Seven of us joined the meeting in September with 3 apologies. Three of us had projects to report on and there was useful discussion on techniques used and future projects by different members of the group.
John had completed a new building for the corner of his Kurseong D&H project:
"I was looking for a suitable corner filler for Kurseong and decided on the semi-detached cottages amended to add a lower floor to fit the steep hillside location. Model uses techniques used on previous buildings with card embossed and painted with watercolours to represent whitewashed walls suitably weathered and with some bricks showing through."
Robin had completed a wagon for his Indian based railway:
"I was sitting at my hobby table with this large sheet of cardboard that was once the backing of our 2016 calendar... wonderful! so what do I do with it now? Nothing came to mind. So it sat for a while collecting dust.
A few weeks later while thumbing through one of my old railway books I saw a black and white photo of a gondola in a goods/ freight train and I thought to myself I'll have a bash at that and use my new / old card.
Having no dimensions to go with so I turned to (the very late) Everard Calthrop, consultant for the Barsi light railway in Indian. He had given some dimensions of length, width and weight. I now had something to go by.
Construction:
"The model is made of 1.1 mm thick card. It measures 22 x by 7 feet. Height from rail to the top of the model is 4 feet in HOe. (HO1:87 scale)
Before construction I lightly pre-painted the card on both sides using water colours. In this case it was just watery brown. Once card is wet it has a mind of its own and dries the way it fancies. This was not going to happen to me, so I placed the painted card on an old pieces of plate glass with a weight on top and let it dry for a couple of days. More like a fewweeks as I had lost the momentum.
"The card was very lightly sanded with 400 grit paper to remove any fuzz or whatever it's called.The base or bottom of the gondola is just a flat piece of card but doubled up as I wanted to give it some planking effect. I got the effect but the card curled slightly. This was cured by cutting two strips (beams) 1.8 mm in height running the length of the base with a very thin metal weight sandwiched between them. (I think the metal strip did the trick)
"Once this was strong I then cut the sides out. They our roughly 2 scale feet in height. This was all glued together with clear PVA. Bracing along the sides and the top of the model is from some magazine cover that was in the paper recycle pile. (It had a thicker weight)
"Attempted rivet effect was taking a common pin and pressing it into the bracing along the sides and corners of the model. This did not come out as I was hoping, but oh well.
"Now I had a rectangle shaped model which I weathered with some Noch powders. White, dust, soot, rust etc. mixed with water and glue. This is all experimental for me.
"I had to settle for Micro Trains N scale bogies/ trucks as the Peco rep in Switzerland did not respond to my email (it was written in German by my wife) perhaps he went out of business.
"Couplers were Micro Trains but the switch is being made over to Greenwich (I dislike putting them together).
"The frame is going to be modified as seen in one of photos with the lighter card in place as an example. It was fun putting it together."
Paul had completed a stock box from card for a new loco. It was based on those used by Branchlines for the IoM wagons and vans and the T&D 2-6-0T and T&D coaches.
The loco will have a loose packing of bubble wrap and sits in the box. Corrugated card helps keep the internal base stiff (locos are stored vertically).
He had also started a new station hut for the Lispole diorama, a more accurate representation. This one has a foundation of card which will be covered in Slaters corrugated plastic card.
The next meeting is planned for Thursday 17th November starting at 8.00pm.
s.p.t. 3-10-22