Mega update

Spent another day painting at Dad's.  Progress was made on many fronts.  Here's where things are up to:

Castell Caernarfon has had its plates added and a few other titbits...





But most of the work since the last update has been on 138... with much piping added, mudhole door covers replicated by using the lenses from small red LEDs(!), washout plugs installed etc etc

  

The tanks are done and were primed just after this shot was taken:



The Romanian carriage 2060 has come on massively with lots of extra details added by Dad's steady hand - silver around the windows, red around the doors etc.

 

Other things sprayed in this session included:
Vale of Ffestiniog - two coats of the darker green (BR sherwood)
Upnor Castle - primer plus a base of green
carriages 24 and 25 in maroon
Col Stephens' green for 3 bugs and carriage 23 (red ends masked off)
Merddin's roof in primer
4 cycle stands for the bike wagons in grey primer
Gelert in primer and then rover midnight blue courtesy of halfords(!)
FR carriage 117 in primer (I noticed this car on the WHR during superpower - how had I missed this one being transferred?)



Finally Dad and I spent ages (Dad for considerably longer whilst I played tennis with my brother) sorting out the red lines on all the WHR carrs so that they can be finally glazed.  Carr 22 was glazed as a test for the glue - GS hypo cement works perfectly!

Yard board wiring done

Wiring is done (save for the LED point indicator which I can’t do as I lent Dad all my LEDs!).  To save time, I checked the polarity with croc clips before soldering on, saving any resoldering later!  I really do like tortoises as they are so easy to setup and can be tweaked easily too.  The only problem with them is their depth, which exceeds that of my baseboard framework.  So, to avoid damage to the bottom of the tortoises, I made up 4 little pads which will hit the ground before the tortoise does, thus saving them.  These are being glued/nailed in place as per the image below…  They will be invisible on the finished layout as the curtain covers them.

Lunchtime wiring update

It’s just about lunchtime and I’m pleased to report that all 4 tortoises are nearing completion.  1 has been tested, and despite the frog polarity being wrong, works perfectly.  [why is it always the case that you wire them up the wrong way round??].

The other 3 have had their inputs from the lenz accy decoder added, rectified by diodes.  These have been tested and also work fine.  Now it just remains to sort out the frog polarity feeds and on one of the motors, the LED point indicator.

If you’re wondering why I’m modelling today, this is because I am currently on gardening leave having resigned from my job yesterday.  It’s yet to be confirmed, but I may possibly have 3 months of this – plenty of modelling time!

Tortoises installed

painting of track is nearly complete and so the tortoises have been screwed in under the baseboard. wiring will commence today.

In other news I am building the cycle stands for the B wagon (bike wagon) from some evergreen strip and have already sourced some bikes. 

Superpower!

Spent two nights camping for superpower this weekend, here are a few highlights:

I camped at Llyn Cwellyn, here’s the view when I opened the tent in the morning!

87 and 138 on usual service trains (but with a difference!):

plus visitors Taliesin (minus coal rails!) and Lyd:

some great photographic opportunities, especially on the Sunday:

 

Here’s the view from the Glanrafon slate tips:

I walked miles!  Up to the top of Bryn Du from Bron Hebog (the farm) is a memorable climb!

 

and specials: long trains, double headers, construction stock in use etc etc:

 

and I even got to see a bit of the ‘other side’ and get some shots of Gelert too:

 

and of course plenty of opportunity to get up close and personal with various items of rolling stock to check out details and liveries, but I won’t bore you with that on here (yet).

painted

stage three ballasting dried and sorted out, second overall painting done.  Now just minor final fettling and top-up painting to be done.  Tortoise installation next, except that my cordless drill just packed up after 12 years of service (bosch quality).  However a replacement battery was more than the cost of a new drill, so the new one has hammer action, 2 batteries, a one hour charger and twice the power…how technology has moved on!

50 days to go!

Progress:

- woodwork – new breakfast bar style legs need installing and new board covers need building. Mostly done, board covers just need velcro now.

- track – painting to be finished on yard board, but well on now.  hidden sidings transitions need installing with work needed to finally align board joins using brass tubes which have been made ready

- pointwork – need to install tortoises on yard board and test, else done

- backscene – order mirror vinyl for ends, check backscene test print, if ok get printed on vinyl and install. It may be that I just cut out the hills from current prints and mount on top of a generic sky for now. 

- electrics – yard board needs completion then carry through to hidden sidings required

- lighting – ready just needs a few screws driving home once backscene sorted.

- hidden sidings board alignment – do magnets work? in progress

- curtain around layout base – just needs velcro on layout. awaits layout being fully erected

- scenics – tart up board joins, add signs and details. Extra trees to hide any backscene issues. left to end

- carriages – much progress, but bogies need couplings adding, glazing needs installing, some grab handles required plus ivory touch-up and transfers

- wagons – nearly complete, just need light weathering when airbrush out for other things and transfers

- check van size as my calculations reckon we will need a LWB transit. done, but finding such a van locally is still proving to be difficult

- locos

1) 143 – done in black and just needs a decoder, tanks varnished.

2) 138 – Dad has begun painting chassis and detailing body, will be fine.

3) 87 – body detailing in progress, chassis with Dad

4) K1 – no progress, may now only appear in matt black livery for expong, rather than lined current livery.

5) Castell Caernarfon – nearly ready

6) Vale of Ffestiniog – basically just needs painting now in it two tone green livery. 

7) Merddin Emrys – needs pickups adding and lining, plus decoder.  Should be easy.

7) Russell – with Dad to finish electrifying and then ready to paint. 

8) Upnor Castle – body to chassis link basically done, many more details added, coming on

9) Taliesin – built by me and nearly ready, at bottom of list though due to pressing priorities above. May end up now being ready

10) Gelert – needs painting and conversion to DCC may be tricky due to live chassis.  Bought rover midnight blue paint yesterday at halfords!

could do with 500 days really, but I’ll be ready of sorts for expong!

wagons roll!

So, here is my collection of SAR construction stock, painted with red oxide primer, with details picked out in yellow and bogies/couplings attached.  Transfers and weathering, plus ballast loads for the AYs to come…

There are 2 AY ballasts, 2 bike B’s, 2 normal B’s, 4 DZs of which one has no end doors and one SAR brake.  The bogies are from lilliput RTR HOe carriages.

    

 

and in other news, third stage detail ballasting was commenced.

 

I’m back, and the push is on…

Sorry for the slight pause in updates, we were away at centerparcs on holiday and then I had to go to Ashford yesterday on business - got to try out the new 140mph Javelins though! :-)

There has been progress, namely on second stage ballasting and first stage track painting as below.  Also the tortoises were delivered and have been set up ready for installation.

The set of B wagons, DZ wagons, AY ballast wagons and the SAR Brake van have been sprayed with 2 or 3 coats of red oxide primer and are now ready for yellow details and white transfers and then weathering.

Finally Dad found a natty product at the Telford 7mm show – bare metal is self adhesive thin chrome, which can be easily cut to form boiler bands.  cool!

Tortoisification

Is not a word.  But I have decided to (whilst I’m at it) replace the final 3 hoffmanns with tortoises due to the following factors:

- ability to alter the throw length of the tortoise, which you can’t on a hoff

- ease of installation

- reliability – needed for exhibition conditions

- far better quality of throw arm – the red plastic retainers are very brittle on a hoff

- 4 screws keeping it in position not just 2

- excellent warranty

- natty removable connectors which make maintenance easy (removing for over winter storage?) and avoid any issues with heat affecting the tortoise during soldering.

The only issue I have found with them is the depth under the baseboard, which exceeds the depth of my woodwork, but with some extra protection to ensure they are not knocked, I feel this is the way to go.  bye bye hoffs.

Stoned

22 feed wires soldered on, first stage ballasting applied.