Where is time going? It doesn’t feel like a week ago I was last writing one of these updates! Let’s see what, despite a continued slow recovery, I’ve been up to on the work bench...
The Backwoods standard gauge Garrett has progressed, after I replaced the 12 and 14BA nuts and screws that were missing from the kit. This meant I could finish off the firebox, and make a start on the boiler and securing all these parts together. Some tricky soldering in places, but no damage to white metal castings, but I opted for Araldite to secure the plug and weight in the boiler and smokebox to the saddle. These joints will see the most stress and superglue wasn’t going to cut it where there could be slight flexing. Superglue is great where the joint is stable, or where you need a quick and a discrete fix, however if there will be any movement or one of the parts is heavy I’d recommend Araldite despite the hassle of mixing up the two part epoxy.
Hopefully these parts will be glued securely today so I can begin marking and drilling to fit the handrails.
I’ve ordered some H0 scale Modelu figures last weekend for use on both Kinross and the new layout, as well as a driver for the Claremont and Concord 44t. I’ve painted figures this small before, but it always surprises me how much more fiddly 1:87 is compared to 1:76 despite us being happy to run our OO models on H0 track! The approach was the same as normal, using a limited and faded set of colours from the Games Workshop range; the advantage being their availability, other types I’m sure work as well. The advantage of acrylics here being the speed with which you can work. Painting several figures at one time means there is always one next step you can find to do, rather than waiting. I secure their base to a scrap piece of plastic using Superglue, making handling them a lot easier... these guys have turned out ok, just need dulling down to kill the sheen with some dull-cote.
The final update this week, the start on constructing the laminated sheets representing wooden planking for the large scale freelance diesel I’m building for Paddington! This needs to look like it was assembled pretty roughly, so I’ve got wonky cuts and wandering runs of nails, this 60thou sheet will be glued to the wooden core... I chose plastic over wood due to the control when painting. At heart I’m a modeller, not an engineer, so I’m happy to choose the easiest material to control the finish I want, rather than using the real material in this larger scale. The result is going to be impressive, this is just the front of the bonnet!
It has been a week that has flown by, I’m looking forward to the rest tomorrow- I’ve promised that I’ll watch the second of the original Star Wars films with one of the kids tomorrow, but I’m sure I’ll find some time to write about another scheme I’ve pondered along with a Kinross update! Hope you have a good weekend, in the meantime if you’d like a personal commission, be it a physical model or just help with layout design then please do get in touch. More soon..:
Looking good! Get well soon :-)
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