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Author Topic: Andy's railway misadventures.  (Read 32020 times)

Offline Michi

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #30 on: October 31, 2018, 08:22:51 AM »
Great progress Andy!

Lovely stuff there Michi. How do you weather the models in the first place? And do you use a template or the shape of the 'clean' bit of windscreen?

I don't use a template, I simply follow the tips of the wipers on their way over the screen.
It's a plain wash in leatherbrown (some drops of acrylic paint with lots of water). That works perfectly for the brake dust on railway models too.

Offline OSHIROmodels

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #31 on: October 31, 2018, 08:50:26 AM »
Very crisp  8)
cheers

James

https://www.oshiromodels.co.uk/

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http://redplanetminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/
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Offline Andy in Germany

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #32 on: November 03, 2018, 12:34:14 PM »


Huzzah and three rousing cheers, the deck is completed.

The boredom factor was dealt with by the discovery of the excellent “Revolutions Podcast” which I recommend to anyone with a long and repetitive job to do. As an added positive I learned a lot of new things about the revolutions of 1848 and 1871, which I’m sure will guarantee me plenty of personal space at any future parties.

During the celebrations* surrounding the final decking piece being fitted I remembered that this was supposed to be an operational model, and that I therefore needed to fit bogies that could rotate. This caused an extra problem: I use nylon press studs as pivots, and I needed a good three millimetres clearance above the hole. This wasn’t an issue on the van because you basically have the entire van interior to hide the stud, but on this wagon I’d forgotten to take that 3mm into account.

Adding 3mm below the frame made the wagon sit too high.

Eventually brain engaged and I realised that if I made the connector for the stud 1mm from the underside of the deck, I could make a recess in the deck itself to give the required clearance for the bogie to turn.

This being a high precision engineering job I used the digital method: I put my finger on the top of the deck and twisted a drill bit from the other side until I could just feel the movement through the plastic.

This is why I will never be an engineer.

*One large glass of Ginger Ale and a whole slice of cake: Never let it be said I can’t have fun.

Offline Andy in Germany

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #33 on: May 02, 2019, 07:07:41 AM »
Oh dear, I've not been updating here. However, today was the day of the transfer printing. I've been putting this off for ages because frankly it scared me: I was either going to be coming back this PM with a smile and several nice shiny transfers, or I was about to break the office printer. Being the pessimist's pessimist I naturally expect the latter.

Thanks to some help from the manager, the printer did as it was told and we've got transfers: We've got transfers, and I haven't destroyed the printer...

Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance,
Happy dance...

Manager now thinks I'm weird.
 

Offline dampfpanzerwagon

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #34 on: May 02, 2019, 07:34:56 AM »
Great news about the transfers.

Tony

PS.
Happy Dance?

Offline Andy in Germany

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #35 on: May 03, 2019, 05:46:53 AM »
Great news about the transfers.

Tony

PS.
Happy Dance?

You don't have a Happy Dance for successful transfer production? Sirrah, you haven't lived.

Offline Ultravanillasmurf

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #36 on: May 18, 2019, 08:04:33 AM »
You don't have a Happy Dance for successful transfer production? Sirrah, you haven't lived.
I have a happy dance for getting the lid off a lot of paint without redecorating the room (I set my milestones at achievable levels).

Offline Andy in Germany

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #37 on: July 15, 2019, 07:21:15 PM »
I have a happy dance for getting the lid off a lot of paint without redecorating the room (I set my milestones at achievable levels).

Secret to a happy life...

Offline Andy in Germany

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #38 on: July 15, 2019, 07:33:38 PM »
Looks like I've been a bit remiss in my posting here as well...

The Wood wagon below now has uprights:



And they are even upright (mostly)



Which was great, until I needed to paint them:



But I got there eventually...



However, something is still missing, can't think what it is though...



Meanwhile, after a considerable amount of faffing about, the van is now in glorious technicolour. :



Admittedly the colour in question is mostly grey, but it’s colour; not just blank primer, and thus incredibly exciting.

I probably should get out more.

Actually, now I look at it the green is a bit too light so I’ll have to work on it, or possibly just hit it a bit harder than planned with weathering. The originals are generally rust free but they travel about a fair bit, and don’t seem to be cleaned any more than strictly necessary: these aren’t preserved relics.

This is very useful as it means I can hide the worst of my mistakes learning experiences under ‘weathering’ and no-one will be the wiser…

Offline Michi

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #39 on: July 16, 2019, 08:33:20 AM »
The sliding panel van is really nice now! I like the grey/green combination.
Although it is H0 scale my weathering might encourage you to try some dirty experiments on yours too. Quick and easy! It's Vallejo BLACK SHADE and after drying a second layer of SEPIA SHADE on the panels and a final beige drybrushing at the painted ends:

Offline Andy in Germany

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #40 on: November 27, 2019, 06:29:39 PM »
Honestly. I'm way behind in posting at the moment, mostly because I got distracted cycle touring.

The van is now somewhat weathered, and I'll try and dig up a picture of it. There's a few other bits and pieces too. Will have to get the camera out.

Offline Andy in Germany

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #41 on: November 30, 2019, 12:10:25 PM »
The Railcar has been sat on a shelf making me feel guilty for a few more months, so I finally got myself into gear the final details, or if I’m honest, distractions  to stop people noticing too many of my mistakes.



First of these was the transfers I printed a while back after a considerable amount of dithering. This was a mixed success.  I couldn’t get the colours on the transfers to match exactly so I had to paint as closely as I could to the numbers themselves, and unfortunately this shows.


The weathering is aiming for a “well used” appearance. This is appropriate as the railcar is supposed to have been built in the late nineteen seventies or early eighties, but long suffering readers will notice a pattern here, as I’ve found that weathering is rather useful for hiding my mistakes, and I have plenty to hide. Most of what you see is made using artists pastels, I keep trying different ways to apply a dark wash, and attempted one on the roof. As usual it didn’t work.



After covering this minor disaster with black pastels I dry brushed the rest with light grey, a tiny bit of white and an even tinier bit of silver, then toned down the lot with more chalk pastel (black and brown, for those taking notes) then decided “what the heck?”, added black pastel to the side vents and dusted the lower body with light brown.

So much progress at once. I think I'll go for something a bit more relaxing now and work on the Pulp Alley Mono-wheel that's sat on the shelf...
« Last Edit: December 02, 2019, 10:36:03 PM by Andy in Germany »

Offline Andy in Germany

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #42 on: December 14, 2019, 08:40:23 AM »


I finished this van several weeks ago and then got distracted by job hunting/family/lots of cycleways and forgot about it. This tells you all you need to know about my organisational talent...

I should have posted it before the railcar project because this was the first transfer experiment. I think having the lettering on a block of colour with a contrasting ‘background’ worked rather better than the “hope the printer can produce the right shade of green” that I used on the railcar. I’ve filed this discovery under “we live and learn”

I’m filing that wonky roof end under the same category.

The next goal of this is two more vans of a different and slightly simpler design. These are in the almost legendary “Project backlog” queue.

Meanwhile, as @Michi pointed out, this van now needs some weathering. I’ll try and remember to take pictures when I finish it this time…

Offline OSHIROmodels

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #43 on: December 14, 2019, 09:07:23 AM »
Lovely  8)

Offline Andy in Germany

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Re: Andy's railway misadventures.
« Reply #44 on: June 04, 2021, 07:15:58 PM »
My goodness but it's been a while. Please excuse the thread resurrection: I've been busy moving house and getting a new job.

With the house move I had to make a new pull out workbench before I could do anything else:



Being a qualified cabinet maker has advantages, even if I don't work as one any more.

However I've also completed the railcar:





And some more vans:



And some wood wagons:



And the first of what will be several Swap body units:



There's a few other things too, including the van featured previously, but I don't have pictures to hand so you'll be spared those...

Monday is another New Job Day, so there may be more delay, but I'll try to post a bit more regularly now.
« Last Edit: June 04, 2021, 07:18:19 PM by Andy in Germany »