Andy's Modelmaking Misadventures

[classic33]

Try "fictitious liveries" in a search.

GIMP any good to use?

 

[Andy in Germany]

Try "fictitious liveries" in a search.

GIMP any good to use?

I've come across the FL galleries before, there are some great ideas in there...

Gimp is pretty good once you've got used to it. To achieve everything it wants to do it has to operate differently from, for example, desktop publishing packages, and you need to learn it's ways. It's a very good package though and I suspect I only use about ten percent of it's full capabilities.

 

[Retread]

They look great. I model 1/43 scale cars and it usually starts off good then mistake and it's a turd rolling downhill.

 

[Andy in Germany]

They look great. I model 1/43 scale cars and it usually starts off good then mistake and it's a turd rolling downhill.

We see our own mistakes far more than others do. Apart from this, I have the advantage that most of my models are of things that either don't exist in reality, or there's enough variation that I can just claim that they were built differently for my railway.

Failing that, I can always give the worst bits a good coating of muck to hide the problem...

 

[Oldhippy]

After the success of the paper wrap on the tanker, I'm trying to step things up by printing carriage sides:

View attachment 599143

Any thoughts welcome. It's based on the German "Silberlinge" carriages designed and built by German railways from 1958. With upwards of 5000 examples built they’ve been the main carriage for local and many suburban services in West Germany from that time. They were built until 1980, because in Germany “standardised” means what is says.

There are some “Silberlinge” in regular service today; yes you read that correctly: German still uses a design of carriage over 6 decades old on the main rail network, although thankfully they are now painted various colours and it has to be said that the surviving examples are refurbished and pretty comfortable on the inside.

The Körschtalbahn would have needed new carriages at about the same time as the rest of the rail network, so it would have been a logical solution to order some “mini-Silberlinge” to carry passengers. As they were originally built from stainless steel, they’d last forever, so they’d still be in use today. I’ll try a couple more designs, not least for a push-pull trailer, preferably with the usual trappings of a modern railway such as disabled access and bicycle storage.

If you’re wondering about the name, it refers to the original stainless steel construction which gave a silvery finish when new and probably for about ten minutes afterwards., hence the nickname of “Silver pieces”, a reference to the new Testament, specifically Matthew 26,14 where Judas Receives “30 silver pieces” for betraying Jesus to the authorities.

Apparently German trainspotters receive a very classical education.

Japan is similar I think Andy isn't it? I remember some suburban were very old but immaculately kept. I lived on the Seibu Shinjuku line for a while and some were 50's or 60's. As with Germany they were well staffed and beautifully kept.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Japan is similar I think Andy isn't it? I remember some suburban were very old but immaculately kept. I lived on the Seibu Shinjuku line for a while and some were 50's or 60's. As with Germany they were well staffed and beautifully kept.

Japan certainly manages to keep their trains very clean: I've often wondered how they pay for it, to be honest.

Germany isn't great: the new double-deck Desiro units seem to have been delivered with "out of order" on the privvy doors. One year later they still can't get them to work. Now DB is talking about replacing their entire fleet of reliable single deck intercity carriages with fixed-rake double deck units which are having "teething troubles" to say the least.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I don't think I've posted about this yet, but "Container wagons 2.0" are under construction:

They haven't gone bendy yet:

The production line has ramped up to the dizzying level of three (3) wagons at once:

Meanwhile, I'm getting distracted, as usual...

 

[Reynard]

Those look great @Andy in Germany

I-beam throughout seems to have solved matters.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Those look great @Andy in Germany

I-beam throughout seems to have solved matters.

Indeed, thanks for the tip on that one...

I've gone and got all obsessive about details like Brake rods and levers, so right now I'm messing about with tiny bits of plastic and wire...

 

[Andy in Germany]

Brake gear obsession continues. Do these levers look too big or too small? the wire under them will be clipped to length afterwards, but I've been looking at these bits all day so I've lost my sense of scale...

 

[MontyVeda]

View attachment 605552

Brake gear obsession continues. Do these levers look too big or too small? the wire under them will be clipped to length afterwards, but I've been looking at these bits all day so I've lost my sense of scale...

no idea regarding the scale... but do you have a model human to scale? a lever, presumably would go in a hand, so eye up the model human's hand and your levers??

 

[classic33]

no idea regarding the scale... but do you have a model human to scale? a lever, presumably would go in a hand, so eye up the model human's hand and your levers??

There should be a driver on the forklift he bought.

 

[Andy in Germany]

There should be a driver on the forklift he bought.

There wasn't.

Also my usual "Scale" human has gone AWOL.

no idea regarding the scale... but do you have a model human to scale? a lever, presumably would go in a hand, so eye up the model human's hand and your levers??

The levers seem to come in different lengths, so it's largely guesswork.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I've been figure painting today: I'm trying to improve my technique at the moment, which in practice means obsessively repainting the same model figure in different ways to try and get it to work just a bit better...

 

[Andy in Germany]

Getting there. It's hard to get a decent picture and I'm still not delighted with the results in reality either, but I'm working on it...