The summer is here and the grass is growing

June 13, 2009 at 7:28 pm · Filed under Scenics ·Tagged

eng shed 1Scenic work has started in abundance.  Recent purchases of Sea Moss along with various materials from Woodland Scenics, has enabled the team to push ahead.  I would like to express my thanks to Peter Warwick for allowing us to raid his box full of scatter and foliage material whback eng shedich has kept us going.

 We have concentrated on the fiddle yard (Radley end) of the layout as there is very little work that can be done at the station end until the main station building and the cottages are constructed.  All of these are about 12 months away, regrettably. 

The Sea Moss is sprayed with matt varnish and then covered in scatter material.  Then it is re-sprayed to hold it all in position.  Some modellers use this for trees but I prefer just to make bushes out of it.  Small holes are then drilled into the baseboard; a selection of the Sea Moss is broken off the main stalk and glued into position.  It then receives another spraying with matt varnish and sprinkled with scatter.  The excess is removed, later when the glues are dried, in the old fashion way of stocking over the end of the hoover.

eng shed frt

What I have found really useful to use in bulking out the scenery is the waste from the foliage when making trees.  The foliage matting produced by Woodland Scenics sheds loads of bits and pieces while working with it.  This is saved and put into a bag of its own and then used as a “building up” material in conjunction with the scatters powders. 

The photographs show progress around the engine shed, pump house and platelayers hut.  The gap around the base of the coaling stage will need attention but as it is not, at present, permanently secured in position, this will be completed at a later date.

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Tiny Signs

June 8, 2009 at 9:40 pm · Filed under Ideas, Layout Progress, Techniques

Abingdon Platform SignAfter much nagging and bullying from you know who, I spent much of the weekend and a little of yesterday evening trying out different tequniques for painting the etched sign (see previous article).

Initially, Ivan and I had got together on Thursday evening for a good old chin wag and “planning” session that rapidly turned into a making, testing and experimenting session.  We started by cleaning the least successful platform “Abingdon”  sign with a glassfibre pencil.  After carefully cutting it from the fret and filing of the burrs, we soldered it to a couple of rail posts and glued a piece of plasticard to the back to help disguise the holes.  Ivan dug out some black primer spray paint and after five minutes dancing around the garden playing samba rythms (rattling the can) he sprayed the sign matt primer black.

For the lettering, we tried the suggestion of using a roller to just add paint to the raised parts of the sign but unfortunately this was disasterously unsuccessful (though may work with some of the smaller signs).  After re-applying the primer, I used a small brush to carefully paint in the lettering.  It takes a very steady hand and a lot of patience to achieve good results this way and despite using Ivan’s magnifying glasses, the end result was looking very ragged with a lot of accidental slips needing to be fixed with the primer.

To the River & Salters SteamersGW NoticeOver the weekend, I was able to get hold of an even smaller brush (OOO) and clean up some of the edges and cover over some of the slips.  A quick rub with the glass fibre pen helped to take the shine off the lettering and a brush over with weaathering powders toned down the white and gave the whole sign an aged look.

With the smaller signs, I used a slightly different method.  After painting in the background base colour with black paint, I used what is commonly called a dry-brush technique (I think !?).  Goods Office SignI loaded a flat and relatively wide brush with the white paint and then carefully wiped it on a piece of scrap paper until only a small amount of paint remained on the brush.  This was then very lightly stoked across the signs so that only the highest parts of the lettering picked up the paint.  I repeated this several times until there was enough paint built up on the letters.  This method seems to have been very successful, particularly on the GW notice that will be fixed to the side of the goods office.  (Incidentally, if you take a look at in the “Martin Smith” collection of photographs on our www.abingdonbranch.co.uk website, there is an excellent image of the original sign in glorious technicolour.)

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The Acid Test (results)

May 19, 2009 at 10:38 pm · Filed under Experiments, Ideas, Techniques

Disappointing results

Disappointing results

Having set up the acid bath, making sure to follow all the necessary safety precautions we got down to the all important preparation of the brass in readiness for ironing on the resist which had previously been printed, using a laser printer, onto the special toner-transfer paper.

The first fret that we tried was a “Crane Wheel” fret.  The brass was given a good clean with wire wool and then wiped with methylated spirit to remove any remaining grease or grime.  The piece of brass was slipped into the pocket made by folding the toner-transfer paper corresponding to the registration marks included on the print and stapled in place.  It was then ironed on both sides for about 5 minutes in the hope that the toner would transfer sufficiently to provide the necessary “resist” to prevent the required area being etched by the acid.

After about 15-20 minutes in the acid bath (regularly checking progress), the fret was removed and given a thorough wash to remove all traces of acid.  As can be seen form the photo, the results were rather poor and disappointing.

Still poor results but showing promise

More care = better results

 The next fret to get the acid treatment was the Abingdon Signs fret.  Again the brass was prepared and the toner ironed on.  This time it was realised that tiny specs of dust were trapping air between the brass and the toner sheet, preventing adhesion in those areas.  As you can see from the photo to the left, these caused holes to be etched through the sheet where they weren’t intended.  It was also realized that the areas with no toner also trapped air which expanded with the heat of the iron, forcing the toner away from the brass along the edges and causing jagged edges to some of the signs.

With the next attempt at the Abingdon signs, we took a lot more time and care, firstly in making sure the toner sheet was clearer of dust by giving it a quick blow and secondly by piercing every air bubble trapped beneath the toner sheet.

More care = better results

Success!

On the photo to the right, you can see that there are fewer holes and the edges of the signs are cleaner, straighter and smoother.

By printing the sheets closer to the time that they will be used (in this case they were printed about 3 weeks before use) and by taking more care in keeping them clean and free of dust, we should be able to acheive even clearer etches in the future.

Tiny Sign!

Tiny Sign!

Cleaned up with a glass fibre brush you can see the level of detail that has been achieved even in this first attempt at the technique.  Considering that the goods shed sign is only 10mm across and the lettering not much more than 0.5mm tall, you can see from the following photos that the text is almost readable.  Certainly clear enough for it’s intended use and viewing distance. 

  

Success!

Success!

You can see that the slightly larger lettering on the Goods Office sign is perfectly clear and usable.

Whilst it’s true that at this size the signs don’t really need to be 3 dimensional and excellent results can be achieved with a standard printer, I don’t think that would be anything like as satisfying or as much fun!

The next problem to overcome is how to successfully paint the signs without obliterating all our effort but I’ll leave that for a future blog … watch this space! 

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Recent progress

April 26, 2009 at 4:57 pm · Filed under Layout Progress

I am pleased to report that the track work is all now working well with locomotives and rolling stock performing as it should. Tom has worked very hard to get the fiddle yard cassettes working as they should be. Unfortunately when constructed the securing angles were a little too big and consequently fowling the brake gear on some locos. This has taken several club evenings to do but Tom has now completed the task and all the cassettes now accept trains with no problems.

There are various little projects under way at present. We recently had an evening where a few of us were making components for the sprat and winkle couplings needed for the rolling stock. Phil Evans has been working hard fitting couplings but was running short of items. With a few team members we were able to complete most of the pieces needed and now we are moving on the soldering them all up.

In the mean time I played around with various methods of making vegetables in 4mm. Now that this has been perfected the project has been opened up to other group members to build a supply of items to be stored in readiness for when the gardens of the 7 cottages are ready for planting. There are a lot of plants to be made so there will be no reason for anyone to get bored!!!

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Identifying the issues

March 19, 2009 at 9:40 pm · Filed under Layout Progress

19th March 2009

 

Some of the issues with the layout highlighted at the Abingdon Model Railway Exhibition on 7th March 2009 have started to be addressed.  Last Friday and this Wednesday we have started to concentrate on the track and point work. 

 

Tony worked hard on Friday removing the motor from underneath the goods shed point, locating and repairing the fault.  The operating rod had become stuck to the underneath of the baseboard.  Glue had seeped down the side of the droppers form the top and adhered the sliding firmly in one place.    It was returned to service by the end of the evening and now operates perfectly.

 

Several of the moulded chairs on the inside of the rail were slightly high and were fouling the flanges.  These have been cut down or slightly filed away enabling the flanges to run through smoothly.

 

Some point blades have been adjusted, filed and slightly tweaked.  Some check rails have been identified as requiring replacement and the double slip continues to give problems and at present and will need further attention.  Work was brought to an abrupt halt on Wednesday when one of the blades came unsoldered.  By now it was time to retire for the evening.

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1st Exhibition for The Abingdon Branch

March 9, 2009 at 8:48 pm · Filed under Layout Progress

The 1st showing

The 1st showing

Abingdon had its first trip to an exhibition on Saturday 7th March 2009 at the White Horse Tennis and Leisure Centre, appropriately in Abingdon. It was presented as “a work in progress” layout and for its 1st outing out of the club room it ran reasonably well.

It has highlighted a number of jobs that need to be done to get it running well but this is to be expected from a progressing layout.

It attracted a lot of interest and although I was not working on the layout during the day due to other exhibition duties, my co owner of the layout chatted to numerous people through out the day.

We now have a list of jobs and plenty of tweaking to do to get it fully operational. There is also the small matter of completing the started buildings and getting started on the other ones.

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Tree Construction

February 10, 2009 at 11:14 pm · Filed under Layout Progress

I have been making some trees for the layout. The recent one is a London Plane that I started a couple of days ago. I have been taking photos during construction and hope to have them ready, with a description of how it was built, very soon. As they say “watch this space”.

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The Acid Test (experiments in etching brass)

January 30, 2009 at 3:01 pm · Filed under Experiments, Ideas, Techniques

Drawings for the "resist"

Drawings for the brass frets (reversed so they apear correctly on the final etch)

After looking for parts suitable for several of the Abingdon structures and failing miserably to fabricate them in other ways, we are experimenting in etching them in brass.

The process, also known as “chemical milling”, uses acid to “eat” away unwanted parts of a sheet of brass to leave the required shape. In order to control the bits that are removed and what is left, a “resist” is applied to the brass in the places to be preserved which shields it from the acid.

Once the acid has done it’s work, you will be left (or so the theory goes) with an etched brass fret. This is effectively the same process that is used to produce the brass kits with which many of you will be familiar (though the commercial process is somewhat more controlled and sophisticated).

As luck would have it, the same process is widely used in electronics to produce circuit boards from copper clad board (PCB) and all the necessary kit (brass excluded) is available from the likes of “Maplins”.

Doug, already having all of this as well as experience in etching his own circuit boards has kindly agreed to try the process with the prepared drawings and brass.
If it is successful, I will describe the process in much more detail.

Watch this space!

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Update 24th January 2009

January 24, 2009 at 6:36 pm · Filed under Layout Progress, Techniques

The Abingdon team have been learning how to make trees recently thanks to Ted Carter, who has been passing on his expertise. As there are several trees required on The Abingdon Layout, it is encouraging to see the team’s efforts coming to fruition.

Abingdon is going to its first Exhibition on 7th March 2009 which is to be held by The Abingdon & District Model Railway Club at The White Horse Leisure and Tennis Centre, Audlit Drive, Abingdon. There is still lots of work to do to get it ready and the team are working very hard to achieve this.

 

Geoff Bennett, a member of Oxford Model Railway Club, has been applying his artistic skills to the last back scene. It was put in place last night, 23/01/2009, only to find that at the corner there was a bit of plain wood showing. Fortunately Geoff had brought his paints with him and he spent the evening finishing it all off. Every one present said how good it all looked now it is in place.

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Welcome!

January 22, 2009 at 1:58 pm · Filed under General

Welcome to the Abingdon Branch blog where we intend to keep you updated with progress with the layout. If you’ve stumbled across us by accident, be sure to visit www.abingdonbranch .co.uk.

We will updating progress regularly so please come back soon.

Regards,

The Abingdon Branch Team.

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