Long time coming

Well, not much to report except that I have managed to source a Da footplate from Andrew Wells, so my Clyde Da project will move to the front of the que.

and C/O my brother, heres a couple of photo's of 1431 at Steam Inc.

Twice in one day

Well, got further along than I expected today ( and behind at work, but that's what Monday is for).


1410 now has decals and weathering. The decals are a real bugger to put on, as they are very long, and its hard to shuffle them into the right place. on the plus side at least they are not brittle. I'm not quite happy with it, but its OK for the moment. It now needs a set of number plates and the headstocks finished once I sort out how to get the height right for the microtrains couplers. I should really buy a height gauge.
I started the weathering with tamiya smoke X19, which is a transparent colour. paint this on the roof and around the dirty bits. then i use a mix of tamiya smoke and water 50:50. wash over the whole model and then use a brush to soak up most of where the paint puddles. several coats of this builds up in the cracks and highlights the shadows, which no one in the larger scale does adequately anyway. its even more important in the smaller scales.

and E.C.M.T. has pointed out "Have a look at the article on NZ120 on page 36 of the April 2000 journal ( that's the issue with April 1999 on the cover !)Scale craft (Paul B ) produced an Ab chassis about 1974."
Wonder if anyone ever brought one?

A correction

In the history last week, I incorrectly stated that Paul Berntsen had build an Ab. In fact it was a Da, from a photo etch ( probably a Colin McHarg S scale zinc etch scaled down)

I believe that this model is now owned by Don Clements.

Here's the photo from the article.

A flurry of projects

Yes, action a plenty on the workbench today.

First up, the Da gets painted. After a bit of discussion with the brains trust, I decided to go with Humbrol gloss red 19 for the main colour, and gloss grey 40 for the roof. I'll admit it looks a bit bright, but there's still a fair bit of weathering to go, and its not going to remain like that for long. Gloss paint also provides a good base for decals. I'll go with 1410 from the numbers provided as I once helped repaint the roof one saturday)

(Darryl has some interesting comments on colour, and its a complex mix right down to who's film you use. Essentially unless you have a paint flake to match, its all a crap shoot anyway)

Second up: I scored a motor tool from work. Its not a dremel as its spanish, which makes the instruction manual quite entertaining . So this afternoon I cut out the boiler slot ( with a 'disco para cortar' no less, which I think is spanish for spinning disk shattering into 1000 pieces) and soldered on the firebox wrapper. It's still a bit tight, and will need to be insulated. Split frame is a blessing and a curse after all.

Lastly, the project that dare not speak its name. I've had 4 minitrix 4-6-2's mechs for a while now, and have converted one to pick up on both sides which was no mean feat. And its now got a boiler and running boards.

I suppose I'll have to start looking at building tenders at some point.

Hmmmm

Bit of a frustrating couple of days.

Managed to knock up a front bogie for a Ja/ka that looked OK, and I thought was light/small enough to actually fit into the space that was required.

However, testing on an 18" radius curve revealed that there was not enough space around the cylinders in this model. And I had decided that i was not going to modify this mechanism as that has lead to hell quite rapidly in my previous experience. so all that soldering and filing for naught. grrrr

However the front pilot has been exchanged for a piece of brass to mount a Ja front end on.

NZ120 History II

well, I said I'd write this, so may as well start now.


I'm not quite sure who made the first NZ120 models. I've seen pictures of an Ab Paul Berntsen built in the 1970's, with a couple of wagons and a guardsvan (pictures can be seen in the interview with Paul in the NZ model railway rag not sure when). The Ab was entirely scratchbuilt. The next models that I am aware of were John Rappards model of the Dunedin to Port Chalmers railway from 1872, that was displayed at the 1988 convention in Auckland (but was built allot earlier). This was a nicely built little layout, 8' by 12'. Josephine and Rose were built on Ibetren 0-4-0 chassis, and the rest of the stock was built on peco chassis. This layout also survives in Timaru ( well, at least bits of it).

View of Port Chalmers. wires are from the module stacked on top of it

I've also heard that Colin Mcharg made available some of his loco zinc etches in 1:120 scale

At this point there were 2 groups actively modeling in the scale in Christchurch and Dunedin. however while the Dunedin group went for the modular approach with scratchbuilt models on commercial chassis, Chch opted for a set layout with modified commercial models, which they still had the cheek to call NZ120. The Chch layout stayed pretty much the same size, while the Dunedin layout grew to the monstrosity that I well remember. it was at this point i got involved with the Dunedin group. As i was a poor student, I scratchbuilt most of my wagons, and built a model of the railway station. To make extra money I would make models for the other guys in the group. this included assembling the first kits that I was aware of. someone in the club had done all the work to photoetch a dx and De, and we managed to get some done for us as well. I think there were 2 de's ( of which I assembled 1 on a minitrix H16-44 mech for a friend) and 6-8 Dx's ( of which I brought 2, and then built another 2) I also started casting models in resin, including za and Zp sides and ends, which i would then make up into complete wagons and sell. I also had a crack at making locomotive kits. This was a Df ( and i think the master for that is still in Darryls collection), which I made in 2 batches of 10, and these sold for the princely sum of $40. this made me enough money to go to conventions in Chch and still have money on the way home. I have no idea where these early models wound up.

that's about it for the early stuff. sorry there's no juicy bits/ falling out etc.