Toilet window on an LMS coach.

[brian777999]

I have almost finished building a Ratio OO gauge LMS clerestory roof composite coach. This has been a project that has taken a very long time (about 9 months) due to problems with the roof bending. But I have solved all the problems and it is almost finished.

I am wondering what to do with the windows on the middle compartment which is the toilet. Were the toilet windows painted white ? In which case I will glue a piece of styrene to the inside. Or were the windows frosted ? I am not sure how to get a frosted look yet. Perhaps I could just smear some glue on the inside ?

[Guest stuartp]

I am not sure how to get a frosted look yet.

 

Either sellotape a bit of tracing paper over the inside (can you still get tracing paper ?) , or sand it on the inside with very fine wet & dry used wet. That's what I do anyway. Can't help with whether it should be frosted or painted though, sorry.

[Huw Griffiths]

I have almost finished building a Ratio OO gauge LMS clerestory roof composite coach. This has been a project that has taken a very long time (about 9 months) due to problems with the roof bending. But I have solved all the problems and it is almost finished.

I am wondering what to do with the windows on the middle compartment which is the toilet. Were the toilet windows painted white ? In which case I will glue a piece of styrene to the inside. Or were the windows frosted ? I am not sure how to get a frosted look yet. Perhaps I could just smear some glue on the inside ?

 

I'm finding this thread very interesting - mainly because I'm planning to use some of these kits as test beds for some of my own experiments. (Actually the grounded version, as the chassis is nothing to do with what I'm working on.)

 

Do you mind if I ask how you sorted out the roof-bending problems?

 

I'm also unsure about whether the toilet windows were painted - but I've had other thoughts about frosting:

 

• Putting glue on the inside might work - depends on what you're using for the glazing. You could use some clear plastic from a scrap CD or audio tape library case - solvent dripped onto this would probably cloud it - but you wouldn't want to glue it too rigidly to the different plastic of the bodyshell (to avoid warping - as I found out to my cost on a scratchbuild the other year) - double sided tape would be fine for holding it.
• The tape option sounds interesting, but forget Sellotape and tracing paper. I've just tried sticking a layer of Scotch tape to some OHP film (very similar to the film often supplied with coach kits) - and it seems to cloud things a bit. A second layer might increase the effect. My thoughts would be to apply 1 layer of Scotch tape to the film - then cut slightly larger than the window - then use a larger piece of tape on top (and extended a bit all round), to fix the stuff to the inside of the coach bodyshell.

I haven't got round to trying this yet on a model - and I don't know how well it'll work when I add interior lights (one of the real reasons for my experiments) - but I'll probably use this approach.

 

Whatever you do, I hope it works out. It'll be interesting to hear how you get on.

 

Regards,

 

Huw.

[brian777999]

I am not keen on using tape as it always come off eventually. I have sanded both sides of a small piece of clear perspex and it looks good. I will attach it to the inside of the main window tomorrow.

 

Bend in the roof : After much thinking, asking questions and experimenting with different options, I came up with the idea of sliding a long piece of styrene the full length of the roof between the top and bottom sections. Do not glue this piece ; let it slide. Then I glued a couple of pieces of styrene to the bottom of this in the middle section. The plastic should be small enough to fit in the toilet compartment when the roof is on. A long screw can then be inserted from underneath the coach and into a pre-drilled hole in the plastic.

 

I wish I could draw a diagram but you get the idea. The screw pulls the roof down so that it fits snugly onto the sides of the coach.

[artisan100]

From the Comet Models downloadable pdf, Building Coaches the Comet Way -

 

"There are three types of glazing in common use for toilets. This can be done on a separate piece of material which will be stuck to the back of the existing glazing or fitted shiny side out.

Type A. This is the hammered pattern used by LMS Period I, for example. Use coarse sand paper or emery and pull this across the glazing to scratch it to the pattern. Do this at 60?° to the horizontal from both directions. Do not overdo it, the pattern should be visible.

Type B. This is translucent but without a discernible pattern (at least in our scale). You can rub some glazing strip with fine emery until a translucent appearance is produced or you can use tracing film.

Type C. This is a white toilet window, made using white plastikard or scraps of white paper from laminated document."

 

HTH

 

Geoff

[coachmann]

Why not just paint the darn things (on the inside)? Lightish grey for LMS and almost white for LNER.

 

Larry

[jwealleans]

I'm with Larry on this one. I tried sticking plastikard on the back and ended up with my weathering wash soaking into the gap and making it look awful.

 

Haven't tried the emery paper approach but most of my coaches are LNER anyway so white paint does it for me.