Kylestrome’s 4mm Workbench

[Kylestrome]

Roll out the barrel(s)

 

 

I'm making an effort to finish as many outstanding projects as I can before the end of the year. The first of these are two more Parkside kit open wagons for transporting barrels to, and from, the whisky distillery. They've been finished for some while but still needed a good dose of 'weathering' and a load.

 

 

 

The small barrels are from Base Toys and the larger ones (Hogsheads?) I have turned, on the lathe, from suitable wooden dowel. The metal hoops were cut from pre-painted masking tape and sealed with an overall coat of matt varnish.

 

David

Edited November 14, 2023 by Kylestrome

[sb67]

On 14/11/2023 at 18:35, Kylestrome said:

Roll out the barrel(s)

 

 

I'm making an effort to finish as many outstanding projects as I can before the end of the year. The first of these are two more Parkside kit open wagons for transporting barrels to, and from, the whisky distillery. They've been finished for some while but still needed a good dose of 'weathering' and a load.

 

 

 

The small barrels are from Base Toys and the larger ones (Hogsheads?) I have turned, on the lathe, from suitable wooden dowel. The metal hoops were cut from pre-painted masking tape and sealed with an overall coat of matt varnish.

 

David

 

Those barrels look superb, the bigger ones are Hogsheads, I've worked in a Brewery and moved them around more times than I care to mention, they are bloody heavy too! 

How did you paint them, the colouring looks spot on?

Sorry for the questions but I like the weathering on your wagons, how did you get that look? 

Edited November 16, 2023 by sb67

[Kylestrome]

6 hours ago, sb67 said:

How did you paint them, the colouring looks spot on?

Sorry for the questions but I like the weathering on your wagons, how did you get that look?

That‘s a bit difficult for me to answer other than to say, with brushes and and enamel paints. In a previous life, I worked as an illustrator (before Photoshop, Illustrator, et al) so I might have a slightly unfair advantage when it comes to painting what I see.
 

One thing that I find important though, is to have good reference material in photographic form. Also, when it comes to weathering, don‘t be afraid of making a mess of it. With opaque paints you can always overpaint any mistakes and, with so much prototypical variation, who‘s to know what it should look like anyway!? 😉

 

David

 

PS. I hope you didn‘t do your back in with those hogsheads!

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by Kylestrome

[sb67]

7 hours ago, Kylestrome said:

That‘s a bit difficult for me to answer other than to say, with brushes and and enamel paints. In a previous life, I worked as an illustrator (before Photoshop, Illustrator, et al) so I might have a slightly unfair advantage when it comes to painting what I see.
 

One thing that I find important though, is to have good reference material in photographic form. Also, when it comes to weathering, don‘t be afraid of making a mess of it. With opaque paints you can always overpaint any mistakes and, with so much prototypical variation, who‘s to know what it should look like anyway!? 😉

 

David

 

PS. I hope you didn‘t do your back in with those hogsheads!

 

 

 

 

I'm lucky, touch wood my back's ok, more than be said for many other Draymen I know!

I find painting what you see difficult and get caught up in a method or product and want to try that rather than replicating a photo, I'm trying to get the hang of it though! 

[Kylestrome]

Carrying the coals

 

 

 

The next two wagons to be completed are a couple of 16t minerals. Again, these were finished and have been sitting on the shelf for some time awaiting a good dose of rust.

 

 

 

Someone didn't do a very good job of sweeping them out.

 

 

 

 

These wagons will arrive loaded and depart empty, so I needed to make a couple of removable loads. They are just pieces of balsa wood that have been cut to a snug fit and carved into a shallow humped shape. The blocks glued on underneath allow them to be tipped up, by pressing a finger on one end, for easy removal. They are finished off with black paint and a sprinkling of crushed coal* fixed with diluted PVA glue.

 

David

 

* "It fell off the back of a loco, officer."

[Kylestrome]

A Christmas Quickie 😊

 

I had one last BR open wagon kit on in the drawer that I've managed to build in the, what for me is, record time of four days. It was meant to be a shock wagon but, because I've run out of the special shock wagon buffers, I decided to 'stretch' into a standard 13t open wagon.

 

 

 

 

In the end I used very few bits from the kit (the brown bits). The rest came from the spare parts box. It's amazing how many extra bits accumulate after building a number of Parkside kits! The brass details are from my dwindling stock of Masokits etches.

 

David

 

A note for the rivet-counters: There are no bolts on the diagonal straps because this wagon will probably be fitted with a tarpaulin. 😉

 

 

 

Edited January 18 by Kylestrome

[Kylestrome]

BR Grain Hoppers

 

 

These two Bachmann wagons, which I started to detail years ago, are finally complete.

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/118922-kylestrome’s-4mm-workbench/?do=findComment&comment=3055698

 

Since then they have received, replacement footsteps, tie bars and brake levers plus the usual P4 wheelsets and Dingham couplings. The Whitemetal vacuum pipes seemed like a good idea, when I started using them, but these, and several more on other wagons, have been broken off in the general rough-and-tumble of operating the layout. I fear I may have to start refurbishing all of my vacuum-fitted wagons with my home-grown wire pipes.

 

 

 

 

They will join my 'eighties' wagon fleet, which I'm now working on expanding.

 

David

 

 

Edited January 19 by Kylestrome

[Kylestrome]

RGB Wagons

 

 

These three wagons have just emerged from my spray booth. They'll be used for transporting bulk monitor pixels ... 🙄

 

David

 

Edited January 19 by Kylestrome

[Covkid]

On 29/06/2023 at 19:21, Kylestrome said:

Analogue Fun

Having just sent my Lenz Digital controller off for a software update, I decided to dig out this only analogue loco and actually complete it after all these years! I plan to finish it as 20048 which is the only early disc code Class 20 I can find that worked on the West Highland, being in use at Fort William in 1985.

 

David

Interesting project

Ian Futers is very inspirational - first discovered this nearly 30 years ago when we established the Austrian Railway Group, which was borne out of a small group of people who did a sort of "round robin" picture portfolio sent to each other. 

 

I enjoyed playing with Ian's numerous layouts - both Austrian and Scottish themed. 

 

Regarding West Highland line class 20s - we must remember the locos which were retro fitted with a steam pipe for helping out on rhe sleeping car train.  The pair I remember were 20045 and 20085 but I think there were actually three. 

 

 

If you go to "spannerman37025" on the Flickrsite he has a cracking shot of pair 37012+20045 on the Up Fort William - Euston at Rannoch. 

This is the caption attached to the photo

 

37012+20045

37012 and through steam piped 20045 wait departure from Rannoch with the 16.10 Mallaig to London Euston which they will work as far as Glasgow, some train spotters were desperate for a cab ride , this one even had his own uniform, he still has one today, officially, but the one in the shot would be a tight fit now...

3/5/83

 

Edited January 26 by Covkid

[Covkid]

Another useful Flickr image by Adrian Hancock shows 37051+20045 on the sleeper. Here is his caption

 

37051 + 20045 Tyndrum Upper

08/08/1983 06:00 Glasgow QS - Mallaig. Due to the lack of Sunday services on the WHL at the time, the first train of the day on a Monday was often one the the through steam piped Eastfield 20's (20045 and 20085) to give some extra oomph. On this beautiful day in the middle of a Scottish rover we had 20045. Quite why we got off here rather than go to Fort William I don't know - probably to get a bag of crisps for breakfast at Tyndrum garage.

 

[Kylestrome]

9 hours ago, Covkid said:

If you go to "spannerman37025" on the Flickrsite he has a cracking shot of pair 37012+20045 on the Up Fort William - Euston at Rannoch.

 

Thanks for the info. It makes a pleasant change to find a useful Flickr I haven't already seen.

 

David

 

PS. I must get around to finishing that Class 20!

 

Edited January 26 by Kylestrome

[Kylestrome]

COVHOPs

 

 

The latest P4 conversion victims have just arrived on my workbench.

I have a couple of Bill Bedford COVHOP kits to build, but with life getting ever shorter I decided to give myself a head start with these Bachmann RTR wagons. Although they are now long out of stock with most dealers, I was lucky to find some new ones at Olivia's Trains. Ordered in the wee hours yesterday, they arrived in Germany by midday today. That's what I call express delivery!

 

And the first one is already in bits. The roof is very lightly glued-on which is convenient for putting more weight in. I wasn' expecting the wheels to be quite such a tight fit though. I'll need to put in a bit more delicate work to get them running freely. Otherwise, I'm very pleased  that I will easily able to repaint a couple into unfitted grey livery as the bodies just unscrew from the under frames.

 

Onwards & upwards,

David

Edited September 5 by Kylestrome

[Kylestrome]

Healthy Workbench

 

 

After an enforced 'rest' from the the workbench. I'm already back to the six-square-inches-of-useable-space situation. The victim this time is one of my Grampus wagon kits, and it's going together rather well. I'm even going to use the supplied plastic buffer heads, having decided they're not that bad really. The older I get, the more pragmatic my approach to these things... 😷

 

 

David

[Kylestrome]

The next project

 

 

The next victim/modelling project has landed on my workbench. This VGA will be the largest wagon on the roster and it dwarfs everything else on the layout. I will be back-dating it to its original livery with red ends and the Railfreight boards in the the top side corners. The jury is still out on whether I need to do something with the wheel assemblies. I might be able to simply drop in some new P4 wheels and keep the 'steering'. One thing's for sure; it will need modified Dingham couplings with extended width loops.

 

in other news, Both Grumpus wagons are all but finished.

 

 

False wagon floor of scribed lead.

 

 

My simplified way of fitting Dinghams. A straight cut with a razor saw is sufficient and saves considerable 'faff'. The buffer beam will be cleaned up and an etched mounting plate glued over the gap.

 

 

My workbench can also be untidy... Safety loops, pipes & Couplings still to go.

 

David

Ufinished business. And some dust!

Edited 23 hours ago by Kylestrome

[sb67]

Some fine modelling David, I've a couple of VGA's to work on so I'll be interested to see how you do with yours. I want to weather them in to the flat grubby brown versions I remember from the 80's.

[heavymetalwagons]

those of you old enough will remember the 4mm kit version (mine's still in the bag) you have inspired me to at least have another look at it (thanks just added yet another job to the list!!!)

[Kylestrome]

6 hours ago, heavymetalwagons said:

those of you old enough will remember the 4mm kit version (mine's still in the bag) you have inspired me to at least have another look at it (thanks just added yet another job to the list!!!)

I‘m pleased to say that the Bachmann version is something of a quantum leap over the old kit!😄

[Enfys_Rainbow]

Nice work!

 

I've also just completed a Grampus recently myself.