Nile's Mostly Freelance Bodging Bench - Pre-Grouping Locos

[Corbs]

Love it!

[Compound2632]

On 14/06/2020 at 18:20, Nile said:

Scraping the paint away over the original markings.

 

Cunning, seriously cunning.

[Nile]

Now with added wheels, buffers, couplings, weathering and strapping. The last is EZ-line secured to the back of the solebars with superglue.

[Nile]

When Hornby released their generic 3 plank wagon in LSWR livery they did a much better job with the paint than on the brake vans. It's a close, if not exact, match to Bachmann and Phoenix. But then they went a spoilt it by writing "Engineer's Dept." on the side, perhaps not realising that the LSWR painted such wagons with Red Oxide paint. As these models are relatively cheap I thought I'd see what could be done with one.

The unwanted writing was removed from the side of the wagon with the aid of Micro-sol and a sharpened wooden stick. If done carefully this leaves the paint intact. As the buffer beams need painting brown to match the rest of the body I also went over all of the existing brown parts with thinned Railmatch paint, including the ironwork which shouldn't be black. I worked around the letters and numbers, they were good enough to keep. The inside was painted to look more like natural unpainted wood. The whole model was weathered with a thin wash of matt black, and then some matt varnish to level the finish. Humbrol powder was used to weather the chassis. The Hornby couplings were removed and replaced by 3-links fitted into the original hooks.

Before and after:

 

 

T'other side.

 

 

Maybe not for the purists but it'll serve as a filler.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Nile

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Nile said:

Maybe not for the purists but it'll serve as a filler.

 

I'm sure those RCH oil axleboxes could be carved and filed into something resembling the Panter type - or replaced: https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/mjt/2262A.php

 

Edited August 22, 2020 by Compound2632

[Nile]

I tried something with another one I'm working on.

 

Any better?

Edited June 11, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

I've now finished the second Hornby 3-planker, as seen above.

It started life as this.

 

 

After removing the lettering from the body I repainted it with Humbrol 106, the colour I've settled on for LMWR wagons. The buffer beams were also painted, but I left the solebars as they were already the right colour (or close enough). I removed the brake shoes from one side to further age the wagon. Transfers are a mixture of Microscale waterslide and HMRS Methfix.

The finished model.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Nile

[Compound2632]

Very hard to find an error in a model of a LMWR wagon!

 

I like the retention of the Thomas Burnett & Co., Doncaster builders and owners (or repairs advise?) plates - the LMWR like several other smaller (and even larger) companies was clearly in the habit of hiring wagons when funds didn't stretch to purchasing them outright.

Edited August 23, 2020 by Compound2632

[Nile]

Axleboxes on the LSWR wagon now modified in the same way.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

And there's more, another two of these. This time I made a few mods to make them look a bit more like the LSWR wagon that became SR D.1301 . The two rather flat door springs were replaced by a central one made of brass strip. A matching plate for this, made from some 10thou microstrip, was added to the side.

 

 

Then it was the same method as before.

 

 

One side of one wagon was given SR markings.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Nile

[Mikkel]

Great work Nile. A few subtle changes and you've made them look so much better. I like the weathering of the brake gear.

[Nile]

Thanks Mikkel, all done with Humbrol powders.

And now for some more.

Eagle eyed viewers of the Hornby 3 plank topic will have noticed that I bought a GWR version and wondered why, given its odd livery.

Well it wasn't just to compare shades of brown with the LSWR one. It was the simple livery that attracted me, being easy to remove made it ideal for conversion. The low price also helped, so I actually bought two.

And here they are after repainting etc.

[Compound2632]

I see the West Midland was keeping up with the Great Western as an early adopter of oil axleboxes! 

[relaxinghobby]

Some quick work with a craft knife and file to cut back the central box lip will quickly back date them to grease boxes. Maybe a sliver of plasticard or filler on top to give each box a sloping top to suggest the flip-up lid for miniature railwaymen to add an extra dollop of grease.

[Nile]

Being in direct competition with the GWR they had to keep up.

[Nile]

More Hornby wagons.

It's not just the 3-plank wagons that are suitable for re-use, there are 4 and 6 plank bodies on the same chassis. Here is one as it comes.

 

I removed the markings with Micro-sol and a fibreglass pencil, a messy process.

 

It was then repainted and lettered for the LMWR.

The 4 plank WMR wagon started out overall black with white lettering (like this). It received the same treatment as the other wagon.

[barrymx5]

On 20/06/2020 at 11:12, Nile said:

After a week of slow progress I can now update this rebuild to its finish.

These are the interior parts before reuniting with the body.

 

On the LSWR van I replaced the wheels with spoked ones from Gibson. On the SR one these would have been replaced with disc wheels. I can't see any evidence of holes in them in photos so I've made some solid disc wheels from Gibson 3-hole wheels, filling the holes with slices of plastic rod. They won't be noticeable after painting black.

 

And now for the finished models.

Excellent work. As you may know Hornby have corrected the colour on the Latest B versions. Photo 1. I tried my hand many years ago at scratch building a similar vehicle. Photo 2  I have put the Hornby and hand built together for Photo 3. 

[Nile]

Hornby Generically Modified Brighton Coaches

 

There we were patiently waiting for Hatton's Genesis coaches when Hornby spring these upon us.

Good news for LBSCR modellers, but could they be of any use for a freelancer?
I bought a few teak ones to experiment with. I found that they had potential and a nice finish, but what was I going to do with teak coaches? Some research found that the LNWR used varnished teak coaches on its outer circle trains over the District Railway to Mansion House, due to the conditions in the tunnels. So I could use these coaches to make a LMWR through train from Uxbridge to Mansion House via Earls Court (where engines were changed). That would also account for the air brakes, although it means some LMWR locos will need air pumps.

I'm creating an eight coach set, comprising 2 brake thirds, 4 thirds and 2 firsts. This measures three feet long.

This is made up from two half sets consisting of :
brake third - third - third - first  (right to left).

I've painted out some of the end windows, the end will eventually become red.

 

The first through the works was an all third. The model as it comes, in GNR livery.

The teak effect, lining and lettering are all printed on, it's impossible to remove one without
affecting the teak effect. I covered the GNR on each door with a LTSR crest (pretending to be LMWR), and removed the waist band GNR as best I could.
To make a close coupled set I removed the coupling hook and replaced it with one of the buffers, the other was removed. The buffer head has been filed to removed its concave-ness and then blackened.

This is how they entered service, but some passengers had difficulty distinguishing these
from all the other teak coaches running on the District. So the carriage works came up with a
solution to make their's stand out from the rest.

These were made with a laser printer and plain paper, the letters are only 1mm high. The
edges of the blue ones were painted.
No excuse for getting on the wrong train now.
 

[Compound2632]

@Nile, beautiful. Do you have a spare ordinary-buffered brake or third brake for off-peak services when the full double set isn't needed?

 

One little suggestion if I may - remove the end steps &c from the close-coupled ends - the lamp-man wouldn't be able to get up the gap anyway. Then that's an unsatisfactory detail of the Hornby model that doesn't have to be improved on on every carriage, only the brake ends, which you say you're planning to repaint anyway.

[Nile]

Thanks Stephen, both ends of the half-sets will have normal buffers and couplings, preferably sprung.

I'll look at removing unwanted end details. I don't have an exact match for the Hornby paint yet, and I don't any mod to be more visible than what I'm removing. The handrails will go when I detail the roof, the bits I need are in my Hatton's trunk which isn't full enough yet.

[brumtb]

IIRC the LTSR had teak coaches and when the Midland took over in 1912 they added "Midland" on a black eaves panel but left the coaches teak. 

[Nile]

Yes, but these aren't LTSR coaches. From a distance the LTSR and LMWR crests look similar  .

[Compound2632]

9 minutes ago, brumtb said:

IIRC the LTSR had teak coaches and when the Midland took over in 1912 they added "Midland" on a black eaves panel but left the coaches teak. 

 

But when the Midland came to build new sets of coaches for the Tilbury section, they were turned out in the standard Midland livery. That might simply reflect lack of experience with teak at the Derby C&W works; the ex-LTSR stock continued to be maintained at Plaistow.

[brumtb]

1 hour ago, Nile said:

Yes, but these aren't LTSR coaches. From a distance the LTSR and LMWR crests look similar  .

Agreed, I was just pondering that LTSR might be another alternative use for the Hornby teak coaches.

[Nile]

Some details of my mods to these models.

Footboards

Hornby supply two footboards per coach, which is correct for the LBSCR coaches they are based on. However the way they are mounted leaves them floating somewhere between upper and lower positions and potentially dangerous in use by passengers. I've mounted mine up against the underside of the solebars, with no gap. To do this requires a small mod to them, a small triangular is removed from each of the supports. I also scrape the paint off the top edge along the back as I glue these in place.

 

The mounting holes need to be enlarged, and drilled all the way through, with a 1.3mm drill. The footboards will now fit up against the solebars and can be glued in place leaving no gaps.

Other mods done here are removal of the NEM coupling mount with side cutters and pliers, and adding links between the brake shoes. These are 30thou square microstrip locating into 1mm holes drilled into the backs of the brake shoes (avoiding drilling all the way through).

 

Buffers

These can be improved with a bit of filing. Most are glued in quite well so need to be levered out. This is how i did it.

 

It takes quite a bit of filing to removed the concave look, so I've used a mini-drill and file to reduce time and effort.

 

Before and after, with the aid of some blackening. Carr's metal black for Nickel Silver in this case.