Mr Simon's N and 2mm Workbench - pg29> N V1 2-6-2, 2mm L&Y class 23, assorted wagons and stuff

[MrSimon]

Thanks for sharing that Bernard - I'm going to have fun doing 14 of them!  Definitely a project for next year

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

This afternoon I finished off the two coaches for Dad; the Minitrix Gresley brake:

 

 

I was't sure if the first class compartments should have been de-classified, but I had the big 1 transfers handy, so it's stayed as a composite.

 

Hopefully no one will notice the old-style underframe

 

The other coach finished is the Ultima/Etched Pixels all third.  Like the last one of these I did I had some problems getting the finish right on the roof.  I'm not sure what the answer is for this, I don't think its very good - but I think it matches the driving trailer.

 

 

 

These will both go on Hawthorne Dene, and should be on the layout at Newcastle Model show later this year.  The next thing on my workbench will be something a little different, hopefully also finished for Newcastle - then I can get on with some stock for Gresby!

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited September 12, 2017 by MrSimon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

I've got a quick update, and a question, if that's OK?

 

First up, I went up to see my parents this week, which included taking up all the stock I finished over the summer:

 

 

The G5 needed some fettling, which I would have been able to do down here if it wasn't DCC.  It runs well, and the coach looks good with it.

 

I came back with another pair of brake vans to have the 'strange grey' dad painted the roof with covered with something more BR.

 

 

It rained yesterday, so these now look like this:

 

 

Just the usual treatment:  Phoenix roof grey, mix of dirty black and frame dirt on the underframe, and a load of black weathering powder rubbed off with spit and a cotton bud.

 

I'm trying Humbrol gun metal on the buffer shanks rather than bright shiny metal - I buffed it up with a stiff paintbrush when everything was varnished, and it looks OK, I think...

 

And so my question, which I need your combined knowledge for...

 

I am painting a DMU, which I will show you in the next week or so, and I've go to the roof.  I bought Phoenix diesel roof grey, and applied it, and its far too light (above, right) especially compared to the vehicle it is supposed to match (above, left).  I have some BR roof paint for maroon coaches (above, central) would this work if I use it instead?  All coaches will have weathered roofs so it might not show, but is there anything you would recommend I use instead?

 

Thanks in advance, lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited September 12, 2017 by MrSimon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

I've had a really busy few weeks finishing some bits off so I can focus on scenery for Gresby, so here's a bit of a round up:

 

Firstly, a surprise - this came in the post today.  I had forgotten I'd ordered it until the invoice came last month.  It's an excellent model from Bachman/the NGS; I hope it will be followed by some passenger stock...

 

Next, my parents came to visit on Tuesday, and my Dad bought an A3 for me to have a go at weathering.  I stuck mostly to what was recommended in the Tim Shackleton weathering book, and I think it turned out OK:

 

 

The brief was "Gateshead A3, it should be dirty".  I think it fulfils that.  I was looking through colour pictures of Gateshead Pacifics on Flikr, one side looks like a picture of 'SPEARMINT' I found, the other a slightly cleaner A1.

 

 

 

I couldn't get any more dirt to stick on the cleaner side!  

 

EDIT: This post got too long and wouldn't load so I have split it into this one and the next one...

Edited September 12, 2017 by MrSimon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

I realised that the previous version of my last post was far too picture-heavy, so I've cut it in half.  

 

The main thing I've been working on is a 4-car 101 to run on Dad's layout.  Annoyingly, the North Eastern region ordered their 101s with the brake van in one of the centre cars without thinking about me having to do a cut'n'shut with Farish bodyshells.

 

For the first few batches of 4 car 101s you need 2 Driving Motor Composites, 1 Trailer Second and 1 Trailer Brake Second.  The TBS has the same window configuration as the DMC except that the bit from the 1/3 door to the cab is the same as the brake section of the usual Farish power car.

 

Marking out the cut-line with tape.  In truly scientific style I cut along the edge of the tape and tidied it up with a small file

 

Cutting the bodies up is probably the most nerve-wracking bit of modelling I have ever done!  I used the glazing as a guide to stop filing, and to hold it together while the glue was setting.

 

Ready for painting!  It took a lot of painting and filing and filling to hide the join.  Now that it is fully painted, lined, and weathered, the only place for can see the join is a missing row of rivets on the roof.

 

The join was still visible on the primer layer.

 

I took it up to my parents last month to check it ran on the layout and was OK on track pushing the driving car round - it ran fine!

 

 

The final thing to sort before getting on with the repainting was to fix the ride height, the car with the motor was a few mm higher than the others... this turned out to be from the some of the tabs inside and a blob of glue on the underside of the join; phew!

 

 

Painting took forever.  Actually forever.  The green paint from Phoenix wasn't quite the same shade as what Farish used, and I couldn't match the roof colour.  Then I put the transfers on the brake coach and realised that the lines from Fox were a completely different colour and width to the lines on the driving cars.  I had a slight panic, then I looked at some pictures on Flikr/Google and realised that the real units were much more like the Fox lines... so I relined both driving cars to match the centre cars.  Epic.

 

 

Here are the ends, The only bit of lining I didn't replace was the curved line where the centre line goes under the windscreens.  The car I have decided is the rear has a tail-lamp on, and the other has a driver.  Both driving cars have had exhausts added, and the roofs weathered, but I need to do some more work to change the underframes to give them motors.  I should have bought 3 car units as these have motor-coach underframes under the unpowered car...

 

Here is the finished set which Dad picked up this week.  There is a little more to do to it (rebuilding the underframes on three coaches, and maybe numbering it) but if I do say so myself it looks OK.

 

The 101 and the A3 ran on Hawthorne Dene at Newcastle (Tyneside Model Railway Exhibition) on 12 and 13 November.

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited July 2, 2017 by MrSimon

[Les1952]

Very many thanks as always to Simon for the work.

 

If I'd known you were going to use a pic of Spearmint I'd have brought Spearmint instead of Night Hawk - Spearmint is still fairly clean.

 

The DMU will definitely be running at Newcastle, while the A3 will probably start the show, but is still limping a little (though getting better - I still haven't got all the paint out of the delicate parts).  

 

Best chance to see the A3 will be Saturday morning.  I've got it rostered for the heavy fitted goods train, which needs a Dapol A3, A4, Britannia or B1 on the front as these are the only big ex-LNER steamers in N strong enough to pull it.  The Farish offerings are all weedy weaklings by comparison....

 

Les

Edited November 10, 2016 by Les1952

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

Happy New Year

 

First here is a quick weathering job which I did in December - I would have posted pictures of them earlier but they were part of Dad's Christmas present, and I didn't want to give it away:

 

 

Since getting back from Christmas I (semi-) permanently fitted a Dapol coupling to one of my Revolution TEAs.  

 

 

I had to fixed it in place with Krystal Klear, slightly pointing upwards.  When I was running them on the layout I found that the pin got caught in points, so i set it slightly upwards, which made it level on the track, if that makes sense?  I need to test it on the layout, but I think it's pretty much sorted.

 

The next job this week was to shuffle underframes around on the 101.

 

 

 

When I sent it off to run on Hawthorne Dene last year it was with the motor-underframe on the centre brake coach, and the cab-coaches had trailer underframes.  I found that I had a spare centre car underframe and an un-powered motor-underframe, so I put the powered chassis in the front coach, the trailer underframe under the brake, and swapped the rear driving trailer underframes...

 

I've got a bit of swapping and weathering to do on my own 101s, then I'll be able to put some spares on eBay

 

Finally, I've been looking at all the stock that's unfinished in my drawers (as in, in my bureau) and decided to see how much I can finish off before Easter.  There's quite a bit.

 

This is the first thing I got out of the drawer, I was going to take it up at Christmas to run on Gresby, but I wanted it to look more finished and didn't finish it.  Today I did the handrails, next I'm going to touch up the blue where I can't paint straight, and then weather it so I can call it finished (until I remember to buy plates)

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited September 12, 2017 by MrSimon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

Plenty done over the last few weeks, I finished the new bits I'm going to take up to Leamington & Warwick show:

 

I'm not sure why there are so many brake vans.  I know Dad had a shortage, but he shouldn't now.

 

The fish van is a swap for one that I brought back here after Christmas, so it won't be joining my 'travelling stock box' 

 

I quite liked this when I saw it on eBay, I thought it was maybe too modern but then I did some research and it's not.  I altered the couplings to give closer coupling.

 

Here's my 'traveling stock box' - I need to touch some bits up and add some loads to the bolsters.  I think only the blue container wagon will be added to it this time.

 

My main task this weekend re-building a TPM tippler:

 

I bought some online the other week which had bowed sides, a few years ago I bought some spare TPM sides, so yesterday I did a bit of a hack-job on the bowed wagon and fitted new sides and ends. 

 

Here's the new one compared with one of the others, now I know its not a big job I'll do the others later in the year.  I'm not sure what colour to paint the train in, so I'll leave the re-sided one unpainted with pizza-cutter wheels until I'm ready to work on the whole train.

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited September 12, 2017 by MrSimon

[BernardTPM]

The ice blue livery and Rail freight boxed arrow date from 1963, that short-lived just pre-Corporate 'modern' period that started with the Pilot Scheme diesels, ran through Blue Pullmans and Glasgow Blue Trains and finished with XP64 and the compromise Rail Blue but still with the old markings AL6s.

I've still got spare tippler sides if any more are needed, Simon.

[MrSimon]

Thanks Bernard!

 

I've got six wagons of side/end sprues in my box but it's the bottoms I need - if it's only 6 or 7 I'll probably scratch build them as a batch. I've also got 4 badly painted ones and two unmade kits, as well as two more with bowed sides, Not sure how many I'd be able to run on Gresby, some psychopath laid ridiculous curves at the ends (it was me)

 

Great news about the light blue, just fits into period for Dads layouts - it certainly looks more modern!

 

Cheers

Simon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

Time for a bit of a catch-up, I've even finished some bits.

 

 

Firstly, I finished off my Weltrol.  It's over a year since I first ran it at Doncaster, so before Leamington I fitted the beam things (technical term), touched up the paint and weathering and sealed it with some more varnish.  Along with all the new wagons in the post above, it ran faultlessly all weekend.

 

Also behaving pretty-much the whole weekend was the 4 car 101, doing it's first exhibition since I moved the motor into the leading coach, rather than the brake.  I say pretty much because for some random reason it wouldn't run out of the fiddle siding it had previously been fine in with the the coaches in a different order... which was strange.  The consequence of this was that we had to re-jig which trains ran in which siding in the fiddle-yard.  Here it is in the nearly empty fiddle yard ten minutes before the show closed.

 

You might have noticed that a lot of my workbench out-put is dirtying up brake vans.  I keep finding brake vans that look like this in Dad's stock boxes, so they come back with me.  At Leamington I plucked four brakes off the layout, but I'd brought four with me so it was pretty much a straight swap.

 

 

Here is Dad's ex-works pill-box brake, firstly, covered in brown-y weathering powder applied with a slightly damp brush, then after it dries wiped off with a wet cotton bud (I used spit but water's ok too I guess)

 

 

The two LNER brakes from above.  The brakes were all returned when I was home on Friday.

 

A few weeks ago I had to touch up the paint on the blue 47 I've been working on for years.  I've been working on it for so long I'd forgotten that I mixed a bespoke shade, so this happened:

 

The cabs and bits of the roof are RDF blue, the rest of the engine wasn't.

 

After a bit of swearing a week or two staring at it I repainted the whole thing (painting around the transfers) mixing as close a match to the old shade as possible using BR blue and the RDF blue. 

 

Today I decided it was acceptable and caked the cabs, doors and roof detail in mucky brown (from the same pot as the brake) and then wiped off as much as I could.

 

 

 

I've given the sides and front a coat of klear, and dirtied the roof, but I need some better light to photo that... but I'm calling this finished :)

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon 

Edited September 12, 2017 by MrSimon

[MrSimon]

Morning everybody!

 

For the first time in ages there was enough sunshine to take some pictures of the 47:

 

 

 

I'm going to have to try some better pictures on the layout.  These pics show where I've wiped the weathering off downwards giving the sides a kind of furrowed finish...  I also need to matt the roof a bit more, but I think this is pretty much finished

 

Still lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited September 12, 2017 by MrSimon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

I've been clearing bit of space in the 'to finish' box.  The Gresley TO from page 13 - I filed down the second side, then I stuck in the interior, cut and fit new glazing and stuck the sides back on. 

 

While the sides were setting I painted the underframe, bogies and wheels.  Progress was hampered by my slicing the end of my thumb with the breadknife

 

I need to do some filling between the sides and the ends, then finish painting the sides and roof and I can glue the roof on.  I'm not sure how heavy the weathering will be, but it needs to look quite faded (the second coat of red will be faded crimson) - I need to dig out the door handles too!

 

On Friday these arrived from Modelu:

 

They're a massive a improvement on the spring side lamps I had been using, I've got a few more bits on order and then I'll show you what else I've been working on...

 

Lots to do!

Simon

Edited September 12, 2017 by MrSimon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

I made a start on the engines I brought home to fettle after Leamington.  I decided to start on the V2.

 

 

These are before pictures.  It needs finishing off, and I want to make a few improvements to bring it closer to the standard of the newer models.  Obviously I'm completely ignoring the ugly skirt on the boiler.  It needs the buffer beams painting then weathering, some of the paint needs touching up (this was a repaint from black), and a few bits filling here and there.  

 

It's DCC, and I don't think it's been programmed to run on DC so I can't do anything that will require the wheels to move (i.e. weather the wheels and clean where I missed, which is a pain)

 

I've made a start, I fitted a N Brass coupling hook, lamp-irons, and brake-pipe-thing (technical term).  

 

I also drilled out the lifting hole things.  The next job is to put a second coat of red on the buffer beams then I can weather it (I'm weathering it to be 'basically clean')

 

Then I can fit those fancy new lamps

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited September 12, 2017 by MrSimon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

I did a bit of work in the week and a bit this afternoon when I decided I'd burned in the sun enough, and got the V2 pretty much finished.  I say pretty much - it was completely finished and boxed up until I noticed the new lamps were leaning...

 

 

I added new crests to both sides of the tender, and some bits of lining to the tender.  This was then varnished, the sides were rubbed over with a tiny bit of weathering and given a coat of Klear. The back of the tender was quite heavily weathered.  Some of the dirt was rubbed off the buffer beam.  The tender chassis was weathered with paint, not too dirty, but with plenty of shiny oil on the springs and axle boxes.

 

 

The finished front before I added the lamps.  I found some pictures of the engine in the right period and noticed the smokebox door hinges were light metal (it wasn't a on a special working either - a bolster train going through one of the larger stations) so I mixed some wagon grey with silver and touched in the lighter colour, which I then knocked back with back powder.  Again I dirtied the buffer beam to be completely black and then wiped it all off except in the nooks, which I then sealed in with Klear.

 

I went for an oily-rag clean where the cleaner could reach, but the top of the boiler is subtly dirty.  These aren't the best pictures, the sun was making the Klear shine, it doesn't look like this in real life... I completely avoided the driving wheels and motion as I can't get it on a wheel cleaner until I get to Bristol show at the end of the month.  I don't think it will be noticeable though (hopes)

 

The Modelu lamps.  They're great, shame I put them on slightly wonkily (although at least they're both going the same way).  I'm happy with how it turned out.  

 

The next model on the desk is the O1 come back:

 

I want to add some bits of detail to the front to bring it up to the standard of the new WD, and touch up some bits of the paintwork.  Quick job I think...

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited September 12, 2017 by MrSimon

[millerhillboy]

Good stuff Simon, glad you've spotted the modelu lamps, they are so much better and I'm in the process of replacing all my lamps in the fleet. Fiddly ... Yes, worth it....absolutely.

 

If you'll excuse me sticking a picture in your thread.

Edited April 9, 2017 by millerhillboy

[millerhillboy]

Love your Gateshead A3, captured in the appropriate state. 60100 is one of my favourites and like you found most pictures show it to be in a remarkably dirty state,

[MrSimon]

Great picture Millerhillboy, thanks for sharing! Is that 2mm/FineN track? The modelu lamps are great, I wish they'd been available in N when I did the A3.

 

I got the V2 back out the box and the lamps were straight... Most bizarre

 

Is that a J39? I never thought to do the lamp glass in yellow-y white - will for the 01 though!

 

Cheers

Simon

Edited April 9, 2017 by MrSimon

[millerhillboy]

Yes been playing with finetrax, it's not 2mm but it looks cracking. I've done a test strip of code 80, 55 and finetrax. FWIW finetrax wins all day long but code 55 properly ballasted and weathered is not a bad and more convenient option.

I think I'm going to go with finetrax for my new layout as it does look quite superb I have to say.

 

Back to the lamps, yes I thought a dab of yellowy something might somehow represent the lense, not quite sure but i think it works. Yes it's a j39 front end.

[millerhillboy]

Full sized view of a bit of ballasted finetrax plus J39

 

Edited April 9, 2017 by millerhillboy

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

 

I got the details added onto the front of the O1.  I'm not sure why i didn't add these when I made it, I fitted N Brass buffers at the time - why not the rest?!?  Anyway, it's had N Brass lamp irons, coupling hook and a vac pipe.  It had a second pipe for working the doors on the Consett Iron train, like the other Westinghouse fitted Tyne Dock O1s.

 

 

I finally finished adding a load to the bolster-twin.  The girders are glued down on one wagon but can move on the other.  The chain isn't tight so the wagons can go round radius 2 Peco (so it can get out Dad's fiddle yard) but it looks chained down enough while on scenic track.

 

I had to repaint the boiler on the O1 to touch up where I tried to sort out the paint surface above the handrail.  I think I got it sorted, it's much better than it was anyway.

 

 

 

I didn't do too much weathering on it, as it was already pretty dirty.  I glazed the cab and added a bit of dirt here and there though.

 

Modelu lamp fitted, this time I tried adding a bit of yellow into the lamp-hole and then added a tiny blob of liquid glazing to give it a lense... it seems to work well (great idea Millerhillboy, duly adopted from now on!)

 

Both these models will be at the Bristol show at Thornberry this weekend, the O1 and V2 will need a bit of time on the wheel cleaner before they enter service, but they'll be re-joining Dad's fleet as soon as they're ready.  The wagon will be coming back with me though.

 

If you're around Bristol at the weekend come and see us on Hawthorn Dene at Thornbury Leisure Centre Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.

 

Cheers

Simon

Edited September 12, 2017 by MrSimon

[Les1952]

Just for the record the O1 does only have full valve gear on one side (just like one of my WDs....the sound fitted one of course)

 

It fell apart and as it is DCC fitted BR Lines won't touch it for a repair.  Not a real issue so long as it runs anticlockwise round the layout.

 

Les

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

I'm back from Bristol Show, exhausted but in one piece... I took the V2 and O1 back to Dad - they took a bit of cleaning and oiling and running in before they went back on their usual trains, but here are some pictures of them on the layout before the show opened on Sunday morning:

 

 

 

The V2 was on it's usual parcels train, and the O1 on a short steel train.

 

The bolster twin ran faultlessly all weekend, I was worried about it coming off on the curves but it ran fine and moved closer and closer to the front of the train as the weekend progressed.

 

I'm not sure what I've done to the class 101, since moving the powered bogie from the second to the first cars it falls off every time it tries to leave two tracks of the fiddle yard, nothing has changed other than where the powered bogie is... very strange!

 

I thought I'd got the last of the dodgy brake vans, but this appeared on the layout on Sunday afternoon... I don't know where they come from but this must be the seventh or eighth with the weird grey roof - it's been confiscated for painting and hopefully should be the last one... ... ...

 

I came out of the show without buying much, I got the last MK3 I need to start on a NMT (later in the year I think), but my star buy was a class 156 from the 'Dapol Scrap' box at DCC Supplies.  I'd previously bought a slightly dodgy FNW class 156 where the body seemed to have snapped somewhere inside.  I swapped this for the new power car and transferred things like the snow ploughs over, this left me with a spare motorised chassis.  

 

I had a play around with the broken body to see how easy it was to remove a body from the chassis (I'd always thought it was impossible, but it was scrap anyway so why not?)  It's a bit of a wrestle, but it comes out and it still worked.  Armed with the knowledge that they were detachable I gently prized the body off my dummy plain North Western Livery 156 and fitted the powered chassis to it.

 

 

This video (shot on my phone with the TV on in the background) shows the second run of the newly powered body.  It needs the new bottom of the body painting to match the bodyside and the underframe weathering to match the second car (and finishing off with transfers etc) but I'm happy that it's no longer a random dummy unit

 

Lots to do!

Simon 

Edited February 2, 2020 by MrSimon
Embed vid

[jonas]

There is always something interesting in this thread, and I don't comment often enough! Great work.

[MrSimon]

Thanks Jonas - after all these years I still don't look in the blogs enough, but it's always a pleasure to see what you've been up to - great work!!

 

 

Hello everybody!

 

Photobucket's eaten all the pictures on my workbench and layout threads, the pictures will return (promise) but it's taking a while as I didn't file ANYTHING!!  I've started on my layout topic first, then I'll come to this after.

 

Here are some pictures of what I've been up to since May.  It doesn't look much, but I've been mainly concentrating on bits for the layout.

 

First up, another brake van.  I will have done it the usual way, its one of Dad's that I tutted at and liberated while at Bristol (I'm not sure where it is now...)

 

Second, a GUV fitted with Dapol knuckle couplers for use on Dad's new layout.  The underframe bogies and wheels were painted with the usual mix of dirty Humbrol and Phoenix, the roof and ends were weathered and matt varnished, then the dirt was put on then mostly wiped off the sides and the sides fixed with Klear, to give a recently lightly cleaned look.  

 

It looks better in real life than these pictures.

 

When I went up to Newark the other week I came back with the usual stack of things to work on:  

 

This included 6 shiny clean Blue spots in need of some dirt, and some older kits that need work on their chassis and proper couplings fitting.

 

I turned the Blue Spots round pretty quickly.  I'm quite excited by these as I'm trying a new spray varnish.  Humbrol Matt has become pretty much impossible to get hold of in London and the results haven't been that great; so I walked into the graphics centre on Saturday and got a tin of near-instant drying acrylic.  So far I'm impressed by the finish but I want to try it on a few more things.

 

And finally, just on the desk... 

 

Here we go again... 

 

Lots to do!

Simon

Edited August 1, 2017 by MrSimon