tools, materials & knowledge for model makers
Fixing the Burrell nameplate to the valve chest cover on this miniature traction engine. I decided to silver solder it in place so there was no chance of it ever moving. The nameplate design took some thought in terms of what lettering should be on it. In the end I went for the proper Charles … Read more
The Burrell engine nameplate for this tiny model is just 14mm wide. The capital letters are just 1.4mm high. For all of that the etching has come out rather well. When I started looking at this Burrell valve chest plaque I was concerned about achieving the level of detail that my dad achieved over 20 … Read more
The Burrell valve chest plaque has the makers name and factory location embossed on it. This means I need to etch another brass plate. This time though it is very small indeed. Etching at this scale is possible and feasible at home. The face on this clock was etched using a photographic technique. The dial … Read more
My son commented that the Arial typeface for the traction engine door wasn’t really correct. So we searched for something better using google’s typeface tool (google fonts). This tool allows you to type in a phrase and to select certain classes of fonts, eg you can turn off all Serif fonts. The closest font we … Read more
There are a few different ways to do brass etching, but having learnt how to do this with a really simple method I just had to share it. The real drive for this is to produce the brass lettering on the smokebox door of the Burrell traction engine. You will need: Laser printer – or … Read more