Cast Off Parts, But a Working Model

So for part three of this design/build process I decied to see what would happen if I simply stuck all the parts I'd printed together, even though there is something wrong with nearly all of them.

I'm intending to post most of the videos for this project to the blog, but if you want to make sure you don't miss any then you can use this link to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Getting the Measurements Right (Mostly)

Quite surprisingly I've really quite enjoyed branching out and recording videos that describe what I'm currently working on. Don't worry this blog isn't going anywhere and will continue to be mainly text based, but I've decided that I'm going to do most of the posts on the 16mm scale 24hp Hudson Hunslet build as videos as they allow me to explain my thinking and design process in a way which is much easier (and quicker) than trying to write it all down. So, here is part two....

Large Scale Progress

Having introduced the idea of building a 16mm scale version of the 24hp Hudson Hunslet in the previous post, I've now done a small amount more work. Specifically I've managed to print a chassis that will hold the wheels and motor.... although due to a slight design flaw it won't fit on the track yet! Rather than lots of text explaining things, and because no one complained about the last video post I did, here is the current state of play

Little and (Ridiculously) Large

Those of you who have been following my modelling for a while will know that the first locomotive I designed was for the rather small 24hp Hudson-Hunslet. This was an 009 kit and so given the small size of the prototype was absolutely tiny, ridiculously so. The kit has been wonderfully successful, but of course not everyone models in 009.

When I was producing the 16mm Simplex detailing parts I was asked if it was possible to scale the Hudson-Hunslet kit up to 16mm. My initial answer was... I've no idea. After a little thought I did wonder if I could use the P.S Models Hudson-Hunslet chassis kit and then design a body to fit. Unfortunately while the chassis is almost exactly the right length it's way, way too wide. Thinning it down might be possible, but it would involves taking a strip of each side of the footplate and both buffers and getting that all square sounds like a lot of hard work.

Now obviously given I already have the CAD files for the 4mm to the foot version I can just scale that up to make something four times as big and see if it would print. Unfortunately when I tried that I discovered that while the footplate will fit within my printer if I add the buffer beams (i.e. another 5mm or so) it won't fit. Fortunately with the way my CAD files work I can just remove pieces (like the buffers) and so as a test I printed two buffer beams, and then the central section and stuck them together. I also printed the radiator (including the parts that are etched on the 009 version) to give me a better idea of what a completed model might look like and well....

It's huge, at least in comparison to the 009 version; I'm not sure which end of the scale is the more ridiculous.

Having proven that I can at least print the parts and produce the chassis, I will probably keep going and produce a model for myself. While scaling the CAD for the body should be reasonably simple I need to design a new drive system and work out how it will all assemble, but it looks like I have another design project on the go.

And yes before anyone mentions it, I did take the photograph with the radiator balanced on the rear of the chassis not the front. Ooops.

Gauge Adjustable

So I think I've now got the 16mm scale chassis from I P Engineering back to where it was before it suffered from rust. As well as painting it (to stop the rust reoccuring) I've also made some modifications and while I could write about them I thought I'd try something new and have shot a short video where I talk through the changes I've made.

I don't really like the sound of my voice when I hear it back, so I don't think this will become a frequent occurance, but it would be great to know what people think about the video and if they think I should do more posts like this.

And Now For Something Completely Different

During the summer my eldest son enjoyed doing some bark rubbings and this triggered a memory from when I was (much younger) of doing something similar, but different. Specifically it reminded me of doing brass rubbing. I have a vauge recollection that the first time I did this was on some actual brasses at a brass rubbing centre somewhere in Wales: I want to say Caernarfon, but I could be wrong. Mostly though I did lots and lots of rubbings from two resin kits that I was bought: one was of Robert the Bruce and the other was the Black Prince. Unfortunately I don't know what happened to my own kits but it turns out you can still buy them, along with some other designs. Unfortunately they were out of stock of the Black Prince kit, but I bought one of the Robert the Bruce ones and it really is identical to the one I had and more importantly Toby thought it was fantastic when the prince suddenly appeared on the paper.

Of course with only one design Toby soon got bored at which point my wife made the suggestion that maybe I could design and 3D print some more, maybe even some train related things. Turns out she was thinking of Thomas the Tank Engine but I went in a slightly different direction.

When I started working on the 3D printed details for the 16mm scale Simplex I built one of the first things I did was to model the complex Simplex logo which I thought was going to adorn one side of the radiator.

In the end it turned out that logo didn't appear on the model of locomotive I was building and so it never went beyond the test print, but it seemed like something that you could take a rubbing from, so I scaled it up to as big as would fit in my printer and printed another copy. This was then stuck with double sided tape to a small offcut of plywood.

The 3D print itself if quite nice and may actually paint up well as a separate thing, but what I really wanted was to see how well it worked as a "brass" rubbing.

Both Toby and I are pretty happy with that. In fact it looks even better in real life as I had issues trying to take the photo; the black art paper doesn't seem to photograph as black more of a gray and the brass crayon reflects the light well which I think was confusing my phone. Either way you get the idea.

Anyone have ideas for other things we could print and use as a brass?

Rust

Tidying up my study over the weekend I opened a box containing a locomotive build I started almost two years ago in December 2020, and which for some reason never made it to the blog. Given December 2020 was just a few months before our second son was born, my free time disappeared and I didn't get very far and the part built chassis get stored away in a box. Unfortunately time hasn't been particularly kind to the model, although it would appear that's my fault for not reading the instructions properly.

As you can probably tell from the photo this is the chassis for a 16mm scale locomotive, and it's constructed from laser cut steel pieces. Specifically this is one of I P Engineerings deluxe heavy duty dual gauge chassis. The kit this is part of has separate instruction sheets for the chassis and body and as I like to have the chassis running first I started by assembling the chassis.

The instructions were easy to follow and include numerous photos showing the chassis being built up with the raw steel pieces, and given that it will be completely hidden on the final model, I did just that and gave no thought to painting it. In retrospect I know steel rusts but this was the first time I'd used steel in a model build so didn't think anything of leaving it as it was. Clearly that was a mistake.

To be fair the first instruction on the sheet for building the body reads...

Start by preparing and painting the chassis components as the steel will eventually go rusty if it is not protected

which, as I now know, is completely accurate. But that brings us to something else I've never had to do before: remove rust from steel parts. There were some spare buffer plates in the kit which I don't need but which had also rusted so that gave me something to experiment on.

After a hunt around the Internet the most promising option, given what I had in the house, was just to spray on some WD-40 and then rub it down with a pan scrubber. As you can see this seems to work nicely. There is still some slight discoloration of the metal surface, but it looks pretty good to me. So next step for this kit will be to strip the chassis down completely, before removing all the rust, painting the parts and then re-assembly.