Over the last week or so its been lifeboat time (making, not using).
In keeping with the rest of the build, they were whittled out of balsa with some card details. I didn't take any pictures during the building so you will all have to make do with some pre and post instalation shots.
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I've had a bit of a hunt for some brass (or indeed any) wire of the right diameter for the derricks, but it looks like I'll need to have another trip to the local model shop for more supplies.
When we last looked at the ship, I was stuck on how to make the cowled vents. Eventually I came across a simple way to make these on a ship modeling forum.
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The top piece of plastic tube sits on a slightly narrower piece of plastic tube. The back end of the top pipe is 1/2 filled with Tamiya plastic putty and when dry the cowl is shapped with a file. Its not overly spectacular but it works for me.
The center superstructure required larger diameter vents.
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On the 3 foot 6 website in the RTR section for the last couple of weeks has been a model of Dx5454. This model (if I'm correct) has an interesting history.
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This appears to be one of the etch edZinc Dx's from Dunedin in the early 1990's. Why Zinc? because the guys that had them done worked for the Otago Daily Times and that was the tech that they had access to at the time.
Spotting notes include;
-A flat roof. Other models tend to have a bulge over the dynamic brake grills behind the cab. I managed to get the rooves on my models bent but it was a huge faf and really not for the faint hearted.
-Ditto the flat top of the nose (which is also quite square with 3 holse in the front and no raised detail).
-The front and rear headlights are flat (should angle back). again it took a lot of work to fix this in the ones I built.
-Deep windows (the zinc was awfully thick).
-It has the signs of being assembled by Kelvin Barry in Chrictchurch. the Dunedin models had the front and rear headstocks as part of the bogie so that the couplers would not pull trains off going round curves. these models also often had a name written inside the long hood so that Kelvin could keep track of who he was building them for.
Takeaway notes for this are that Zinc is a pig to work with, and these old models just keep cropping up.
It's also left me wondering what had become of John Rappards old layouts, both Port Chalmers and the Dunedin and Otago Central.
As well as doing some thinking (out of the boxes again) there has been a tiny bit of modeling. I've started doing the weathering on the wharf. A drybrush of white followed by a wash of dilute black (I couldn't find a local source of Winsor Newton inks) started to age the wood but I feel that I will need to do some more. The rails got a coat of a Tamiya brown follewed by an Italeri rust wash. This is something I picked up in the local model shop thinking it was something else (ie not reading the "wash" part of the lable). From looking at it in the bottle and using it, it appears to be a thin suspension of a pigment that is corser than normal paint. When dried it does replicate the look of rusty surfaces nicely. I've possibly overdone the runoff onto the wood underneath but the sea tends to be a rather harsh climate for iron.
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| Not worn enough but a start |
I've also quickly assembled the key scenic items on a piece of extruded polystyrene to see how it all fitted.
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It possibly needs to be a bit longer and the edges need to be round. I will need to work out how I want to model the water.
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I see its ticked over another new year. I would review last year, but personally theres not much to review modeling wise. However I have been doing some thinking over the year on possible projects (mostly around whether it's worth reserecting my Paekakariki layout. Thoughts, Drew?)
During the week I was looking through my picture and file collection on the hard drive and came across a plan for Heathcote at the western end of the Lyttleton tunnel.
From what I can gleen the date is somewhere between 1965 and 1968. The malting buildings closed in the late 1990's and the buildings were demolished after the 2011 earthquake.
So the obvious attraction is that every train to and from Lyttleton passes through the station ( I wonder if there are any timetables avaliable anywhere?). But its not a double track so trains don't just thunder through the scene in both directions. There is also the malt sidings to shunt separate from the mainline. I'm still not quite sure how the shunt would arrive as if it came from the Christchurch end it would have to run wrong line. It could possibly be taken through to Lyttleton and then come back. I'm also wondering what the tonnage through a plant of this size would be a week (in any time period). It would be awfuly tempting to build it during teh electification period...
A bit of googeling turning up a few historic pictures (sorry theres no atributions, I don't tend to write down where I find stuff and so I apologise)
The station building layout was also a bit odd in that the Up and Down platforms were separate (and the down platform was a wooden structure added some time after the first). There was also a standard signal box closer to the tunnel.
After the end of the suburban service in the 1970's the wooden platform was removed leaving a large gap between the up and down lines. this picture also shows the topography around the western portal.
My online searches this week have not turned up any good photos of the grouping of the malting company buildings (theres a stack of the demolition but nothing at all usefull). I've found one picture of the older buildings ( pre 1929) plus a couple of much wider shots which are not overly useful as the resolution is not great. The Wg is on a surburban train.
Finally here is a shot in more modern times (2012?) showing whats left today-ish.
As for building a layout it really would end itself to curved baseboards (why does everyone in this country build layouts on rectangualr boards)
