ON THE FIDDLE (again!)

Well it’s been a while since I had done some wood work but since I was in the zone – Why not eh!

I after building the previous two sections I hadn’t really done much with them. I had ordered another piece from Tim Horn and he had kindly posted it to me even though I live so close to him I normally collect my boards once they are cut.

So I had this 2 ft x 2 ft section in my garage for what seems like months, it must have been collected way before Christmas but it has been so cold in the garage, nothing has got done there for months, until now you might have gathered!

SO . The other day we had some sunshine and I was in a train mood. The wife and boy were out and these are the times you have to use well.

I got some of the trestles out and before anybody could look at my fiddle yaucrd and say, well isn’t that a whopper! I had it out and the new section was also built.

It looks big doesn’t it. Well it needs to be. Points take up a lot of space which is why I needed the extra 2 ft space to begin with. Well. It was all quite easy today, I was only laying straight track so I got out the dremel type cutter and off we went!

After a little while, we had this – and very pleased with it all I was too! I do need to do the electrics to join this new board to the joining one but that shouldn’t take too long. If I can fit a right hand point and another line beside the two to the right I will. These will carry the longest passenger trains to enter the station and these are only short rakes of 3 coaches in any event!

Well I hope you have enjoyed looking at this. I look forward to the day when I can set it all up in one long display as planned.

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IT’S GETTING THERE!

Well it’s been quite a while since I updated the blog. The last entry showed a rather white looking crane and so I thought I might need to show this in a new light. Here is the story of where we are up to now.

One of the things I needed to do was to make some of the items that carried all the chains or the rigging for the hooks etc. These were made out of plasticard and I also referred to the Peter Tatlow books on Cranes too.

So, those bits took quite a while to make and rather than trying to cut circles of plasticard I sent off for some small washers in various sizes for both parts.

It was then time to turn the crane yellow!

I ended up using Railmatch paint but due to a problem with my airbrush, I used a Railmatch rattle can. This was purchased from my local model shop Great Eastern Models.

THIS LOOKS MORE LIKE IT!

Well this was it after painting the whole thing yellow, then going over the areas which needed to be black with Humbrol matt black. This was applied by brush as I wasn’t sure how on earth I was going to mask all the sections. The black paint was then sprayed with Railmatch matt varnish and this really made all my brush marks go away. So then I needed some transfers. In the mean time, I had been talking with one of my modelling chums from the online world and they were able to offer me some ladders for the small match trucks. Given the small fragile nature of the parts, I jumped at the chance of adding some more detail. The transfers were also ordered from Railtec.

I do still need to add the stripes around the engine housing and will do this soon. Note the new handrails which were 3D printed by one of my modelling chums.

Here’s the crane, complete with its support coaches which are also featured on my blog. To see their story click here.

Well folks. This story is going to end soon and will probably have a happy ever after. I just need to add the other stripes and weather it. Oh and then theres the rigging to add! That will be one hell of a job I guess.

Take Care

Shaun