The Coronation, the Silhouette, Mr Jenkinson and Me

[chris p bacon]

The LNER had a hairdressers and a cinema coach, who's to say they didn't have a pole dancing one ?

 

First class + supplement of course...

[0_gauge_novice]

Hi Mike,

 

just to make clear with what was my idea. I will drill a 2mm wide hole and 1mm deep. 1 hole on the side of the roof and one on the body. The glue the magnets with CA...basta.....You might be able to use even smaller magnets. I will also attach the chassis to the body like that. The only problem is if you use magnets for contacts on the line.

 

 

Cheers

Andreas

 

 

[Willie Whizz]

Hi Mike,

 

just to make clear with what was my idea. I will drill a 2mm wide hole and 1mm deep. 1 hole on the side of the roof and one on the body. The glue the magnets with CA...basta.....You might be able to use even smaller magnets. I will also attach the chassis to the body like that. The only problem is if you use magnets for contacts on the line.

 

roof.jpg

 

Cheers

Andreas

 

Hi Andreas.

 

I'm intrigued by this idea, as I'm always reluctant to build a coach as a sealed, solid box in case something comes adrift during use.

 

But can I ask, do you find one magnet each end is sufficient?  My fear is, what if over time the coach roof starts to bow or to swell in the middle, and there is nothing to help 'fix' it.

 

Thanks.

[0_gauge_novice]

You could also put one in the middle, lets say above a partition wall. But why should it bow in the middle? I can see no reason.

[N15class]

You could also put one in the middle, lets say above a partition wall. But why should it bow in the middle? I can see no reason.

If plastic it will over time, if not held firmly.

[ianmaccormac]

Looking  at this excellent idea of the small magnets, I don't understand why 2 are needed. Surely if the roof was magnetic? Tinplate? Some very thin magnetic material glued to the underside?

Just don't see the need for 2.

Some of the magnets I have bought to try and see what I could do with them are 2mm diameter by 0.5mm deep. 250 magnets for about 5 pounds.Ebay number 151648644221 for instance. I suppose at that price though, two magnets is easiest?

I shall try this out on a coach I am putting together at the moment.

Cheers

Ian.

[Horsetan]

....who's to say they didn't have a pole dancing one ?....

 

Was there one for Polish dancing, then? 

[MikeTrice]

Not a lot of progress on the face of it other than fabicating the two vents. Trying to get details of what they looked like proved interesting and I hope I have done them justice.

 

 

 

[0_gauge_novice]

 

Looking  at this excellent idea of the small magnets, I don't understand why 2 are needed. Surely if the roof was magnetic? Tinplate? Some very thin magnetic material glued to the underside?

Just don't see the need for 2.

 

Ian, of course this is also an option. I have thought of that I just dont have such a material here for the roof. Actually, for the mail coach in the picture above the chassis is from a commercial model thus it already has a weight. I will add 2 magnets on the floor of the body and I will use the metal weight of the chassis to adhere. If you have something that I could use, I dont know if Mike minds, but I would like to see it. If not in this topic in a separate about coachbuilding? It comes into mind I could use the metal from the tomato cans....

 

Mike again....most excellent and inspiring work!

 

Cheers

Andreas

[MikeTrice]

The roof has now had its rainstrips added, then primed and sprayed with Halfords' BMW Arctic Silver:

 

I needed to provide the partion around the toilet and in the end decided to fix it to a false floor like the saloon:

 

 

The notch is to allow clearance for the end clip:

 

I managed to obtain some metric screws 1.6mm x 3mm:

 

These were used to attach the underframe to the body using the same technique I used for the roof fixing, i.e. drill undersize and let the screws self tap into the body:

 

The underframe and floor of the coach are both 60thou so the screws being 3mm long are a really nice length:

 

I have now reached the point where I am considering starting to spray the various parts. My issue is whether I should detail the bow end first, which will make masking more difficult, or spray first when masking is simple then add the detail and touch up. Decisions, decisions....

[Siberian Snooper]

If you're attaching the details with super glue or similar I would paint first and add the detail after, if you're adding the detail with solvent I would add it first and paint after.

[MikeTrice]

Decided to add the jumper cables prior to spraying:

 

 

The black was applied with permanent marker to show up the scribe marks I created to locate the various fittings.

 

[davelester]

Decided to add the jumper cables prior to spraying:

IMG_4909.JPG

 

IMG_4911.JPG

 

The black was applied with permanent marker to show up the scribe marks I created to locate the various fittings.

 

Mike,

 

Given it's an eight coach set, I'm a bit surprised you haven't chosen to make the jumper cables joined together.

 

I'd planned to use thin phosphor bronze wire soldered to 1mm brass rod going into the coach ends.

[MikeTrice]

Life is too short

 

Bear in mind I am only building a twin here as I do not have room for the full set. It does however mean I have to go through it all again!

[MikeTrice]

In hindsight the prototype has flexible rubber sheets covering the joint between coaches so you would not see the jumper cable, connected or otherwise.

 

All components have now been sprayed with Vallejo primer, grey or black as appropriate. Now need to follow best practice and leave them two days to fully dry out before doing anything else:

 

While this is happening I should start the other vehicle to go with it. If there is anything I have skipped over so far that anyone would like me to cover in greater detail, feel free to let me know.

[MikeTrice]

Well the grey primer seemed to take ages to go off compared to the black so I resorted to putting the components in the airing cupboard overnight. Today I sprayed the home made Marlborough blue over the body and bowed end, and sprayed black over the underframe and inner end, in both cases using Klear to thin the paint. I would post photos but to be honest they look virtually identical to the ones in primer. Now back in airing cupboard until tomorrow.

[MikeTrice]

The upper panels have been masked with Frisk masking film with the join (hopefully) aligned where the chrome trim will eventually go:

 

Care was taken for the bow end to align the join with that on the sides:

 

Sprayed with home made Garter Blue. Disaster, I got a splodge, so it will be back in the airing cupboard until I can rub down and respray tomorrow:

 

The end came up well:

 

T'other side. This is how the first side should have come out!

[grob1234]

Very nice indeed Mike. I shall be interested to see what you come up with for the inter coach fairings. So far on my build I have been unable to come up with a reasonable interpretation, very impressed with how fast you work too!

[MikeTrice]

I shall be interested to see what you come up with for the inter coach fairings. So far on my build I have been unable to come up with a reasonable interpretation.

I was hoping to copy you

[grob1234]

I was hoping to copy you

 

Doh!!

 

[MikeTrice]

The errant corner rubbed down and resprayed:

 

Oops! Guess who failed to rub down the Frisk again:

 

Now you can see why I made up extra quantities of the custom paint shades. A little brush work to touch up:

 

At some point previously I managed to drop the main body on the floor. I thought I had got away with it but found the bottom corner of the rebate bent:

 

Had the end been in place I doubt it would have damaged like this. Oh well, something else for the to do list.

[MikeTrice]

When I started describing how I made the first of the twin coaches using David Jenkinson's building technique I assumed people would be familiar with David's technique and rather glossed over how I followed in his footsteps, or deviated from his approach. I was also a bit slapdash with my measurements and accuracy so for the second twin I thought I would correct the previous errors and present the sides in a little more detail. I will also try and use David's nomenclature.

 

The basis of the system I adopted for the Coronation. An inner side in 20thou black styrene, then two layers of 10thou that would form the side proper (rear and front):

 

The two side proper layers laminated together. Two layers were used to incorporate the droplight, the rebated end and some detailing around the sliding ventilators:

 

The inner side has openings for the various windows some 1mm larger with the exception of the upper strip which on LNER coaches is typically very thin:

 

David's approach is to build an inner box using the inner sides, add profile strips to it, then attach the sides proper. My preference is to laminate the inner sides, profile strips and sides proper first before building the box. The first strip of 20thou x 20thou strip is added along the top edge of the inner side (I used Evergreen 120 as I did not trust my accuracy cutting these by hand):

 

The align it to the edge I pushed the side against an engineer's square then glued the strip up against it with solvent:

 

When I built the first twin I used 3 profile strips for the centre and lower portion of the side. IT seemed obvious to me that I could combine two of these into a single strip. I have struggled cutting styrene accurately and had adopted the following approach using a pair of dividers. First the required 9mm dimension is set on the dividers:

 

Now the dividers are used to mark the 20th styrene to the correct width:

 

With both ends marked it is possible to place a steel ruler along the marks with the tip of the knife blade just nicking the mark. When initially cutting the strip you can feel the knife dropping into the marks as it cuts. The resulting strip (2 were cut using the same dividor setting):

 

The strips had their burrs sanded off and were positioned 2mm from the bottom edge of the inner side. I thought I had set it to 2mm although the photo suggests it is 1.5mm. I hope this is an optical illusion:

 

The strip was tacked with solvent one end then the same approach taken at the other end. Finally a ruler was placed along them and the rest of the strip solvented in place ensuring it is straight:

Edited November 25, 2015 by MikeTrice

[MikeTrice]

Another strip of 20thou styrene is cut to width of 2mm and solvented 15mm from the inner face of the upper strip using the dividers to ensure the gap. First one end is tacked in place:

 

Then the middle:

 

And other end:

 

Again a steel rule aligns the rest whilst it is solvented in place:

 

This what we have so far:

 

The rebate that now exists between the top strip and the one we have just added is used to locate the glazing strip when it is eventually cut and fitted. The accuracy of this is something I had failed to ensure during my first coach build but have now learnt my lesson. To show the principle I have used some blue card to illustrate:

 

The turnunder is formed on the sides proper by placing the lower edge face down over a ruler and the back rubbed with an embossing tool:

 

By moving the side further over the ruler and repeating a curve is eventually introduced:

 

At this point in time the sides proper and the inner sides are the same length:

 

The ends will eventually be rebated between the sides proper so the inner sides need to be shortened by 1mm for the bowed end and 0.5mm for the plain end.

 

When fixing the sides proper to the inner sides, David starts at the bottom joint and works up applying solvent. I prefer to start with the top to ensure alignment at this critical place:

 

Once the solvent has gone off it is possible to prise the lower layers apart and get the loaded rigger up to the waist joint:

 

Finally solvent can be applied to the lower edge:

 

The joint at the base can be temporarily held by pushing the side down on the work mat:

 

A longer term clamping approach is to use two steel rules and some clips:

 

Here you can see the final end profile with inner side and profile strips complete with rebate for the glazing strips:

 

Here is one of the sides with the card glazing strip pushed partially through (the card is a little thick for this) so you can see how it is all intended to work:

 

The rest of the assembly is more of less as covered previously so there is little point in me repeating everything again. On that basis it might be a few days before I post more.

 

[Siberian Snooper]

Having read David's book and seen your series of photos all is now a lot clearer.

 

Thanks

[MikeTrice]

Getting there: