Auscision RKWF weathering

 Auscision RKWF weathering

Hi Guy's. Getting back into the Groove as it seems. As I have been putting allot of thought into bringing my era back to mid to late 80's north coast NSW, I wasn't sure what to do with these 4x Auscision RKWF's that I had. In reality these wagons were converted somewhere around 1989 which puts them right at the end of my era. I could of back dated them, already having 3x Auscision AJKY's that are lightly weathered.

In the end, I have quite a few wagons, these are 75 foot models and my layout isn't that big. I still have some AMK models versions of these waiting assembly. As 80 class were still running on the coast in the late 80's I have been looking at getting a few in my roster. I have Auscision 8010, and 4x Austrains 80 in various stages. A decision needed to be made. That is to detail up the Austrains 80's or replace with Auscision 80's. The amount of time to prepare 4x Austrains vers just making a few modifications to the Auscision Model.  The Auscision Model is pretty good. I pointed out in a previous Blog any points on the 80 that could need attention to make it about perfect. So these 4x RKWF's not needed as such are going to help boost up my 80 class fleet.

To bring these guys up to what they look like in a National Rail / Pacific National ERA is a bit of a challenge. Lots of Fading and rusting. As I am still using enamels, the base colour I used to fade the paint work back was Testers Flat Enamel 64 OD green. Light to heavy coats and then added various Brown colours into the mix. Then I used various browns and a colour called Hull Red and sprayed up close inside each of the ribs on the sides. There was about 3 hours of Air Brush Time devoted to the 4x wagons.

I have myself a new air compressor which runs real quiet. I was limited before with a direct drive compressor which did aggravate my family more that anything and sometimes the Neighbors . This little guy has helped to rejuvenate my Passion for Air Brushing. Finding some spare parts for my 25 year old Paasche Air brush has helped too.

The Start of 3 hours of Air Brush Work. My Carpal Tunnel after 3 years since being operated on is finally at a point I can do 3 hours straight on a Air Brush without issue. I had a bad infection from this Operations and had some really bad Scare Tissue as a result. Only at the start of this year has it felt right.

An invader while working. This little guy loves wires of any size. Also Air Brush air lines.

Back on the bench, Some fine brush work. A pallet of Brown, Black, White and Floquil Burlington Northern Green. Yes I still have one bottle going. I brushed some of this to bring a bit of highlighted green back into some areas that was still a little faded in look compared to going back to Emerald Green as the base. Anyway here is some photos of the finished product.

The next shot is a comparison to the Original Emerald Green

Anyway I sold these off for $320 which represented about $20 per wagon for weathering. These have left our shores for the United States. An Auscision 80 Class has been ordered.

This is a project for the Future to add to my mid to late era 80's. 

4419 and 4439

Just to finish, an couple of prototype photos

Cheers Justin Moy

   

 

 Auscision 44221

Hi Guy's, Well I have been getting back into the groove. Finishing off a number out standing projects. This one got out before the latest weather event has stopped my progress on other things. 

I have made the decision to back date my modelling era a little. I was modelling the early 90's North coast NSW. I am now going for 1983 to mid 1988. With this in mind I have been paying allot of attention to Tuscan and Reverse Schemes and of course Candy. This also brings into play many classes of Loco's that I wouldn't of been able to show in the 90's era such as 73 class, 421 class, 47 class and even 48 and 80 class loco's as they were moved from the North Coast in mid 1990.

I have a number of 44 Class Locomotives that I want to replicate from this time. I have decided not to model Red Terror at all. So my two Reds, 4473 & 4482 will find other uses. At this point my 44 class fleet will look like 4442 and 4445 in their last representation of Tuscan. 4470 and 4491 in reverse. There will be another mark 2 4481-44100 version in reverse, just can not decide as yet. And lastly 4419, 4439, 4492 & 4499 in candy.

There are two Trainorama 48's in my roster, 4819 tuscan and 4844 in candy. I will have 3 Auscision 45 class, 4505 tuscan, 4522 candy and 4503 candy. At this point I have one 80 class, Auscision 8010 in Bi-centennial and I haven't made my mind up where I am going to go with 80's in the future. This is whether I do up the Austrain's ones that I have on just go Auscision.

These Locomotives above consist of my North Coast Roster of Loco's. I have some other bits n pieces such as Auscision 7320 and my Modified Austrain's 8173. There is a couple of others like a G class sitting there and so on.

What you may of noticed in this list of Loco's is the exclusion of any 442 class. I have come to a cross roads as such over this class of Loco. The Auscision 442 class was released probably a couple of years ago now and I haven't got any. I have around 7 Austrain's 442's in various states of repair. It has to be one or the other. I sat on the fence and didn't pre-order any as I wanted to wait and see. So I missed out on most of the Candy ones straight up. At the end of the day I am glad I didn't pre-order any. 

Jumbo's like 44's are pretty much imprinted in my brain. As they were in the late 80's and early 90's I can recall every little detail around these loco's. Any detail or paint variations are pretty much right there in my memory. I wish I could recall other things like I can these loco's. 

With this in mind I wasn't all that fussed with the Auscision 442 class model. It has great detail as it should for the price and the chassis looks great. It is another case I looked and it just didn't seem right. I couldn't pick it at first. But when I looked into it more and more I just kept finding little things. Like the 80 class I looked at the windscreens and something was quite right there. When I looked into it, the main reason it didn't look right was because the body is too narrow. If you put a set of calipers on a Auscison 80 class body than keep that setting and place in over an Auscision 442, there will be about 1/2 millimetre of play. Might not seem like a lot but it is when it comes to looks and running the two classes together. These loco's in reality share many dimensions give or take not a real lot. This then puts out the angle of the mansard on the roof and so it goes on. There is some other issues to discuss later like the main cooling fans. Auscision like Austrains have used the later type on all their models which is a hard one to fix if needed. 

At the end of the day I want my models to look right together. When I redo the photo's as discussed in my last blog, this will be pointed out further and expanded on. 

Now some photo's of 44221. I renumbered this loco from 44201 by retouching the zero and making it a two by removing parts of the number and using paint to touch it up. Pretty fine work but it come up OK. I wanted to practice some of my Technic on this loco. It is all done with Enamels as is my usual, but one day I will start going water based. My mate Nathan that owns this one is pretty happy with the job that I did.

 

A couple of shots of the Technic

I masked up the windows, number boards and head lights firstly using Tamiya masking tape cutting out the shapes with a single edge razer blade on glass.

I wanted to lighten and fade some of the side panels but not the stripping so I masked them off.

I then went about the first layer of air brushing using a print in the back ground of a loco with the appearance and colours that I required. I darkened the roof while I was at it. Once the tape was off I went about painting the Chassis, pilots ETC and added some more general colours to blend it all in a bit better.

The end result as such.

Nathan spent a day with me taking lessons of my Air Brush Technic. This was his test subject that we both worked on to get this result. An Auscision 48117 converted to a dummy due to it's second replacement motor shitting itself.

Auscision 80 class

Auscision 442 class

It is hard to tell it this image what is going on. From what I can tell the Mansard section and main roof cross section on the Auscision 80 class is pretty good. If you could imagine the Mansard on the closer Auscision 442 was the same angle and height as what is on the 80 class, it would be a much nicer looking model.

When you look at the prototype together. The height, angle and roof profile is much the same.

So where do I go now with Jumbo's. The Austrain's 442 has the same mistakes but the body is wider, maybe a bit too much so.

I find it frustrating that both have much the same mistakes. The angles on the Austrain's model are all stuffed up too. I want the run 80's with 442's. I want the photo's to look right. So the question is, "what do I do". I will answer that at another time.

Cheers Justin Moy

 

 

 

 Hi Guy's

Well sorry I haven't posted for a while. It has been a hectic time. So much going on. I will get back to it soon. A few things have happened over the last bit that have made me sit down and think. This hobby as a whole is starting to lose people. I was very saddened recently at the loss of some big names in this hobby. John Eassie from Austrains was one and more recently, Allan Brown. These people were great contributors to Australian Model Railways in many ways. 

Over time Allan and Myself have shared quite a bit of information and my modelling has benefited greatly from this. He was a great character who was really getting out there and supporting young modelers. He would be at Exhibitions conducting workshops, go to club running days and countless other events. More recently on the internet and many of the chat groups sharing his knowledge. I always seemed to aggravated him when I would point out issues with some Auscision models. I don't know why? I do this to any model producers stuff that I have an interest in. Allan will be missed.

Now the sitting down and thinking part. I think I should be more like Allan Brown? I need to make the time to get out there and support this great hobby further in the future. I am not sure how that is going to look but one thing is for sure, I could sure start blogging again. Share the information I have. I am now 48 years old. I am not the healthiest being. I have a number of health issues. The most concerning is Diabetic Retinopathy. This is degenerative and can only be managed. I get regular Laser Treatment for this. At present my Maculars are stable but I am on the books of the Sydney Eye Hospital in case I have a serious bleed that effects my Maculars and eyesight. In any case I have allot of  anxiety and heavy depression mostly around this issue that I am trying to manage and resolve this. It is truly amazing how counseling can work and get you pointing in the right direction and you realize just how ineffectual you have been in life.

So I have allot of things to catch up on. My modelling pursuits for one. Also my photography. I have been left behind greatly in this field. My equipment is getting old and needs replacing and I need software as well. I look at what people are doing now like image stacking to get better depth of field and I really have no idea? Anyway more on this as it comes to hand. 

I want to leave you with a couple of images. These were taken back in 2005. I guess my thoughts on these images go along the lines of how far Australia model railways have come. I want you to have a close look at the rolling stock on these trains. These represent the best available for that time. Many kits make up these trains, Ian Lindsay Models, Broad Gauge Bodies, AR kits and others. I am going to retake these scenes soon with the same consist but with all the latest models available. Should be interesting.

           Cheers for Now

Justin Moy

Just a quick update on the NOBX project.

All the underfloor detail including the steps from the original Auscision NOBX have been fitted back pretty much how it was on the RTR model. I had to make up some supports for some components, but it was fairly straight forward process. As the couplers boxes were part of the original body, I used ones provided but Kadee and fitted Number 58's. 

I finished the process of fitting the brackets for the tarp supports. I cut lengths of 5 thou. Styrene and drilled a 1mm hole in these. I then glued them in place trimming the access off.  

This is a method I use quite a bit. Adding the styrene in a way that I can hold it in place easily. Then when dry cut off the access.

There is one little detail that I haven't added as yet. These are brackets/ tie downs fitted in the corners of the wagon. I am going to wait till I have all the timbers are test fitted before adding this detail. The model now has a cote of Primmer applied. I now need to start the process of painting and weathering. I am basing the wagon on the one in the back ground photo.

Cheers for now

Justin Moy

 

 

Auscision 8010

A little while ago I got my hands on this Auscision 8010. I am pretty Familiar with 80 class loco's. I have worked on a number of Austrain's 80's over the years even going to the trouble of Super detailing one. If you look back a way on my Blog I did one about this, I think it was called "Making 8002". So anyway when I got my hands on this model, I was very keen to go over it in detail to see just how good it was. Things have come a long way since the Austrain's 80 come onto the market. Back then I think I paid $150 for my first 80. At $335 off the shelf for this or $295 pre-ordered you would expect there would be major improvements. It is done well and at the end of the day you are getting what you paid for with this model. 

I always look at ways I can improve a model. In order to do this I first look for any mistakes that I can fix. I have no problems letting fellow modelers know of any things that could be corrected and if I can offer ways that this can be done. The wiring side I am not interested in so I really don't want to comment there. My model is DC and runs fine. I have seen and heard the DCC sound option running and it sounds great. Detail wise is my interest. 

Detail wise the model is great, If I could of done as good a job super detailing an Austrain's 80 it would be a sight to behold. The detail is all there. The only issue is keeping it on there. It is a fine detailed model and at the end of the day needs to be treated that way, but I'm F#@&ed if I know where one of my bogie steps went? That is one little detail to talk about first. It appears that the bogie steps are mounted outward a bit too far. The side frames may be related to the 442 ones. As the 442 model come first, the steps on the 80 model are in the same position as the jumbo. In reality the 80 has a larger cab and the steps are mount further back on an 80 due to this.

you can see in this photo the step doesn't line up with the cab door and should be mounted a little closer to the brake cylinder.

You can see in this photo where the step is mounted

Also in this photo look at the space between the wheel journals and the bottom keeper plate under-neigh. On the model this looks excessive. I am sure that both of these would not be hard to fix?

Now these are cosmetic considerations. The split in the Main Air Tanks. I am sure the factory would of had a reason to do them this way but I am going to do some filling and sanding on this one. Just under the fuel filler there is a separate little piece there that just doesn't look right so I am going to work on a fix there. These are just small little things that I want to fix to have as good a model as possible. 

Here is a couple of shots as reference

The detail is all there. It is impressive no doubt. I am looking forward to the weathering process to enhance this even more.

So that is the Chassis basically covered. 

The body has all the detail that is expected 

It has the see through brass mesh where required, metal hand rails, mirrors all that one would expect. No issues there. The only thing that I could fault regard the body is the windscreens. There is an issue there.

They are a little off shape. They are OK with the width but the top of the windscreen sits too high.

  

If you study these examples you can see the shape is just not right. The windscreen rubber at the top so about the same height as the gutters at the side of the cab. On the model if you refer to this, it is well above this point (please see second photo). I don't know how to fix this one. It does distract from the model in my view. It is one of those things that you look and it doesn't look quite right, but at first you can't put a finger on it. I will figure it out some how. As far as I can tell all 80's windscreens were like this. I know that 8030 and 8049 have newer slightly different shaped windscreens fitted that sit higher after they entered private ownership. 

Also there is a little cut out at the bottom of the head stock just about the coupler that I am going to enlarge a little for appearance as well 

 

My plan is to have my 8010 look somewhere like in these two photos. To do this I will need to remove the Bicentennial boards off the sides. On the Austrain's model this was easy. Lets see how this one turns out.

Anyway that is all I can think about for now. It is a fine model. I don't want anyone to think that I have an  agenda. I just want to talk about my modelling pursuits and this is what I am going to do to this model so when I have my layout running, the photo's will be exceptional. I have been working on an Auscision 442 as well. I will talk about that soon.

Cheers for now

Justin Moy