Blue is the colour!

 It is a bit more on the 09 project with more painting. The various components were indercoated in a dark grey as described in a previous post.

Top colour choice was something that I had wondered about for sometime. The prototype on the Leighton Buzzard railway is a bright yellow which was not really what I was after for my version so to be different it was either green or blue in my mind. As you can see it was blue that won the day! I continued with that colour for the skips as well. Might as well look as though they are a fleet in corporate colours!

However the engine block did get painted green.

It was then time to start painting in some of the details on the loco and this is where you really find the craft of the 3D designer and the quality of the printing equipment. 

Despite painting in details the loco still looked like a slab of blue so to break this up I decided to paint the lower part under the footplate red. Some masking up set the area to be painted and would hopefully avoid any unsightly blurred edges - I was never much good at keeping in the lines with colouring books as a child! 

Rather then spray the red I brushed it so it was going to take two coats to get some colour to it. This is the first coat.

With a second coat applied the red looked much brighter and with the masking tape off there were only a couple of small areas where the blue had to be painted in.

It is beginning to take some character on but it is all too pristine and requires some weathering to make it look uncared for - just like me! That is a job for another day though whilst I lyt all this paint harden.

No trespassing - I own firearms and a backhoe!

 It was the Rocks by Rail Museum Members Day yesterday so for an unfortunate Mrs. Woody it was time to venture out from the interior comfort of the comfy and warm sofa to the rather dismal day outside! However, it was an opportunity to show her the gabion baskets/cages that I had been talking about for the last few weeks and we were accompanied by some of the fitter and younger members - Alex, Thomas, Dan and George.

 

I have to admit that walking up to it a few days after having filled the first of the second layer of gabions it does look impressive!

I also had the opportunity to meet loyal blog readers Mrs. B, Gary and Alex who all are much valued by the WMD team - which is actually me!

Also on display was a rather nice 0 gauge model of Brittania. This was a retirement gift to Andy from none other than Jools Holland, he of musical fame. Andy has run a sound company for more years then he cares to recall although he can recall many fascinating stories of famous people which adds to the interest at lunchtime if he is at the Museum! During the last decade or so he has been working with Jools Holland and doing all his sound for his tours and TV shows including the Hogmanay show last New Years Eve. 

A beautiful gift and no doubt one that will be treasured by Andy sp much so that he refused my offer to take it away and run it in for a year or two!

Talking of the New Year I did take Mrs. W on her annual pilgrimage to the Newark Toy and Train Fair. She is not sure why she goes but I do facilitate the whole thing strictly for her benefit - at least that is what I have told her!

This years event was as busy as last year despite the storm over night. A lot of nostalgia on display which these photos may awaken memories from some older UK based readers. It is a big fair with a lot of stalls.

I was really tempted by this sign but having no firearms or backhoe made it a somewhat empty threat to any trespassers on the WMD estate!

A reminder of the 1990's with Churchill the dog from the TV advert for Churchill car insurance - Oh yes!

If you wanted a Mamod or similar steam engine, there were plenty there. Just don't expect to get the fuel pellets that are now illegal to own!

This is one of those, how did that never get made moments when you see something like this from the 1970's

And again, how did this Mecano set survive so well?

Lots of interesting things but Mrs. W bought some cookies and I bought this!

There is a reason for this and to some degree what is to the side of it may give some clue but in the meantime it is set aside!

More dark grey undercoating!

 With the Fergie now off the workbench the 09 gauge train has moved back onto it.

Having got the airbrush out to do the Fergie tractor it seemed logical, even to my mind, to spray up this train. First off it was all fastened to boards for spraying using masking tape.

It was all then sprayed in a dark grey undercoat - very similar to the Fergie tractor.

It is now already for some top coat once I can find the time!

Bar, bar, bar!

Bar, bar bar is not a misspelling of my sheep impression (and believe me spell check has been a fantastic development for my limited literary skills) but relates to the three coupling bars I have made to connect the three 09 gauge skip wagons to the loco.

First off I had to find some suitable brass strip to form the bars which handily came in the form of some left over etched brass fret from the Italeri T34 tank build a couple of years ago. It has been hanging on my workbench since then but I knew it would come in handy! Please note Mrs. Woody!

First off though, I had to drill some holes in the skip chasses for the pin that would hold the coupling bar. My pin vice drill came in handy to do the hole drilling.

With some etched brass strip also cut to suitable length and width, the pin vice drill was also rather useful to drill a hole at each end of the bars. Some suitable brass wire also allowed me to bend up a suitable pin to hold the coupling bar to the skip chassis.

They are a bit fiddly to connect but given that once painted the wagons are unlikely to be uncoupled that fiddly coupling should not be a problem!

I added all the coupling bars to the skipswhich shows the are the right distance apart. I now need to sort the loco coupling arrangement out as it is similar to the skips but just slightly enough different to require a bit more thinking about it - never my strong skill!

In the meantime, Mrs. Woody wants me to wrap some Christmas Presents so its a different sort of bar now - Bah humbug!

Letting lunch settle!

Woody got to go to a Christmas lunch which was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with old friends over some good food and drinks. What I thought would be a couple of hours turned out to be more like 6! However there was still an opportunity to do a bit in the Man Cave as well as let lunch settle and the 09 gauge skip wagons that I have got to go with the 3D print loco came out of their box to see what needed doing.

First off there was a small amount of  smoothing to do to the bottom of the skips.

With that done the three skip bodies were looking good.

The skip chassis have been deigned to accept standard n gauge wheelsets. Whilst I want to paint the parts before adding wheels I thought it best just to see how it worked out before I got too far. An old wagon from my n gauge stock supplied some wheels on a temporary basis and they fitted a treat. As the n gauge wagon needs its wheels back I will see if the WMD Stores have any spares in stock and if not then they are something that can be bought in.

The skip itself is made up of three 3D printed parts, the skip itself, a cradle to hold it and the chassis to which the cradle is fastened.

The cradle just sits on the chassis and needs no work to clean it up or get it to fit.

At this point I could not resist putting he three wagons temporarily together and standing them on a piece of track with the loco.

I'm impressed with how well the wagons and loco look together. Apparently the real Caravan loco can only haul three skip wagons so this is an authentic train! I need to now figure out a way of coupling the wagons and loco together. There is provision in the 3D prints to fit Peco 009 couplings but I am thinking something more authentic such as a bar and pin coupling made out of something like brass strip and rod. However I will ponder over that as I let ;unch settle!

Batteries not included!

This has arrived at WMD HQ.

So, what's in the bag Woody I hear you ask! Well it is this.

£5.15 off Amazon bought me a DC speed controller with direction switch. Bargain! You may be wondering what it is for. Well it can be used in conjunction with a suitable power source, in this case a PP3 battery which was not included, to power a small model railway loco which in this case is the Kato chassis under the 3D print Caravan loco that I posted about a few weeks ago.  As batteries were not included, (where have I read that before?) I did have to use a PP3 battery connector which the WMD Stores had in stock - they need to have a good range of stock as I tell Mrs. Woody when she wonders why I buy random things at railway shows, but I could have bought another one for no more than about 75 pence if needed. The battery was also in stock but could be bought for about £2,50. Connected all together temporarily and this is what it looks.

 

Having initially thought I had a bought a dud as it did not seem to work, I found my simple error of having connected the battery supply wires the wrong way round. After that was sorted it powered up Caravan and, well its is probably the best controller that I haver had! The loco simply crawls along at a very realistic speed and the speed control knob is very smooth to operate. So for a total cost, including the battery, of £8.37 I have a controller for this small project. Fantastic! Just need to build it now so that will be one of next years projects or possibly the year after or even the year after that!!!!

 

Bonus points earnt but still the stairs to do!

More landscaping in the Man Cave as I tackle one of the large scenery sub-bases. First thing was to carve the final shape into the foam and polystyrene - the bread knife was used again!

Then it was onto the plaster impregnated bandage .

It is going to take several days to do this sub-base but at least this is progress!

As you would expect with my multi-tasking the 09 Caravan project is still in my mind and it does now run on the oval of compact Kato track I got some weeks ago. All that was needed was a 9 volt battery and away it went as this short clip shows.

Of course it needs something to haul and todays post saw this kit of three tipper wagons arrive from the same source as Caravan and they look really good 3D prints. Just need time to build them and paint Caravan!

Finding the time is difficult at the moment. For the last month in a bid to earn even more bonus points with Mrs. Woody I have been painting the hall, stairs and landing. The hall is just about finished and today saw the last of the landing done. This was the situation this morning.

By the afternoon normality returned and bonus points earnt!

Just the stairs to do now - oh joy, ladders on stairs with a paint pot in one hand!

Caravan needs a chassis to sit on its own wheels!

Caravan, or to be factually correct, the model of it, runs on a Kato 11-009 chassis of which have I already have several under the 3D printed 009 gauge locos that I have built over the past years or so.

Therefore, getting the couplings and top off the main chassis which is mentioned in the product description as necessary to make the chassis fit was a fairly quick job.

With that done, the supplied special motor keeper loop was added to the chassis.

With that done I just needed to cut off the two pieces on the underside joining the axle boxes together as a strengthener for the print whilst it was shipped to me.

The chassis then slid into its home nicely.

Once that was done I have a loco that can sit on its own wheels! Just needs painting and I need to find a driver figure for it. This could be an interesting project!