Narrow Gauge Modeling Thread

[ChaoticCreeper55]

Hello all! How are everyone's models going? Hey grandpuff how's mighty Mac coming along? Well I just wanted to check in with everyone! Talk to you guys later!

       -CC55

[grandpuff]

Hello to All:

Progress on my Mighty Mac project is going well as far as the clean up and preparation on the Langley Models Fairlie locomotive. The clean up of the castings took over a week to do. The locomotive is a very nice model and very well detailed. It uses an N Scale Bachmann GP-50 for the running  gear and this part of the project has moved slower because the GP-50 loco that I purchased from Langley was not at all compatible with the loco kit because Bachmann has re-designed this locomotive. I had to find an earlier version of this loco on Ebay that would work. Anyone else wanting to duplicate my efforts will need a Bachmann N scale GP-50 with a model number of 612XX and not 635XX. This has considerably slowed my progress. Converting the GP-50 chassis to an 0-4-4-0T is looking like one of the more difficult projects I have attempted so I think this will take awhile to complete.

Photo #1 will be posted here this evening showing overall assembly. The loco frame and body are now ready for priming and painting.



Photo #2 showing the temporarily assembled loco body with the running gear prior to priming and painting this coming week weather permitting.



The conversion from diesel to steamy will not be easy. The drivers will need to be filled with some sort of putty or epoxy, wheel covers glued on, and then holes drilled for the crank pins and side and drive rods. I am not looking forward to this part of the project.

Hopefully in another week or so I will have the loco primed and painted and I will post more photos at that time. The red, yellow, and gold stripping on this loco is extensive and looks a lot more difficult to do than my Duke.

I did order Mighty Mac brass name plates from Narrow Planet for this loco even though the Thomas loco did not have them the Festiniog loco did. I have not decided yet if I will use them however.

Thank you all for your interest.

Enjoy,
Grandpuff

[TerencetheTractor525]

Looking great so far grandpuff! Keep up the fantastic work!

[Angelob6660]

Impressive, most impressive.

[grandpuff]

Hi Griffin:

I finally have an answer for you regarding the faces that I plan to use for my Mighty Mac loco you asked about back on page 11.

The set of faces that I got from a Take and Play Mighty Mac turned out to be too big.

After doing a little searching I found a couple of derelict Ertl metal Rheneas locos which have the correct size faces to fit my Mighty Mac.

I added a lick of hair on one and some freckels on the other and I think they will work well as stand-ins on my model.



I do not know why my photos are not appearing only the link, does anyone know what I am doing incorrectly?

Still waiting for some good outdoor painting weather.

Sorry it took a while to get back to you.

Grandpuff

[Chaz]

Not bad granpuff, the faces for Mighty Mac look pretty good.  Looking forward to seeing how the model will look when painted.

I finally have an update on my end, but not a huge one.  A friend of mine sold me some miniature crystals and I was able to glue them to parts of the mine, some rocks, and even on some of my tippers.  Once I added some miners I was able to create a "mine scene" if you will.  The track isn't powered here but the point of this scene was to be stationary and to attract visitors to the club.  Got Duke in the pictures for this as well, so here is the mine scene.







Admittedly pictures don't do it a lot of justice, even with flash, but otherwise I'm happy with it.

[TerencetheTractor525]

Love the faces grandpuff! A creative choice that works  .

And, great job on the mine Chaz! I love the way in which in the scene is set up, especially with Duke.

[ChaoticCreeper55]

Hey guys!!! Chaz that looks amazing! How are everyone's Rheneas? Do you guys have more pics? That'd be awesome to see some of them! Talk to you later!

          -CC55

[grandpuff]

Hello to All:
Chaz Your mine scene is an inspiration to all of us showing what can be done in HOn30 or OO9 for those in the UK. I was especially happy to see your Duke loco again.

For those of you that have posted about issues with Rheneas mine looks perfectly fine to me with no warping or paint issues, just lucky I guess.

I just had an opportunity to prime all of the castings for my Mighty Mac project and with some more warmer weather I hope to get the painting finished this week. My brass plates are also due soon from Narrow Planet.

As soon as I can figure out why my photos are not posting correctly I will post more when the painting is done. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong with Flikr?

On another note I wanted to take the time to thank Chaz for starting this thread. I think this is one of the most helpful and informative threads going here. Another modeler on the HO threads was talking about the lack of project related posts over there so we are lucky to have so many modelers sharing information over here.

So Happy New Year to You All,
Grandpuff

[Captain Crutch]

Hello to All:
Chaz Your mine scene is an inspiration to all of us showing what can be done in HOn30 or OO9 for those in the UK. I was especially happy to see your Duke loco again.

For those of you that have posted about issues with Rheneas mine looks perfectly fine to me with no warping or paint issues, just lucky I guess.

I just had an opportunity to prime all of the castings for my Mighty Mac project and with some more warmer weather I hope to get the painting finished this week. My brass plates are also due soon from Narrow Planet.

As soon as I can figure out why my photos are not posting correctly I will post more when the painting is done. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong with Flikr?

On another note I wanted to take the time to thank Chaz for starting this thread. I think this is one of the most helpful and informative threads going here. Another modeler on the HO threads was talking about the lack of project related posts over there so we are lucky to have so many modelers sharing information over here.

So Happy New Year to You All,
Grandpuff

I've been using TinyPic, and it's been working flawlessly. You can upload any picture from your phone's album for instance. http://tinypic.com/?t=postupload . I don't even have an account. For instance, here's one of your photos I took from your Flickr.

Hope this helps.

HLCR

[BassTbone]

Hi Griffin:

I finally have an answer for you regarding the faces that I plan to use for my Mighty Mac loco you asked about back on page 11.

The set of faces that I got from a Take and Play Mighty Mac turned out to be too big.

After doing a little searching I found a couple of derelict Ertl metal Rheneas locos which have the correct size faces to fit my Mighty Mac.

I added a lick of hair on one and some freckels on the other and I think they will work well as stand-ins on my model.

[/url]IMG_0693 by Bill Dwyer, on Flickr[/img]

I do not know why my photos are not appearing only the link, does anyone know what I am doing incorrectly?

Still waiting for some good outdoor painting weather.

Sorry it took a while to get back to you.

Grandpuff

Actually, Mightymac was released via Tomy wind-up again recently and those faces may fit too!

[Elsbridge Productions]

Hey everyone!
I've just been reading through the forum and found all your photos of the Narrow Gauge coaches and trucks from my Shapeways store! I'm very glad you guys seem to like them. Just to let you know, I'm planning on making the other two types of Narrow Gauge coaches very soon, I've just got to finish up a few projects first hopefully!
I'm very impressed by all your modelling work, too. All your paint jobs and such are very well done and finely detailed. I'll hopefully be keeping a closer eye on this forum from now on!

-Elsbridge Productions (Owner of Elsbridge Model Shop)

[Chaz]

If Bachmann doesn't announce a brake van for the narrow gauge line at the Toy Fair then I will gladly order one of your brake vans and get on that.  On the subject of Shapeways I am planning on making a model from one of bodies available on Shapeways.  Keeping it a surprise for now until I order it and it arrives.

All the same, welcome to the forum!  Please feel free to keep us posted with your projects!

[TrainshockeylifE]

Grannpuff, have you started painting your mighty Mac model yet?

[grandpuff]

Yes THL I have been able to get my Mighty Mac primed and painted this week thanks to the local SF Bay Area weather co-operating. I plan on painting the smoke boxes black tomorrow, then I can add the handrails and stantcions, then there will be a considerable amount of gold, red, and yellow stripping to do. I should be ready to post some photos this coming weekend. There is still a lot of work to do on the power chassis converting the Bachmann GP-50 diesel drive to the 0-4-4-0T steamy drive but at least the painting is done and I am very happy how well everything turned out and hope you all will think so too.

I was very interested in hearing from Elsbridge Shops about there being some more narrow gauge coaches in the future especially since I will need some open air green and cream coaches for Mighty Mac.

Grandpuff