Bring On the Republic

Well, they should have....80 years ago or so. Then I wouldn't have had to worry about the Royal Cypher on the side of my BKD prison Van!! This was a right royal pain in the @#$%. And while we're at it, why couldn't King George V make it to the end of the 1930's instead of dropping off this mortal coil in 1936? What this meant was I had to make a choice between King George V or VI so I could choose which cypher to use as the BKD prison vans had the reigning Monarch's cypher on their sides. I chose KGV as he gave me the greatest time frame as he reigned from 1910 - 1936 which also fitted in with my Loopline time frame of 1919, just before it was bypassed.

Just before we talk more on the cypher, I finally worked out the problems with the decals out as the yellow was coming out almost transparent. What I did was print of the yellow as white first and then follow up with the yellow which solved the problem.

Anyway, back to the cypher, I trawled the net looking for something suitable but couldn't find much at all except for lots of photos of post boxes, First World War Medals and postage stamps. Eventually I found a graphic but it wasn't that sharp and when I printed it with white first, the whole graphic printed out as a white box which of course was totally useless. More trawling of the net until I found another, much sharper graphic. This time while sharpening the graphic and replacing the black with yellow under high magnification, I noticed that there was a very light grey pixilation across the whole graphic. Could this be what was causing the printer to print solid white? I removed that, printed the cypher on white, then yellow and bingo, it worked! The only thing is I don't know if it is the same cypher that was painted on BKD's in the '30's as I've never seen a photo of one from that time period. Oh well, I reckon no one else has either so who's going to argue? Here's how it looks

On her Majesty's Service

Also decaled the GT, BKG's and KKG as well as the KB

Just some weathering to go

I also managed to do some more work on the NIB set with some touching up of the paint as well as building the working diaphragms and making the footsteps for the ends of the HFN's. Next will be add the diaphragms and deacalling the NIB set fallowed by weathering for all the carriages. But this won't be for another couple of weeks as this week at the salt mine isn't looking good and then the following week, I'll be on holidays with the family up in sunny Cairns.

Cheers until then 

Hurley Burley Time to Go Early

Early Days Convention that is. Went to the Early Days convention yesterday and had an excellent time as per usual. However, I'm getting sick and tired of going along and learning new information that requires me to go back and redo some of my models!!! Gary S gave a great talk on the research he's done on the paint schemes of the Engines and Carriages of the NSWR from 1855 - 1955. There's going to be debate for years I think about some of the conclusions that Garry put forward. Green Second Class cars! Venetian Red instead of Purple Brown! Black lining with yellow borders! Garry had, with the help of the RTM, obtained paint chips from the 8 wheel radial car and the locomotive instruction car FZ909 so he's got the paint to prove it. Also, Ian D gave another of his excellent talks this time on the BLV louvre vans. And here I learnt where the 3 door MLV with cantilever under frame came from. I can see one of my ANDIAN models BLV's getting a taste of the razor saw soon to make one of these cars.
All the usual suspects were there again and it was good to catch up with them. There never seems to be enough time to talk to everyone....I reckon you could turn it into a 2 day event without much trouble. Fellow Pictonian Linton was there for the first time so it was good to catch up with him. Some great models were displayed as well and not a infernal combustion engine in sight. Managed to pick up some goodies including an etch for an R class frame (18class for the Post 1924'ers). Both Elscotto and I picked up an EZI kits A class each as well.
I also managed to nearly finish my EHO's with only the glazing to go so I took them along anyway plus a bunch of goods wagons.

EHO 669

EHO 1833

This week I'm going to have a crack at the decals again and finish off the other vehicles and then it's time to start on a LFX. The EHO's are lonely.

Success and Failure

Let's talk about the failure bit first shall we? I'd sorted out the artwork for the passenger car decals and printed them off and all came out well. Or so I thought. Went to decal one of cars and the yellow was almost transparent so was unusable. I tried printing it again but this time running them through a number of times to try and get the yellow more opaque. Again, no joy so I'm going to have to come up with Plan B. I'm going to try printing them using a colour laser printer and then spraying a coat of acrylic clear coat over the decals. If this doesn't work then I might get in contact with Steam and Things as they have a bespoke decal service and see what they can do. All of this was a bit annoying as I wanted to take some of my passenger cars to the Early Days convention next Saturday.

Enter Mike McCormac. We'd been talking about the buffers I'd used on his EHO's so I sent him over a few of the 4mm, 13" buffer heads that I had for him to have a look at. And in exchange, he sent me some decals that he'd made up for the EHO's as well as some cast screw couplers (beautiful work too). Alrighty!!! Back in business. So now, it was time to bite the bullet and get stuck into the lining. Many years ago, I purchased some Exactoscale BR Straw lining ink for use in a Rotring Lining pen. Unfortunately, the inks are no longer available but luckily, I bought 2 bottles at the time so I should have enough to last me for my needs. There's a lesson here too, don't put off that purchase of the stuff you really need as it will probably disappear before you get around to buying it. Now for the success part. I got stuck into the lining on the EHO's and the N cars and it came out pretty good, at least I think so....others may disagree. The lining, if anything, is a bit pale but I'm hoping the a touch of weathering will dull it down a bit. Here's how they turned out

 Nice Decals Mike!!

The lining looks quite pale in the photo's but isn't so bad in real life

Here they are together

And here's the FN

So, I'll finish the EHO's this week with a bit of weathering and then off to the Early Days Convention next Saturday.

I think the next project will be making some LFX's to keep the EHO's company. Now that I've got the lining sorted, I think this will be the thing to do.

More Paint it Black

I was going to print some decals today and do a spot of decalling but I discovered that all the artwork I'd done was in landscape and of course, the ALPS printer only prints in portrait. I tells ya, I'm getting good at this artwork business with all the practice I'm getting! Anyway, what to do with a few hours to myself? I've been getting a fair bit done in the paint department so back to the booth I went. I finished off the KB, EHO, and GT and then painted the under frames of the NIB set, check it out.

EHO

GT

KB

BN

FN

HFN

Still a bit to go on the N cars but they're gradually coming together. I'm going to try and get the decals done on a few of the carriages as I'm hoping to take some carriages and wagons along to the Modelling the Early Days of the NSWR so I better get my act together. Only 2 more weeks to go until the convention and uber train nerdiness....can't wait.

Paint it Black

After painting the town red a few posts back, I decided it was time to paint it black. Grimy black that is. First cab off the rank was the Second Class Redfern car that I'd recently put together. First, was a coat of Purple Brown followed by the black for the under frame and roof. Here's how it turned out

Isn't Purple Brown is a lovely colour?

Next was a wooden under framed BKG

Tuscan Red isn't too bad either

Then a steel under framed BKG

No Electric Lights for this baby

Followed by a KKG

All the horsies are AR Kits modified as necesary

Then a loaf of bread EHO

I have a flat roofed EHO also from Mike McCormac models that's in the paint shop at the moment

And then a BKD

All carriages have sprung buffers and screw couplers

Still to go are a KB, GT and EHO that I mentioned before plus a few touch ups for the cars above. I'll start on the decal artwork again this week as I think I've cracked the problems I was having before with the colour registration moving all over the place so I hope to have them lettered soon. If anyone has any idea how the Second Class Redfern was lettered for the First World War period, I'd love to know. All the photo's I have showing the lettering date from the late 1890's and shows a simple car number only.

Then there is the lining for the EHO's.....shudder.

Happy Birthday 4 Aces

Happy Birthday O 1111, who turns 100 years old tomorrow! Went down to the Tram Museum at Loftus late in the afternoon today with the kids and had some rides on SPER's classic Edwardian trams from the long lost Sydney Tramways. You may have guessed that I have a soft spot for the Trams of Sydney especially the iconic toast racks. I just can't imagine Sydney with 100's of these beautiful trams whisking their commuters off to work in the morning peak. I get to put up with Tangaras and air-conditioned CDC Bus diesel contraptions which is about as appealing as gouging out your eyes with a rusty spoon. But today, I got to feel what it was like to travel in style on a Sydney toast rack. Out and about were O 1111, O 805, N 728 and some other classics, C 29, C 290 and F 393. J 675 was on standby and 42s was lurking near Railway Square as well. C 29 had some trouble late in the day and was failed when it dropped its lifeguard but otherwise all was good. Said hello to David C and Mark N and learnt a few things about what's going on. Unfortunately, Elscotto couldn't make it as his XL Falcon's gearbox gave up the ghost. Anyway, it seems that OP 1089 is making lots of progress and looks set for a re-entry into service next year and P 1729 is having lots of attention as well. Good to see that P 1501, which was recovered from the Tam-O-Tel in Lightning Ridge and is in Bendigo, will continue to be restored. All we need now is the coupled E's to get the love and we could all be toasted to our hearts content.


I took some pic's of course.....check them out





I do wish Gladys Berijiklian, who was there earlier in the day, sees the value of what SPER does and helps out with some financial assistance but most importantly, sees the value of Light Rail trams in the modern world and gets the trams back running where they used to be. I hope it happens in my lifetime.

Another One for the Paint Shop

I've finally finished the Redfern FN car and I can safely say that I've got the soldering bug out of my system! While I certainly enjoyed putting the kit together over the last month or so, I think the next one will go together a lot quicker now that I've worked out all the shortcomings in the instructions. The hardest part of the kit was the bogies as they are near scale in width which made it difficult to get the wheels to not rub parts of the side frames and short out the layout. Having said that they do look good once assembled. I added some extra detail to the car including brake cylinder and associated rodding, brake detail on the bogies and inlet pipes for the gas cylinder. The other thing I did was replace all of the supplied  supports for the double roof with ones I bent up from some flat bar as the originals were way too thick. All I have left to do is add lamp irons and brake hoses and it will be into the bath for a good scrub and then off to the paint shop.


Here's how it looks,

I'll add the buffers after painting

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. It's the most complex etched kit I've done so with this behind me, I'm more confident in tackling the LCB Ashbury car I bought a while back....just not now.

There's a package wending it's way from the US so it might be time to unleash the navvies again.