Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Ground Signals Again

[S.A.C. Martin]

Here's a possible nameplate that ought to please Mistahjim:

Nice!

May I ask - how have you achieved that look for the nameplate? I noticed another similar image in the P2 Naming thread, wondered if it was a special program or similar.

[Atlantic 3279]

Answered by PM

[mistahjim]

Correct, I do like it! I was wondering, how (if at all) were you planning to model it?

[Atlantic 3279]

The nameplate? Perhaps print it out to size on glossy photo paper, spray satin varnish, trim to size with an ultra sharp blade, stick to black plastikard backing strip if not thick enough alone, maybe go around edges very cautiously with brass-coloured paint, satin varnish again and Evo-Stick to loco?

[mistahjim]

Simples, as that damned rodent says. And there was me half-expecting you to reveal a hitherto-unseen talent for photo-etching...

[Atlantic 3279]

I am neither skilled nor equipped for etching, besides, there's probably not enough of a meerkat for fantasy nameplates.....

Matters have moved on a little with the 4-8-2 this weekend. Although this only shows a very rough first undercoat of blue over the thus far modified areas, it helps to test the quality of my surface finish and starts to give a more complete impression of the final appearance.

Here's a closer view of some of the jobs done: Additional handrail knobs fitted, ejector pipe extended with plastic rod and wire stubs to dowel the joints, then refitted with a couple of twists of fusewire representing the extra clips, impression of sandfiller hatch taken in silicone and replica cast in resin fitted to boiler cladding, multitude of PVA dots (less one that has fallen off) representing rivets etc in modified areas of bodywork. These latter have turned out just a little "heavier" than Hornby's moulded rivets, but not too bad I feel.

Whilst I've done no more than stick some five-sided pieces of black plastikard to the inside lower edges of my frame extensions to achieve the effect, I thought there probably ought to be a basic suggestion of springs below the new axle too.

Also cooking on the back-burner at present is, I hope, a good silicone impression of a very nice brass A4 double chimney that I "acquired" off a cheap and now dismantled kit loco body. All being well I can then resin-cast a small quantity of nice chimneys and fit a "double" on both this 4-8-2 and on yet another A4 destined for metamorphosis to W1. Ideally I'll manage to turn out some for "stock" too, should other projects or fellow needy modellers require them.

[davidwest]

Is the chimney the one that you mention to me a while back?

[earlswood nob]

Your 4-8-2 streamliner look magnificient. Its amazing what you do with a RTR body.
Do you have a fleet of streamliners to compare? From the short B17/5 to this example (X1??). I'm guessing it could be given the X1 class as it was vacant by the time the 4-8-2 was designed.
When the weather cools, I'll spend more time at the workbench, and think about converting an A4 to a W1 via your methods.
Well done, a pleasure to admire your work.
Earlswood Nob

[mistahjim]

Do you have a fleet of streamliners to compare?

There is a comparison picture on page 23 of this thread, with the W1 and A4. To my eye the W1 is actually the most well-proportioned of the three, but that could just be because of the way it sits between the other 2 and seems to be almost an average of the 3 designs. Odd how the eye and brain work.

Re: the afore-mentioned B17/5, does anyone know if Dean Sidings resin body kit has come to anything?

[earlswood nob]

Hi to all Gresley nuts
Golden Arrow do a B17/5 resin body that is designed to fit a Hornby Footballer chassis.
Comet do a B17 chassis which fits and gives a good running model.
When I get around to painting it I will post a pic, but don't hold your breath.
So much to do and so little time to spare.
Earlswood Nob

[Atlantic 3279]

Thanks All

Chimney update etc still coming - been delayed by visitors from abroad, but once I've shipped my son out to Leeds this afternoon to meet up with his accomplices for the start of his study trip, I can get back to being organized, or as close to that as I get anyway!

[Atlantic 3279]

Leeds trip done, peace and quiet restored.

My original brass double chimney, which IS the one to which David West referred in his question, and which I wanted to replicate, posed a slight problem in its original state. The "pots" were not bored out, and there was a big hollow area inside the base. I didn't want to get involved with trying to make a two-piece mould so I did a bit of head scratching. After opening the bores out with drills and files, I found a couple of old spare wooden chopsticks, rubbed candle wax over their round tapered ends and pushed one down into each chimney pot from above. I then inverted the chimney and over-filled the void in the base with car-body fibre-glass repair resin. When this had set I extracted the chopsticks, filed the resin flush with the perimeter of the chimney base, and then used Evostick to bond the chimney base to a piece of plasticard curved to more-or-less match the sloping front of an A4. You can see the pink resin in the base of the chimney on looking down the pots in this image:

I then made an impression of the chimney in silicone sealant and stuck a piece of card to the top of the silicone mass, before it went off, at such an angle that I would be able to later invert the mould and have the open-base of the chimney impression more or less level. It took three goes to get a satisfactory impression, finding out as I went how to get the silicone to fill the pots without trapping air pockets, and how to get the silicone smeared continuously over the whole surface of the chimney without again trapping air next to the brass:

More to follow - another visitor here now.....

[Atlantic 3279]

Once I had a reasonable looking mould, I filled it with more car-body resin, drop-by-drop on the end of a small screwdriver, wiping the resin into all the recesses in the mould and slightly over-filling it ensuring that the resin extended beyond the edges of the chimney-base. I then took another piece of curved-to-base-contour plasticard, rubbed with wax to make sure that it wouldn't bond to the resin, and placed this over the open mould with just a little weight on top (the candle that supplied the wax) whilst the resin set.

The resin sets pretty quickly if you get the mixture right, and the casting can then be eased out of the mould and further castings made. Here are three "rough" chimney castings, i.e. good copies but straight from the mould with flash still attached:

Now a couple of comparisons of the original brass chimney, one straight from the mould, and one that I've cleaned up and given a quick coat of grey primer so as to reaveal more detail:

[Atlantic 3279]

I wish I had remembered to drill the brass master for the whistle mounting before making the above chimney mould, but even if the copies have to be individually marked and drilled close to a fragile edge, I am not inclined to try to re-make the mould just yet. Three attempts, each with a 24 hour setting time for the sealant was "enough" for me at this stage!

Whilst visitors and various other disruptions have limited my further work on the 4-8-2 this week, but I have managed to pare and scrape off the moulded cab handrails, fit real ones instead, and reinstate the boiler handrails. I think I've decided for the sake of simplicity to assume that the "exposed" length of the firebox would have been kept as per the Gresley A1/A3/A4/V2/P1, i.e. as per the published drawing, not as the P2/W1/later pacifics. This would have to be so if the 70 foot turntable compatibility was to be maintained. I'll therefore simply put a spacer behind the backhead in the cab so that the cab appears uncomfortably full of firebox. The washout plugs and mudhole doors can also stay-put, as it occurs to me that the cab-firebox relationship on the 4-8-2 as drawn would probably not have permitted washout plugs to be in the W1/Wolf of Badenoch positions, making a third version of the diagram 108 boiler a necessity.

As you can see, I have also de-numbered the loco.

[Atlantic 3279]

Here's one I forgot earlier - how the 4-8-2 might look with double chimney as "Indefatigable".
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