The last two NER vehicles that I have been finishing for a friend are brake vans and a bit of ingenuity was required to get the lettering in the small spaces between the frames and make the best of the available letters on the Fox sheets. You need lot’s of M’s and N’s for NER liveried Brake vans

Yesterday was spent lettering a few 3D printed wagons that I am painting for a friend.

NER K1 Cattle Wagon

NER P6 Hopper Wagon

A start was also made on a pair of NER V1/2 Brake vans but I struggled to fit the lettering in the available space between the framing. much dialogue ensued between us.

It was pointed out over on Western Thunder that the inset in the base should have the profile all the way around which I agree it should but I couldn’t work out how to do it. As always the minute that I started to reply to the gent who raised it I thought of how I might achieve it.

In conclusion, I got an annotated copy of the drawing so I was able to scale it to 7mm and do the complete pole.

Just after rendering the last few images I remember that this was supposed to represent something that had been cast so I went around and softened some of the edges using the Fillet tool.

Next I drew a couple of upright lines on the first sketch to determine the width of the base of the fluted section. Which was 8mm on my overscale drawing. Then I created another offset plane this time at the top of the column/base of the fluted section.

Then I created a sketch on that plane and drew a circle 8mm in diameter on the edge of that circle I drew another circle 0.6mm in diameter using these as a best guess for the size of the flute. I then used the circular pattern tool to create circle all around the inner circle. this ended up being 42.

Then on the first sketch I drew the profile of the flute.

 I extruded this again symmetrically 0.3mm either way, to give me the 0.6mm thickness that I had determined (best guess!!!) was the flute size. Then I filleted the front edges to give me the round flute

Lastly I used the circular pattern tool again to create the circle of 42.

I even managed to get the render tool to work this morning last night I think that my machine was doing an update in the background and it was running like a dog.

A friend kindly printed the Westinghouse pump and brought some along to Thirsk show yesterday.

I am most impressed with the print quality

I haven’t had much time for physical modelling this week so I have spend what time I have had doing a bit more drawing in Fusion.

These are an assortment of parts for the D2 test build when I get to it.

Front Sandbox, most of it will be hidden behind the front steps but some of it is visible.

Brake shoes, to take away the risk of shorts.

Finally for now, is the reverser for the cab

A friend who models in 4mm scale asked me if I would draw up some injectors for GNR tank engines (J52/53) so in between working on the lathe improvements while waiting for bits and pieces to arrive through the post I had a go.

He provided me with an annotated photo to work from which didn’t have every dimension on it so while I don’t think that it’s 100% accurate, it’s good enough for small scales.

Of course we need a handed pair which was the last job.

Those who read my ramblings may recall my mentioning and showing the build of a DJH LNER A3 that I built a few years ago.
I was never really happy with the paint job and Warren Haywood offered to strip and repaint it for me. I received it back from Warren and one of the casualties of the paint strip were the etched cinder guards from the cab side.

There used to be some really nice castings for Cinder Guards available from Hobby Horse but since Simon’s retirement and the business not being sold they are no longer available.

So I decided to have a go at drawing some up. My initial design taken from an A3 GA had the hinges with the two ears either side but looking closely at cab side photos of Flying Scotsman and Green Arrow showed me that they were different on LNER locos at least so I added the two hinges at the bottom of the image.

I plan to get these cast by Mike Hopkins and Chris suggested that I also do some assembled so that I can see what works best in terms of castings – all told I need 7 or 8 sets for various loco kits that I have in my stash.

I decided to do two options of the assembled item

Option one is with the guard in it’s open position at 90 degrees to the cab sideoption two is with them folded back against the cab side. To achieve this I needed to make them handed. I got the idea for having them folded back from fellow member Ian Beattie, who mentioned that he always models them folded back to minimise damage and I thought it a good idea.

I did screen shots for these as the renders were so bright you couldn’t really see anything….
I will share photos of the castings when I get them back from Mike.

No posts for weeks and then two posts in a day.

Although I have had these printed in resin by kind hearted fellow modellers, I also wanted to see what they would look like in Brass so I asked Mike Hopkins if he would add some to his next set of castings.

Well worth the money and the short wait.

After my efforts to create the lovely safety valve bonnet yesterday I was dismayed when I learned that I had orientated the ellipse at the top in the wrong direction. It should run in line with the boiler….

Today’s first task was sorting that out. All was not lost as I learned a bit more while correcting it and I have an even better end result for my efforts.

Next up I drew up a replacement chimney to the correct dimensions for the Class J and initially I added rivets around the base but Tom alerted me to the fact that the NER used countersunk bolts so nothing was visible on the chimney base after painting. A few steps back on the Fusion timeline removed them. It’s certainly much easier to remove them than to add them…

Although the Class J didn’t have a brass cap to the chimney the drawing that I worked from showed it so I couldn’t resist depicting it on the photos at least.

Finally I drew up a replacement dome so that should draw a line under this particular little project if you will pardon the pun.

After posting my earlier effort at the safety valve bonnet, fellow NERA member Tom Burnham pointed out that I had made an error and the the cover should be oval at the top not round. He kindly provided me with the info to put it right.

I am still being distracted by 3D drawing in Fusion. I have also discovered the render tool so the images look so much better.

As I have more than a passing interest in rolling stock I thought I would attempt an NER No2 Axle box.

A friend kindly pointed out that we mostly only model the part in front of the W Iron so I changed the drawing slightly

Moving swiftly along from the brake standard modifications. You may recall that some time ago I made a stove for the brake van using my Silhouette cutter. Although I proved it was possible, it was extremely fiddly to assemble and I certainly wouldn’t want to be doing a lot of them.

It’s also a perfect candidate for 3D printing so yesterday morning (after amending the brake standard files) I started to draw up the stove.

It has proved to be my most ambitious and ultimately satisfying design project to date.

My apologies for the image overload but I am delighted at how well it has turned out.

After Mike Trice kindly pointed out that I have missed the bolt heads from the base of the brake standards I made some amendments and here are the revised entities.

I also changed the base of the threaded rod so that it will (hopefully) print a bit easier.

I had a spare half an hour or so this afternoon so I created a revised drawing to include the rectangular cover that many of the phots show on these brake standards.

The recent hot weather has somewhat killed my enthusiasm for actual model making so instead I have been drawing up a few more bits and pieces. Some of them are still work in progress but I finished an LNER Brake standard last night.

I have long wished for a correct LNER brake standard casting so now assuming that it prints okay my wish should be fulfilled.