Seven years between posts is too long

As the title says its been far too long between posts.

A lot has happened in those seven years much like my previous post, moved house again, this time to another part of the state, delved into some different career's, crashed a milk tanker and to top it all off the so called love of my life left me? That reminds me I'd best change my introduction.

Anyway I'm now living on my own in the south west of Victoria in a little town called Hawkesdale far away from all the crap of big city living and enjoying the peace and quite of country living. Im in the milk tanker business but now in the office as a supervisor which is a great job with 4 days on and 4 days off.

Now hobby wise I've really done nothing for the last 5 years as Ive had nowhere to do any modelling and the time hasn't been available either. I had a shed built about three years ago and started to build a room in that shed for a layout however with work and life in general it has progressed slowly. Then I had the crash which put me in hospital for about 4 weeks. I snapped my femur and broke my arm, the arm is all good but I have issues with my leg.

Then the, well the what I thought was the love of my life left at about 6 months after the crash which knocked me around pretty badly as it does for anyone who's not expecting it.

Moving on I'm in the house we ( now ex wife ) bought and now rebuilding my life on my own, I have met a lovely woman who is happy in her place as I'm in mine. Doing things I used to do is harder and now slower but I manage to get stuff done.

Okay now hobby wise I did a bit of modelling while I was recuperating and while I was elsewhere until the assets were settled, which was about 6 months ago. Nothing since but I have set up a desk in my spare room which is part office and part hobby room.

The shed I had built was partly built when we bought the place and I had another section built on, had all the walls filled in and concreted all the floor. It was originally a machinery shed with one wall and a skillion roof. I had another 6 mts added to the width which gave me a total of 13 mts x 12 mts. I had a hoist installed and sealed all the floor.

The original shed

The start with fresh concrete.

The completed structure

The future train.

I was extremely fortunate to obtain a well know layout recently which I was really excited about. Its exactly the same dimensions as the room I have laid out which is a total fluke. The layout has been in storage for a few years and is now in my other shed waiting on me to finish the train room.

The famous Monbulk trestle

Some of the trees in the cab for the trip home

The entire layout fitted into a 7ton 6.3 mt bodied truck

So if you asked me has my life changed, yes it most definitely has, however I have been blessed to be the custodian of the Master, Alan Rockets Puffing Billy layout and I plan to reassemble it in its entirety in the coming months. Watch this space.

Cheers Ollie

Spreading yourself around

I thought I would post a bit of what I've been doing during the colder months when its a tad cold to be in the shed working on the Corvette. Now the Corvette is becoming a long term project but I hope to see some action in the next 6 months as I head into body work phase. I also have another one ( Corvette ) which was recently delivered to my place so I can finish it off for a fella in the car club I'm President of.
In the meantime I've gotten my modelling tools out and doing a bit so to speak. Unfortunately or fortunately I model VRNG in On30 but I still like the old VRBG in HO so I'm finding myself torn between the two. Not wanting to spread my hobby dollars too far I have to go between the Corvette and model railways. Luckily ( for some but not for our budget ) my wife is into horses and spends as much if not more than me from time to time.

I'd never in all my time as a modeller of railways ever built an SEM W car. So I thought lets have a go at one. These are a wonderful kit and very simple to put together although I still don't like the bit you have to remove out of the window frame. A few more and I will have a complete passenger train.
I am finding however that as I have gotten older and now wear glasses its becoming more of a challenging if not difficult to do what I used to easily. That aside I do enjoy getting away from the idiot box and sitting within ear shot of the boss doing some finer detail work on the modelling bench.


Also I was introduced to Xtrack cad by a good mate which has allowed me to easily design a layout for the room I have built in the back half of our garage, which is nearly two cars long and two cars wide. I have ended up with a room that is 6mts long by 4mts wide approximately. In the room is a kitchen sink and cupboard along with a work bench area which I have built. Now at the moment my son is using it as his bedroom so he can game into the wee hours without disrupting the rest of the house. When and only when he eventually moves out, I will begin to build what I have planned which is a two level layout with one being HO and the other On30. totally separate from each other.

The layout above is the VRNG in On30 which can utilise the entire room as the sink and work bench is underneath the layout at the right hand end.

The HO layout will be lower and probably require mechanics type stools with wheels to make it easier to operate, where as the On30 will be at chest height for me and I'm 6'5" so if your short and come for a look you may need a step ladder to view the VRNG.



Happy modelling or whatever you like to do?




Cheers Ollie

Its been too long

Where do I start, its been 5 years since my last post and I have no excuses , except I'm sorry.
A lot has happened in those five years, I've moved house twice, bought a project C3 Corvette to restore and watched all my model railway gear gather dust whilst its been in storage.
The layout I had has gone and I've started to plan a new one for the spare room I will have once No1 son moves out but they tell me these days they don't move out? I don't even have an area where I can sit down and model in our current home as it too is to be in the spare room as part of the grand plan. So really I have nothing I can offer at this point model railway wise to keep yo all amused.
I can however offer a few photos of the Corvette in progress if that will do.
This has basically kept me away from model railways for the last 5 years.


Cheers Ollie.






1974 C3 corvette Stingray



Body removed and the strip down begins



Lots of repairs to the fiberglass under that primer



Caillen my apprentice busy welding in new frame sections

Replaced a fender which Im going to do again as its damaged on the lower section.

LH trailing arm completed and ready for the spindle ( axle )

Finished LH trailing arm installed with overhauled brake caliper



Fully rebuilt 350 small block chev

Setting up the differential with new gears, 3.55-1

Completed diff ready to install

Diff, drive shafts and trailing arms installed

A rolling frame for the first time in three years

Rolling frame with motor and trans fitted

This is how Gwendolyn looked when we moved to our current residence. I've since removed the body to continue with getting the chassis finished.

Another NBH update

Hi all,

Ken and I got together last night and with the bits we have so far from AMK. The NBH now has seating for the passengers and is nearing completion.

We are over the moon with the level of detail the milling process can achieve. Bogies are our next hurdle and at this stage they may also be milled from abs with brass pin point bearings.

Have fun and happy modelling

Regards

Ollie



NBH kits

I have another update for the NBH kit as AMK engineering are pressing ahead at full speed with the components for the kit.
Below is a photo of the first sample of the seats for the NBH, that are based on the original design from the VR plans.
The legs cross at the corect angle as well as being checked out to fit correctly as per the prototype.
I have glued some scrap abs to the short or end seats so it can sit straight as these will be glued to the end of the car body.



What is hard to make out is the slats that have been machined into the seat base which the next photo will show.





If you want to be a rivet counter, don't bother as it has the correct number of slats as per the drawings and photo's of the few original ones at puffing billy.

Regards

Ollie

NBH kits

Hi fellow bloggers,

Just a short note to show some of you who might be interested in an up and coming kit for the VR Narrow Gauge On30 NBH excursion cars. It is being milled in ABS plastic and from what we have so far, well I'm impressed. There is still alot of work to do and parts to be made . Below is a couple of samples.

NBH body

NBH roof



NBH floor

It's very early but as you can see the detail is very nice.

Regards

Ollie



Whats lurking in your backyard

Hi all,
Well as the title says what is lurking in your back yard.  Recently I was privy to some information that lead to a surprise that is about 75 years old. Located amongst a holiday shack in the beach side town of Ocean Grove was two VR narrow gauge passenger coaches that were part of a complete structure. Now usually a demolition crowd come in and disconnect all the services then set to the house with a claw which completely wrecks the house. This structure being made of asbestos had to be pulled apart piece by piece and fortunately it did as they started to pull it down the coaches were revealed. The demo mob were smart enough to stop proceedings and contact someone who contacted someone else and so on until The Puffing Billy Preservation society had found there way down south and bought the carriage's.

Something we don't see in our politically correct world.



From what I can find out so far they came from Colac around 1936 and the house was built around and over the two coaches. The end platform NB is apparently no 6 but it is unknown what the swing door NB is. Puffing Billy have rescued these relics from the past and one day we will be able to ride in them.

Cheers

Ollie

"Its been a while"

As the title says its been a while since my last post and to be honest I have little to report, Except that I have been moved into the cupboard of our spare bedroom to allow better access to the study. I was sharing the study with the rest of the family but when the kids had friends over I went into panic mode and was constantly checking my projects that were placed all over the bench in different states of completion. We are fortunate to have a spare room which hardly gets used and after a visit to a mates place he had done a similar thing with his computer etc. I have just got the doors fitted ( now by folds ) and the bench got its final coat of gloss clear this morning. The beauty of this is I can just close the doors and no little sticky fingers even know its there.

It still needs some shelving but a trip to bunnings next weekend will take care of that problem. I also got inspired by some of the others around to do some work on my own train room and complete the wiring before the insulation and plaster goes in. The outside is basically complete except for the concrete under the veranda, then the platform will be complete. And yes that is a gangers trolley sitting under the veranda which will be placed on its own length of rail in front of the shed to make its really look like a station.

The shed its self is 6mt x 4 mt which is all I could fit in the backyard but with my limited time I realised I cannot ever build a huge empire so I have had to settle for a compromise. I have a layout inside but I'm hesitant to do anything to it as the shed still needs finishing inside.

My other passion is road bikes and I have been slowly restoring a Yamaha FJ1100 which had been sitting in a mates shed for 10 years so it has to have every seal and bearing replaced and genuine parts are murder.

That's all for now and I hope to be more frequent in the future.

Regards

Ollie

My way to make a tarp

I was asked by shelton on how I did a tarp for my E wagon and I thought why not share it for all to see and have ago if you wish.
I built a couple of AMK engineering E wagon kits that are availible from Vic Hobby Centre in swanston street melbourne that need a tarp to complete them. After searching all over the forums and having a million ideas trown at me I thought about a model plane I built as a kid and wondered if you could still get the tissue paper and dope to skin the plane. Off to the local hobby shop and asked the question and hey presto they had it in stock. I purchased a metre and a can of dope and returned home. Then it was back on the net to find the size of the tarps. I did have it written down some where but I seamed to have missed placed that for now so I will continue. Whilst I was at the hobby shop I got a single peice of balsa which was about 2 mm thick 100mm wide and about a metre long.
First thing to do is work out the height of the support arm at the end of the wagon and I found that answer on a recently purchased ELX wagon from powerline. Once I had determined the height I made a former for the wagon as the next photo shows

Once the former had been fitted I cut out the tissue paper to suit the wagon. I honestly cannot find those dimensions so what i suggest is measure from the highest point of the rib to where you want the tarp to finish. I would also suggest to over lap the two tarps as you must keep in mind these tarps were made a standard size which fitted the GY's and other similar four wheeler's.

Once your happy with the size draw a line down the middle of the tarp to align it to the rib. Glue the tissue to the rib first then once the glue has dried begin on the sides. If you use super glue be careful as the wagon can become part of your finger in no time.

Once your happy with the side you can finish of on the ends. All the photo's I could find had the tarp's wrapped around from the sides to the ends. Once the glueing is finished you can apply the dope. Please use it a well ventilated room. You can use multipal coats and heavy brush strokes can create a pulling effect on the tissue to simulate a stretched tarp. Set the model aside for the time suggested on the dope instructions then paint the tarp to the desired colour.

And there you have it, a realistic looking tarp that you can say " I did it myself ".

All the best

Wayne ( Ollie )

Not long til christmas

I just realsied that its less than 10 weeks until christmas and thats scary. This year has gone so fast and with all the new models coming out lately and more soon to arrive, the old wallet has copped a battering.
The train shed I started 18 months ago has come to a grinding halt and each time I begin to to something regarding the shed something else pops up like a couple of A's from auscsion or a couple of T's from powerline. Not to mention the horrible evilbay. I have managed to put a couple of things together and are awaiting the warmer weather for the paint shop to start up again.
I did finish one item that came up rather well and I would encourage any SAR or VR modeller to have a go at for their layout. The San Mateo Line search light signal which appeared all over the VR and SAR systems are a fiddley kit but well worth the time and effort ( even my son was suprised how dads fat fingers managed to put it together ).

The finished product actually suprised me as well as it actually works?.

Another little fun thing I have been planning and finally started was a kit bashed On30 0-6-0 diesel for my Vr narrow gauge that fictionally had introduced diesels to replace the ageing steam fleet and try to make the railway run at a profit ( I call it modellers licensce ). The loco is a bachmann 09 diesel shunter with the cab removed and a Boulder Valley Models side door cab bash kit fitted to it. The floor has been widened and thats about as far as I have got with it so far.

Its fun to do something freelance for a change and using the knowledge of VR practice I have applied it to this model as I beleive the VR was in a state of decline in the early sixties and costs had to be managed well. This loco will ooze local depot charm with simple structure and basic mechanicals.

Enjoy

Regards

Ollie

About time

I thought I should put up a post as I have been reading on some forums of how we who have blogs don't update them often enough. I was a little perplexed at this as we all don't sit on our rear ends and play on our computers all day, we have family's, we work and in between all the other thing's life throws at us we try and have a hobby. I'm probably not the most active modeller and find little time to sit and enjoy this wonderful hobby of our's so I sometime's ask other's to build or assemble kits that are beyond my skill level or I beleive they can do a better job than me on that particular item ( bit like sub contracting really).

One such case in the Na loco I purchased from BGM many years ago, I looked at it many time's then employed Peter to assemble and paint it for me as he was responsible for the extra notes in the kit to sort out the gremlims. I reckon he did an excellant job.

Na 12 ( BGM On 30 first run kit, assembled, painted and weathered by Peter Mac, Thanks pete. )

I do beleive he has captured the true condition of these run down loco's in their last years of service and yes before you say anything, my layout and modellers licensce allow's me to run the head lights in the 1960's. I like the look of them and that's how it will be on my layout. I know the VR appeared to have lost them all by the end of the Narrow Gauge and most of the historical photo's show only marker lamps as head lights or nothing at all.

The beauty of the hobby is you can do what ever you like and no body should be offended ( except the rivet counters ) because its your railway. If we tried to make everything exact we would get that frustrated I think, well I would just explode.

I do do my own kit building so you don't think I'm totally lazy, so I have included a couple of thing's on the workshop bench at the moment.

NB & NM

NT & NH

NWT in original style

I don't want to sound as though I'm full of it but the hobby is to be enjoyed and we need to encourage more to see that it can be a lot of fun as well as fullfilling.

ENJOY yourself and Don't ever be afraid to ask for help or ideas as we can all learn from each other to better ourselve's. If your a really good modeller, share your knowledge with other's, Peter has encourged me to have ago at an Na and with his help I will.

Regards Ollie