Jump to content
 

Karhedron

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    4,423

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Karhedron

  1. Karhedron
    Once again I have used a set of TPM etched overlays on a Dapol B-set donor body. This one was slightly more involved than the previous full-brake I attempted due to the extra parts present on the prototype. The sides and gangways come with the kit from TPM. The roof vents are Ultima. The cooker hood was fabricated from a bit of left-over NS from the etch. The propane cylinders are 3mm styrene rod.
     
    The coach is nearly finished although I might attempt some work on the interior. I won't be trying to fully represent the kitchen area but maybe something to stop viewers seeing right through the coach would help. You can see a Dapol collett behind, examples of which will make up the rest of the rake. The crimson is a pretty good match although my "custard" looks a bit on the pale side. Ah well, the real things varied and a bit of weathering will help to unify them.
     

  2. Karhedron

    2 more N gauge K40s

    By Karhedron,

    I am currently working on 2 more N gauge GWR K40 full-brakes. Once again these are TPM overlays on Daol B-set coaches. I am quite pleased with the one in GWR livery as this is the first time I have done such a complex livery. Lining is courtesy of ModelMaster and the lettering by Railtec Models.
     

  3. Karhedron

    Fettling the Dapol Hall

    By Karhedron,

    Hello,
     
    As has been noted, the new Hall from Dapol leaves a certain amount of room for improvement. Whilst it is a huge improvement on the old Farish model, it is let down by an annoying number of small detail errors. Over the course of the autumn, I plan to try and rectify some of these. So far I have identified the following problems with Gossington Hall (lined black, early crest) that I think I can fix.
     
    1. Wheels too shiny
    2. Missing fire iron tunnel
    3. Blue spot for weight, should be red.
    4. Crest is too small
    5. Firebox is lined
    6. Smokebox number in wrong font
     
    I don't know if I will address them all but i plan to make a start and see how I get on. I plan to try and update this blog as I go so hopefully you will get to see progress.
     
    First up I have taken a black CD marker to the wheels to blacken them (similar to an OHP marker). This has made a decent improvement although the photo does not show this too well as the ink is slightly glossier. I have done the front bogie wheel and the rear driver wheel in this photo to allow for comparison.
     

     
    Here are 2 photos, the first shows the left hand side with all wheels now fully blackened. The second shows the rhs with original shiny wheels. Just a simple wipe with a marker pen has made a great improvement to the appearance of the wheels.
     


  4. Karhedron
    Yet another item rattled off my UFO pile. I have just finished repainting a pair of Dapol B-set coaches into early BR unlined crimson. It has always struck me as odd that neither the B-set nor autocoach have ever been offered in this livery despite it being standard and remaining common into the 60s.
     
    The repainting was not too hard as the bodyshell detaches and the glazing pops out without too much effort (wouldn't like to do the same job on the Farish suburbans).
     
    The only tricky part was renumbering for which I used a set of Modelmaster transfers. B-set coaches usually ran in pairs and the majority of pairs were "married for life". This being the case, it is pretty aggravating that the MM transfer sheet includes some B-set numbers but not for matching pairs. After an aggravating hour with a magnifying glass I eventauuly settled for cutting up numbers to get a set that was allocated to the Bristol sub-division. This aside I am really pleased with how well they turned out and you can see the results here.
     
    http://s234.photobucket.com/albums/ee199/Karhedronuk/?action=view&current=B-set.jpg
     
    Regards, Matt
  5. Karhedron

    D600 Warship continued

    By Karhedron,

    I have now added the numbering and red route availability dots to the cab sides. I have also drilled out the holes for mounting the buffers (thanks to Bernie at TPM).
     
    The numbers are fox tranfers from the Warship slide. I first applied the numbers for D800 and allowed them to dry. I then carefully sliced out the 8 digit and scrapped it off with a cocktail stick. I applied a coat of Klear to seal it and then added the 6 from elsewhere on the sheet to give D600. I have ordered nameplates for D600 "Active" from Shawplan and these will be pretty much the finishing touch for the bodyshell.
     
    I have painted the buffer beam red and I have also sealed the paint and transfers with a couple of coats of Testors Dullcoat. This gives a superb flat finish every time. The only downside is that it has caused a slight fogging of the cab windows. This is not really a serious problem but I will remember to leave the windows until after I have finished the livery in future. I will try giving the windows a coat of Johnsons Klear as this may restore their clarity.
     

  6. Karhedron

    N Gauge D600 Warship

    By Karhedron,

    This is my first attempt at a modern image kit in N gauge (if you can call a prototype over 50 years old "modern" ). The kit is a western region D600 Diesel Hydraulic made by Carl Pelpow of "It's N Gauge". The kit comes as a resin bodyshell with etched details that is to be fitted on the older Bachmann/Farish class 47 chassis.
     
    The bodyshell is fairly good although it benefitted from a couple of evenings smoothing and filling. Once I was satisfied I primed it with Halfords grey car primer. Once this was done I masked off the roof area with tamiya masking tape. I then sprayed another coat of primer to seal the edges and prevent any of the body colour kreeping under. I then applied several light coats of Rover "Brooklands Green" car paint. I like using car paints as I find they usually give a very good finish which takes transfers very well. This particular shade is an excellent match for BR Green.
     
    This shot is of the bodyshell with the basic colours applied.
     

  7. Karhedron

    D600 Warship continued

    By Karhedron,

    Once the body colour was satisfactory the masking tape was removed. I then painted the silver window frames with acrylic silver paint, a fine brush and a very steady hand.
     
    I glazed the windows with Micro Kristal Klear. This clever stuff is rather like thick PVA. You paint the inside of the frames with it then draw a thin skin across the window apperature. This then dries clear to give a wonderful flush-glazed finish. I am very pleased with this stuff and will be using it again in the future.
     
    Here is a shot of the bodyshell with the windows glazed. I am quite pleased with this as it captures the bright aluminium window surrounds of the original.
     

  8. Karhedron

    D600 Warship continued

    By Karhedron,

    The D600 is coming along quite well. I have now added body lining and late BR crests courtesy of Fox transfers. I applied a coat of Johnsons Klear before and afterapplying the transfers and there is no trace of the backing material around the transfers.
     
    For the lining I first applied masking tape just above where I wanted the line to be. I then simply applied the transfer and brushed up up against the tape to give a nice straight line with no trouble. I recommend this method to anyone who has trouble getting lining transfers to lie straight.
     
    I have uploaded a couple more pictures showing the WIP. The flash has made the bodyside lining look white whereas it is in fact grey as per the prototype.
     

  9. Karhedron

    D600 Warship bogies

    By Karhedron,

    The D600 kit is designed to fit on a standard cloass 47 chassis. This makes life pretty easy on fitting, it is also a good compromise as the D600s and 47s were close in length (certainly close enough to make the difference neglidgable in N gauge).
     
    The kit also contains resin parts for the battery boxes and underframe detail. However one part stands out as being very different and that is the bogie sideframes. The D600 bogies were heavy cast affairs and were old-fashioned even when new. The class 47s has very different bogies.
     
    Fortunately the N Gauge Yahoo group came to my rescue and suggested the Class 77 bogie sideframes made by MSL for their kit. Although not quite identical, the class 77 bogies are very close to those on the D600s. They are also cast to fit the standard Bachmann/Farish 3-axel bogie which makes fitting them to this kit easy.
     
    After check photos of the prototypes I was convinced that this was the only way to get accurate bogie sideframes short of making my own so I ordered a pair. Here is a picture of a painted sideframe prior to fitting. I have also included a link to a photo of D600 in her first year showing the MSL kit to be a reasonable match.
     
    http://www.railblue.com/pages/In%20Depth/hydraulic_pioneers.htm
     

  10. Karhedron

    D600 nearing completion

    By Karhedron,

    The body is finished and the buffers have been added. I have also finished the chassis with the new battery boxes and bogie sideframes in place. All that remains to be added are the etched nameplates and headcode discs. Below are my first pictures of the body married to its chassis.
     
     
     
    I am really plased with how this has turned out overall. The buffer beam looks a little on the bright side so I may tone this down slightly with a bit of weathering or get some hoses etc to clutter it up a bit.
     

     

  11. Karhedron
    This is my second attempt at producing an ex-GWR K40 full-brake from the TPM kit and a Dapol B-set as the donor. My first effort can be seen in my earlier blog and was finished in plain Crimson. I was fairly happy with my first attempt but I was sure I could do better having had a bit of practice.
     
    This time I completed the full assembly before painting rather than trying to paint each part separately first. I found in my last effort that is was too easy for glue to spoil the finish. Secondly I was not entirely happy with my use of Kristal Klear liquid for the glazing. Although it works really well on resin and plastic kits, it really needs a thick body to grip to. When applied to a thin sheel (10 thou etched NS in this case) it spread slightly beyond the aperature. Instead I retained the original Dapol glazing and cut it up to fit into the new window aperatures. Fortunately the GWR like standardization and both Dapol and TPM seem to have got the sizes the same meaning that the glazing will fit into the new etched window openings. A little Kristal Klear was applied to the edges to hold them in place.
     
    The last thing I was not happy with was the branding. There are no suitable transfers available in N gauge for ex-GWR full-brakes and they had a fair amount of writing on them including running numbers, route branding, parcel branding and "Guard". I approached Steve at Railtec Models and he produced a custom transfer sheet which contains correctly matched branding for 4 different K40s based on photos I supplied. These sheets contain all the branding needed (apart from lining) so I don't need multiple sheets.
     
    These sheets are now available to anyone else who wants them, the number is 3712.
     
    So here is my second finished vehicle. I am quite pleased with it and it definitely improves on the first attempt. I think I might need to use some very fine filler along the top seem in future but it definitely looks the part.
     


×
×
  • Create New...