Nig H

I have just sent the NGS two parcels of stock I had from Etched Pixels. Included are lots of conversion sides for Thompson coaches but I don’t recall having received any Gresley sides. Maybe there will be some in the next consignment. I should mention that Alan didn’t sell any stock to the 2mmSA. He is giving the stock to us free of charge, which is really kind of him. As part of the agreement for the transfer of the stock to the 2mmSA, it was agreed that any stock we didn’t want would be offered to the NGS free of charge. Nigel Hunt, Product Development Officer, 2mmSA

Hi Simon, Thanks. I use Association plastic roofs, cut to length and thinned at the ends to something nearer the prototype appearance. Nigel H

Here are some pics of the final two coaches. These are a Stanier composite from a Worsley works kit, and a Masterclass Stanier brake third. The composite is the last in a rake of four Stanier crimson-liveried coaches, and the brake third is to add to a rake of three maroon period 1 coaches built some time ago. One of the roofs in my previous post was a replacement for one I decided I didn't like on a coach built decades ago. The crimson coach blended in well with the three already built. The brake third should be the same colour as the original three period 1 coaches. These were painted and lined by Ian Rathbone, and I thought I used the same colour (LMS Crimson Lake) on the brake third. This pic was taken with flash and makes the main colour look very bright, almost like crimson rather than the intended maroon. This is the rake of four. Sorry about the lack of focus but you can see that the liveries don't quite match. One other point I noticed with the Masterclass coaches was that the door grab handle holes are spaced further apart ( c. 0.25mm - 0.5mm) than on the Worsley Works coaches. The Masterclass kit includes etched grab handles, which I used, but seem a bit chunky, though I tried filing them down a bit after soldering in place. I realise that parts like these probably need to be etched a bit over or not at all. I think both kits can be made into reasonable models, depending on the skills of the builder, but a lot more thought has gone into the design of the Masterclass kit to make it easier to build, and I'd prefer it if I had a to choose between the two. Nigel Hunt

Maybe not so soon, but the last two coaches are now finished apart from weathering. I thought I'd mention one or two aspects of the construction in case its useful to others. Firstly, the bogies are secured with a 12 BA screw, with a washer soldered on the top. The hole in the bogie is slightly greater than the head of the screw, and the screw is held tight against the underside of the bolster. I use a former as shown below to make the handrails that are attached to the ends of the coach. The various holes in the former are to cater for the different positions of the holes in the ends. I use 5 amp fuse wire usually as its easy to bend round the edge of the profile. The wire is quite fragile and can get bent after being fitted, but its easily corrected back to the right shape. For plastic roofs, I use 5 thou plasticard cut into thin strips (not more than 0.5mm wide) for the ribbing on the roof. Applying this reasonably accurately is a tedious exercise. The pic below shows two roofs ready for cleaning up, and the tools I use. The wet and dry I use to sand the roof where my fingers have pressed down on pools of Mekpak, and to smooth the ribbing where it has split during application, causing the join to stick up slightly. Its also useful to try to reduce the thickness of the ribbing a bit, I think even 5 thou is probably over scale. One of the coaches I'm doing is a Chris Higgs model. This includes a resin roof and I couldn't use the plasticard for the ribbing on this as it wouldn't adhere permanently. I used some Tamiya masking tape instead, cut into thin strips, again c. 0.5mm or less. The Tamiya tape was much easier to apply than the plasticard, and no cleaning up afterwards is necessary. Here is the result. I'll post some pics of the finished coaches in the next post. Nigel Hunt

Hi, how long does the shuttle take, and what is the frequency. Thanks, Nig H

Hi, I used a hacked servo (there’s a description on here somewhere) but with a DPDT switch instead of a DPST one. One side of the switch changes the crossing polarity at the same time as the turnout is changed via the panel switch. I was pleasantly surprised that it seemed to work well. I’ll try to find the description if you are interested. See my posts of 9th and 23rd March 2023 in the ‘what’s on my workbench’ topic. Nigel Hunt

The sides I'm working on are from Worsley Works. The position of the ventilators is not marked in any way so after tinning sparingly along the top edge of the side, I soldered the outer door ventilators in place, positioning them by eye as best I could. I then held a steel rule against the bottom edge of the two attached ventilators and taped the rule to the coach side. Then the rest of the vents were added, held against the steel rule for the vertical position, and by eye as accurately as possible centrally on the door. I hold the vent down with an old Exacto knife blade. The theory is the point stops anything slipping whilst soldering, and minimizes the heat sink affect, though the steel rule will be much worse anyway. The tape is Kapton heat-resistant. Its useful for lots of things. Once I'd soldered all the vents on, I soldered the sides to the ends. Not the easiest of jobs, but it gets easier the more sides are attached, and if you tack solder everything at first, you can make adjustments to the joins so that sides and ends are attached accurately. Here's an end view after soldering the floor unit inside the sides/ ends. Its worth checking the solebars end level with the ends so that the buffer beam is level with the ends when soldered to the solebars. The WW floor pan includes fold-up trussing, which I don't like, so I used my own or Ultima trussing instead. The centre of the floor pan is still quite flimsy so I soldered a rectangle of double-sided pcb to the inside of the floor pan. I don't know why I used pcb, I could have used scrap metal sheet instead. Pcb in place and also 12BA nuts for bogies. And the underside. More to follow soon. Nigel Hunt

Well, I finally finished these coaches and here are a couple of pics. As I'll be making a couple more, I'll leave the weathering until later. They're not perfect but I'm reasonably happy with the results. I started on the next coach by forming the tumblehome (or turnunder) on the sides. I have used a plasticard former to do this as shown here. The metal rod or tube is forced down along the bottom edge of the side and against the angled edge of the former to bend the bottom section the side to a slight curve. Its best, I find, to get the bend slightly too tight, then it can be flattened slightly if needed, with a steel rule pressed down on the side. Next I'll solder the door ventilator hoods in place. Nigel Hunt

Hi Matt, You need 7mm diameter wheels and if it's the Stephen Harris kit, then 12.25 mm axles. The springs and axle boxes sound about right. I think the type of buffers varied over time, so you need to have a look at some pics at the approximate time period to decide, but coach buffers (as clipped to a varying degree) are probably what you need. There's information in LMS coaches vol 1, page 88 onwards, or try the Paul Bartlett website. Nigel Hunt

Thanks Chris, I'd not appreciated the distinction. I agree with you about the quality of those castings. Was it you and me buying up large stocks of them at Warley one year when we heard Ultima might stop selling them? Nigel Hunt

I was suggesting drilling the old brass wheels to 0.75mm to take the wider crank pins. Not necessary if 0.5mm pins are brought back into stock. Nigel Hunt

I think the idea is that you can drill the hole in older wheels out to 0.75mm to use the new pins. Does that allay your concerns, Bob? Nigel Hunt

Hi, Please don't expect the full EP range to re-appear. As I said, I don't know what etches might be produced. The artwork/tools for some of the range may not be re-usable, and we may decide that some items are of low interest so not worthwhile producing. Concerning white metal castings, we have limited stocks of certain items that we will sell in the Association Shop. When these are gone, customers can ask P & D Marsh to produce items from the EP moulds they possess. They have agreed to consider such requests. The Association is unlikely to produce any white metal castings as we don't possess the moulds, nor do we have the manpower to undertake the work. The Association produces etches for certain items that EP cast e.g. battery boxes, and has also produced 3D print versions of items such as coach roof ventilators. We may use these methods to fill some of the gaps in the EP range, but again, it depends on having manpower to undertake the work. Nigel Hunt

Yes, Etched Pixels (EP) = Ultima. It might be a good idea for people to send enquiries about the EP castings to Paul Andrews at P & D Marsh. He has agreed to consider any requests for these castings. The plastic roof moulds are being modified slightly to overcome some technical difficulties in using them. This work will be undertaken as soon as possible, but other work has a higher priority at the moment. Nigel Hunt

I have been discussing with Alan Cox of Etched Pixels what will happen to his range of mainly coach-related accessories. The end result has been that the range is being divided up between the Association and P & D Marsh. The latter have been granted permission to use the EP white metal moulds they possess to sell castings in their own right, if they so wish. The Association has received some parts (plastic and white metal) and will sell these in its shop. Some of these will be listed soon. Some parts have been sent to the NGS, and more will be offered to them soon. Details of EP etched parts are to be sent to me soon, and I and Tony Simms will decide what we want to do with them. The Association also has the moulds for various plastic roofs and plans to sell them via its Shop. So, some of the range will end up with the Association, some with P& D Marsh, and some with the NGS. Nigel Hunt Product Development Officer

Hi, I am the Product Development Officer for the Two Millimetre Scale Association. When I heard that EP was winding down, I contacted them to ask what would happen to the range of products. The end result has been that the range is being divided up between the Association and P & D Marsh. The latter have been granted permission to use the EP white metal moulds they possess to sell castings in their own right, if they so wish. The Association has received some parts (plastic and white metal) and will sell these in its shop. Some parts have been sent to the NGS, and more will be offered to them soon. Details of EP etched parts are to be sent to me soon, and I and the Association Sales Officer will decide what we want to do with them. The Association also has the moulds for various plastic roofs and plans to sell them via its Shop. So, some of the range will end up with the Association, some with P& D Marsh, and some with the NGS. Nigel Hunt Product Development Officer Two Millimetre Scale Association

Yes it was enamel. I have/ had a bottle of Pledge Multi Surface cleaner with 'formally (sic) known as Klear' on the label, but I never thought to use it, though it seems to have disappeared, having just tried to find it. Nigel Hunt

I have been working on some LMS Stanier suburbans for what seems like ages. The first one I did, the maroon one, I had to repaint because the masking over the sides took the paint with it when I removed it after painting the ends and underframe. Once I'd successfully repainted it, John Aldrick kindly agreed to do the lining on the sides, and very good it is too. For the crimson ones, I brush painted the ends and underframe so I didn't need to mask off the sides. It tuned out to be easier than I thought, though it took a long time. I The next stage was to apply coach numbers and class 1s etc transfers. I started with some CCT number sets for the coach numbers as these include the correct number ranges for these coaches. The colour of the transfers is yellow, which is wrong for the pre-1956 crimson livery (it should be old gold). I thought I might be able to run an orange felt-tip pen over the transfers but this didn't really work. The number sets went on OK, but when I cut out the 'guard' lettering for the guards compartment door, I found the transfer lifted away from the backing paper. I applied these anyway. I wasn't totally convinced by the results of all this, the colour just looked wrong. I planned to airbrush the transfers with a protective layer of vanish, as is usual practice. I thought the transfers might be blown away by the airbrush so it seemed a good idea to brush over the transfers with some satin varnish. Doing this caused the lettering on the transfers to disintegrate. Has anyone else have this happen? So, in the end I removed the CCT transfers from the crimson coaches, and used Fox transfers instead. Although these were the correct old gold colour, I had to make up each string with individual digits and letters. This was quite tedious but not as bad as I thought it would be. So that's where I'm up to - see pics below. Next step is to varnish the sides and spray the roofs. Then fix the glazing and seats inside the bodies, and attach the roofs. Nigel Hunt

Hi Nick, After seeing the comments made subsequently, I'm wondering if for the rectangular panel you could apply the yellow transfers first up to the inside edge of the beading, then overlay that with black transfers, leaving (hopefully) a thin yellow edge to the black beading. You'd still need to work out how to do something similar for the upper panel, including the upper edge of the rectangular panel. An alternative might be to paint the beading and the edge of the upper panel black and apply yellow lining with a Mecanorma lining pen. I had a quick go with a 0.35mm pen on a very old GEM tender (my first ever attempt at a kit). The paint finish is very poor and at least partly explains the poor results I achieved. also, i am not very good at this sort of thing, but you will be much better. The yellow can be touched up or removed completely without harming the underlying paintwork. Tim Watson used these pens to line the CF Oerlikon stock, I think. Here are some pics. If you want, I'll bring the pens to Bradford next week for you to try out. Nigel Hunt

Hi Adam, In my experience not many people express an interest in a proposed product compared to sales once the production run is up and running. So, you might need to gamble on potential future sales and just go ahead anyway. As has been said, you should build a test etch before going to a production etch unless you feel very confident that the first version will be spot on, but you risk damaging your reputation if you produce something with errors in it, even if you correct the errors with supplementary parts (which add to your costs). For almost every loco kit I have produced, I have needed to produce and build two test etches before going to a production version. Normally the second test etch has been good enough to produce a model for my own purposes, with final tweaks included in the production version. On occasions I have found errors in the production version not apparent in the test etches, usually resulting from variations in the etching process. This has sometimes necessitated the production of a supplementary etch, again adding to costs. You probably won’t make much from marketing 2mm kits, so consider producing what you want for your own purposes, and if you can sell some to offset your own production costs, great. Most of my kits have earned a surplus of income over production costs, but the most profitable have probably paid me an hourly rate of less than £5, maybe closer to £1,for the research, drawing/design, handling the production etches, administration and bookkeeping, and despatch. If you want to offer something, I’d suggest you provide as much prototype information as possible (within reason) so interested parties can judge what’s on offer. Sorry if this has dampened your enthusiasm, but good luck if you proceed anyway. Regards, Nigel

Hi, Has anyone got any 8 spoke 6mm dia. 13mm axle wheels they are prepared to sell? I would like at least three axles. I can buy or swap some other wheels. Nigel Hunt

Thanks Simon, It looks like you have to come up with your own arrangement for the power train and drawbar then. I’ll let Tony know. Nigel Hunt

Hi, Tony Heywood was asking me about the Association Farish Black 5 chassis kit. He wanted to know how to link the worm to the worm wheel. Also, how are the loco and tender chassis to be linked, and what is the intention regarding motors? Something mounted in the tender on the frame spacers? Apologies if the answers are already there, sometimes I can't see for looking! Nigel Hunt

There is now a place available if anyone is interested. Please get in touch with me at nigelhunt62@outlook.com if you are interested in attending. Nigel Hunt

The Association will hopefully be releasing kits for 8' 6" and 10' Dean bogies probably September-ish. These will be etched frames with 3D printed volute springs. I'm waiting for one final test etch before going to production. Nigel Hunt