A trip to Gloucester City Centre

Earlier this week, Sue and I visited the city of Gloucester - we had a walk around Gloucester Quays, The docks and the town where I picked up a couple of books.

Gloucester Antiques Centre was one of my favourite parts of the trip - the shop has three floors of antiques and one stall on the ground floor had the largest collection of Railwayana and second-hand railway books and leaflets I have even seen outside of a railway show. Well worth a visit if you are ever in the area. For more information, see this link.

Tony

Narrow Gauge World featuring The Yellow Pelican Narrow Gauge Railway layout

Narrow Gauge World August 2023 features a number of images of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association meeting that was held in June including an image of The Yellow Pelican layout.

For more details of the event - the first event that I have exhibited The Yellow Pelican at - see this link.

Tony

Dampf's Modelling Page featured on Orcs in the Webbe

Earlier this week I was contacted via this Blog to inform me that my Flintloque/Silver Bayonet cross-over project was being featured on the Orcs in the Webbe Facebook page - for more information, see this link.

As regular readers and followers know Flintloque was one of my earliest wargame loves and I continue to use the game for inspiration and paint the miniatures. I would hope that this continues for some time to come.

Tony

Fireless Narrow Gauge Engine - part eight

I have now added couplers. I chose the Hornby NEM Medium Close Coupling Pack - R8267. In addition, I have given the loco some more weathering and a couple of decals from my 'spares box'.

The engine is mounted on to a simple wooden base with PECO 'Crazy Track O-16.5 as I still have to model/make a 1/35th scale layout!

Finally, in a piece of perfect 'Murphy's Law' and just as the model was finished. I was sent an e-mail with some photocopied scale plans of this very engine - thank you. The new re-drawn (1/35th scale plans) are on the right, while my original plans are on the left. there isn't much of a difference, but enough that I might just make a second engine one day.

Once again, thank you for the new plans.

Tony

A chance encounter

Earlier today Sue and I had a casual drive out to Evesham and Pershore. I managed to pick up some bits and pieces but it was while we were in Pershore that I spotted this monster. A Scammell Pioneer Tractor called Lady Polly.

I took some photos for reference and although I have no intention of modelling it, I still think it is a real beast - so ugly it's beautiful.....

Tony

Fireless Narrow Gauge Engine - part seven

The latest images show the completed engine with driver. I still need to add couplers and maybe a little bit more weathering, but for now the scratch built engine can be called finished.

The driver comes from the MiliArt German Railroad Staff set no. 38012. I have used the engineer that is ringed and converted him to be more upright and with one arm as intended and the second by his side. I painted him in denim blue with washes and glued him in place with superglue.

Tony

Fireless Narrow Gauge Engine - part six

I have used oil washes to start the weathering process and added some dry transfers for the SPA Chemicals company name. I still have some more weathering to do and more (powder) weathering before I would call it finished but am very pleased with the progress and the way that it runs.

Tony

Fireless Narrow Gauge Engine - part five

With the construction finished, it was on to adding some paint. I wanted a run-down soot black with just odd touches of colour. I used a large paintbrush and built up the colour with both drybrushing and washes. The coloured highlights were red for the motion and touches of grey or brown for the unusual features.

I have only ever seen black and white images of these narrow gauge engines and have assumed an over-all black colour with only slight variations in the cab, boiler and boiler front, which in photos appears to be fabric? I still have some more weathering to carry out before I am satisfied with  the finish, but at this moment, I am pleased with the result.

Tony

Fireless Narrow Gauge Engine - part four

I've now started to add some detail to the model. The buffers, which I think were made from wood and leather were modelled from some black plastic tubing and and red knitting needles while the larger buffer beams were made from more plastic card.

The cab window frames are made from plastic card and you can also see where I have added some in cab detailing.

The final image for this update is of the engine side-on and shows how I have used the illustration/illustrations from Narrow Gauge Railways - Two Feet and Under as inspiration for the model.

 

The mechanism, cab and boiler are still separate pieces and my intention is to have some small screws screwed in to the Hornby chassis to hold them in place once the model is finished.

Tony

The Ruined Chapel - Miniature Wargames August 2023

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames (issue 484 - August 2023) has the first part of a two part series in which I show how I scratch built and then painted a Ruined Chapel for my Flintloque/Silver Bayonet crossover project. The August issue describes in detail how I built the ruin from plywood, foam and egg box card, with DAS modelling clay and Hirst castings added for additional interest.

The plastic window and Hirst plaster castings were picked up from Worcester Wargames (see https://www.facebook.com/worcesterwargamesshop/). In part two (September issue) I will show how I painted the red sandstone walls and added scenic decoration to the base.

For more details of the contents of the August issue, see this link.

Tony

Fireless Narrow Gauge Engine - part three

Progress has been slow, but here is the latest update.....

The sandboxes have been constructed from layers of thick plastic card and detailed with scraps and bits from the 'spares box'. The dome was built up from a section of plastic tube (a Revel airship), wrapped in plastic card and topped with more thick plastic card. The shape was defined by hand sanding and polishing in the chuck of a Black & Decker hand drill. Once attached the fluting was finished with some Milliput Green/Grey and when fully cured this was also hand sanded with fine sand paper wrapped around the handle of a paintbrush.

Tony

Fireless Narrow Gauge Engine - part two

Following on from my earlier post, I have been busy modelling the narrow gauge fireless locomotive using scraps and plastic card on a modified Hornby 'Smokey Joe' 0-4-0 mechanism.

During construction I have kept the chassis, cab and boiler separate which should aid painting when the time comes.

The boiler/steam container is built from three plastic, screw-top pill containers glued together, which was then cut to shape and detailed with more plastic card.

The cab was built from plastic card and needed to be modified to get the correct ride height.

I'll post updates as and when I can, but for now, I at least have something that resembles my initial sketch.

Tony

A Fireless Narrow Gauge Locomotive in 1:35th scale

This is the first post in a new Narrow Gauge Railway thread - building a Fireless Narrow Gauge Locomotive in 1:35th scale and running on 16.5mm track.

It all started some months ago when I was looking at some old narrow gauge railway magazines and saw a model of a fireless locomotive (an engine that uses stored steam and super-heated water to power the cylinders rather than a firebox fueled by coal, wood or oil). Later I found a black and white image in the Plateway Press book - Narrow Gauge Railways - Two Foot and Under by Leslie S. Robertson (published in 1988). I did ask for help from a number of sources hoping that I could acquire some scale drawings, but when none were forthcoming, I produced my own, based on the image on page 57 (see below).

I'm not pretending that these drawings are accurate but with nothing else to go on, I think they will do for now. The plan is to use a Hornby 'Smokey Joe' mechanism and scratch build the boiler and cab from plastic card so stay tuned for more updates.

Tony

OSO Salt Wagons - part five

This latest post shows the original 0-16.5 (or 7mm scale) OSO Salt wagons, well at least two of them, I think there were eight originally.

The second and final post for this short thread compares the 7mm scale wagons with the 11mm scale salt wagon that I built for my 1:27.7 scale OSO SALT layout. With the exception of the change of scale the models are virtually identical although I think I prefer the slighly green/blue of the original wagons to the more powder blue of the new wagons. 

What do you think?

Tony

OSO Salt Wagons - part four

The OSO SALT lettering was done with some white Letraset rub down letters and the weathering was finished with oil paints and weathering powders.

The models and the pale blue colour scheme were inspired by an OSO Salt salt tanker that I saw when we first moved up to Droitwich Spa. The weathering is more military modelling in style and finish, but I like it and it fits in well with the OSO Salt layout being a little run down.

The final image shows the two salt wagons ready to be positioned on the 1:27.7 (or 11mm = 1 foot) diorama layout and in preparation for the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association exhibition last month.

Tony

OSO Salt Wagons - part three

The wagons were painted in the same colour scheme as my 7mm scale OSO Salt wagons and closely copying the actual OSO Salt logo or branded lorry that I remember seeing around Droitwich when we first moved up to live in Droitwich Spa.

I have used an airbrush to put down the basic sky blue base and brush painting for the detailing.

I still have to add the OSO Salt logo and weather the wagons before they can be called fully finished.

Tony