0 Gauge in Paper & a Build Thread

[Plumdragon]

Well, Gentlemen, that decides it then :-) The E-1 it will be, and hopefully I'll have as much luck with six driving wheels as I had with the four on the other loco's. You'll have to bear with me, though, as I'm drawing up a horsebox wagon which took my fancy, which along with the Elephant Truck will add to what's looking more and more like a mobile menagerie than anything :-)
More news later....
Plumdragon

[Plumdragon]

Hello friends It's been a while since knife touched paper, as for various reasons have had to take things a lot easier these days. But, I did manage to knock up this little wagon of the L.B.S.C.R (or maybe the E.C.R!), the horse box mentioned earlier.
Not the most accurate model in some respects; drawings didn't match any old photo's, which didn't match anyone's off-the-shelf model kits, so this is something of an amalgamation of bits! I liked the simple underframe with the wood & iron wheels, the lamp fittings on the roof and the beading on the bodysides, but that body is (possibly) of a later date. However, it's a pleasing looking thing I think, and at least it's more or less dimensionally correct
Currently working on a Private Owner Gloucester R. C. & W. 7-plank open wagon, which is more an exercise in fonts and lettering than anything....
Plumdragon

[JohnM]

N.E.R. Now that was a new one on me, so I had to Google it.

Being a Cockney, L.N.E.R. sprang to mind, but it seems that N.E.R. preceded it, but being a Dumpling, you'd know that wouldn't you.

Hopefully our Dr. Beeching didn't rip up too many of their tracks. I'm now in Nth Wales, where he ripped out 80% of the Rural routes.

Luckily, most of Taffy's small gauge mine feeder tracks were in private hands, not BR. so they have now mostly been renovated back into use, and the tourist luvs 'em.
The Llangollen Railway Society are working hard to rebuild the old BR Dee Valley standard gauge route, but it's proving to be a long and very expensive project. Taffy has even built a narrow gauge tourist track on the old BR track bed alongside Bala Lake, so the Llangollen boys are unlikely to ever get that bit back to standard gauge.

Keep on snippin' ... Johnny. (Currently on a Chemo high and waffling a lot.)

[Plumdragon]

Welcome aboard, John :-)
Not a born & bred Dumpling, I'll have you know - more Luton way! Norfolk by default now though (via Beds, Sussex, Yorkshire, and Arizona for a spell....) Fully understand the chemo trips - SNAP! - hence the long breaks in my work, and the fact that the mistakes I made building that last model were cleverly covered with extra layers of paper and artful photography ;-) But I'm here to talk about paper trains, so just like buses where you don't see any for ages and then loads come along, there's another wagon on the way.... hopefully with fewer mistakes :-D
Plumdragon

[Don Boose]

I like the L.B.S.C.R. horse box. Indeed, I very much like all of your models.

Don

[Plumdragon]

Thank you Don, that's a nice compliment :-) And the Plumdragon Railway expands apace, as seen next....

[Plumdragon]

Hello again friends
Work goes well on this, the first of hopefully a large(ish) collection of colourful Private Owner wagons. Starting off with the wagon itself, it was created in my usual fashion (as described ad nauseam elsewhere!) but as it's a type of design that was pretty much standard throughout the industry, with little modification it can be adapted for other wagon makers' vehicles.
Even the Gloucester built wagons of this era show many variations; this one I like for the profusion of builders' plates, the fact that it's painted 'chocolate' and has such bonkers details as the builders' name painted on the grease boxes with the size of box (or bearing?) annotated as well.
Way back in 1911, when this wagon came out of the workshops, there was little in the way of advertising such as we are all familiar with these days. So, a photograph would be taken of the freshly built wagon, with such details as those mentioned above highlighted with paint, to produce a nice piece of advertising for the company.
For the model itself, I experimented with a darker shade of grey for my take on 'black' (I never use black for black colour on a model - too intense!) because the wagon is represented as being brand spanking new. The highlights are quite intense as well, to enhance the 'gloss paint' effect.
The second pic shows the work progressing on the lettering - which is all 'hand drawn' (no computer fonts) to duplicate the waywardness of the original, which would, of course, have been hand painted (no vinyl stickers in 1911!)
Plumdragon

[Plumdragon]

Just a quick update from Yrs Trly; the lettering is pretty well finished, and boy was it a challenge
I wanted to avoid the 'stuck on' look, but getting the balance of shade and highlight on such tiny tiny areas within each letter, as well as adding the ironmongery on top of the lettering without that looking stuck on too, was fiddly to say the least!
The pic looks very 'over-contrasty' on this here laptop though; it looks a whole lot better on my old CRT monitor (which is why I love the dear old thing so, for this sort of work) and you'll have to trust me when I say it doesn't look too bad when printed out....
There's a pic of the real one as well
Plumdragon

[Don Boose]

Looks superb.

Don

[Plumdragon]

Thank you once again, Don :-) It's very gratifying that you take an interest in what I do! The artwork got finalised today, many little tweaks and tiny adjustments. So, time well spent on Christmas Day :-)
Plumdragon