Scratch Build of 1951 Pullman Carriage

[Brandy]

Lovely work on those vestibule ends Hendie, although I'm a little disappointed that our Bill didn't add a bacon butty or two to the event!

 

Ian

[Pete in Lincs]

Hendie, Spalding is further out on the A17 towards Norwich.

Which is pretty much where I ended up yesterday.

[Bigdave22014]

Hendie, you could always stay true to prototype and use the "Emergency Lighting Point" socket on the underframe for your power connection

[perdu]

🍔🍔🍟🍔🍟🍔🍕🍗🍕🍕🍻.  🍹🍟

 

There you go Ian fill your belly

 

But that's the last thing I'd do after an evening on the pop

 

Sadly no bacon on t'menu, you've got to have burgers and pizza

 

And chips, ah I mean 'fries'

 

I think I'll have another pint

 

 

 

Electrification?

 

S'spose it had to happen...

[hendie]

Just the tiniest of updates today.  I thought I had better post something while I had the chance. I'm heading off next week for three days and it looks like I'll be heading off just about every week for the next month so modeling time will be at a premium.

 

The lathe was called into action and I made a small mounting plate for the bathroom lamp. It's still to be chromed but I think it's looking the part so far.

 

 

I discovered something during the week that gave me pause for thought.  Take a look at the shot below... notice the nice warp along the edge ?

This was one of my trial pieces, and I'm kind of glad that this happened - With those trial pieces, I didn't really care about the quality of the paint application - I just wanted to see the color so I just kept spraying until I got what I needed.  That resulted in one area having a largish run in the paint - guess which area ?   I would not have expected that to happen.

 

 

With that learning in mind, I didn't want to lay down any heavy coats of paint just yet. So, I decanted some of the Navajo White, thinned it down slightly and started spraying the side frames AT LONG LAST !!!

I'm going to leave this starter coat overnight before I give it another spray.  I guess this moment should feel rather special as I hvae been tryingto get to this stage for months, but I have to say that it was a bit of an anti-climax.

 

 

The new electrical cabinets got made though they still have to get a coat of clear, and some handles.  I'm thinking of trying a different style than I had on the first one - we'll see where that ends up.  I like the finish on these ones better than the original.

 

 

And back to working on the vestibule end.  The side panels got added, and everything was placed on the chassis so I get my angles correct.

 

 

A quick view from the outside just 'cos I took the photo.

 

 

I'll need to make another vestibule end with the cutter - hopefully tomorrow.  I did cut two the other week, but once again, the cutter screwed up on the window curves. At least I have plenty scrap to try out for painting and decals !

 

 

[RichO]

Very nice scratching!

[hendie]

another minuscule update I'm afraid.   Modeling time is at a premium these days. Last week was New York, next week is Chicago, followed by another trip up to the northern limits of Pennsyl-tucky-vania in the week or two following that.  Since I'm only grabbing a bit of time here and there, I decided to hold off on the paint for the time being - I want to have plenty of time to apply the paint and not have to rush it.  It's going to be the very first thing that people see so it needs to be at least half decent.

 

I started work on the heater covers. These are present in every area of the train, though you would never really notice them unless you were looking for them.  The first one starts in the corridor, right next to the electrical cabinet.  The heater box was built up from a 3 mm strip along the bottom, 5mm spacers, a 1mm wide strip along the top edge, capped off with a 5mm wide top. It's a real pain cutting the thin strips, but it's a lot easier than trying to cut out 5mm wide rectangles along the length of a strip.

 

 

If I remember correctly, on the real thing we specified a brass sheet with a Fleur De Lis shaped punched pattern.  At least, that's what my memory is telling me (so there's no guarantee it's anywhere near right!)  Of course, there's no way I could reproduce that in this scale, but I did find a nice diamond shaped mesh in my spares box. I'm not sure if I have enough to do the entire train, but I have plenty of time to find some more (though a quick google tells me it's now out of production - why am I not surprised!)

Anyways, I cut a 6mm wide strip of the mesh and ca'd that in the back side of the heater box.  Also added in this shot is a 2mm wide skirting - No! I will not do an ogee profile on the top of the skirting !  I thought I was being good by sanding a nice mitre along the top edge, but by the time I had used wire wool on the face, the mitre had disappeared and turned into a nice quarter round edge.  I guess that's what I will be sticking with as we move along now.  (It's also been clear coated, but I think you spotted that!)

 

 

I'm a sucker for a quick dry fit, or test shot.  I used a scrap panel as the wall panel here, with the electrical cabinet, and heater box placed in front. This is essentially what the corridor is going to look like.  I still have to figure out the handles for the electrical cabinet, but I think it's starting to look quite effective now.

 

 

While the clear coat was drying I turned my attention to the bathroom area once again.  The mirror foil I ordered arrived during the week so that was one of the very last pieces for the bathroom.  It wasn't as good as I had hoped it was going to be - at least, not at this scale.

I had a few attempts at wrapping a piece of styrene with the foil, but the wrapped edges looked terrible. In the end, I stuck the foil on a piece of styrene, then trimmed the excess away with a sharp knife. It's very "hammered finish" looking - so I'm not entirely happy with it.

 

 

Of course, only after I had done all this did SWMBO tell me that there was a spare travel mirror in a drawer that I could have. It looks much better and whatever it is made of can be cut quite easily, so when I get back next week I'll have another go at mirror making.

 

But here we are dry fitting again, this time with the mirror, the light, and the towel rail in position.  I'm quite pleased with the way this is progressing (though it could have been a little bit faster!)

 

 

The mirror looks better from this angle - but I've decided - it's going to reflective heaven later.  I'm not sure the light is entirely accurate - I think the real one is mounted flush with the wall, and not suspended as I have it here.  Any thoughts ?... should I make another and make it wall mounted this time ?

 

 

Booger.... in that photo, it looks like the alclad chrome is wearing off the towel rail.  I find that alclad chrome looks great - until you breathe on it that is.- even if clear coated I find it still wears off way too easily.

 

Then last shot for today - it looks very cosy in there, doesn't it ?

 

 

I can see a little bit of warping on the bathroom/dinette wall. - I'll need to see if I can eliminate that.  Actually, there will be two lights mounted on that wall on the dinette side, and if I'm putting LED's in there I'll have to somehow get cable along that wall and into position.

The 1/32" basswood is pretty spot on in scale thickness for the internal walls. However, at that thickness it will be almost impossible to have any embedded channels for cables for the LED's, so I might double up on a couple of the internal walls. That would give me a lot more scope for laying cables in for LED's, and would have the bonus of the bond helping eliminate any warp in the panels.  I'll need to check the drawings and see how feasible that path forward is.

 

so, until next time....

[silver911]

Mate...this is insanity at it's very best

 

Agree about the mirror....and yes...flush mount the light please 

 

Regards the LED's....not sure if I gave you this link.....https://www.smallscalelights.co.uk

 

Have known this lady for years (Jennifer)....not much she doesn't know about Led's and how to use them....very friendly and helpful

 

Respect

 

Ron

[hendie]

19 minutes ago, silver911 said:

Mate...this is insanity at it's very best

 

unfortunately, yes it is insanity.  I doubt there are many out there who would disagree with you on that point.

 

20 minutes ago, silver911 said:

Regards the LED's....not sure if I gave you this link.....https://www.smallscalelights.co.uk

 

I just ordered some LED's this morning.  Thanks for the link but I'm based in the US so it's easier to order from over here

[Roy vd M.]

This is very sane. 

 

Although I'm only halfway reading through this thread I can't keep myself from taking a glimpse of what's next... 

[TheBaron]

Hendie's Handles : coming to a town near you!

 

That vesty-bewel is - quite literally - shaping-up extremely nicely.

 

As to the light above the mirror question hendie I suspect it might be mounted flush in order to avoid interfering with the reflection of the reflectee in the mirror? I'm basing this purely on having installed a light like that over a washbasin when we moved into our current house and it caused glare in the mirror by being too far forwards from the wall.

 

Ah. You've ordered some LEDs! Excellent news... 

 

Tony

 

[perdu]

Flush please old bean, this is after all a toilet

 

Its got to be a good idea to double up a potential warp area, even if you didn't need to hide wires, so that is a 'go furrit' situation

 

Alclad?

 

Brings more problems than it fixes, I just dare not use if my missus is in the country

[RichO]

This is really great scratching!  Also consider running the LED wires under the floor instead of through the walls.

[larchiefeng]

I think that when you get the LED's and see the wire, you will probably not have any problem with getting it in the 1/32" space. The pre-wired pico LED's have a very thin wire. I'm pretty sure that the wire is 32 gauge or smaller. I have a roll of 30 gauge wire and it's smaller than that. What I found was the easiest way to strip the wire for soldering was to just use a sanding stick to remove the lacquer coating. It's a motor winding wire. The only thing that might add any thickness to it is that, the two wires are twisted together but you can always take the twist out. I would use two thin strips of metal imbedded in the walls as buss bars and bring the shorter wire runs to the buss bars. That way it keeps the fiddly wires to a minimum. Maybe drill some tiny holes in the bars as connecting points to run the wire through with a small twist and a dab of solder to hold fast. Simplifying the wire management is going to be something that you should give the most thought to given the number of lights that you want to have.

[hendie]

7 hours ago, TheBaron said:

I suspect it might be mounted flush in order to avoid interfering with the reflection of the reflectee in the mirror?

 

7 hours ago, perdu said:

Flush please old bean, this is after all a toilet

 

Flush it shall be chaps.  (I saw what you did there btw !)

Now I've just got to make one - since I'm heading off again this week, I'll have plenty of time to think about it.

 

7 hours ago, perdu said:

Alclad?

 

Brings more problems than it fixes,

 

in most cases, I agree.  I do love the primer though.

 

2 hours ago, RichO said:

This is really great scratching!  Also consider running the LED wires under the floor instead of through the walls.

 

thanks Rich.   the issue is that all of the lights with the exception of the table lamps are very near the top of the paneling (not counting the ceiling lights)

. Running wires underneath the floor will cause more problems than it's worth.

I plan on bringing the power in through the kitchen, and from there I'll be running the wires inside the side frames - I have a 2mm gap between the outer styrene and the inner paneling which gives me plenty of room. I can then bring the wire out at each light location.  Come to think of it, bringing the wire in through the kitchen only gives me access to one side - I can use the electrical cabinets since I'll have one in each corridor.  That's what electrical cabinets are for isn't it ?

 

 

2 hours ago, larchiefeng said:

I would use two thin strips of metal imbedded in the walls as buss bars and bring the shorter wire runs to the buss bars.

 

Ah... interesting idea!   I'd never have thought of that.  I had intended to run wires everywhere, but that sounds like a much neater solution. Thanks !

 

2 hours ago, larchiefeng said:

Simplifying the wire management is going to be something that you should give the most thought to given the number of lights that you want to have.

 

Agreed. I think I shall have to do some dry runs with the paneling to make sure it all works, but you have certainly given me food for thought with the wire management

 

 

2 hours ago, larchiefeng said:

you will probably not have any problem with getting it in the 1/32" space

 

It's not the 1/32" space that the issue.

if you look at the wall at the lower end of the bathroom shown here - that's a 1/32" strip of basswood (with a sheet of photo paper bonded to it).  Technically, if I'm keeping things to scale, that 1 thickness of basswood is all that stands between the bathroom and the dinette - and that wall has two lights mounted on the dinette side.  Somehow, I have to run wires for two lights within that 1/32" thickness, and not damage the finish on either side.

 

20 hours ago, hendie said:

 

 

While our champion nano-scale builder perdu could probably manage it... I'm a bit ham fisted and I think I'd be struggling to get anything in there without damaging one side or the other.   I think I will relinquish scale accuracy here and go for two layers - that will help me eliminate the warp, and give me some working area to bury those wires in.

 

[heloman1]

Hende, the wash/bathroom/toilet area is superb,don't chrome the light fitting it looks good as it is, scale shine etc. Great work with the wood grain panelling.

 

Colin

[hendie]

thanks Colin.  I think I'm going to redo the light to make a wall mounted version, but haven't figured out the shape just yet. I think you're right about the chrome effect though.

I've been busy traveling for work over the last few weeks so modeling time has been almost nil. Then this weekend we have to visit friends for their kids birthday so at least one day is wiped off the calendar.  Don't people realize I have work to do ?

[hendie]

Greetings fellow modelers.  Now, it may well seem that nothing has been happening over the last few weeks, Well, for the most part, that is true.  However, I have been getting time here and there to work on one area, and while it couldn't be called modeling in itself (in the strictest sense), it is extremely important to the finished object.  And as dictated by the Father of Modeling, Hieronymus Receptacle II, in his work "the collected tenets of modeling" Page 34, Chapter 3, Rule 7:  "The time, effort, and skill spent on a single task will be inversely proportional to the sum of the attention it gains from onlookers, while any flaw, omission, or inaccuracy will exponentially detract from the quality of the finished model.  Thereby bugging the bejeezus out of the modeler for the rest of eternity, while opening him/her to ridicule and disdain from the modeling community at large"

(I was going to try and derive a formula, but common sense took over.... but not until I had listed all the variables, and found an on-line equation editor)

 

Anyways....

 

Yup !  Transfers !  (or decals, dee-kals...  if you're here in the US).   But I'm old fashioned, so...  Transfers, the parts that no-one ever notices, unless they're wrong in some way, shape, or form.... or misplaced, or off-center.... etc. etc. etc. 

So, after searching t'interwebby for several fruitless months, I came to the conclusion that I had made a momentous decision back in the Summer of 2014 to go ahead and build this carriage in the only scale that does not have off-the-shelf-decals widely available. 

So that left me with one option: Don't have any decals on it !    Well, two options really, - Option 1: Don't have any decals on it !   Option 2: Make my own!   Sounds fine until we realize that the transfers are mostly light in color, and will be overlaid and a dark chocolate brown background.

Okay, 3 Options !   Option 1: Don't have any decals on it !   Option 2: Make my own!  Option 3: Have them made for me -professional like!

So, it looks like I have no option but to have these made by a real transfer maker - but I still need to provide artwork.  So that's what I have been working on.  Thanks again to Terry Bye who provided some great material for me to work from.

 

I thought I'd start with something easy - the name plate.  One word - "PEGASUS" with some fancy scroll work around it - should be easy - right ?

 

Well, it's a bit harder than it seems at first.  Most transfer makers prefer artwork in vector format as opposed to raster format, and as everyone knows - the more work you can do yourself, the cheaper it is on the other end (or so they say).  So, starting with a raster image,  I imported the image into Draftsight (free software) and started tracing over the top of the image.  This was where I started hitting the first of the hurdles.  In the image below, look closely, and you can see that the images are similar, but not exactly alike. I'm glad I caught this at this stage, or that could have been painful later on.  The scroll-work on the left is from the carriage I am modeling, the scroll-work on the right is from a different carriage. I had originally started working with the image on the right as it is slightly clearer - but as I now know - not 100% correct.

 

 

The image above is also a good comparison of the brown "Umber" color used on Pullmans - look at the difference in shades above.

 

So, now I have the correct image - why do I need two - especially one that is not correct (for my carriage) - Well, the process I am using is essentially tracing lines over the image.   I'm using polylines - lines which have multiple nodes, and which I can convert to splines (curvy lines) later.  However, I am tracing over a raster image which is made up of pixels - and look what happens when you zoom in on the image.....  At best, I can only guess at the shape I am trying to recreate - so having another reference picture helps me determine what shape I'm actually trying to make.

 

 

The blue squares in the picture above are the nodes I mentioned earlier.  Once I convert the polyline into a spline, I can then grab individual nodes and reposition them to generate a better looking curve, and hopefully a more accurate shape. 

Of course, I am going to have some (hopefully small) errors in these "shapes", but once it's all scaled down to 1/32, and considering that each Pullman carriage appears to be unique, I'm not overly concerned and am sure that these will suffice.

 

The great thing about CAD is that you can really simplify matters.  Take the image below - you can see that all the scroll-work is symmetrical. Sometimes only in one axis, sometimes in more than one.  So, to make life easy, I define the axes of symmetry, draw what I need, then mirror the work from one side to the other using my division line as the axis.  The two scroll-works on top are now completed and you can just make out the original work in white in the photo below.

 

 

The text was a little more troublesome.  I did discover that the text is very close to Times New Roman, but not quite a 100% match.   At the top is pure unadulterated Times New Roman.  In the center is the tracing I made of the tect from a god quality photo.  At the bottom is Times New Roman but scaled out to 120% in the X direction.   It's very close, but look at the "S" in particular - Times New Roman isn't going to work for me here unfortunately.  So now I have to trace the text (already done... obviously) and add dropped shadows as well.

 

 

and this is where we are to date.   Most of the transfers have been figured out.  I still have the Pullman text at the top of the carriage to do, and the Pullman emblem but I have a really good quality photo of that so it shouldn't be too difficult.  Oh, and I just need to make sure I can export from this software into a format the printers can accept.

 

 

So, all this stuff that's never really going to be noticed (unless it's wrong) has taken me several weeks so far and I still have a bit to go, just to get the artwork finished. Then I have to get them printed.

 

I also discovered some photo's that made me realize that the chassis that I previously thought was finished is indeed, not finished at all.  I still have a number of items to make and fit to the chassis - and they're all bright orange.

 

 

 

[Nigel Heath]

Impressive stuff hendie. I'm sure when done those decals will be something to behold.

[perdu]

Well I'm sure you know me well enough to realise you're into my real love now

 

Wonderful part of a build going on now

[TheBaron]

I know how hard pulling a clean trace from a bitmap with ambiguous contours can be, so impressed with the quality of the results you've achieved here.

 

It's easy to see why that took so long given the labour-intensity involved. Quality work. 

Tony

[perdu]

got me going didnt you 

 

I see you picked up on the S back there but there's better indicators for the rigfht typeface than that

 

Look at the E, the serifs on the upper and lower arms are totally pants pointing all over the shop

 

I went into history for a quick looksee

 

 

 

Remember dry print?

 

I had a delve into my Mecanorma catalogue which is full of typefaces

 

Here is Baskerville, a truly shapely font far nicer in all respects than that unsavoury thing called Times New Roman to which Microsoft have dedicated their lives

 

 

Look at the uprights on the Es and better cursive shapeliness of the S

 

Or here Cheltenham Book all available in fine, bold and italic

 

 

Or here  Clarendon, it ain't only in Bold either

 

or Light?  Nice innit

if you need scans in hi-res to work up into vector let me know

 

I have other stuff locked  away but if you like I will get hunting, all these seem better than TNR to me

[Pete in Lincs]

Nice work, hendie. It's all in the detail!

Baskerville, I liked that one. Bring it back!

 

[perdu]

I just found myself a free Baskerville to install, thanks to this thread no more TNR if I want to go seriffy

[hendie]

3 hours ago, Nigel Heath said:

I'm sure when done those decals will be something to behold.

 

I hope so too - but one thing is for sure - they ain't gonna be cheap !

 

 

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

I know how hard pulling a clean trace from a bitmap with ambiguous contours can be, so impressed with the quality of the results you've achieved here.

 

thanks Mr Baron sir.  It's deceptively complicated and time consuming isn't it ?  and you always end up second guessing your self also.

 

 

1 hour ago, perdu said:

I went into history for a quick looksee

 

Bill - you are a man of many (type)faces. Your depth of resourcefulness knows no bounds does it ?

 

 

1 hour ago, perdu said:

if you need scans in hi-res to work up into vector let me know

 

Bill, if you don't mind, can you scan the Clarenden light for me ?  It looks like it might be close.

I think I have broken the back of the fonts though I still have the PULLMAN to do - which will be a bit more complicated as it has a dropped shadow, highlights, and a flash of red running through it.  Why do they have to make things so complicated ?

 

 

30 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Baskerville, I liked that one. Bring it back!

 

Stop hounding him !   ;-)

 

and so, on to today's little excursion into the crazy world of modeling.  Boxes, little boxes, all made out of ticky tacky.... well, not quite, but close.  I discovered that there are a number of electrical connectors on the carriage ends, suspended under the chassis, so, of course they need to be built.   Building boxes is a lot harder than it looks due to the number of right angles, perpendicular surfaces etc. - Just one side out of square and it all looks cack.  The closest thing I had to the right size was a chunk of wood - so a little padding was added to get to the right size.

 

 

Then cut up, faces added to cover the wood, and some Meng nuts and bolts with some punched discs as a starting point.  I still didn't get them all quite square but once they're all completed, they should pass a quick inspection.

 

 

Then I got side tracked.... I spotted an interesting looking whadyamacallit on the vestibule end and fancied having a go at it.  Originally I started working in brass, but then realized I was making things hard for myself and switched to styrene - and still made it hard for myself.  My first attempt is the one at the back.  It was close, but no coconut - so I had another go. Hence the one at the front.

 

 

It appeared much better.  A quick squirt of primer showed that it still needs some work, but it's just about there.  Here you can see what it's supposed to look like once it's bright orange.

 

 

It's also a good shot of the orange boxes still to be constructed and added to the chassis, as well as some hoses and connectors (various).  Believe it or not - that little connector took me almost all day to make - and I still have another to scratch, and finish the orange boxes. 

 

I had been a little concerned over the last few days that my mojo had gone walkabout.  I was finding it difficult to get back into the swing of things after being away for so long - but I think it's crawling back slowly !