Swissrail Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 Hi all As I'm new to RMWeb I thought I'd introduce myself with a couple of GWR coaches I built recently. One is a C67 full third and the other is a G62 12 wheel VIP saloon. I used Comet sides for both and a variety of other manufacturers' parts to complete the models. They are painted with acrylics and lined with enamels. I have another three on the stocks at the moment that I'm building for a client. There's an LMS D1703 brake third, an LNER Thompson 52' brake third and a Thompson corridor brake composite. I'll post pictures of them once they're finished - at the moment they're in grey primer. Alan McMillan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Prism Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 Very nice indeed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold gwrrob Posted July 2, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 2, 2010 Superb Andy.What coaches did you use with the Comet sides to overlay ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissrail Posted July 2, 2010 Author Share Posted July 2, 2010 Superb Andy.What coaches did you use with the Comet sides to overlay ? It's Alan actually but I get that a lot for some reason! I didn't use anything to overlay the sides onto. These are scratchbuilt using mostly brass. Heavily modified Comet underframe etches and extruded roof sections are the main parts that were involved. I scratchbuilt the underframes' details like the battery boxes, gas cylinders and the brake rigging together with corridor connections made from black paper. The interiors were made up from Plasticard and populated with Preiser figures. I hope to build more coaches from the GWR...they are by far the most attractive of any that the big four, or even BR, produced. Regards Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 I'd be interested in a full list of ingredients! Must admit I do like that VIP saloon ... Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissrail Posted July 2, 2010 Author Share Posted July 2, 2010 I'd be interested in a full list of ingredients! Must admit I do like that VIP saloon ... Chris Hi Chris What details would you like? On the other hand, I'd be willing to sell it...after all that's what I do...build coaches to order. And I can always build another one!! Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold gwrrob Posted July 2, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 2, 2010 I'd be interested in a full list of ingredients! Must admit I do like that VIP saloon ... Chris You're not the only one Chris.Sorry Alan. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 It's clearly a night for apologies. Alan, I had not spotted your reply to Rob's post when mine went up so most of my questions are covered! If I could tempt you into expanding a bit on how heavily you modify the Comet underframes I'm sure others would also find it most helpful. Please nicely ... Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissrail Posted July 2, 2010 Author Share Posted July 2, 2010 It's clearly a night for apologies. Alan, I had not spotted your reply to Rob's post when mine went up so most of my questions are covered! If I could tempt you into expanding a bit on how heavily you modify the Comet underframes I'm sure others would also find it most helpful. Please nicely ... Chris Hi Chris I'd be happy to give you details, but it's late now so I'll get it done tomorrow or Sunday and respond hopefully before the weekend is over. Regards Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Brinkly Posted July 2, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 2, 2010 Very nice work Alan, I look forward to reading more. Regards, Nick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Re6/6 Posted July 2, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 2, 2010 Welcome! Some excellent work there Alan. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
iL Dottore Posted July 2, 2010 Share Posted July 2, 2010 They look very nice indeed, and I'd like to know more about your approach of painting with acrylics and lining with enamels F Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissrail Posted July 4, 2010 Author Share Posted July 4, 2010 They look very nice indeed, and I'd like to know more about your approach of painting with acrylics and lining with enamels F Hello again First of all thank you all for your kind comments. I will begin here with a brief(ish) description of how I built these two vehicles and indeed, how I am building the three I have on the stocks at the moment. I have decided to attach photos of these as I have noticed others posting pictures of unfinished models on this forum so I thought “why not?†Sorry I've just noticed I've put the underframe on backwards on this one!! Also the roofs are only placed on these coaches for illustration. They will look better when they're fixed properly. Maybe I should have waited until they're finished after all! The Comet sides as supplied are very good indeed but the tumblehomes tend to be slightly underdone I find so a friend of mine rebends them for me in a press he has specially rigged up for the job. I believe it involves a silver steel bar of the correct diameter, some rubberised upholstery webbing and a force of around half a ton! I know others have their methods for doing this but I have never managed to get any of them to work satisfactorily. I always end up with an inconsistent bend or rippled sides. If the coach has sliding ventilators the first thing I do is add small pieces of brass to the centre elements to model the vanes that create (on the prototype) the pressure gradient inside the vehicle when the windows are open. I then drill out all the door handle, grab rail and door stop holes. Comet provide a very nice superdetailing etch which gives, among other things, hinges and a jig to drill the sides for their attachment. I make the door stops from .45mm diameter wire which is inserted into the holes and soldered at the back. I snip them off roughly at the front and then, using a piece of scrap etch with a .45 mm hole in it, place this over the wire stumps and file them flush. Remove the scrap and voila!, perfect and consistent door stops. Admittedly this is a bit fiddly but the end result is well worth it. Have a look at this photo of the Thompson 52 footer to see what I mean. I always add door handles and grab rails at this stage too as I prefer to solder then in place now and scrape the paint off them at the end rather than attach them with glue after painting. I use Comet underframe etches as they are very good at providing a good solid floor to the structure of the vehicle. Their only drawback is the truss rodding which is flat strip (being part of the etch). This makes them weak and prone to accidental bending apart from not looking right. I add 1mm strip to the trusses to improve their appearance and to add strength. I prefer to use MJT or Frogmore Confederacy castings to my underframes wherever possible. They are very nicely cast and are made to specific prototypes. I also cannot see past MJT carriage compensation units. They are a complete joy and very easy to build and do exactly what it says on the tin without nasty things like axle-rubbing beams, bearings in slots and springs etc., none of which work in my experience without a great deal of hassle and setting up. So, if you want reliable and maintenance free compensation for your coaches, look no further. I also like to add little touches like dynamo drive belts and brake rodding (wire and Masokits parts) from the v-hangers to just behind the inboard wheelsets. I make the drive belts from 5 thou phosphor bronze pickup strip soldered to the dynamo pulley with low melt. My rule of thumb is, if it can be seen in a broadside photograph of the real thing then it goes on the model. It all adds to a feeling of mass below the floor and gives a touch of reality that is seldom seen in the smaller scales. I tend to prime everything at this point in ordinary Halfords grey primer. It goes on very nicely and dries almost immediately. It also has the advantage of showing up any imperfections which can be rectified at this stage. Once this is done I now apply things like the roof rainstrips and cantrails in plastic. I developed this method a long time ago as I could never come to terms with gluing details like this in metal to aluminium extrusions. I discovered that solvent bonds plastic to primer very well. The rainstrips are made from appropriately sized Microstrip. I start in the middle of the strip with a dab of the solvent and then allow it to droop naturally towards the ends. Attach the ends to the roof in the correct place and then run the solvent along the remainder of its length, very carefully so as not to disturb the smooth curve. I also nearly always file off the cantrail which is part of the roof extrusion in preference to one added in plastic that is the correct shape and size. Once these have hardened, usually the next day I give the roof (and the sides if door hoods have been added) another coat of primer to seal the plastic in place. I have coaches that I built twenty years ago using this method where these parts are still happily in place. For painting I use acrylics that I had mixed by a car paint factor. The big advantage here was that I was able to get the paint in aerosols and although it’s not cheap the finish is excellent and it dries so quickly that dust ceases to be a problem. I use a low tack plastic masking tape and paint the light colour first if it’s a two-tone livery. For lining I use Humbrol enamels since they can be removed with white spirit if something goes wrong without the base colours being affected. I have one of R L Moore Engineering’s lining pens which I wouldn’t swap for all the tea in China. It makes lining a coach a complete breeze. I’ve even done LMS full livery on a 7mm scale coach with one of these although I have to admit it’s not something I’d want to repeat! Lettering is done with Methfix transfers and after that the whole thing above the solebars is given a coat of satin varnish. I hope this has been of interest and that the photos show you what I mean. I will add more pictures when the three unfinished coaches are completed and before they are delivered to the client. Alan McMillan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted July 4, 2010 Share Posted July 4, 2010 Alan, in one fell swoop you have answered nearly all my [stoopid] questions. Thank you! Just one more: do you find any difficulty bending up the solebars? I am agonising whether to try it or say to hell with it and use milled channel instead! Clearly the results speak for themselves. Sir, I salute you. Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted July 4, 2010 Share Posted July 4, 2010 Welcome to RMweb Alan. What an introduction too.....Your models look superb. People already in the business should look out! The coach that intrigues me is the last one with matchboard lower half and full LMS panelled livery. What are its origins? Highland perhaps? Larry G. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissrail Posted July 4, 2010 Author Share Posted July 4, 2010 Alan, in one fell swoop you have answered nearly all my [stoopid] questions. Thank you! Just one more: do you find any difficulty bending up the solebars? I am agonising whether to try it or say to hell with it and use milled channel instead! Clearly the results speak for themselves. Sir, I salute you. Chris Thank you kind Sir! I have to say the solebars are tricky. I use bending bars into which I place the thin part of the etch that will form the short part of the U if you see what I mean. After tightening the bolts at each end I then put the bars in the vice to make sure that nothing breaks free during the bending operation. Once I'm happy that everything is secured I use a steel rule to fold over the larger part of the etch. Before fitting them to the underframe I drill holes for the wire supports for the stepboards. These are just little pieces of .33 brass bent to a right angle and soldered in from the back. The stepboards are then soldered to them using a slight lower melting point solder to make sure the brackets don't detach from the solebar. As to using milled channel, you will find that the upper lug of the U has to be hidden by the lower edge of the coach side which makes mounting the floor pan in place more of a job than it needs to be. Using the Comet solebar means the floor is flush with the bottom of the sides and the solebar, which is located by a series of lugs into the floor, is perfectly parallel to the edge of the floor and exactly the right distance from it. Just my tuppence worth! Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted July 4, 2010 Share Posted July 4, 2010 Thank you for the advice, Alan. Now the bad news: I will let you know how I get on ... Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissrail Posted July 4, 2010 Author Share Posted July 4, 2010 Welcome to RMweb Alan. What an introduction too.....Your models look superb. People already in the business should look out! The coach that intrigues me is the last one with matchboard lower half and full LMS panelled livery. What are its origins? Highland perhaps? Larry G. Thank you Larry for that. I have to say it's a honour to be complimented by the giant in the field. Your standards were always what I aspired to. I'm a keen follower of your blog. The coach is indeed a Highland Railway prototype but it was provided to me by a client without its box so I don't know who made it. The sides were brass and in two layers that had to be sweated together. The roof was a resin casting and a lot of the details were resin too although there were no bogies. It was one of those kits that needed a lot of work and extra bits to make a decent model. Turned out nice though! Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissrail Posted July 4, 2010 Author Share Posted July 4, 2010 Thank you for the advice, Alan. Now the bad news: I will let you know how I get on ... Chris I look forward to hearing your progress Chris Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neal Ball Posted July 4, 2010 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 4, 2010 wow! - I wish my coach efforts looked as good, thanks for sharing! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissrail Posted July 6, 2010 Author Share Posted July 6, 2010 I thought I'd post some pictures of the latest progress of my coaches. Today I had to fashion and fit the bogie footboards and their brackets. The brackets are just pieces if .45 wire bent into a right angle. The boards themselves are made from the brass etch left behind when the Comet floor pan is removed. It's just the right width. The upstand part is made from 2mm Scale Association rail. This is a 1.5 x 1mm flat coil of nickel silver strip and is fabulously useful for all sorts of things . I even made working trolleybus overhead frogs in 7mm scale from it a few years ago! The next stage is to drill holes between the etched subframe and the cosmetic bit and solder the brackets in place. The footboards are then attached with low melt solder to make sure that the upstand part doesn't fall off! The finished result. Not long before the next thrilling installment!! Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted July 9, 2010 Share Posted July 9, 2010 Hi Alan, Thankyou for such an informative series of posts. Excellent modelling! Colin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swissrail Posted July 9, 2010 Author Share Posted July 9, 2010 Hi Alan, Thankyou for such an informative series of posts. Excellent modelling! Colin. Thank you for your kind comments Colin. I do my best. Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.