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Something old, something new, some things bodged and some things askew. A steamy saga of masochism and scratching.


Gorby

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God knows I've tried, but I can't seem to do daily updates on my progress. I'm either in a modelly mood, or a writing mood, or a 'I'm just going to crawl into a shallow depression in the ground and think 'occupying a shallow depression in the ground thoughts'' sort of mood.

As per usual the last updates will be in the format know as 'rushed'. Here we go…..

 

Failing spectacularly to find a single piece of coal (it looks like I'm going to freeze when the nuclear winter arrives) I was forced to improvise. I knew this alcoholism would come in useful one day.

Coal+1.JPG

 

Turned out quite passable if I do say so myself:

Coal+2.JPG

 

I've found that one of the things about scratch-building is that you need to keep a lookout for stuff that may possibly be useful, and if you're convinced your grandmothers false teeth are going to come in useful for a project, then sorry granny, it's for a greater good. The steering wheel stumped me to start with but then I found a small metal key-ring thingy that was the perfect size. Admittedly solder would have been the 'look at me, I'm a proper modeller' thing. Super glue was this wimps cop-out, but it worked fine.

IMG_0396.JPG

 

Sticking with the steering, one of the probs was that I needed a worm gear for my fetish gear collection. I could have sawn a bit off a wood screw – it's not as if I can't spare one, I've got thousands. In the spirit of making life as difficult as I can, I wanted to make one. First off, draw a spiral on a a piece of plastic tube. Very, very carefully saw down the line.

Stearing+1.JPG

It took three attempts but I finally manage to produce something passable. Insert plastic rod, space out and clamp either end then a few dabs of Extra Thin.

Stearing+2.JPG

 

Finally file into something a bit better. Not perfect but this is three times as long as I need – I just used the best third.

Stearing+3.JPG

 

Now doing its job:

Stearing+4.JPG

 

Stearing+5.JPG

 

Thanks for the comments and likes and stuff.

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17 minutes ago, hendie said:

wonderfully Heath Robinson looking contraption

It is fabulously bonkers isn't it? I would suggest doing a Google Image search for “road steamers”, but if you're anything like me, you'll end up loosing a few hours.

This is one of the many that I like:

1861-flybyknight.png?w=430&h=245

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Just catching up on this after a few days and I have to say I'm totally impressed.

However...

"As I've not been doing this modelling business for long, I haven't got many spare bits to rummage through. This is my entire mini hoard:"  - 'not many'??

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 I don't often wander off of the well worn AFV track (no pun intended), but on the odd occasion when I do, I find some really weir unusual projects. But reading through this mad entertaining thread, all now becomes clear with regards to the cog manufacturing and the need for silicone casting knowledge (I don't think that anyone did work out just what it was that you were building). Brilliant work Mark. The chimney looks perfect, but if you were to do this again, probably one of the brass offerings from the model railway word would fit the bill just right. Great work, and keep taking the medication.

 

John.

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Thanks John, I've enjoyed doing something just a little bit a lot different.

 

53 minutes ago, Bullbasket said:

(I don't think that anyone did work out just what it was that you were building)

They did eventually guess – but that was on another forum. Perhaps you need to start taking the medication again. :wink:

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Hey @Gorby I've been watching you. I reckon the Elfs from the Elfin Safety dept won't be happy with your contraption, too much unguarded action going on there. Me, I think its blooming magic 

On 12/12/2019 at 7:56 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

Nice carbonaceous detritus. Nice wormy thing. Generally, nice.

I'm with Pete on this too but I think he could be a little more effusive. I'm going with brilliant. (oh & potty, I nearly forgot that but in the best possible way. :) )

Steve.

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15 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Hey @Gorby I've been watching you.

That doesn't sound sinister at all Steve. :huh:

 

15 hours ago, stevehnz said:

the Elfs from the Elfin Safety dept won't be happy with your contraption,

Yes there is a tiny bit of bone-mangling action on board, but this is back when men where real men and took incidents such as limbs being ripped out of sockets as merely a daily inconvenience. “Tis but a flesh wound” they would no doubt utter as they were mangled to mincemeat. God knows how any of them survived long enough to breed.

 

15 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I think he could be a little more effusive.

Pete's is Pete and as such, is our burden to bear. :wink:

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This should be the last work in progress update before the world stops for the final reveal. :happy:

 

I didn't have a lot of info for the rear end of the boiler and it's likely to be as inaccurate as the rest of the model. Although it looks like an amorphous white blob in this pic, the furnace/boiler door has twenty parts.

Furnace+1.JPG

 

Looks a tad more defined in this shot:

Furnace+2.JPG

 

It looks like BMW learned a valuable lesson form Robey. What's the point fitting working indicators? It does appear to have had a headlight though and for that I needed a small, 'glass' faced cone. I only have one piece of clear sprue in my spares box and that wasn't fat enough. Thinks…… :idea:

Time for an experiment. I heated the end of the sprue over a flame until I had a molten lump and squashed it into a ceramic surface. This is it after being filed and polished into shape:

Lamp+1.JPG

 

I mark my micro-mesh boards to make them easier to select the right grade.

This is a Victorian headlight

Lamp+2.JPG

 

Biddy bits – what could they possibly be???????

Thermo+1.JPG

 

Christ knows:

Thermo+2.JPG

 

At first I thought it may be some sort of thermometer for the boiler, but someone more knowledgeable than myself (or just old enough to remember steam engines) suggested that it may be a gauge for checking the water level in the boiler. This is the second one. I completed the first one and then put the reverse tweezers holding it, to one side with the feeling of a job well done. Then dropped it. Snap! :wall:

 

The observant amongst you may have noticed that I've painted Robey. Obviously this is long before colour was invented, so at first, the temptation was to paint it grey – all my reference pics are B&W so no help there. Traction engines are always bold colours therefore this probably was. On the World Wide Whatsit, Robey Trust have a site. From that I gleaned the info that the Robey company colour appears to have been a mid to darkish green. Tamiya X-5 seemed to fit the bill well enough for me. If no one can agree the exact colour of a bloody Spitfire, what chance do I stand getting this right? Although I can use that to my advantage – who's going to know?

 

I know that you lot get to add tiny facsimiles of billion-dollar-super-mega-hypersonic-people-dismantlers to you models - well I get to make a shovel! I would add that it's a coal shovel but I'm not making it any sexier am I?

I wanted to try a new (to me) thing. It took about fifteen mins to cut the male and female parts of the mould and another ten to plunge mould four shovel heads. As it was only 0.25mm thick plastic sheet, I only need to use boiling water to soften it. Dead easy.

Shovel+1.JPG      Shovel+2.JPG

 

After tarting up with Alclad and everything (and then, because a coal shovel wouldn't have been exactly sterile, detarted-down with an extra grubby wash, so making the effort to use Alclad was a bit pointless).

Shovel+3.JPG

 

My original intention was to insert a cobbled street into a pretty elaborate oak base to make you all go “WOW!”, but I'm really not in the mood for wood worrying at the moment, that's why I went for 'understated' instead. The street is just insulation board (liberated from a skip) and the cobbled effect (yes I know they're 'setts', 'tinternet has already told me off for calling it a that, but 'setted street' doesn't sound right) is simply 3mm square tube pressed very lightly into the surface. Very repetitive and very boring to do, but I think it's quite effective.

Street+1.JPG       Street+2.JPG

 

Then…….

Surface sealed with diluted PVA; primed; painted black then 'granite' grey sprayed at a low angle (to keep the black in the joins); a few extra colours to vary it; light grey dry-brushed to highlight the setts; a liberal coat of Pledge; and another liberal coat of Pledge. The surface still looked too porous so another liberal coat of dilute PVA was sloshed on. When that was dry I added a very dark pin wash into the joints.

Street+3.JPG

 

I've still got the final photos to do and sort out the write-up, but hopefully I'll get it done by this weekend. Currently I'm struggling to get decent pics on my new camera, the bloody thing is too clever by half and seems a damn sight more options than an IBM mainframe. :confused:

 

Thanks for showing an interest or even if you're only pretending to show an interest. It's all the same to me. :wink:

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1 hour ago, Gorby said:

can agree the exact colour of a bloody Spitfire, what chance do I stand getting this right?

Hmm, smacks of cop out to me. Nice shovel though. Oh, I like your cobbles too (And I don't often say that to other chaps on the interweb). 

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