Dad-1 - Workbench - West Bay Wagon Works

[Dad-1]

Thanks railwayjim & FS123,

You may have given me an idea.
This years club diorama competition on a 16" square .......
Thinking "Once upon a time"
A village street with the only hint of there once being any railway,
buried tram lines across the road ...........??

Different ??

Will look at a few S&DJR books showing then & now.

Geoff T.

[railwayjim]

Wisbech and Upwell Tramway, perfect candidate.....

Houses - Road - Water - Canal, what more can you ask

Jim.

[Lysander]

Gin, perhaps, Jim?

Tony

[Dad-1]

Thought I'd better look in and see what I was up to when I vanished
about a month ago. This for various reasons has been one of my quietest
model making periods for years.
Currently I'm thinking what to do next ? As I'd run out of kits I've just ordered
5 from that Widnes place. 3 are the ubiquitous Dapol (Airfix) 16 ton steel
mineral wagons, partially as you can never have too many of them and I'm
doing a club "Quick Build" session in May with one of these made from cleaned
& fully prepared parts within the two hours of club night !
A Blue Peter cheat will be brass bearings already inserted, parts cleaned up
with included coupling parts scrapped and Parkside PA34 coupling blocks modified
all ready to attach. Obviously no painting or decalling done, but from parts to well
running wagon in 2 hours ?
The other two kits are Parkside and I may as well do a 'build' on here.

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

Still not back in the swing.
Must be too busy gardening ?



Geoff T.

[Bufferstop]

You're not losing your touch Geoff, that's definitely neat.

[Mountain]

Ooh. Nice!

[Dad-1]

Thanks for the comments guys,

While further painting of the greenhouse is delayed I decided
I'd build the Peco-Parkside 13 Ton Steel Body Medium Goods. These
are drop side wagons to diagram 1/019, as opposed to the sand
tipplers.
I have a colour picture with one of these used to collect ash and clinker,
just what I need for the shed on Castell Mawr. Here part painted on
a running test in my garage. This has no added weight (yet) and is
very light, but can stay on track with the drag of 2 milk tanks and a
brake van through 1st radius curves.



More painting and I seriously dislike painting ! Better not start any
other projects until I really clear these part finished items.

Geoff T.

[Mountain]

I tend to go on a painting spree. Sometimes I get a few projects needing painting. Then out comes the paint and I will paint the lot!
I tend to brust paint as it adds a little something of character to my models. For some reason, I dont want them to look ultra realistic, but instead, I want them to be realistic. I dont know if this makes sense.
I do sympathise with the painting. I have things in which I tend to put off till last, and then (Though a few never do get done) I get a day or two when all I do is the one thing to finish the job.
Lovely picture of your layout. The little houses make it look nice.

[Dad-1]

It's not quite working as I'd hoped ?
Trying to find a material that has the right colour range, is fine enough,
easy to handle and won't turn into a smooth blob when stuck down.



That small plant pot has an external diameter of fractionally under 3.0 mm.
The seed /potting tray doesn't look too bad, it the soil within the pots that's
bugging me.
I will need to thin the upper opening and perhaps try to add a taper towards
the base, but these are so small handling is a problem.
Plants need more experimenting as well !!

Geoff T.

[carnehan]

Fiddly looking work Geoff. Have you considered oven dried coffee grounds for compost? Perhaps mixing with kiln dried sand would provide a suitable all round colour. Isn’t blobbing going to be an issue whatever you use due to the very small amounts of material you are trying to bond?

Paul

[TimberSurf]

For the thinning, warm the plastic in boiling water then push down a "Marlin spike" or whatever you can find that is conically tapered. I think painting the soil brown is about all you can achieve, granular effect at that scale is unlikely to even show.

[Pete]

Geoff

trying to find a material that has the right colour range,

Try tea leaves, if you think they look a little coarse blitz them in a spice/coffee grinder to the grading that suits.

Pete

[Dad-1]

Pete,
A little coarse ! Miles too big and while a grinder/blender may work we don't have one.
carnehan is quite right, I've come to the conclusion that there's a limit to what I can do
with miniaturization. To secure with adhesive will tend to get such fine material in a
texture-less blob
This is probably my last attempt. It's pulverized earth from our old garden in Northaptonshire.
The 20 pence piece and fine tip tweezers show how small even this soil dust is, as small as
I can go.



I wonder if this is why my eyes hurt sometimes ?
TimberSurf this pot has had the neck tapered using a fine so called diamond file.
When I think a 3 foot visual scan will notice pots, I doubt the contents and compost on the bench
will be noticed.

Geoff T.

[carnehan]

One last thought, pepper although you still have the issue of blobbing to deal with.

Paul