Wright writes.....

[LNER4479]

15 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I only ever built one. In my ignorance the wings ended up warped so on its first flight it flew in a steep turn to port directly into a brick wall. That was the end of my aeromodelling career.

Moral of that tale - always attempt maiden flight of a model aeroplane in an open field, full of long, wavy grass😉

[St Enodoc]

12 minutes ago, LNER4479 said:

Moral of that tale - always attempt maiden flight of a model aeroplane in an open field, full of long, wavy grass😉

It was an open field - miles of it, it front of me. Unfortunately there was a brick wall behind...

[polybear]

8 hours ago, Keith Turbutt said:

Regarding aircraft models, some of which I also built, was the problem of storage as they do take up a lot of room especially in the larger scales.

 

Many of my aircraft would be suspended beneath a string stretched high across my bedroom, suspended by cotton; I suspect I'm not the only one that did this.....

[Tony Wright]

9 hours ago, Woodcock29 said:

My first attempt, at the age of 8, was an Airfix Presflo that I found in Dad's cupboard during the school holidays probably not long before we emigrated to Australia. I can't remember his reaction but I guess he wasn't pleased at the time as I think there was glue everywhere!

 

However, my main introduction into kit building was from around 11 starting with the Airfix Sopwith Camel as I'd been reading Biggles books. Several more WW1 aircraft quickly followed. Then it was warships and WW2 aircraft. I've actually still got most of the warships in a cabinet in my railway room.

 

In my teens I started to also muck around with repainting RTR models like a BR Flying Scotsman into LNER apple green after trying to fill the hole after removing the streamlined dome and fitting a round one. My first kit, for my 16th birthday was a Wills bodyline N7 which I fitted to a Triang chassis as intended. I've still got that sitting in a cabinet but with Romfords on the chassis and an MW005 motor in it. The body I rebuilt back in the 1980s to an LNER build with roundtop firebox, different bunker, cab roof, chimney etc. I've even only last year acquired a SE Finecast chassis to build for it.

 

Every now and then I browse the warship kits available now in the shops but daren't buy one as it would distract me from the main game building the extensive stash of loco and other rollingstock kits I've accumulated. The latest addition being an LRM Midland horsebox won in the raffle at the recent BRMA Convention in Brisbane.

Andrew

Good morning Andrew,

 

I think you'll find that you were removing a 'banjo' dome, not a 'streamlined' one. Hornby's original FLYING SCOTSMAN had a 'banjo' dome (something the real thing has never carried in its whole 100 years' existence, as did Trix's - later Lilliput. I don't know which dome the first Trix SCOTSMAN carried, if any). 

 

Draughtsmen like Skinley, Roche and later Beattie, cheerfully drew 'banjo' domes on not just their A3 drawings, but A1s, the A1/1, A2s, A2/2s and even V2s! All were copied by the contemporary RTR bods and also the kit-makers such as Wills and Millholme. 

 

The only locos (apart from the two V4s, but theirs were very different) which carried 'banjo' domes were last-built A3s; 2500-8, and then only until their first boiler change. 

 

I have never seen this fact documented, but someone in the 'metal-bashing' department at the Plant must have decided that it was nonsense to form a 'pear drop'-shaped dome cover (or 'banjo') to go over the perforated steam collector (which was underneath); what with those complex reverse curves. Why not bash-out a simple tapered ('streamlined') cover? Much easier.

 

The situation has not been helped by the RCTS getting hopelessly muddled up in their A3 dome descriptions - Thompson 94A boilers? Peter Coster also got confused in his first The Book of the A3s. 

 

Hornby finally got it right, as did the kit-makers.

 

I have loads of cast metal 'banjo' domes, just waiting to be melted down!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Tony Wright
to add something

[Tony Wright]

8 hours ago, Woodcock29 said:

My first attempt, at the age of 8, was an Airfix Presflo that I found in Dad's cupboard during the school holidays probably not long before we emigrated to Australia. I can't remember his reaction but I guess he wasn't pleased at the time as I think there was glue everywhere!

 

However, my main introduction into kit building was from around 11 starting with the Airfix Sopwith Camel as I'd been reading Biggles books. Several more WW1 aircraft quickly followed. Then it was warships and WW2 aircraft. I've actually still got most of the warships in a cabinet in my railway room.

 

In my teens I started to also muck around with repainting RTR models like a BR Flying Scotsman into LNER apple green after trying to fill the hole after removing the streamlined dome and fitting a round one. My first kit, for my 16th birthday was a Wills bodyline N7 which I fitted to a Triang chassis as intended. I've still got that sitting in a cabinet but with Romfords on the chassis and an MW005 motor in it. The body I rebuilt back in the 1980s to an LNER build with roundtop firebox, different bunker, cab roof, chimney etc. I've even only last year acquired a SE Finecast chassis to build for it.

 

Every now and then I browse the warship kits available now in the shops but daren't buy one as it would distract me from the main game building the extensive stash of loco and other rollingstock kits I've accumulated. The latest addition being an LRM Midland horsebox won in the raffle at the recent BRMA Convention in Brisbane.

Andrew

Duplicate post.

Edited October 5, 2023 by Tony Wright
duplicate post

[Clem]

On 24/09/2023 at 17:17, MJI said:

 

Ratio 3d mjt cambrian parkside bits on top will get gibson 3 hole and Lanarkshire buffers

 

3d hopper currently getting brakes, ordered 4 packs of buffers

Hi, 

 

May I ask, where did you get the 3D LMS hopper from?

 

Thanks

 

Clem

[cctransuk]

46 minutes ago, Clem said:

Hi, 

 

May I ask, where did you get the 3D LMS hopper from?

 

Thanks

 

Clem

 

See 'Ironmink' on Thingiverse.

 

CJI.

[Barry Ten]

9 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I only ever built one. In my ignorance the wings ended up warped so on its first flight it flew in a steep turn to port directly into a brick wall. That was the end of my aeromodelling career.

 

That happened with (another) rc Mustang that a friend and I tried to fly. In our ignorance, we hadn't put any side-thrust on the electric engine we'd put in the plane, so as soon as it was off the ground it yawed hard to left. It went into the road/verge so not as bad as the wall but still a fair bit of damage to put right.

 

It does give you a renewed appreciation for model trains. Imaging building a DJH pacific then throwing it up into the air to see if it "works".

[Steamport Southport]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Many of my aircraft would be suspended beneath a string stretched high across my bedroom, suspended by cotton; I suspect I'm not the only one that did this.....

 

I just balanced them on two threads of cotton across the room. Made it easy to get them down for cleaning and I could change them occasionally.

 

The big planes were built with the undercarriage down so I could put them on a shelf.

 

 

Jason

[Clem]

43 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

See 'Ironmink' on Thingiverse.

 

CJI.

Thanks CJI. I've looked on this site. These just seem to be the data files and unfortunately I don't have a 3D printer. Do you know if anyone actually prints and markets them?

 

Clem

[MJI]

1 hour ago, Clem said:

Hi, 

 

May I ask, where did you get the 3D LMS hopper from?

 

Thanks

 

Clem

 

My 3D printer

[MJI]

12 minutes ago, Clem said:

Thanks CJI. I've looked on this site. These just seem to be the data files and unfortunately I don't have a 3D printer. Do you know if anyone actually prints and markets them?

 

Clem

 

I do not know of anyone but as an example if I charged for the time and materials per hopper, expensive.

 

The printers do wear out, the bodies take about 4 hours, not a quick job.

[MJI]

15 minutes ago, Clem said:

Thanks CJI. I've looked on this site. These just seem to be the data files and unfortunately I don't have a 3D printer. Do you know if anyone actually prints and markets them?

 

Clem

 

If you want a lot would be more cost effective to get into 3D printing

[Kier Hardy]

 

https://www.emgauge70s.co.uk/proto_index.html for a list of people happy to print Ironmink's (Jonny Duffett) software.

 

[cctransuk]

34 minutes ago, Clem said:

Thanks CJI. I've looked on this site. These just seem to be the data files and unfortunately I don't have a 3D printer. Do you know if anyone actually prints and markets them?

 

Clem

 

I know that there is a thread here which indicates that the poster has sourced them - the Cromford & High Peak thread springs to mind.

 

My models were supplied by the designer, in exchange for my designing and printing suitable transfers.

 

CJI.

[Geep7]

Speaking of the Airfix/Dapol presflos.....

 

 

There is a mix of heritage to these 6 presflos. 2 are new builds from the Dapol kit and 4 are from the Airfix era, 2 of which I built in my teens, and the other 2 reworked from part-built kits I picked up cheaply from a job lot purchase on eBay. All have had metal pin-point wheels fitted in brass bearings, kadees fitted, and weighted to about 50g each. These all still have the kit buffers, and i'm tempted to revisit them and change them to white metal. The ladders could probably be upgraded to etched brass, although I think from the photos i've seen, the ladders were fairly substantial anyway. I also still need to do the transfers, something I keep putting off, then I can weather them.

 

For those that may be interested, I have used Vallejo Model Color Mahogany Brown for a fairly close match to BR Bauxite brown (in my eyes anyway).

Edited October 5, 2023 by Geep7

[Pebbles]

5 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Andrew,

 

I think you'll find that you were removing a 'banjo' dome, not a 'streamlined' one. Hornby's original FLYING SCOTSMAN had a 'banjo' dome (something the real thing has never carried in its whole 100 years' existence, as did Trix's - later Lilliput. I don't know which dome the first Trix SCOTSMAN carried, if any). 

 

Draughtsmen like Skinley, Roche and later Beattie, cheerfully drew 'banjo' domes on not just their A3 drawings, but A1s, the A1/1, A2s, A2/2s and even V2s! All were copied by the contemporary RTR bods and also the kit-makers such as Wills and Millholme. 

 

The only locos (apart from the two V4s, but theirs were very different) which carried 'banjo' domes were last-built A3s; 2500-8, and then only until their first boiler change. 

 

I have never seen this fact documented, but someone in the 'metal-bashing' department at the Plant must have decided that it was nonsense to form a 'pear drop'-shaped dome cover (or 'banjo') to go over the perforated steam collector (which was underneath); what with those complex reverse curves. Why not bash-out a simple tapered ('streamlined') cover? Much easier.

 

The situation has not been helped by the RCTS getting hopelessly muddled up in their A3 dome descriptions - Thompson 94A boilers? Peter Coster also got confused in his first The Book of the A3s. 

 

Hornby finally got it right, as did the kit-makers.

 

I have loads of cast metal 'banjo' domes, just waiting to be melted down!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Tony,

This issues has been going on for so many years that I hoped that your original research would have resolved it. There are such a variety of iterations for the streamline dome - not Banjo Dome - among kits that it is doubtful whether Doncaster drawings were ever used. I don't myself profess to know the answer but the attached may help. As the letter was published in Railway Modeller back in the 60s or 70s, and as the information must be in the public domain, I don't believe that there is a copyright issue,

Edited October 5, 2023 by Pebbles

[Clem]

2 hours ago, MJI said:

 

I do not know of anyone but as an example if I charged for the time and materials per hopper, expensive.

 

The printers do wear out, the bodies take about 4 hours, not a quick job.

Thanks Martin. It is something I've considered but I am worried that it'd be a whole new field for me and I haven't got any local friends who have experience in this field who could offer real support if I got stuck. However, it does take a lot of effort to scratch build them....

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

3 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

It does give you a renewed appreciation for model trains. Imaging building a DJH pacific then throwing it up into the air to see if it "works".

And yet worse for those operating model boats. At least model aircraft typically return to ground as they re-kit. If trying out one's model boat on a  Scottish loch, there's no recovery plan if it all goes wrong: which I have observed...

[Woodcock29]

6 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Andrew,

 

I think you'll find that you were removing a 'banjo' dome, not a 'streamlined' one. Hornby's original FLYING SCOTSMAN had a 'banjo' dome (something the real thing has never carried in its whole 100 years' existence, as did Trix's - later Lilliput. I don't know which dome the first Trix SCOTSMAN carried, if any). 

 

Draughtsmen like Skinley, Roche and later Beattie, cheerfully drew 'banjo' domes on not just their A3 drawings, but A1s, the A1/1, A2s, A2/2s and even V2s! All were copied by the contemporary RTR bods and also the kit-makers such as Wills and Millholme. 

 

The only locos (apart from the two V4s, but theirs were very different) which carried 'banjo' domes were last-built A3s; 2500-8, and then only until their first boiler change. 

 

I have never seen this fact documented, but someone in the 'metal-bashing' department at the Plant must have decided that it was nonsense to form a 'pear drop'-shaped dome cover (or 'banjo') to go over the perforated steam collector (which was underneath); what with those complex reverse curves. Why not bash-out a simple tapered ('streamlined') cover? Much easier.

 

The situation has not been helped by the RCTS getting hopelessly muddled up in their A3 dome descriptions - Thompson 94A boilers? Peter Coster also got confused in his first The Book of the A3s. 

 

Hornby finally got it right, as did the kit-makers.

 

I have loads of cast metal 'banjo' domes, just waiting to be melted down!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Tony it's so long ago I can't really remember whether it was a banjo or streamlined. Clearly it must have been a banjo. I also have some banjo domes in stock- accumulated from bits and pieces that have come my way. I could start using them for weights in vans or under loads in open wagons I suppose as I doubt I'll build any A3s from the last batch built.

[LNER4479]

7 hours ago, polybear said:

Many of my aircraft would be suspended beneath a string stretched high across my bedroom, suspended by cotton; I suspect I'm not the only one that did this.....

Indeed you weren't ...

 

Looks like I might be ploughing a lonely furrow continuing with the (very) occasional build of a civil airliner or three? I always did prefer hairy planes you can / could actually fly in rather than ones designed to kill people.

 

[t-b-g]

2 hours ago, Pebbles said:

Tony,

This issues has been going on for so many years that I hoped that your original research would have resolved it. There are such a variety of iterations for the streamline dome - not Banjo Dome - among kits that it is doubtful whether Doncaster drawings were ever used. I don't myself profess to know the answer but the attached may help. As the letter was published in Railway Modeller back in the 60s or 70s, and as the information must be in the public domain, I don't believe that there is a copyright issue,

 

I knew Pete Wright, a fine modeller (I particularly recall his lovely work in 2mm finescale) and a former employee in the Plant works at Doncaster. He would almost certainly have been writing from personal experience of seeing these made.

 

I mention this just in case anybody wants to suggest that he might be not writing with good authority.

[Tony Wright]

3 hours ago, Geep7 said:

Speaking of the Airfix/Dapol presflos.....

 

 

There is a mix of heritage to these 6 presflos. 2 are new builds from the Dapol kit and 4 are from the Airfix era, 2 of which I built in my teens, and the other 2 reworked from part-built kits I picked up cheaply from a job lot purchase on eBay. All have had metal pin-point wheels fitted in brass bearings, kadees fitted, and weighted to about 50g each. These all still have the kit buffers, and i'm tempted to revisit them and change them to white metal. The ladders could probably be upgraded to etched brass, although I think from the photos i've seen, the ladders were fairly substantial anyway. I also still need to do the transfers, something I keep putting off, then I can weather them.

 

For those that may be interested, I have used Vallejo Model Color Mahogany Brown for a fairly close match to BR Bauxite brown (in my eyes anyway).

Good afternoon,

 

The original Airfix cement wagons were very good models indeed, though I'm told the later Dapol examples were formed from rather 'bendy' plastic in comparison. Never having built the latter, I cannot comment from personal experience. Years ago, I did build a few Airfix ones, though nowhere near as many as Rob Kinsey......

 

 

He built a set for Stoke Summit (actually previously seen on Leighford), and there might be some Dapol ones in this rake.

 

A Tyneside-based A2/3 (DJH/Wright/Rathbone) is unlikely motive power.

 

However,

 

 

according to Peter Townend, Thompson's A2/3s were the only class which could time the train (the heaviest on the line at the time) ascending Stoke Bank. Thus, I use one from time to time, on this occasion 60500 (Crownline/Wright/Rathbone). 

 

Or.........

 

 

60513 (DJH/Wright/Rathbone). 

 

The train sometimes runs all-slow line, slow to fast or all-fast on the Down.

 

This shot was taken before I'd installed all the point rodding. 

 

At other times.........

 

 

 

I use a 9F (Model Loco/Wright/Haynes).

 

Or...........

 

 

A V2 (MJT/Comet/Wright/Haynes).

 

Point rodding now completed.

 

The whole train is now my property and I'm extremely privileged to have such a splendid rake.

 

 

Was this a forerunner of the 'Presflos'? Built, far more years ago than I care to remember (enough years for part of the 'unique' suspension system to be collapsing!), from a Peco 'Wonderful Wagon' kit, and subsequently weathered by Rob Davey. 

 

Of course, there's no need now to build Presflos...........

 

 

 

Not with Bachmann producing them, though these are a bit too clean for my taste.

 

Still,

 

 

Lord & Butler's 'Dirty Boy' weathering service will do the trick. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by Tony Wright
to add something

[Tony Wright]

7 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

 

I knew Pete Wright, a fine modeller (I particularly recall his lovely work in 2mm finescale) and a former employee in the Plant works at Doncaster. He would almost certainly have been writing from personal experience of seeing these made.

 

I mention this just in case anybody wants to suggest that he might be not writing with good authority.

Good afternoon Tony,

 

I'm sure his authority was impeccable.

 

The little snippet shown earlier is the first time I've ever seen reference to the making of the 'streamlined' dome, so I'm pleased to find out that someone 'in the know' recorded it, though only in that magazine piece it would seem. I've never seen it recorded in 'official' works' documents, though should it have been? 

 

Whatever, legions of modellers, making thousands of models, have been adding erroneous 'banjo' domes to A1s, A2s, A3s and V2s for many years. I did, in complete ignorance, to start with!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, LNER4479 said:

Indeed you weren't ...

 

Looks like I might be ploughing a lonely furrow continuing with the (very) occasional build of a civil airliner or three? I always did prefer hairy planes you can / could actually fly in rather than ones designed to kill people.

 

Good afternoon Graham,

 

I didn't mind making models of aircraft which could 'kill', but only Allied ones, never German, Italian or Japanese types.

 

I didn't seem to be so discerning with the ships, though - happily building Hood and Bismark at the same time!

 

Regards,

 

Tony.