Kitbashing a GWR Clifton Downs auto set

[nickwood]

For your end window bolections, it might be worth running around the inside edge of them with the side of your knife. This will put a slope on the strip (so that it is thinner at the top and wider at the bottom), and will help make it look a lot thinner.

 

To keep the sides from bowing you need to make sure that the compartment dividers fit nicely and i would add more at the van end as well.

 

Looking forward to seeing progress.

 

Andy g

 

Thanks, that's a good tip regarding the bolections.

[nickwood]

Some progress to report. The sides and ends have been given a coat of primer. Priming shows up any problem areas and overall I'm quite pleased with the result. Yes you can see a couple of joints but these will be very difficult to fill perfectly so I'm going to see what they look like when painted before deciding whether I actually need to.

 

 

The roof has also been cut from the two donor kits and spliced together. Although the joint was a good fit, because it will be very obvious some filling has had to be done using Games Workshop "Green stuff". The vents and rainstrips have been carved off as best I could and once the filler  has hardened the roof will be sanded to remove all remaining traces of the joint, vents and strips. It will then of course need new vents and rainstrips.  
 

 

Cheers

[nickwood]

I've been having a serious bout of man flu the last few days culminating in me losing my voice today when i should have been going to do a presentation for a client. I obviously couldn't do it and this afternoon felt well enough to get the soldering iron out. The result is four bogies as i thought I might as well od the ones for the trailer whilst I was at it even though I haven't started making it yet.

After a bit of a clean up on the castings it was quite an easy job with a temperature controlled iron.

 

 

 

The last photo shows I didn't make quite as good a job of cleaning the flash off the castings as I thought I had

[nickwood]

I've been having a little think about this project. The original thought was to build the driving brake and if this was a success then move on and do the trailer. Having got to a point where I need to paint the sides before assembly I've decided that it would be better to do the two together. So the razor saw will be coming out again today to butcher the other two donor kits.


At least I don't have to scratchbuild an end for this one

[BernardTPM]

Just a suggestion. If you splice along the door line (RH, non-hinge side) rather than the panel centres it should be easier to hide the joins, with less filling and filing needed. For example:

 

0O0 0O0 0O  + 0 0O0 0O0  to give  0O0 0O0 0O0 0O0 0O0 rather than

0O0 0O0 0O0 + 0O0 0O0 giving      0O0 0O0 0O0I0O0 0O0

 

where 0O0 is a compartment

Edited January 31, 2015 by BernardTPM

[nickwood]

Just a suggestion. If you splice along the door line (RH, non-hinge side) rather than the panel centres it should be easier to hide the joins, with less filling and filing needed. For example:

 

0O0 0O0 0O  + 0 0O0 0O0  to give  0O0 0O0 0O0 0O0 0O0 rather than

0O0 0O0 0O0 + 0O0 0O0 giving      0O0 0O0 0O0I0O0 0O0

 

where 0O0 is a compartment

 Hi Bernard

 

I think you may be right but it is a bit late for me but might help anyone else wanting to give this a go.

[nickwood]

I'm been feeling a bit under the weather all week and decided to have a quiet weekend with nothing planned. The good lady has now got the same bug (blames me for it of course!!). Well she would if if she hadn't lost her voice, so it is definitely going to be a "quiet weekend"

 

What a wonderful afternoon. Modelling whilst listening to the commentary of the IRON (Scunthorpe United for the uniniated) thrashing Leyton Orient 4-1 on their home turf. It doesn't get any better.

 

Here's the results of my afternoons efforts.

First up the donor sides. The previous two kits used on the driving brake and the Composite coach (the one in grey) are old Ratio kits that I've had in stock for some years. To build the trailer I needed to buy another all third coach kit which I did at a recent exhibition. This was in one of the fancy new boxes that Ratio are now using. I opened the older one first and immediately noticed the amount of flash on the sprues but also in the windows. Now, I was thinking that the newer Compo would be even worse as Ratios's moulds must be getting even more worn as many years have past, so I was very surprised to see that the new mouldings were very clean and crisp. Have Ratio retooled in recent years???
 

 

The cuts made as per instructions, not so many this time and very straightforward.

 

 

Glued together and strengthened on the inside as before. There is a bit of distortion from the camera lens, they are straight. Honest!
 

 

The two roofs then had the vents and rainstrips removed and were cut and spliced. Sorry I forgot to take photos of this process in my excitement listening to the footie, but I did manage one of the completed roof.

 

 

I'll get them primed this evening ready for some more work tomorrow.

[nickwood]

Thanks to all those who have hit the like button, it is appreciated.

 

The roofs were primed and then I rubbed it all off again to make sure that the joints were flush and all the ribs and cut off gas lights were flush (more on those in a minute).

 

When I made the first roof I carefully chiselled off all the gas light fittings and thought I had put them safely to one side. On preparing the second roof I did the same only to discover that I couldn't find the ones that I'd cut off earlier. I think I must have accidently thrown them in the bin. Here's the ones from the second roof. As you can see they came off very cleanly but this leaves me with only enough for one coach.

 

So what to do ??
Answer scratch build some using two different sizes of plastic rod.

 

et voila!!

 

Some don't look so good close up but I made lots and picked the best eight required for the second coach.
The two roofs with gas lights, vents and rain strips applied ready for priming again.

 

Soon be time to start putting the bodies together.
 

Edited December 22, 2022 by nickwood

[nickwood]

Got the floors cut today and have glued the bodies up

 

 

This is what they look like with the roofs loosely laid on top

 

 

Next job will be to sort out the ride height before sending them back to the spray booth.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2022 by nickwood

[nickwood]

I said that sorting out the ride height was the next job. Well, that's not what happened. I decided to tackle the compartment partitions and seats instead to increase the rigidity of the structure.

First a number of partitions were cut using a spare coach end as a template and trial and error to trim around the strengthening strips I had glued along the inside of the coach sides.

 

Seat backs and bases were made up out of plastic card and glued to the partitions once they themselves had been glued in place.

 

Holes were drilled for the machine screws that will hold the bogies which were then fixed with 5 minute epoxy resin. Luggage compartment grilles from 247 Developments were fixed with superglue.

 

The grilles from the outside.. The solebars have also been fitted using channel section from Sylmaster.

 

Need to do the same for the trailer coach and THEN they are ready to sort the ride height out.

Edited December 22, 2022 by nickwood

[martinT]

This is an interesting topic & an unusual prototype, you're making good progress Nick.

 

This is probably the wrong place to ask this but nevertheless I'm going to do so, so apologies to start with! Has anyone come across photos of a Clifton Down set actually at Clifton Down, or on a CD line service? I haven't got the John Lewis book, is there one in there?

 

As Clifton Down was my local (& much used & visited) local station from 1958 to 1969 I have a tremendous nostalgic affection for the place & am always on the look out for historic photos, I'm afraid there aren't that many. Luckily I wasn't there to see the line singled & de-staffed - but at least it still operates.

 

Martin

[Mulgabill]

This is an interesting topic & an unusual prototype, you're making good progress Nick.

 

This is probably the wrong place to ask this but nevertheless I'm going to do so, so apologies to start with! Has anyone come across photos of a Clifton Down set actually at Clifton Down, or on a CD line service? I haven't got the John Lewis book, is there one in there?

 

As Clifton Down was my local (& much used & visited) local station from 1958 to 1969 I have a tremendous nostalgic affection for the place & am always on the look out for historic photos, I'm afraid there aren't that many. Luckily I wasn't there to see the line singled & de-staffed - but at least it still operates.

 

Martin

I've not seen a photo, but by chance I do have one in a painting.

 

Many years ago somebody at my first place of work was an amateur artist, and did commisions of peoples cats, dogs etc. I asked if he would do me a "copy" of a pannier on a short goods passing through Clifton Down, which was in a Bradford Barton book. He was more than pleased to do it as he was also into railways/model railways.

 

Not only did he visit the site to get the colouring right, he offered to substitue a 14xx on a clifton down set, in place of the photos DMU.

 

All the best with your search.

 

TONY

[nickwood]

This is an interesting topic & an unusual prototype, you're making good progress Nick.

 

This is probably the wrong place to ask this but nevertheless I'm going to do so, so apologies to start with! Has anyone come across photos of a Clifton Down set actually at Clifton Down, or on a CD line service? I haven't got the John Lewis book, is there one in there?

 

As Clifton Down was my local (& much used & visited) local station from 1958 to 1969 I have a tremendous nostalgic affection for the place & am always on the look out for historic photos, I'm afraid there aren't that many. Luckily I wasn't there to see the line singled & de-staffed - but at least it still operates.

 

Martin

 

Hi Martin

Thanks for the comment and it's no problem to raise your question here. I'm away for a long weekend and I'll check the book for photos when I get home next week but my memory says there isn't a photo of a set at Clifton Down.

[martinT]

Hello Tony,

I'm rather envious of your painting! I know the photo you mean - it's taken from St John's Road bridge in 1960 - & has been published several times. In BB's 'GW Steam Around Bristol' it's been given (uniquely) a double-page spread & brings back very happy memories from 50 years & more ago. Pity about the DMU though. In 1960 there were still occasional steam substitutions - usually BR Std3 Tanks, although I remember a County on one remarkable occasion! The Clifton Zoo specials were still 100% steam & did bring almost anything in.

 

Martin  

[nickwood]

Hi Martin

Thanks for the comment and it's no problem to raise your question here. I'm away for a long weekend and I'll check the book for photos when I get home next week but my memory says there isn't a photo of a set at Clifton Down.

 

Unfortunately there isn't a shot of a set at Clifton Down in the book.

[nickwood]

Thanks to everyone who has pressed the like button etc it is appreciated.

 

The trailer coach has been brought up to the same level as the driving coach. i.e. the corridor partitions and seating fitted. Well not quite true, the seat backs have been done but the seats themselves have not yet. No photos as it is only a repeat of what has been described before.

The next job to tackle is the underframe which includes the trussing, full length running boards, vacuum and gas tanks

The underframe trussing is the most complex and difficult job. One problem is that I have been unable to determine with any certainty is if they were steel rods or angle sections on the prototype. I've opted for angle mainly due to the fact that this will be more robust on the finished model. If it turns out that I have chosen wrongly, I can live with it. This was never going to be an exercise to please the rivet counters.

Each truss was carefully measured and cut. A nick was put in one face so that the angle would bend to the correct angle. One face was trimmed of to allow the truss to be cemented behind the solebar.

 

Shot of the underframe after installing all the various bits and bobs. One benefit of photograhing your work is you see things the eye doesn't pick up like the slivers of plastic still attached after I had scraped the leading edge of the running boards to thin it down slightly. They have now been removed.

 

The couplings have been soldered to the bogies

 

A very cruel close up showing the coach sitting on its bogies for the first time

 

and finally a couple of shots of the pair of coaches together. The trailer still has the underframe detail to be added and both coaches still need vacuum pipes and a few other small details before painting.

 

 

 

Cheers

Edited December 22, 2022 by nickwood

[The Great Bear]

Coming along very nicely indeed, Nick.

[Andrew Bartlett]

Looking great. Looking forward to seeing the end product. 

[nickwood]

Thanks again to the folks who have hit the like button.

 

I managed to get a bit more done today and have brought both coaches up to the same standard. They are ready for priming but it's now too late (cold) to go out into the garage to do it.

Here's a photo of the driving coach ready for priming. Vacuum pipes have been added at both ends and steps to the guards door. These were a bit of a pain to scratchbuild in plastic but didn't come out too badly in the end. It actually might have been easier to solder them up in brass.

 

 

As already mentioned the other coach is also now complete with all underframe detail and seating installed.

Hopefully I'll get both primed ready for painting tomorrow.
 

Edited December 22, 2022 by nickwood

[nickwood]

When I last posted on this project I thought it would be finished by now but I got sidelined as usual.

In a flurry of activity the two coaches have been painted; quite nicely from viewing distance and quite badly if you saw them in close up photos which of course you are not going to.  The colours are my own mix of GWR cream and brown using Games Workshops Citadel range of acrylics.


They have also been glazed which I was dreading having to do as each compartment had to be done individually. Lots of cutting and but it was actually quite easy to do in the end. Work on one compartment at a time. Cut the glazing sheet to fit, remove and then apply Humbrol ClearFix to the rear of the panels with a cocktail stick and stick the glazing in place.

The lining was a different story and I'm not really happy with it but it will have to do. I bought some HMRS pressfix GWR loco and coach lining at an exhibition a few months back from a trader at a show. When I came to try it on one of the coaches I found that it was no longer sticky. A bit of experimenting on a piece of scrap plastic card and I found that it would work using the waterslide technique so I decided to press ahead. Perhaps a mistake. Using this method the lining transfer tended to tear when removing long strips of backing paper so it has been patched up in places and little bits are missing in others. I'm hoping that I can disguise this with some judicious weathering.

First up the driving brake

 

 

and its composite trailer

 

GWR roundels and numbers next, along with driver and a few passengers. Roofs to go on, a little weathering and they should be ready to go into service behind my new Bachmann 64xx Pannier.

 

Edited December 22, 2022 by nickwood

[Mikkel]

Very nice Nick. I'm impressed that the composite assembly doesn't show in any way. Very neat work.

 

It occurs to me that it would be possible to do their earlier variants in the same way, ie a D27 and E58 in 1900s condition. 

[hayfield]

Nick

 

Nice piece of modelling there, thanks for the thread 

[nickwood]

Thanks for ll the likes, they help keep me motivated.

 

Mikkel - I think there may be a possible variants the Ratio sides could be used for. It's just a case of working out which kits are needed and where the cuts need to be.

 

I'd be really interested to see you take one one 

[nickwood]

The coaches are now more or less finished, just finally fixing the roofs and bogies and some weathering and they will be done.

 

 

 

You can just see a passenger or two in the photos, there are actually a dozen seated between the two coaches but they take some spotting. Hardly worth the bother really.

I've also picked out the handles and handrails with some brass coloured paint.

 

Hopefully the final weathering process will hide disguise some of the remaining rough edges.

 

I didn't set out to achieve perfection, if I had wanted that I would have built the Roxey Mouldings kits. I'm pleased with the result and it has been a great to do some old fashioned kit bashing. I'm happy that they look good enough from normal viewing distance that I can run them on Much Murkle at exhibitions and give some variety to my normal coaching stock.

 

 

[nickwood]

To close this thread a couple of photos of the completed Clifton Downs set with Bachmann Pannier 6401 making their debut on Much Murkle during testing prior to the Folkestone MRC Exhibition in two weeks time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2022 by nickwood