Killashandra - Irish Nn3

[peteski]

These are etched from both sides. I also never found a copier or transparency film which made the black toner solid enough or dense enough not to cause pinholes to develop in the etchings.  And then there is the problem where most copiers change the size of the original a bit (and often only in one direction, so you end up with slihtly distorted copy (and the etched parts won't fit well). Other than that it is an excellent idea!


Oh yes, you would have to paint the brass with flat black paint hoping that it would reproduce as solid black with no shadows.  Then you need to photo-sensitize the brass blanks.   I'm sure Cody is just dying to try this. 

The PulsarFX Pro is a system utilizing a similar method (using a heat-transfer sheet for the toner), but getting the masks to line up on both sides would be really tricky.

[chicken45]

Flux?.... did someone say "flux"????   

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

For the record, @robert3985 , I ended up buying 3 of their fluxes. The Ruby Red, the gel, and the normal one.

[peteski]

For the record, @robert3985 , I ended up buying 3 of their fluxes. The Ruby Red, the gel, and the normal one.

So did I (but only one). I tried it few times and went right back to my nasty fluxes.  I feel much more comfortable with them. But then I'm also the guy still using the stinky old-fashion hobby paints.  Maybe I'll try it again someday, (for something other than miniature electronic component soldering) even if the gel turned into liquid.  But when I solder a phtoetched brass kit it is really satisfying seeing the good old zinc chloride do its job. 

[robert3985]

So did I (but only one). I tried it few times and went right back to my nasty fluxes.  I feel much more comfortable with them. But then I'm also the guy still using the stinky old-fashion hobby paints.  Maybe I'll try it again someday, (for something other than miniature electronic component soldering) even if the gel turned into liquid.  But when I solder a phtoetched brass kit it is really satisfying seeing the good old zinc chloride do its job. 

I've used "nasty fluxes" plenty, having been an industrial model builder with Battelle Labs and Morton-Thiokol for a couple of decades and building museum quality model sailing ships for the same amount of time.  The qualities that Superior Supersafe Flux No. 30 exhibits make it live up to its name in every brass/nickel silver/bronze/copper model building project I have done.  What is satisfying to me, is the cleanliness and quality of the solder joints, as well as their longevity in every model I've made, or modified using it, much surpassing any zinc chloride, ammonium chloride, hydrochloric acid, rosin or any other "traditional" flux I have used...and I've used all of them.

For the record, @robert3985 , I ended up buying 3 of their fluxes. The Ruby Red, the gel, and the normal one.

Congrats!  I am sure they will be more than merely satisfactory for your soldering needs!

I use the gel, which over the years of storage, turns into a thick liquid...but still works great.  I also use Superior No. 78 Soldering Flux (gel) for soldering brass and/or nickel silver ladders, platforms, bases to my thin-walled stainless steel hypodermic tubing signal masts.  Works GREAT!

In addition, for model work, I use 96/4 Tin/Silver solid core .031" solder, with a much high tensile strength than tin/lead solders, bought in 1 oz. quantities. One oz. goes a long way.

Photo (1) - A brass project, soldering both brass parts and SS parts to a modified Hallmark U.P. "Welded Caboose", which was a modifiable starting point to make a very nice U.P. CA-7:


Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[VonRyan]

Sometime last week, Facebook told me that it's been three years since the Layout arrived on my doorstep.

It's been an amazing journey into the Nn3 realm thus far, of which there are a number of folks from various parts of the US and other parts of the world who I have to thank for either continued support, encouragement, advice, some much needed scenic parts (thanks to @Lemosteam for the stone arches and @160pennsy for teaching me the art of static grass.

Of course, none of this saga would ever have taken place without @Chris333 to whom I owe a great deal for enabling this adventure.

Over the weekend, the layout was out at the Atlantic City N-scale Gathering, and while some unexpected floor-based condensation prevented the layout from being run on Saturday, I did manage to get the layout running for a bit on Sunday.

In the coming days/weeks I plan to get back to doing some actual modeling on the layout. There's still a number of projects that I wish to complete on the layout, namely I think some trees/shrubs/bushes of some kind are in order as well as some detail elements that I've had planned.
Plus, the track could use a proper cleaning treatment. I plan on using varying grades of fine sanding film (1000, 2000, 4000, 8000, 12000) to really get the track cleaned and almost polished. My 0-6-0's wheels could use a similar treatment as I recently noted that a previous owner must have used abrasives on the wheels as they have segmented wear patterns on them. I plan to come up with a solution to polish the wheels in-motion using the 12000-grit sanding film.

No photos to share of the layout at the show, but there will be video footage of it in the official NJS video of the AC N-Scale Gathering.

[VonRyan]

Monday saw me coming home very early from work after becoming ill. I was on the clock for all of 45min before I was turning white and spewing up stuff. Rest and a slice of toast was the rest of my day.

Tuesday saw only slight improvement in my health but not enough for me to go back to work, despite being out of sick-time. I was well enough to eat two slices of toast and become fed up with laying on the couch, so I ended up out in the studio to see what more of a mess I could make.

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Decided to get the layout out of it's box and start work on reconditioning the track. When the above photo was taken, I had already used 1000, 2000, 4000, and 6000 grit sanding sticks. Still to come was the 12000. In the future, to do this correctly, I shall be sourcing comparable sanding sticks in 8000 and 10000 grits.
After the track was done, I gave the wheels on my 0-6-0 a similar treatment with acceptable results.

Homemade soup and an early night ended the day for me.

[VonRyan]

Wednesday I returned to work. Not much else to say about that.
However, spurred on by the work I had done on the layout on Tuesday, tonight I wanted to continue on with layout-related projects.

Moving some things around on my work table unearthed a previously mentioned Toma Model Works etched brass kit for a small Japanese 4-wheel coach. Despite the tip in my soldering iron becoming worn and probably due for replacement again, I decided to knuckle down and go for broke. I'll pretty much let the pictures do the talking here.

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Chassis completed.
Figuring out how to assemble the body without reciting a dictionary of cuss words.
Ended up using the handle of a file and my bare fingers to hold everything while I tried to solder the pieces.

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Body assembled.
Test fit with chassis.

Didn't photograph the roof-building process, but needless to say I just shot from the hip as I'm pretty sure the instructions wanted me to roll the roof with a metric sized rod or drill-bit of some kind. I used a definitely not right sized half-round file to whing it.

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Didn't f* it up. Surprisingly. This is the good side. The sins shan't face the viewing public.

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All that's left is cleaning, paint, and coupling hooks. Tomorrow is another night though.

It was a challenging build in regards to my tools and motor-skills capabilities, but it was pretty fun. Although, this was a fairly well designed kit with minimal parts and very high quality etching. So good that I could use my fingers and pliers to do all the bending. Not sure if I could handle anything more complex. This kit really did push the limits for me.

[nkalanaga]

"All that's left is cleaning, paint, and coupling hooks."  Maybe shorten the screws a little?

[Chris333]

Sweet looking coach!

[VonRyan]

Sweet looking coach!

And even more so now that I found out that the Schull & Skibbereen had coaches that looked very similar.

[VonRyan]

Today I painted and installed coupling hooks on the Toma Model Works coach kit that I assembled earlier this week.
Before doing so, I removed the screws that were holding the chassis to the body and soldered the chassis to the body at two opposing corners in case I decide to add window glass and seats inside at some point.

The body was first sprayed with a light grey Tamiya rattle can, then everything but the roof was masked off and sprayed semi-gloss black. I touched up the sides of the clerestory with a small brush, and then touched up the edges of the roof, plus painted (still with the black) the chassis/frame, steps, and the end railings.

Once it all was dry I popped the wheels back into the chassis and snapped off a photo before giving it its first trip around the layout. Then the first mixed-traffic train was run, and followed by another photo to commemorate the event.

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[Dave V]

Love the proto photos.  I had no idea Irish narrow gauge was so neat.  Have you any idea what year those photos were taken?

Also, you're really capturing that prototype.  I do somewhat feel like a plain roof on that coach (versus the clerestory) would really invoke those photos you shared.  Anyway, keep up the good (narrow gauge) work!  Us narrow-minded folks are slowly taking over the Railwire...   

[VonRyan]

Love the proto photos.  I had no idea Irish narrow gauge was so neat.  Have you any idea what year those photos were taken?

Also, you're really capturing that prototype.  I do somewhat feel like a plain roof on that coach (versus the clerestory) would really invoke those photos you shared.  Anyway, keep up the good (narrow gauge) work!  Us narrow-minded folks are slowly taking over the Railwire...   

I'm not sure the date on the third photo, but the first two are dated 19.6.39 (June 19th of 1939) and attributed to a W.A. Camwell. So they are just on the early end of my chose time period.

I debated removing the clerestory, but decided to leave it in case removing it caused issues with the rest of the coach. If I manage to find one or two more of these kits I intend to build them without the clerestory. However, finding more of these kits will be pretty much impossible as Toma seems to have gotten out of making brass Nn3 rolling stock kits, and these kits are equally just as difficult to find second-hand. I got lucky finding this one.

But, I have been contemplating taking one of my extra Peco saddle-tank body kits and trying to kitbash it to look like a shortened version of the 4-4-0 in the photos. That'd give me at least one "close enough" prototype loco for the layout. The generic look of the layout easily lends it to portraying just about any Irish 3' gauge line that I desire, so I mind as well pursue any workable avenues to expand the scope of the layout.

[nkalanaga]

Except for the cab, those prototype photos don't look much different from some of the early American narrow gauge.  Even the D&RG started out with 4-wheel cars.

[robert3985]

... Us narrow-minded folks are slowly taking over the Railwire...   

You wish!   

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore