give into to demands to refurbish the spare room cum office cum modelling room, a task which he has managed to dodge and defer for the best part of two decades.

The problem is now he's finished it the domestic authorities have ruled that he's not allowed to model in there any more lest he should contaminate the new carpet with paint spills or solder splashes!

So he is banished to the garage which has been rather chilly of late, and you know how pensioners feel the cold....

Re-Moulds

Before I can cast the seats to go in 119 I need to renew the mould.

This is the third mould I've made from the master now.

I usually reckon that each one is good for around 20 casts, but with each Super Barn carriage needing 7 sets of tables and chairs you can see that I have to produce a new mould after every third carriage or so.

Because the seats are quite deep - at least 1cm high - the mould swallows a lot of RTV rubber, about 30g, which is usually enough to make a mould for a typical SAR wagon side.

So I can get many more wagons out of each mould than I can carriage interiors, which I suppose makes these seating sets less efficient to produce.

That said it's still much quicker and easier to cast all the seats than it is to make them from scratch.

Loving The Jobs You Hate

There are times when you just have to grit your teeth and get on with the more boring bits of a model build.

For me this is invariably the corridor connections.

In my book they're absolutely essential items to getting the look of modern FR / WHR carriages right.

I have seen quite a few models of FR Barns made from the various brass kits on the markets but hardly any of them have had the hinged extensions added on let alone anything which represents the rubber folded and fixed at the ends where they rub up against the neighbouring carriage.

And no matter how well made, or well painted the carriage it just looks wrong.

(Unless, of course, it's a Barn in its very original, teak-liveried condition)

And that's why I think it's worth going to the effort of making them, but I won't deny it is an effort.

Each piece - and there are 6 of them needed for a carriage - is made up of 4 bits of styrene, so that's 24 pieces in total to be glued together and shaped.

I've written a full step my step guide on the blog before so have a search back through the posts if you're interested in having a go yourself.

Even when you've done the fiddly part of gluing together the U section (rubber bit) and fixed it into the main piece which connects to the carriage end you've got to shave it with the scalpel blade, file and finish it off with emery paper to give it a convincing, rubbery appearance.

Floor & Ceiling

I've been making steady progress on the new 119 with the floor and the main part of the false ceiling going in this week.

The Super Barns have a very distinctive skirt beneath them. On the real carriage it's the frame, of course, but in model form it makes more sense for it to be attached to the chassis and slip up inside the bodyshell.

The false ceiling is not as vital on a resin carriage as it is on a styrene one, where it is crucial to keeping the sides straight.

As I described last time, the resin carriage sides are much more rigid, but there's no harm in using the same laminated design with the lower half providing a lip which the top of the bodysides can be bonded to when the carriage is complete.

(Our Super Barns have a brass roof skin unlike all our other carriages)

Next I think I shall make the corridor connections - always one of my least favourite jobs....

Super Barn Bodyshell

One of the advantages of casting carriage sides out of resin is how rigid they are.

The picture shows the eight parts which make up the basic bodyshell of 119 glued together.

Now if these were made from styrene rather than cast the sides would be bowing inwards like two bananas placed side by side.

With resin, however, the body sides stay straight and will stand much more robust handling.

The downside of resin is that it is much harder to glue the parts together the styrene - they do not melt into each other the way the soft plastic does - and the bond is very brittle.

Drop the carriage side onto the floor - as I have been known to do, alas - and the shock it will break it clean apart.

Anyhow, it's not looking too bad, is it? Time to make the floor / chassis now.

All Cleaned Up

Cleaning the flash from the new Super Barn castings wasn't as tiresome as I had feared - those big windows make a huge difference to how long it takes.

It also helped that they had been cast with very little excess resin so the flash was extremely thin and easily removed with the tip of a blade.

With the open back mould there will always be a film of resin trapped between the mould and the perspex sheet but there can be quite a variation in the thickness.

With a poor cast it can be up to 0.10" thick sometimes but with a good one, as these were, it's so gossamer thin it can be virtually transparent.

I'm looking forward to gluing the bits together later this week if I get a chance.

The Customer's Right To Be Wrong

The new FR Super Barn isn't the only project I've got on the go at the moment.

I'm building a trio of my SAR wagon kits for a client who wants them ready to run.

The build is in abeyance at the moment because I am waiting on some couplings arriving and I cannot go further in case there is any butchery required to fit them.

You see the client has decided he wishes to standardise and have all the rolling stock on his layout fitted with the NEM pocket 009 couplings which PECO have developed for their new RTR range.

Not only is he supplying me with the couplings but also with a wagon so I can ensure that the coupling heights match - which is most important in 009.

Now the old saying goes that the customer is always right, even when he's wrong.

In this case experience with operating my wagon kits on Bron Hebog teaches us that it really is best to have the coupling attached to the bogies - there is an extended shaft on the brass bogie frame for just this purpose - and we solder the excellent Greenwich brass couplings to them.

However we have a few brass Worsley Works B wagons and a V-16 brake van where we fixed the coupling onto the body.

Big mistake!

It makes it so much harder to get the wagon on the rails properly when the bogies are able to spin unrestricted, and even more so if you have one in the middle of a rake which derails while out on the layout.

When there is a coupling on a shaft attached to on end of the bogie you are able to grab hold of it and keep the bogie straight and this makes it much easier to get all the wheels back on the rails.

Unless my client wishes to have a large NEM pocket hanging down from this brass shaft he'll have to have the pocket, and the coupling, attached to the body with the bogie swinging free.

However you pays your money and takes your choice, as they say....