E. W. Badman Pipe Factors - Part 6: What's Up Dock?

In my meetings with persons from other countries, I am often told that the thing they find most puzzling/amusing/annoying about the British (not me personally, they hasten to add) is that I am (or rather, we are) seemingly wholly obsessed by the weather. Well, I think it's probably fair to say that if they had to put up with what we in these isles have had to endure over the last few weeks, they would doubless be developing a similar complex by now.

Whilst it may or may not be true that the Eskimo have 28 different words to describe snow, it is certainly the case that the British have several more phrases to describe rain - the vast majority of them take the form "___ rain!" where ___ is some choice adjective, normally Anglo-Saxon in origin. And rightly so in my humble opinion. However, it is all too easy to forget (in mid-July 2007 as I write this) that as recently as early June we were all longing for rain, having experienced one of the driest May months on record. How we all vowed then not to complain when it decided to rain again; how we wish now we had kept our collective British trap shut.

Since the beginning of this noble venture I had been attempting to find a window in my crowded schedule in order to create the Badman Pipe Factors dock side, on which would be built the (by now, I am sure) legendary 15-inch gauge railway:

Rain

Rain

Rain

:

:

Rain

Dry, Sunny (attended nephew's wedding, so no chance there)

Rain

Frogs

Locusts

Rain

Hot Hail ('Flash' Gordon, anyone?)

Rain...

...And then, last Saturday, without any warning the clouds parted, revealing a strange and wonderful sight - the sky was a wierd blue colour! And a big yellow ball hung in the sky. It felt warm!

So, straight to work: first things first, get the kettle on - any British artisan will tell you that a job like this cannot be rushed, so best to partake of a 'wet' to steady the nerves.

I used the bricks and blocks that were there for prototyping purposes to form the basic dock side wall, and cemented them in with a mortar infill to create the 'floor'. The mortar in this case was a 2:1 cement:sand mix, with enough water to set the mixture off, but not make it sloppy. Getting a level surface proved to be a challenge, which I approached by mixing up a more 'fluid' mortar with 1:1 proportions of the aforementioned materiel and applying that over the top. Certainly it was easier smoothing out, and the resultant surface was less undulating, but it still ended up with a slight gradient. But here's how it looked:

When I come to bury the track, I will have another attempt at levelling the surface - if anything I need to at least ensure that the gradient if any is away from the garden boundary wall, so the ever-present rain has a chance to drain away to mother earth.

Finally, I took the opportunity to record a short video of the first out-door run of the Hornet, over loose-laid track in more-or-less its intended position. Spielburg I am not:

I'll bet Spielburg couldn't find 28+ phrases to describe rain though.

E. W. Badman Pipe Factors - Part 5: Making Heavy Weather

I don't know why, but clean locos of any kind offend my eye. Don't get me wrong, I fully appreciate the effort that loco crews must have put into maintaining their charges, and the traditions upheld in the heyday of steam - working the career path from cleaner to driver via fireman and various points in between - must have been hellish hard work. Yet they must have been instrumental in instilling a sense of pride in the loco; in keeping up its appearance particularly when in the public eye. Perhaps a spell in that sort of role, on some preserved line, would cure me? We shall probably never know. But to me, it's simply a case of: a grubby loco at least looks as though it's done some work!

Anyway, as a part-time philosopher once said: "We are where we are, guv - that'll be 8 quid." I decided that in the case of the Badman Pipe Factors private 15-inch gauge railway, function would indeed come before fashion. The rolling stock, exposed to several years of toil, harsh living and not a little neglect, would thereby come to look decidedly shabby, with much rust, dirt, oil and dust in evidence. In particular the company's 'Hornet' loco would bear the brunt of my fixation. But how to go about it? In a word: weathering.

Sadly I do have to at least start with a 'pristine' loco - that is, paint it like it was just outshopped (Oh, and say 'hello' to Arnold the driver, by the way):

Now be honest, did you actually say 'Hello' then? You did? You need to get out more... incidentally, if you want to see the technique I used to paint him, click here.

OK so now the fun can start. I try to imagine where the dirt, grime, dust, rust etc would accumulate, then build the effect up over a series of 'layers' until I'm happy with the result. I often think the trick with this stuff is knowing when to stop! Here are some of the techniques I use:

• Washing - using a dilute paint solution to allow the chosen colour to 'flow' into low-spots on the model, collect in corners etc.
• Dry-brushing - using absolutely the minimum amount of paint on the brush, then flicking the brush over high-spots on the model to make them 'stand out'.
• Dry-sponging - as with dry-brushing, except using a piece of foam rubber or similar
• Texturing - using a fine powder e.g. talcum powder to add texture to paint - particularly effective when applying 'rust' to a model.
• Air-brushing - using an air-brush (or aerosol spray) to apply a fine layer of colour - useful for making things look 'dusty'.

After an initial dark wash, and some sneaky 'wasp-striping' on the buffer beam, we have this:

To me, nothing spells 'neglect' like a good rust-patch - or patches. To that end, I use a combination of a dark brown colour, with some talcum-powder to give a 'rough' texture - followed by a dry-brushing/dry-sponging (depending on the area to be covered) of a bright orange over the top. Err, like this:

By the way, in case anyone is tempted to think that I am setting myself up as some kind of expert on this subject - forget it. I am still very much a learner in this field. I have no doubt that there are many countless people round the world who are far better at weathering models. All I can say is that I am improving with time and practice, and that the ideas expressed here worked for me. I only hope that my publishing my ideas here encourages someone else - perhaps you, dear reader, if you have not already done so - to have a go.

E. W. Badman Pipe Factors - Part 4: Motive Power to the People!

In parallel with all the other activity around this little diversion of mine, was the task of working out what sort of loco would be employed to push and shove our lovingly-crafted wagons. In this respect I was wise enough (for a change) to take some advice from a fellow large-scale modeller, and pay a visit to a very useful web site - http://www.gn15.info/index.php .

This has proved to be a very informative site, and is indeed further enhanced by a very active and friendly forum. Many questions have I asked: all have been answered with seemingly endless patience, with a healthy dose of good humour into the bargain. I was directed to yet another web site (sorry, but remind me again: how exactly did I survive without the internet?) run by one of the regulars which specialises in selling loco body kits. Should you be even remotely interested, it's at http://www.pepper7.co.uk/ Of course there are others, thousands, out there but I haven't tried them all, and I am hardly going to recommend somewhere I haven't tried, am I? For the avoidance of doubt, I have no commercial interest with the seller -aside, that is, from being a satisfied customer. So there. Besides, he paid me to say that. Actually no he didn't, I jest.

I chose a 'Hornet' loco body kit, and a 'Midge' motor truck. The motor blocks that provide the motion are Tenshodo - I bought 2 of those, too. I bought a shed load of other stuff off the site at the same time - I guess you could call it a 'red mist' moment. Time to hide the credit card statement behind the sofa again...

The kit components are moulded resin, with good moulding detail and very little in the way of 'flash' or unsightly mould lines. Instructions were 'brief' to say the least, but at the end of the day it's a freelance loco so arrange the controls etc as you see fit. There are no rules here - although, having the wheels at the bottom would probably be classed as a damned fine suggestion.

Having first primed the components with a matt grey car-body undercoat spray, I set them aside to dry properly whilst I turned my attention to the motor block itself. From some experiments with the Tenshodo motor, the wagon (with pipe) and a length of track, I found that the weight of the loco was not really going to be enough to push even 1 fully-laden wagon. Indeed, with the controller turned up to the full truncheon, I could hear for myself that the name 'Hornet' was all too appropriate. I cut some lead sheeting into strips, and set about hiding it in every recess I could find. This served to increase the weight over the driving axles, thereby improving the loco's traction quite considerably.

Construction was fairly straightforward - a most theraputic evening activity following a hectic day chasing 1's and 0's around a payroll system. I did run into a spot of bother with the glue though - resin will not be touched by liquid poly. The instructions recommend superglue! I had none of that, but fortunately I had a suitable alternative.

The rather poor quality indoor photo at least shows the results of an evening's work. The basic components are all there - the chassis, the 'cab' and the engine compartment, the buffer-beams and the radiator grille. The £1 coin gives you a good indication of the size of the loco. The penny gives you an equally good indication of the monetary value of the £1 coin. Bitter? Me? Nah!



The following day I was able to put the loco outside in its intended environment, with the wagon and some loose-laid trackwork, to give me a better idea of how it was all going to hang together - and to attempt a better-quality photo:

To my untrained eye, this was starting to look promising!