Epping Model Railway Club - Thornleigh Exhibition:

As usual, Eureka Models will be attending the Thornleigh Exhibition over the June long weekend.
Apart from all the usual goodies the following items might be of interest:

The CG Bogie Open Ore  Wagons:
 A shipment has arrived by air and will be on sale at the exhibition.
CG 3-packs in black and NOEFs in blue and red will be available.

The NCR First Test Shots:
The first test shots of the four NCR set cars have also arrived by air and will be on display at the exhibition.

HUB Set Additional Cars:                                                                           A clean up of the Eureka Models warehouse has produced about 40 FH and BHs additional cars. Just about all are weathered.

The Specials Box:
The "Specials Box" will be particularly well stocked with all the normal items including plenty of 38 tenders, AD60 bits, CTH trailer cars and some 620/720 bodies that should go early.

The Thornleigh Exhibition is always a good one and we here at Eureka Models are looking forward to catching up with everyone and hopefully getting in some personal shopping of our own.  See you there.

NCR Test Shots Arrive.

 

   Nicely detailed bogies from which the twelve wheelers derive their nick name.

    Our new manufacturer who is currently delivering the CG Bogie Ore Wagons is setting a cracking pace with the delivery of the first test shots for the NCR set.

Four car set undergoing testing at the factory.

Nice roof vents and roof profile.

           The test shots are of a very high standard. Apart from two minor injection blemishes early inspection has revealed no concerns. Once the inspection process is complete any necessary modifications to the tooling will be carried out. This will be followed by further test shots and when all involved are satisfied, the tooling will be polished and the project will move to the squirting and painting stage. Final assembly will then take place.
          

The corridor connections are particularly nice.



 

          

           Artwork for the NCR sets has been completed and will be available on our web site shortly.

 

           The factory says that the NCR project is still on schedule for delivery in time for the Liverpool exhibition.

  

CGs Almost on the Water:

As can be seen from the accompanying photos assembly of the CG Bogie Ore Wagons is nearing completion:

The assembly process is quite straight forward.
Once the test shots have proved the tooling then the injection process is carried out to deliver the many bits and pieces that go to make up the model to the assembly line.
Here the injected parts will be combined with other manufactured parts such as wheels, motors, couplers etc, which are often purchased from sub-contractors to make up the final model.
Before final assembly however, the parts will usually have to visit the paint shop.



A spray booth is where the model will receive its basic livery. This may involve only a simple one colour coating or may involve complex multi-colour liveries requiring the use of paint masks.

Once the basic colour scheme is in place, detail lettering and markings are added usually through a pad printer as shown above and below. 

 



When painting is complete and the painted parts are dry (after a week) the parts are ready to enter the assembly line.
 

The assembly line will usually consist of a a dozen or so young women who have the dexterity to handle the often delicate tasks involved in the assembly process. Fundamentally, all models are at their most basic level, a kit. What most of us modellers are now doing is contracting out the assembly of these kits to the young women in the picture above. These days, most of us in the hobby no longer have the skills, the inclination or above all the time to do this work ourselves and so we happily pay to have someone else do it for us.  

With proper checking at each step in the process and care and attention the final result is an accurate, good running model to add to our collection.

Assembly of the CGs will be completed in the week ending the 15th of May. 2015. This will allow shipping to take place in the following week with arrival in Port Botany in time for the June long weekend exhibition.