Tuesday 19 April 2016

Disco Domes

One of the design features which I think has always made the FR 'tin cars' easy on the eye is that they have very few hard edges.

Look closely at one of the carriages and you'll see it is softly rounded, from the windows to the thick pillars at each end and, of course, there's the trademark domes at the end of the roofs.

I've always thought they had a look of the BR MkII about them. Perhaps it was even a design influence?

To me it is recreating these soft edges which is the key to a convincing model of a tin car which I've noticed is sometimes overlooked on other models I've seen in both etched brass and 3D print.

So, as promised, a little detail on how we go about doing our domed ends.

In previous posts I've shown pictures of the roof skin with the triangles cut out of each end.

What I do next is to fit a smaller triangle, on a slant, inside the gap.


The only purpose to this is to reduce the amount of filler required and to give it a firmer base.

Once again my filler of choice is Milliput which is ideal for the job because it is firm enough that you can force it into the space and mould it with a moistened fingertip without it all spurting out at the other side, or going off so fast that you only have a few minutes working time, as is the case with some cellulose based products.

It's clay-like properties when it is freshly mixed allows you to over-fill your space and then slice the extra away with a sharp blade.

Because it reacts so wonderfully to water you can make your top surface really slopping knowing that a few minutes later it will have reverted to its previous clay-like state.

This also means you can get the top surface really smooth. If you nick it or drag across it then simply wet you finger and smooth it all over again.


I'm going to leave this now for a day or so by which time it will have set as hard as concrete and I can finish it off with wet and dry paper.


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