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Building an N gauge coach kit


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The acetate ones are old screen printing. For new stuff I cut them with a vinyl cutter on brown vinyl and stick that to clear plastic.

 

3D printing doesn't work well for it. I tried it early on for some 3D printed coach shells but the thicknesses are a pain so even for those I might print compartments and seat shapes but the corridor is a glue in strip using vinyl/clear plastic.

 

Alan

 

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On 25/10/2019 at 01:07, Etched Pixels said:

The acetate ones are old screen printing. For new stuff I cut them with a vinyl cutter on brown vinyl and stick that to clear plastic.

 

3D printing doesn't work well for it. I tried it early on for some 3D printed coach shells but the thicknesses are a pain so even for those I might print compartments and seat shapes but the corridor is a glue in strip using vinyl/clear plastic.

 

Alan

 

Hello Alan,
Thank you for your reply. 
I bought some vinyl and have made a couple in the way you describe... you explained your method to me a while back.

It's doable, but I find it a tad tedious/laborious.  This is why I have broached the question of another way of them being produced. Laser cutting of card seems to be popular, would this be an option?

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The last post on here was 5/12/19.
What are people up to with coach building, especially if like so many you are in isolation? 

I have been making some Worsley Works LMS coaches.

Am I correct in thinking it's just Etched Pixels, BHE, and Worsley Works selling coach etches at the current time?

I am aware that Etched Pixels have suspended sales during Covid 19, due to self isolation, like my wife and I.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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1 hour ago, wellseasoned said:

Nig H, 
Some nice work there. I wonder how many people have, amongst other things, some coach etches they have brought out of "hibernation" ?

Here's 2 pics of my recently completed carriages.

 

 

Hi wellseasoned,

 

Thanks for your comment. Nice to see your models of some rarer prototypes. I've made a 2mm finescale model of one of the restaurant thirds - I really like 12 wheel coaches.

 

Nig H

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Here's a couple more pics.

The 12 wheel Dining car is my first attempt at a Worsley works offering. All a bit of a learning curve with bending and soldering, but a great feeling of satisfaction when you've pretty much cracked it.  I bought two of these D1901s amongst eight I purchased. Currently working my way through the remaining six that are all different. 
I think if somebody was to produce a 3D printed 6 wheel bogie more people would have a go at dining cars and sleepers. I have "cut and shut" some Farish mk 1 bogies. It works, but is it's not the best solution.

P2205498.jpg

P1035476.JPG

Edited by wellseasoned
Posts mixed up/merging.
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Good to see some nice coaches! I have a new one to show off too, but I just need better weather than today to photograph it.

 

I agree with @Nig H that 12-wheel coaches are nice, they definitely add interest to rakes. I'm very pleased with how my Hawksworth sleeper looks, though a bit less pleased with how it goes round curves (not so much unless the curve is very gentle). Oh well, I suppose the same was true of the prototypes.

 

@wellseasoned If you join the 2mm Association you could try their etch of the LMS 12-wheel bogie. It's not any harder than their 8-wheel bogie etches, and the result is very impressive.

Edited by DavidK71
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6 hours ago, wellseasoned said:

Good to hear from you, your work is an inspiration to me.

 

:D

 

Can you please say/list what are the sources of etched sides/kits please...during normal circumstances?

 

For the coaches posted in this thread, the sources were:

 

Etched Pixels (currently temporarily shut)

Hawksworth A23 first

Hawksworth D133 brake third

Hawksworth J18 sleeper

Hawksworth K45 brake

O13 milk brake

 

Taylor Precision Models (not trading since about 2012)

Collet K40 brake

 

Masterclass Models (Chris Higgs) (These were limited run kits offered in the past on the 2mm Association mailing list.)

Collet C67 third

Toplight D69 brake third

Collett 'Sunshine' D121 brake third

Collett 'Sunshine' E152 brake composite

 

Bill Bedford (https://www.mousa.biz/ but it doesn't seem to list etched sides any more, so he has probably stopped doing those)

H15 restaurant car

H24 restaurant car

 

eBay

Toplight K22 full brake (a reduction of a 4mm etch), probably pretty old from the look of the typed instructions.

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17 minutes ago, DavidK71 said:

 

eBay

Toplight K22 full brake (a reduction of a 4mm etch), probably pretty old from the look of the typed instructions.

 

K22 could be from a couple of places. Yours possibly 5522 design. Blacksmith (ex Mallard) also reduced some stuff to 2mm but I can't recall this being on their list. I think Worsley Works has done one more recently, which is probably a better bet. The Cavendish then Ultima range had what is supposed to be a K22 but might actually be a better match to an earlier dia. Miss Prism suggested this in a thread somewhere around this forum but I cannot find it now. These had pre printed sides and passed to Etched Pixels (I think) but something I read from Alan Cox suggested it was either not possible or not worthwhile to produce these any more. 

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David K71,  Thank you for the list of coaches you made and posted pic's of, and their origins. 

With regard to Masterclass and Bill Bedford I don't think either of them are currently producing N gauge etches...unless there is an avenue  to purchase them I am unaware of?
I have previously "won" some Bill Bedford LMS etches via ebay.

I am currently working my way through a batch of 9 Worsley Works etches purchased a short while before the fairly overall lockdown.  These are a step-up for me having to use solder, but I'm doing o.k. and it is very much a learning curve for me. I'm finding they need my complete concentration, and I am forced to walk away and let some parts set or dry.
In 60 years of making models from my early Airfix plane days, I have always been an "eager beaver" anxious to move to the next stage. None of this with the Worsley Works etches though, so this old dog is learning a thing or three!
I am currently building a W/Works diagram L21 GWR T.P.O. and mentioned to the proprieter Alan, that I think some LMS versions would be a good addition to his range. He replied that he will look into doing some of them once the current covid situation abates. 

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4 hours ago, wellseasoned said:

With regard to Masterclass and Bill Bedford I don't think either of them are currently producing N gauge etches...unless there is an avenue  to purchase them I am unaware of?

 

No, I don't think that there is any way to buy them at present, unless they happen to show up on eBay.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I finally got around to taking a photograph of my latest coach, finished earlier this year. I love the Great Western coaches, but I do also have a fondness for the earlier LMS coaches, especially the Period II designs. So when Chris Higgs made his back catalogue available a few years back, I couldn't resist picking up this LMS Period II open third:

 

spacer.png

 

The only tricky bit of the build is those blasted Stones ventilators over the windows. I tried all sorts of things to represent them, but the trouble is that there are very few decent photographs of how they look in real life. I've seen some 4mm coaches with etches for the ventilators, but that didn't look right. In the end I settled on pieces of clear acetate, cut to size, and vertically scored to represent the individual elements of the ventilator, then held in place with gloss varnish. Unfortunately they doen't photograph that clearly, they're a bit better defined "in the flesh". But definitely enough trouble that one such coach is quite enough!

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On 27/09/2020 at 15:12, wellseasoned said:

This page has gone dead, is there a loss of interest?   I would have thought with the levels of lockdown posts would have increased.

 

I'm still interested and browse now and again.

 

Lockdown gave me the opportunity to finish (at last!) the sides of 2 Thompson non-vestibule Brake 3rds. I was all ready to fit them when I decided to order some Modelu passengers , so I need to finish and install them, before the sides go on.

 

I think photographs will show up the imperfections most cruelly. But at normal viewing distance they'll be ok.

 

It was this page that inspired me to try kit-building carriages and DavidK71 was very helpful.

 

I'm busy improving track work at the moment, then I've 2 turnouts to build, a Union Mills J25 and J27 to modify, etc, etc, but I do think I'll try more carriages at some point - there's great satisfaction in making something yourself.

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2020 has been rather hectic for me, so there has been substantially less modelling time, rather than more. What time there has been has also involved a few distractions away from railways. However, while work on N gauge coached may have slowed, it hasn't stopped: a few months back I got this from the etchers - my first etched sides! Now I just need to find the time to build this ...

Etch.jpg.a8f0808e51d886c32b672c8ddfaa9b92.jpg

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Great to know that levels of interest are still there, even if other things get in the way.

David K71, those etches look interesting. Is this etches from your own design?
 

A few months back I asked Alan at Worsley Works about doing some LMS T.P.O.s. He sounded receptive but I've not heard anything since.
T.B.H. I've had a short break from coaches, and built Some Petite Properties buildings. I usually scratch-build but was curious about them. Great pre-cut stout card kits, that allow your to finish and enhance them as you wish.  With lockdown mk2 I'll soon be back to coachbuilding.

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On 05/10/2020 at 21:51, wellseasoned said:

David K71, those etches look interesting. Is this etches from your own design?

 

They are: my first attempt. To be used with Masterclass Models kits to provide the underframe and shell, to create some more unusual GWR coaches ... 😄

Edited by DavidK71
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Talking of etches, Mounsa models, who I believe is Bill Bedford, was mentioned on the f/book L.M.S. modelling page today. This was in relation to his 4mm etches. I replied saying that I'd asked him if he'd be re-introducing his N gauge carriage sides, and I'd never had a reply.

To this there was a reply saying "Mounsa" had said on RMweb if somebody could show it was profitable then he would do it.  It seems the availability circle of carriage etches is shrinking?

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