7mm Parky's Workbench

[parky]

Thanks Mike I will look out for the announcement

For a break from removing paint and paper from the ceiling here is a picture I took this morning and it looks like I need a fair bit of guidance as this paint and weathering lark is far harder than waving around a hot stick

First off as I had got the wagons in primer it was time to do something about the rake of coaches I had built. There was one extra I bought from Rob Pulham, which I decided to build and then I could paint them all at once. Well with all the wagons and loco building I have done since the Suburban Brake Third went together far easier than the other coaches. Primer was easy and even the underframe as it's just black everything

It was the maroon, which I admit is Vauxhall Burgundy Red rattle can which has either been patchy like in the photo or runs which necessitated ripping all the paint off the Suburban. Fastening the roof on the Corridor Brake first and then masking off to do roof and then sides just didn't work. So for the Suburban it's roof first and then sides before gluing it together. Time will tell if I can get the maroon right, but little and often seems to be the plan. So far feeling more confident. These two to do and then tackle the other three

 

[parky]

I put my hand in my pocket (Rob told me about this living in Yorkshire and the fear of doing so) and bought a cheap airbrush as looking at the DVD's of the hoppers in service there is a lot of red/brown colour to splash around everywhere on some of the wagons. My eye for colour is not that good yet so this is work in progress
What I am more adept at is using a computer so I cracked on with getting the lettering created for the wagons in both ownership Summers & British Steel. There are quite a few online font tools nowadays and you just have to show it an image and it gives you options for a modern font for the typeface. Even better I found a free one 'Seriocity' is it's name. The B, C, U, R & S are good enough for the job, but the M has the middle truncated instead of coming down to a point. So off to the Linux computer and a copy of FontForge and roll the sleeves up

Create a blank template and copy the required letters into it. Then its a case of redrawing the M to the required shape. A few errors on the way and it eventually it allowed me to create a 'Summers' TrueType font so I can get pages setup one for Summers and the other for BSC. The British Steel logo is a bit easier as there are so many of them about even a page to say who was the designer
British Steel Logo
I am now waiting for a pack of waterslide decal sheets so I can get them printed and sealed. I did ask Warren Shephard about the Summers names some years ago, but they are no longer available and at £8 a wagon the my Yorkshire learning was making itself felt



Need to get the airbrush technique improved as well as like everyone else finds the camera tells all

 

[parky]

Prompted by seeing the progress Paul (Focalplane) is making with his coach builds I thought I had better update here. Thanks to Mike and the Wirral O Gauge Group, I got to run the rake of Summers hoppers on their Wirral Parkway layout on their open Day

Mike sent me these photos from the day which I am grateful for as mine when reviewed aren't up to much. Since then more of the hoppers have had their Summers transfers added as otherwise the rake looked a bit nondescript. Also more of the hoppers were treated to a blow over of iron ore colours leaving just a few as just returned from Wakefield, which looks more like I remember them

 

[parky]

Looking forward to taking another trip back to the homeland to run the Summers rake again next month now the next Wirral open day is published. In the meantime I got a bit waylaid as I put another anorak on after I found this bargain for less than the price of a good wagon kit

For those of a similar disposition it's a DL380p Gen8 that came with twin procs and a healthy 64GB of Ram. A great 'homelab' to try out a number of different hypervisors and then load all manner of servers on which happily run without taxing the hardware. These later generations of server are getting much better power consumption and are not far off a high end desktop with far more grunt at a fraction of the price

Back to the railway theme next as now getting coach interiors painted and glazing fitted

 

[michael080]

We've got a few of these rackservers at the office. They are LOUD and if you attach small wings, they can fly with the thrust from their fans. (Use a long power cord for this experiment) Nice number crunchers as long as you can operate it at a remote place.

 

[parky]

yes too right if they don't like any hardware you add to them all the fans go to 100% and it gets ready for takeoff

It will go under the house and use the iLO for remote access eventually and then it can roar it it's hearts content

 

[OzzyO]

Looking forward to taking another trip back to the homeland to run the Summers rake again next month now the next Wirral open day is published. In the meantime I got a bit waylaid as I put another anorak on after I found this bargain for less than the price of a good wagon kit

For those of a similar disposition it's a DL380p Gen8 that came with twin procs and a healthy 64GB of Ram. A great 'homelab' to try out a number of different hypervisors and then load all manner of servers on which happily run without taxing the hardware. These later generations of server are getting much better power consumption and are not far off a high end desktop with far more grunt at a fraction of the price

Back to the railway theme next as now getting coach interiors painted and glazing fitted

View attachment 165535

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OzzyO.

 

[parky]

Back to the railway works and the completed corridor 3rd and the 3rd sleeper. I found someone's suggestion the other week on how to create the frosted window effect with spray varnish and it works well

 

[parky]

A better view of the corridor 3rd and the interior of the brake 3rd painted waiting to have the seating painted. Next up will be a suburban brake 3rd that I bought from Rob along with the corridor 3rd. The final coach to finish is the 3rd Dining car that was my first purchase and leave the best to last. Those 12 wheelers look impressive

 

[parky]

I forgot to mention in the 'other things' section that also it's been MOT time on the Land Rover 110. So new brake disks and bearings on the back axle and panhard rod bushes meant we have another year of motoring. A rebuild of the front axle to be done sometime before next year so that I can again get a clean ticket. Not really needed at present but the 'new to me' axles are then known to be good for years

So up early this morning for a trip up to the Dales and a trundle around Dent, Garsdale and Hawes and see if anyone is selling some Dales icecream

 

[parky]

Well that was a glorious day starting with a morning brew by the forest of Bowland


Ingleton to Dent was punctuated at Deepdale with a homemade spag boll while taking in the view and then off to Dent for a local icecream



Then a call in at Dent station to read the notice no trains today as expected



Then over the moors to Garside



and finally to Hawes where another icecream was consumed from the shop in the old market in town. then it was head home and take afternoon tea sitting by the river Wharfe at Deepdale in Upper Wharfedale



That's why we moved to Yorkshire, to be within a days range of all this. Back on coach painting tomorrow and get another one finished

 

[Allen M]

I have often wondered why there was chequer plate on a Land Rover bonnet, having seen the first photo (post 111) I now know it's to stop the kettle & mugs damaging the paint.

Regards
Allen

 

[Focalplane]

Ingleton 1965. First geological mapping field trip. Found a new exposure of lamprophyre in the quarry which became the subject of my first publication. I was the “junior author”.

Never been back but your photos have me thinking about it! Later work was done farther north so there’s another reason to visit.

 

[parky]

too right Paul a trip to the hills next time you are back this side of the channel might be needed. I did have to look up 'lamprophyre' as it isn't a specialism I know much about

A bit of an interlude from our outing as I had three busy days helping to run the Keighley MRC 46th exhibition. It was good to meet up with the Scarborough club with their excellent Falcon road and alongside a whole raft of Class 50's in all manner of liveries on Exeter Road from the MIOG group. No pictures unfortunately as there wasn't spare brain cells to consider taking any photos of the event

Since then and once recovered it was back on the coaches and building the interior for the suburban. This one didn't have the compartments so meant I could build things up as a removeable item. I was a bit concerned that some of my cutting and gluing was a bit wayward, but as things were a bit oversize as gentle pass over the grinder produced a nice finish to each seating group. Done in half the time it would have taken with a file and other tools



fitted and waiting for the glue to dry. Excuse the messy workbench as I am part way through packing it all up waiting for a plasterer to come and do the whole room now I have it all boarded



Off to get a bit of Khaki and ready for painting at the same time as the outstanding seats in the 3rd class corridor


In the meantime out comes the 3rd class dining car. I see what people say about seeing the bits that missed the paint as this image shows

 

[parky]

While the paint dries on the coaches I ventured to find a box that has been stored away some years. Maybe now I have all the hoppers, brake vans and coaches done or almost I might be able to deal with this in the light of my experiences



As can be seen a start was made and a running vehicle was achieved though without any detail. Now it's time to move it on as I have plans for it, I just have to decide if it will be powered or not

 

[Ressaldar]

Looking forward to seeing the progress photos, or even the finished article in two weeks time!

regards

Mike

 

[parky]

Lol, I will keep the box for all the spare bits

 

[parky]

Whilst sorting through the pile pile bits to try and find somewhere to attach them to the class 37 I came across this bit of fret From this hand drawn kit back then to David's MMP range drawn with CAD which are out of this world (I have a BFK to do one day when I have the courage)



On to other things and could do with a bit of advice from others who have trodden this path before



All bar the roof hatches which need gluing on, the vents are in place from when I first started this kit. What I would like to do is ignore the pipe runs but they are such a visible part of roof architecture. To make painting easier I am leaving the roof separate and the body is already drying in primer
Any hints as to how I put the main pipe runs down the length of the roof and around the fans and keep them in place. I am thinking I might be able to make a joint to allow the pipes on the coach end to fit to the ones that come from the roof so the roof can still be separate. Also do I drill through the filler casting or just try a dimple and solder them up ?

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Alan,

I would use some half round beading wire to make up pipe clips (think fine brass split pins) - drill through the roof to secure from underneath.

You could make them from flat strip but they wouldn't go through a hole quite as easy.

 

[parky]

thanks Rob, I think I have a short piece of beading left over when I did the Finney7 corridor tender the other year. I did manage to find a photo that someone restoring an LMS coach had taken of the roof in the FB 'Pre BR Design Coaches' and that shows the pipes clipped

Off to search the spares box and get the drills out