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

[Corbs]

Hey Nile, great work on the post office van, how does it drive?

[Nile]

Quite good, but not perfect. It's mostly a matter of practise with the controller. It's capable of realistic slow speed but it's all too easy to go whizzing off as you are only wanting to use a small part of the control stick's movement. Considering its small size it's pretty amazing really.

[TurboSnail]

Quite good, but not perfect. It's mostly a matter of practise with the controller. It's capable of realistic slow speed but it's all too easy to go whizzing off as you are only wanting to use a small part of the control stick's movement. Considering its small size it's pretty amazing really.

 

Can you set the limits on your controller? I found with mine, the performance was massively improved by limiting the speed and adjusting the proportional curve, which made it much easier to use.

[Nile]

This is the controller it comes with.

No idea if it will work with a more sophisticated one.

[Nile]

I've turned my attention back to the SECR H I've repainted grey, mainly because the parts are occupying several boxes on my desk and getting in the way. So far I've painted the smokebox black and put numbers on the tank sides, with the help of several coats of Klear. Some other bits are also getting black paint, easier to do before I put things back together.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Some more bits put back where they should be. Some parts - the cab top and roof, are a tight fit without any glue needed. This will aid fitting the cab glazing after spraying matt varnish.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Old Buffers!

 

The base model for this conversion was the Southern one with Maunsell era buffers. I needed to replace these with the earlier type as fitted to the SECR model I also have. I couldn't find any ready made so it was time to improvise. Not that difficult as it happens. Take a piece of 3mm plastic tube (Evergreen I think), put it into a mini-drill and then file to shape as it spins.

 

 

This gives the basic body shape, but there is a lip at the end where the buffer goes. Out of the bits box comes some old Hornby buffer heads that have this lip on them. Put them together and you get more or less the right shape. It's not sprung but I can live with that.

 

 

The original buffer body is simply pulled out (with a bit of wiggling). The hole needs to be enlarged slightly for the new one. Once in it's a good tight fit.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Onwards to completion.

Before it disappeared inside the body I tried to improve the balance of the chassis with some strips of lead around the motor.

 

 

In the cab are plastic ex-Airfix figures, no heavy white-metal here.

 

 

After putting all the bits back together this was the result.

 

 

 

I'll finish with a comparison with the Hatton's P in grey livery.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Nile

[Guest]

Wow!

 

- Alex

[LNWR18901910]

Onwards to completion.

Before it disappeared inside the body I tried to improve the balance of the chassis with some strips of lead around the motor.

H_10.JPG

 

In the cab are plastic ex-Airfix figures, no heavy white-metal here.

H_11.JPG

 

After putting all the bits back together this was the result.

H_12.JPG

H_13.JPG

 

I'll finish with a comparison with the Hatton's P in grey livery.

H_14.JPG

North and South!

[Nile]

LMWR Cattle wagons

 

It's been two years since I converted an old Bachmann cattle wagon for the LMWR. When I say old that refers to the body design (ex Mainline), the chassis is relatively new with separate brake levers.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/82968-niles-mostly-freelance-bodging-bench-turning-things-grey-again/page-22&do=findComment&comment=2463460

I was never entirely happy with its rather plain side frames, so I've added some detail bits from a Mainly Trains etch (now available from Wizard Models).

 

I've also acquired a few more of these since then, so a few more conversions are on the way. Here is a before and after shot I couldn't do before.

[Corbs]

Hurrah! The LMWR arises from its slumber perhaps? 

All your modelling is fantastic but the freelance stuff really appeals to me as you can probably imagine, Nile.

[chuffinghell]

Your attention to detail and the quality of the finish is superb

[Compound2632]

The faux-wooden solebars back-date it nicely. The internal dimensions of "Large" cattle vans were virtually unchanged since the 1860s, having been defined by Act of Parliament (along with "Medium" and "Small"). From the 1890s or so, Large vans were often built with a moveable partition so that they could be hired out at "Medium" or "Small" rates, presumably this being found more economic than maintaining fleets of wagons of different sizes. This would add a few inches onto the overall length, to allow for the space taken up by the partition. Thus one can see cattle wagons branded L M S along the top rail well before the Grouping!

[Nile]

Yep, with Expo-NG out of the way I can do a bit of standard gauge modelling, including my freelanced stuff.

For this batch of four I'm doing two variations on the livery, early and late. When they were repainted all the metal work (apart from the bars) was painted grey. The roofs still need repainting.

 

Likewise with the chassis.

 

The tooling for these is showing its age, I've removed quite a few bits of flash from both the bodies and chassis, and the insides of the bodies are quite rough.

[LNWR18901910]

Yep, with Expo-NG out of the way I can do a bit of standard gauge modelling, including my freelanced stuff.

For this batch of four I'm doing two variations on the livery, early and late. When they were repainted all the metal work (apart from the bars) was painted grey. The roofs still need repainting.

103.JPG

 

Likewise with the chassis.

104.JPG

 

The tooling for these is showing its age, I've removed quite a few bits of flash from both the bodies and chassis, and the insides of the bodies are quite rough.

Good to see you ain't given up on your London & Mid-Western Railway project - that's good.

[Nile]

That's the problem with having lots of interests and projects, sometimes they end up on the back burner for a while. Meanwhile the cattle wagons are now finished , for now. They could probably do with a bit more weathering, but that can wait for another day.

[LNWR18901910]

That's the problem with having lots of interests and projects, sometimes they end up on the back burner for a while. Meanwhile the cattle wagons are now finished , for now. They could probably do with a bit more weathering, but that can wait for another day.

105.JPG

Hmm, now...let's see...which is the best one. They both look nice, however, the one on the right captures the right look for freight stock as they would've looked. The right one is the best as there are wagons with two letters spaced out on their wagons like North Eastern, Great Central, Great Nothern, Great Western and Midland Railway.

[Nile]

That's the cattle dealt with, now I'll move on to another big animal. This old Lima horsebox ended up costing me £1.

It's a case of nice body, shame about the chassis, so that had to go (apart from some brake parts). I made up some Comet w-irons to see if my cunning plan would work.

That's a Hornby horsebox for reference. It shows that the Lima body can be made to ride at the correct height with the correct wheels.

[Compound2632]

Interesting... It's perhaps a bit on the long side for a pre-grouping horsebox. Could you lose the luggage (tack?) compartment? Add a bit of beading to retro the groom's compartment? The roof will want to be flatter too. You do need the slidey hatch that the Hornby 'box has, to check on the horses. Sorry if I'm pre-empting...

[DLT]

Hi Nile,

 

I've just had a good catch-up with your modelling, I hadn't realised I had got so far behind!

I love the conversions you've done on the rtr locos, excellent results.

 

All the best,

Dave.

[Martin S-C]

Interesting... It's perhaps a bit on the long side for a pre-grouping horsebox. Could you lose the luggage (tack?) compartment? Add a bit of beading to retro the groom's compartment? The roof will want to be flatter too. You do need the slidey hatch that the Hornby 'box has, to check on the horses. Sorry if I'm pre-empting...

I'm interested in what you do with the RTR horsebox as well. I need a couple for my layout and the only pre-grouping ones around are brass kits. I honestly hadn't considered shortening one in the same way I've cut and shut Hornby clerestories.

Edited December 3, 2018 by Martin S-C

[Nile]

It might be possible to cut'n'shut this into a shorty horsebox. An alternative and possibly better starting point might be one of the Parkside kits, I might investigate that one later. I want this to be a simple and quick conversion so I'm not going to hack the body up.

I've added new solebars and buffer beams from Evergreen strip.

 

Some 30thou plastic card between the w-iron units and the underside brings it to the correct ride height.

[Nile]

On with some primer.

On the sole bars are paint blobs for bolt heads. They may end up almost invisible once it's painted and other details have been added, but it's the thought that counts.

[autocoach]

I know they may be way too expensive by the time they get shipped and vatted in the UK but https://www.archertransfers.com/ does resin cast bolt heads and rivets as waterslide transfers (US speak decals) in an amazing variety of sizes and rivet patterns.  I have used their products to simulate rivets on a number of HO US freight car projects and an oil tank for an SP steam engine conversion.