A copy of part 2 of Modelling Trees by Gordon Gravett undertook the flight to Sydney in December and arrived not long before Christmas.
This volume follows the basic layout of the first part, but this time the emphasis is on Conifers. I must admit to a certain dislike of Pine trees, which I loathe only slightly less than Palm Trees. Despite that, they do make very impressive models and some of the ones I do not normally see out here - such as Scots Pines are beautiful trees.
The book is broken up into sections covering trunks and branches, painting and different approaches to foliage. All subjects are covered in detail and well illustrated with some beautiful models.
This is then followed on by building examples of different species of trees - the same approach as part 1, but such a refreshingly different approach to the subject of trees.
Both of these volumes provide a wealth of information and inspiration. They have certainly made me look at modelling trees in a very different light.
As I have said before, for me the Wild Swan modelling books are the best there is. If you liked Part One, then you really do need to get part two.
If you do not have Part one or Part two, the only thing I can really say is ...Why not?
Modelling Trees by Gordon Gravett, published by Wild Swan Publications. 21.95 GBP
My Copy was obtained from Bill Hudson Transport Books.
Tuesday, 15 January 2013
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Some more on Morgan and a helping hand.
I have made further progress on the Morgan Design underframe, which now has a Coopercraft V5 body (mostly) fitted. The current subject of interest is the springs and axle boxes, all ABS castings which have had the W-iron detail filed off. A very tedious process indeed. For some reason my progress was not smooth this time around and I managed to kill two castings whilst modifying them. I have been given some Bill Bedford 3D printed ones to try (they will go on an 02 open) but a quick look at them suggests a lack of definition on the springs which does bug me a little. We shall see on that one!
One of the more annoying parts of this project has been reducing the thickness of the solebars and i am now seriously considering using etched ones. I will try a Parkside kit for the next one and see how that goes before deciding one way or the other.
The body was assembled and checked for fit against the brass underframe. The DC1 handle bracket stopped it from sitting correctly at first, though this was easily rectified. The width across the solebars wound up being somewhat less than the inside dimensions for the van body, so I used some styrene strips inside to pack it out and then glued all into position.
We had a bit of a play with the wagon at our area group meeting today and it seems that 50 grams will be too heavy for the wagon, so I will aim for about 35-40 grams.
Still to do are the springs, axleboxes and the buffers as well as a few body details. I am modelling mid 1924 and this wagon will be finished as one with 25" lettering.
When I exile myself to the garage to try and get some things done, it is not long before the "help" arrives. We have plenty of options for help here, so it can be a cat or dog. The cats usually lay down under my legs, but Bellamy, my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel tends to either sit or lay next to me. This does not last long before he taps me on the leg to say hello.
Terrible time waister, but i would not miss a second of it.
One of the more annoying parts of this project has been reducing the thickness of the solebars and i am now seriously considering using etched ones. I will try a Parkside kit for the next one and see how that goes before deciding one way or the other.
The body was assembled and checked for fit against the brass underframe. The DC1 handle bracket stopped it from sitting correctly at first, though this was easily rectified. The width across the solebars wound up being somewhat less than the inside dimensions for the van body, so I used some styrene strips inside to pack it out and then glued all into position.
We had a bit of a play with the wagon at our area group meeting today and it seems that 50 grams will be too heavy for the wagon, so I will aim for about 35-40 grams.
Still to do are the springs, axleboxes and the buffers as well as a few body details. I am modelling mid 1924 and this wagon will be finished as one with 25" lettering.
When I exile myself to the garage to try and get some things done, it is not long before the "help" arrives. We have plenty of options for help here, so it can be a cat or dog. The cats usually lay down under my legs, but Bellamy, my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel tends to either sit or lay next to me. This does not last long before he taps me on the leg to say hello.
Terrible time waister, but i would not miss a second of it.
Thursday, 10 January 2013
A little bit of DCC
It's been a while folks but finally I've got back onto this blog. Not that I haven't been modelling all along.
Probably the most significant step I've made in modelling over the last 18 months or so is to finish (almost!) the 45XX and wire both it and the Metro for DCC sound.
Here's the 45XX in Rodney's back yard just after we installed the chip. Sorry it's a bit out of focus, but you get the picture! I think this is a chip for a general 2 cylinder GWR loco from Richard in Perth.
And here's the Metro on my workbench. The speaker is just out of shot and will eventually be housed in the guards compartment of the A26 Autotrailer to which it will be permanently attached. Again, the pic is a bit wobbly! This is actually a pannier chip from Howe's.
It's been a while folks but finally I've got back onto this blog. Not that I haven't been modelling all along.
Probably the most significant step I've made in modelling over the last 18 months or so is to finish (almost!) the 45XX and wire both it and the Metro for DCC sound.
Friday, 28 December 2012
Morgan design GWR underframes.
A fascination with goods wagons has been a lifelong thing with me. While passenger trains seem to be the focus of much interest, to my mind nothing beats a loose coupled goods train full of 4 wheel wagons. The airy appearance of the wheels and brakegear is one of the things that drew me to P4 standards in the first place.
The only problem is that setting up all the etched brake gear and sorting things out can be rather time intensive and as I have "matured" the idea of doing things a little quicker has some appeal. Masokits have produced some etched underframes... untried by me though I have no doubt they will be pretty good.
A while back I grabbed some of the Morgan design GWR crossing etches and found them of great interest. Some articles in the Great Western Study Group Newsletter (not a member? ... you should be if you are interested in the GWR) and correspondence with Brian indicated that underframe kits were in progress and are available form Brian or (a limited range) from the Scalefour Stores.
I purchased all the variants and am currently building the DC1 kit. This will be fitted under a Coopercraft V5 van fitted with louvred vents (see the superb articles by John Lewis in GWRJ on the GWR 16' vans for details). The kit is supplied as an etch and needs guitar wire, wheels and bearings to complete it plus of course the wagon or van. Solebar etches are separately available or plastic mouldings can be used.
The instructions are available as a download from the Scalefour Society website and with some 48 pages of text and drawings are nothing if not exhaustive! In truth, they are fairly easy to follow - but I would suggest reading them several times before hand to get your head around things. The DC1 frames cover most possible variations, so you need to work out want you want to build as some parts need to be removed. My mid 1920s interests rule out other side brakes and there was still plenty of wagons and vans with pure DC1 brakes - which is what I want!
Brian recommends using Exactoscale wheels and bearings. I used Ultrascale wheels as I have a good stash of them and went to use Markits bearings. Quite a few years back I discovered that Exactoscale bearings and Bill Bedford W-Irons do not get on good together, but in this case the shallower (in depth) Exactoscale bearings are ideal as they avoid the need for using spacing washers.
The underframes have fixed irons at one end and sprung at the other. The irons are etched on one side of the frame but are separate parts for the other solebar and are fixed in position by screws. It all sound terribly complex, but in reality it all makes sense when you start building. There is no need to flex W-Irons apart, you simply set them up and screw them in position when you have removed the endplay.
I still have some work to do - including the van body, but the idea of a one stop shop for the underframe and brakegear is very appealing and it does look good.
The two photos show both sides and you can see where I have mounted one of the solebars. I might go down the etched solebar path on the next one, not sure yet! The frame is sitting higher at the sprung end at present because I have not weighted the wagon - that will wait until the body is built.
That is about it for the moment, hopefully Santa was good to everyone (I brought a Nikon D600 and was told it was from Santa) and the new year is rewarding for all. I was hoping to get another post in before that, but I am going to see Anti-Flag tomorrow (google them) and may be very sick and sorry for a few days if I go in the mosh pit!
The only problem is that setting up all the etched brake gear and sorting things out can be rather time intensive and as I have "matured" the idea of doing things a little quicker has some appeal. Masokits have produced some etched underframes... untried by me though I have no doubt they will be pretty good.
A while back I grabbed some of the Morgan design GWR crossing etches and found them of great interest. Some articles in the Great Western Study Group Newsletter (not a member? ... you should be if you are interested in the GWR) and correspondence with Brian indicated that underframe kits were in progress and are available form Brian or (a limited range) from the Scalefour Stores.
I purchased all the variants and am currently building the DC1 kit. This will be fitted under a Coopercraft V5 van fitted with louvred vents (see the superb articles by John Lewis in GWRJ on the GWR 16' vans for details). The kit is supplied as an etch and needs guitar wire, wheels and bearings to complete it plus of course the wagon or van. Solebar etches are separately available or plastic mouldings can be used.
The instructions are available as a download from the Scalefour Society website and with some 48 pages of text and drawings are nothing if not exhaustive! In truth, they are fairly easy to follow - but I would suggest reading them several times before hand to get your head around things. The DC1 frames cover most possible variations, so you need to work out want you want to build as some parts need to be removed. My mid 1920s interests rule out other side brakes and there was still plenty of wagons and vans with pure DC1 brakes - which is what I want!
Brian recommends using Exactoscale wheels and bearings. I used Ultrascale wheels as I have a good stash of them and went to use Markits bearings. Quite a few years back I discovered that Exactoscale bearings and Bill Bedford W-Irons do not get on good together, but in this case the shallower (in depth) Exactoscale bearings are ideal as they avoid the need for using spacing washers.
The underframes have fixed irons at one end and sprung at the other. The irons are etched on one side of the frame but are separate parts for the other solebar and are fixed in position by screws. It all sound terribly complex, but in reality it all makes sense when you start building. There is no need to flex W-Irons apart, you simply set them up and screw them in position when you have removed the endplay.
I still have some work to do - including the van body, but the idea of a one stop shop for the underframe and brakegear is very appealing and it does look good.
The two photos show both sides and you can see where I have mounted one of the solebars. I might go down the etched solebar path on the next one, not sure yet! The frame is sitting higher at the sprung end at present because I have not weighted the wagon - that will wait until the body is built.
That is about it for the moment, hopefully Santa was good to everyone (I brought a Nikon D600 and was told it was from Santa) and the new year is rewarding for all. I was hoping to get another post in before that, but I am going to see Anti-Flag tomorrow (google them) and may be very sick and sorry for a few days if I go in the mosh pit!
Parkside Dundas N13 Horse box.
Do you ever look at blogs and wonder about the long silent periods? I do, and what makes it worse is when the blog you wonder about is the blog that you and some cohorts are meant to be doing!
It has been "sometime" since the last update and guilt has got the better of me (I hope some others feel bad when they read this!)
The Christmas break is an ideal time to try and finish a few things off, so I am doing a couple of posts on things I have in progress and hopefully these will be followed by some further posts in a few weeks showing some further movements on things.
First up is a Parkside Dundas N13 horsebox. This came about because the D&S N4 horsebox I was battling with was frustrating me. I nearly always have trouble with compensated W-irons - I never seem to get them level. So I decided to replace the with Bill Bedford sprung irons. There is a thread on the subject on the Scalefour Society forum.
I decided to build the N13 kit as a quickie, but was then seduced by the Southwark Bridge Models GWR wagon brakegear etch and sundry other things. So the N13 has turned out to be not so quick after all. The progress to date is shown in the attached photo. The N13 will be finished as one of the Lot 1267 ones, which were built between February 1920 and February 1922 (GWRJ number 81 for details) and will be finished in crimson.... eventually
It has been "sometime" since the last update and guilt has got the better of me (I hope some others feel bad when they read this!)
The Christmas break is an ideal time to try and finish a few things off, so I am doing a couple of posts on things I have in progress and hopefully these will be followed by some further posts in a few weeks showing some further movements on things.
First up is a Parkside Dundas N13 horsebox. This came about because the D&S N4 horsebox I was battling with was frustrating me. I nearly always have trouble with compensated W-irons - I never seem to get them level. So I decided to replace the with Bill Bedford sprung irons. There is a thread on the subject on the Scalefour Society forum.
I decided to build the N13 kit as a quickie, but was then seduced by the Southwark Bridge Models GWR wagon brakegear etch and sundry other things. So the N13 has turned out to be not so quick after all. The progress to date is shown in the attached photo. The N13 will be finished as one of the Lot 1267 ones, which were built between February 1920 and February 1922 (GWRJ number 81 for details) and will be finished in crimson.... eventually
Sunday, 15 July 2012
The Dean Goods.
The Dean Goods must be in blogging favour at the moment. I noticed that Geoff, owner of the wonderful Penhydd has a post about one he is building. This one is chequebook modelling though. I have always thought that that the high end UK kits are cheap and the number of Finney and Mitchell kits (amongst others) I have tends to support this. While I have no problems with building things I am also prone to distraction and procrastination. Sometimes the truth hurts, but there it is!
With this in mind, after having seen some of his work, I contacted John James about building a Martin Finney Dean Goods and a curved frame Bulldog.
The Dean Goods is based on a photo (in GWRJ) of 2486 outside Old Oak Common Signal box in 1921. My period of interest is the early to mid 1920s so I try to work from photographs of that period.
A High level gear box, Mashima motor and Ultrascale wheels round out the specs, while pick up is by the so called "American System". As one would expect it runs very nicely indeed. The coal in the tender was a little too small for my period so I added a few larger pieces to give it more of a 1920s feel and I painted over the brass whistles (sorry John).
The photos were taken at our recent group meeting on a small scenic base that David M built. I have just been sent some photos by John of the Bulldog (Maristow in early 1920s condition) and when that arrives down under it to will grace these pages.
In the meantime, with these two locos done, I now need to lift my game and get a few things finished myself.
With this in mind, after having seen some of his work, I contacted John James about building a Martin Finney Dean Goods and a curved frame Bulldog.
The Dean Goods is based on a photo (in GWRJ) of 2486 outside Old Oak Common Signal box in 1921. My period of interest is the early to mid 1920s so I try to work from photographs of that period.
A High level gear box, Mashima motor and Ultrascale wheels round out the specs, while pick up is by the so called "American System". As one would expect it runs very nicely indeed. The coal in the tender was a little too small for my period so I added a few larger pieces to give it more of a 1920s feel and I painted over the brass whistles (sorry John).
The photos were taken at our recent group meeting on a small scenic base that David M built. I have just been sent some photos by John of the Bulldog (Maristow in early 1920s condition) and when that arrives down under it to will grace these pages.
In the meantime, with these two locos done, I now need to lift my game and get a few things finished myself.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Modelling Trees
Modelling Trees - Part one - Broadleaf trees.
By Gordon Gravett.
Published by Wild Swan Publications.
Price 19.95 GBP
Not so many years ago trees on a model railway consisted of twigs covered with lichen or sponge. Thankfully, we have moved on a bit from that although it must be said that a truly good model of a tree still tends to be the exception rather than the rule. There have been several books published on modelling trees, and the latest rather fittingly titled "Modelling Trees"is from the Wild Swan stable.
Wild Swan have been releasing modelling related books since the 1980s and while some may "hit" a little more than others the range has built into a truly impressive range with a strong emphasis on the so called "fine scale" approach.
Who could have imagined a multi volume title covering modelling trees?
This first part covers broad leaf trees and opens with an overview of trees in the landscape. It is only by looking at photos that one realises how much the line side landscape has changed. Certainly things were far less overgrown in the era when the use of steam was predominant.
The modelling kicks off with the making of wire armatures and this is followed by sections on bark, painting, foliage, correct colouring and placement. Thankfully, the use of colour is widespread which was a noticeable absence from many of the older Wild Swan titles.
The balance of the book is devoted to modelled examples of different species of tree including English elms, Oaks, Ash and Beeches. Additional topics include Ivy and hedgerows amongst other things.
While the emphasis is on trees modelled to larger scales (as one would expect from the author), the bulk of the techniques discussed are relevant across most scales.
In summary, this is an excellent book. Written in a light, very readable style, it both informs and inspires.
There has been very little comment written about this book, which prompted me to write a review.
Regardless of wether you have an interest in modelling trees in the British landscape or simply to build better trees this is a valuable and recommended reference.
By Gordon Gravett.
Published by Wild Swan Publications.
Price 19.95 GBP
Not so many years ago trees on a model railway consisted of twigs covered with lichen or sponge. Thankfully, we have moved on a bit from that although it must be said that a truly good model of a tree still tends to be the exception rather than the rule. There have been several books published on modelling trees, and the latest rather fittingly titled "Modelling Trees"is from the Wild Swan stable.
Wild Swan have been releasing modelling related books since the 1980s and while some may "hit" a little more than others the range has built into a truly impressive range with a strong emphasis on the so called "fine scale" approach.
Who could have imagined a multi volume title covering modelling trees?
This first part covers broad leaf trees and opens with an overview of trees in the landscape. It is only by looking at photos that one realises how much the line side landscape has changed. Certainly things were far less overgrown in the era when the use of steam was predominant.
The modelling kicks off with the making of wire armatures and this is followed by sections on bark, painting, foliage, correct colouring and placement. Thankfully, the use of colour is widespread which was a noticeable absence from many of the older Wild Swan titles.
The balance of the book is devoted to modelled examples of different species of tree including English elms, Oaks, Ash and Beeches. Additional topics include Ivy and hedgerows amongst other things.
While the emphasis is on trees modelled to larger scales (as one would expect from the author), the bulk of the techniques discussed are relevant across most scales.
In summary, this is an excellent book. Written in a light, very readable style, it both informs and inspires.
There has been very little comment written about this book, which prompted me to write a review.
Regardless of wether you have an interest in modelling trees in the British landscape or simply to build better trees this is a valuable and recommended reference.
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