This next project account does not follow on chronologically from the Hall project but represents what may be becoming an introductory route of another kind to the DIY modelling side of the hobby. This project introduces 009-gauge and 3D printing, I will try not to dwell on either and instead leave that for future blogs, but a brief introduction follows.
009
009 is 4mm:1ft scale, occupying the same scale size as 00 but models narrow gauge locos. It's European counterpart HOe is HO's equivalent at 3.5mm/1ft. As with HO and 00, HOe and 009 use the same size track as each other, which also happens to be identically gauged to N-gauge. This means that, absolutely, you can run 4mm Narrow Gauge locos on otherwise 2mm:1ft N-gauge track, and this I believe is where Narrow Gauge modelling in 4mm/3.5mm:1ft scales started. I will cover 009 in more depth in later articles to discuss some of its pros and cons. One of the main attractions for new starters with limited time and space is that you can fit a lot of track into a modest amount of room; continuous running is often an option where only a shunting layout would be possible with 00. There are an abundance of 3D printed steam and diesel kits available from £10-45, designed to use proprietary chassis' sourced from common HOe or N-gauge models (especially anything depicting a BR Class 08/09 shunter), or the ubiquitous Kato range, though usually the customer has to source these themselves.
Basic kit manufacturers also produce a range of rolling stock starting from as little as £5 which often include wheels, axles, frames and / or bogies as applicable. Many people are apparently more willing to accept freelance modelling in 009 than 00, probably owing to the vast array of unique locos and stock on unique narrow-gauge systems across the British Isles and the rest of the world, the benefit of this being many start-ups can get basic products out into the market, unshackled by painstaking research, compromise and competition with major manufacturers. Off-the-shelf, ready-to-run products however are every bit as expensive as their N-gauge and 00 counterparts.
3D Printing
3D Printing, more correctly referred to as Additive Manufacturing, is in fact not as new as many would lead us to believe. It is however becoming widely accessible at home and this is where the revolution in DIY modelling and start-up manufacturing is happening. There are many different types of Additive Manufacturing and using many different technologies and materials; some using lasers and resins or sintered material (even metals like titanium), and these sintered plastics are typical of kind of 'prints' you will get from manufacturers like Shapeways; we'll cover more of this in future including an article on my GWR 517-class loco using a shell that was made this way.
The domestic revolution has largely been in a technology called FDM. This differs from the other approaches because it works by feeding a pre-coiled polymer(-based) filament which it melts down to a malleable, flexible states and injects at precise X and Y coordinates onto the printer bed and builds a complete layer before moving onto the next layer. This means that precision of the layer with respect to X and Y is defined by the fine motor control of the printer, and the size of the nozzle. The thickness of the layer is defined by how little material can be injected through the nozzle alone. The printers make a 3D object by placing layer upon layer of 2D shapes which always results in the vertical faces of any object have an appreciable lined 'strata'. It becomes very difficult to make an authentic curve without appearing pixellated as the printer can better produce a natural curve on the XY plane than it can XZ or YZ, but most things that have such a curve need to be produced with a flat face down on the base, for example carriage and loco roof panels.
However, as part of the joy of kit building where sanding, filler and primer is part and parcel of assembly, with due respect given to the modeller by the designer, thought can be given as to how best to manage these limitations.
GVT
The Glyn Valley Tramway has caught the imagination of 009 modellers for some time. It was a unique 2'3" tram system which for most of its steam operated life ran three similar-looking Beyer-Peacock sourced locomotives (Glyn, Sir Theodore and Dennis) with a distinctive, almost fortified-looking bodywork and tram sides which were required for the locos to run alongside the road network in places, though this requirement seems to have been put to one side when the company acquired a Baldwin loco during its latter days. Over their life the trams were updated with detail differences in cab structure, and condensing apparatus that scavenged water from exhaust steam fitted later removed. They featured a variety of lined and coloured liveries, ending their days with simple plain black. If you wished to emulate any specific loco at any specific time, photos are usually your best friend for matching the detail to the model, and thankfully there's a reasonable amount out there for the GVT.
Tram sides can be a blessing for DIY modellers because it allows us to hide the chassis underneath. You can have a credible looking outline with a completely incorrect chassis. Peco market a whitemetal kit which primarily is intended to take an existing but reasonably accurate off-the-shelf 0-4-2 chassis, but trying to find donor chassis' at a reasonable price is very tricky in 009, far more difficult than higher volume and UK-market 00 models. Some manufacturers have offered an adapter plate to sit the metal body atop the lively and ever-popular Kato 11-103 0-4-0 chassis which is primarily designed for Japanese-outline N-gauge models. Fourdees offer a ready-to-run version of these popular trams which uses a 3D printed shell with the Kato chassis and this starts at considerable £140 in plain black and rises further for coloured and lined versions. They are wonderfully detailed, every last rivet and body feature is represented, though pictures do seem to show the sintered finish is still appreciable, but the price is reflecting the massive amount of work being undertaken by the firm and this you probably can't tell with human eyesight. Neverthless, even £140 is an awful lot of money for something barely half the size of Hornby's 0-4-0 Caledonian pug, (which start at around £16 from big name retailers), and actually doesn't have the right number of wheels under those tram sides.
Step in 'Woodworm2014', an eBay seller making a vast array of 009 kits and accessories sold exclusively via an eBay account, unfortunately with no website or social media to back what is actually brilliant range of offerings in terms of variety and cost, and quite often with pictures on the listings that don't do the possible finished items full justice. Woodworm uses an FDM printer along with some readily available components such as coupling bars and hooks, and wheels on rolling stock, and resin cast parts for chimneys, smokebox doors and various loads for wagons which are expensive and difficult to make with FDM and would not actually look as good. Woodworm markets a particular loco kit under the title of 009 Glyn Valley Type Tram.
All that is needed to complete the £12 kit (£10+£2 P&P) is a Kato 11-103 chassis which can be ordered from Japan via Amazon.co.uk, including free shipping for about £11. Try saying that about any other brand new RTR chassis. Albeit before paint, lining and nameplates and time are considered, a total cost of under £24 is a very promising place to start for a low risk loco modelling project. The thing to bare in mind, and what I was very considerate of from day one is that the key phrase is Glyn Valley Type Tram; this is a freelance kit inspired by the real thing, designed to take an existing chassis, but is not a slavish replica, and domestic FDM printing couldn't hope to capture the kind of rivet and form detailing present on the (presumably SLS) Fourdees equivalent which are proper replicas.
The best guidance for the Woodworm kits is trying to follow the picture from the eBay listing rather than relying only on the typed notes that come with the kit, it becomes apparent readily where everything should go. The kit is also supplied with extra cab piece; supplied is a cutaway front plate, and a plate each for both round and square spectacle glass types, giving you some choice over which to employ. Woodworm also has at times kindly provided kits with freebies to try out such as buffer stops and telegraph poles that have also been printed. Although I didn't get out the rule and measure, I did decide quite quickly that I could make the kit look a little more like the real thing; to serve as a replica rather than an 'inspired-by' and decided to order an etched kit for the nameplate 'Glyn' along with makers plates. I opted to have both of these painted in red, which may not be correct for the plain black later era livery I was planning to emulate, at least for the makers plate. These were sourced from Narrow Planet and didn't arrive especially quickly but were well worth the wait; the detail was mind-blowing. Remind yourself just how small this model is, and yet when photographed and zoomed in, you can still clearly make out 'Manchester' and the year on the plate.
This is something else you need to pay particular attention to if you want an accurate facsimile, the plates seemed to be in different places at different times and on different locos, swapping between front, middle and back of the loco sides. I'd also decided to model without the distinctive condensing apparatus as I wanted the model to be as late as possible in order to use credibly alongside 20s and 30s GWR standard gauge stock, just like the real thing (although latterly this would no longer matter as layout plans changed).
What surprised me most, given the amount of Woodworm kits available and sold already, was that there isn't a single account on the web of anyone having used one of these kits, and in part this was an inspiration to found this site.
Preparation
Starting by laying all the parts out, the first thing to try and do is sand away the distinction between the FDM 2D layers on the curved roof. This takes considerable care because the roof is only thin and it's ridiculously easy to damage the edges, despite the fact the steps between layers seem to be more resistant to their removal than illegal squatters on TV's 'Can't Pay, We'll Take It Away'. That isn't a design flaw, just a general observation and applies to a great many modelling tasks. Then, the tank sides and the chassis needed the same treatment, which is a much easier job, just to take off the layered finish on the flat sides, and likewise any of the internal components (smokebox door and boiler top) will need a quick tidying as best you can; it's not easy with such a small loco. Then, all the flash will need to be removed from the resin cast components.
Assembly and Modifications
Very soon you will have a pile of parts ready to assemble, but if you were to follow in my footsteps and attempt to emulate the real loco, there are a few more steps you need to take at this point. I had chosen 'Glyn' in her final guise, which needed a square spectacle plate at the front as well as the rear of the cab. This meant more work later, too, but at this stage it meant opening out the round holes on the extra cab piece into square spectacles, and I later also chopped up the cutaway front panel to use as the basis for a side panel on the cab as there is an arch between the cab back plate at the roof. The cab doors on this model are wider than the real thing and modelled inset so I glued in some very thin plastic sheet to roughly fill the door and bring the surface level before using some humbrol model filler to over-fill the gaps before leaving to harden and sanding flush later on. The real locos also had two opening panels of similar dimensions to the cab doors alongside the smokebox at the front of the loco. If you were confident of the position of these, you could at this stage do as I later did and scribe into the surface the door / access panel shut lines, but without the superstructure of the cab, boiler and so on, in place, it was hard to be happy with where these lines should be drawn, especially as the model is not a scale replica, but rather modelled to look right and have an aesthetic likeness.
Now it's time to start gluing the model the model together. I purposely left the chassis until last but you will need it to hand to fit the 'tortoise shell' piece (which fits over the motor) to the tank body and the boiler in the right place. The guidance suggests you will want to fill voids between these with something dense like plastercine. Another option would be lead shot, DCC Concepts retail a lead ballast pack made up in little spheres which could be glued in position. If you don't, you will soon wish you had; the Kato chassis is very sprightly, uncontrollable, in fact, when using an analogue DC controller with a bit of power and is very light on its wheels. The cab and roof proved a little fiddly to keep square in side profile, but as mentioned before, I scavenged the cut-away front panel to form an arch between back and roof. This resulted in an overly square corner which then needed to be sanded back. Great care needs to be taken when positioning the smokebox door and I also scribed the relevant vertical lines in the body at this point that sit either side of the smokebox door, present on the real loco but absent here. Get this wrong, and the whole thing will look wrong, as will alignment of the chimney.
If you fancied leaving the model freelance, this would be a very quick and satisfying build, but I wanted to add some of the missing details, so I bent some handrail wire to roughly emulate the sanding gear pull rods and pipe atop the boiler on the real thing, but this was all a bit approximate given the constraints. I also extended the safety valve for more realism using a pair of staples and glue. It was only at this stage that I felt comfortable to scribe on the door and access panel shut lines, and must confess I ended up refilling and cutting again a couple of these after because they just didn't seem right.
Once I was happy with the form of the body, it was time to attach the chassis in position. I also added side panels to these as per the prototype just using thin sheet material scavenged from plastic packaging. As with the scribing, I left this until after the parts were assembled for peace of mind that they were in the right place and I believe broadly correlate with the location of the driving wheels and trailing wheel each side. A fair amount of filler and sanding later, especially around the cab (I had to pick the most complicated design, didn't I...), it was ready for paint. I would strongly recommend leaving the couplings off until the very last thing and make sure you have some rolling stock to build concurrently or compare against, more on this later.
Paint
Very, very easy with this model; it's tiny and it's plain black. I used a plastic primer first and cleaned off the marks and high spots, and then went on to satin black, both aerosols sourced from Halfords. One thing you do really notice is that with the model being so small, when you zoom in for photos you can see where paint and glue have pooled. In reality, it's not that bad at all but the pictures aren't especially flattering. The paint whilst wet looked as though I had drowned the model but as it dried, the effect became much better. I think there is a key issue, and probably the reason many manufacturers shy away from glossy models despite the fact that many ex-works locos are extremely glossy, in that reflections do not scale so it never looks right or realistic, as well as the more obvious reason that these machines rarely stayed perfectly clean for long. A few flecks of copper and brass were hand applied to match the real loco, and then the paint work was complete.
Fit and Finish
The plates for name and maker were added as per prototype for the era desired. I used dots of superglue but recommend you use PVA instead as per most professional guidance. For additional flourish I decided to add a crew based on some generic "HO / 00 figures" bought as a large pack of poorly painted people in various poses. They can be sourced either from the UK or direct from China. I do suspect they're closer to 4.5/5mm to the foot in scale as they seem to be bigger than the Bachmann loco crews, which can themselves seem a bit large for 00 in some models, let alone HO, but for this instant, a very light touch up and change of some colours was enough to have the cabin occupied. Legs were trimmed to suit.
Test Running
Using my faithful analogue DC Hornby controller, gradually increasing the voltage, nothing happened as I crept through dial until, all of a sudden, the loco shot forward with explosive urgency. At full-chat, these things are 'Smokey-Joe' fast, and with no weight, this is a real issue for staying on the track, as well as remembering the real thing did little more than 8mph. This becomes even more of an issue when you think about rolling stock and ability to run reliably on layouts and over pointwork. The loco does need a period of continuous running in, just like any new model though as that's what this is. The best solution to the difficulty found pulling away and maintaining a more realistically slow running speed seems to be to use a different controller. I've been using a PWM 12V DC controller following the Budget Model Railways DC Controller project, where hardware is sourced from Chinese manufacturers who supply a PWM (pulse width modulation) printed circuit board including speed controller and direction switching, and a suitable matching plug and lead. All fits into a 3D printed controller housing kit supplied by BMR for around £5. This has proved better at controlling the speed of the model, as it consistently outputs 12V but varies the speed by the amount of time it is on versus time off, giving an average variable voltage, but when the motor is powered, 12V is supplied to overcome the friction in the system. The other factor is the model is simply too light.
I ended up turning the loco upside down and gluing in as many lead balls as I could inside the chassis (between kit chassis frames and the Kato unit) as well as letting a few into the cab floor area out of sight, but even with lead crammed everywhere I could fit it, this remains a light loco, and the rolling stock is even lighter. The other issue is that you may have felt safe installing the coupling assembly when building the loco as it can't really go anywhere else, but I quickly found discrepancy with some higher than others, so the best thing to do is wait until you can position otherwise completed loco and rolling stock on the rails, and set them together, because the mismatched couplings combined with locos not weighing a lot, and wagons weighing nothing leads to 'Glyn' losing her tail rather too readily. I will cover the rolling stock at a later date.
In Summary
Proud of my creation, I did contact the seller wondering if they had a website, and sharing my efforts was met with a polite but perhaps a little weary response that suggested to me that, perhaps, too many people do the same. The seller mentioned that eBay alone was occupying all free time. That is a shame; the market for these parts must be incredible because it is a very affordable entry into the hobby and for those wanting to give 009 a try. It's also a shame there is no information available on how buyers have subsequently got on with those kits, at least until now. This might in part answer why the investment isn't great; how good are these entry level 009 kits in everyday use? This is a matter for another day...
The model itself is ultimately flawed in that it is, as generically applicable to all of these small Kato-based tram locos, just too light to perform reliably all of the time, and there is no quick fix for this. FDM printing will also always result in a layered finish somewhere on a part as a result of how it is made, and curves are especially difficult, but this could not be held against this model, resolving this is part of the kit-building process just as flash from a whitemetal or resin casting would be on a far more expensive kit. This is a current limitation of FDM printing, and the only real way around this is a customer spending more like £40 and designers have Shapeways produce a kit from the same data, with the latter firm presumably taking a big cut for the privilege.
Touching once more on the fact that these are tram kits, most tram kits involve taking a real loco, such as the legendary Quarry Hunslets, and adding tram sides on, which stretches credibility somewhat. I will fully defend and get behind people for doing that, mind. The GVT-like kit though gets to be a fully realistic offering of a genuine tramway locomotive, which is not true of the other kits.
The financial outlay is very low, and should you not want to add plates to the loco, you can have a DIY-built, brand new charming little model for under £24. You just can't argue with that, can you...
