Rob P's Scratch builds - many with the aid of a Silhouette Cutter

ianvolvo46 wrote:

Sadly not Ian

 

When I first got the cutter I read through the lengthy thread on RMweb on the subject and tried (and failed miserably) to make a coalman's hut that Jason put up as and example. I am not sure what I did wrong but when cut it would have been small for N gauge
Then I had a go at cutting out a ducket for an LNER coach and had more success. I followed this up with a fairly bold move onto an NER CCT van
















And this is where it remains to this day - although I do believe that it now sports brakes and a step under each side door.

The underframe fittings are a mixture of Slaters and Parkside - before selling up to Peco Parkside were really good at selling sprues from their kit's and they were great value at £1.30 per sprue. It remains to be seen whether Peco will sell them separately or more importantly I suppose how much they will charge if they do.

 

Although I am an LNER modeller and don't really model the North British I do seem to have made an awful lot of items of ex NBR rolling stock. This is partially because of the range of former Majestic kits available from Dragon and others includes quite a few NBR examples and because I bought a load of NBR underframe bits from Parkside.

I also started to work my way through Volume 3 of LNER Wagons by Peter Tatlow looking for examples that I could create via the Silhouette Cutter.
Besides the famous Jubilee coal wagons the NBR also built 3 types of 8 ton van that were know as Jubilee vans. The latter type are well represented by the Parkside kit (whose number escapes me at the minute). Dragon also sell two versions of the slightly earlier matchboard version (ref's CC006A/CC006B) which left the original wide boarded with beading version for me to have an initial stab at.

The artwork was drawn in Inkscape and the cutter let loose.














Using the cutter for the repeatability of the details makes it so easy - I even cut the LNER wagon plate. Although it should be noted that the beading is manually applied half round styrene strip from Plastruct.




Having drawn the basic art work it didn't take much additional work to draw the match board version and cut a couple of those out too.

 

Thanks Pete.
If anyone is planning on going to the Guild's Summer show at Doncaster next year I will be demoing the Silhouette so you can see it in action.

 

They were a bit easier to photograph once they got some paint on them






I also cut the Return to Singer Transfers from white decal paper using the cutter - the downside is that you have to place them letter by letter.








Finally they got a bit of weathering, this last van based on a photo of a condemned wagon in Tatlow, received the Commended prize (third) in the rolling stock competition last year at Guildex

 

Thanks Ian,
Perhaps I had best post another shot complete with buffers and couplings then

 

My next dabble with the silhouette had me working from another NBR drawing this time of a Bogie CCT found in Historic Carriage drawings Volume 3 (the blue one)
This is the basic body.



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With an 8 ton van body perched on top to give an idea of the size of it...










I planned to finish this one as it ended up in BR days and although it had had the beading removed from the body sides the ends were still beaded.

This is made from 0.8mm half round strip by Plastruct.

 

Thanks Doug,
I can't see any reason why not, there are lots of guys on RMweb working in 4mm with them.

 

Next up, I primed it to see what it would look like.



I made up some steps from scrap etch and rod and added the external vacuum pipe running down one side.






Then a roof was added - again cut with the silhouette



Finally the transfers were added and glazing fitted. The transfers for this and an LNER version for myself were commissioned from John Peck at Precision Labels






Vacuum and steam heat pipes were scratch built from rod, scrap etch and beading wire.

At this point it hit the small adds and I started on a second vehicle for myself.
This is as far as I have got with the second one although I did add head stocks and inner sole bars this weekend - I plan to cut some overlays for the solebars on the cutter to finish them off - at the worst case it will make drilling out for the bolt/rivet heads easier if the marks make by the cutter won't pass muster.
On a similar note I was asked over the weekend to demo the Silhouette Cutter at the Pontefract Show at the end of January so anyone who plans a visit to the show do pop by and say hello.

 

Another of my Silhouette aided builds, came about like many, from looking through Peter Tatlow's Scottish Volume of LNER Wagons. In the Great North of Scotland section, I came across an interesting photo. The photo showed a drop sided open wagon in departmental service with what looked like a garden shed as it's load.

Further research revealed that it was a vacuum cleaner wagon in use for carriage cleaning.

First I drew up the 'shed' - I had to work from the photo because it's one of the few examples that Peter hadn't done a drawing for.

 

Following on from the last post, the wagon itself was made up from bit's from the spares box and coffee stirrers (I bought box of 1000 for about £4 from ebay a few years ago). The body detailing was cut with the Silhouette.










You can see in the last few pictures how I modified some spare Slaters Gloucester Carriage and Wagon Axle boxes to be more like GNSR examples.