Roxey Stroudley

 Brian Cameron embarrassed me into this.
He sidled up to me at the end of the party after showing his 7mm NER 4w coach and said 'Come on, I've shown you mine, now show me yours.' The 'mine' in question was a Roxey Mouldings Stroudley 4w Brake Third. The range of four wheelers blown up from their 4mm kits had smiled at me at the Croydon show a few years back and I bought one, and if it doesn't pertain to food or sex then a Brake Third is about as useful as you can get. What I waved back at Brian was only the chassis unit, for even though I'd started it at the time I'd only got as far as a running chassis before I wandered off to something else.
Now this was at the old Croydon show venue; the one with the dark satanic gymnasium. And I think I was showing Einsford Mill. I'm sure Richard Preece will let me know just how long ago that was. (2000. Oh dear)

So a start was made on the body - flanges bent, tumblehomes rolled with a rolling pin and a copy of What Broomstick, and now I'm moving through the side details. Top photo shows droplights going on. Then came the door vents, and in the lower photo, the door hinges which are almost invisible except from this angle.
I have to admit that I'm quite enjoying it.

Track: notes and questions

 Something to look at and something to answer. The above taken in the spring. Siding on a factory estate? No, this is the Cambrian main line. Note the trip to register the passing of the crossing on which I'm standing, and the very fine ballast. but more to the point the amount of growth, swamping the rails in some places.
Below: taken from the train at the weekend. What's going on here? My guess is that the 'splice' in the rail is an expansion joint in the continuous welded rail. Am I right? Note that this has just been replaced and the old lengths are in the four foot. But also note the bonding with two lengths of rail bolted across four sleepers. Anybody give an explanation to this set-up?

More humble flat

A while ago I knocked up a flat wagon in 7mm scale and then wondered about the use of longitudinal planking http://unnycoombelala.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/your-humble-flat.html

Therefore I cannot explain the small amount of pleasure I took in finding the above at the Ball clay mining display at Norden over the weekend. 2' 8" gauge -  the top planks on the LH side are 6" and get a fair bit bigger to the Right. Originally carried a fuel tank.

009 railcar

Done...ish. Bulkhead in, interior painted. Exterior sprayed Vauxhall blue and glazed. What I need to finish off are a couple of slender lamps, which I haven't sourced as yet.

CP asked if it will tow anything. Probably not, though there is power a plenty. The problem is with this sort of vehicle of how to turn it at a terminus. It did strike me that I could build something similar in 7mm for the rude-not-to project with what's lying about and not too much fuss.

Lynton and Barnstaple Lyd

The L and B scratchbuilt  loco viewed at Porthmadog in May this year.

009 Railcar 2

 Floor and sides assembled and a front from a left-over bit of scribed 40 thou from a 7mm wagon floor. I kept the floor area the same as the prototype.

 A piece of scrap seat forms the rad', with bits of 20 thou scrap and strip for the bonnet. Yes it's a little low... reminds me of the German Ferkel-taxi railcars. Very snouty.

Bufferbeams from 60 thou and running boards ex-Meridian Models Tal-y-llyn coach. Comparison with the 9mm PECO track shows how tiny it is.

More Party Pics

The classic pose that we all love. Photo CP

David Bickerton waits to see if Adrian Colenutt will realise that someone has stolen his pint of Tetleys. Photo: CP

Khan. Photo: PB

009 Railcar from Dundas coach

 After the circus of the weekend it's back to normality for a bit and a project that has been hanging around for a while. I picked up an Arnold Kof III some years ago and it's been languishing in the drawer waiting for a decision on which of the possible half a dozen possible projects to fit it into. Last week I bit the bullet and went for the T and D inspection railcar look alike. The sides are Dundas Festiniog bug box, available from them separately at exhibitions. I sliced one compartment off which gives the correct door/window arrangement, but is prototypically a couple of mil too long.

 Floor 20x46 cut and shaped to fit over the Kof.

Party pics

Messers; Roberts,Collins, Davies, Glover, Lawton.

CP tests the bounce value of a digital SLR on Lima track. Brian Cameron covers himself.

Paul Lindsay-Scott's stunning 7mm contractor's line.

Pagham Harbour bird's eye view

Paul Booth operates Julian Evison's Khan

Peter Bossom's LBSCR box

Councillor Knights opens the proceedings

Chopping up Airfix figures

I'm a fan of using Airfix military figures for non-military poses. Pluses are that they are dirt cheap and readily available, minuses are that they need a bit of work and are made from a soft plastic which feathers if filed or sanded. This little chap was German and holding a small bomb, but will shortly be spinning  the wheel of an up-ended bicycle. This is half painted with a single coat of black, with flesh and hair on and the white shirt half done. This is cruelly enlarged by some 400% and the feathering shows here and not to the normal naked eye.
Not surprisingly I'm still working of details like this for Tal-coed. There's not not much left to do now.

Addendum:
A while back I was chatting to my old mate, hairy biker and all round good egg Simon (sometimes commenter here). I quipped that what Tal-coed needed was a knee-trembler under the bridge. A couple of weeks a go Si asked 'So did you do the knee-trembler? I admitted that I hadn't. But as he asked...
The poor girl is from the Bachmann range, is a bit heavy in the rump, has had her legs cut off and replaced with two bits of bent sprue from a PECO station kit (the sound you hear now is Sidney Pritchard spinning in his grave) and has no feet. This is obviously of no concern to our lucky gent who is on leave from the Airfix Luftwaffe ground crew and has had his toolbox cut off.
Don't make up your own jokes chaps...

NSB generator van

The NSB generator to drop in the middle of the short passenger train. To recap: It's very impressionistic and built around a Roco (I think) DB van with one side cut out and diddled with bits of plastic sheet and strip. The only thing that ain't, are the step hangers which are from scrap brass etch. Painted with acrylics - Humbrol 67 and GW terracotta and scorched brown.

The prototype was built in 1942 (and rebuilt ever since) from a German van with a Deutz diesel lump driving a 50Kw generator for carriage heat and light. Presumably with that build date... by Germans.

In order to get some transfers for the number, I had to scrabble around in the loft for a while, being that I looked in three boxes before I found them in the first. This is always the way. What this did do though was give me a quick review of all the stuff that I have part or unmade. I pondered that while five year plans are all well and good, they mean five layouts. In a small house. Looking at the large-ish box with wagon kits spilling out of the top I wondered whether a Nevard-style backdrop would be a better bet; operationally limited, but geographically negative and somewhere to display said wagonery.

Outdoor activity

Being that the sun came out today, and being that I'm not one of these people who does the gardening just because it's nice, I took the modelling outside.
This is taking longer than I thought, and I hit the point today when I thought: would it have been quicker to start from scratch?
Anyway whilst sunning myself I managed to get the plating at the top of the ends done with a bit of 10thou and the doors and knobs.
What I learnt today was that Mek-pak gets very lively in direct sunlight. Which is more than can be said of me.

Point

It has been noted that there has been little mention of Mrs. F recently and that she maybe under the patio. Not so. In fact now that the nights are drawing in it's been time to dust off the broomstick and attend the meetings. Unfortunately East Sussex County Council have frowned upon the 'dancing naked around the fire' due to the upset it causes to the local badger population; something about the slapping sounds being reminisent of gunfire. So in light of recent events it has been suggested that torch-lit volley ball be tried instead.
I will of course keep you abreast of any developments.

Gen xi

I've just been informed that it's 20 weeks 'till Christmas. Start making lists boys.

There's a fair bit of work to do yet, but the side is more or less done. It's a strange looking piece of kit, and proves the 'prototype for everything' rule, as well as giving weight to all those dreadful 009 kit-bashes that only 009-ers and the committee of the 7mm NGA seem to do. Now I have to take a bit more plastic from the floor of the van body to 'sit' the side. Then a light coat of paint to draw it together a little. Observant viewers will note that I've only done one side. This is deliberate. Pointless doing both as 1. I'm not a fish and can only see one side, 2. using the original keeps the whole thing square and rigid. Do keep up 5C...

Now to hang the washing out.

Gen X

Problem 1. There is no way I can get anywhere near the molding quality of even the Lima and old Roco models.
Problem 2. I only have a couple of photos to go on.
Problem 3. I have to work within the confines of the German box van that I'm basing it around.
Result: This is very impressionistic. However it doesn't look too bad so far and with a grubby paint job I can hide a lot of the bad workmanship. Whose idea was this anyway?

That Autocoach

Although it doesn't really fit in any future plans the 1955 build auto coaches outlined on the Penhydd blog and advertised by Comet in RM over the last couple of months, may have a conversion possibility in N for Unnycombe. Being that is basically a B-set coach, how difficult would that be? Here's one in 1959 on the S&W.

Upnor Castle

When I launched this page I envisaged putting quite a bit of prototype stuff on here. That happens less and less now, but here's a small i.c. for your perusal. Taken at Harbour Station in May, Planet Upnor Castle shunts empty stock. As far as I'm aware this was obtained from the Admiralty base at Chattenden and re-gauged from 2'6".

From TANLLAN:  Built by F.C. Hibberd & Co Ltd and delivered to the Admiralty in 1954.
Purchased by the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway in 1962. Sold to the Festiniog Railway in 1968 to help finance the purchase of Drewry 0-6-0 Chattenden.

Norwegian generator van bash

This is possibly th ultimate short NSB train, Skd 224, a brake coach and a box van. Only it's not a box van as we spotted after a while, it's a generator. Onward...

Side hacked out, windows hacked out and tidied and small amount of framing put on.