big jim's workbench...onto figures and buildings

[big jim]

Had an evening checking which locos I have are DCC chipped and reprogramming lots of newly chipped locos to their proper address’ as well as chipping up a couple more locos

 

Ive completed one cabinets worth so far, the Oxford rail Janus appeared to have a traction motor flashover when I put it in the track, something glowed up behind the body shell, can’t tell if it was the motor or blanking plate with what appears to be a capacitor attached but whatever went pop has killed the loco, biting smell from the capacitor and motor and now no life with a normal blanking plate in, had it a long while but can’t remember where I bought it from, it’s the first (and last) time it’s been on the track!

 

The hattons P class is also dead(ish) one of the axles is binding (quartering out maybe) which when it stops it in turn just causes the motor to disengage causing the worm spins above the drive cog, almost like the motor is lifting up slightly, im going to try and get that fixed as it’s a nice little loco

 

had a bit of a mare reprogramming a few of the locos, kept getting error 31 on the lenz which is memory full, did a reset on the base station as per the manual but it seemed to only delete one or two locos off the roster so when I came to change the address of the next loco it threw up the error again preventing me programming it, however another reset gave me a memory space allowing me to do it, had to do the same operation after every reprogram, got there in the end though! 

Started building up a database of locos on excel so I can see what I’ve got chipped, DCC address, sound fitted etc, again taking time but worth doing to know what I’ve got! 
 

here’s a sample of it, of course I can add and remove as locos get chipped, sold or added to the roster 
 

 

 

 

 

[big jim]

Apart from all the chipping up of locos I’ve done the last few months I’ve bought a few bits and bobs of stock for the layout

 

nice bargain off eBay the other week, a rake of 4 Bachmann TEA wagons, not the correct era for me but at £60 for the 4 they weren’t staying there! 

 

I’ve decided to turn them into barrier wagons to run with my HNRC 20s, got one done so far, removed the decals with T-Cut, going to add some decals from railtec and update the OHLE flashes etc, possibly remove the ladders and filling pipes 

 

 

 

[SM42]

You may have finished de branding your TEAs by now, but being Bachmann, there is s good chance that enamel thinners will lift the lettering and may be less effort than rubbing with T Cut and less chance of damaging thd paint underneath.

 

Paint some on, leave it a minute or two and rub off. 

 

I found this useful technique whilst weathering. I didn't intend to de brand the tank (TTA? ) but did.

 

Andy

[big jim]

I’ll have a look at that for the next one, I’ve only actually done that one so far but was thinking of doing the others this evening as it happens

 

I worry with thinners that it would melt the plastic or take the grey base layer of paint off too

[SM42]

Don't rub too hard

 

This is an EWS VGA debranded using thinners and a cotton bud. 

 

 

 

It took the weathering  ( not factory I suspect) off too and there is a  faint hint of paint on the bud but it looks more brown than red 

 

Andy

[big jim]

I could only find cellulose thinners and I know not to try those! 
 

I ended up having a chipping and repair session tonight, got some chips off eBay last week, a pair of gaugemaster 6 pin decoders turned up but unfortunately one of them had one of the pins snapped off at the solder

 

luckily it was a function pin and I had planned to fit it to my 48dm which only needed 4 pins as it’s not got lights, worked perfectly once fitted!

 

The other went in the 03 in the background, also had a 21 pin arrive which went into my Dapol western 

whilst I was sorting out my cupboards last week I noticed one of my class 20 boxes had a post it note on the front with CVS written on it,I thought it wasn’t chipped but I put it on the programming track this evening and low and behold it had a chip, as did its partner loco so another 2 locos ready to use

 

next up I fixed a class 60 that had a binding motor, lifted the circuit board up, fiddled about and it freed up, oiled it and works nicely now 

 

finally I had a look at the cheap hattons 66 that I bought as a non runner, the plan with this one was to strip it down inside and use it as a dummy loco for top and tail possession trains,

 

stripped it down, cut the wires between the motor/pickups and circuit board, removed it all and gave the motor a try wired direct to the analog controller but nothing, then I remembered in the hattons 66 thread @adb968008 had stripped one down including the motor and discovered the internal brushes were faulty, so in for a penny, nothing to lose, managed to strip the motor down and low and behold the brushes weren’t properly touching the pole, one was worn down quite a bit and the other barely worn at all, I got the motor back together and it’s now working, I’ve got to get the loco back together but hopefully it will work properly once I get it done 

 

[big jim]

Not much else to report with the 66, waiting on a new motor arriving from Ali express rather than putting the old one back in

 

Had a major chipping day today, got myself a job lot of chips off eBay, 17 in total of various types for less than £9 each! 

 

got a Bachmann hall, 08, 2x97s, 37, 66, 108, Heljan 14, 25 and Hornby 56, 2x60 all chipped up

 

I left the worst til last and had a go at chipping up my realtrack 144 which proceeded to dismantle itself as soon as I looked at it, managed to get it working then it went on a test run, round a curve and erratic running ensued, took it back apart, more bits fell off, noticed then a couple of wires snapped on the connecting pin so I’ve given up with that for now, really don’t know what to with it, it’s looks a fiddly thing to try and solder back up

 

I’ve got 2x8 pins, a 21 pin, 2x6 pins, 2x4 pin and an 18 pin left as well as a leggomanbiffo class 70 to refit, just need to decide what to fit them to, I’ve not got any 6 or 18 pin locos needing chipping so they can go into stock, one of the 4 pins has no socket so I might fit that to my wickham trolley as it needs to be hardwired in 

 

after doing that lot I’m well over half way through chipping up my collection

 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by big jim

[CazRail]

I've just had to re-motor a Hattons 66, found my replacement on ebay. Took a bit of running in, but it runs sweetly now.

[big jim]

Got the hattons 66 up and running 

 

this is the replacement motor from ali express alongside the original one, £5 delivered 

 

Really to rebuild 

 

 

Flywheels back on and motor soldered to the circuit board 

 

PCB back in, chipped up and working 

 

I have an issue with the lights though, there is one headlight lit at both ends and no tail lights or can lights but I may have the switches inside and underneath in the wrong position

 

So from a £70 dead loco to a working one thanks to a £5 motor, and only a few bits left over! 

[big jim]

Finally got round to stripping the decals off some Bachmann TEA wagons I got off eBay, an absolute steal at £60 for the 4, decided to make them into barrier wagons as they weren’t my era but at that price they weren’t staying there!

 

The first one I did in one piece but it was difficult to grip with the underframe detail, I broke a the handbrake wheels off so I’ve got to plastic weld those back on so on the other 3 I stripped the wagons down, only 4 small screws to do so 

 

 

and after the barrel was T-cut and reassembled 

 

I’ve been in touch with @railtec-models about doing me some generic ‘Barrier wagon’ water slides in the style of the wagons that were used with s-stock but not heard anything back so need to chase that up

 

Will look nice decalled up and lightly weathered i recon 

 

I also made a start on another eBay bargain, managed to get an NMT with 3 coaches for £260 which again is a great price given the powercars alone go for more than that normally

 

the powercars are the old livery so I have t-cut the decals off and will replace them with railtec up to date livery elements 

 

 

Sourced the 2 extra coaches from derails and trident trains but it wasn’t until I put the rake together I realised I had 3 ‘generator coaches’ in the rake, I actually needed a normal test coach (977994) which is unavailable in the new ‘pictogram’ livery, after a quick look I realised it’s pretty much the same window layout as 977993 (OHLE coach) so I managed to find one of those on line which I’ll renumber and remove the OHLE pictograms from when it arrives, I’ll probably also add a pantograph to 977993 as well, I know the off the shelf Hornby stuff is a bit of an approximation with painted out windows etc but it’s a nice simple ready to roll train compared to the work I did on my previous NMT with prototypical interior and lights etc, saying that though I may add lights to this one at some point

[MrB]

On 11/05/2023 at 22:20, big jim said:

Got the hattons 66 up and running 

 

this is the replacement motor from ali express alongside the original one, £5 delivered 

 

Really to rebuild 

 

 

Flywheels back on and motor soldered to the circuit board 

 

PCB back in, chipped up and working 

 

I have an issue with the lights though, there is one headlight lit at both ends and no tail lights or can lights but I may have the switches inside and underneath in the wrong position

 

So from a £70 dead loco to a working one thanks to a £5 motor, and only a few bits left over! 

 

Hi Jim,

 

Good work on finding a replacement motor. Could you please share a link to the motor on AliExpress?

 

Regards & thanks

 

Mr B

 

Edited May 22, 2023 by MrB

[big jim]

Here you go, @adb968008 says it’s also used in other models too

 

￡5.39 | HO Scale Motor for Locomotive Model Railway Trains DC 12V 5 Poles 1/87 Size 1:87 Gauge for Hornby Bachmann PIKO
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOLGCWu 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[virginhst539]

looks like you had better luck with the T cut than I did, 062 ended up being a full repaint in the end. As for 977994 I am part way through painting my one. The main difference I noticed with the standard Hornby TGS was the additional smaller half of the door is removed on the test coach to leave a standard style MK3 door.  Sure there are most likely other diffrences in the underframe ect but that's the most obvious I found

[big jim]

Yeah the Hornby coaches are very much a mish mash with the odd door and blanked out windows rather than having them plated over, if you go back a few pages you can see my previous ‘proper’ model of the NMT with prototypical plated and blanked windows and interiors but I can be bothered this time round, I may do the interiors again though but the external finish on the Hornby models are way better than I could ever manage so I’m happy to compromise there 

[big jim]

Decals arrived for the NMT powercars from @railtec-models got the /ne powercar stripped of its factory branding and got them both decalled up, there were a few basic decals missing on the Hornby model so I added them too, data panels and ohle flashes on the inner ends as well as some tiny writing on the guards door window! 
 

also coloured in the front camera box window with a sharpie 

 

the additional 977993 coach also arrived which I stripped of its decals, got another order in with railtec and once that arrives this will become 977994 

 

I’ve also stripped down the other 977993 as I’m going to cut a pantograph well into the roof of that one, I said I was thinking of doing the interiors of the coaches but a couple of the coaches are ex Lima mouldings with the glazing attached to the roof, the glazing is very dark so I wouldn’t be able to see inside even if I illuminated them so it seems pointless doing so, if I swapped the glazing for laser glaze then I’d not be able to secure the roof as the glazing acts an an anchor for it to the body side! 
 

I’ve ordered the decals for the barrier wagons too, i asked Steve if he could do me some generic barrier wagon decals but he has actually managed to make a set for the branding on the real KBA wagons so if you fancy doing a set yourself then here is the pack your looking for 

 

https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=10865

 

looking forward to getting those done as it should really transform the look of them, I won’t be weathering them like the real things though! 

 

[big jim]

Super quick service from railtec, decals for the coach and barriers arrived today 

 

 

 

Enough to make up the 4 wagons with individual differences such as old railfreight logos for one of them, different owner stickers and weather worn panel

 

 

Looking good, probably weather then down at some point but no rush 

[railtec-models]

12 hours ago, big jim said:

Enough to make up the 4 wagons with individual differences such as old railfreight logos for one of them, different owner stickers and weather worn panel

 

 

As I had good detail shots of each wagon (and there are only 4 of them afaik) I decided to make the markings exactly as per each specific vehicle, incl the different shades of black patches and variations in ton/tare weights on the panels. One of those numerous topics that I originally thought may take a half hour based the original request for generic markings, but in reality ended up taking probably half a day to mimic the real things. At least it's done now and hopefully it may be of interest to others too.

 

And is that an Emma Bridgewater plate? My wife's obsessed!

[big jim]

14 minutes ago, railtec-models said:

And is that an Emma Bridgewater plate? My wife's obsessed!

not quite that posh, Sainsbury’s! 

[big jim]

Back home and a few hours in the garage, first up I refitted the sound chip to my class 70, wanted to put in a slightly bigger bass speaker but it wouldn’t fit so just put in a standard rectangular speaker in the normal housing 

 

I then started on the NMT pantograph car, got a 3D printed well courtesy of @LMSfan72 

 

marked out the roof area that needed cutting away 

 

Dremel’d it out and filed down the sides etc

 

And popped the well into the hole, need to secure it and put a bit of squadron putty in a couple of gaps around the top of the curve but it’s gone in nicely 

 

 

put back together temporarily to check the panel was able to be clicked back in place (which it did)

 

And in the train with the re-decalled 977994 coach 

 

once I putty up the gap I’ll get it primed and painted

 

im now feeling like doing the interiors on the coaches again and using Hornby Mag Lights to illuminate them as they seem a lot less hassle than putting decoders and pickups on the coaches as I did with the last one I did 

 

Edited June 4, 2023 by big jim

[big jim]

Put some fine modelling putting in the gaps on the roof after securing the pantograph well in place, need to rub it down next and paint it

 

Found some plasticard so decided to have a go at making the interior for that coach to see how it would look through the tinted windows, I’ve got some reference pics from when i did the last one 

 

 

 

I picked up a Hornby mag light in Cheltenham the other day, a lot easier than fitting pickups and decoders like I did with the last one, I’ve only attached it with some tape to see how it looks as I’ve got to paint the roof yet 

 

Lights off 

 

Lights on

 

Should look good when I paint up the insides, there is a fair bit of light bleed however as I say ive got to paint the well so I’ll do the whole roof inside and out 

 

 

it still needs things like chairs, computer monitors adding as well as people, of course there are 4 more coaches to do too!
 

I was hoping to add a couple of extra surface mount LEDs I have to the Hornby light bar so I could use them as milepost and roof well lights but I couldn’t get them to work when I touched them to the wires, I think they are a higher voltage as I originally used them on a decoder output function rather than with the mag light battery 

[big jim]

Painted up the interior and roof this evening 

 

Painted the interior brighter than the prototype so it could be seen through the tinted windows 

 

Painted the whole roof inside and out with humbrol Matt black, got to paint the gubbins on top silver yet but I’m really pleased with how it’s looking so far 

 

Hornby light bar in place 

lights off 

 

Lights on, not fantastic as the windows are so dark, will have to decide if Im going to do the other 4 coaches given the interior can’t really be seen that well

 

 One thing I did when I put the light bar in was twist it so one of the LEDs points upward thorough the hole in the roof, I’ll put some blue film over the rectangular panel so it looks like the blue beam that points upward when recording

 

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by big jim

[big jim]

Had a DCC chipping session this afternoon, I’ve got some stuff up for sale that have given up their chips, turned out 3 of the locos I’d put to one side to put the chips in were already fitted so I picked a few more, got a couple class 66s, a 60, a 47, a 97 and a secr c-class done as well as ‘Caroline’ 

 

only about 70 locos left to chip! 

 

[big jim]

Spent a bit of time in the layout room this evening, had a tidy up around the layout ready for the winter to crack on with it but as usual I got distracted and  started messing about with a few bits and bobs I’ve had sat waiting to start 

 

first up was priming a few modelu figures, a couple of me, quarry Hunslet, double fairlie and little England crews and a Walter white (that I snapped the hand off unfortunately), once dry I’ll give them a coat of black as I believe that gives a nice base for shadows

 

primed up a few military vehicles for my MOD train, I’ve got some more warwells on order from hattons so these will go nicely on those as well as the Trains4u flat transporter I have, the first vehicle is from a company called Scale 3D on the shop app, a foxhound/oscelot armoured vehicle

 

as supplied

And off it’s printing legs, I’ve cut the guns off as it wouldn’t have them on in transit, I’ve been after a foxhound for a while as I moved a train of them about 4 years ago 

 

The other vehicles are from Trains4u, the vehicle names escape me at the moment though! 

 

Might try and start painting them on Sunday but I’ve got work later on so will probably be sleeping! 
 

I’m also part way through renumbering a Heljan 86 to 86101 which also involves changing the bogies to class 87/90 type, I’ve used Bachmann bogie frames that I’ve chopped to suit but  I need to use better glue as every time I pick it up the sides come loose or fall off as I have used plastic weld but I think the Heljan bogie plastic is too hard to effectively bond the softer Bachmann plastic too! 
 

the number and names are from railtec and I’ll get those on after the bogies are properly secure, I’ll add some pics on here when i remember to take any! 

Edited October 1, 2023 by big jim

[big jim]

Gave the figures a coat of frame dirt instead of black (as that’s what I had sat around, a nice Matt base, painted up the Hunslet crew and Walter white, not finished yet, need to get some finer brushes and find a better way of holding them while painting, im thinking of blue tack on a coffee stirrer or the like but I’m quite happy with them so far 

 

Heisenberg, unfortunately I snapped one of the feet off

 

hunslet crew, need to tidy up their faces 

 

And on the loco

 

 

gave the military vehicles a coat of paint too, hand painted, going to need a second coat tomorrow, I really need to remember where I left my airbrush!

 

i did give the Osceolts a couple of coats and got them finished, really pleased with these for a first go!

 

 

Think I might order some more as I’ve got 4 more warflats on order with hattons and these are perfect for them

 

Going to go into the war hammer shop tomorrow and get some more paint and better brushes to get the rest of the figures finished 

 

[big jim]

Nice afternoon carrying on with the army vehicles and figures, first time I’ve painted any figures, quite enjoyed doing them 

 

but first it was securing the Bachmann class 90 bogie sides to the Heljan 86 to make 86101

 

Hopefully renumber and rename tomorrow 

 

Weathered the Oscelot, dirt on the tyres and a bit of muck under the arches and a light coat of muck on the sides 

 

2nd coat on the other two desert vehicles and put together 

 

 

Also finished the Saracen 

 

 

Then it was onto the figures, got some paint and fine brush from hobbycraft, tidied up the Hunslet crew, changed the colour of the drivers top as well as colouring the hands as I didn’t notice them fist time round! 

 

walter white, changed the shirt colour 

 

little England crew

 

Double fairlie crew

 

 

And finished with a couple of mini me’s 

 

 

Think I need to add some sort of wash to the figures to highlight the facial features and creases in the clothes on the lighter coloured garments 

Edited October 3, 2023 by big jim