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Let's see your Airfix/Kitmaster kit


Barclay
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16 minutes ago, TangoOscarMike said:

I'm glad to see those completed Gibbo, especially the modified Rocket.

Hi Tom,

 

I may be busy building Airfix/Dapol Presflos tanks but only because the second coat of blue is currently drying on my Cartic-4. I have even painted those bogies of yours a suitable shade of black so your efforts are slowly being put to use !

 

Gibbo.

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1 minute ago, BernardTPM said:

 

Are those the Ks 'Mataro' coaches (narrowed)?

Hi Bernard,

 

Well spotted !

 

They are indeed the K's Mataro caches but I did not narrow them, they are as built externally with the exception of altering the foot boards and squaring the windows to make them look more like Liverpool and Manchester Railway types. Along with fitting compartment dividers the other modification made was that I had two sets and so one of the mail coach types was converted into an extra first class coach.

 

Gibbo.

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Hi Folks,

 

After seeing all of Rosie Boss' City of Truro conversions, I especially like the rebuilt Badminton 3297 Earl Cawdor.

As a result here is my take on an imaginary 4-6-0 City of Truro contraption based upon a number 100's boiler on an old style frame set.

 

DSCF0550.JPG.9ec860a02f63d6120c79d370d060f702.JPG

 

DSCF0551.JPG.514f2601f3c944ddf787569aca862575.JPG

 

Gibbo.

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I 'ad one of them Kitmaster mk1 Restaurant Cars, easy enough build and a lovely runner; I may have been 9 or 10 when I built it and I was a ham fisted sort of kid.  I'm a ham fisted sort of adult, come to that, the test of any kit is giving it to me to build and if I can do it anyone can...

 

I remember being very impressed that this model had details in the toilet compartments, despite the fact that these couldn't be seen when the model was completed.  It had tables and chairs with plates and cups on as well; as this was the first coach I ever owned with an interior I thought I was the mutt's nuts.  It sort of helped, somehow, knowing that there were really toilets and wash basins behind the white glass...

 

Kitmaster coaches were the best available for many years, even after they ceased being available if you see what I mean.  Triang introduced scale length mk1s shortly after Kitmaster's demise, but their's had deeper set windows and not such a variety of types as KM; you got a BSK, a CK, a Buffet on B1 bogies, and an overlength BG.

 

I had some Airfix bashes in my teens which I am not too proud of now; an unholy union between a City of Truro and a 61xx to make a 43xx which was probably the least objectionable, and an appalling 56xx made from a 61xx and a Jinty chassis; it ran, though!  There was also a pretty dreadful 42xx on a HD 8F chassis using 61xx cylinders and slide bars; the rest was 61xx as well and so wrong that it sort of didn't matter that the wrong axle was coupled to the crosshead.

 

I also had a 61xx running on an old Triang Princess mechanism, but we all had one of those!

 

In my defence, Model Railway Constructor, who should have known better, published an article on how to make a 2884 from a HD 8F and a Castle at around this time...

Edited by The Johnster
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I did consider a while ago whether to challenge myself to see if I could build a creditable small layout to a decent standard using just the current exAirfix kits from Dapol. I was initially thinking of locos & rolling stock but I think it could have been extended to include the main buildings if I had allowed myself a bit of kit bashing. My thoughts had been centered around the railbus for passenger traffic and the 04 drewery for goods and midland based because of the signal box, so in early BR days, which most of the wagons also support. 

 

A few wagon kits were put together, but then a well priced s/h Heljan W&M railbus came along and it never got any further, the big problem being the total cost of motorising if commercial kits were used, being more than a lot of s/h can be found at. I might think on it again if enough spare time and money appears, having plenty of projects already to absorb them at present.

 

Izzy

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I can only assume that the photo on the box for the tank wagon kit showed axle boxes with red painted centres, as it appears RosiesBoss has done the same... is there any prototype evidence for this? Haven't found anything on Bartlett...

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Here's one I made earlier infact over fifty years ago. I first motorised it with homemade 1/16 thick brass frames and I think a Triang XT60 motor. Sometime in the '80's I reframed it and added a Portascap motor. The body is untouched since I assembled it and painted it all those years ago. I home made all the steps from brass sheet.

 

J94 1 .jpg

J94 2 .jpg

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Back in the day I would buy Airfix loco kits just for the pleasure of building them even though they were unsuitable for my WR/SR North Devon small port.  I cannot remember who made 'motorisation kits' for them, but I had a go at a couple of these with limited success.  You got a set of suitably sized Romford driving wheels, with no regard to accuracy in terms of numbers of spokes, a length of rail predrilled to accept crankpins to use as a coupling rod, Romford axles, and top hat brass bearings that you reamed out the holes in the plastic frames to fit.  Precision engineering it wasn't!

 

I managed to make a functioning J94 with a Romford Terrier and 40:1 gears, but it was never my best runner and a bit stiff.  Locos with Walchearts or even GW type motion were less successful, as the plastic valve gear was not up to the job; you were on a bit of a hiding to nothing and better off with an RTR chassis if one was useable.  My best runner of this sort was a 61xx with an old Rovex type Triang Black Princess chassis, complete with Triang flat cylinders, motion, and solid wheels.  A 42xx made out of a 61xx and CoT boiler with a HD 8F chassis ran superbly, but looked every bit as awful as it sounds with the motor bursting out of the cab.

 

It was a great learning experience, and lifelong lessons were absorbed.  The most important of these was probably not to ever try anything like this again...

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Long gone now but I bought a rtr chassis from Bristol Models for my J94/austerity. It proved a tad light so I fabricated the footplate from 1/8 steel. (A bit like the new 7mm Manning Wardle.) At the time, the J94 was unavailable and I paid a premium price for an unbuilt kit, probably at the Wakefield show in Unity Hall.

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