Tree's Trains - Mainline 4MT Rebuild, Dapol Stanier Coach Revamp

[Mr. Tree Man]

Hi all, I originally set up this thread to document my rebuilt Bulleid pacific kitbash using the Dapol 9f and Battle of Britain kits, though I am modelling a bit more often now so I am repurposing it as a general workbench thread. If the posts are a bit image heavy I'm happy to trim them down, I'm planning on trimming down how wordy future posts are also. I would also like to point out that I am in Australia and so there will be a mix of British, Australian and other regions' prototypes worked on.

 

 

This first post documents my Rebuilt Battle of Britain build using the Dapol 9F (C49) and BoB (C048) kits with some minor aid from a 3D printer for things like handrail knobs. I had been hoping it would be a unique conversion when finished (and it sort of is) but found out half way through that the idea had been done before in the form of a rebuilt Merchant Navy.

 

Unpacking both of the kits and laying everything out proved quite daunting for me. I didn't really know what parts I wanted to start the cutting and shutting on so I printed out some OO scale drawings to have on the workbench and just took it slow. I started by drilling out all the holes in the wheels by hand as at this point I didn't have a micro electric drill. They aren't very accurate to the real thing and while time consuming, drilling out the holes made a big difference.

 

 

I laid out a few of the major parts over the scaled drawings to get an idea of where cuts needed to be made.

 

 

Originally I was going to use styrene sheets to build up layers on the lower half of the boiler and then fill with putty but as I already needed to cut up the running board it seemed easier to just cut the lower boiler section free.

 

 

It was very rough at this point but sitting the boiler on the standard BoB running board and checking against the drawings gave a good idea of the best place to cut to extend the boiler.

 

 

The next day saw all the moulded details shaved off the boiler as well as the funnel and dome. Behind is my original Biggin Hill kit from 6 years ago.

 

 

The next step was easily the most nerve-wracking - sawing the boiler in half!

 

The two haves were reattached using styrene rod with styrene sheet added after as support backing for the filler.

 

Some filler added to the boiler, front section of the running board cut down some more and attached as well as the smokebox door cut from the BoB kit's original front.

 

I have a 3D printer so decided to use it for the more difficult parts such as handrail knobs, funnel and dome. This is what the parts look like in 3D, ready to be printed. Originally I wasn't sure which style handrail knobs to use but I ended up using the first two. In future I'll avoid having the flat spot at the bottom as it only allows the handrail knob to sit a set distance from the boiler which in this case ended up being too far.

 

I wasn't happy with the standard kit's trailing truck and separated the ash pan(?) from the truck to be slightly more prototypical. The ash pan(?) parts were glued to the bottom of the firebox and while being a little more fragile, the new setup still moves more than enough. The cab parts were glued on but the firebox is a bit too small, making the cab look like it is sitting higher which isn't helped either by the inaccurate roof profile of the original kit. I did try to reshape it a bit but it is still very wrong. Dome and funnel prints attached, running board added and some styrene backing for more filler near the firebox.

 

Cutting down the tender was a bit easier than the rest of the loco, yet I still managed to make it look bad with poor quality filling and sanding.

 

Printed handrail knobs were attached as well as some other small parts and then the loco was ready for the first paint session.

 

Tamiya XF-1 was sprayed over everything to start with and left to dry for a few hours while I went to work. When I came home and had a look over the loco, of course I had to drop it on a rough and dusty concrete floor. Surprisingly there was no damage bar some tiny scratches on the rear edges of the cab.

 

 

 

Humbrol RC405 was used for the BR green which wasn't fun at all. Even after thinning to something stupid like 1 part paint to 6 parts thinner it was trying to gum up my airbrush. It was somewhat of a final straw so I didn't touch it for a while after this.

 

 

I didn't really want to leave it unfinished forever though because I have enough half-finished projects as it is. When I came back to it I decided to brush paint everything that was left including the smoke deflectors.

 

 

After fixing all the wheels I could start painting and adding the rods. I made flanges from styrene rod for the middle drivers as the original kit's were blind and while it looked better than leaving them standard, they catch on the brake gear and make it difficult - but not impossible - to turn the wheels with the rods on.

 

 

I ended up using the buffers from the 9F kit due to less flash on them, but still used the BoB ones as headcode discs. I decided to just do a generic express code as there are plenty of images of rebuilt BoBs and WCs with it.

 

Everything was sprayed with Humbrol Gloss Cote to hopefully prevent ruining the work I had put in to that point. It took some creativity to get this much lining from only the 9F kit decals, but I'm sure people will be able to work out how. I was going to give it the identity of 34077 as it was the only number of a rebuilt BoB I could make using the decals from the Biggin Hill kit and a spare decal sheet from the Dapol 257 Squadron kit. Oddly the number decals for those kits are printed in yellow rather than cream so I used the 9F number decals instead. Not only are they closer to the correct colour, but the sheet has 5 sets of numbers for various members of the class. Despite this, there were no 4s present in any of those number combinations nor any 8s. I ended up cutting the top curls from 8 2s to make 2 8s and used a 1 and the lower half of a 2 to make a 4... If that makes sense. After decalling everything was sprayed with Humbrol Matt Cote and the build labelled as complete.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm aware it is very much not the best it could have been which is down to my limited skills and patience but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially considering at a few points I was ready to give up all together. Would I attempt something like this again? Maybe - originally I was going to try converting the 4MT kit to a tank so I could use the tender for a Mainline 4MT I have. Would I attempt this specific conversion again? No. I ordered a Hornby BoB for comparison after finishing so will share once it arrives. Hopefully people like it and as unlikely as it is, if it inspires people to try similar conversions I'd just think that's neat.

 

- Tree

 

Edited Monday at 15:55 by Mr. Tree Man
Changed thread title to reflect what's current

[ColinK]

Looks good, nice to see some proper modelling with the challenges you met being overcome.

[sem34090]

Really nice to see some proper kit-bashing! If I could achieve what you've done there with that standard of finish I'd be bloody pleased with myself!

 

Well done!

[Mr. Tree Man]

The scores are in, so how did I do? Not very good...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But not too bad either! I'm still happy with that and please believe me when I say it's just a case of unforgiving lighting. 

 

 

 

 

 

- Tree

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Mr. Tree Man

[timbowilts]

The scores are in, so how did I do? Not very good...

 

 

But not too bad either! I'm still happy with that and please believe me when I say it's just a case of unforgiving lighting. 

 

- Tree

You have to bear in mind the limitations of the pretty ancient mouldings that you hve used, nowhere like the current Hornby one.

On a positive note it’s unique and all your own work, not that of a chinese toolmaker. Well done.

Tm T

[Andy Kirkham]

As a lad I contemplated trying this but came to the conclusion it would be too difficult. Congratulations for bringing it off all these years later!

[pwr]

I reckon you made a damn good job of that

 

Paul R

[Gibbo675]

Hi Mr Tree Man,

 

I went the other way and used the top half of the bullied and a modified bottom of the 9F, here is what it looks like,

 

 

Unfortunately the spray varnish bloomed and I haven't yet stripped it back and repainted it.

 

Gibbo.

 

 

[Darlington South Junction]

That looks great. Do you think you could post the 3d printed parts to shapetals?  I really want to give this a go but I don't have a 3d printer

 

Thanks

[Mr. Tree Man]

Sorry for disappearing for so long, I just fixed all the images in this thread so those who stumble across the title and think it worth a look won't be disappointed.

On 17/03/2019 at 22:07, Darlington South Junction said:

That looks great. Do you think you could post the 3d printed parts to shapetals?  I really want to give this a go but I don't have a 3d printer

 

Thanks

 

Hey there and thanks for that. If I were to go back and do this all again I would probably just have made those bits from styrene and tubing that I had laying around, and I would get just regular handrail knobs from either a detail parts supplier or off old loco bodies I got in junk lots. If you want the file DM me.

 

On 29/01/2019 at 19:29, Gibbo675 said:

Hi Mr Tree Man,

 

I went the other way and used the top half of the bullied and a modified bottom of the 9F, here is what it looks like,

 

 

Unfortunately the spray varnish bloomed and I haven't yet stripped it back and repainted it.

 

Gibbo.

 

 

 

That certainly is a unique looking loco however I love it. Reminds me of the proposed pacific with the Q1 style casing and I love how you've modified the tender.

 

 

I've considered doing another loco like this, except being less wasteful this time around. I have the 9F tender parts still which I was going to use for a battered 4MT, however I'm now convinced it's not worth saving so it's just a parts donor. I have a City of Truro kit, though I'm not particularly fond of anything GWR aside from the 14xx, 15xx and the Hawksworth Counties. The boiler of CoT is probably short enough for a 15xx, the 9F tender about the right shape for tanks and the 9F drivers probably about right for a tank engine as well. Another idea I'd had was turning a Schools into a Lord Nelson by using the tender frame to make a bogie and just resin casting a second bogie and an extra set of drivers. Everything else is about right as it is, just needs lengthening and a little bit of styling adjustments. I know it's not the most accurate way to get one but would definitely be unique. Have fun.

 

- Tree

[Mr. Tree Man]

Hi All,

 

I've edited the thread title to reflect an ongoing workbench rather than the one and done kitbash from a few years ago, so I'll share a few projects below;

 

This was an AHM Fairbanks Morse C-liner rework that I did over the course of a few months, starting with 3 powered A units and a non-powered one which were part of a job lot from eBay, I decided rather than try to sell them for what little value they had that I would make something and gain practice/experience from them. The default C liners are very basic, only the horns are separate details which often are missing. The front pilots also protrude quite far and are nothing like the prototype.

 

The body was soaked in brake fluid to remove the paint and the basic chassis disassembled completely. I cut the front pilot off leaving only the rear edges and trimmed the oversized rivets and part of a soft drink can was used to form the replacement pilot. The horn hook couplers were temporarily swapped for some Bachmann E-Zmates I had to hand before finally Kadees once I picked some up at a show, it was a bit of a mess getting them to the right height and distance. These have no interior at all so I mocked one up with some styrene sheet and rod, a lot of which were offcuts from other projects.

 

All the moulded handrails were cut off with a hobby knife, mounting holes drilled and new ones made from old guitar string fixed in place. Bogie steps were made using staples and fixed in the same manner - this isn't correct for the prototype as they hang down from the body but some compromise had to be made to ensure it could run around curves without issue. Some electrical wire was used for the hoses on the pilot and new horns turned in a drill using some Tamiya sprue. The Trainphone antennas were made using guitar string and handrail stanchions removed from another junk loco in the same purchase. A spray of primer and suddenly it was looking a lot better, especially next to an unmodified example.

 

The cab interiors aren't particularly accurate as I couldn't find much in the way of reference photos. I put less effort into the second unit's cab as it will always be at rear and mostly hidden by other stock. Colours also a creative license, and some figures from a cheap bulk lot online (after a repaint) form the engine crew.

 

My goal was to have an A-B-A set of 2 cab units and a booster unit between in the PRR livery as I think it is a smart combination, however I didn't have the AHM B unit (I found one at a show but couldn't justify the purchase). I chose to make one from the 2 worse condition cab units, carefully marked the bodies after looking at reference images and cut using an electric rotary tool. Some sanding was required to get a good fit and an offcut without the fans was used to fill the remaining roof space.

 

I couldn't find a good description of the PRR livery, a lot of people say dark green but in almost all reference images I found show an almost black colour with maybe a tinge of blue. I mixed some Tamiya black, grey and sea blue acrylics so get something that looked right to me and painted the upper bodies, then went back with Tamiya X-1 for the lower portions. A yellow band was marked out with an approximation of the lettering colour on the decal sheet. The decal sheet was generic intended to cover a range of locomotives, this one not included, and had the multiple converging lines as might be seen on the GG1 electrics. Frustratingly the decal sheet was old and the lettering printed too close together in an effort to save space, so each letter had to be individually cut and when trying to slide them onto the body with a brush would often disintegrate. I sprayed several coats of Mr. Hobby GX-100 clear to try to make them durable enough to position which still gave the occasional breakage but greatly improved my odds.

 

Some clear blister packaging was repurposed for the windows, cut to shape and fitted, then repeating the process for B and other A unit, numbered 9452 and 9453, and the full trio is completed;

 

They're not the quietest, I took the chance to swap to an LED with capacitor for the lead loco and removed the headlight from the trailing unit also. I'm pretty happy with them and have them in a display case now, something I definitely wouldn't have done before the modifications.

 

- Tree

 

 

[Mr. Tree Man]

Continuing with another finished project, a grain hopper with Manildra Starches lettering. This is one of those generic American outline models with Australian graphics to appeal to our market without the high cost of new tooling. I believe this was released by Powerline and was also done in other schemes such as V/Line, but the true prototype is a Canadian hopper and so is built to a significantly larger loading gauge than what we have.

 

However with that said, it's not too far from what we might have seen roaming the rails in New South Wales, and I can work with this. Feeling inspired after visiting a train show in 2022 I got to work. The first step is to cut everything into smaller pieces (this will be a recurring theme for this workbench) and shortening the bodysides by cutting along the helpfully moulded edge at the top. I kept the walkway pieces to one side so I could re-use them.

 

Then some styrene sheet was added to make a new top and 7 squares cut to represent the filling hatches for flour. Four of the NGAX wagons were specially converted from wheat hoppers for flour traffic from Manildra, entering service in 1973. One of the walkways was reattached sans the underside supports and details were added to both end platforms using parts from my spares drawer. The red pieces are from a Revell harbour tug kit and the green pieces are from a Tyco 2-8-0.

 

After reassembly and a shot of Tamiya flat aluminium on the ends it was definitely looking a lot better, I tried to mask off the text as that's really the main thing identifying it as Australian currently and didn't fancy shopping around for decals.

 

 

Then just for good measure a light go over with some grey/brown thinned in an airbrush, a few dabs of white powder to represent any flour spilled during loading and wheels painted a reddy brown. Voila;

 

It would surely stand out if paired with any other WHX or NGAX hoppers as offered by Austrains or even AR Kits but as a straggler in a mixed train it looks good. Images of the prototypes can be found here; https://www.krmodels.com.au/topic_whx.html

 

- Tree

[Pierview]

On 03/01/2019 at 10:55, Mr. Tree Man said:

Hi all, I originally set up this thread to document my rebuilt Bulleid pacific kitbash using the Dapol 9f and Battle of Britain kits, though I am modelling a bit more often now so I am repurposing it as a general workbench thread. If the posts are a bit image heavy I'm happy to trim them down, I'm planning on trimming down how wordy future posts are also. I would also like to point out that I am in Australia and so there will be a mix of British, Australian and other regions' prototypes worked on.

 

 

This first post documents my Rebuilt Battle of Britain build using the Dapol 9F (C49) and BoB (C048) kits with some minor aid from a 3D printer for things like handrail knobs. I had been hoping it would be a unique conversion when finished (and it sort of is) but found out half way through that the idea had been done before in the form of a rebuilt Merchant Navy.

 

Unpacking both of the kits and laying everything out proved quite daunting for me. I didn't really know what parts I wanted to start the cutting and shutting on so I printed out some OO scale drawings to have on the workbench and just took it slow. I started by drilling out all the holes in the wheels by hand as at this point I didn't have a micro electric drill. They aren't very accurate to the real thing and while time consuming, drilling out the holes made a big difference.

 

 

I laid out a few of the major parts over the scaled drawings to get an idea of where cuts needed to be made.

 

 

Originally I was going to use styrene sheets to build up layers on the lower half of the boiler and then fill with putty but as I already needed to cut up the running board it seemed easier to just cut the lower boiler section free.

 

 

It was very rough at this point but sitting the boiler on the standard BoB running board and checking against the drawings gave a good idea of the best place to cut to extend the boiler.

 

 

The next day saw all the moulded details shaved off the boiler as well as the funnel and dome. Behind is my original Biggin Hill kit from 6 years ago.

 

 

The next step was easily the most nerve-wracking - sawing the boiler in half!

 

The two haves were reattached using styrene rod with styrene sheet added after as support backing for the filler.

 

Some filler added to the boiler, front section of the running board cut down some more and attached as well as the smokebox door cut from the BoB kit's original front.

 

I have a 3D printer so decided to use it for the more difficult parts such as handrail knobs, funnel and dome. This is what the parts look like in 3D, ready to be printed. Originally I wasn't sure which style handrail knobs to use but I ended up using the first two. In future I'll avoid having the flat spot at the bottom as it only allows the handrail knob to sit a set distance from the boiler which in this case ended up being too far.

 

I wasn't happy with the standard kit's trailing truck and separated the ash pan(?) from the truck to be slightly more prototypical. The ash pan(?) parts were glued to the bottom of the firebox and while being a little more fragile, the new setup still moves more than enough. The cab parts were glued on but the firebox is a bit too small, making the cab look like it is sitting higher which isn't helped either by the inaccurate roof profile of the original kit. I did try to reshape it a bit but it is still very wrong. Dome and funnel prints attached, running board added and some styrene backing for more filler near the firebox.

 

Cutting down the tender was a bit easier than the rest of the loco, yet I still managed to make it look bad with poor quality filling and sanding.

 

Printed handrail knobs were attached as well as some other small parts and then the loco was ready for the first paint session.

 

Tamiya XF-1 was sprayed over everything to start with and left to dry for a few hours while I went to work. When I came home and had a look over the loco, of course I had to drop it on a rough and dusty concrete floor. Surprisingly there was no damage bar some tiny scratches on the rear edges of the cab.

 

 

 

Humbrol RC405 was used for the BR green which wasn't fun at all. Even after thinning to something stupid like 1 part paint to 6 parts thinner it was trying to gum up my airbrush. It was somewhat of a final straw so I didn't touch it for a while after this.

 

 

I didn't really want to leave it unfinished forever though because I have enough half-finished projects as it is. When I came back to it I decided to brush paint everything that was left including the smoke deflectors.

 

 

After fixing all the wheels I could start painting and adding the rods. I made flanges from styrene rod for the middle drivers as the original kit's were blind and while it looked better than leaving them standard, they catch on the brake gear and make it difficult - but not impossible - to turn the wheels with the rods on.

 

 

I ended up using the buffers from the 9F kit due to less flash on them, but still used the BoB ones as headcode discs. I decided to just do a generic express code as there are plenty of images of rebuilt BoBs and WCs with it.

 

Everything was sprayed with Humbrol Gloss Cote to hopefully prevent ruining the work I had put in to that point. It took some creativity to get this much lining from only the 9F kit decals, but I'm sure people will be able to work out how. I was going to give it the identity of 34077 as it was the only number of a rebuilt BoB I could make using the decals from the Biggin Hill kit and a spare decal sheet from the Dapol 257 Squadron kit. Oddly the number decals for those kits are printed in yellow rather than cream so I used the 9F number decals instead. Not only are they closer to the correct colour, but the sheet has 5 sets of numbers for various members of the class. Despite this, there were no 4s present in any of those number combinations nor any 8s. I ended up cutting the top curls from 8 2s to make 2 8s and used a 1 and the lower half of a 2 to make a 4... If that makes sense. After decalling everything was sprayed with Humbrol Matt Cote and the build labelled as complete.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm aware it is very much not the best it could have been which is down to my limited skills and patience but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially considering at a few points I was ready to give up all together. Would I attempt something like this again? Maybe - originally I was going to try converting the 4MT kit to a tank so I could use the tender for a Mainline 4MT I have. Would I attempt this specific conversion again? No. I ordered a Hornby BoB for comparison after finishing so will share once it arrives. Hopefully people like it and as unlikely as it is, if it inspires people to try similar conversions I'd just think that's neat.

 

- Tree

 

Well done - an excellent effort and quite convincing. I grew up with Kitmaster conversions and this takes me back to the 1960's !

 

Barry

[Mr. Tree Man]

Thanks Barry, it almost looks like thats when it was assembled too but looking back I think it adds to it 🙂

 

Getting to more recent projects, these are the two I have been working on currently;

 

Lima NSW 44 class diesel (HO)

Around the same time as the hopper I started cutting into a Lima 44, the main area I wanted to rectify was the windscreen being angled too far back, however this has a knock on effect for the details along the sides of the body which would also need to be rectified. I didn't get much further than re-gluing the sides in their new position before being unsure how to proceed and leaving it for 2 years. comparison of details;

 

Coming back to it I added some styrene sheet in the opening where the original windscreen was, epoxy puttied the gap and filed down a new profile once dried. you can see how much difference there is in the cab windscreen profile now compared to the original Lima offering.

 

I also opened out the grilles in the body as I was not sure how to smoothly hide the transition from 50 year old plastic to the styrene filler panel. This also allowed me to make the details over in corrected positions, as the door moving forward changes the spacing required for the grille sectioning. I purchased some brass mesh from an automotive store and cut to fit against the new details and experimented stretching the screen in different directions to get a more proper 'diamond' mesh. the centre panel has the mesh stretched vertically which makes it easy to see behind whereas the left panel has the mesh in its natural form and is harder to see through.

 

 

This is more or left where it is currently, I would maybe like to open out the roof fan and see about having it turn while the loco is running. I plan on repowering with a custom mech in similar style to Athearn, adding cab interiors, lighting and then casting copies of the body in resin to upgrade the remainder of my fleet.

 

The other ongoing project which I am actively working on is the Mainline 4MT mentioned at the end of the original post. I purchased this in 2014 more or less as you see it below, without a tender or front bogie and looks like it has had a fall at some point.

 

It didn't run so just got sat in the spares drawer for ages because I didn't have anything I could use it for. Getting back into modelling and I guess loving the punishment associated with reviving the older stuff people don't need anymore, I examined what I had to work with. The motor didn't turn but I remember at some stage it did and wouldn't transfer the power to the wheels. It clearly suffered the typical Mainline axle issue but then the drive gears were also missing when I opened the chassis to inspect. I found some replacements in my spares stash and modified so they would work, they are ok but I will probably source the proper ones later on. Brushes and armatures cleaned with thinners, everything lubed and 'new' brush springs taken from a Tyco 2-8-0 got the motor turning again.

 

Araldite epoxy reattached the wheels and axles firmly but I should have spent more time aligning them, there is a bit of a wobble because they didn't go on the axles straight. A quick test on a shelf test track and for the first time in my ownership it was running. Addressing the next issue (fall damage) I had to epoxy the motion bracket back onto the chassis and make a new one from styrene/scrap sprue on the other side. The body went for a bath in Dettol, though I greatly overestimated its power and things got a bit melty. I had it soaking in 2 sessions as the container wasnt deep enough, the rear for around 24 hours and the front for only 1.5 hours which was enough... I will have to work something out when it comes time to paint. I also epoxied some laminated 2mm styrene sheet directly to the chassis, to represent the firebox below the running board, and will add the boiler bands there a little later. You can also see I've cut away the damaged rear cab grab rails and door - more on that later.

 

Part of the valve gear was missing, so I had to refabricate this also but plastic wouldn't cut it. I only had issue #1 of the Hatchett O Flying Scotsman kit which was an etch for the cab and I kept the fret in the spares drawer in case I ever needed brass strips. Using a file and a micro electric drill I made the expansion link and eccentric which are joined by sewing pins, shortened and soldered at the back. There is a spacer between the side rods and connecting rod which I was also missing, remade using 3 sections of brass tube inside each other and soldered. I did have both centre crank pins but unfortunately lost one and had to be remade, along with both of the tiny circlips (to hold the eccentric crank in place) which I made using piano wire bent with small pliers.

 

Unfortunately it does bind a little, I think the issues are the eccentric crank having some free rotation and the expansion link hitting the motion bracket at its furthest extension rearward which I think I have addressed the latter now.

 

On 03/01/2019 at 21:25, Mr. Tree Man said:

Maybe - originally I was going to try converting the 4MT kit to a tank so I could use the tender for a Mainline 4MT I have.

 

Regarding the tender; I've come to the realisation that I don't like BR2 tenders so I will be building the BR1G leftover from the Dapol kit in the 1st post. Not at all prototypical but this is just giving a new lease of life to what would really be junk to others. Because of the pairing and the BR1G having a fall plate I could also remove the rear cab grab rails which I didn't particularly like. I will likely do a fox transfers order in the next few weeks to cover this and a Mainline Jubilee I also have on the way.

 

And on that note we're all caught up! Cheers for looking and I'll try to have more to show soon.

[Mr. Tree Man]

I have added a few details to the front and done some light sanding to try to smooth the wrinkle finish I created by melting the body in Dettol;

 

 

That Hatchett Flying Scotsman cab etch once again donated some brass, this time for lamp irons. I cut the molded dart, shed code and lamp iron off the door and made a new dart using some brass rod with tube soldered at a right angle to one end. I drilled a small hole and glued guitar string to the door then attached the handles to that. Drilled out the frame lift points and added a ring on the inner faces, also drilled out the broken buffer to take brass tube and a Dapol Bulleid buffer head was turned down to match the other and fitted in place. The dart may be a little over scale but I think it really improves the look and glad I did it.

 

I know you can buy detail parts like these prefabricated or cast in brass, nickel etc. but I don't know of any suppliers in Australia and the postage cost from the UK is hard to justify, especially for a project such as this.

 

I am on the fence about casting an Airfix Royal Scot double chimney to replace the single one. I have also started cleaning up the Dapol 9F tender pieces so should be able to start putting it together soon.

 

Edit: have started solving the bogie issue with a Dapol Bulleid pacific bogie frame and some generic metal wheels that you would find on a popular online auction site. The bogie wheel spacing on the SR pacifics is the same as the 4MT which is convenient, and the generic wheelsets are the right diameter but have 8 spokes instead of 9 which I can live with. They do come with pinpoint axles which I have trimmed down and they don't look too bad, I am using brass tube as bearings so it rolls smoothly and will do some filling of the mold sink marks and add a layer of styrene for the horn blocks to make it look a bit more 'right'.

 

 

Kind regards,

-Tree

 

Edited March 18 by Mr. Tree Man

[Mr. Tree Man]

Hi all,

 

I purchased some more non-running Mainline locos as it is rather satisfying bringing the 4MT back piece by piece. The first, a Jubilee, had no signs of life from the motor and after opening up it was hardly surprising why. Not too sure what the white stuff on the magnet is about but the armature looks rusted to me.

 

When I start properly on the Jubilee I might try to cut some of the chassis block down to accept a can motor, like the later Bachmann branded split chassis locos. One good thing however is it donated the drive gears to the 4MT (they are both the same) so it now runs far smoother and quieter than it ever has while I owned it. Something else I would like to do with the Jubilee is convert to a short firebox loco which I have some reference material on the way for.

 

I also purchased this handsome little fellow for a song, the listing mentioned the motor turns over but does not drive the wheels. I received it today and had a look after work.

 

The brass drive gear was loose on the motor shaft so would spin when trying to drive the wheels, but was tight enough to turn the motor when rolled along a bench. When I stripped it down I gave everything a good clean, used a burnishing brush on the armature and bush faces that were in contact as well as cleaning up the same rust and white powdery stuff as in the Jubilee. The brass gear fits far more snugly on the opposite face, however it didn't appear the chassis had ever been apart before. Other general cleaning like the carpet hairs around the crank pins, a decent oil and now I think it is a great little performer!

 

The rest of the issues are just cosmetic now; missing tank filler cap and safety valves, 2 brake hangers are broken and there is a crack in the front bufferbeam possibly from being dropped. I'm surprised also that only 1 of the 3 axles has split.

 

And because I feel like I have been getting the hang of brass and soldering since making the missing motion pieces, I picked up my Connoisseur Models starter loco from storage (and tried to dust it off best I could) with the intent of finally finishing the build. Due to my inexperience 11 years ago I would like to unpick everything and start fresh, thankfully I had the foresight to tape all the loose pieces of the etch back to the card so as not to lose them.

 

A lot of planning and not much being done, I know, but like BR says; "We're getting there".

 

Kind regards,

Tree

 

 

[Mr. Tree Man]

Hi all,

 

I have nearly finished the BR1G tender;

 

I have cut off all the moulded handrails, lamp brackets and ladder and made new ones using nickel wire, brass strips and handrail stanchions from my parts box. The coarse scale of the handrail stanchions makes them a good match for the original Mainline ones. Real coal will be added after painting. The tender is attached using Tony Wright's method of a goalpost at the back of the loco and raised hook on the tender. The front and rear axles ride on shouldered pinpoint bearings, and the centre axle floats freely in the original Dapol axle recesses.

 

After cutting off the back cab supports, door and handrails I made new sections with styrene to represent the other type for when paired with a tender that did have the fall plate. I added a few very basic details to the cab to give a more 3D effect and will add a crew after painting which should help fill it out nicely.

 

 

I have not added the doors or fall plate yet, these will be brass and only held by folded tabs so they can still move either for track undulations or tight curves. I hope I have left enough space between tender and loco to clear larger radius curves, I don't know what the local club has at the moment. Steps from the 9F kit have been fitted to the loco and the leading bogie from the Bulleid kit has been suitably modified to accept the metal wheels, added guard irons and can be removed/reattached using a screw for any future servicing or repairs.

 

 

I will leave the cylinders and motion off until after painting, just waiting on the decals to arrive from Fox Transfers now, but starting to look a lot less sorry for itself now.

 

Kind regards,

Tree

[Mr. Tree Man]

Hi all,

 

Recently a friend gave me his Hornby 4MT to repair as well as a Bachmann version of the same loco to draw inspiration for the Mainline one I am working on;

Hornby top, Bachmann lower, both southern region locos as this is what he models.

 

He said the Hornby one had a split gear and wouldn't run properly, and also that it must be a common issue given Peter's Spares (other spare parts suppliers are available) have been out of stock for quite some time. I did a bit of looking around and it seems a few other people have had this issue, and while one of the other Hornby locos has a gear set with the same gear in it, I thought I would have a crack at it myself first. I had a dig through my spares box and came up with 2 gears that were thinner than the original but were the right number of teeth and diameter, so did a bit of cutting, sanding and epoxied them together. They were purposely put on the shaft out of sync, as the main drive gear from Hornby has angled teeth to account for the worm. I then filed the teeth to remove the step in the middle and reassembled the loco.

 

I asked but he wasn't sure if it ran before or if it would just slip with a load behind as he had partly disassembled it some time ago, but the loco works fine in both forward and reverse now so I consider that a success.

 

Now, what to do with those ugly, long 7 plank wagons that were tooled for the Thomas range? I want to start weathering stock however I don't have much of a budget and am conscious of 'destroying' rolling stock or locos by giving them a terrible, irreversible paint job.

 

So this is what I am starting with, the locating hole at the front makes the origins obvious and therefore wouldn't be missed if something did go cataclysmically  wrong. I didn't like the step boards so trimmed them off with sharp hobby sidecutters and was careful to preserve the brake rodding and shoes. Using a fibreglass pen I wore through some areas of the lettering and picked out some details with Vallejo paints. Some planks were done in a sun-bleached wood grey/brown for replacements and the bracketry in a dark grey before drybrushing the metalwork with brown. I added a black patch in the lower left corners and hand wrote a P number as if requisitioned for the war effort and never returned. An all over cover with Mr Weathering Colour WC02 was applied and wiped off with paper towel. This was left to dry for a bit and then dusted with some cheap pastels ground up, using browns lower down and a mix of blacks and greys higher up for coal dust.

 

I did also attempt to fill in the hole where the face had been, it's still noticeable but less questionable I feel.

 

I have made a coal load from cardboard you'd get from cereal boxes, cut to size with excess folded down so it can't sink all the way to the bottom and torn smaller pieces of card on top with masking tape to hold it there and create a uniform surface. It was then painted black and covered with pva and woodland scenics coal as this is all I have to hand currently. I do have real coal but it's with a lot of my other stuff in storage.

 

I'm quite happy with the result now, I just wish I'd started on something I was actually going to use instead.

The only thing bothering me about the wagon now is the giant tension lock, but I don't know that I want to use any of the spare small tension locks for it.

 

I have also repaired a Bachmann B1 but I'll likely link that as a video once I've edited it down.

 

Kind regards,

Tree

 

Edited April 15 by Mr. Tree Man

[Mr. Tree Man]

Hi again all,

 

This week I have been revamping some Dapol (ex-Mainline) 57ft LMS Stanier corridor coaches that I got a while ago. These ones were sold as kits and were only moulded in light grey, black and a pinky red with pre-painted sides. They looked ok when I got them but after getting a chance to inspect some people's work up close and seeing how sometimes very little needs to be done to make big improvements, I decided to dust them off. I did take a look at Teeinox's thread about revamping the, found here; 

 which definitely gave me ideas on what may need adjusting aside from just repainting some areas.

 

Direct before and after comparison;

 

and some progress shots;

The plain light grey interior was visible enough from the outside to warrant a repaint, I looked up images of preserved vehicles and this is an approximation of what I believe is correct for 1st and 3rd class compartments. The interior insert was sprayed a tan colour mixed from various Tamiya acrylics and the rest was carefully brushed with Vallejo Model Colours. Exterior ends were sprayed black after moulded handrails were trimmed off and the roof was also repainted a dark grey.

 

Underframe detail was mocked up using offcuts of sprue, styrene rod and the bogies made thicker using styrene strip as demonstrated in Teeinox's thread also. I retained the tension locks as a necessary evil but moved them roughly 3mm back on each of the bogies for a closer coupling. Broken buffers were repaired using other Dapol kit donors and the bogie mounting pins were shimmed with styrene to take up some of the lateral play.

 

Not pictured, I polished all the window inserts using Tamiya coarse and fine polishing compounds and then sprayed over the bathroom windows with a very thinned out Tamiya white to make the frostiness stand out a little more, I don't believe painting them solid white is correct but could not verify from prototype images. A simple gold sharpie was used to pick out the door handles at either end. I am collecting stock for a 1948-1952 period layout when I have space, so carefully brushed the LMS lettering off with a fibreglass pen before clearing the entire coach side. I believe most blood and custard stock didn't wear roundels so I feel it plausible for coaches such as these to have been demarked via patch painting and sent out again.

 

I have not yet added metal handrails back on to the ends but that is all that is required now aside from perhaps metal wheels in future or a light weathering job.

 

Kind regards,

Tree