Bacup - Mills in the hills

[Mark Forrest]

Wagons are looking good 

Don't forget a bit of white paint on the end of the brake levers.

 

(edit to add: and probably on the door levers on the hoppers too)

[artizen]

Have you seen this thread Jason? The rust streaks might be useful.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/22315-adventures-in-code-55/page-22

[Andrew P]

Hi Jason, thanks for posting the wagon pic in the Lounge, I just had to pop in here and have a proper look at these little beauties, great stuff mate, we just need to get young Jeff doing his own thing as well.

 

More pics the better for me at the mo please.

 

All the best.

Edited June 20, 2014 by Andrew P

[vince]

Just flicked through from the pages were I last left off, and can I say it is remarkable. It certainly beats the modern bacup. Moved away 5 years ago and ended up in Devon. On my last visit the only difference was the yet more borded up shop fronts. Just out of interest my godfarther owns the Italian restaurant on the road, just in front of what would have been the platforms, before the grass banking. The weathering on those wagons is exceptional and think I may try it on some of my own....

[Jamiel]

A technique I read in 'Art of Weathering' by Martyn Welch that I would like to try on coal and ore wagons to get the peeling paint over rust is:

Mix some talc and rust colour and paint on.

Dab some making liquid (Maskol) on the area where the rust has bubbled up the paint.

Paint over it all with your wagon colour.

When it is dry use a cocktail stick to peel of the paint and Maskol bubbes, leaving a paint edge and rust underneath.

Then weather and dry brush the edges that are left.

It does look good on the examples in the book (just a pity most of the photo are black and white in that book). Obviously this technique is for the badly rusted wagons, not just the stained and rush specked ones, but I hope to give it a try soon.

The layout is looking fantastic. Don't feel pressured into adding a backscene if you don't want to, I always felt the layout was near the top of a hill anyway.

Jamie

Edited June 24, 2014 by Jamiel

[Jason T]

After looking at the rolling stock threads of Shaun (Sasquatch) and Scott (Jukebox), and seeing them progressing with various wagons kits and scratchbuilding, I got the bug to knock a couple together myself. The only ones I had in the stockpile were a Cambrian LNER 6 plank open and a Colin Ashby LMS Tube wagon.

 

I'm a bit unsure about Cambrian's kits; the moulding details is very crisp and the body almost falls together, but the solebars and axlebox configuration makes them a pain in the backside to get square and level, as the axleboxes slot into the back of the solebars. That would be fine with precision engineering but the soapy moulded plastic used for the underframes are definitely not precision engineered. I have to come clean and admit that in the past, I got so frustrated with trying to get one of their kits square, that I crushed it in my fist and lobbed it in the bin. Not so this time, and it's spot on, although I did have to add a shim of Plastikard to the ends of the solebars where there was a gap between them and the bufferbeam.

As you may be able to tell, this has already had a coat of primer (Halfords) and the underframes have had their first scruffy, thin coat of Matt Black (another will follow, before weathering).

 

 

I bought two of the Colin Ashby kits from the man himself at the Leeds exhibition last year, for the princely sum of 2.80 each (albeit without wheels). Now I imagine that the kits are of some vintage as the mouldings aren't the most crisp and need quite a bit of cleaning up to remove the flash, as well as a fair bit of filing to get everything square; mainly the solebars. Also, for those who are used to Parkside and the lugs on the underside of the floor to space the solebars, it comes as a bit of a shock to discover there are no such luxuries on this kit so I made some spacers out of Plastikard and glued them to the underside, resulting in a wagon that is square, level and in the 'push along the track and through the turnouts' test, performed fine.

The other one has been on the layout for about 8 months, in case anyone was wondering

 

 

 

The Phoenix LMS Push Pull coach is also progressing, albeit slowly. The underframes provided in the kit were at best, a bit messy and at worst, a joke. The amount of flash was enough to require a jigsaw to remove it and the soapy plastic it was made from was pitted and just horrible. Larry, look away now.....

 

Right, now Larry's distracted, I can admit that I decided to use the underframes from an old Airfix LMS suburban coach, albeit titivated with some goodies from Comet.

The bogies that came with the kit were brass but with whitemetal overlays for the axleboxes, etc., and were once again, throwaway (the Airfix ones put them to shame). I did think about using the Airfix ones but as they are plastic with no bearings, they ran very poorly whereas the brass part of the Phoenix ones with the bearings in would run forever. I did have a go at using the sides of the Airfix bogies but it was basically polishing a turd so I have ordered bogies from Comet and will use these.

 

So, here is where the coach currently stands. Much still to do but getting there. Not the best and definitely not up to Larry's standards (obviously) but if I am honest, looking better than I expected it would.

 

 

[Market65]

Hi, Sandside. I think that the two wagons are looking great, and the LMS Push-Pull carriage is something which is already equalling the best. I like the way in which you've managed to over come serious problems with the chassis as supplied in the kit.

 

All the best,

 

Market65.

[Jason T]

Not much of an update today really but here goes.

 

The Comet coach bogies arrived but all I have had chance to do so far is to solder together the main structure; the brake shoes need filing a fair bit before they slot into their handily placed recesses. With the gentlest of nudges, they run forever

 

For no other reason than I saw Karl Crowther's fantastic example of the same thing, I decided to dig out a load of sheets of Wills Random Stone and try to join them together in a usable and practical sized sheet. This has involved quite a bit of cutting, filing, glueing and then using more MEK as well as files, scribers, off-cuts and a scalpel to try and align the mortar courses and hide the vertical joins. I'm sure you can tell where the joins are (it's down the centre, obviously !!!) but it's turned out not too bad at all and once painted, I reckon it would be pretty hard to spot, especially if any doors and windows could be put into that area.

 

So far, I've done this sheet and another half sheet (joined vertically) but I might just prepare a load of them for future use as I really love the look of the stonework on the Wills sheets.

 

This is 4 sheets joined together.

[Alister_G]

Nice job, as you say the vertical join is more obvious, but even then not glaringly so, and it took me a while to find the horizontal join. Once painted, you won't see it at all.

 

Al.

[Jason T]

The basic method is using MEK and allow it to work as it should, e.g. melting the plastic and then working that into the gaps (using tiny slithers to fill any larger gaps). Once it's dried / set, it can then be worked at with a file, etc., to disguise the join. You could probably take it much further than I have on the above sheet.

[mark axlecounter]

Them bogies look the business Jason and the wagons look good too

[Andy Y]

Followers of this topic may wish to see Bacup in October's BRM - if so please cast your vote - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/87624-brm-october-rmweb-edition-choose-your-content/

[Andrew P]

Morning all, Bacup's got my vote, it reminds me so much of a couple of all time classics, Buckingham Great Central and Borchester Market, and above all it has the most amazing buildings.

 

Good Luck Jason.

 

Bodge.

[Jaz]

Yes good luck....although I did vote for Westerham.  

You are well known  and well beloved, and I like his work, which is not so well known....especially his off the cuff modelling. Bacup is seriously good. And would be a very worthy winner.

 

 

.......oi.......oi.....I'm supposed to get the chance to say....get my coat....and leave.........

                                                    ....not get picked up by the scruff and booted out!!!!!!..................    

[Indomitable026]

Not sure who to vote for?

 

Do you have a graffiti wall anywhere on the layout?

[2ManySpams]

A wall for giraffes?

[Jaz]

Not sure who to vote for?

 

Do you have a graffiti wall anywhere on the layout?

 

A wall for giraffes?

Oi....oi.......no ganging up.........one boot up the bum is enough........  ....................................  .

2ManySpams....do you know....if you had said that before almost all the space was spoken for I could have popped a giraffe in.......and possibly too late for a skit on DiD..........Liile men in T shirts with your avatars......comes to mind....LOL

although you never know what I might pop some up elsewhere...........    

plus Jason might know me by sight so can watch out that I don't have any cans of paint........but you don't know me from Adam.......so perhaps that nice new signalbox..............LOL

 

Trouble is...takes me a couple of hours to hand paint them......so you would catch me at it LMAO. I could bring my girls as protection (two very nice dobermanns) What is your schedule again? Going North to NYMR.......ah shame a bit too far for me......and I do so love a bit of Goathland. 

 

Seriously though am liking the new signalbox.

[vulcanbomber]

The basic method is using MEK and allow it to work as it should, e.g. melting the plastic and then working that into the gaps (using tiny slithers to fill any larger gaps). Once it's dried / set, it can then be worked at with a file, etc., to disguise the join. You could probably take it much further than I have on the above sheet.

A warm soldering iron works quite well as well

 

[Indomitable026]

Oi....oi.......no ganging up.........one boot up the bum is enough........  ....................................  .

2ManySpams....do you know....if you had said that before almost all the space was spoken for I could have popped a giraffe in.......and possibly too late for a skit on DiD..........Liile men in T shirts with your avatars......comes to mind....LOL

although you never know what I might pop some up elsewhere...........    

plus Jason might know me by sight so can watch out that I don't have any cans of paint........but you don't know me from Adam.......so perhaps that nice new signalbox..............LOL

 

Trouble is...takes me a couple of hours to hand paint them......so you would catch me at it LMAO. I could bring my girls as protection (two very nice dobermanns) What is your schedule again? Going North to NYMR.......ah shame a bit too far for me......and I do so love a bit of Goathland. 

 

Seriously though am liking the new signalbox.

We are being threatened with dogs?

[Jaz]

We are being threatened with dogs?

how big a hole am I digging here????    

 

why do I have the sneaking feeling when I admit to owning two female dobermanns.....your going to say you thought it was three bitches    

[Straits Settlements]

...technique I read in 'Art of Weathering' by Martyn Welch that I would like to try ...

 

I've tried the Martyn Welch Maskol method and it's certainly effective. However, while it's great for 7mm, the edges close up can look a tad deep and too distinct for 4mm. So, the jury's out for me, and I've reverted to stippling rust/black/leather one after the other, dry brush and cocktail sticks.

 

John D

[Jason T]

The Martyn Welch method works well for larger areas of rust but after looking at far too many images on Paul Bartlett's site, it seems like the smaller scratches and spots of rust are more common (especially earlier on) than the seemingly terminal rust patches. Thing is, I am not sure that it looks right with the smaller spots of rust, probably because as modellers, we tend to try and depict the extremes of weathering rather than the more subdued norm.

 

On another note, no real update this week but as you may have seen elsewhere, I had the utmost pleasure of visiting Gilbert and seeing Peterborough North. Whilst there, I picked up a collection of Parkside 21 Ton hoppers from Tim, in various stages of completion, and have been finishing them off as a batch job. Obviously (a you can see from the photos), Bacup doesn't have any coal drops so some may say that 21 tonners are surplus to requirements but my excuses are that 1, I like them and 2. They are worked up to the terminus before being worked back down the line to serve industries served from the up line only.

 

Oh, what tangled webs we weave.....

[TheSignalEngineer]

I agree on your weathering comments. I'm working around the 1959-61 era, and when looking at pictures of the time there are a quite a few of almost pristine wagons around. hardly surprising in that 16T minerals and 12T vanfits were built up to about 1959. I'm just doing an engineers train and on checking found that most Dogfish, Catfish, Grampus and Mermaid wagons were built between 1959 and 1961, so they will be almost new at that time. probably more stone dust than rust for the weathering. My two methods are stippled dry brushing using rust with a varying small quantity of black for each run, or sometimes especially on frames and inside steel bodied wagons a light dusting with powder on a not quite dry matt spray. 

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

Wonderful railway, hoppers were sometimes sent in error to coal yards without coal drops, sometimes they were sent back, but if the coal merchant was short of coal, the hopper would be opened to let the coal drop to the ground, then shoveled into bags, and what a awkward backbreaking job that would be.

 

manna

[Jaz]

On the voting this morning Jason is ahead of the pack...but only by a very short neck.......

And as I am now aware that he has not had a major mag show off his stunning work....can I suggest that if you want to see his work in print....you vote with your finger

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/87624-brm-october-rmweb-edition-choose-your-content/