Sunday, May 27, 2018

The Blog is 10

Just to show you all I'm not dead yet (thanks modern medicinal chemistry).

So the Blog is 10. I even managed to miss this. I see I've managed to make 2 posts in the last 12 months, with this being the second.in that time ive don very little NZ120 modeling, or even model railway modeling. I have slotted in a fair bit of wargaming trrain making (and gaming) along with the obligatory gardening and indoor renovations. I'm now getting to the end of these....I think.

One thing I do have to report is somewhat of a surprise.
Ocasionally I'll have a look on Trademe to see what is for sale. A few months back I came across a bit of a surprise listsing, and was surpised to purchase the model reasonably cheaply without a bidding war, though I suspect that no one else knew what they were looking at, or wanted it (probably number 2).


The first NZ120 loco I ever built. A Farish J94/08 chassis provided the basis. The plastic top wasn't heavy enough so it was also my first (and so far only) ecursion into brass scratchbuilding. The funnel and air pump were turned with a file (the only one I owned) on a hand drill. The brass was all soldered together which was an exercise in juggling new hot bits of metal into position while keeping the older bits in the right positions. It did work in the end. The way I've built it means that the top will not some off, and I think/know it's impossible to adapt to DCC.
So, its a remined of how far (or short) that my modeling skills have come since 1990, and nice to have it back in the collection