What's on my desk? Part 10.

We're already on part 10 of the blog!

Still working on the Mercedes. I switched from GX-100 to VMS Gloss Varnish HD. Hopefully I'll be able to show some progress next time.

The cable car, meanwhile, is progressing nicely. I estimate two or three more weeks of work to finish it. Main construction is basically done. What's left is the fiddly bits.

The skylight roof was the last big build. Again, this was made of wooden strips, then filled, sanded smooth and painted grey.

First the wooden strips. Initially it looks quite rough.

The ends need to be cut and a first sanding will provide a nice flat surface for the wood filler. Because this roof is straight without any obstacles, I could apply a bit more filler and vigorously sand it. As a result it's a bit smoother than the main roof. Once it was sanded, I removed the side masking. Starting to look like something now!

I painted the roof grey and moved on to the wheel bogies. These were nearly done previously, but needed a low bumper added at each end of the tram. The whole assembly is then screwed in, with a washer in between. You can leave it slightly loose so the bogies can still rotate. A bump stop is added so they won't rotate too far to the side.

The tram now sits a lot higher on the table. Side screens and footsteps are added next, and bell pulls are installed over the driver's position. Here's a picture showing them in some clothespins. Also visible are the crown caps I use as cheap paint pallettes. Modelling can be a quite expensive hobby, so we all try to find cheap and easy shortcuts. One of my most-used and versatile tools are actually wooden toothpicks, which you can get a thousand of for a couple of euros... :-)

Next to be installed are the upright posts in front of the benches. These are all slightly different in length, so I numbered them and stuck some post-it notes on the tram so I could find where they fit once painted. The number is written on the lower backside, so it will be invisible when installed, like you can see on the dry-fitted number 2 post here.

Apart from some footsteps these are the last wooden pieces. What's left is some ornamentation, lights, bells and handrails in metal parts. Then I need to slap some more paint on it, glue on the markings and done!

See you next week!