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Hornby Class 29


GC Jack

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To be fair to A1, the detailing parts were of their time. I found the etched doors useful as a guide to scribing new front end doors, which should be flush with the body front - assuming you are going for a non-headcode variant. I seem to remember that the body centre grilles didn't seem to match up, and with some difficulty I trimmed these to fit. There was an SE Finecast flush glazing set available, which may or may not be to your liking.

 

There have been other threads on this subject, and a full scale upgrade is a reasonable amount of work - the headlights are moulded in the wrong place IIRC, and there should be a another filler hatch in the roof to name but two. You may struggle to get spoked wheels to fit, but if you can live without another Hornby power bogie can simply be clipped in to give a very strong loco if weighted appropriately.

 

Good luck! John.

 

my snaps on http://www.flickr.com/photos/51265696@N03

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Roof fan / grille set & window frames are the only things listed on MG Sharp's webpage.

 

SE Finecast did a flushglaze kit which is still readily available.

 

Another common conversion is to swap a Bachmann Class 25 chassis to give vastly superior running, well worth doing imho.

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Thanks for the advice and the replies.

 

I wasn't planning on a major upgrade really just to improve it a bit. Decent fan grill and buffer, pipes etc. A1 components + SE flushglazing would do the job nicely.

 

Can anyone advise on the correct buffers and fan in the A1 range please?

 

Jack

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...Another common conversion is to swap a Bachmann Class 25 chassis to give vastly superior running, well worth doing imho.

Seconded; older Bach 24 and 25 models without lighting are relatively cheaply got s/h as the source of the chassis. Also makes the fitting of spoked wheels a doddle if desired. Strip the chassis block of the plastic underside, and a light filing to put a taper into the top of the chassis block casting with a little plastic carving enables the Hornby body shell and underside mouldings to just clip around the block. The cosmetic bogie frames require new locators cut in them to clip onto the Bach bogie cores That's it, and you have a 'Q ship' which will pull a much larger load than the prototype was usually seen with, and quiet and smooth running.

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I'm afraid a major upgrade is needed. I had a go at one some years ago - it needs converting to DCC to run again , but from memory - the radiator grills are completely wrong (seem to be those carried when first delivered by NBL - for about 6-12 months) - wrong shape , wrong size, not quite correct placement. These needed to come out and be replaced with "single square" etched grills . The nose is a mess. Leaving aside the fact that the nose profile isn't quite right and nor is the shape of the cab windows, Hornby have managed to overlay the class 29 box headcode onto the cl 21 nose doors. There's also an extra window which disappeared during the cl21 to cl 29 build

 

I've always believed the only explanation for the statre of the Hornby model is that they didn't model a class 29 - they modelled a set of NBL works drawings , onto which someone had later drawn the cl 29 mods

 

First thing to decide is what exactly you are modelling - a class 21 or a rebuilt class 29

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I did up a Hornby Class 29 for a friend a couple of years ago. I fitted an etched fan and grille, working lights and headcode blinds, DCC socket and 'flushglaze' glazing before giving it a decent re-paint (by my standards), which to be honest makes up for 50% of the improvement. I also remember removing some detail from the nose end, possibly the doors referred to by Ravenser. While it isn't a perfect scale model it looks the part from a sensible distance. If I did it again, I'd fit a Class 24/25 chassis as recommended above.

 

I'll dig out a photo if anyone's interested.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Sounds good, yes to the photos please. :declare:

 

Here you go (with apologies for the photography, which wasn't my finest!):

 

Original model (note the HST power car bogie...):

 

post-9324-0-27233700-1349281042_thumb.jpg

 

post-9324-0-48038500-1349281068_thumb.jpg

 

And after conversion:

 

post-9324-0-38114800-1349281119_thumb.jpg

 

post-9324-0-72955900-1349281141_thumb.jpg

 

Tension-lock couplers were at the request of the loco's owner, hence the lack of bufferbeam details.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Very nice Will, a few of questions if I may;

 

Does it have etched window frames too or is it just flushglazed ?

 

I can see the red tail markers present, but are lights fitted behind the oval panels too (or are they the horn recesses ?) or just behind the headcode blinds ?

 

I shall use a tension lock on the #2 end, but the #1 will be suitably detailed with an appropriate coupling & pipework

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Very nice Will, a few of questions if I may;

 

Does it have etched window frames too or is it just flushglazed ?

 

I can see the red tail markers present, but are lights fitted behind the oval panels too (or are they the horn recesses ?) or just behind the headcode blinds ?

 

I shall use a tension lock on the #2 end, but the #1 will be suitably detailed with an appropriate coupling & pipework

 

The front windscreens have etched frames from (I think) A1 models, but I wouldn't bother with them as they don't look much like the original. The red circles are actually multiple-working symbols (equivalent to the blue star you see on many diesel-electrics), the horns are (if I remember correctly) behind the two black circles in the yellow panel and the tail lights are either side of the yellow panels. I fitted white LEDs behind the headcode blind (with some translucent orange paint to create a warmer colour) and red LEDS behind the tail lights using short pieces of fibre-optic as lenses.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

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Yup, tail lights are in the scallop shell shaped moulding ;) , I've not found a method I'm truly satisfied with for representing the very small red markers on the older diesel designs. I have some small fibre optic which I've been experimenting with along with SMD LED's

 

it's just the black circles I was unsure of. There seems to be a lack of hi res prototype photos, for all the usual reasons of course.

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Getting back to Jack's question, I used Bachmann oval loco buffers but if you want something finer any brass or whitemetal oval BR buffer should look right.

 

Thanks Sean; the photos are taken from an angle specifically calculated to hide the wobbly parts of the paint job!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Looking better than the original but afraid it still needs to lose the "nose doors" and have the two piece grille replaced with a single.

I think there was also a change in the side windows when they were rebuilt as 29s but I'm not home to check the references I have.

 

Sorry 'bout that,

 

Rob.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Rob - you're absolutely right about the details I didn't get right, in fact I'd add to the list the chassis-body clips beneath the cab doors, the buffers (and therefore probably the whole body) being slightly too high. As with any model, it's an example of how far you're prepared to go before you throw the towel in and say, "well, that's near enough"!

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