"Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

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"Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Oct 30, 2020 2:34 am

Having seen the excellent "1943 Model Train Layout" thread, I thought I'd share a layout I started building for a customer ten years ago, which was delivered in 2016. He contacted me after seeing some of my own layouts on a model railroad forum. He wanted something in N scale with a military theme, but didn't really have any ideas on a plan, so I was left pretty much with a free hand to design anything I wanted. The original plan was much larger, but part way through the project, it was put on hold and then reduced in size due to a change in the Euro-Pound exchange rate - and it needed to be delivered to Southern Ireland! In the middle of this build, during a pause in construction, I rebuilt my 1943 Ford GPW!

I'd always wanted to build a monster layout for myself, but never had the space or funds to do it, so this layout was as much for my own satisfaction as for the customer! It was difficult for him to photograph the whole thing assembled. I never saw it together other than two sections at a time, as that's all my 20ft workshop could accommodate.

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The original design would have filled a whole attic, but the cut down version would comprise of two 8 feet boards with part of an airfield and mainline station, a four foot goods yard and a 6 foot quayside as seen in the plan below. The grey area to the right was to have been a four foot mine section, but that was cancelled and in the end, I just supplied a board for the owner to add a loop of his own and any scenery he wanted. That would allow the two main lines to run continuously and also have the branch line down to the quayside.

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Construction began in December 2010 with on of the ships for the quayside. It was planned to have a destroyer in dry dock and a Liberty Ship unloading goods. There were no Liberty ship kits close to N scale, so some sccratch building was needed. Fortunately, Revell produced their Fletcher Class Destroyer in 1/144 scale, which was close enough to N in 1/160. One destroyer was be built pretty much out of the box while the other would be converted. The conversion is where I would start. Using the kit as a basis for the Liberty ship would mean there were lots of accessories in the kit which could be used, such as doors, guns, anchors etc. I figured I could do the conversion in two easy steps. They were:- Leave off everything that wasn't Liberty Ship shaped, and make all the bits that I needed to make it Liberty Ship shaped! How hard can it be?

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Oct 30, 2020 3:20 am

The destroyer was a little over 3 inches wide, but for a 'Liberty' ship, it needed to be about 4.5 inches. I made some paper templates for new wider formers for the hull, to see how things were going to work out, and before I knew it, I was cutting plastic. I have added about 1.25 inches to the width, and the sides are raised by 3/4 inch. These are the two new formers glued in with both solvent and cyano.

The bow was then pulled together and once again glued with solvent and cyano, and taped to hold them against the spring of the plastic. Some additional strips of styrene were then glued on the inside of the joint to give additional gluing area to hold the bow still. The stern needed a similar treatment, but all the other glue joints were too soft, so everything had to be left to fully cure. Once dry, the stern pulled in without straining anything else.

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The widening gives a nice flat bottom to the hull just like the Liberty ships. Once the stern was pulled together, the bottom of the hull could be sheeted over, a floor added for the bottom of the holds and then move on to the new deck.

1.5mm styrene sheet was trimmed to fit the bow shape and glued in place with solvent glue. These glue joints were reinforced with cyano. The rest of the hull bottom was then cut and fitted. The bottom of the ship was skimmed with filler and the two openings for the destroyer prop shafts were filled in. The hull was then wet sanded smooth. The floors for the holds were added next.

The height of the ships side was going to be increased by 3/4 of an inch to better represent the slab side of the Liberty ships. To aid gluing the new styrene onto the hull, several small styrene tags were glued around the hull.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by YLG80 » Fri Oct 30, 2020 3:49 am

Amazing mod.
Thanks for sharing your passion !
Yves
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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Oct 30, 2020 4:14 am

Thanks.

The stern of the destroyer was a little square, so the deck was cut longer and more rounded to better match the Liberty ship. The hull shape has been built up with car body filler. After lots of filling and sanding of the hull, I added further bulkheads at the front and rear of the holds which also helped to support the deck and provide additional gluing area. The hull was then measured at a number of places along its length, and the deck shape plotted onto a large sheet of 2.5mm styrene. Hatches were marked and cut next and the superstructure position marked. The 2.5mm styrene was very tough to cut through. After lining the hold sides and adding some internal detail structure, the deck was glued on and taped in place to dry.

I moved onto the superstructure, mostly made from 1.5mm styrene. Once the basic structure was finished, I finished it off with ladders etc from the destroyer kit. Roof and bases of the machine gun posts were fitted. These are for the small guns included in the destroyer kit. I'd spotted several suitable ladders in the Destroyer kit that could be used on the superstructure too. It was really coming to life now. While parts were drying, I was also cleaning up bollards from the kit to use on deck, but things like the big periscope shaped vents, of which there are a number on the ship, would have to be scratch built.

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The masts and cranes were made from a combination of brass tube, styrene tube, a few kit parts and 'Chemiwood', a high density foam/resin modelling material. A general view of the ship which is starting to look like a ship now! This was taken before the hull received its final coat of grey.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by 42rocker » Fri Oct 30, 2020 7:05 am

Hope to see more on this. GREAT

Stay Safe

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by gerrykan » Fri Oct 30, 2020 4:29 pm

Fantastic!
Roy

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by Mark Jesic » Sat Oct 31, 2020 4:53 am

Really classy Steve. :D

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat Oct 31, 2020 7:58 am

Thanks guys. The whole layout was quite a challenging build as it was also the first time I'd built DCC. There was some quite complex wiring and programming of the 8 function decoders which not only controlled the track switches, but also gave feedback to LEDs on the control panels. More of that later.

With all the filling complete on the hull, the next thing to do on that was the water freeing ports cutting in the bulwarks. All the air vents are formed from heated and bent styrene sprue. Still to make were the winches, rigging, bollards and to attach the life boats/rafts. I needed a second destroyer kit to use the life boats for the Liberty ship. The destroyer wasn't going to need them as that would be stripped down undergoing repairs in dry dock. The machine gun posts were turned on my lathe and fitted to the bridge, along with the machine guns from the kit.

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The hatches had their edging fitted and the winches were attached to the deck. At the bow, the anchor windlass, bollards and breakwater were added to the foredeck. Hull painting came next. The gun deck was painted and fitted to the stern. It wasn't far from completion.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sun Nov 01, 2020 7:27 am

I'm not sure if the next modification was appropriate for Liberty ships, but certainly some merchant ships were modified and I thought it would make a nice feature on the model. What am I talking about? A CAM Ship, Catapult Aircraft Merchantmen. The model would have a launch ramp and 'Hurricat' fighter added to the foredeck.

Sweet made a 1/144 scale Hurricane kit, with two Hurricanes in the box. One would be fitted to the ship while the other would be built as a flat car load.

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While I was waiting for the other Destroyer kit to arrive, I made a start on the Hurricanes. The initial assembly was good, with the tiny kits fitting together very well. To cut down on tooling with an injection moulding tool just for the canopies, there are two canopies moulded onto each main sprue. This gives two clear canopies and all the airframe parts from just two tools, just needing one injecting with clear styrene.

However, this means one aircraft is moulded in clear, which is very hard to see what you are doing while you work. As soon as the models were in one piece, I gave them a spray with etch primer to make them more easy to see imperfections.

All the camouflage painting was done by brush, as masking something this small would be a nightmare. It was hard enough to hold them as it was. They span just over 3 inches, with some parts little more than 1/16 inch square. They were given a coat of clear gloss, then decals were applied and the fighters then just needed a matt coat before the canopies were fitted.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by Tim Shanteler » Tue Nov 03, 2020 5:04 am

Outstanding....
Tim

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by Lee Bishop » Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:18 am

WOW! I'd love to se more of the completed layout!
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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:28 am

Oh, all right then! Here's a little more of the story!

During the fighter build, while things were drying, I made a start on the launching ramp. At 1/2 inch square, it was going to be too fiddly and fragile to make from microstrip, and a one off brass etching would cost a fortune for such a small item. So....my solution was to cut a strip of clear acrylic, polish the edges until clear and use self-adhesive aluminium foil to stick on the structure.

It works very well as you can see below, with your eyes drawn to the structure and not the acrylic strip.

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The supporting pylons were made in the same way, and all the aluminium was then painted. A walkway has been added at the top of the rear pylon for the pilot and aircraft launch crew. I just need a ladder up from the deck. The hull has also had some rust streaks added from the water freeing ports.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Wed Nov 04, 2020 2:04 am

With the Liberty Ship almost complete and the second destroyer kit purchased, I took the opportunity to compare the destroyer hull with the converted one to see how much it had changed. It's hard to believe they started out the same.

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The final details such as the life boats were added to the superstructure, then the painting and weathering was next, along with some other weathering on the hull. The planks for the hold covers have also been glued on deck.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Wed Nov 04, 2020 2:05 am

Complete! I was very pleased with the finished model. It would make a nice feature in the quayside.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Nov 06, 2020 12:16 am

While building the ship, I had also been working on drawings for the dockside cranes. As with so much on this layout, the cranes were going to be animated. The cranes themselves would be scratch built, based on a typical 1930's Level Luffing Crane.

Slewing and Luffing ( being technical ), was to be controlled by micro aircraft servos built into the cranes, while the lifting cable will be operated by a sail winch servo under the baseboard.

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I'd previously drawn out the crane to scale, then transferred the jib measurements to a piece of wood which would form the building jig for the brass jib. Two holes were drilled at each end of the main part of the jib, and a 1/16 brass tube inserted. A 1/16 square tube made up the connecting piece. As each part was trial fitted, some small blocks of wood were glued down to the board to hold the brass in place. This allowed the following pieces to fit in the same place since there were four sides to make.

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