Decal Time and the Need for a Tardis

It's been a quiet week this week in Picton, well, not necessarily quiet but not particularly productive in terms of output. You see, it's been decal time for the refrigerator wagons and I've decided that decaling is the least satisfying out of all the various aspects of model railways. Don't get me wrong, its not that I hate doing it but the fact that it takes so long is what I don't like about it. I reckon Time is the killer for all modellers. You only have so much time you can spend on your favourite hobby so when you spend most of your weeks available time on decaling you start looking at how you can do it smarter and quicker. A Tardis might be the answer but I don't think that's going to happen soon. The main problem is the cutting up of the various codes and numbers to suit the stock and then the application, letter by letter and numeral by numeral. And getting them straight and spaced correctly. So anyway, I've decalled all the refrigerator cars with the appropriate codes and numbers from commercial decals I'd bought years ago. I now have 54 goods wagons to decal.......
A few years back, I purchased an ALPS printer for the purpose of printing my own decals. Unfortunately, these printers are no longer available and the consumables for these printers are getting harder to get. Aust-N-Rail stock the ribbon cassettes and I also found this site in New Zealand who stock consumables, http://www.alps-supplies.com/ and I'll be placing an order for some white ink cassettes this week. The exchange rate helps making the choice of supplier.
The other task this week was creating the artwork for the goods wagons which I completed using MS Word. Had to trawl the internet for some stencil fonts but eventually got one that looked OK. Its not quite right but will look the part. The beauty of doing this is you can code and number anything you like and it will be all one decal, no cutting, no aligning. I've also done the capacity as well as the tare which was handwritten rather than stenciled. The only decal I've had a problem with is creating the "On" decal with the arrow which was placed above the handbrake. I just can't get the artwork small enough so I might try some other programme to duplicate it.
I'll need to get a wriggle on if I'm going to get the wagons completed as I want to take some along to "The Early Days" at the end of May.
Anyway, that's it for this week. Next batch of photo's will be when I've got something worth showing.

SuperCheap Auto is My New Friend

Some time ago, I'd bought my air 2hp compressor from them for the princely sum of $99. I think I've spent more on the air lines, moisture traps and fittings than the compressor itself! Bought the moisture trap / regulator today from SuperCheap and then found I couldn't open the air valve so back to the store for more fittings and Voila!! It all works. No more buying stuff from Airbrush suppliers, SuperCheap has a good range of fittings at half the price. Anyway, the compressor got a work out today and I've finally finished painting all of my built goods wagons....all 62 of them. So now, it's on to the decals and after that the weathering. Oh, and I finished Elscotto's D wagons except for some 3 link couplers. Here's some pic's of the D's and all of the other stuff.

1898 D Wagons, one built to pre-1910 condition with lever brake and the other, post-1910 with wheel handbrake

D's, S's, K's, BD and BDS and some watergins

SV's, OSV's, CW's and BCW's

LV's, CV's, MV's, ICV's, and a PV

SF's, BEY's, BHG, SHG, HG, 2 underframes for an AL and a FJ plus an underframe for a GT

And lastly, the Refrigerator cars, SRC's, BRC's, MRC's, Howlin and Tiffany

The next pieces of work will be to design and print some decals for the goods wagons and then the weathering. I can now also move into painting some carriages that have been waiting for a number of years including some EHO's, a KB, BKD, KKG, some BKG's, AL, FJ, EAM, VAM and LAM. And won't it be fun to line them all.
It's been good of late to clear everything out and actually paint all the models, some of which, are 20 or so years old. Soon, I'll be able to move into other things like track laying and scenery and all of those kits sitting there in the cupboard.

Explosive Good Times in the Paint Booth

So, there's been some progress at Picton since the last update. The track gauges from Railway Engineering found their way to Picton this week so big thanks to Steve Hatch for resending the order with no fuss. I also got some 3mm cork sheets from Portugal Tiles so things will be moving soon once I work out what to stain the sleepers with. I'm also contemplating what to actually use for sleepers. I happened to measure some Red Head's, long, BBQ matches and they scale out to be exactly 9" wide which is the standard width for sleepers in the 1908 - 1928 period. Dimensions of sleepers were 8' x 9" x 4 1/2" so they're a good match. (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk) Anyway, I'll be asking around what people use and do to lay their track before getting stuck in.
Elscotto popped round to check on progress and pointed out some deficiencies in my baseboard building. Gee, thanks mate ;-) Anyway, I fixed that up last weekend so all is good now and ready to go. It just proves that a second pair of eyes are invaluable with building and modelling as it saves on mistakes and helps you get things right.
The painting has been going well with the refrigerator cars repainted (except for the MRC's...more on that later) and about 30 cars finished. And thanks Craig, for the tip on the Tamiya masking tape, it worked a treat. The last couple of posts have been sans photo's so here's a few to show I'm not making this stuff up.

1896 BCW flanked by 1890 BCW and 1921 CW

BD, K and 3 plank D

BEY and SF

LHG / BHG and 18' LV

HG and Steel S's...not Trainorama

A brace of ICV's

MV, LV, CV and LV

SRC and BRC

Yep, things were going well and I was about to paint the MRC's when there was a loud bang followed by lots of hissing from the escaping air. What had happened was the moisture trap must have had a hairline fracture in it which eventually gave way. This is what it looked like afterwards.

Trap go bang

So I'll be looking out for a new moisture trap this week before the painting can continue. At least Elscotto might get his D wagons finished.

Masking Tape Manufacturers....be Damned!!!

It's been a productive week in the spray booth with lots a paint flowing, mostly on the models. I've painted about 20 or so wagons in NSWGR Gunmetal Grey which I'm quite happy with and another 20 or so waiting their turn. So then it will be decal time. From what I've seen there seems to be 2 types of font used for goods wagon codes and numbers in the '30's, one a standard Arial looking font and the other a stenciled version. I'll have to consult with the Learned Ones at the "Early Days" convention in May as to what this means and what the balance would be in terms of how many wagons were lettered in each type of font.
Anyway, this is not the point of the post.
Here I am, painting the refrigerator cars as mentioned in a previous post, and all is going swimmingly. Fairly quickly, 8 cars are in startling gloss white with masking tape being applied to a BRC, 2x MRC's and 2 x SRC's. I used up some old tape I had on the SRC's and MRC's and then some new tape on the BRC.
Then I left them for a couple of days and came back and sprayed some Floquil Grimy Black over the roofs and under frames. It was hot those days so temperatures at Picton would have been not particularly pleasant.
Then I took the masking tape off..........
The BRC was fine but on the others, half the gum from the masking tape stayed on the wagons. Expletive, Expletive, Expletive!!!
I managed to get it off with some Meths but not without ruining the white paint and also damaging a fair amount of detail on one of the MRC's. So back to the workshop for repairs on the MRC and back to paint shop for the others.
I fixed the MRC during the week and painted them all today so I'm back where I started from. I should be applying decals this week and doing some weathering with some photo's to follow.
The lesson here is don't use old masking tape if you want to avoid anger management classes.

Mr Postman, is there a Package for Me?

A while back I decided that at least for the loopline, I would hand lay all of the track with stained wooden sleepers and Code 55 track as NSWGR  track in the 19th Century did not have track plates but had 4 spikes per sleeper / rail. It was not until the early 20th Century that track plates were decided as being necessary. So to represent dog spiked track with no plates, I would have to hand lay the track.
Anyway, I bit the bullet and placed an order for some track bits and pieces from Andy Reicherts Proto:87 store in the US. Have a look at http://www.proto87.com/ I can't recommend this site enough. Although, as the url suggests, Andy's main interest is Proto:87, there's plenty of goodies here for the finescale modeller as well. He has 3 types of points available with varying levels of detail. I ended up getting some base level #6 points (10USD ea) for points not in view, a bunch of Superfine #6 points with additional detail, 1yd length Code 55 rail, track joiners, spikes and fishplates. Elscotto opened up the wallet and purchased some "Easy Street" grooved rail and points for his "Elizabeth St" module. So 2 weeks after we ordered, a package arrives at Picton and all I can say is WOW.
Andy even threw in some extra detail packs at no extra cost. If I get this right it should look superb.
I also placed an order with Steve Hatch at Railway Engineering for some finescale track roller gauges. See http://www.railwayeng.com/
Unfortunately, the order has been lost somewhere between the US and Picton. Steve has been great and has dispatched a replacement order so hopefully, the gauges should arrive soon and the per-way gang can start wielding the picks.

Bunnings Makes a Fortune

Yes, they do, and it's mainly because of me, what with buying tools and materials for the layout. Anyway, there's been some progress this week with half of the top deck being built and mounted on the walls. I've also moved my work bench and rolling stock storage into the garage and have set up a rudimentary spray booth so nothing else gets painted as well.
So the plan at the moment is to have the mainline and Picton Station and yard environs on the bottom deck with the top deck being the Loopline with Thirlmere and Hill Top as the stations. I'm also going going to mix some eras as well with the Loopline being set prior to the deviation and duplication in 1919 and the bottom deck, as I've said before, in the 1930's. Both Elscotto and I have a number of carriages and locomotives from the 19th Century that will need something like the Loopline for them to run in an appropriate environment. I'm also using some modeller's licence in that the infrastructure for the loopline, as being used as the mainline in the 19th Century, won't be too much different from that used in the early 20th Century as a branch line. This will allow me to run CPH's and 13's in my "Modern" time frame as well as running A's, B's and D's in the "Early Days" No doubt, there will be some wayward J's and O's struggling up the 1 in 30's as well.

Here's some photo's of the progress so far.

The ply and track is just for effect

The "Spray Booth"

The work bench and storage cabinet

This is where Thirlmere will be

Aside from the baseboard progress, I've been painting a batch of refrigerator wagons including 2 x SRC, 2 x MRC, 2 x BRC, a Howlin and a Tiffany, Summer and Winter Car.
This week, I intend to finish the painting of the refrigerator cars and maybe I'll be able to start on the rest of the wagons.

Let's Get to Work

The Hired Help arrived on Valentine's Day, 2009 to begin work on converting the garage. Luckily for me, Valentine's Day doesn't get recognised in Picton so work could begin without ramifications.
First thing to do was to nail up some gardener's chicken wire so insulation batts could be installed. It's one very hot garage in the summer so any relief from the baking heat will be needed to stop me and the models from melting. I don't enjoy summer at all. It doesn't like me and I don't like it, so maybe  down the track, I'll have to install some air conditioning. We'll see.

Let the scratching begin

Get down, Funkster

Elscotto's practical knowledge soon got things underway and we had most of the chicken wire up over a couple of weekends. The challenge for us was finding time in our busy schedules to do work so consequently what I thought would take a couple of weekends ended up taking about 3 months!!! We had to extend the rafters downwards to give clearance for the fluorescent light pots I had bought as well as provide something for the new ceiling to be attached to.

Batts in and additional rafters installed

We decided to get a real electrician in to cable up the power and lights

Next, came the hard bit of putting up the ceiling and installing the cornices. The ceilings took a couple of days and again, what I thought would take a month or so ended up taking about 4 months. I am not, nor ever will be, a ceiling installer. The amount of rework I did as I kept stuffing things up was amazing.
Anyway, bit by bit, I managed to get the cornices done and all the filling at least presentable to a point where I could paint the ceiling and get the lights installed. Soon after, the walls and main support beams were attacked next by filling holes and removing nails etc, followed by a coat of azure blue paint. Elscotto helped again with fixing up the dodgy window and putting some eves up at the back to keep the grape vine from invading the trainroom. Next to last task was filling and painting the floor so that the final result looked like this:

Dodgy window fixed

You could eat your dinner off that

There are 12 double fluoro lights installed. Turns night into day!

The window you can see in the last photo above was totally rotten so it came out and was replaced by a new Aluminium window. Locks have been installed and now the garage is complete and ready for the Per-Way gang to start.
It's only taken a year but it's been well worth it as I can now start on the fun bits and get trains rolling into Picton.
And as I said before, it's been with Elscotto's help, advice and encourgemant that has got me off my lily white behind to get things done.