Show us your Pugbashes, Nellieboshes, Desmondifications, Jintysteins

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

Plenty of Britannia parts up for grabs… Anyone thinking what I’m thinking? 🤪

[RJS1977]

On 14/04/2024 at 12:07, 33C said:

Imagine "starter sets", containing chassis, choice of bodies, (steam or diesel), pack of options and paint, glue, brush and transfers. How much? £20-25 fair? Some great artwork on the header and, in a blister pack style, Airfix style, so you see what your getting. Almost a CKD or pocket money kit. (Hornby can nick this idea...)

 

Reading through this discussion, I wonder if perhaps what's needed is a 16.5mm version of the Kato chassis that are so common under 009 models these days.

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

On 13/04/2024 at 23:02, 009 micro modeller said:

Isn’t some of that quite close to how the GEM Varikit was supposed to work?

 

In some ways, would it perhaps be better to use the scanning and 3D printing process to create moulds, which could then be used to actually produce new injection moulded kits? If successful the same process could be applied to the kits that did survive into the current Dapol range but where the original tooling is starting to wear out.

I reckon that, if you were to do such for the existing kits, you should still seek a Kitmaster or Airfix model to get the scans from, since those won’t have the same problems that the new ones have (warping due to softer plastic, imperfections due to the ageing casts).

[009 micro modeller]

1 hour ago, RJS1977 said:

 

Reading through this discussion, I wonder if perhaps what's needed is a 16.5mm version of the Kato chassis that are so common under 009 models these days.

Isn’t there some sort of motor bogie that already provides this?

 

1 hour ago, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

I reckon that, if you were to do such for the existing kits, you should still seek a Kitmaster or Airfix model to get the scans from, since those won’t have the same problems that the new ones have (warping due to softer plastic, imperfections due to the ageing casts).

Exactly, that’s what I meant.

[The Johnster]

20 minutes ago, 009 micro modeller said:

Isn’t there some sort of motor bogie that already provides this?

 

The 'Spud' or 'Black Beetle' used to perform this role, but seems to be difficult to obtain/out of production deze daze and 2h examples fetch inflated prices.  Which would suggest that   there is insufficient demand to make production viable (and this on a world-wide basis) but sufficient to boost the 2h market...

 

I have long been of the view that Airfix-type simple plastic construction kits supplied with basic chassis components (bearings to insert in plastic frames, motor/gears, and metal axles wheels & motion) selling at between £50 and £100 for locos, around £25 for coaches, and £15 ball-park for wagons would be viable, but the trade doesn't agree or they'd be doing it, and they know more about the market than me!  It would need to be 'all parts included', like the old K's kits, but hopefully with a better motor!

 

The Churchward and derivate GW locos, with standardised boilers, cylinders, motion, &c, where different classes are created from different combinations of the standard components, might benefit from this approach.

[Moxy]

Halling do a range of motor bogies in a variety of gauges/wheelbases/wheel sizes, including 16.5mm gauge.

 

https://shop.ferro-train.com/hallingShop/product/home/antriebstechnik/drehgestellantriebe/drehgestellantriebe_h0165mm

 

 

[009 micro modeller]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

 

The 'Spud' or 'Black Beetle' used to perform this role, but seems to be difficult to obtain/out of production deze daze and 2h examples fetch inflated prices.  Which would suggest that   there is insufficient demand to make production viable (and this on a world-wide basis) but sufficient to boost the 2h market...

 

I have long been of the view that Airfix-type simple plastic construction kits supplied with basic chassis components (bearings to insert in plastic frames, motor/gears, and metal axles wheels & motion) selling at between £50 and £100 for locos, around £25 for coaches, and £15 ball-park for wagons would be viable, but the trade doesn't agree or they'd be doing it, and they know more about the market than me!  It would need to be 'all parts included', like the old K's kits, but hopefully with a better motor!

 

The Churchward and derivate GW locos, with standardised boilers, cylinders, motion, &c, where different classes are created from different combinations of the standard components, might benefit from this approach.

I fear though that these options may be a bit too expensive for the target audience @TangoOscarMike has in mind, if I’ve understood correctly. Black Beetles seemed to be relatively expensive anyway. The key point with the Kato chassis is that they exist and are sold separately to support a similar kind of modelling in Japanese N, where they are used to motorise separately-sold unpowered stock and/or kits. I don’t think this sort of thing exists in mass-market 00/H0 in quite the same way. On the other hand, the cheaper Kato chassis does not allow steam locos to be built (unless they have tram skirts), whereas a Hornby 0-4-0 would.

[25kV]

47 minutes ago, Moxy said:

Halling do a range of motor bogies in a variety of gauges/wheelbases/wheel sizes, including 16.5mm gauge.

 

https://shop.ferro-train.com/hallingShop/product/home/antriebstechnik/drehgestellantriebe/drehgestellantriebe_h0165mm

 

 

I ordered one 9mm and one 16.5 direct from them for my Matchbox diesels - both run really well.

[RedGemAlchemist]

On 15/04/2024 at 08:13, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

Started tossing together this… Thing last night…

 

 

Boredom and a surplus of parts do wonders to the mind… Body is from a Thomas & Friends toy of the character “Stepney”, chassis is a trimmed-down Hornby 0-4-0 with an Airfix Prairie tank’s bogie…

 

Debating… 0-4-2 or 2-4-0? Looks awful either way! 🤪

 

2-4-0 would at least be somewhat prototypical…

I'd scoop out the original boiler and smokebox, replace it with a slightly smaller one sat a bit higher. I think it'd make it look a bit less toy-like.

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

36 minutes ago, RedGemAlchemist said:

I'd scoop out the original boiler and smokebox, replace it with a slightly smaller one sat a bit higher. I think it'd make it look a bit less toy-like.

Too much effort for a cheap project using junk! 😛

[TonyMay]

5 hours ago, RedGemAlchemist said:

I'd scoop out the original boiler and smokebox, replace it with a slightly smaller one sat a bit higher. I think it'd make it look a bit less toy-like.

 

To be fair, it would also be better if only he replaced the cab, sidetanks, buffers, smokebox door and chassis with something more appropriate...

 

[RedGemAlchemist]

16 hours ago, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

Too much effort for a cheap project using junk! 😛

Doesn't have to be something expensive. My No.1 uses a wooden dowel I found in the bin as a boiler! 

[33C]

On 16/04/2024 at 10:26, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

Plenty of Britannia parts up for grabs… Anyone thinking what I’m thinking? 🤪

Indian Railways WP?

Edited April 18 by 33C
Added letter.

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

Just now, 33C said:

Indian Railways XP?

Not what I had in mind… Certainly a good idea though.

[33C]

Must do some Indian locomotives, I've got the bits but no time! Cheapo train sets coming out my ears but work is getting right in the way! Still, every day is nearer retirement just got to remember to wake up breathing....

[Ben B]

I mentioned the other day about my BR red American tank loco. Finally found the box it was hiding in!

 

 

 

Still not sure on manufacturer. And it's untested... but it's staying as it is, part of the collection. I have a spare body in plain black, as I fancy a very unlikely yellow/black chevron-liveried example for my Spon Lane layout, an industrial internal-user line in a 1970's West Mids engineering works. Why they'd even have a US switcher... is a problem for Future Ben to work out ;)

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

Possibly a Rivarossi?

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

On 13/04/2024 at 22:44, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

I did have an idea about the possibility of bringing back the lost K’master kits (the ones that haven’t been in production *since* 62), if at least one, good condition, unbuilt kit could be found for, well, any of the Kitmaster models where the toolings didn’t live past the Kitmaster brand’s fall (models like the Hudson, General, Garratt, Stirling, etc) then the parts could be digitally recreated and 3D printed.

 

Would it take loads of time and effort? Absolutely. Would the quality be significantly lower than that of injection moulded parts? No doubt about it! But would it be fun to see some sort of modern, easy(er) to acquire version of the kits? Definitely!

 

Would also open up possibilities to produce the kits that were announced, but never produced, or at least a loose interpretation of how they would’ve looked/gone together (Scotsman, S100, the big Canadian thing I forgot the name of…)

Been thinking more on this… Would a resin kit be doable? Make silicone casts from the supplied sprues, then cast new sprues out of resin, would get rid of all the prep work you need to do with 3D printing…

 

Though I can already see them being expensive, given a real person would have to physically make the casts and mould the sprues, cure the resin, do any necessary cleanup, then ship them out, compared to digitally remaking the components and putting them on Shapeways, an on-demand 3D printing service, where all one would have to do is recreate the parts, prep them for printing, and let Shapeways (and the modeller) handle the rest.

 

Just an idea, but one I don’t see being too viable… Maybe for something like replica body shells for older models it could be doable? But otherwise not much of a viable option.

[Northmoor]

3 hours ago, Ben B said:

I mentioned the other day about my BR red American tank loco. Finally found the box it was hiding in!

 

 

 

Still not sure on manufacturer. And it's untested... but it's staying as it is, part of the collection. I have a spare body in plain black, as I fancy a very unlikely yellow/black chevron-liveried example for my Spon Lane layout, an industrial internal-user line in a 1970's West Mids engineering works. Why they'd even have a US switcher... is a problem for Future Ben to work out ;)

I've got one, it's from Life-like.  I've similar plans for mine.

[AlfaZagato]

1 hour ago, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

Been thinking more on this… Would a resin kit be doable? Make silicone casts from the supplied sprues, then cast new sprues out of resin, would get rid of all the prep work you need to do with 3D printing…

 

Though I can already see them being expensive, given a real person would have to physically make the casts and mould the sprues, cure the resin, do any necessary cleanup, then ship them out, compared to digitally remaking the components and putting them on Shapeways, an on-demand 3D printing service, where all one would have to do is recreate the parts, prep them for printing, and let Shapeways (and the modeller) handle the rest.

 

Just an idea, but one I don’t see being too viable… Maybe for something like replica body shells for older models it could be doable? But otherwise not much of a viable option.

Resin still scares a lot of modelers.   There's also safety concerns with its working.   Resin would make sense for producing a 3D design, though.  Print the prototype, then cast from there.

[Ben B]

Going large; hopefully this counts, it's still in the spirit of the topic :)

 

I've done a project which has ended up in "The Collector" for Hornby, looking at a 'what-if' revival of the Triang Big Big name.  The idea is that Hornby made a wider range based off those Lionel "Hogwarts Express" sets they imported a few years ago, so I extrapolated from what was in the Lionel RTP range already. 

 

 

 

Wanting a tank loco, I thought I'd do some repaints of the Thomas set (what with Hornby not having the Thomas license any more).

 

 

Repaints underway, with the faces removed.  I didn't want to do too much modification, figuring that in the early days of this hypothetical range, Hornby wouldn't want to tool new toys for the junior market, but just commission repaints for the UK.

 

 

The inspiration was this toy, a re-liveried Thomas push-along.  In hindsight I wish I'd shortened the smokebox, but I was re-using the Lionel components and design, including the plug-in  baseplate which held the face.

 

 

The new smokebox was a bit of a cobbled-together job (being near the end of the project) using a rubber and plastic furniture castor, plastic sprue, and some bits from medical cannulas (unused scrap stock at the day job).

 

 

 

Bright yellow version for a more 'toy' set, following the "Polly"/"Nellie"/"Connie" tradition :)

 

There's a very, very vaguely-outlined plan for a layout if a house move comes off, or maybe re-gauging from Lionel's stupid wide gauge down to 45mm...

 

 

 

 

[009 micro modeller]

5 hours ago, Ben B said:

Going large; hopefully this counts, it's still in the spirit of the topic :)

 

I've done a project which has ended up in "The Collector" for Hornby, looking at a 'what-if' revival of the Triang Big Big name.  The idea is that Hornby made a wider range based off those Lionel "Hogwarts Express" sets they imported a few years ago, so I extrapolated from what was in the Lionel RTP range already. 

 

 

 

Wanting a tank loco, I thought I'd do some repaints of the Thomas set (what with Hornby not having the Thomas license any more).

 

 

Repaints underway, with the faces removed.  I didn't want to do too much modification, figuring that in the early days of this hypothetical range, Hornby wouldn't want to tool new toys for the junior market, but just commission repaints for the UK.

 

 

The inspiration was this toy, a re-liveried Thomas push-along.  In hindsight I wish I'd shortened the smokebox, but I was re-using the Lionel components and design, including the plug-in  baseplate which held the face.

 

 

The new smokebox was a bit of a cobbled-together job (being near the end of the project) using a rubber and plastic furniture castor, plastic sprue, and some bits from medical cannulas (unused scrap stock at the day job).

 

 

 

Bright yellow version for a more 'toy' set, following the "Polly"/"Nellie"/"Connie" tradition :)

 

There's a very, very vaguely-outlined plan for a layout if a house move comes off, or maybe re-gauging from Lionel's stupid wide gauge down to 45mm...

 

 

 

 

Very nice. Do Lionel still use this then? I thought they mostly made 0 gauge stuff these days. What gauge was the Hogwarts set?

[Steamport Southport]

On 21/04/2024 at 15:48, 009 micro modeller said:

Very nice. Do Lionel still use this then? I thought they mostly made 0 gauge stuff these days. What gauge was the Hogwarts set?

 

It say's O Gauge.

 

But be aware it's US O Gauge rather than British O Gauge, which is something like 1:48 scale rather than our 1:43. It is noticeably smaller.

 

 

Jason

[009 micro modeller]

7 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

It say's O Gauge.

 

But be aware it's US O Gauge rather than British O Gauge, which is something like 1:48 scale rather than our 1:43. It is noticeably smaller.

 

 

Jason

I think it’s the track gauge that @Ben B meant, not the scale.

[tebee]

14 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

It say's O Gauge.

 

But be aware it's US O Gauge rather than British O Gauge, which is something like 1:48 scale rather than our 1:43. It is noticeably smaller.

 

 

Jason

 

7 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

I think it’s the track gauge that @Ben B meant, not the scale.

They are a nominal 1:24 scale but 1.5in gauge roughly half way between O and G scale. Oddly enough the same as Lego(near enough)