A Southern Workbench in the frozen North. Current projects; 00 Gauge LB&SCR Balloon Coach, N Gauge Stroudley 4 Wheelers

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Both

 

Great work, shunter looks great.  Like the coach kits too are they Ian Kirk kits ?  I have always wondered what they are like to build (will have to invest in one to see) a great idea with the interiors and the magnets too.

 

Keep up the good work

 

All the best
Chris

[SR Rich]

Hi Chris

Thanks for your kind words.

Yes they are Ian kirk kits, this is the Bulleid set, I also have more Maunsell coaches to build ( 3 coach set and a 5 coach set)

I do not find them difficult to build, I do one or two things differently from the instructions, eg I use 8ba bolts to hold the bogies on, instead of the screws provided, I will use plasticard for the windows rather than the plastic provided and I cut the width of the seats down to about 18mm so the corridor is wide enough to put some people in.

Hope that helps a little.

 

Richard

[Kelly]

Leader looks like it is coming along nicely. One day I'll get one of the kits, though he did mention that it is on his list to redo in resin at a later date when I spoke with him at ExpoEM in may.

 

In regards the Ian kirk kits, they were good for their day, and if you put work in they can look great, like most models of such a vintage.. Getting hold of the kits is the problem. I'd like a 2bil kit for conversion to a sandite unit, but they're almost as much as the Hornby model in some cases.

 

However, at scalefourum, the owner of coopercraft said he has all the parts for most of the kirk kits and I did suggest he started selling it, even if as separate parts as people would be interested. Getting orders from him other than at shows is seemingly difficult however (always seems friendly enough though to me at shows) sadly, but if you get a response from him he might be able to supply parts or kits.

[Norwenglish]

Unfortunately, due to the terrible weather, Father Christmas has had to substitute his sleigh for something ground based and a little less susceptible to the wind!

 

With this we would like to wish all our followers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 

Stuart and Richard

[SR Rich]

Hi all

 

A quick update on the Leader, power bogies are now complete, undercoated and awaiting a coat of black and varnish.

 

 

Test driving of the loco before painting

 

 

 

 

 

Bulleid coaches are also coming on, currently being painted, pictures to come soon.

 

That's it for now, happy new year to you all.

 

Richard

Edited December 27, 2016 by SR Rich

[bigbadbadge]

Hi Both

 

Hope you had a great Christmas, thanks Rich will see if I can get one to try at some point soon.  Leader is looking good and hope Santa was able to get finished okay !!! 

 

Happy New Year

 

All the best

Chris

[SR Rich]

Hi all

 

I am now airbrushing the models I am making, I think it make a difference to the models looks but I do not think it shows in these pictures (sorry for the poor quality).

 

We will start with the bulleid coaches, all three are painted, transfers applied and varnished. The glazing of one coach is complete and the other two have been finished this evening.

There are three coaches in this set, one in the picture below has been put together and the other two tomorrow, when they are all to the same stage then there are a few small finishing touches to do.

 

 

Then we come on to the Leader.

The body has been painted and transfers applied.

The livery is a "what if" colour scheme, what if nationalization had happened a few years later!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still have plenty to do before she is complete, in the picture below you can see the two driving ends and the fireman's area ready to be fitted in, I decided to put I driver each end because it drives both ways and you cannot see both drivers at the same time when they are in the loco.

Name plates will also be fitted when I get them, there were four, maybe five names that were to be used on the leaders if they were finished before nationalization, you will find out the name I have chosen for this engine when I get the plates.

 

 

The last picture puts her in the correct setting.

 

 

That's it for now

 

Richard

[SR Rich]

On Saturday I got all three of the Bulleid coaches together, glazing finished, interiors fitted ( with figures in), bogies bolted on, the rooves are held on with magnets ( so that I can fit the lighting and change batteries at a later date) and the rail along the corridor windows.

 

 

 

Today, I have made grab handles out of .45 mm brass wire and the water filler pipes for the toilets on the ends of the coaches.

So now ( I think) the coaches are finished.   I will try to take some picture tomorrow in daylight. 

 

This next picture is in, just because I like it.

 

The leader you know about, still a work in progress, the Battle of Britain 21C164 was given to me many years ago, as BoB Winston Churchill in BR livery.

I decided to give it a makeover, mechanically it works well, the only modification was to replace the old magnet with a new rare earth magnet, with a noticeable improvement in performance , a buffer and part of the buffer beam was broken off, so I used green stuff to replace the broken buffer beam and found a buffer in the spares box.

The tender and body had a black under coat, followed by many coats of malachite green, yellow lines, name and numbers applied and then name plates and Southern roundel on the smokebox door fixed on. Easy as that.

I also put some 2 mm cork left over from the layout on the inside of the body, which helps to reduce the noise from the old XO4 motor.

 

 

 

That's it for now , hopefully some more picture of the coaches tomorrow.

 

Richard

Edited January 15, 2017 by SR Rich

[bigbadbadge]

Very Nice Rich.  Leader looks great as do the coaches and BOB.  The Cork is a good Idea, will have to give it a try although by the time I get to see all my stuff that is packed away (busy doing loft conversion) I may well forget (getting old !!!).

 

All the best
Chris

[SR Rich]

Very Nice Rich.  Leader looks great as do the coaches and BOB.  The Cork is a good Idea, will have to give it a try although by the time I get to see all my stuff that is packed away (busy doing loft conversion) I may well forget (getting old !!!).

 

All the best

Chris

Hi Chris

 

Thank you for your kind comments and have fun with your loft conversion, hopefully it is for a new layout.

 

All the best

Richard

[Mallard60022]

That leader is a real beast. Coaches look superb mate.

Phil

[SR Rich]

That leader is a real beast. Coaches look superb mate.

Phil

Hi Phil

Thanks.

Yes I agree it is a bit of a beast, just waiting for a couple of things before it is totally finished. The coaches now have their grab handles and water pipes done,  so they are now finished, just waiting for some natural light to take a few pictures.

The engine that is waiting for a "heart", is unfortunately still waiting, said manufacturer does not have any in the country at the moment, but when they do she shall run again and feature in some Bullied themed photos in the future.

 

Take care

 

Richard

Edited January 17, 2017 by SR Rich

[SR Rich]

The next project will be to build two L class chassis, one to go under the body seen at the beginning of this thread ( this is currently on an old A3 rtr chassis) and the other is for a second L body kit I have yet to build.

 

Richard

[BlueLightning]

Rich,

 

I'll look forward to seeing that, I am practicing skills in preperation to scratch build an L Class at the moment, I have an R-T-R A1 chassis that I am planning to put under it, I assume you are using a kit chassis, is that from Langley like the body kits??

 

Gary

[SR Rich]

Rich,

 

I'll look forward to seeing that, I am practicing skills in preperation to scratch build an L Class at the moment, I have an R-T-R A1 chassis that I am planning to put under it, I assume you are using a kit chassis, is that from Langley like the body kits??

 

Gary

Hi Gary

 

No it is not a kit, I have bought two sets of frames from Alan Gibson and frame stretchers separately and  will go from there.

The body kit is one produced by Langley.

I will post up pictures as I progress with it.

Richard

Edited January 17, 2017 by SR Rich

[BlueLightning]

Even better I shall really look forward to seeing the build.

 

Gary

[BSW01]

So will I, as I also have one of these Langley kits that has been part built.

[SR Rich]

Hi all

 

The "Leader" is now finished apart from name plates, I must say I am really happy with the way it has turned out.

 

LBSCR L class

 

I started with the frames, I drilled each set ( clamped together as a pair, so everything stays in line) to take three of the screw type of frame spacer first, I thought this would be an easier way of getting the frames square and the holes for the driving wheels to line up correctly.

 

 

I then laid the chassis on the underside of the body, here were two pieces of metal behind the buffer beam that had to be removed because it was in the way of the new frames, made two slots in the white metal, where the body used to fix to the old rtr chassis and cut more metal out to allow the driving wheels to fit, the axles are a little differently spaced compared to the rtr chassis.

 

 

The next job was to work out where I would need other frame spacers to take PCB for power pickup, somewhere to connect the arms for the bogies and for connecting the cylinder block to.

 

I also used this box to check that the axles were all aligned and the frames are square, before soldering in the other frame spacers ( in this picture they were only soldered on one side).

 

 

The next picture shows the frames complete and the gearboxes made up and motors attached. The motor is a Mashima 1426 ( I think) and the gearbox is a High level 40:1 "Roadrunner +" and I will also use a flywheel as well, although I may change the motor in the future, as there is plenty of space within the body.

 

 

I them started looking at the mounting of the bogies, for these I am using a mounting system from Comet models instead of the swinging arm supplied with the kit.

 

Here I am seeing how the bogies behave over the points on the layout.

 

 

 

Well that is progress so far, if you have any queries or questions feel free to ask.

 

I have not forgotten pictures of the finished Bullied coaches and the Leader, hopefully I will post them up soon.

 

Richard

Edited January 27, 2017 by SR Rich

[SRman]

Hmmm. I have a completely unbuilt kit of one of these, bought cheaply because it was missing the cab backplate, which I'll have to scratchbuild. I don't have any chassis for it yet, so your build is of great interest to me, Richard. You've made progress with it in leaps and bounds.

[Norwenglish]

What with Dad's speedy progress on building things, I've been inspired to get myself down to the railway room and work on a few projects.

 

The Q now has a fully functioning chassis underneath it (it looks a little out of line in this picture, but looks right in person).

 

Next up for the Q is to get the tender chassis finished including electrical pick-ups, touch up the paintwork on the body and add some more details to it including brass clack valves and safety valves from Markits, and add a cab interior now that it doesn't have an XO4 taking up the cab space.

 

The other project I'm working on is an A12 that I picked up off of a well known auction site. It ran very nicely out of the box, so all I have had to do is add a flywheel, paint the frames and do a bit of rewiring as it ran the opposite way to the controller and was wired in a way that took up a lot of space.

 

Next up with this is also a tender chassis with pick ups (once wheels have been ordered from Markits), and then it's just the cosmetic work of painting and lining in olive green, and try to straighten the running boards, which I have only noticed just noticed after seeing the picture below.

 

Stuart

[BlueLightning]

I like the look of that A12. She is going to make a fine addition to your fleet!!

 

Gary

[Norwenglish]

We needed something small and sweet to counterbalance all these big beastly engines that Dad is building!

 

Stuart

[Jack P]

What an excellent thread, glad I stumbled across it! Seems to be more people modelling the southern outside of the UK than in it!

[SR Rich]

Hi all

 

Welcome to our thread Jack and thank you for your kind comments.

 

Now onto the "big beastly engines" as someone called them earlier.

I am making progress with painting, wheeling and electrics.

 

Here are one of the wheel sets, undercoated with grey acrylic polyurethane primer, two coats of olive green and finally a coat of satin varnish.

 

 

Here are both the chassis with paint work finished and the one on the track obviously wheeled, coupling rods on and running.

For the eagle eyed, you will have noticed the black piece sticking up above the frames, this is for the motor to sit on, so it does not foul the wheels.

 

 

I am taking power from the six driving wheels and from one or both of the bogies, i have not decided yet.

 

 

That's it for now, any questions or queries please ask.

 

A couple of pictures to finish of the Leader and bulleid coach.

 

 

 

 

Richard

[N15class]

Nice work.

Bit puzzled by the acrylic polyurethane primer. I would of thought the two would be incompatible. But always willing to learn. What's it normally used for?