Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377

[Guy Rixon]

For coach footboards, you could try the following recipe.

 

1. Make the actual boards from plastic card. The full-size boards were probably 1" or 1.5" thick, so 0.020" styrene would be close. The upstand at the back of the lower board will stiffen it nicely.

 

2. Make the vertical part of the brackets from 0.5mm straight brass wire. The top of the bracket would be forged to a flat plate, for bolting to the solebar. You can simulate this by squeezing with pliers. 

 

3. Make the horizontal part of the brackets from thinner wire. Twist the wire around the uprights and then splay out the tails where they go under the board to represent the "crows feet" brackets of the full-sized coach.

 

4. Either solder the crows feet to the uprights or, if you don't feel like soldering, glue them with cyanoacrylate. Glue the boards to the crows feet and also to the vertical part of the brackets.

 

5. Check that the assembly is square and, when satisfied, glue to the solebars using cyanoacrylate again. I'd recommend discarding any assemblies that are nearly but not quite right, as they eye is very good at spotting any irregularity.

[Nile]

Some interesting ideas there Guy. I did think about making the brackets out of brass rod, but as I'm planning on making a few of these coaches that would be a lot of brackets. This is what actually happened.

 

I made up the body using the kit parts, apart from the centre section. As this one has lavatory compartments in the middle I made my own partitions with doors in them.

I applied some guess work here, which turned out to be wrong. I shall be returning to, and correcting, this feature later.

 

Some brass bits fitted, including the all important footboard brackets.

 

 

The kits' footboards in place.

 

 

I used the ones from the kit as patterns to make my own.

 

The upper one (black) is cut from the same 30thou plastic card as the floor. The key thing here is not to cut all the way through the card, but to score it about half way through and then snap it off. This prevents the off-cut looking like a banana. The lower one (white) is made from two pieces. The horizontal part is 20x79 thou microstrip, the vertical backing part is 20x40 thou strip with gaps for the axleboxes.

 

These fit on the kit just like the originals.

 

 

As I didn't fancy making loads of brackets out of brass I came up with a cunning plan. I would simply glue the boards in place as all the parts are plastic. I found I needed to enlarge the gaps for axleboxes on the lower board.

 

 

The upper board is glued to the bottom of the solebar. The lower board is glued to the axleboxes. Vertical supports made from 30x30 thou microstrip are then added.

 

 

A comparison with the kit.

 

 

Some more 30x30 strips were added above the upper board where the tops of the brackets would be.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Knuckles]

This is all very interesting. I've built a few Ratio coaches in 00 as instructed but nearly all of them ran a bag of expletive. These coaches look similar.

 

I have thought of buying full etched examples but I might take a leaf from your book and do something similar. The 4 wheelers are what I aspire to make a few trains of.

It's these older coaches Hornby and co I am convinced would make a billion sales if they would just pull their finger out and produce them.

 

Will keep checking here.

 

 

EDIT: What was the main reason for changing the footboards and sole bars? I must have missed something here. Or was it so the etches would fit?

Edited January 3, 2016 by Knuckles

[Nile]

Knuckles, the reason I'm making the solebars and footboards from plastic strip is because I don't have those parts. I only had one complete kit, all other coaches will be made from the parts that are now available.

On my coach 'semi-kit' I added some details to the underside.

A brake cylinder made from the plastic barrel of an old pen, with a disc of plastic stuck on the end.

 

 

And some gas cylinders made from plastic tube. There is not a lot of room for them.

 

 

Going back to the coach from the kit, and its lavatories. More recently I bought a book about Midland carriages which had a drawing of this one. This shows the door should be in the middle, so I set about correcting this error.

I removed the parts with the careful use of a scalpel.

 

 

I cut them in half, and then re-profiled them.

 

 

A test fit in their new positions.

 

 

This is the finished item, with extra strengthening pieces added.

 

 

As I was now happy that I could build these coaches with the parts available I obtained enough parts to build another four Midland coaches. Coming next, mass production.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Mass production has begun. I'm building four Midland coaches using Slater's (Coopercraft) parts, Brassmasters chassis and a few other parts with some scratchbuilding.

This lot took a whole day to assemble, lots of brass and solder.

 

 

The baseplates were stuck to the undersides of the coach bodies, assembled as before.

 

 

The four coaches almost complete.

 

Two all thirds, a brake third and a composite.

 

Some closer views of the brake third.

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[N15class]

I like thw work you are doing.

 

I just think you are over complicating the chassis. The centre wheels mounted on tube sliding on a 1mm axle as per Bill Bedford, will cope with most things layouts throw at them.

[Knuckles]

Looking at the pics are these components basically turning the end exles into cute little ponies?

 

If so the concept makes a lot of sense to me providing they visually are not that obviously swinging.

[Nile]

The Brassmasters chassis may be a bit complicated, but it works well and gives me all the parts I need in one package.

In other news I've been making seats, lots of them, from Ratio parts.

 

Some of them have already been painted in the photo. This time I'll fit the seats after I've painted and glazed the coach.

 

For the steps on the coach ends I was going to need lots of small bits of plastic, preferably all the same size. For this I made a cutting jig out of some bits of plastic card.

 

 

Here are the steps glued to the coach end, along with some lamp irons made from micro-strip.

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

I only briefly mentioned the gas tanks before, I shall go into a bit more detail this time. The starting point is some 6.5mm plastic tube which is cut into 21mm lengths to match the tanks from the kit. These have bits of 30thou plastic card stuck to the ends, when dry they are trimmed and sanded to a rounded edge.

 

 

Some 2mm square plastic is glued to the side, this puts the tank at the correct depth below the floor.

 

 

The completed batch after they have been painted.

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Some more bits made. For the vacuum brake cylinders I used the plastic barrel of an old pen that was about the right size.

Cut to length and glued to some plastic card.

 

 

Cut and sanded to a round shape, a hole is drilled in the middle into which goes some brass rod.

 

I've found some V hangers left over from wagon kits, they will be glued to the sole bars.

 

I've also been painting the bodies, inside and out.

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Knuckles]

I quite like your production line method. 

I can only envision time is saved by not putting down or picking up the tools so often as you can keep it in your hand until a complete set of something is done, other than that you have to do the same amount of work.

 

Is it really much quicker?

[Nile]

You are right in that some time is saved at each stage, what we call set-up time at work. The downside is that the modelling can become a bit of a chore with a big batch.

Here is the latest progress, three coaches have transfers and some varnish.

 

 

 

 

The rest were delayed because I ran out of transfers, a problem now solved.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Knuckles]

Looking good to me. These earlier coaches I think for the most part are more appealing than long ones, plus they give the illusion of a longer train.

 

4 MK1's vs 8 babies. 8 looks better.

[sharris]

Thanks for explaining about the brakes, I think I can see how they work now.

Some (slow) progress.

The LNWR van is now finished, apart from weathering.

W_26.jpg

 

The NLR van has also moved on, the body has been glued together and to the chassis.

W_27.jpg

The difference between them is obvious now.

 

My cunning plan with the axleboxes seems to have worked. The springs now fit without modification.

W_28.jpg

The rocking axle is on the right, hence the small gap below the spring.

 

Nice work there on the brake vans.

 

I'm working on the original D&S version at the moment. That brass underframe looks a godsend, the D&S kit, with its minimal instructions, I'm finding is a bit of a pig. Almost there with it now, but I had to hack the spring castings quite a lot - cutting out the whole behind the solebars bit between the spring ends so that the W-irons would even fit between them, and then filing what was left a bit thinner so that the compensating one would have any chance of pivoting. I also found that with the springs in place, and the axleboxes resting on them, the legs of the W-irons didn't reach the floor, so had to pack that out with 30 thou plasticard (20 thou would reach, but 30 thou raised the ride height to match my other wagons) - wonder if I'll have to hack the brake shoes to fit this height! Still have to fit the footboards - the end-hangers of which are very fragile - one broke off already!

 

Took me a bit of puzzling and inspection of photographs to realise that the three little rectangles and loops on the etching were the door handles (I don't remember any mention of them in the instructions!), and that one was supposed to go on the veranda door - worked that out after I'd glued it in place, and had to drill a mounting hole poking the drill through the window!

[Nile]

Thanks sharris, the LRM chassis isn't perfect but it must better than what you've had to use.

Some progress to report on the coaches, I've fitted them with glazing.

Those coaches with the seating fitted were a bit awkward, the glazing needed to be cut the fit.

 

The other coaches were much easier.

 

 

Onto the roof. The kit comes with brass castings for the gas lamps. I found these difficult to use due to the thick stems being hard to cut, so I used white-metal ones from Wizard models instead. I'll be using these on the rest of the coaches anyway, so now they will all match. The rail strips and gas pipes were all made from 10x20 thou micro-strip as I have lots of that but no plastic rod of the right size.

 

You have to look very close to see that the pipe isn't actually round.

Here it is painted and stuck onto the body.

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Knuckles]

Looking really good there.

 

I haven't ever added an interior but think I will now.  Saw you built the seats yourself, does anyone make them?   I think it would bore me to death to be honest!

Edited February 11, 2016 by Knuckles

[Nile]

The full 'Slaters' kit came with the interior, partitions and seats. For the other coaches I've made my own partitions and used Ratio seating.

[Nile]

A bit more progress thanks to a free weekend.

Here I've fitted the brass handles, these are castings from the kit.

 

Replicating the loop handles on the rest of the coaches wont be a problem, I have etched ones from Roxey. The other S handles will be more of a problem, I may have to bend them from brass rod.

On the end are some handrails made from brass rod.

 

 

For couplings I'm trying these from Roxey Mouldings as they work out quite economical.

 

 

Chemically blackened and glued in place.

 

 

The finished item.

 

 

If you are wondering about the lining, so did I. I tried to do some simplified lining by hand and it looked rubbish. I've decided that no lining is better than bad lining. I can justify this to myself on two counts.

1. On the real thing the lining isn't that noticeable at normal viewing distances, we tend to look at models far too closely.

2. In my version of post war austerity these coaches have been painted in a plain livery to save money.

This increases the chance that I'll actually finish these coaches.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Knuckles]

Looking good. Liking them very much.

 

If you forget the lining and finish the coaches you can always dig them out in 5 years time when you have gained skill and go over them. Your choice I believe is wise.

 

Those Roxey screw link I may get.

 

I don't like Romford as they are obese and wide.

I don't like Smiths as they have a nail in the middle and it looks....just like a nail!

My current favourite are semi functional Hornby spare ones.

 

I have thought of trying Exactoscale but they are a bit pricey. They no doubt likely are the best though.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Knuckles

[Spitfire2865]

I don't like Smiths as they have a nail in the middle and it looks....just like a nail!

 

Depends which you get I believe. If Im remembering correctly, the newer one is fully etched.

Not too bad either, if you can get past the oversized hook.

And no that is NOT a bright pink bufferbeam.

Edited February 16, 2016 by Spitfire2865

[Nick Holliday]

Those Roxey screw link I may get.

I don't like Romford as they are obese and wide.

I don't like Smiths as they have a nail in the middle and it looks....just like a nail!

My current favourite are semi functional Hornby spare ones.

I have thought of trying Exactoscale but they are a bit pricey. They no doubt likely are the best though.

I prefer the Masokits screw couplings. As with all their range a bit fiddly to make, requiring a bit more soldering than the Roxey, and with the occasional failure, but with pins taking the load they are much more robust. I found that when I tried the Roxey version, the links tended to spread under load, and came off the prongs on the central etching. Perhaps I didn't fit them correctly, but it seemed a bit flimsy. I had the same problem with the old PC screw couplings, so perhaps it's me!

[Nile]

I've bent the ends of the prongs over to keep the links in place, but I agree I don’t think these would last long with a heavy load. Should be ok for a light train with a few coaches.

[Knuckles]

I must have the older Smiths ones then. I like the slightly bigger hook. Better for Dinghams.

[Guy Rixon]

With the Roxey etched couplings, why not solder the links to the central section? If you want your coupling either to hang down or to be taught between vehicles - simulating screwed up - then it doesn't need to flex.

[Knuckles]

Hi Guy, I'm unsure if you are addressing me or another but just incase I'll answer. I like them to work and I use functional fouplings mixed with Dingham's. I just don't like the (older apparently) Smiths ones as the middle screw lever is literaly a nail - and it looks like one!

Edited February 17, 2016 by Knuckles