Schooner Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 On 28/06/2020 at 14:23, airnimal said: Was it worth it ? Ignoring the end result*, if you enjoyed the process and can take some satisfaction in its completion then I hope so. It's certainly given plenty of joy to your many fans here, and continues to provide inspiration galore Looking forward to whatever's next, Schooner *Which is, of course, a triumph. I'm completely unashamed of the long stretches of time I've spent looking at your wagon pics, finding the bolster particularly captivating. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium airnimal Posted July 3, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted July 3, 2020 Schooner, thank you for the thumbs up. I am slightly embarrassed about such praise. With the the gentle prodding about single bolsters I have started a larger later version that was probably a rebuilt dumb buffer conversion. It has self contained buffers and modern brakes by my standards ( 2 brake shoes ). The buffers I am using are loco buffers from my spares box that have been modified by filing the base off and filing the body parallel. I think they could have been G.W.R tapered buffers, but how I came by them I have no idea ! 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcD Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 10 sets of wheels you must have a plan for them? Marc 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagonman Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 On 28/06/2020 at 20:20, Regularity said: Very, very nice, Mike. But didn’t these tend to run around in pairs? That's being naughty. In this case it was making up a jolly threesome. You know the saying: two's company, three's a derailment. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Northroader Posted July 3, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 3, 2020 Good to see there’s plenty more wagons in the pipeline. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium airnimal Posted July 4, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted July 4, 2020 Well ten sets of wheels aren't any good in there packets so I will have put them to use ! These bolster wagons are a mixed lot on the N.S.R. They seem to be different varieties of styles and with only so much information available, so there will be some guess work involved. I was going to do this one with a small body like the previous one but looking at the photos in G.W.R wagon loads were there are several photos showing flush tops to a couple of them. So I modified this body by inserting individual planks which is a first for me. I took the opportunity to make them all slightly different . I cut the runners out of 60 thou plastic with a set of dividers. The first ring of plastic was too thin so I cut out a second attempt which was better with a ring of 10 thou for the steel rubbing strip. 9 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted July 4, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 4, 2020 16 hours ago, wagonman said: That's being naughty. In this case it was making up a jolly threesome. You know the saying: two's company, three's a derailment. Definitely, if you don't follow the instructions. Hopefully not, if you do, but I think the bolsters need to swivel freely, being chained to the load, and the trucks not taking the load probably need to be well weighted. Continuing to work on this myself. The good news is, you can make up to five trucks without needing to make more than two bolsters. That might be bad news though, if you are particularly into making the bolsters - an Mike's are works of art. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted July 5, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 5, 2020 I wish you'd stop it Mike - every time I see one of your creations it makes me want to emulate your work and then I think, "I don't imagine I'll live long enough!" Those bolsters are superb. Dave 3 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium airnimal Posted July 5, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted July 5, 2020 Dave, I think we are are in the same boat. I am working as fast as I can before the inevitable happens. I am not sure about works of art ! Do you think The Turner Gallery would like to buy them at vastly inflated prices. Its coming together now with the brake gear and the V-irons placed on to check the fitting. I didn't have any V-irons long enough so I had to cut out a pair from a couple of bits of nickel soldered together. 15 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium airnimal Posted July 5, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted July 5, 2020 I am surprised I didn't get pulled up over the Turner Gallery, it is of course the Tait Gallery and the Turner prize. Mistakes like that are common in our house because my wife is from Salford and talks like Hilda Baker, so most things are backward. I have fixed the brake gear with the V-irons and it has worked out fine. The pins holding the V-irons push through the solebar and the brake gear which clips in between several bits of Evergreen. It all comes apart for painting. 8 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post airnimal Posted July 5, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted July 5, 2020 A bit more detail added to the bolsters including the chamfers on the ends. The backing plates had the holes punched through from a 20 thou strip of Evergreen and cut and shaped to size. All the bolts and rivets are yet to go on. 14 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted July 5, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 5, 2020 Where's the "Bl**dy marvellous" button when you need it? Dave 3 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post airnimal Posted July 6, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted July 6, 2020 I have started on the nuts and bolts which showed up a problem with the V-irons. I hadn't got them perfectly square on. I only noticed this when I came to mark the position of the rivets along the small plank above the solebars. I marked the positions with a pencil but when I came to the two in the centre there were either side of the V-iron rather directly above. So I had to remove the pins and fill the holes in and start again. I had to take a small amount of the top of the V-iron on one side and redrill the holes for the fixings. It does look a lot better even though I haven't done the rivets just yet. I have also added a Scale Hardware brass bolt to one side of the D shackles and a coach bolt to the other side. There is still a lot of details to add before I get to the painting stage, but I have got some work to do around the house to keep the household authorities happy. 11 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky Posted July 6, 2020 Share Posted July 6, 2020 Amazing work. Even ‘cruel enlargements’ aren’t cruel. Forgive me if this has been answered somewhere else but what do you weight your wagons with? And how much weight do you aim for? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post airnimal Posted July 7, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted July 7, 2020 Richard, I put lead sheet in pockets under the floor. I don't glue them in after the problems other people have had with boiler explosions when the lead reacted with the various glues being used. I don't really have an ideal weight, I just put what feels right and see how they work around various test tracks. I have just put one on the kitchen scales and it was about 3 oz . I am not sure our scales are correct but when I have run a train of 10 or 12 wagons they have all behaved well without any derailments. It's probably because of other people's good track work rather than my wagons being built right. Getting near the end on my bolster wagon I have put some resin bolts on the outside of the headstock. On the other side I wanted some coach bolts made from plastic rather than the resin ones from MasterClub. The reason I wanted plastic is ease of use when glueing the tiny coach bolts in. When I glue the MasterClub resin ones I use superglue but with very small parts in confirmed spaces I tend to glue myself to everthing else. So so I had to make some plastic coach bolts myself. I have a little jig to make them with which consists of a strip of nickel glued to a wooden sleeper with lots of holes drilled to take Slaters 20 thou brown plastic rod. I place this on another piece of nickel but and raise it up with a couple of strip of 30 thou plastic and load the holes with the plastic rod. I then cut the rod down flush with the top surface and remove the packing to leave the rod sitting proud by 30 thou. I the run a match above the rod and watch all the sticking up bits of rod melt in to tiny coach bolts all the same size. I turn the jig over any and all the bolts fall out. Simple. 8 1 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Worsdell forever Posted July 7, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 7, 2020 36 minutes ago, airnimal said: Richard, I put lead sheet in pockets under the floor. I don't glue them in after the problems other people have had with boiler explosions when the lead reacted with the various glues being used. I don't really have an ideal weight, I just put what feels right and see how they work around various test tracks. I have just put one on the kitchen scales and it was about 3 oz . I am not sure our scales are correct but when I have run a train of 10 or 12 wagons they have all behaved well without any derailments. It's probably because of other people's good track work rather than my wagons being built right. Getting near the end on my bolster wagon I have put some resin bolts on the outside of the headstock. On the other side I wanted some coach bolts made from plastic rather than the resin ones from MasterClub. The reason I wanted plastic is ease of use when glueing the tiny coach bolts in. When I glue the MasterClub resin ones I use superglue but with very small parts in confirmed spaces I tend to glue myself to everthing else. So so I had to make some plastic coach bolts myself. I have a little jig to make them with which consists of a strip of nickel glued to a wooden sleeper with lots of holes drilled to take Slaters 20 thou brown plastic rod. I place this on another piece of nickel but and raise it up with a couple of strip of 30 thou plastic and load the holes with the plastic rod. I then cut the rod down flush with the top surface and remove the packing to leave the rod sitting proud by 30 thou. I the run a match above the rod and watch all the sticking up bits of rod melt in to tiny coach bolts all the same size. I turn the jig over any and all the bolts fall out. Simple. Just brilliant. 1 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium airnimal Posted July 7, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted July 7, 2020 95% complete ! Just needs a tidy up and a few bits adding and then a good clean before painting. I don't think this will be for a couple of days because of the rain. I don't have a paint booth so I have to paint outside. I hope people liked the coach bolts / rivets idea. Melting the brown rod was not my idea because I had seen it in a very early MRJ but the jig to make them all the same size was. If you need to make them with bigger heads you just increase the size of the packing underneath. This allows the bits of brown rod to be longer so increases the head size. 11 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post airnimal Posted July 9, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted July 9, 2020 The rain stopped long enough to get a coat of paint on everything. The body has come out reasonable but then I tried to be smart on painting the wooden deck with disastrous results. I must have had about 10 goes at it with each time getting a worst result. I have removed most of the paint and tried different approaches all the time becoming more despondent. I will build it up shortly and see how it looks then. i managed to get a hair cut yesterday after six months which was a present from one of my daughters for a Father's Day present. She booked me in to a trendy barbers on line. For someone my age it's not what I am use to but the gentleman did a fine job, but when I got home and saw the cost it made me shudder. She paid by card on line but they sent me the receipt to my e-mail account. I don't wish to be ungrateful but I don't want my children spending there hard earned cash on an old fool like me. 13 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Western Star Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 Mike, I do like the appearance of the wooden floor. If I try I can feel the dampness on a couple of the planks to the right hand end in the photo above. A really nice looking wagon. regards, Graham 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Rixon Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 What's your problem with the painted floor? It look right to me. The less-weathered planks are fine. The split plank looks like wood that split and has started to decay along the split. The darkest plank looks like one that has warped lower than its neighbours, rot has started where the rain collects. The only part that look even slightly painted on is alongside the central ironwork. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post airnimal Posted July 9, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted July 9, 2020 Perhaps it's me that doesn't see what other people see. Well I don't think it looks any better built up. Perhaps a large load will cover the offending floor and distract the eye away ? I have to find some lettering the right size and hand paint the NSR knot because I don't have any that small. If the rain stays away this afternoon I will paint the axleboxes and springs and do all the little thing that make the wagon complete. 13 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schooner Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 Speaking not as a modeller but as someone with some professional familiarity with woods in varying stages of use, damp and rot: Best untreated timber I've ever seen. No question. Stick a black and white filter on one of those photos and stick it in a line up - nobody could spot it as the odd one out. I'd be happy to describe how each plank would feel under hand and respond to pressure, identify likely causes of the damage and suggest fixes as if it were the real thing. Really is that convincing. Just sayin' 5 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caley Jim Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 To my eye, another brilliant finish, Mike. You are far too hard on yourself. Just look at the comments from everyone else! Jim 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm 0-6-0 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 Problem with weathering is that it is more a question of when to stop. There's a fine line between looking used and looking fit for the scrapyard which unfortunately seems to be often overlooked in some cases. Your wooden floor planks look used but not to a point where they clash with the standard of the rest of the model. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Regularity Posted July 9, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 9, 2020 Converted to monochrome: 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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