I've repaired the frame and have been restoring and updating as I go. I also purchased a Revell Springer Softail because I liked the looks of the springer. Combining the two cycles has been a project that has been going on for several years now. I thought posting the progress may encourage me to finally get to the finish.

This is where I am so far:

I've added oil lines with solder, Scratch built a correct style oil pump (the more I worked on this the more I realized not too many of the details on this model are correct), added disc brakes from the Softail and built a new air cleaner to match my 1:1.

Wheels, tires and belt drive are taken from the Softail. I've drilled out the risers and installed drag bars made from copper electric wire. I'm using the Softail gas tank that has been narrowed considerably.

Updates will probably be coming very slowly. I keep getting sidetracked with several of my other builds.

But currently I'm working on a voltage regulator which has been left off this kit.

They're very nice kits of a style of wood-sheathed refrigerated car that was used well into the 1960s, with some remaining in service into the '70s.

Unfortunately, when I got them home, I found these two had been relieved of their main underframe sills and bolsters.

They go for $20-$30 online, shipped, so they're still a deal.

This one has the part, the black spiney thing, so all I have to do is make a couple from styrene.

Again unfortunately, Hobby Town was out of everything in Evergreen or Plastruct I need to build them.

But not to worry. I found some stash I'd never really put in stock here, so away we'll go.

"Rippon Lea" is a Victorian-era mansion in large landscaped grounds in Melbourne, Australia. It's administered by the National Trust, and I used to spend lots of time there forty-plus years ago. So when I saw the kit, it was a must-have, even though Ben's layout didn't really have space for it (it's over a foot square).

I first built this kit for my son about 20 years ago. He promptly sold it to a friend, and I hear that while many bought the kit, few people have actually tackled building the kit.

In late '24 my son asked, on behalf of his club, if I'd be interested in building another, for their display layout. Several in the club had looked over the kit, but passed on building it. C'mon guys, it's only just over a thousand pieces! No? I thought it over for about a month before agreeing, as I have a painful nerve condition which makes fine work' a challenge' these days.

Challenge? Twelve A4-sized sheets of card and two of acetate. It took me fifteen months, with time off in the middle to summon up enthusiasm for cutting out the triangular eaves supports, (there are six per inch, roofline has about a 60-inch perimeter.... you get the idea!). I've made a few little modifications, such as adding ridge capping.

I can see a few faults, but I think most folk will just be blown away to see one that's been built!

I bought this kit when I started building again back in 2009 or 2010. I was moving away from model railroads because it took too much space to have an operating layout. Still, I wanted to stay active in building models. I knew I would build cars but I wasn't sure if I wanted to limit myself to *just* cars. So I bought this to "test the waters" regarding naval subjects. Yeah, it's taken me this long to get around to building it! 😄

Basic hull color (Tamiya TS-81 Royal Lt. Gray) and masking for first pass on the camo paint.

(02) First camo color, Tamiya AS-4 Gray Violet.

Second camo color, Tamiya TS-27 Flat White. It looks like I have a little cleanup to do.

I've cleaned up the masking leaks and added a couple more white markings. I've also masked and shot the red antifouling paint, and got some initial detail painting done on the stand. I did remove the prop guards to make masking easier, I'll put them back on later.

That's all I have for now.

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to post any comments, questions or critiques one may have.

David G.

The full sized vehicle was owned by Mrs Val Perkins, from a small town called Coonewarre, which is in Victoria, Australia.

It had been ‘rejuvenated’ by a Mr Neil Wilson, from Sydney, back in 2005 before Val bought it.

No drawings were available for this type of vehicle, so I had to take heaps of measurements and lots of photos of the ’original vehicle’, to use as reference material for the required drawings.

Back home and started to do the drawings for it on the computer, when they looked correct, I started to build it, this took about 4 months from start to the finish of making it.

Every square nut and ALL the Coachbolts are hand made, I use square brass rod for making the square brass nuts and Tobin Bronze rods, for making the coach bolts, the only screws that were store bought for this model are the ‘massively oversized’ - 1.2mm X 6mm long countersunk screws, that hold the brass channel onto the two piece wooden fellies, everything else is hand made.

The paint is just enamel house paint and the decals are home made on an ALPS MD 5500 printer, using CorelDraw on an old ‘windows’ computer loaded with XP.

The tyres are store bought ' hydraulic O rings', the rubber tyres should be of a squarish section, could not get the appropriate shaped size, so had to settle for round "O" rings instead.

The axle is a chunk of keysteel of the appropriate size and given a bit of reworking to get it to look correct, turned down each end and threaded each end as well, to hold each wheel to the axle with a hand made nut.

The first two photos are of the original vehicle, then the drawing I had to make before I could even start on it.

A series of photo’s then show the progression of the model and then the finished item.

I made two of these model vehicles at the same time, one I painted and the other I left unfinished, that way everybody could actually see what went into making these models, as they sit end for end in my cupboard.

Have a look at the following photos and if anybody has any questions, then please ask ——————

First lot is ----- The Making of the Spider ----------------

First and second photos are of the original full sized vehicle, followed then by a drawing I had to make, to be able to make the model -----

Note the 'HUGE' --- 1.2mm X 6mm long countersunk screws, that hold the brass channel onto the two piece wooden fellies

Now head to the finished section of "ALL THE REST" ----------------

After building my first FXSTS Springer model (LINK) I wanted to build another version of it, but with more chopper style.  I still have parts left over from my first build, but needed another engine.  I found a couple more complete kits on Fleabay.  Both are the non-springer version of the Softail, one was missing the tires and the other partially built, but not a failed glue-bomb.  I bought both since I’m planning on using one of my 3D resin printed springers I printed during the first build.

I started with the engine.  Since I’m building this one as a chopper and am going to use a Dell’Orto carb and manifold, I removed the crankcase breather ports from the cylinder heads.  I also filled the gaping opening for the pushrods with some sheet styrene.

I made some cylinder base gaskets from some .005” sheet styrene.  Too much work for too little result.






I modeled and printed the manifold for the Dell’Orto DHLA carburetor by Pierfrancesco Di Paolo on GrabCad.  It took a couple of tries to get the manifold just right and I had to make several modifications to the DHLA carb, but it looks great compared to the vaguely carburetor shaped blob of the kit carb.

With the engine assembled, I chopped the frame for the ‘Weld-on” hardtail I printed…twice.  The first version was too long, which I didn’t discover until after I had installed it to the kit frame.  It left too big a gap between the transmission and the rear tire.  I  carefully broke the resin print away from the kit frame and shortened a new print by roughly a quarter inch.   When I modeled the hardtail, I left the frame tube hollow at the ‘weld’ points and filed the kit frame ends to smaller diameter stubs that inserted into the hollow hardtail frame tubes.
I also modeled and printed a copy of the hex oil tank and battery I used to run on my old Shovelhead Harley.  I also modeled a chain drive to replace the belt drive used on the model kit.

I tired several times to scratch build an exhaust system using various bits of the stock exhaust and different tubes, but wasn’t successful, so 3D printer go brrrrt.  I did some quick filament prints to check the fit, made a few changes and then printed them in resin.

Next up was mounting the Fatbob kit fender.  I tried a 3D printed and brass tube fender strut, but too clunky.  I ended up soldering brass tube together to make the fender struts.

Cute, but wrong.  Too long and wrong angle.  So I made them slightly shorter and made a jig to keep them uniform.  Solder won’t stick to aluminum so I made the jig out of aluminum plate and aluminum beading wire that I’ve been using to pin parts together and used a Brulee torch to melt the solder.  I filled the long tube with aluminum wire to limit how much solder it could suck up to give me a little more control of how much solder to use.
 Thanks youtube modeler TimKustom Models for the great tip on pinning parts together.

Removed the fender tabs for the kit struts, mounted some spacers to locate the front of the fender to the frame crossmember, and printed a transmission mount.

Cleaned up the frame and removed the flanges and holes that were the rear gas tank mounts for the Fatbob gas tanks.  Oh yeah, and lost the reflector mounts on the frame downtubes.

I decided I didn't want the Sportster tank, mostly because I want to paint this one as a reverse image of the first model, ie. red frame, fender and tank with black scallops and stripes, so I narrowed the stock Fatbobs by a little over 1/8^th inch to make the 5 gallon tanks more like the older 3.5 gallon tanks.

I pinned the fender struts in place, but decided they were still angled back too far, so I moved the holes further forward and slightly lower to raise the fender a bit more.

I

More to come, but it will be awhile.  Lots of other projects.  I plan on doing similar builds on the non-springer Softail models.  First, a mild custom stocker, then a chopped version.  I also still have several cars in process that I should finish, but I really want to build these Nagano Kawasakis I picked up.  Memories of a mis-spent youth.  I still dig that '70 Dodge D100 in the background.

Nolan

This model was made from the working drawings by Edgar T Westbury and the working drawings were acquired from the 'Guild of Model Wheelwright’s’.

It's a NON steamer, because playing with steam in this scale is a bit 'iffy', get one crossed thread and it then becomes a 'bomb', so it does NOT steam AT ALL, it now just resides in a glass cabinet as a “static” model.

Paint is just plain ordinary enamel house paint, it is amazing at what sort of a finish you can get from using enamel paint without ANY polishing needed at all.

All the waterslide decals are done in house, using an ALPS MD 5500 printer combined with CorelDraw running on an old Windows XP computer.

Mainly of timber construction, as well as using a heck of a lot of machined brass bits, the two chassis rails were made by machining out two pieces of solid brass.

The steel tyres are just that 'steel', along with a bits of Acrylic using different thickness's of sheet Acrylic and whatever else I could use, that would be appropriate for the job.

Acrylic is a wonderfull medium for use on models, it's harder than polystyrene and far cheaper, that’s if you go dumpster diving for it.

I had to have the drawings reduced to 1/12th scale so I could make all the parts as per the exact size on the drawings.

These plans were originally drawn to 1/6th scale by Edgar Westbury, so you could make a fully operational 1/6th scale working steam model, if you so desired.

These were first published in the English version of the ‘Model Engineer’ in about the middle of the 1960’s and the magazine ran a new section on another piece that was required for the model, in each new addition for a couple of years.

This model took me over fifteen months of work to get it to look like this, there were quite a few bits of brass that I had to machine, so it took quite a lot longer than other models I have made.

Work got in the way as well, plenty of weekends away working and many late nights included.

Had to do a heck of a lot of polishing after making all those brass bits, then clear coated them to keep that shine for many years to come.

First is a photo I found on the web and liked the look of it, so I did a bit of checking/research and I soon found a set of working drawings which were similar to one of these machines.

These drawings were not quite exactly the same as an original Shand Mason, as these drawings I used were for a 1/6th scale working model, so a few deviations from the original vehicles were in these working drawings from Edgar T Westbury, so you could make a miniature working model of a Shand Mason.

Then onto other photo’s showing some of the construction work ------------ and then a few photo’s of the finished item in the FINISHED SECTION of ALL THE REST.

Part of the drawings for the Shand Mason, that drawing below is the actual pump on the model ---------

Finished photos in the Completed section of "ALL THE REST'.

Any questions, then please ask -------------------



Link to the Under Glass post

https://forum.modelcarmakers.com/topic/205719-eduard-172-bf109f-4-werner-m%C3%B6lders/#comment-3114927

Here is #11 on the WW&F turntable at the current north end of their tracks.

Here are the parts I'm going to start with. Like the original rebuild, I'm starting with a Forney-style. Conversion will include a proper straight stack, correct headlight, removal of the trailing truck and fabrication of a new cab. The tender mods will be a shorter wheelbase and I'll probably end up building the tender tank from scratch as it seems easier than modifying the that's there. These are G gauge, the loco is LGB. It won't run as the LGB power came from the rails by way of a pair of 3rd rail-like pick up shoes that completely spoil the look.

So I've set out to make a replica that will be closer, but far from perfect - I'll be making some changes as necessary or expedient and perhaps to suit my own tastes.

At first, I thought that I could perhaps modify the kit body, but upon closer examination realized that it's so far off that I'd be better off starting from scratch. I found a good profile photo (above) and rear photo, scaled them to 1/25 and printed them out.

I was then able to cut left and right side sections, space them appropriately and glue everything together.

Next up will be several rounds of sanding, puttying, and primering - and meanwhile I'm starting to deal with the chassis. Stay tuned.

Lindberg T-Rex and a couple velociraptors. Yeah, they're kinda' dusty but they ARE dinosaurs after all. 😂

This is a 24 ft hull with a little V12 to make it scoot.  I'm still working out the deck details but most of it is designed.

In 1/24 scale, the hull was too long to print in one piece, so I had to half it and deal with the seam.

Here's the fuel tank, oil tank, and electrical system.

The power lump test fitted.  Some clearances will be tight.

I'm planning a mahogany and maroon deck and hull with very light yellow trim and seat cushions.  The wood grain will be painted with oil paint.

Thanks for looking in.