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Thanks for the information, I do try to ensure everything is left at "comfortable room temperature" before spraying; Monday was a very mild day too as it turned out. I have read elsewhere (and in the latest Model Rail mag) that it is worth gently warming spray cans prior to use in a bowl of warm (not hot) water. I have no idea if that would have attracted less humidity during spraying but might give it a go next time.

Might be worth a try, because the can cools as you spray, meaning that the varnish will be cooler than the surrounding , as you say mild (and at this time of year likely high humidity air), thus creating ideal conditions for micro-condensation.

 

Good luck, but I suspect that since you can't control ALL other factors any success may not be repeatable on the next Wednesday with a 'y' in the name :)

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Good luck, but I suspect that since you can't control ALL other factors any success may not be repeatable on the next Wednesday with a 'y' in the name :)

Think you may well be right. Next time though it will be one coat of varnish over the blue, no second coats!

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New transfers affixed to the 126 TC, paint touched up and. . . . Varnished. Deep breath time!

 

This time I used Tamiya Flat Clear spray, another of my purchases from Sunday, this time the can was warmed in warm water. Thankfully no issues with blooming this time, phew!

 

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I am leaving the bloomed inside surfaces well alone, it won't be visible with the interior in place anyway. Work is now progressing on the roof with new vents etc being fitted, though a Lima 117 centre car chassis is proving elusive thus far.

 

On a side note I have painted some more figures for Crinan, which was quite therapeutic after "bloomgate". I even sprayed them with Purity Seal to seal the acrylic paints with no ill effects (after this photo was taken; they are now matt and have lost the acrylic sheen seen here).

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I think this pack of unpainted Preiser figures must be into its 5th or 6th layout worth by now!

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New transfers affixed to the 126 TC, paint touched up and. . . . Varnished. Deep breath time!

This time I used Tamiya Flat Clear spray, another of my purchases from Sunday, this time the can was warmed in warm water. Thankfully no issues with blooming this time, phew!

attachicon.gifIMG_20171019_154835_1.jpg

I am leaving the bloomed inside surfaces well alone, it won't be visible with the interior in place anyway. Work is now progressing on the roof with new vents etc being fitted, though a Lima 117 centre car chassis is proving elusive thus far.

On a side note I have painted some more figures for Crinan, which was quite therapeutic after "bloomgate". I even sprayed them with Purity Seal to seal the acrylic paints with no ill effects (after this photo was taken; they are now matt and have lost the acrylic sheen seen here).

attachicon.gifIMG_20171017_235539_1.jpg

I think this pack of unpainted Preiser figures must be into its 5th or 6th layout worth by now!

Glad it worked out.

 

Those folks though, dressed for a variety of seasons, unless the man in the overcoat is about to........

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Glad it worked out.

 

Those folks though, dressed for a variety of seasons, unless the man in the overcoat is about to........

Hey, Scots summer, 4 seasons in a day, oldies in overcoats, youngsters in t-shirts. . . You know it makes sense! :-)

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I have made a start on flush glazing the Class 126, starting with one side of the DMBS. Each size of window was cut as a long strip of the required depth before being cut to length to fit which is reasonably quick and straightforward; fixing them in place is a slow process though, using Matt Varnish as a fixative; took about 3 hours to do 1 side (with breaks). In the main I'm happy with the result thus far, a couple of the small top lights may be replaced though. Just another 9 sides to do eventually!

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I have sourced another Lima 3 car 117 which will supply chassis to complete the TC, as well as 2 more vehicles to make a 5 car set as originally suggested. Currently thinking of doing one as a buffet (which were withdrawn 1971 iirc) and either another DMS (but powered this time - the easiest to produce using Trix sides but not to hide a Lima power bogie in,) or a SC 7xxxxx DMBS, just for variety, we will see. One of these vehicles may be finished in late green livery. I won't be doing another TC/TS due to all the cutting involved, thats for sure!

 

I'm still mulling over wheels as I use Peco code 75 track which the Lima "pizza cutter" flanges don't really like (or my imperfect ballasting more to the point); Alan Gibson do DMU wheels on Lima length axles for the unpowered vehicles, but the power bogies are more complicated. If I can re-wheel them then 2 power bogies without traction tyres should be powerful enough to move the set, otherwise it will be a case of turning down the Lima flanges. Extra pickups may be added too.

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If the Alan Gibson wheels aren't available, I think Peters Spares also do DMU wheels on Lima axles for a sensible price.

 

A fine effort on the glazing!

 

John.

Thanks John, I would consider the newer Hornby wheels with slightly finer flanges, only issue is the powered wheelsets have a different geared drive arrangement to the Lima ones, they are also a little small in diameter compared to the Gibson ones, but do have the advantage of having a live axle for pick up purposes. However before committing, I will test run the 3 car set when complete and see how it runs.

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Your 126 is looking really good with the hand cut glazing. I was thinking of using SE Finecast Mainline SK glazing, the window sizes are almost identical to the Trix coaches.

 

I'll be very interested in how you would do a Sc 79xxx E&G DMBS. iDMBS 79088 could be a good choice as it was one of the ones transferred to Ayr when the E&G went over to class 27 operation, it was still in green in 1970, there's a few pictures of it on the Railcar website.

 

Brian.

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Your 126 is looking really good with the hand cut glazing. I was thinking of using SE Finecast Mainline SK glazing, the window sizes are almost identical to the Trix coaches.

 

I'll be very interested in how you would do a Sc 79xxx E&G DMBS. iDMBS 79088 could be a good choice as it was one of the ones transferred to Ayr when the E&G went over to class 27 operation, it was still in green in 1970, there's a few pictures of it on the Railcar website.

 

Brian.

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the tip regarding 79088, I have seen the Railcar photo of it in green livery you refer to and I agree it would be a good candidate as the brake/driving compartment area is perfect for hiding a motor bogie, so if I go for a green vehicle it will likely be this one.

 

I would be interested to know if the SEF glazing for Mainline coaches fits the Trix coach sides as this would make life a lot easier in theory, but I have had issues in the past fitting it to repainted stock as just the thickness of the paint around the small windows caused problems with fitting it properly, and the end look was not as good as I'd hoped for sadly. Perhaps I'm just a glutton for punishment!

 

Cheers,

Martyn.

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Flush glazing is progressing well, a simplification on the DMS and TC has been to fit glazing behind the "opening" toplights rather than individual squares as on the DMBS, this results in the opening segments correctly appearing slightly further back than the fixed glazing. MJT wipers have been added to the cab ends too, again using Matt varnish to affix them.

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The pre-owned "3-car" 117 I ordered from a well known retailer, which I need to complete the 5 car set, turned up today. Only it just contained the power car, they will be getting a phone call in the morning!!! Luckily I downloaded the photo in the advert.

 

Very annoying grrrrr!!! :-(

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[quote name="Signaller69" post="2900996" timestamp="1508956080"

The pre-owned "3-car" 117 I ordered from a well known retailer, which I need to complete the 5 car set, turned up today. Only it just contained the power car, they will be getting a phone call in the morning!!! Luckily I downloaded the photo in the advert.

Very annoying grrrrr!!! :-(

 

Following a quick phone call the other 2 vehicles have been located and are being sent out today thankfully. :-)

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Following the missing DMU vehicles being delivered, at long last the 126 Trailer Composite has a chassis; much cutting of plastic away above solebar level ensued as per the other vehicles, along with lowering of the bogies and drilling a hole for the long Trix screw which secures the roof to chassis, thus sandwiching the body and interior into place (the screw passes through the partition between 2 compartments so cannot be seen).

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Need to add the jacking points to the solebars, as well as buffers next; a few detail bits from my spares box have been added to the Lima chassis. Then its just a case of adding the final bits of toplight glazing and sorting the couplings.

 

Hopefully the complete unit will get an inaugural run on "Crinan" at the Club next week, which will show if the Lima wheels need replacing and whether exta pick-ups will be beneficial (probably).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Whilst the 126 awaits more Trix coaches to cut up, my attention has turned to creating a couple of "Macbraynes" lorries to work from the Crinan NCL depot. As these are few and far between in "RTR" form I purchased some Hattons "Bargains, namely a Base Toys Albion Riever 6w and Ford 'D' series 4w box vans and an EFE AEC Mk.V 8w flatbed with trailer:

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The Base Toys vehicles I believe are no longer being made so it seemed prudent to buy them cheaply while I could; the quality of the EFE model being far superior although it lacks cab mirrors which the Base Toys have.

 

There will be some swapping around of cabs, chassis' and bodies to create an AEC 6W flatbed with load (Macbraynes container? As here: https://goo.gl/images/ZKS3NR ) and an Albion Clydesdale 4w Flatbed (eg this: https://public.fotki.com/Scottishtruckphotos/scottish-trucks/highlands__islands/general_haulage/macbraynes-transpor/fgb-414l-albion-2.html ) or box. The remaining parts will be used for a Ford (non Macbraynes) lorry of some sort. The BT models are held together with small screws so are easy to dismantle, unlike the EFE which is rivetted; these will need drilling out to break the AEC into component parts.

 

The plan is to respray them with car aerosols; lettering transfers will be produced on the computer in appropriate sizes using the nearest font.

 

Suffice to say my Lorry knowledge is minimal so I am using the excellent photos from a Facebook page for reference: https://www.facebook.com/Macbraynes-Lorries-993587777346195/

 

Whilst they won't be 100% accurate I hope they will capture the essence of the real vehicles.

 

First job: start dismantling!

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(The AEC will have to wait until I power up the drill!)

 

More soon. . .

Martyn.

Edited by Signaller69
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A little more progress. From looking at photos, the AEC trailer body looked just about right to go with the Albion cab, so it was dismantled by drilling the pivot rivet out and removing the wheels:

post-28743-0-21261000-1510334854_thumb.jpg

The rear wheel arches were then cut away, taking care not to damage the rear light clusters, and the sides filed to reduce the depth of the edging. The "Albion" chassis then had the rear portion of the chassis cut away to stretch the wheelbase a bit. Some epoxy resin later and this is the result:

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The chassis needs a small amount of filling to hide where the chassis has been stretched as can be seen:

post-28743-0-10680400-1510335360_thumb.jpg

The cab is still removable for painting.

 

The Ford 'D' Series cab has been put on the Albion Van for now, being a comparitively small cab with a tall box next to it, the less said about how it looks, the better. . .

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No idea what it will morph into yet, probably a 4 wheeler van. There were 6 wheel versions but these seem to have mainly been tipper trucks; I've never seen an 8w version, there's a thought???!!

 

As the Macbraynes vehicles will be painted together I shall probably start on the AEC next . . .

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A little more progress. From looking at photos, the AEC trailer body looked just about right to go with the Albion cab, so it was dismantled by drilling the pivot rivet out and removing the wheels:

attachicon.gifIMG_20171110_134624.jpg

The rear wheel arches were then cut away, taking care not to damage the rear light clusters, and the sides filed to reduce the depth of the edging. The "Albion" chassis then had the rear portion of the chassis cut away to stretch the wheelbase a bit. Some epoxy resin later and this is the result:

attachicon.gifIMG_20171110_165733_1.jpgattachicon.gifIMG_20171110_165634_1.jpg

The chassis needs a small amount of filling to hide where the chassis has been stretched as can be seen:

attachicon.gifIMG_20171110_170254_1.jpg

The cab is still removable for painting.

 

The Ford 'D' Series cab has been put on the Albion Van for now, being a comparitively small cab with a tall box next to it, the less said about how it looks, the better. . .

attachicon.gifIMG_20171110_165804_1.jpg

No idea what it will morph into yet, probably a 4 wheeler van. There were 6 wheel versions but these seem to have mainly been tipper trucks; I've never seen an 8w version, there's a thought???!!

 

As the Macbraynes vehicles will be painted together I shall probably start on the AEC next . . .

Nice work. 8 wheel Ford D Series were only a conversion from a 6 wheel so very rare...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/57633672@N07/7533976118/in/photolist-ctKABY-daoWeP-azv2pM-dZDdpn-dHzj9P-qZx6t5-5gfqpA-o6zZ85-w1Gb1R-eJZQQq-amuw4i-7UELm3-aFhQX3-q7SLFj-pWJL8T-bkEiZ9-bcAz5F-mCXZFa-e6mc8m-aeTUQs-6wq3zY-g9kQKc-bc3jS8-dpoY6n-dk19Y7-eXEWi7-ZZZYgh-bL5ioT-HPNLfA-dvkjbu-8jpPmQ-9jdwwS-ZLD9nJ-jdktTW-6kkG5g-ocU67C-c9Bow9-9oVopW-5rY5iZ-khtJ6X-azyeU1-pjKww2-2bUeXG-azyyvj-bEhm7k-jGtJPV-dZN8yH-8SUhvJ-a2NTaR-dVVUT7

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Crikey, what a find! Thanks for that; as it appears to be in New Zealand from the comments, I wonder how many were on UK roads?

 

I'd forgotten my "MacLeod" coal merchants lorry (Base Toys again) which has a Leyland cab, and would be suitable for a Macbraynes conversion - so another cab swap may be in the offing, with "MacLeod" ending up with the Ford!

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Today I have been seeing red, literally!

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Grilles etc have been masked with Tamiya masking tape; The Albion cab has had a name board added on the roof.

 

Next up is to cut down the 6w box van body to make a container for the AEC flatbed (Macbraynes seemed to use them semi permanently fitted to various flatbed vehicles to make vans it seems).

 

The chassis' for these 2 are almost ready for a blast of paint too.

 

Then onto producing some suitable transfers.

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The various lorry bits were loosely put back together after painting.

 

The Albion will get a white cab roof, and the cab needs lifting a tad:

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The AEC still needs the Flatbed's topcoat applying:

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The Container load started as this body:

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It has been cut down in length, width and height to fit the flatbed, with any gaps treated with Squadron green putty.

 

After sanding, side detail was built up using Slaters Microstrip thus:

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Transfers have also been printed off, and the chassis' have had a coat of black applied, and the container undercoated; this and the flatbed will get their top coats applied tommorrow hopefully.

Edited by Signaller69
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Paintwork on the "Macbraynes" lorries almost done. Any silver "tread" areas under the cab doors etc will be done after final varnishing, otherwise the silver tends to look too grey and flat. Parts have been loosely assembled, and the home made transfers matt varnished:

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As is usual for me I have done the transfers with 2 different background shades of red. The one that looks closest isn't always the one that works best when on the model in my experience. It may be that neither work but I will at least have an idea which way to vary the colours - the red swatch on the right is a strip of transfer film I sprayed with the red top coat for comparison. The black cab door logos will be handpainted on clear transfer film, if I decide to do them at all that is!

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This morning I have applied the home made transfers, settling on the darker red backed ones which are more or less spot on. With using white transfer film - necessary so that the yellow wording stands out on a coloured background - the odd edge needed a touch up in a couple of places; luckily Railmatch Royal Mail red is a spot on match for the car aerosol used (Holts Auto Spray Paint HRE12 Red (non metallic), which itself is extremely close to the red used by Corgi and EFE on their Macbraynes bus models.

 

A new, fine brush was used with enamel paint to create the small "Celtic Warrior" -for want of an official name- logo for the Albion cab doors, on a scrap of clear transfer film which was applied when dry; this was copied from the logo on a Corgi Macbraynes Bedford OB bus. The older style coat of arms on the AEC doors is simply an old 'N' gauge GWR waterslide roundel, but keep it to yourself!

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From looking through photos the livery of Macbraynes lorries in the early 60s was all over red with yellow/gold lettering, the small coat of arms on the cab doors and old style black numberplates with white lettering. This appears to have changed during the 60s to red with white cab roof, yellow lettering, warrior logo on the cab doors and later standard white (front) / yellow (rear) numberplates with black lettering. The photos I based my vehicles on have thus given me one of each livery.

 

Once the final touches of paint are dry they will both receive a coat of varnish before a few silver embellishments are added and a little light weathering applied.

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A further thought occurred whilst looking through the left overs from the donor models; the rather nicely moulded EFE trailer tarpaulin covered load is a similar colour to the Macbraynes green used on the bus roof so this may be weathered up but otherwise used as is as it makes a nice contrast to the red and white colour scheme.

post-28743-0-91186300-1510929922_thumb.jpgpost-28743-0-26448900-1510929960_thumb.jpg

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Pretty much finished the Macbraynes lorries today. First job was to make a couple of side mirrors for the AEC; small rectangles of thin plasticard (approx 2mm x 3mm) were affixed to pre-bent 0.33mm brass wire with epoxy resin. Rather than try to drill through the diecast door pillars I drilled through the bottom corner of the cab glazing instead, securing with more epoxy resin, before carefully painting them with Humbrol Silver; I think the subterfuge works well enough.

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A little thinned black paint was run into door and panel seams to highlight them a little, and a very thin wash of brown applied to the wheels, chassis and roof of both vehicles.

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A final light coating of road dirt on the chassis and wheels and they will be ready for "Crinan".

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