What improvements can be made to the Bachmann / Hornby / Accurascale MFA / MTA / MHA?

[Dungrange]

What aspects of the Bachmann MFA, Bachmann MTA, Hornby MHA and Accurascale MHA can be improved?

 

I have a rake of these to be weathered (with some renumbering necessary), but if there's anything that can be improved, it would be better to make these now.

 

I understand that the suspension of the Bachmann MTA is incorrect and the buffers on the Hornby MHA are also of the wrong type, but what other improvements have others made to their fleet and how?

[McC]

We’ll ours are practically perfect in every way 😃

[Matt]

1 hour ago, Dungrange said:

What aspects of the Bachmann MFA, Bachmann MTA, Hornby MHA and Accurascale MHA can be improved?

 

I have a rake of these to be weathered (with some renumbering necessary), but if there's anything that can be improved, it would be better to make these now.

 

I understand that the suspension of the Bachmann MTA is incorrect and the buffers on the Hornby MHA are also of the wrong type, but what other improvements have others made to their fleet and how?

It depends on which Hornby MHA - the first version I believe was riddled with errors and followed up by a corrected version.

 

For the MFA again depends on whether newer version with slimmed down chassis components?

 

The latest review of AS MHAs suggested they were nearly perfect but lacking the crossbar between brake hangers - I assume review was correct? Presumably a v simple fix.

 

 

[Dungrange]

11 minutes ago, Matt said:

It depends on which Hornby MHA - the first version I believe was riddled with errors and followed up by a corrected version.

 

Yes, the body was too high on the original release and it was also missing one of the ribs on the end.  I initially avoided these, but subsequently bought one to make an S-kits conversion to the later body style now produced by Accurascale.  I guess my question is what can be done to improve Hornby's best effort (apart from waiting for an Accurascale version).

 

16 minutes ago, Matt said:

For the MFA again depends on whether newer version with slimmed down chassis components?

 

Yes, I'm aware that the underframe has been improved from the initial release.  The next Bachman tooling still had the NEM pockets at the wrong height, but these have subsequently been corrected on the latest releases.  I have some with the NEM pockets at the wrong height, but in general, I'm looking for comments on improving the recent releases.

 

20 minutes ago, Matt said:

The latest review of AS MHAs suggested they were nearly perfect but lacking the crossbar between brake hangers - I assume review was correct? Presumably a v simple fix.

 

I've only just ordered the Accurascale release, so don't yet have my models, but one of the members of my model railway club had his down the club last week and the missing crossbar between the brake hangers was noted.  I agree that should be easy enough to correct with a length of brass rod.  Otherwise, I agree that they look good (hence my ordering six wagons).