Scratch Build of 1951 Pullman Carriage

[CedB]

Great update hendie - love those little lights and vent grilles!  

 

Your printed torpedo vents look much better too. Take that Shapeways!

[giemme]

Impressive job Hendie - the roof is turning out to be a model in itself   

 

Ciao

[Pouln]

16 hours ago, hendie said:

That'll teach me for not planning ahead.

Your next rail car model, will be such an easy job😎 done in a few months.

looking really great.

[Brandy]

Funny how we do things that we think will save us time and they turn out to do the opposite. I'm tired of reworking stuff I did previously to "save time".

Nice update though, roof is looking good!

 

Ian

[Pete in Lincs]

19 hours ago, hendie said:

Throw accuracy to the wind I say

Now that's enough of that!

 

Rain strip? Drip strip? Gutter? whichever. S'nice. And so is the rest of the update. 

As you were, carry on that chap. And get yer 'air cut!

[TheBaron]

On 8/5/2020 at 11:41 PM, hendie said:

I'm claiming artistic licence here. Throw accuracy to the wind I say

Ahhhh. The 'Hollywood' principle.

 

Reminds me of the time in the early 90s I worked for a recording studio, much of it involving mixing theatre sound. One particular production needed peals of thunder for which, in the name of accuracy, myself and the studio owner got drenched recording an actual thunderstorm on a nearby hill at night. Played the actual recording to the director and producer who dismissed it as 'unconvincing'. Then we put 'Plan B' on the playback (which was us rumbling stones in a biscuit tin in classic Foley tradition) which they promptly pronounced as 'perfect.' Perception is all....

 

This latter detailing is some of your finest imo Alan: almost as if you're actually enjoying things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JeroenS]

31 minutes ago, TheBaron said:

Ahhhh. The 'Hollywood' principle.

 

Reminds me of the time in the early 90s I worked for a recording studio, much of it involving mixing theatre sound. One particular production needed peals of thunder for which, in the name of accuracy, myself and the studio owner got drenched recording an actual thunderstorm on a nearby hill at night. Played the actual recording to the director and producer who dismissed it as 'unconvincing'. Then we put 'Plan B' on the playback (which was us rumbling stones in a biscuit tin in classic Foley tradition) which they promptly pronounced as 'perfect.' Perception is all....

Good story 🙂 .... Movie thunder sounds notoriously stupid!

[hendie]

On 8/5/2020 at 7:47 PM, gunzo said:

Love your 3D prints , Shapeways really do have to look at their quality vs price model. They seem to be forgetting the competition.

 

I don't see how Shapeways can last given their performance and attitude over the last 12 months

 

On 8/6/2020 at 4:08 AM, CedB said:

Great update hendie - love those little lights and vent grilles!  

 

Your printed torpedo vents look much better too. Take that Shapeways!

 

Thanks Ced. You can't beat a good greeblie

 

On 8/6/2020 at 4:33 AM, giemme said:

Impressive job Hendie - the roof is turning out to be a model in itself   

 

Ciao

 

thanks G - it's not all plain sailing though. It's putting up a fight

 

On 8/6/2020 at 10:45 AM, Pouln said:

Your next rail car model, will be such an easy job😎 done in a few months.

looking really great.

 

OI!   I can find out where you live y'know!

 

On 8/6/2020 at 1:13 PM, Brandy said:

Funny how we do things that we think will save us time and they turn out to do the opposite. I'm tired of reworking stuff I did previously to "save time".

Nice update though, roof is looking good!

Ian

 

ta Ian.  Agreed this time saving stuff is sure labor intensive

 

On 8/6/2020 at 1:45 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

Now that's enough of that!

 

Rain strip? Drip strip? Gutter? whichever. S'nice. And so is the rest of the update. 

As you were, carry on that chap. And get yer 'air cut!

 

ah... gutter strip.  Thanks Pete.

 

13 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Ahhhh. The 'Hollywood' principle.

 

Reminds me of the time in the early 90s I worked for a recording studio, much of it involving mixing theatre sound. One particular production needed peals of thunder for which, in the name of accuracy, myself and the studio owner got drenched recording an actual thunderstorm on a nearby hill at night. Played the actual recording to the director and producer who dismissed it as 'unconvincing'. Then we put 'Plan B' on the playback (which was us rumbling stones in a biscuit tin in classic Foley tradition) which they promptly pronounced as 'perfect.' Perception is all....

 

This latter detailing is some of your finest imo Alan: almost as if you're actually enjoying things.

 

Not sure I would go that far Tony though it is certainly less stressful than the main car.  If only things would go according to my non existent plan

 

 

And on to this weeks shenaniganneral exploits.  

in a rare moment of forward planning and intensive aforethought, when I made the bar,  I had the sense to copy the outline of the bar front and put it in a safe place.  In even stranger circumstances, I managed to find it when I actually needed it.

Why?  Of course, there's no bar on the ceiling but there is a sort of canopy thingy fitted to the ceiling (the correct term escapes me at the moment) which mimics the shape of the bar, albeit set back slightly. For want of a better term, let's call it a pelmet for the moment.

 

 

This was a job I was not looking forward to and even considered leaving it out of the build, but my conscience wouldn't let me.  The reason was because it was such a bloomin' awkward shape.  The bottom edge was parallel to the bar top, the front edge was set back slightly, and with the pelmet being curved, and being fitted to a curved ceiling, it meant that the height at the front and rear of the pelmet was not the same - and that only gets worse as it rounds the corners - and the end disappears into the ceiling.  Not to mention that my ceiling panels are not the best.

Anyway, step one... fit a 3.5 mm strip along the back edge. 

 

 

Some careful shaping and filing later, it looks as though we have a winner on the back edge.  That was the easy part.

 

 

Much phenargling ensued, mainly getting the main surface level so I could measure the height to the ceiling panel at the highest point. I determined that to be around 5.5 mm, so another strip was glued around the front edge, along with a few little strengtheners to keep that front edge perpendicular to the main surface. At this point I had resigned myself to using this version purely as a template to get what I needed for a subsequent "real" version.

 

 

Some more refining on the rear edge, and multiple file a bit, and test fit loops for the front edge.

 

 

and I completely surprised myself by managing to get a pretty reasonable fit after about twenty minutes of shaping/fitting.  So much for this being a template then.

 

 

with the pelmet/canopy/thingy in a decent state, it was back to the lathe and I turned a handful of aluminum down lighters.  Now I wish I hadn't used a scrap piece of styrene for the pelmet as there was a big score along the surface. Oh well, that can be fixed with relative ease.

 

 

Next operation was to fit the ceiling panel cover strips - a bunch of 1.25 mm strips glued into place.  That big mucky spot is where a hoge great glob of Tamiya thin dropped on to the ceiling when I wasn't paying attention.  It was quickly wiped away before it caused any permanent damage though not before it managed to marr the surface.  Another one of those 'doh! moments.

At this stage I'm not sure whether the ceiling is salvageable or not but tehh thought of having to rip it out and start again was a bit soul destroying.  I decided to chance it and when the glue had dried I micromeshed the panel and wait to see what it looked like with primer on.

 

 

The unnameable thing thing got fitted - surprisingly easy too.  I really thought this was going to take me days and days of work to get right, but it really went together remarkably fast.

 

 

End panels were fixed in place using 5 minute epoxy

 

 

followed by a bucket-load of primer getting thrown at it. Thankfully the glue mishap is completely hidden now.

 

 

I'm quite pleased with how this all fits together.  There is a small gap here and there, but overall it's a decent job.  (note to self - micromesh the front of the pelmet to get rid of the grainy primer finish.)

 

 

As is always the case, immediately after I primed the ceiling I remembered that there were vents fitted on the ceiling partitions.   I needed a total of 5 vent covers, but only had, or could only find two left over from my printed versions. 

In a stroke of luck, I remembered that several years ago I had photo etched some of these, back in the days before home 3D printing became affordable - and what do you know.... 3 of them!    Talk about luck.

 

 

Fitted!

 

 

With all that done it was ready for paint. White of course.

 

 

Would you believe it!   Now is NOT the time to run out of white paint. Buggrit

I was one coat short of finishing the paint job when I ran out.  I got some more on order though it will be a few days before it's here.  What a pain.

 

 

So with the paint shop on furlough due to lack of materials I had no option but to faff around with all the little bits that were left, such as painting the double lamps for the dining area

 

 

Clear coating the brass vents so they don't tarnish over time.   I also added the small handle from 0.3 mm rod and the small round "handle" on the end was formed by crushing the end of the rod in the vise.

 

 

Another pita job was forming the up stand for the treadplates on the roof ends. I started this job on at least 3 occasions, each time with a different approach before finally settling on using brass C channel (yes, that murky looking thing is actually brass C channel) to form the upstand.

 

 

I found some brass treadplate in my stash so I'll replace that plastic treadplate when the time comes.

 

Almost there, almost there....

 

 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Wot a lovely non sine pelmet thingummy. The brass lamps look splendid too.

Isn't it always the paintshop? Those guys, eh?

Like the Dunder Mifflin coffee mug too!

[JeroenS]

Nice going there Hendie. You seem to have this roof(y) thing down pat. I agree with Pete those lamps are lovely. 

[giemme]

 That unnamed thing is a thing of beauty, hendie!  

 

Ciao

[CedB]

Nice work hendie! Nearly there…  

[heloman1]

Excellent work with the roof fitting Alan. I'm impressed.

 

Colin

[gunzo]

'Nearly there' ??? I won't believe tis until I see the cigar butts in the ashtrays and dregs in the wine glasses after the commissioning party.

 

les

[TheBaron]

Ruddy beautiful.

All of it.

Every last bit.

(The lamps and brasswork particularly standout features)

I read this initially as 'bar to rent'

Quote

- and thought 'Janey Mac he's already renting it out for scale parties...'

 

 

 

[hendie]

On 8/10/2020 at 2:07 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

Wot a lovely non sine pelmet thingummy. The brass lamps look splendid too.

Isn't it always the paintshop? Those guys, eh?

Like the Dunder Mifflin coffee mug too!

 

Ta Pete.  The mug was a fathers day pressie from the daughter

 

On 8/10/2020 at 2:14 AM, JeroenS said:

Nice going there Hendie. You seem to have this roof(y) thing down pat. I agree with Pete those lamps are lovely. 

 

if only I could get those lamps fitted to see how they actually look in place

 

On 8/10/2020 at 3:45 AM, giemme said:

 That unnamed thing is a thing of beauty, hendie!  

 

Ciao

 

ta G

 

On 8/11/2020 at 3:21 AM, CedB said:

Nice work hendie! Nearly there…  

 

so close yet so far...

 

On 8/11/2020 at 7:56 AM, heloman1 said:

Excellent work with the roof fitting Alan. I'm impressed.

Colin

 

thanks Colin

 

On 8/11/2020 at 7:59 AM, gunzo said:

'Nearly there' ??? I won't believe tis until I see the cigar butts in the ashtrays and dregs in the wine glasses after the commissioning party

les

 

Thanks Ian

 

23 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Ruddy beautiful.

All of it.

Every last bit.

(The lamps and brasswork particularly standout features)

I read this initially as 'bar to rent'

- and thought 'Janey Mac he's already renting it out for scale parties...'

 

Thanks Tony - if only we could do 1/32 scale hangovers eh?

 

 

 

This week has not been the best of weeks.  After running out of white paint the other week I scouted t'internet looking for Mr Color Flat white at a reasonable price ('cos I'm stingy), with reasonable postage ('cos I'm even stingier when it comes to P&P) and that could deliver in a reasonable time frame. My usual source always seems to have the best prices but they always take about 2 weeks to deliver and I didn't want to wait that long. Anyhow, I found a place that had everything in stock and chose expedited shipping for an additional couple of bucks.. and sat back and waited... and waited. A week goes by and nothing so I gave them a call only to find out that the post had gone sideways and somehow my order had gone off to some international depot instead of priority ground mail.  Long story short, I complained and got my postage costs refunded but still have to wait on them sorting things out. Ding ding - Amazon Prime time.  Extortionate cost for a single pot of paint but a promised delivery of Tuesday coming.

So, until then I had to find any little jobs that needed doing to tide me over until the paint shop is up and running again.  Sadly, I found more than I had bargained for - why do you  I keep finding more and more little finicky tasks to complete ?

 

This week in pictures. 

Rain guides.  Not only do we have the rain strip/gutter all along the side of the roof but at each end we also have 2 x rain guides mounted further up on the roof.  These were made from equal angle and contoured to follow the roof curves.

Luckily I found some 1.25 mm angle in my stock - not much, but just enough to do the job.  I say lucky because when I went to search online I found that K&S appear to have dropped most of their line and no longer make brass angle.  To be honest I think this angle is slightly undersized but the only other brass angle I had which suited was too short to do all four guides. Styrene angle wasn't even in the picture for this job.

 

Because of the compound curvature at the roof end, I annealed the brass prior to bending and it was fairly straightforward to follow the initial bend.

 

 

But hey! nothing is ever easy is it?  As the rain guide bends over the roof end, it also curves out towards the side.  There's no way I was going to trust superglue to hold this in place so had no option but to pin the angle as well as gluing it in place.

Drilling wasn't such an easy task either - The smallest rod I had was 0.3 mm and if I drilled that size hole in the angle right off the bat, it deformed the edges.  I had to drill with a 0.25 mm bit first which allowed me to get the drill right into the corner of the angle, then open it out to 0.35 mm - there was no way I could get the 0.3 mm rod through a 0.3 mm hole - so had to go larger.

 

 

Getting the 0.3 mm pins to work was another palaver. - I had to tin one end of the pin, then pressing on the tinned end with the soldering iron, the pin heated up to the point where the solder melted and the pin pushed down into the hole - almost, but not quite flush with the surface of the angle, and solder flowed along the inside of the angle making it more of a triangle than an equal angle.  Much cursing and phenargling about with a 3 square file let me clean out the inside of the angle and get it looking reasonable.

The pins didn't need to be long - just long enough to secure the rain guide so it wouldn't come loose later.  Here's one about to be glued before it's pushed home

 

 

followed by (a different) one glued and fixed in position

 

 

Me being a belt and braces sort of bloke decided that I should also drill the end as it swept over the roof - this was about the only way I could guarantee that all 4 ends had the same curve/sweep as it meandered over the edge and out towards the side frame.

 

 

More drills gave up their lives for this cause than any other job I've ever done before.  I think I had a sense of frustration creeping in which didn't help.  These 4 rain guides took the best part of two days work to get done and I must have broken at least 15 or 16 drill bits in the process.  However, job done now (for the most part) and I'm glad that part is over.

 

 

I really wanted to get the interior/ceiling finished before starting on the exterior of the roof, but things being what they are and wanting to get this finished before the next ice age I opted to move forward with the exterior, knowing that this is going to take very careful handling from now on in order not to wreak havoc and mayhem with the parts I'm just about to attempt.

I glued in the mounting plates for the rotating vents and made a start on the wind deflectors

 

 

This time around, instead of just compound curves we have a compound curve and compound angles.  It just gets better 'n' better dunnit?  Praise be to the modeling gods.

I started with some 3 mm wide strip and fettled that into shape with numerous dry fitting to make sure I got the angles right.  Now, when I say "right", I really mean doesn't look like crap!  As these 1:1 parts were being reused from the original car, I didn't see the need to make detailed drawings of them and instead, just took overall dimensions - omitting to note any of the angles.  That meant lots of looking at reference pics  and trying to obtain something that looked vaguely similar.

 

 

Once I had the main parts glued in place I added the three support brackets on the inside of each deflector.

 

 

Then double check the rotating vent can still rotate - or there would be some classic Anglo Saxon filling the basement. 

 

 

While doing the research on those rotating vents I spotted something I had missed up until now - The 4 torpedo vents at the roof ends do not sit flush on the roof as I had previously assumed. - They are mounted on small circular plinths.

What is a bit weird is that those plinths change the angle that the torpedo vents sit at relative to the roof - but not horizontal.  (as can be seen in this photo) 

Back to the lathe then, and a little while later I had a handful of plinthy things

 

 

which will sit on the roof tween skin and torpedo vent

 

 

Torpedoes have now been glued onto those plinths and set aside to cure.

 

As a last task for today I hurled some primer on the new additions to see how effective they were and how much tidying up is going to have to be done.  I like the primer stage - it always goes on easy and really makes the detail pop

 

 

Yup, I'm quite pleased with how those turned out and everything appears to line up as it should.

 

 

This photo shows what I mean about the compound angles

 

 

Lastly, how did those rain guides turn out?

 

 

Not too bad but will need a little bit of filling at the join to close up any gaps, but overall, acceptable

 

 

I still need to decide what to do with those roof ends - which is something I should have thought of before fitting the rain guides.  Hey ho.

 

stay safe folks and if lady luck is smiling on me I may get my mitts on some white paint before the week is out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CedB]

More superb work hendie  

 

Rain guides. Crikey.

 

47 minutes ago, hendie said:

I must have broken at least 15 or 16 drill bits in the process

Is it time to change to the Baronial drill bits? Much stronger than those with the plastic rings IMHO. Like these.

[Pouln]

Looking good, but I can’t help to notice that you have been sanding the outside rooftop again🥴

[Pete in Lincs]

The roof continues to reach new heights.

[giemme]

9 hours ago, CedB said:

Rain guides. Crikey.

You phrased my thoughts there, Ced ....

 

Ciao

[Heather Kay]

9 hours ago, CedB said:

Is it time to change to the Baronial drill bits? Much stronger than those with the plastic rings IMHO. Like these.

I'm with Ced. Also, pin vices. I have several with four different sized collets, and they’re a god-send when trying to drill small holes. You can feel when the bit is twisting, for example, so you can ease back before it snaps. I really couldn’t work with just those twist bits with the collars.

[Pouln]

On 12/9/2014 at 6:54 PM, hendie said:

As always with my builds, this is not going to be a quick one - I reckon on about two years or more to build this one, but I have to make a start somewhere!

I went back reading the first page. I must say your planning was quite accurate. You should be able to finish it in two years or more😄

[TheBaron]

23 hours ago, hendie said:

These 4 rain guides took the best part of two days work to get done

👏

[heloman1]

Wow, great work on the roof vent and the drip rail. You sir are a magician...

 

Colin

[hendie]

On 8/16/2020 at 6:13 PM, CedB said:

Is it time to change to the Baronial drill bits? Much stronger than those with the plastic rings IMHO. Like these.

 

thanks for the nod Ced, I'll look into thos

 

On 8/16/2020 at 6:13 PM, Pouln said:

Looking good, but I can’t help to notice that you have been sanding the outside rooftop again🥴

 

it's becoming an addition. I need my regular intake of dust these days

 

On 8/17/2020 at 1:14 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

The roof continues to reach new heights.

 

you could say it's the apex of my career.. or am I pitching too high?

 

On 8/17/2020 at 3:14 AM, giemme said:

You phrased my thoughts there, Ced ....

 

Ciao

 

So you think I'm as crazy as Ced does then?

 

On 8/17/2020 at 3:23 AM, Heather Kay said:

I'm with Ced. Also, pin vices. I have several with four different sized collets, and they’re a god-send when trying to drill small holes. You can feel when the bit is twisting, for example, so you can ease back before it snaps. I really couldn’t work with just those twist bits with the collars.

 

thanks Heather. you reminded me to look at getting some new pin vises as one of mine is decidedly wonky

 

On 8/17/2020 at 4:49 AM, Pouln said:

I went back reading the first page. I must say your planning was quite accurate. You should be able to finish it in two years or more😄

 

 

On 8/17/2020 at 4:57 PM, TheBaron said:

👏

 

there are many faculties that I do not possess according to my wife

 

On 8/20/2020 at 4:38 PM, heloman1 said:

Wow, great work on the roof vent and the drip rail. You sir are a magician...

 

Colin

 

thanks Colin

 

 

This week was a bit busy so I did not get as much time on Pegasus as I had hoped, however, I managed to lock myself away today and get some work accomplished - it's getting Sssoooooooo close I can taste it.

 

I wanted to get the interior done before I started adding greeblies to the outside as it was a certainty that if greeblies were on the outside, I was going to knock them off as I worked on the ceiling panels.  First order of the day was to fit the chrome down-lights in the bar - easy job for once

 

 

They were followed by three more down-lights in the ceiling panel, in turn followed by two brass vents and the PA speaker

 

 

By this point things are moving fairly quickly as there's no real "work" to be done - just measuring a location and sticking something on there.

More vents, another PA speaker and the six double lamps.  Can't get more straightforward than that can we/

 

 

Lastly, the dinette ceiling got a PA speaker and it's own brass vent

 

 

Overall view of the internal gubbinses.

 

 

That's all fine and well, but its all much of a muchness - too much white and there's nothing that really draws the eye (is that a bad thing?).  

I had anticipated this and had a sort of plan. I wasn't sure it was going to work or not but I knew I needed to do something to break up all that white area.  I opted for adding the structure that would have been attached to these panels had the roof actually been fitted.  For example, red oxide strips where the side frame would have been, and wooden strips where the partitions would have been located.

 

Now things got a bit more complicated and I actually had to measure and cut with reasonable accuracy to make this thing work and not look plain sloppy. For the "side-frame" I'm using the very last of my 1/32" ply - the very last!  I had to scrabble around to find enough to do the job as I really didn't want to have to place another order of this stuff just to finish off the last few inches of roof. Once I had found all I could, I cut it into 3 mm strips and painted red oxide.

 

 

That seems to break things up nicely.

 

 

Kitchen & Corridor end finished off

 

 

Then Bathroom, corridor and dinette area finished.

 

 

I then realized that I also needed to add framework for the entrance doors and vestibule area... 20 minutes later it's done

 

 

Close up shot for no other reason that I took the photo

 

 

Then the other end

 

 

and the interior of the roof is FINISHED at long last.  Only 4 years behind schedule but its done.

Now onto the very very very last area of work (I think)

 

The roof exterior.

First job on the exterior was to cap the ends so that you couldn't see in behind the paneling.

 

 

To be honest I'm not that enthralled by how this turned out and I know it's not 100% accurate, but I really don't see any other way of doing it.  I think once it's all painted it won't look as cludgy - I guess I'll find out later

(oops spoiler alert - you can see the rest of the roof here)

 

 

again, this went very quickly as it was just sticking bits into the holes.  Starting at the kitchen end... 

 

 

center portion

 

 

Lastly, the dinette end

 

 

The only thing left to go onto the roof now are the tread-plates at either end.  I didn't fit them at this point because it would have been impossible to paint inside the supports so they will get added once the roof has received a good coat of white paint.

All things going well, I may even get to throw some white paint on it tomorrow