Wednesday 26 September 2012

Gettin tanked

Carrying on from the last post i managed to find the time to nearly finish the tank & stand.Since this is the first time i have used timber to construct i had to change my method of painting & weathering,first i used floquil grimy black heavily thinned as the first coat,then tamiya jn grey thinned with isocol & finaly tamiya red again thinned with isocol to represent the red lead.As for the water inlet i used a spare brake cylinder from a silvermaz S wagon kit & air tank from a BD wagon kit as the float,a length of 20 thou brass wire to connect the float to the inlet valve & 1.2 mm welding wire as the inlet pipe.Overall i am  happy with the end result.
Anyhow till next time, Booly.

Friday 21 September 2012

Crookwell Tankstand

Well after looking on the net & magazines i could not find any info as to what type of tankstand Crookwell had.All that i could find were pictures of the concrete base for the supports,so i have used the tank & stand at Grenfell as the basis of the stand i have modeled.There are a few photos of this tank on NSWrail.net & also in AMRM June 2011 issue.
Now this is the first model i have made using scale lumber as i usually use styrene,and it certantly  wont be my last,i was impressed at how well it has turned out.Hopefully i find the time over the weekend to paint & weather,anyhow here are a few photos

Tuesday 11 September 2012

More on Crookwell

Well after the last post showing the trackwork its time to show the progress of this section of the layout.The polystyrene foam was glued down & shaped with a sharp knife and what a mess this makes as we all know.Next after i was happy with the basic shape i cover the foam with plaster with brick oxide mixed in to take away the white look and also as a base colour.I start out with the mix fairly thin and brush it on,then as it starts to go off i shape by hand,laytex gloves and a bowl of water helps with  this part.I also cover the trackwork with masking tape.After the plaster has set(seams to take for ever in this cold weather)i start to add the ground cover,dirt i have gathered from various places is seived to use as the base,then sprinklings of woodlands fine turf in different colours,add a bit of course turf,then its time for the static grass,here i have used different brands & colours.I made an aplicator for the static grass from some instructions that Gary at Model Railroad Craftsman  gave me on a visit.For all of about $40 it sure beats the price of buying one.Anyhow a picture says a thousand words as they say,so here are some.