Never too sick to model!

Had a sick day today to help look after the kids which are all sick plus fighting a cold myself. So between taking one to and from Kindy and the others to the doctor I managed to spare a little time for myself. So what better to do than build another turntable. I was reading that the 60ft turntables were very predominate so I better have one of those too.

Nearly complete model. Not sure what I want to use for the flooring, options are sheet styrene or that plastic packing strip. I've seen it used in the past so I'll have to get some tomorrow at work to check the thickness and realism.

I had to cheat a little again as I was getting tired of making 3 x 3 angle out of strip styrene. I made the angle brackets of strip instead of the angle.

The wheel brackets and more underside detail.

Closer view.

The 2 compared.

A Miserable Long weekend.

Due to the miserable weather here this weekend there was nothing to do but put some time into modelling. I've been wanting to build a turntable for some time now so I gathered up the research info I have and got right into it. I decided to build a 50 ft turntable as one day I hope to build a layout which incorporates a branch line with a terminus, therefore I need a turntable to spin those old steamers round or maybe just have it sitting around unused as I mostly run diesels.

Side on shot of the model, only requiring the rails.

Due to the weather painting was not an option, it will have to wait for another day.

Another view from the turn assist handle.



I cut the sides from a sheet of .20 styrene. Then added all the strengthening beams for the sides. Because evergreen don't make a 'T' in styrene it was all made up from strip styrene, very time consuming but worth it.

Top view of the two sides together with strengthening cross members. I added a little extra styrene on the insides for strength and to assist with the squareness. It will be hidden with the top member which the rail attaches to.

I chose to use scale timber for the walkways as I wanted to model a realistic look and effect. It would have been stronger with styrene but due to the amount of use it will get I think the timber is a better option.

I went with styrene for the hand rails as a strength option, plus they are usually painted white so it will nearly be unnoticed. I also left the pinion cover until I can decide on a method to have the turntable rotate and power the rails.

A view showing the walkway brackets. I had to cheat a little as it was very difficult to get the styrene to bend all the way around the bracket to create the tee shaped steel used. Hopefully it will go largely unnoticed as it is underneath.

I found an old pair of plastic wheels which came in handy too bastardise. They are a little oversize but I prefer that so they will easily find the rail in the pit.

Another view of the mechanical assist handle. I will update as soon as the paint and rails go on.

S is for sleepers?

As usual with my latest run of modelling there were a couple of lazy S trucks in the box of

"I don't model that era but I got it cheap!"

So when I came across some pictures of S trucks used in sleeper traffic I remembered my hidden treasures and found good use for them which brings them into my era. Better still they are way and works, which interests me due to individuality.

I cut a piece of balsa wood to shape of the the inside of the wagon. I scribed the sleeper width and put in notches to make it look as though the sleepers had not been cut to square.

I painted it brown and dry brushed it with a deep orange colour to give the impression of the clean grain from cutting and that they had weathered a lot from the time they were sawn to the day of pick up.

Individual sleepers were then cut from scale lumber. They will be applied to the top of the balsa pile. Again painted in the same manner as the balsa.

The Balsa load installed in the wagon. It isn't glued in so it can be removed if needed.

Top view.

SW 13288 with the individual sleepers glued in with white glue. After gluing them in I gave them a little extra streaking for appearance.

WS 1440 with it's sleepers fully loaded. So which is correct WS or SW?

Perhaps the decal applier was dyslexic? Oh yes almost forgot, I did paint the wagon and had the decals made by a mate form the pictures found.

The two wagons "hooked up". I tried to make the top row of sleepers look as though they had dislodged or moved during transport. Then again it might have been 350pm on Friday afternoon.

The top end view.

Opposite end view.

Shunters wagon.

I have had a set of Columbia models NOFF ore hoppers for a while now which were part of a collection I purchased. Not being a fan of the wagon they sat in the shed for months until a mate gave me an idea. On one of his many trips into NSW photographing trains he showed me a picture of a converted NOFF into a shunters wagon. So me being always on the look out for a new challenge and some individuality I had a go at representing the wagon.

The original wagon minus it bogie's.

The first panel removed with the gas axe.

The opposite side panel removed and undercoated.

New handrails and step into the wagon. The step is a left over from an AR kits BD.

Paint completed with the rust weathering and some black and white highlights.

The opposite side of the wagon.

The completed wagon with it graffiti. Unfortunately the graffiti was a guess as I only had a shot from one side of the wagon.

The other side. Compare with the original below, but the weathering could do with some improvement.

The original.

Tarp 'er up.

Now don't go getting too excited that I have done 2 posts in as many days. This is not a sign of things to come, just catching up on the past 3 months of not putting up any posts at all.

This is my first ever attempt at Tarping up wagons, so I'm not going to tell you the best way to achieve tarped wagons, but show you my success with the method I chose.

I was gifted 4 I wagons from a friend that were constructed but unpainted so with nothing to loose what better item for me to make my first attempt.

I used the standard Dilmah tea bag. I removed the staple, string and under running water the tea leaves. Whilst still wet I was able to tear along the seam which opened out the tea bag flat, then left hanging to dry.

Once dry I cut to my desired shape, I can't remember the dimension I measured the wagon to get an estimate. Then with a white glue water mixture, the same as ballasting, I applied it to one side of the wagon.

Then folded the tarp over and did the same to the other side.

Then using the paint brush and glue mix, I folded the end of the tarp over until I came up with what looked good to me.

The end result. I found that the paint brush gave excellent control in creating the folded ends.


Then after some research through many colour photos I tried some paint samples on the scraps. Some people say that the stain of the tea is good enough but I disagree. It's too slow and you need something to fill up the gaps in the tea bag.

With a steady hand the paint was brushed on.

The tarp are now painted. The two wagons on the left are the same colour while the 3rd is a shade lighter.

The wagons now decalled and weathered. They have been weathered to represent use on phosphate traffic.

After this trial I am happy with the out come but have already thought of improvements. Next time I will unravel the string and try to use it for the tie downs. Another thought was to add some poly styrene underneath for bulky covered loads.

Not much getting done.

It's been a very busy time for me over the last few months hence the lack of updates. Time has been very limited for me to try and get any modelling done. So here is an update of a couple of things I've been able to complete in the small amount of time I have had .

I was able to purchase a few of the missing volumes of the Brief History books late last year. So I have used them to do a lot of research into departmental traffic. I enjoy these vehicles as they are a little bit away from the normal. Above is one such wagon I9008, a friend did up the decals for me and I think they look quite alright.
I loaded the wagon with shot gun pellets to get better running. To try and disguise the weight I have thrown in a few couplers, shunters steps, battery boxes and odds and ends. Just need some more junk to hide the rest.

Simply a SEM B van with the correct numver and decals added. Again inspired from the Brief History series.

I purchased some undecorated Auscision ballast hoppers. This enabled me to have my own series of numbers away from the production run.

The graffiti was copied from some wagons I photographed in Werris creek some years ago. It was hand written using a fine point paint pen.

I was trying to model the wagons as if they had been in traffic only a couple of months if not a year. That's why the weathering is quite light.

They may have only been in traffic for a short period of time, but it would appear it's long enough for the vandals to do their work.

I'm pretty happy with how these wagons turned out as I haven't done a lot of spraying using masking tape to achieve two tone paint or lines.

Last one of the set.