OTrail's Modern Image Workbench - Class 180, Class 222, Class 323 and more!

[OTrail]

Hi everyone,

 

I’ve been a member on here for years as a “lurker”, having started modelling in late 2014. I also post my workbench content on Instagram under “midlandlondon” but thought I’d give RMweb a go to provide more detailed content as to my modelling work on a frequent basis.

 

So, currently, I have a number of builds on the go. First up is my Class 180, a CMAC models 3D printed kit which I purchased on eBay a few months back (I highly recommend his work, the prints are top quality!). This will be going into EMR’s new “outgoing” livery, which having been revealed in September, easily swayed my decision from being on the fence with either Grand Central or Hull Trains livery. So far, only one TSO has been painted and modified to fit the Bachmann Voyager chassis, with the others to follow in the next few weeks.

 

Alongside the 180, I am constructing a Class 222 Meridian, which will eventually be painted into the now defunct East Midlands Trains livery as 222008 "Derby Etches Park", using a cheap Voyager found off eBay and a spare carriage I've had lying around my spares box for a number of years. Having previously been based on the MML growing up, this has been on my "want" list for many years, but it wasn't until I stumbled across a build of the 222 on here that I became motivated to give the build a go myself, as alas, this amazing unit has been ignored by RTR manufacturers. It's been a really enjoyable build so far, with the cabs and fairings nearly complete and ready for resin casting, just needing a final priming and sanding, whilst two of the three trailer Voyager carriages have been modified to match the layout on the Meridian. On the attached photos, my progress so far (roughly) can be documented (photos aren't in order of construction unfortunately - I still need to figure that out). The cab took a total of two weeks on and off to get right, so resin casting's a must here! I've also been working on transfers, which just need the destination dot matrix displays to be complete, after which they'll be sent to either railtec or precision labels for printing.

 

And finally for now, I have a 323 unit build underway. I started this over the summer but lost motivation due to the never-ending construction of the underframe equipment. However, I have recently been urging to get it back on the workbench as I wanted to experiment with blending paints together. The reason being is this 323 will be going into the London Midland's BTP livery seen on 323221, which will be a challenge! This is a kit from "modern multiple units" on eBay, and whilst I've purchased two (one to be ex-Northern Rail purple and another London Midland), I wanted to complete the London Midland unit first as that's the livery I favour out of the two. I've been using modified Bachmann 166 chassis for the unit, which as a three car unit at 23m length, was a complete like-for-like. I also had all three chassis spare from an eBay purchase I made a few years back, which included four 166 bodyshells and chassis for £40, absolute bargain!

 

So in terms of introductions, this will be it for the time being. Keep an eye out on this page to watch my progress - I also have other builds planned/on the go but these are the ones I am choosing to focus on at present. I may add another one to the main mix in a couple of months... so watch this space.

 

All the best, and hope everyone's keeping safe during these tough times!

OTrail

[RPNaylor0301]

Following with interest! Think the EMR livery really suits the 180. 

[OTrail]

14 minutes ago, RPNaylor0301 said:

Following with interest! Think the EMR livery really suits the 180. 

Thanks mate, much appreciated! Yeah I completely agree - also a lot easier when it comes to creating the artwork in illustrator 

[OTrail]

Tonight’s update is very small, but at the same time it’s a major step forward on the Meridian. The transfer artwork has seen the destination blinds added

 

 

As you can imagine, it took an absolute age to get these right/scale the boxes and text to fit well with each other to look as realistic as possible. All I have left to add are some bicycle symbols, first class “circles” (as per all Stagecoach-company stock) and minor things such as door buttons and the transfer artwork will be complete.

 

In terms of the main unit itself, I’m almost there with the cabs - a bit more sanding/filling will be completed over the next few days on windscreen washers, whilst a piece of plastic tubing will be sanded and bent as appropriate to complete the fairings.

 

 

 

I should have another update on here in the next day or so... so until then stay safe everyone!

 

OTrail

[JDW]

Hi, and Welcome to the forum! Some excellent looking projects here. I've been tempted by the 3d-printed 175 or maybe 180, but decided to wait and see if the bogies and underframe parts become available - I'm not short of projects anyway, I also bought one of the 323 kits (you might have seen my thread already, the 323 stuff starts on p5 I think) and am slowly working my way through it. I've made a few modifications as I've gone along, and had a minor catastrophe trying to correct the bowed sides! 

 

Very much looking forward to seeing your projects develop, thanks for decidig to share.

[OTrail]

7 hours ago, JDW said:

Hi, and Welcome to the forum! Some excellent looking projects here. I've been tempted by the 3d-printed 175 or maybe 180, but decided to wait and see if the bogies and underframe parts become available - I'm not short of projects anyway, I also bought one of the 323 kits (you might have seen my thread already, the 323 stuff starts on p5 I think) and am slowly working my way through it. I've made a few modifications as I've gone along, and had a minor catastrophe trying to correct the bowed sides! 

 

Very much looking forward to seeing your projects develop, thanks for decidig to share.

Hi, thank you for your comments and not a problem! 
 

For the 180 bogies, I’m thinking of shortened Eurostar ones - they’re more or less the same given both were built by Alstom, but I may just wait until CMAC decides to 3D print them himself. I also have a 175 lying around in my spares box, but it’s the Shapeways printed version which isn’t as good a quality as the ones CMAC printed himself, so  a lot more work will be required to get it up to scratch. That one is planned to use some Turbostar bodies I have spare from my Electrostar project.
 

I’ve just had a look now, and I’m liking what you’re doing with it so far! I don’t think I’ll do any door mods though as I feel as though I’ve done enough modifications to get the chassis to fit, plus I still need to go through the nightmare process of correcting the bodyshell warps over the next few weeks! Oddly enough, I’ve purchased both the reject and original prints, and the reject print had less defects!

 

For the window frames, I might just create some etches on Illustrator and send them off to PPD Ltd - the maker of the kit said he’s been going to do them for ages but I haven’t seen any other parts develop so I’ll have to do them myself. I’ll also resin cast the underframe I made to save me some time later on.

Edited December 1, 2020 by OTrail

[JDW]

I hadn't even considered the Eurostar ones might be suitable. I presume you mean ones from the power cars? 

 

The warping isn't that bad to correct really. I just left them in wam (not boiling!) water for a while, and used two pieces of rod and some elastic bands to hold them in place. Trick is not leaving them in too long! Just enough that the elastic pulls the shells in, then take out, dry off and set aside to cool for a day. Repeat if necessary and don't try to do too much. Do the 175/180 suffer from the same problem? I see they are printed in one piece?

Edited December 1, 2020 by JDW

[OTrail]

8 hours ago, JDW said:

I hadn't even considered the Eurostar ones might be suitable. I presume you mean ones from the power cars? 

 

The warping isn't that bad to correct really. I just left them in wam (not boiling!) water for a while, and used two pieces of rod and some elastic bands to hold them in place. Trick is not leaving them in too long! Just enough that the elastic pussl the shells in, then take out, dry off and set aside to cool for a day. Repeat if necessary and don't try to do too much. Do the 175/180 suffer from the same problem? I see they are printed in one piece?

Not the power cars - the trailer ones are the correct ones as per the 175s and 180s (minus the length so they will need chopping up). In all honesty I think I'll just use the Eurostar ones as it'll be good fun, and at a couple of quid each it'll be cheaper and faster than waiting for CMAC's versions!

 

I'll have a crack at it this weekend, as I'm planning on getting the airbrush out of its two week retirement to test out some spraying, so the 323 will be taken out to be continued. I have some plastic tubing lying around that might work, will need to get some elastic bands from the store now that lockdown 2's ending (at last)!

[GarrettTheThief]

This is stellar!

 

I was going to build a 4-car and 9-car Meridian in the later Midland Mainline livery, but I abandoned those projects due to time/space constraints. I eagerly await the outcome of that one and the Class 180 (I'm tempted to do this one in either of the MML liveries, just because!). It's looking amazing so far!

[Erixtar1992]

Snap

[OTrail]

On 07/12/2020 at 10:29, GarrettTheThief said:

This is stellar!

 

I was going to build a 4-car and 9-car Meridian in the later Midland Mainline livery, but I abandoned those projects due to time/space constraints. I eagerly await the outcome of that one and the Class 180 (I'm tempted to do this one in either of the MML liveries, just because!). It's looking amazing so far!

Thank you for your kind comments! I would like to do another unit in the future in either HT or MML livery but both are rather complicated! I'll see how I go as I resin cast the cabs and fairings... so watch this space  Although I wouldn't be building a 9 or 7-carriage unit - a 5-carriage unit's already enough work as it is!

[OTrail]

On 07/12/2020 at 10:56, Erixtar1992 said:

Snap

Great job mate - guessing it's going in FGW livery? Never knew they had Adelante's that tilted! 

[Erixtar1992]

2 minutes ago, OTrail said:

Great job mate - guessing it's going in FGW livery? Never knew they had Adelante's that tilted! 

Sure is. 
ha, handily its pretty easy to disable, as you will find out (assuming your chassis are 221?)

I have 3 cars rolling but only the one DM painted atm, too many projects on the go!

[OTrail]

So, it's been longer than expected but I finally have an update - settling into my new job's been eating up a lot of my modelling time, but despite this, I'm still making slow but steady progress...

 

My main focus the past week has been the Meridian - I've finally finished all 3 of the trailer cars for the 5-carriage unit, so I'll walk through my process as to how I dealt with each one.

 

First, the voyager carriage was removed from the chassis and soaked in the IPA dip on-and-off over a day's period, during which I continuously rubbed off the old Virgin livery, using a cocktail stick for "hard to reach" areas:

 

 

Following the above process, I was left with a stripped carriage, as follows:

 

As you can see above, the aircon unit was cut using a craft knife and moved backwards as per the real thing - aside from the cab, a major challenge with this build has been cutting and shutting the roof per the prototype, however using my experience from my postponed Electrostar build, the challenge wasn't as difficult as I thought!

 

Using a spare Voyager carriage I purchased years ago when I first began the hobby, I cut off the roof and began using it as filler to plug the large gap

 

Following this, I cut and swapped the the main roof section, again per the real thing. Filler was then used to plug any remaining gaps, after which plasticard strips were added to strengthen the already-glued part:

 

The roof was then sanded, and the additional smaller windows drilled and filed into shape:

 

And as a finishing touch, the carriage was primed. All three completed carriages can be seen below:

 

A bit of a close up on the buffet car, the most difficult of the three to sort out given the additional full window!

 

Also shown is a comparison between the Voyager and now-complete Meridian cab - I've now purchased some Lego and other tools ready for resin casting in the next couple of weeks:

 

In all honesty I'm debating whether or not I should sand down the washers some more as they look a little big - I'll have to double check the photos of the prototype but it shouldn't take that long to fix if needs be.

 

So there we are - quite a lengthy update, but the Meridian is progressing well and should hopefully be complete by mid-Jan latest. I have another Voyager chassis on order to accommodate the fifth carriage and once resin casting is complete, I will begin to work on the painting and electronics. The Adelante and 323 will be continued over the christmas period in the next week or so.

 

Thanks for viewing and stay safe everyone!

OTrail

Edited December 8, 2020 by OTrail
text out of place

[OTrail]

25 minutes ago, Erixtar1992 said:

Sure is. 
ha, handily its pretty easy to disable, as you will find out (assuming your chassis are 221?)

I have 3 cars rolling but only the one DM painted atm, too many projects on the go!

My original plan was FHT livery, but lack of transfers set me back! I'm still debating whether to move back to HT livery or stick with EMR... both operated on the MML so I'll see where my enthusiasm is. I do have photos of the 180 dynamic lines livery but it's about whether I can edit them to a good enough standard in Illustrator.

Yep using a 221, but I'll need to buy a few more of eBay as I'm short a few - I'll also need to sort out the bogies at some point, but will be a job when pay day arrives! 

I'm in the same boat... loads planned but not enough capacity!

 

[OTrail]

A bit of an experiment with illustrator to see if I could get this to work as artwork:

 

Seems to be working out well so far, but I’m going to have to do a lot of merging and editing using photos of the dynamic lines livery on the Adelantes that I’ve taken pictures of over the years... if it works, then the EMR 180 will become an ex-Hull Trains unit. Having ran on the MML under Hull Trains and with EMR running the units in this livery on driver training runs, it’s very prototypical of what’s occurred on the MML in recent years. 
 

I’ll provide an update on this as and when, but I’m hoping that it will work out as saves me A LOT of paint mixing and masking!

 

 

 

[OTrail]

So, as most of you may or may not be aware, EMR’s 180s debuted in passenger service today...

 

 

...So I took a ride on one! 180110 was working the Corby service, which is a shuttle between Corby and Kettering on Sunday as opposed to going all the way to London. I have to say, EMR have done the bare minimum internally in getting these units up to scratch. They still have the grubby Hull Trains interior, and looking closely I even saw hints of HT branding, including their slogan!

However, this worked out well for me, as on some of the inter-carriage doors I found pictures of the dynamic lines livery found on the DMSOs, which provided me the perfect opportunity to take a picture and edit them on illustrator!

 

Below shows the current progress of the artwork:

 

So what was meant to be an outing to see EMR’s 180s in action turned out to be a productive fieldwork day... the remaining photos I have should be sufficient to finish this off, otherwise I just have to hope that 180109 continues running in its current livery for a little while longer!

 

So there we have it - a very brief update as life and stuff is again getting in the way of modelling time. The additional chassis for the Meridian arrived today, so I should be doing more work on that over the coming days. 
 

Thanks for viewing and stay safe everyone!

OTrail

[OTrail]

Much editing and photo bashing in Illustrator later and the dynamic lines part of the 180 artwork has been finished:

 

The one thing I’ve always loved and hated about the dynamic lines on the Class 180s is how unique they are to the standard dynamic lines used by other FirstGroup TOCs - makes transfers a lot harder to create and source! 
 

Luckily the photos I had from over the years were sufficient enough to finish the bulk of it off - the main two factors that aided this were the stationary GWR 180s at the OOC open day in 2017 and various trips to Doncaster in the afternoon in 2018/19, along with the fact that EMR have been lazy with their 180 interiors! All that’s left to do now is to add the unit numbers, first class, seating/coach arrangement numbers and other miscellaneous minor details and it’ll be complete and ready to be sent to precision labels.

 

Not really been doing work on the main units, but this should change as the Christmas period approaches next week l, so hopefully should have something else to report then.

 

As always, thanks for viewing and stay safe everyone!

OTrail

[OTrail]

It’s been a productive weekend - now that London and the South East have been plunged into Tier 4 in what’s perhaps the biggest freestyle ever, more time has now been spent indoors modelling as opposed to going out. During this time, I managed to finalise the 222 cab and separate it from the main body:

 

 

 

 

Minus a final bit of filling and sanding on the fairings, the cab and fairings are complete and ready for resin casting next week. I chose to saw off the cab from the main body as this will serve as a master for when I build my second unit in the future (guess which livery...), and this will be a lot easier to cast as opposed to using the full body!

 

The Adelante and 323 remain untouched from when I last provided an update; the Adelante artwork, however, has received the FHT logos whilst I really need to continue the 323... although I'm thinking of picking up a few more projects which I postponed instead as I've suddenly got the motivation again to crack on and finish them - both are EMUs, with more details to follow next week.

 

Hope everyone's keeping safe, and please continue to be careful during these increasingly-dangerous times!

 

OTrail

[OTrail]

I’ve managed to secure a Bachmann Class 350 as part of a future project... however I’m in need of one more unit for spares and repairs to get it and another unrelated project going. Does anyone have a spare battered unit they’re willing to sell me at a reasonable price?

 

OTrail

[OTrail]

A lot has been happening this week as I’ve been off from work for the Christmas period - Meridian wise, I don’t have much to report on as the model filler was meant to be delivered today, however it is currently at the post office awaiting collection on Sunday, meaning I’m going to have to step back from it for a few days!

 

In the meantime, I’ve diverted my attention solely to the 180, which, in a massive u-turn has seen the use of a Turbostar motor chassis:

 

It took a fair bit of mods to get it to fit perfectly (I had to sand down the body clips and curve the edges), but it fits perfectly snug with no screws required fortunately, as it saves a lot of work to fit a housing to each carriage on the 5 car set!

 

The Turbostar chassis is one of many spare from my postponed FCC Electrostar project, which I’ve recently got the mojo to persist with finishing, so I will provide an update as and when I source the supplies to get the planned electronics up and running. This worked out better than the Voyager chassis as it meant I didn’t have to fill in the huge hole left from removing the previous underframe. Here is the motor carriage with its underframe applied:

 

I will now need to get to work with the remaining bodyshells and paint them into Firstgroup livery to see how the transfers would fit, then adjust them accordingly and send them over to Precision Labels for printing. I’ve had a few requests to include FGW decals on the transfer docs, but this is TBC at the moment as there are numerous differences besides the logos and in all honesty, it’s relatively difficult (bar my annual leave) to fit in modelling nowadays!

 

Happy holidays everyone and please stay safe during the festivities!

 

OTrail

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by OTrail

[OTrail]

A bit premature but happy new year everyone! Hope the next year is a great one, and that we are able to return to (near) normality in due course!

 

I’ve been pretty busy the past week on the workbench - the 180 has seen little progress apart from the modification of the first Eurostar bogie to go on the model:

 

I first noticed the similarities when I went to the NRM in York in 2019 - this was the first visit in a long time and I noticed that an actual Eurostar power car is now on display in the great hall. This then got me thinking about how the Coradia and 373s were both built by Alstom, and a bit of digging around on the Internet later confirmed that the 373 trailer carriage bogies are (close enough) the same as those found on the Coradia family! This was necessary as I started a Class 175 build at around the same time. However, as I purchased it from Shapeways during it’s early rescale to 00 gauge, the material quality was poor and the underframe equipment etc. was unavailable at the time, meaning I ended up shelving it for a year and a half. However, after getting in touch with the maker of the Adelante kit, I was able to get the underframe needed to finish the model. So the project resumed!

 

This will go in the new Transport for Wales livery, which I’m sure many will agree is one of the sleekest liveries going on the railways at the moment. Before shows a before and after of the Shapeways bodyshells after mods and painting had been completed:

 

 

As with the Adelante, I’m using the Bachmann Turbostar chassis as a basis for the model, as shown below without the bogies:

 

The Meridian cab has also been finalised, meaning it’s now ready for resin casting next week. Below shows the finished product:

 

After 2 months working on this (it was started in Lockdown 2), I’m finally satisfied with how it looks. Resin casting it will save me a lot of time trying to replicate this on the other DM, and keeping this as a master will enable multiple casts to be made in the future!

 

So there we have it - it’s been a busy couple of weeks, but I’ve got a lot done and I’m on track with a number of builds. Plenty more to come in 2021, but I think now’s the time for a few days rest... don’t you? 

 

All the best for the new year everyone, and as always stay safe!

 

OTrail

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2020 by OTrail

[tstageman92]

Absolutely stunning modelling, following this thread with great interest!

[Jack374]

Wow very nice work on these units! Your 222 is looking great and I can appreciate and sympathise with the amount of work required...the end result will be unique and look stunning though. Have you got any plans to make more 222s? If so you could cast the roof section as I’ve done, so no need to reposition the air con units on every coach - just chop most of the roof off and graft the new one into place.

 

If you want any info/pics/cast bits (I know you’ve done your own!) then drop me a PM.

 

looking forward to seeing the end result(s) - you’ll have a very unique fleet!

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[OTrail]

Hi Jack, thanks for the comments! Your support is greatly appreciated.

 

In all honesty stumbling across your thread a few months ago inspired me to do this! Thought I'd give it a go myself as the Meridians are the units of my childhood, so always been on the top of my "want list".

 

My plan is to (eventually) build two units - the first one is a five car EMT unit, and the second one (not an immediate priority) will be 222104 in its full EMR Intercity livery - I have enough photos of the unit/logo so I should be in a good enough position to create transfers on illustrator, although that will mainly be logos as most of the livery will be a straight forward paint job (albeit the white lines on the cab ends!).

 

The roof casting is currently being considered for the second unit, although I'm not sure whether it would be worth it or not given I've run out of spare Voyager coaches to chop! I'll see where my motivation is when the time comes.

 

Casting of the cabs so far is going well, but might need a couple of fairings as the connecting air dam snapped off whilst preparing it for casting! I'm going to have another go over the weekend but will let you know in due course if I need them.

 

All the best and stay safe!