Making slow progress, I’ve got almost all the brake gear finished. All I’ve got to do is position the brake shoes correctly in relation to the wheels and glue in position and then when ready fold the tabs to hold the w-irons in place and install the coupling springs and pins.
Speaking of the couplings as I mentioned in a previous post the ones I got don’t actually fit, they were about 2mm too long so I re-drilled the pin hole and filed off the end of it. I have to say, the file has been a tool I have not properly appreciated until recently.
I’ve also started applying primers, I’m pretty sure the gray primer is not LNER gray, I’m not entirely sure what LNER gray is but I’m guessing it’s darker than that. If anyone has a suggestion for a Vallejo paint that closely matches LNER gray I’d appreciate it!
Starting the brakes starts with some real boring work (sorry, the post title was me just getting started). After that it was many days of carefully glue something in place and let it set and the glue cure and then inevitably touching it too soon and having the piece come off and start over.
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Once this brake lever drives I just need to create a link to the whatcha-ma-thinging on the other thing and then glue the brake shoes in position. Then I think I just need to modify the couplers to fit and then start painting things.
In the meantime in the kid’s train box I found some more appropriate motive power…
After I finished up my last post I thought it’d be cool to put in a coupling to see things coming together so I installed one, thought it was pretty cool and then thought it be even cooler to put one of the W-irons in place to get an even better view of things coming together. It was at this point I noticed something:
I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure the axle is supposed to line up with the center of the leaf spring. Looks like my easiest solution at this point is to cut about 3mm off the coupling bar, drill a new hole for the retainer pin and shorten the spring. In the mean time I’ve discovered it makes a decent little pin ball machine if you pull on the coupling and it slips out of your grip (take a guess how I found that out)
As I was preparing to write up this post I realized that my last post on this project was nearly a year ago… I guess time flies.
The quick recap is this is a Wizard Models kit that I’m building for my Box File Layout which to recap is this Scalescenes Kit. Now reviewing my posts on this project (this one will be #3) I’ve noticed I introduced this project as getting back into it, and that was in February 2019… and it’s currently January 2020 so that didn’t work out. What I recall from last year was that my first attempt at gluing did not work so I needed to either learn how to solder white metal or use an epoxy. The instructions recommended Araldite so I imported some, there is probably an equivalent available in the US under a different name but I don’t know enough about epoxies to know for sure. For future use if anyone knows of one please leave a comment!
Anyway my first attempt failed then, I ordered and received glue and essentially was afraid to mess things up and put it off, then got busy and all of a sudden it’s the next year. So today I cleared off a years junk and dust (and hey even found some stuff I’d been looking for) and started gluing
So far it seems to be working better though obviously it’s going to need some cure time to know for sure (though I’m certainly optimistic). In the year since I last worked on this another hobby has sprung up for me, one that has a bit more Wife Acceptance Factor, hand tool woodworking making furniture around the house. In addition to what was likely a needed break from trains it’s been useful in other ways like changed how I think about building models and it made me think of something Chris Mears at Prince Street said few years ago, or perhaps he said something that inspired something else for me which was an idea that layouts should be more furniture like. I’m not sure this is where he was going at the time but for me I started thinking that my layout should feel like furniture, something well built that fits in with it’s surroundings. I’ve never achieved it, never gotten far enough on a layout to achieve it, but it gives me ideas for this box file layout.
When I started this I already had in mind once I finished it I wanted to build it again, either as a different season or different techniques but I have a new inspiration that ties into my furniture building which is to build the “box file” box with a nice hardwood so closed it looks like a nice wooden box that’s nice enough to be in the house on it’s own and when it’s open it’s a nice little layout inside the nice wooden box.
Well that’s all I have for now, hopefully it’s not a year from now when I post next 🙂
I had some time the other night to work on trains, so I out this wagon kit I got from Wizard Models. This is for my box file project, sure I haven’t started yet (other than starting to print it) but as soon as I get started I’m going to need some rolling stock right?
My plan was to actually start gluing things together but I realized I didn’t know where any of my glue is so it ended up mostly familiarizing myself with the instructions and try to figure out what all the names of things are.
Over all I really like the nature of these kits, American rolling stock kits end to be shake the box hard enough and it might be assembled when you open it so it’s nice to see something that takes a little bit more effort to build.
Matt's Railroad Blog 