Slaters Continued 2

Model building is continuing, this weekends work has been on the 5 plank wagon. I painted the under carriage Polly Scale light freight car red and then washed the exterior wood with a diluted mix of the same color. When dried I painted the iron work with Model Masters raw umber as a rust base, splotched Model Flex rail brown onto the umber, then brushed on hair spray. Each color was allowed to dry between coats. I had never tried the hair spray weathering method so I experimented with the process. I applied Model Flex Milwaukee Road dark gray to the iron work and then used water to lift off the paint. At first I let the paint dry a little to long and it was really difficult to remove, later I found that you needed to let the paint set but not dry completely. It is hard to describe how long to wait you really need to experiment and it may always work out a little differently each time. This closeup of the buffer and wheel assembly shows the result. This seems to work well in 7mm scale not sure how it will work in 3.5mm. I will find out. Later David

KBScale McEwan Locomotive

I have started the construction of a etched brass locomotive kit produced by KBScale. This link will take you to an album that shows the parts that make up the kit. It is definitely a kit because it is compsed of nothing but parts, some assembly required!

KBScale McEwan

I am using a resistance soldering tool and an 80 watt heavy duty soldering iron for assembly. So far so good as I have gotten the chassis completed. I have had the resistance unit for quite a while but have never used it before, it has worked well for attaching the bearings. For the major assemblies I have used the iron, its large heat capacity makes seaming the joints quite quick without excessively heating the surrounding material.

O14 Day

My kits from KB Scale arrived today. They specialize in 7mm narrow gauge, I had ordered a track demo kit, a side dump wagon and a locomotive kit. The track demo included a flat bed wagon so I decided it would be a great place to get my feet wet in two foot gauge modeling. It was a simple build the only trick was to narrow up the bolster frame to provide additional space for the axles this yielded free rolling wheels. The photo shows the completed model. What is really cool is that it comes with a link and pin coupler.

As far as a layout for two foot gauge is concerned I am going to model a typical copper smelter as seen in the Upper Michigan copper country in the 1920's. I have laid out some track on the work bench in a 1 x 4 foot area and will start with that. On the far end is the railroad warehouse and next to that will be the mineral house. Not totally sure what will be next but possibly the machine shop and a small building for the locomotive. The locomotive is a KB McEwan Pratt Baguley 10 HP locomotive, I have open the box and reviewed the instructions, it is going to be a challenge!

Slaters Continued, Upson Building Update

The construction of the Slaters model continues. These two views show the current state of the project. I added a lot of wood grain effect to the exterior ends and sides I am not sure if this is how weathered these cars would have become but there use in the coal trade and apparent longevity in service suggest to me that this would be likely.

So far everything has fit well with only a minimum of filing needed to get things to fit well. One point that took a bit of figuring was adding the solebars, they needed to fit flush with the floor deck side, they do not touch the center frame cross bearers (gap is about 1/16")

The next step will be painting, as can be seen the iron work on the ends and the solebars is not factory finished, since this is a in service car I will proceed to paint the metal parts dark rust and then add black overtones.

I really like the size of the model, it feels good in your hand.




I have been working on the Upson building since last summer when I discovered the prototype in northern Wisconsin. Here are a couple of views both prototype and model. It has been a long project. Fortunately I am now able to work on something for an extended period and not loose interest, I seems when I was young I needed to get the whole thing done in a week or it would never be completed. This model is in 3.5mm scale.

Tomorrow, David

7mm O Scale

Can't believe that it has been a year since I posted to this blog. Well I am still here so that is very good from my point of view. I am currently expanding my modeling skills by doing some builds in UK 7mm O Scale. This is quite a change from all of my past modeling experience which has been confined to North American US models.

I have chosen to start with a kit of a open coal wagon from the turn of the twentieth century, Slaters kit 7044S. Everything about this is new to me, terminology, parts, how the cars are constructed ( both prototype and model) so it is quite exciting to undertake this build. I have been directed to some useful 7mm modeling sites which have helped bring me up to speed.

The following photos on Picasa show what is included in the kit.

Slaters Kit 7044S

The first thing of note is that the interior of the model is not detailed. In searching the internet I discovered a vendor who provides etched brass interior side an floor components. They look really nice but since this is my first attempt at one of these kits I have chosen to take a conservative approach and create my own interior details. By using no.40 grit sand paper I textured wood grain on the interior surfaces of the sides, ends and floor (both top and bottom). I then scribe planks to match the exterior spacing and 6" floor boards. I also textured the underframe members as well as adding the seams for the side door.

More later, David