Assembled

So having unpacked the Baguley-Drewry kit I couldn't leave it alone -- it just looked too enticing.

The kit consists of a 3D printed body shell and a fret of etched nickel silver detailing parts. The first thing I did was to try and smooth out some of the printing lines from the 3D printed body shell. I did this by gently rubbing T-cut into the surface using cotton-wool buds. This worked well, although it did take quite a bit of time. There is probably an easier way but at least this way there was little chance of my doing any damage to the 3D print.

Assembly of the model then simply involves gluing the detail parts onto the body shell. Most of the parts are easy are easy to clean up and glue in place. I found that the exhaust bracket was the hardest part to fold and add (it was so tiny that folding it was very difficult), although getting the curve into the roof wasn't entirely straightforward. Strangely the fret includes two radiator grills "in case of mishaps", but I found it was very easy to fold and fit, so I now have a spare radiator grill to add to the bit box.

In the photo the body is just posed on the experimental layout plank from the previous post, as while fitting the powered chassis is easy getting it out again is a pain, although given how well the body shell hides the chassis this gives a pretty good idea of how it will look when completed.

Curling

Now I know that curling is traditionally played with large chunks of granite but I've been having fun with my DAS clay cobbles curling all on their own. The problem occurred when I started work on another layout experiment to see how the approach I had settled on for making and painting cobbles worked over a larger area. I used a piece of foam board as the base and made the mistake of assuming it was rigid enough not to curl as the modelling clay dried. It wasn't. Fortunately it wasn't the end of the world; I used a sharp knife to remove a small sliver from the bottom cardboard layer of the foam board allowing me to bend the board enough to remove the curl and so the board would sit flat.

With this experiment I went a little further than just modelling cobblestones though, as you can see from this photo of the Meridian Models kit I recently completed.

I thought I'd take the opportunity to make a start on figuring out how I'm going to construct at least some of the buildings on the layout, and to turn the cobblestones into more of a photographic plank where I can pose the rolling stock as it is built.

I'm not going to go into any details on how I put the building together as it really isn't worth the telling (it's an embarrassing mix of double sided tape and PVA glue, with some badly thought out card formers) other than to point out that everything you can see was printed from one or more scalescenes.com sheets. All the structures on Jerusalem were built from scalescenes.com kits and I was impressed by how (relatively) easy they were to build and how realistic they looked. This scene is actually made up from a few parts from their small goods store kit (it used to be a free download but seems to have disappeared from their site) while the wall is from the ashlar texture sheet and the roof from grey roof tiles. The structure itself is inspired by a similar structure at the Leeds Industrial Museum (see this excellent photo).

I'm quite happy with how this has all turned out. The cobbles look good over a larger area, the scalescenes.com papers have produced a reasonable building, which would be improved with extra detailing on a real model (gutters, drain pipes etc.) so now all I really need to get cracking on the layout itself is a track plan. I really should give it some more thought, but I'll probably get distracted by some more locomotive and rolling stock construction first!

Probably The Best Model Packaging In The World

Now I'm sure you'll all agree that just as you should never judge a book by its cover you shouldn't judge a kit by the package it comes in. Having said that I can't help but be impressed by the level of detail and care that was put into designing the packaging for the Narrow Planet kit which I recently ordered.

Having read the instructions and looked at the parts I think the same level of care has gone into the kit as the packaging so hopefully it will build into an excellent model.

Voiding The Warranty

While in the UK many of the ready to run locomotives are produced by Hornby, Bachmann, or Dapol there are many other companies which produce locomotives and roling stock. In Japan, for instance, KATO are one of the main manufactures of HO and N gauge models. One of the ranges they produce in N gauge is the Pocket Line Passengers. I'm guessing the name comes from the fact that the range is quite cheap, and so could be bought with pocket money, and in fact a full set consisting of track, controller, a steam locomotive and two carriages costs just £45. Mind you its cost is reflected in the quality of the models, as you can see from this publicity shot.

Now you may be wondering why am I telling you about a cheap Japanese N gauge train set? The answer lies in the carriages.

To anyone who has ever handled an N gauge steam locomotive it will probably be obvious that the locomotive in the photo doesn't actually contain a motor, there is simply no where to put one; even a micro-motor with a belt drive through the smoke box would struggle to power that model. The solution KATO have gone for is to fit the motor into one of the carriages. Basically the entire bottom section of the carriage, everything that is black, including the hand-rails on each end, is part of a small powered chassis. Now not only do KATO sell the full train sets but they will happily sell the chassis as spare parts, and it turns out that they are perfect for providing power for OO9 gauge locomotives, such as the Baguley-Drewry diesel locomotive from Narrow Planet that I'm intending to build. So a few weeks ago I ordered the chassis (it's KATO part number 11-104) from a supplier in Japan, via Amazon, for a total price, including P&P of just £13.01. It arrived last weekend, but I've only just got around to doing anything with it, and the first thing I did definitely voids any warranty it might come with!

Although the chassis is very small it is too long and slightly too wide to fit in the body shell of the Narrow Planet kit. Fortunately making it fit is fairly easy. Narrowing the chassis is simply a case of filing off the axle boxes and leaf springs, making it shorter, however, requires more drastic action.

On the way to work yesterday (after being slightly delayed after a truck hit the railway bridge in Penistone), I briefly called in at antics model shop and picked up a razor saw (specifically this one from Expo Tools). With the razor saw hacking the ends off took just a couple of seconds, leaving me with a 46mm long chassis (or around 11 foot 6 inches at 4mm to the foot scale), perfect for powering the Baguley-Drewry. One precaution I took, and which I'd recommend, was to use masking tape to cover the top of the central section while making the alterations to stop small bits of plastic getting into the motor and drive assembly.

As I haven't done anything about a track plan yet, I tested the chassis by running it around Jerusalem for an hour or so in each direction to make sure it was well run in, and it runs perfectly at both high and low speed, even over the points. So now I have the chassis sorted I can start thinking about assembling and painting the body.

Almost There

As you can see I've now finished the workman's open coach (other than fitting couplings, but I'm going to wait until I have something to couple it to). It took me a little longer than planned as I managed to misplace one of the sprues which forced me to tidy and clean my study before I could finish it. Given that I'm intending to use this wagon when the layout is dressed as a modern day industrial museum I've kept the weathering quite light and mostly focused on adding some dirt to the wooden floor. This treatment of the wood doesn't show up too well in the photo but I'm fairly happy with it.

The one thing that concerns me is that the model is very light which might affect it's running quality. On larger OO models there is nearly always somewhere to add some weight but on this model there really isn't any spare space. One option would be to box in one or more of the under seat areas and fill this with liquid gravity, but I think I have a better solution; I'm going to hide the weight in plain sight. My solution is to add reasonably heavy white metal tourists to the wagon. They will not only help bring the layout to life but will easily add extra weight. The only problem is, I'm struggling to find any appropriate figures. Dart Castings do a set of seated figures, but a) they are cast in pewter specifically to keep the weight down and b) I'm not sure from the picture that they will really work as modern day tourists. Does anyone know where I might find some more appropriate white metal seated figures?

Meanwhile... in Sweden

As I mentioned before, I didn't get much modelling done during last week as I had a project meeting to attend. Not only did this mean long days but I wasn't even in the country, in fact I was in Luleå in northern Sweden. I didn't use any trains during the journey there or back but I was staying in a hotel less than a minutes walk from the train station so I thought I'd show you a couple of snowy Swedish railway shots.

Normal service will resume shortly!

Nowhere To Sit (Yet)

So having work on the workmen's open coach yesterday, the main body has come together very quickly. It's not that I spent a lot of time on it, but rather that what you see here is just six, fairly large, parts (plus the wheels) none of which required much cleaning up before assembly. It only took me as long as it did because the sides aren't symmetrical and I fitted the first one to the wrong side, and then there was a little filler needed at the joins between the four sides.

Normally I fully assemble a model before starting to paint it so that a) I don't mess up bits I've already painted, and b) so that I get a better feel for how I want the model to look. In this case though I've followed the suggestion in the instructions to paint the body and floor before fitting the seats.

The floor is meant to look as if it is made from wooden planks and currently is way too light. I'm intending to tone this down with some dry brushing and weathering powders to give an uneven wear look to the floor, but I think that will be done after I've fitted the seats so I know which bits will have had more wear. As well as the seats there is the rest of the brake assembly to fit to the underframe before I then try and make up some couplings, which actually looks like it might be more complex than building the rest of the coach.

One problem I did encounter (and that others building the same kit might) is that the wheels were extremely difficult to fit. Usually on a kit like this either the axle boxes and supports are slightly flexible allowing the wheels to be pushed in with a little bit of force to bend the supports, or the two sides of the underframe are glued together trapping the wheels in place. This kit takes the first approach, but unfortunately the plastic isn't at all flexible. This made it very difficult to get the wheels in place. In fact when trying to apply enough pressure I managed to slide one of the wheels out of position on the axle. I've pushed it back roughly into position (using my digital callipers to try and check the back to back measurement), but I need to get hold of a proper back to back gauge to be sure. I was going to ask if anyone knew where I could get one from as a quick web search hadn't been helpful, but then Paul left a comment on yesterdays post mentioning that Markits do a nice back to back gauge, so that's that problem solved!