RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 14, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 14, 2020 (edited) Next project - the GEC (ex LMS) EMU. Looking at the second photo there do appear to be some missing parts - one motor bogie side and one coach chassis truss. I have spare trusses (lucky me) and the bogie castings are typical MTK grim so will be discarded. I have few spare Hornby motor bogies and frames that look suitably similar to the MTK castings* so these will be used for the motor coach. * I appreciate the MTK bogie castings are probably not correct themselves but the Hornby mouldings are far better. The MTK pressed aluminium sheet chassis will be deployed using the same construction method as the 2-HAL de-icer. Cheers Darius Edited February 27, 2023 by Darius43 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dasatcopthorne Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 That MTK casting is taken from the Triang/Hornby DMU Motor Bogie. Dave. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 15, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 15, 2020 13 hours ago, dasatcopthorne said: That MTK casting is taken from the Triang/Hornby DMU Motor Bogie. Dave. I bet that is the case with many MTK “kits”. Cheers Darius Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 15, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 15, 2020 (edited) Driving coach front and end cleaned up. Soft molded-on detail removed from the cab front. The cast buffer beams were removed - will be replaced with plasticard beams. Door edges scribed into driving coach sides. Cheers Darius Edited February 27, 2023 by Darius43 13 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 15, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 15, 2020 (edited) Motor coach body ends fitted and blended in with filler. Roof hatch added. Chassis started. Motor bogie support constructed from plasticard. Rear bogie is fixed using a small diameter bolt and nut/locknut. Cheers Darius Edited February 27, 2023 by Darius43 12 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 15, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 15, 2020 (edited) Roof vents and rain strips added. The vents provided in the kit are the wrong type so I used spare vents from Ian Kirk kit leftovers. I removed, down-sized and re-attached the roof hatch. Made the mistake of following the MTK instructions on its size with the original. Cheers Darius Edited February 27, 2023 by Darius43 12 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 16, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 16, 2020 (edited) Door vents, handles, hinges etc. added. Cheers Darius Edited February 27, 2023 by Darius43 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 16, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 16, 2020 (edited) Driving coach body primed. Cheers Darius Edited February 27, 2023 by Darius43 13 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post Darius43 Posted April 16, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted April 16, 2020 (edited) Main painting completed. Cheers Darius Edited February 27, 2023 by Darius43 19 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 Darius I was brought up both watching and using the slow electric lines out of Watford and used the predecessors of these units daily to go to school, cannot remember the yellow warning panels,probably because they were covered in grime, come to think of it the sides never looked green but dirty !! Great to see it being modelled 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium cg501 Posted April 16, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 16, 2020 (edited) Ron Fisher has some great shots of these units after withdrawal stored at Verney Junction showing the Green with Yellow fronts on this FlickR pages, used these as reference when building my own GEC Sets January, 1964. Copyright Ron Fisher. - https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=40052043%40N03&text=Verney Junction&view_all=1 Andrew Humphries Class 501 Trust Edited April 16, 2020 by cg501 4 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 16, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 16, 2020 23 minutes ago, cg501 said: Ron Fisher has some great shots of these units after withdrawal stored at Verney Junction showing the Green with Yellow fronts on this FlickR pages, used these as reference when building my own GEC Sets January, 1964. Copyright Ron Fisher. - https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=40052043%40N03&text=Verney Junction&view_all=1 Andrew Humphries Class 501 Trust Andrew, Excellent photos. Many thanks for the link. One thing they show is that the driver’s doors opened inwards. I will need to remove the hinges and relocate the door handles on the model. Shouldn’t be too difficult. Cheers Darius Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 You really are rattling through these MTK kits Darius, looking very very good, looking forward to what appears next! Cheers James Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium cg501 Posted April 16, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 16, 2020 22 minutes ago, Darius43 said: Andrew, Excellent photos. Many thanks for the link. One thing they show is that the driver’s doors opened inwards. I will need to remove the hinges and relocate the door handles on the model. Shouldn’t be too difficult. Cheers Darius Darius Just to note there should be hinges on the 3 doors which are housing the grills. top hinge (bottom of the hinge inline with top of the windows). Middle hinge ( just above the bottom of the windows) and bottom hinges are inline with the bottom door hinges on the other doors. I have a picture somewhere of a Motor coach outside Stonebridge Park. For more info on the units check out the book below, has a few shots of underframe detail as well Andrew 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 17, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 17, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, cg501 said: Darius Just to note there should be hinges on the 3 doors which are housing the grills. top hinge (bottom of the hinge inline with top of the windows). Middle hinge ( just above the bottom of the windows) and bottom hinges are inline with the bottom door hinges on the other doors. I have a picture somewhere of a Motor coach outside Stonebridge Park. For more info on the units check out the book below, has a few shots of underframe detail as well Andrew Hi Andrew, Looking at Ron’s photos I have come to the conclusion that I will need to replace the MTK louvre castings with scratch built plasticard ones as the MTK louvre panels are not well aligned vertically (or horizontally for that matter) something that would be emphasised by adding the hinges. Another mini modellling project in prospect. Cheers Darius Edited April 17, 2020 by Darius43 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BernardTPM Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 I was going to say it's a pity that the louvre mouldings are letting down the look of the sides. I wonder if you might be able to create a better set using a cut down section of an old Triang-Hornby Hymek main grille - I guess it would depend on the pitch though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 17, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 17, 2020 (edited) Replacement louvre panels fabricated from plasticard. Cheers Darius Edited February 27, 2023 by Darius43 10 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tomlinson Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Remarkably speedy and effective work. Your scratch grilles are a mega-improvement. I'm curious as to the door handles. Did you drill holes for these and if so how easily did the aluminium take a drill, was it possible to do it by hand? Many thanks, John. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium cg501 Posted April 17, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 17, 2020 That's much better, looking great Andrew 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 17, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 17, 2020 40 minutes ago, John Tomlinson said: Remarkably speedy and effective work. Your scratch grilles are a mega-improvement. I'm curious as to the door handles. Did you drill holes for these and if so how easily did the aluminium take a drill, was it possible to do it by hand? Many thanks, John. Thanks John, I have broken several 0.5mm drill bits trying to make holes for handrails in MTK metal coach bodies. The method I use now is to clamp a heavy duty sewing needle in a pin vice and use it as an awl to form a small hole. You have to be careful not to form a “dent” in the metal body - more risk of that with brass coach bodies - but it saves drill bits!!! I also use the “awl” to form guide holes for drilling out the roof vent holes with larger diameter drill bits. Cheers Darius 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tomlinson Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 That's a really good tip Darius, many thanks. John. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 17, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 17, 2020 (edited) Replacement louvres painted and fitted. Cheers Darius Edited February 27, 2023 by Darius43 12 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Darius43 Posted April 18, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted April 18, 2020 (edited) Centre coach construction progressed. Cheers Darius Edited February 27, 2023 by Darius43 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold A Murphy Posted April 18, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 18, 2020 Those louvres are such a huge improvement Darius. Great job. best, Alastair M 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Robert Shrives Posted April 18, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 18, 2020 Great work. good to see you had stored the kit well with such clean ally sides and floorpan parts. Certainly the grills lift the model as do hinges and handles etc. More power to your elbow! Robert 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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