New Mini Drill

I'm not a modeller with a huge collection of tools and a workshop full of fancy machines. Basic tools, airbrush and a mini drill pretty much sums up what I use in my modelling. Recently my more than 25 year old Dremel-type mini drill from a supermarket stopped working. Time for a replacement.

Decent tool in a conservative design. Notably more silent in operation than my old drill.

To replace the cheap (probably Asian-made) broken mini drill I chose a European-made Proxxon with speed regulator. It's a type Micromot 60/E and has so far worked fine with the small range of mini drill attatchments in my possession. It may cost a bit more, but I'm not shopping mini drills every week and it's good to know that there is an endless range of accessories to the machine. If the Proxxon can keep working as long as my old mini drill (and I expect it to) It'll keep me company for the rest of my life. One thing less to worry about!

Drill and power supply is placed to the right on my work table. Usually I don't leave a drill in the tool. That's bad workshop discipline.

Fowler Painting Begun

After enjoying building parts for the cab interior, I have now set out to paint the loco. Not something many will notice afterwards as the loco obviously is already painted. Handling and working on the loco has created scratches, and the many added exterior details, although given a first treatment of paint back in August, could use a proper repaint. Now the loco is dismantled for fitting the cab details and repainting.  

Cleaned up work area with parts for the cab interior. After vacuuming the workbench, painting of the Fowler can now begin.

One of the first things I changed on the Fowler was lowering the buffer height to fit Nystrup Gravel's skips. With the buffers lowered the old mounting hole became visible. I thought the partly visible hole would be a good illustration of narrow gauge industrial locomotives' flexibility. I drilled two holes for the mounting bolts in each buffer plate and painted the area, where the buffers would have been located when mounted higher with a mix of red/brown colours to illustrate the original primer. The area was masked off with Tamiya masking tape. Then buffer plates and buffers were air brushed Vallejo Air 'Ferrari Red'. Removing the masking tape revealed the primer colour as if the buffers had been lowered without anyone taking the trouble to overpaint the area with red.

Painting in progress. Rear buffer beam screwed off for ease of drilling and painting. Coupling rods have received the first layer of red paint.

Buffers are fitted after painting, frames painted 'Black Grey' and rods and counterweights painted red. The cab floor has had its first layers of paints, the brake coloumn is fitted - and I found the hand tools I've been looking for!

Gear lever subassembly and instrument panel glued in place and cab interior having its first layer of weathering applied. The traces of the buffer's higher mounting for the loco's original customer can be seen.

My trusty German Gabbert airbrush from the late 1990's has developed some bad manners that I will have to look into before I can paint the upper body. Until then I can't fit window glazing and get the final things in the cab glued in place. While getting the airbrush in shape again, I'm placing the Fowler on the shelf. Hopefully not for long!

Fowler Cab - End In Sight

Work on the cab interior on my Essel Engineering  Fowler F30 has progressed pretty well. All major parts have now been built and primed with some even painted and installed in the cab. The only item on my list of interior items that I haven't finish is the hand tools. I can't remember where I put the white metal handtools that I wanted to place on the cab floor. On the other hand additional details have been added and window glazing for the front windows have been prepared. 

Painting the interior and fitting the details in progress.

The interior is built in segments and planned to be glued in place inside the cab as painting and assembly order of different exterior fittings dictates.

The instrument panel was in an early stage in the last post on the cab interior. After drilling holes for the instruments it received a little putty and some sanding. Then I added some small push buttons from sliced round plastic stock. The panel was primed and given a cover of medium grey on the frontside and silver on the inside of the holes for the dials. The transfers are fitted to thin clear plasticard and covered with a thin layer of gloss varnish. The dials are then cut out and fitted on the inside of the panel with Humbrol 'ClearFix'. Once dry a drop of 'ClearFix' is also onto the dial from the front. The idea is that a light source mounted in the instrument panel will allow a little light to shine through the clear plasticard and thin transfer to show illuminated gauges. Fingers crossed!

Instrument panel in plasticard and 1/35 scale transfers for the instruments.

The first dial fitted to the 16 x 25 mm instrument panel. Only the green lamp will light up on my loco. The red lamp has been blocked by layers of black paint on the rear side of the panel.

Once the design of the gear levers and associated stuff was finally decided, the box for the levers and clutch pedal was quickly built. The two levers and pedal were cut from plasticard. One gear lever is for directional change - positioned firmly glued in 'forward'. The other lever is for 'low' or 'high' and permanently positioned in low gear.

Instrument panel finished, levers and sanding pipes fitted to the sandboxes and gear installation in progress.

Gear levers and clutch pedal test fitted in the cab. 

The speed controller is not patterned from a real Fowler loco, but from a preserved Danish narrow gauge locomotive. I guessed the simple design would be one that a mechanic at the Nystrup workshop could have made without any fuss: a length of angle iron and a handle with a wire connection to the engine. 

Speed controller glued to the front wall in the cab. Pencil lines marking floor level to help adjust cab interior.

A small triangular plate fitted in the rear cab corners. A convenient place to place the note book used to keep track of the number of skips propelled back and forth each day.

Some interior details are fitted by now, while others have to wait until repainting of the loco exterior is finished. 

Back on the layout for a snapshot. The loco is looking so much better without the original huge battery box in the cab. Next up is little work on the buffers and a repaint.