A little Quiet. A little Busy

The modelling front has been a little Quiet now that the rain has gone, Though I have been very busy with the house extensions. While most of the works have been concentrated on the boring side of it, the single garage on the eastern side of the house, I was able to do a bit toward the train room. I may have mentioned earlier that the train room will be underneath the back part of the house as well as an area extending out from the back with its own roof. The six steel posts, pictured below, will be replaced by four posts that supports a steel 'C' section beam so as to eliminate some of the posts within the room. I have to put up with two of them but!

This is the back of the shack showing the six existing posts. The length between outside posts is 9.3m. The room extends out 2.6m from the posts and under the house 3.2m to the brick piers giving me a train room size about 9m x 6m. Still not big enough!

I have spent the last week setting out and digging the four new pier holes ready for concrete, hopefully this week. As most of the details of the building work needed to be engineered for council, it seems to me that they have over engineered everything. The holes are 600 x 600 x 800mm deep. Two of these being 400mm below the slab level. A metre deep of digging!

The steel beam has also arrived. Just need the rain to stay away now.

The view from next door showing the pier holes ready for council inspection. The formed hole closest to us is for the upper house extension part.

Here is the steel beam ready for installation. Yes, that is a 66 Mustang. Father In laws.

While I have been busy with the house, I was still able to find time to do some modelling.....not much but. The BCW's have been shelved again as i am still waiting for the resins etc for the floor. I have been working on, for some time, a near enough KF flat wagon. I used an Austrains K wagon and took to it with a razor saw. After removing the unwanted sides, I carefully removed all of the heads of the rivet detail that would normally hold the side panels together on the prototype. I then drilled with a number 80 drill all the rivets that would be visible on the chassis. Then, I removed all traces of the angles and flat braces leaving the holes in the chassis sides in the correct location of the rivets. I extended the grooves in the timber floor so as they are visible on the side of the wagon. A small score using a fine razor saw is made along the sides and ends to show the bottom of the timber planks. The odd looking section and angle brackets behind the centre step was also fabricated from styrene. New centre sill and brake detail where then added under the car along with Brass brake detail etch for the hand brake lever. All the steps and grab irons removed earlier are put back in place.I should really make new steps from brass angle as per the prototype. I had also made coupler release bars, however after closer inspection of the photos (Day Of The Goods Train & AMRM June 2002) I have positioned them in the wrong way as the one in the photo hangs down under the coupler and up to the outside of the chassis on an angle. As usual RP25-88 wheels are fitted. After I fix the coupler release bars, I just need to add the timber sides to the top of the deck, A few tie down eye bolts and paint and weather the wagon.....Along with the other half finished projects building up on the work bench.

Here is the KF as of today. I have not fixed the Coupler bars yet.

Underside of KF showing brake detail.

Stubborn Cows

Just can't seem to get these stubborn cows moving! The BCW's have come to a grinding halt. I have had to order stock to make up the external bracing. In the mean time I was able to assemble the sides and ends along with internal roof supports.

Assembled body waiting external bracing

New buffer beams were also constructed to give the appearance of the 'C' channel, again using various sized Styrene.

Detailed shots of new buffer beam.

While waiting for the brass stock for the BCW's, I have decided to make a start on a few other goods stock to hopefully have ready for Melbourne. I picked up a couple of the Infront Models Arnott's Biscuit Vans last year at the Sydney AMRA show. I wanted to add a bit of extra detail to these mainly in the form of brake rigging. This was the first time I have done this and subsequently learnt a bit along the way. James McInerney done a great article on the detailing of the four wheel S wagons in the Branchline Modeller Mags. This along with full size pictures I took while at Glenreagh helped immensely. I cheated a little and used the S wagon super detail etch from Keiran Ryan Models. I also used a few odd castings from the Branchline modeller S wagon super detail Kit. I think the end result will look fine once i paint it.

Two shots showing the ABV with added brake gear. Pretty much ready for paint.

Another small project started a few weeks back is a four wheel 1948 CW cattle wagon. This will be the original unstrengthened version. The basis for the model was the bergs CW. I removed most of the plastic timber slats from both sides and ends using a bench linisher. I was a little impatient when I tried to hand file them off, but if you take your time the linisher is much faster. The remainder of the slats along with the two extra vertical braces are then removed with a scalpel. I also wanted to achieve a see through look around the door. This was done with a razor saw, small drills and dental pick. I have not finished this part yet. The slats will be replace with scale timber. The original bergs side left, and the modified on the right.

The up close shot of the wagon side with all traces of cladding removed.

I have started on removing the areas around the doors.

Another small project started quite a while back is an Ian Lindsay Models BWF. Basically straight from the box with a little brake details, Shoes pipes etc.

Underside of the BWF. I have added the brake shoes to only one bogie at this stage.

I have just about finished the DOT mentioned in a previous post. Just about all the decals are on the painted model. A few added extras to put on, then weathering to finish off.

Behind the scenes a mate of mine, Andrew Lee, has been working on an LWW well wagon. I think there was only a few of these ever made. He is a whiz with Auto Cad and has put together a very detailed brass etch. He had two etches done, He had build the first and he had me do the second. Its starting to look very good. Originally he wanted it to cast, however because of its extremely thin sides it was almost impossible. He is hoping to revise the etch to be in kit form as it currently would be a little difficult for the average modeller to assemble.

You can almost read the Builders plate!

That's all for now. I will keep working on the stock and keep you all posted.