West End Workbench

[Atlantic 3279]

I was interested to see the use of that "Keen" acrylic aerosol, apparently after some time in storage. I had one of those for a while, and would have used it to seal the printed brick paper that I made for my station building earlier this year, but I found that it had de-gassed itself in storage. Halfords clear lacquer, applied very lightly at first, did a perfectly satisfactory job instead.

I also used some of the "Crafty" waterslide paper some time ago, but I found it incapable of handling the amount of ink delivered by my printer on the best quality photo paper setting. I had not pre-lacquered the paper, but much of the ink just sat on the surface forming droplets and smudges. I think I found that lighter print settings would work, and that after some drying time a second pass through the printer (if everything was lined up accurately) gave greater colour depth if needed. Perhaps waterslide papers vary somewhat, or have now improved?

For "white" printing I defaulted to printing the background colour instead on white transfer paper, but if trying to produce a patch to blend in to a larger area of painted background it involved a lot of trial printing using changes of selected tones and of various paper settings on the printer. It's no use test printing on cheaper paper to check the colour, as the resultant printed colour can be totally different! I found the best compromise in the end was to settle for a printed background colour reasonably close to the painted one, and then to brush more of the actual paint, lightly and carefully, over the edges of the transfer and up to a feather-edge as close as possible to the white lettering. Less care sufficed on items destined for heavy weathering.

[Dave]

The Flat-T and Warwell are intersting wagons, are you doing one of the T's in LMS livery.

Glad you and Atlantic survived the show.

[Atlantic 3279]

Glad you and Atlantic survived the show.

I want danger money if I go next year Dave. This was the second year running that I've gone there still experiencing fatigue, dry throat and tickly cough after a more intense phase of a tenacious respiratory virus...

[jwealleans]

are you doing one of the T's in LMS livery.

Actually, darling, I made it for you to go with the bogies I have here for you. You can paint it any colour you like.

[Dave]

Thank you pet, what can I say, that is very kind of you to do that for me. I had forgotten about the bogies, let me know what I owe you and Jesse.
I will do the LNER version I think.

I notice Jesse is mentioned on the Hornby engineshed thing, he's won a photo competition.......

Hope you recover soon Graeme.

[jwealleans]

he's won a photo competition.......

Yes, you should ask him about that. You should very definitely ask him about that.

Seems they have different rules in Australia.

[Dave]

I did and you could not make it up just amazing and so typical of Jesse.

[Atlantic 3279]

Neither of you ever call me darling or pet. I'm not sure whether I'm offended or greatly relieved.

[Dave]

Sorry sweet cheeks, I will remember you have a delicate side to your nature in future.

[jwealleans]

I was interested to see the use of that "Keen" acrylic aerosol, apparently after some time in storage. I had one of those for a while, and would have used it to seal the printed brick paper that I made for my station building earlier this year, but I found that it had de-gassed itself in storage. Halfords clear lacquer, applied very lightly at first, did a perfectly satisfactory job instead.

Interesting. I hadn't seen this comment before tonight and can flesh it out a little. After pontificating on how do make your own transfers and how easy it is, I had something of a disaster with the first ones on white paper I tried. They had been varnished with the Keen lacquer shown upthread which hadn't sealed them at all, so on exposure to water the red ink gleefully fled the paper and spread itself over everything. A second batch was printed and sealed with Halfords lacquer and they have been absolutely fine. I wonder if the Keen stuff is reaching the end of its useful life?

That minor matter aside, I'm really chuffed that almost 10 years after I started it, I have fitted the very distinctive roofboards to the Leeds Quint.





My grateful thanks to Phil Mullins who made and supplied the artwork. The roofs can now be painted a suitable shade of black and the thing is finally done.

Other than that I've been chaining things up. I had a delivery from Ambis Engineering last week and found out a number of single bolsters which hadn't been festooned with chains. Even an empty wagon can take some detailing. These have been built a while and I struggled to remember exactly what some of them are:



Early LNER design, scratchbuilt. I only repaired and patch painted these. They'll need a bit of weight adding but they're a nice job by someone.



These are by ABS; I have a feeling they're Midland. They used to come as a pair in the pack as I recall.



The left hand one is also whitemetal and has the look of an ABS moulding to me; is it LMS? It's a touch longer than the ones above. The LNER one is brass and I thought scratchbuilt at first, but it's too neat and regular. There are no identifying marks on it but I think it's the Dave Bradwell kit.



This little bit of whimsy is finished as well.



The flat wagons are both awaiting parts; I decided the bogies on the Warwell were too awful and have sourced some replacements which I may have before Christmas. The Flat T needs some of the characteristic lashing rings which I thought I had another pack of; they're on Wizard Models etch ABW (Wagon Stanchions & Shackles).

[65447]

Neither of you ever call me darling or pet. I'm not sure whether I'm offended or greatly relieved.

Never mind me duck, at Athersley WMC in Barnsley - long since gone - miners called each other 'luv'.

[Atlantic 3279]

I'm really chuffed that almost 10 years after I started it, I have fitted the very distinctive roofboards to the Leeds Quint.

Never mind the delay, the maturing phase may have made all the difference, as with a good cheese, wine or decent ale.

[Atlantic 3279]

Neither of you ever call me darling or pet. I'm not sure whether I'm offended or greatly relieved.

Never mind me duck, at Athersley WMC in Barnsley - long since gone - miners called each other 'luv'.

I can feel the love from here...

[jwealleans]

You're sure it's not just wind?

[jwealleans]

Chaining up all those bolsters motivated me to go through the various boxes of half built and acquired wagons in the corner of the workshop and drag out a few more. I'm going to end up with a fairly substantial train by the look. I had to identify a few and then work out how to replace the missing parts of which there were a number. I've pottered on this week putting them back together and the end is starting to be in sight. Most are not LNER, but expect at least a video of the full train when it's complete.



One other thing I have started is this Cambrian C107 D178 5 plank open which I bought at Warley. I've had one in the Thurston/Wickham Market stock for a few years but it's disappeared. I imagine someone else has packed it away inadvertently and it wil reappear, but in the meantime another one can't do any harm. This kit has the one piece underframe so it was a very quick job to assemble. It's hardening off as I write. As a bonus you end up with quite a few spare bits off the sprues as you can see.



Some of the models from last year's Warley display are being finished off. These were part of a sequence showing an Airfix 16 tonner being revived. This is all Geoff Kent, I can take no credit for any of it, but these have had detailing as per his book and new (LMS) buffers. You can see on the left hand one where the hinges have been recreated. The right one is yet to be done. One thing I don't correct if present is the reversed brake push rods. It's too destructive getting them off to turn round if they've been glued anything like effectively. I need some more coal wagons for the Wickham Market train (some of them have moved to Shap) so these are a quick and easy route there. I might look at some of the more exotic variants next year. Modeller's Backtrack did an excellent summary of the different diagrams which is still as authoritative a source as any.



Also for Wickham Market, this Airfix cattle van. This came to me in a very sad state, but I reckon salvageable. This is also being detailed according to the Word of Geoff. I need some additional adaptor vehicles for the BB couplings I use on the corridor stock on WM and this will be one of them, assuming I can get it both heavy and free running enough. For the moment the extra bits are hardening off before they're trimmed and shaped.



Finally the remaining shackles for the Flat T came from Andrew at Wizard Models, so they've all been fitted. As this wagon has steel solebars and buffer beams it's exssentially going to be black all over, so I thought I'd get a picture in primer before all that detail disappears.