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Building an N gauge coach kit


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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a little bit more progress, the coach now has an interior:

 

Interior.jpg.b6e41b82f9d558d33ff9a4903388ab3c.jpg

 

When designing the etched sides, one thing I didn't do was to design an etched corridor wall for the interior. When I got to thinking about the interior, I came to regret that! My eventual solution was to work out what I wanted for the corridor using Inkscape and testing with paper, based on the coach sides. The actual corridor is a piece of an A4 transparency sheet, cut to size, which I then blutac'd to a piece of paper with the corridor design on and carefully painted the corridor onto it.

 

Compartment walls are pieces of plasticard sheet with some plasticard rod at the bottom to hold them upright. Seats are just printed paper with a vaguely appropriate moquette pattern, cut and folded then glued in. It's all pretty basic but fine for N gauge - corridor coaches need some interior, otherwise the light shining through is too obvious, but I can't see any point in any more detail than this.

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As always DavidK71, some nice and inspirational modelling. 

I've struggled a bit with corridors, using clear sheet and some matt brown "sticky back plastic" cut into thin strips and painstakingly applied...but it works.

On a separate note, I see that  E.P. are remaining closed due to ongoing Covid concerns. We have also needed to shield so I can fully understand.

 

Edited by wellseasoned
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On 20/03/2021 at 05:01, Sithlord75 said:

Noticed today that Worsley Works has produced the Coronation set to go with the Silver Jubilee Set.  So ordering both - they may arrive in time for my birthday at the end of April but even if they don't, Management has decreed that they'll be my birthday present.  Locos for both ready to go - Silver Fox as produced by Dapol and 4491 as detailed up from Golden Eagle by me. 

 

I'll be sure to post progress shots as I work through the trains.

Alan at Worsley works has said he is working on some LMS T.P.O.s that I'd asked him about. 
I bet you will love those sets you have ordered!

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  • 1 month later...

So these dropped into the letter box today...

1344708152_Coronation(1).JPG.951f6493f44414d540b7d46191d32f9c.JPG

 

2096093112_SilverJubilee(1).JPG.6237bc77c43b0301b5492714b46fa14e.JPG

 

I spent half an hour working out which etches were which coaches - the two train sets were packed separately so that was handy.  The red letters are my work - if anyone spots an error, please let me know!  Why Allen didn't include the letters as part of the etch shall remain a mystery.

 

I don't know why I didn't twig earlier (the catalogue says 8 coach set!) but I was disappointed the observation car wasn't there with the Coronation set.  I guess, a bit like "Elvis" by Julia Adams, it would be a bit tricky to etch.

 

I'm not sure when I'll get started on these - I am planning on using CAD to draw up and print interiors and roofs so will need to find some decent drawings of same.  Turns out my collection of LNER coach drawings is a bit deficient in some critical areas - but then as a LNWR/LMS modeller who is dabbling that isn't a surprise.

 

I'll be sure to post pictures of progress as and when progress occurs.

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These will keep you busy for a while!
I look forward to seeing progress when you are able to start work on them.

Etched Pixels is now open for business after being closed for a year.  I managed to get an order in quickly for some parts I had run out of. Looking just now a large number of items are now show as out of stock. Perhaps there has been an avalanche of orders leading to this?

Alan at E.P. has said that some items will be discontinued/not re-ordered, citing some 3D printed ones. Hopefully this won't be too severe, and etches, buffers vents etc will continue in the range. 

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  • 2 months later...

I finished this a few months back, but have only today got round to photographing it:

 

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This is W7573, which began its life as an E88 Toplight, but was given a new body during World War II by Swindon after sustaining severe damage. Definitely an interesting coach with its old underframe with Fishbelly bogies and tie bars, a corridor side that looks like late 1930s Sunshine stock, and a door to every compartment on the compartment side, in the style of older 1920s and 30s coaches.

 

Creating my own etches was an interesting challenge! I definitely made a few mistakes, but overall I'm very pleased with the result. In case anyone else fancies one of these, I'm attaching an SVG file (generated with Inkscape) containing the etched sides and cosmetic solebar, plus the corridor partition and roof guide.

 

W7573.svg

Edited by DavidK71
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2 hours ago, nabber said:

This looks great! Not my area, but an interesting coach. Thanks for attaching the SVG. I'd like to get my own sides etched in future, so it's very useful to see an actual file. Who did you use? PPD?

 

It's good to hear that the file is of some interest. I tried to follow how Chris Higgs (Masterclass Models) had done etches, as his are the best kits I've come across. Yes, I used PPD: it was very straight-forward, I emailed them the file and a few weeks later the etches turned up.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...

Good to see that things look to be slowly getting back to where they were on this site.

Saddened that Etched Pixels is slowly being wound down/business closing. I wonder what will become of this important source of parts for our carriage building?

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It will be a real shame if it does go the way of the Dodo.
The business has changed hands a couple/few times, and IMO still has a future.
3D printing is making ever increasing inroads within our hobby, and 3D carriages are out there. However, I do think that brass etches and actually building a carriage from a collection of parts  will remain popular.  Anyway, all we can hope is that the business is bought, possibly absorbed into a current range of similar (ish) products.  E.Ps Hawksworth carriages are to 2mm scale, so maybe the 2mm association would be interested in these at least?

We can only hope it doesn't go the way of the Dodo!

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The interest or otherwise of an individual or group (such as the 2mm Association) will be dependent I'd think on how easy it is to get more produced.  If the 2mm scale etches are ones which can be manipulated into getting the more popular ones done easily then maybe.  However from discussion with regards to some of the WSL stuff in the 2mm lists, those models may not be replaced because they are parts of a sheet which there are plenty of stocks - and limited demand.  

 

An individual may be able to buy the business - but they'd presumably want a return on their investment.

 

I've managed to get some LNWR coach etches recently - as many as funds would allow at the time (and since then I've had to deal with over a meter of water go through due to floods here in South East Queensland back in February - it'll be some months still before the hobby budget can withstand a significant hit) so I am feeling the solution for my interests will be to learn how to design my own.

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  • 3 months later...

It will be a shame to see the Ultima range of castings disappear, they are tiny works of art and very well executed. But I suspect 3D printing can replace them if someone puts the effort in. A lot of the coach side etchings were Bill Bedford produced and/or rebranded. The GWR NPCS kits such a Monsters/Giant/Siphons were also lovely - even though they got the roof profile horribly wrong.

 

Not that I am too bothered, I have enough of the castings for several lifetimes safely stowed in their own dedicated gloat box!

 

I am no fan of 3D printed coaches though, the sides are way too thick to ever be realistically glazed. Ends maybe (especially odd shaped ones like Hawksworths), roofs definitely, but sides, no.

 

Chris Higgs (yes that one).

Edited by Chris Higgs
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I'm working on a few plans, but there shouldn't be any need to panic. The hard stuff is actually the plastic mouldings (about which there are some conversations happening) because they require someone with a lot of skill and the right equipment to restore/manage.

 

The 3D print stuff is trivial I've already put some of it on github for people to download/use/modify and more will follow. The etches I have digital artwork for I will if need be able to put the artwork up in some format although it may require some recovery work. The ones that are not may require some custodian unless I can persuade PPD to let anyone order them 8).

 

The white metal bits are not going to be too hard - worst case is giving everyone on the planet non commercial rights to make their own copies or copies for their club members.

 

Wheels and most brass buffers and fittings are from third party providers anyway. There are some other bits where the rights belong to someone else and Ultima just got to use them (the old 2mm PC models bits for example, and the Commonwealth bogie) but not too many. Those I can't do much about.

 

I'd mostly agree with Chris about 3D printed coaches but we are starting to get to the point you can sensibly 3D print glazing the way the commercial plastic providers do to hide the thickness, it's also possible to mix 3D and etch (and 3D and vinyl and 3D and old Ultima printed sides it turns out too).

 

Some bits really do need to go away as well. If you've ever tried packing loose white metal ventilators or counting them you'd understand - the £4.50 a set is something like £4 of handling and 50p of ventilators. They belong 3d printed into the roof.

 

Alan

 

Edited by Etched Pixels
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  • 4 weeks later...

3d printed roofs are interesting. With so many variations of ventilators on different diagrams, would it be prudent to print them with a full complement of ventilators? Excess to requirements are carved/sanded away as required.  Just a thought, although this may already happen?

Marking out, drilling and fixing ventilators in unison is probably the most tedious and time consuming aspect for me.

 

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The issue I’ve had with 3DP roofs is getting them thin enough at the ends and edge whilst having them thick enough to not banana.  I agree having the ventilators already there to delete as appropriate would be ideal.

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1 hour ago, BernardTPM said:

Having correctly positioned holes might be better than actual vents if any smoothing is needed.

 


But then, the vents are really fiddly little devils that take so much time to line up, after achieving hopefully a really straight line of holes. I can invariably manage it, but hey, what a palaver.  

 I have had no experience of 3D roofs, but I had some resin ones. I had a similar problem to Sithlord with thick ends and edges affecting them seating down. A lot of fettling and cussing to achieve an acceptable result.


Perhaps the ideal  is injection moulded roofs as used on proprietary models, but with that full compliment of vents that can be removed as required. I have some plain injection moulded roofs from the 2mm Association. They are a joy to seat down, but I still have to drill holes. 

 

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5 hours ago, wellseasoned said:

3d printed roofs are interesting. With so many variations of ventilators on different diagrams, would it be prudent to print them with a full complement of ventilators? Excess to requirements are carved/sanded away as required.  Just a thought, although this may already happen?

Marking out, drilling and fixing ventilators in unison is probably the most tedious and time consuming aspect for me.

 

 

It's 3D print - just print different roofs for different products. All the 3D print Gresley I did have unique roofs for the models. They are holes because the tech wasn't at the time up to it so you still had to stuff the vents in by hand but the same holds. 3D print really does change the way you can think about product volume.

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5 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

The issue I’ve had with 3DP roofs is getting them thin enough at the ends and edge whilst having them thick enough to not banana.  I agree having the ventilators already there to delete as appropriate would be ideal.

 

Yep. It's much easier if you print the roof, ends (to attach overlays), floor and maybe other bits in one go. I had real trouble with this, and ended up printing the roof and body as one, or in some cases where it needs to be removable printing the roof above where it should be attached to the ends by a sprue (so nothing bananas). Thickness is definitely a problem unless you print it as one or file it.

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  • 1 month later...

Another Masterclass Models kit, this time a C77 corridor third. As ever, a lovely kit, this time made with no modifications. I ran some dilute acrylic grey into the grooves in the sides marking the doors, to better define the doors and suggest a clean, but not entirely pristine coach. I overdid it with the leftmost door on the corridor side, lesson learnt ...

 

52418647159_1e9eea6a04_o.jpg

 

52418363896_6a277672a2_o.jpg

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