Let's see your Airfix/Kitmaster kit

[33C]

52 minutes ago, Halvarras said:

A memory has just come back to me, it's not something I ever actually attempted but back in the late 1960s I had an Airfix railbus and a Scalextric set, and the clueless me wondered if a Scalextric drivetrain (motor/gears/axle) could be used to power it. The answer was yes probably, but its acceleration would most likely have given the Starship Enterprise some stiff competition 🤪!

Dapol Railbus + Micro Scalextric chassis + cheap speed controller =HS2.........

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

I have a few microscalextrix cars somewhere… Shall I give it a stab?

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

Just dug out one of the cars.

 

Wouldn’t be able to simply slide some OO wheels on, you’d have to develop a new drive unit, could build one out of plasticard, just a box to hold the drive wheel and the motor, alternatively you could try to put the drive gear on the axle of one of the railbus’ wheels and glue the motor to the frame from the railbus kit, possibly using the pickup brushes for power collection by having them brush the tops of the driven wheels.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Hacksworth_Sidings

[TinTracks]

4 hours ago, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

I have a few microscalextrix cars somewhere… Shall I give it a stab

 In interesting option that's been on my mind for a while. One solution for motorising the old railbus kit is to use that 'orrible Lima DB diesel shunter that they tried to pass off as a Clayton years ago. There's a great article on the net about such a conversion but I can't find at the moment. In one of the pictures you can see that I've used one of the Lima chassis to power a PIKO railbus body I had lying about. Bi colour leds added for headlights and Marklin 3 rail pickup

 A few years ago I came by a stash of french ''autorail'' H0 scale models (pictured) and hit on the idea of using micro scalex motors. I reckon if your careful you could get away with drilling out and transfering the drive gear wheel to the new axle and, as you said, somehow making a plastikard frame for the motor. In the autorail picture you can see a plastikard 4 wheel chassis that I bought off ebay(still available) The guy selling them sells various palstic motorised chassis for those 00 scale diecast tram models. I'm inspired to have another go at one or two of these.

 Regards, Rich

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

I’ve been tempted to try out that plasticard chassis kit for a while… Are they any good? If they are then I might pick one up, could possibly modify them too, make them fit a shorter wheelbase and possibly bring back powered rolling stock.

[Halvarras]

1 hour ago, TinTracks said:

 In interesting option that's been on my mind for a while. One solution for motorising the old railbus kit is to use that 'orrible Lima DB diesel shunter that they tried to pass off as a Clayton years ago.

 

 

Yep, done that with a Dapol-produced kit - described earlier on this thread (23 December 2020 on page 2), it worked well with 4-wheel drive too. Sadly I didn't have it long as it joined some Lima and Hornby modified Scottish diesels in 1987/8 which I sold on within a couple of years, didn't take any photos which was a shame as it turned out very well. I'd left the roof loose to fit an interior but never obtained the necessary round tuit.....

Edited October 28, 2023 by Halvarras
Added the last comment

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

Just bought myself a fun little restoration project from Elaine's Trains, Airfix Bulleid on what looks like a Jinty chassis, will have to get some of the short crank pins as I have some spare Princess wheels to fit on the centre axles, problem is that they're the "see-through" type wheels, should I maybe make a card or paper cutout to go over the wheels instead of attempting to fill them with Milliput?

[Barclay]

17 hours ago, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

Just bought myself a fun little restoration project from Elaine's Trains, Airfix Bulleid on what looks like a Jinty chassis, will have to get some of the short crank pins as I have some spare Princess wheels to fit on the centre axles, problem is that they're the "see-through" type wheels, should I maybe make a card or paper cutout to go over the wheels instead of attempting to fill them with Milliput?

Looks like a good project. I was on Elaine's Trains website yesterday. They actually have a set of Kemilway etched brass overlays for the Bullied Pacific wheel for sale at the moment. These are for Romford Wheels but may still be a good starting point.

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

Might give those a try if they’re the same diameter as the Princess wheels it’s running on, push comes to shove, there’s a busted Triang Bulleid up for grabs too…

 

Edit: No there isn't, got reserved not long after I bought the Airfix Bulleid, the Boxpok wheel overlays are also reserved, unsure of where to go from here in terms of modelling the correct type of wheels...

Edited October 31, 2023 by Hacksworth_Sidings

[33C]

Paper overlay is the way to go methinks. You can draw, colour and cut the lot on the bench until your satisfied and then glue on with UHU. (if you change your mind they are not permanent)

[41516]

11 hours ago, Barclay said:

They actually have a set of Kemilway etched brass overlays for the Bullied Pacific wheel for sale at the moment.

 

11 hours ago, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

Edit: No there isn't, got reserved not long after I bought the Airfix Bulleid, the Boxpok wheel overlays are also reserved

 

Oops, they're going to me.  I could do a scan of them for you when they arrive to see if they would fit or to use as a pattern?

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

Don’t worry about it, I’ll figure something else out.

[33C]

Get yourself some templates. Circles, ovals, squares etc. (Nice set of six on Amazon for under a tenner.) A boon when cutting plasticard. Also, a hole punch set. 5-32mm are available for punching out the plastic. 

I used mine when making covers for wheels, like the boxpok, before I discovered Isopon P38!

[roythebus1]

Markits do Romford-style Bullied wheels. you'd need some brass bushes as well as Markits/Romford use 1/8" axles.

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

1 hour ago, 33C said:

before I discovered Isopon P38!

Been considering doing that on this model, fill the spokes in with Milliput, just worried about fouling up the running in the process, since they’re the “see through” type wheels.

 

28 minutes ago, roythebus1 said:

Markits do Romford-style Bullied wheels. you'd need some brass bushes as well as Markits/Romford use 1/8" axles.

Model only cost £7, £2 in repairs (new crank pin threads for the new centre drivers) so less than a tenner in total, trying to keep it cheapo for the cosmetics too. Fitting entirely new wheels which require smaller axles would just generate unnecessary faff.

Edited October 31, 2023 by Hacksworth_Sidings

[Halvarras]

On 28/10/2023 at 23:09, Halvarras said:

 

Yep, done that with a Dapol-produced kit - described earlier on this thread (23 December 2020 on page 2), it worked well with 4-wheel drive too. Sadly I didn't have it long as it joined some Lima and Hornby modified Scottish diesels in 1987/8 which I sold on within a couple of years, didn't take any photos which was a shame as it turned out very well. I'd left the roof loose to fit an interior but never obtained the necessary round tuit.....

 

Just remembered another Airfix conversion I did as part of the above Scottish diesels collection in the late 1970s - I built some wagon kits as well, including five goods vans. Three of these were Kirk kits (on Ratio underframes as they looked more cleanly moulded), a fourth was a straight Airfix meat van and the fifth was an Airfix cattle wagon - however I had a copy of David Larkin's 1970s 'Pre-Nationalisation Freight Wagons on British Railways' (Bradford Barton) by then and page 43 shows W106282 converted to a fruit van by panelling in the top side openings, so I did the same with plasticard. The Kirk kits came with both planked and plywood doors so I made sure I had a planked pair left over for this conversion, they just needed narrowing slightly (as I believe the real thing did). I was pleased with the result, other than not getting the angle of the end vents quite right (too flat) but again sadly never took any photos and the wagons were sold on with the locos and railbus (I know, not much use for a "Let's see your...." thread is it?!)

 

Dapol have since produced an RTR model of the ex-cattle fruit van conversion, much to my surprise at the time, which I think is over scale length (? - and does anyone know where the 'MEX' bit comes from?!)

 

 

[Moxy]

7 hours ago, Halvarras said:

 

 (? - and does anyone know where the 'MEX' bit comes from?!)

 

 

It's GWR speak for 'ordinary cattle van.'  Full list here

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Western_Railway_telegraphic_codes

[Pierview]

On 30/10/2023 at 15:24, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

Just bought myself a fun little restoration project from Elaine's Trains, Airfix Bulleid on what looks like a Jinty chassis, will have to get some of the short crank pins as I have some spare Princess wheels to fit on the centre axles, problem is that they're the "see-through" type wheels, should I maybe make a card or paper cutout to go over the wheels instead of attempting to fill them with Milliput?

 

I remember reading an article written in the 1960's on a Kitmaster/Airfix  Bulleid pacific motorisation which used a HD Duchess chassis. If I recall correctly, the author disguised the spoked wheels by slicing thin sections from the kit wheels which he then rubbed down to wafer thickness on a sheet of sand paper before gluing them on as overlays. Not for the faint hearted though! 

 

Barry

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

My third Spam Can just arrived, running on a B12 chassis, not a Jinty, the top of the model was loose but I’ll likely keep it this way as there are a few white metal parts which are used to hold the body down to the chassis which can only be accessed by removing the top, I need to devise a loco/tender coupling but all in all nothing I can’t sort out.

 

 

As for customer service from Elaine? I ordered on Monday October 30th, she posted the item yesterday (Tuesday Oct 31st), and it arrived today (Nov 1st), good prices and swift delivery, I’ll absolutely be buying from her again.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Hacksworth_Sidings
Added detail

[Halvarras]

8 hours ago, Moxy said:

 

It's GWR speak for 'ordinary cattle van.'  Full list here

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Western_Railway_telegraphic_codes

 

Many thanks Moxy, some of the names are familiar but many are not - interesting read! 🙂 

Having been converted into a fruit van I still think it's odd that Dapol refers to the 'ordinary cattle van' code though.....

[Steamport Southport]

Originally Mainline rather than Dapol.

 

Mainline always referred to it as a GWR Fruit Van.

 

 

Jason

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

4 hours ago, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

My third Spam Can just arrived, running on a B12 chassis, not a Jinty, the top of the model was loose but I’ll likely keep it this way as there are a few white metal parts which are used to hold the body down to the chassis which can only be accessed by removing the top, I need to devise a loco/tender coupling but all in all nothing I can’t sort out.

 

 

As for customer service from Elaine? I ordered on Monday October 30th, she posted the item yesterday (Tuesday Oct 31st), and it arrived today (Nov 1st), good prices and swift delivery, I’ll absolutely be buying from her again.

 

Just been checking the model over and I have reason to believe there's a conversion kit at play here... White metal casts for the whistle, safety valve, smokebox and boiler backhead, two casts to actually mount the body onto the chassis, a cast to mount a tension lock coupler to the tender, and a casted tender coal chute(?), anyone know of a Rosebud/Airfix BoB conversion kit which uses the Triang B12 chassis as a base? Or am I looking too deep into this and it's actually something that someone has thrown together out of several third party components?

Edited November 1, 2023 by Hacksworth_Sidings

[41516]

30 minutes ago, Hacksworth_Sidings said:

White metal casts for the whistle, safety valve, smokebox and boiler backhead

 

Albert Goodall parts?  As currently produced by RT Models

[Hacksworth_Sidings]

There is an "AG" on the back of the smokebox, which is quite clearly a cast, so I'd assume yes. Plenty of other white metal castings too, including two rather annoying ones beneath the cab which restrict the rear bogie's movement.

 

(Edit: just looked in a book, they’re the ash pans, will have to file those down so the bogie can swivel)

 

Also, turns out it isn't an Airfix Bulleid, but rather an original Kitmaster! Or at the very least on Kitmaster frames.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Hacksworth_Sidings

[BernardTPM]

5 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

Originally Mainline rather than Dapol.

Mainline always referred to it as a GWR Fruit Van.

Jason

The Mainline model was a Fruit A like this.

The Cattle wagon conversion by Dapol is this.