jessy1692 Posted April 6, 2020 Author Share Posted April 6, 2020 4 minutes ago, leopardml2341 said: Is it a Silver Fox body? I think it is, i got it unboxed as a literal body by itself, it seems quite old but should scrub up with a bit of work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted April 7, 2020 Author Share Posted April 7, 2020 Evening all, whilst not strictly modifying rtr stuff tonight iv just about finished the current crop of Cambrian stuff iv been working on from the coffee table. 2 sturgeons, a dogfish and a walruss lettered up tonight, final bits of weathering to do before a blast of varnish when it turns up. Tomorrow ill be returning to the containers to get my 4 BP tanktainers done, then after that who knows what may appear. Also, heres a pic of 66 088 which i spied this morning on the walk to work, i think its doing route learning from Knottingly, going York, Harrogate, leeds and back a couole of times through the day, paths booked all week so ill see if the loco changes tomorrow. Cheers James 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted April 12, 2020 Author Share Posted April 12, 2020 (edited) Evening all, not a great deal going on at the mo, the 66 on the Knottingly path did change to 66 089 on Wednesday, looks to be sime interesting paths in again this week so ill be venturing out to have a look. Model wise, few bits on the go, tanktainers ready for transfers probably tomorrow and my dogfish and catfish are with me to letter up as well now i have some tops letting arrived from modelmaster. 3 ferry vans landed on Saturday morning so iv been busy with the files and sand paper fettling a pair up today in the garden. Nothing earth shattering, just filed down the axle mounts and glued rigid, hand rails carved off and replaced with wire, triangle panels cut frome styrene to cover the body mount holes on the sides and strips added to the ends to imitate the thicker middle uprights. Finally the door slides were thinned down as thin as i dare, one is probably a bit too thin at the top and the bottom runners reduced down and removed away from the doors, moulding pip on the roof also filed down. Lettering on the doors removed carefully with sand paper ready for repainting and railtec transfers. All above done as per this thread on here on these vans, thanks to all who posted their work on the thread to give me the impetus to aquire a few. Hope everyone has had an ejoyable Easter, been nice to have sun out for a change! Cheers James Edited April 12, 2020 by jessy1692 Edit to add link to Ferry Van thread 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon4470 Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Hi James Those ferry vans are looking good. It’s always interesting to see what can be done to improve RTR products. You’re right about the sun this weekend - lovely! It has meant, though, that I’ve been cracking on with re-felting a shed.....which has turned into a bigger job than planned. Just curious to know what brand that white primer in the second photo is. The name is only partially visible....”Carl..” Jon 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 34 minutes ago, Jon4470 said: Hi James Those ferry vans are looking good. It’s always interesting to see what can be done to improve RTR products. You’re right about the sun this weekend - lovely! It has meant, though, that I’ve been cracking on with re-felting a shed.....which has turned into a bigger job than planned. Just curious to know what brand that white primer in the second photo is. The name is only partially visible....”Carl..” Jon Cheers Jon, the vans look to scrub up well, just goes to show Hornby could do some half decent things when they wanted to back in the day. I ran out of jobs to do last weekend so have had pretty much 4 days of doing not a lot, really odd not doing anything or going anywhere. As for the tin of 'primer' its probably the best in the world.. Cheers James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 Evening all, been cracking on this aft after a nice walk round the woods and to the river this morning. All 3 ferry vans now complete and into a light primer coat to bring up any blemishes etc. I just remembered to fit the missing tie down holes before spraying making these from spare cambrian sturgeon door springs, really pays never to throw anything out! A brief return to freightliner containers, i have done 3 BP tanktainers thanks to @Darius43 swapping me his artwork for them, i slightly changed it and added a later style BP logo just to make them a little different and also used a lighter green for the bed plate as i had it to hand. Not sure whether to add the panels for the warning signs, my white backed decal paper is very translucent so may add these to the tanks once the decal fix has dried off. Im really pleased with how these have come out, thanks again Darius. Just packing up for the night now, still got one tank to transfer up and some catfish to letter. Best go iron my work shirt.. More soon Cheers James 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted April 21, 2020 Author Share Posted April 21, 2020 Evening all, not a massive amount going on at the mo, 3 ferry vans painted up and ready for transfers from Railtec, these look very good so looking forward to putting them on tomorrow evening. One pack had enough for two vans so iv had to order another one which is currently stuck in the sorting office until i can get it on Thursday. Im going to try preserve the 'flying box" logo on that one as these 3 will have double arrows. The 4 BP tanks are now done pending arrival of varnish, shipped on the 6th and still no sign... In danger of running out of nice little projects i can do at my house now.. Cheers for looking in James 6 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 (edited) Right then, some varnish appeared today so have had a good old spray about before starting a good old bbq: So thats 3 ferry vans now done, some dog n cat fish and a grampus an my 4 bp tanktainers done, another ferry van is now here which will go through tje works and iv a load of other containers to varnish to complete them. Only got a Cambrian Turbot left at my house to build now, dangerously close to having nothing to do.... not too keen on doing the 74 or locos at my house as i dont want to lose stuff with a lack of a proper work bench. We shall see though. Thanks again to @Darius43 for his artwork for the tank sides, the Hornby tanks do come up well. Got a couple of spare transfers is if anyone wants any. Hope everyone is keeping well James Edited April 25, 2020 by jessy1692 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 Evening all, not a great deal happening on the makeshift bench recently, all completed stuff now up at the layout so i have a solitary ferry van on the go. Tonight has seen it get to the pre primer stage so may get a coat on before work in the morning. Usual work done as per previous post except i have left one axle unit free to pivot slightly as reports from the layout shows the LWB of these vans when the axle units are glued solid dont like shunting through peco med radius points! The other difference with this one is im trying to preserve the 'flying box' logo on the door, hence the green masking tape. Be interesting to see how that pans out! In other news iv been tempted back to world of boxes and flats by my old man who has persuaded me i need to use up the remaining flats so a short twin or tri set may make an appearance on here soon, not sure quite how i feel about that but its something to do! Thats about it for now, time to head to bed as im attempting to be up for 6 am to try catch an engineers train in the morning as it departs Harrogate down to Toton i think. Cheers James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 (edited) Well time has certainly gone a bit fast! Cant quite believe my last post on here was 5th May. The 4th ferry van with the flying box was completed and is on the layout, thought i had posted a pic but clearly not. Since then i have built a bar and a bench in my back garden, the Mrs and lad came back up after 9 weeks 'isolating' which brought me to the end of may, June then kicked off with me helping a mate decorate his new house which turned into a massive can of worms which has kept me occupied after normal work on an evening helping him out with painting and other assorted DIY stuff. Thats all done now so i have my evening back again, so have started some new projects. Iv got quite into wagons recently so have been keeping an eye on ebay through may and june picking up bits and bobs, 2 PWA's were found in a 10 wagon job lot that was purchased for 40 odd quid, quite a bargain- these will be next through the works when some side frames arrive. As part of a job lot i got a few Horby VDA's and picked up a VBA etched conversion for one as well so work started on that. Nothing too exciting, just filed off all raised detail and cut out holes for the handle recesses which plasticard was then used to fill in the hole to create the recess. The floppy axle pivots were filed down around the pivot pin to as thin as i dared and one glued solid and the other re mounted but bits of cocktail stick used to limit the radius of turning. Hopefully it will run ok, i know they arnt the best models but theyll do for me. Also acquired in bits and bats has been a rake of Hornby HAA's, prices are silly on ebay but iv managed to get 14 together for about 7 quid each which isnt bad considering what i have seen some go for on ebay. 10 stripped down and some needed paint stripping- note nail varnish remover makes the red cradles go a bit floppy and pink! New 14.1mm wheels on order and the axles have been glued at one end with the the other end left free but with a pieces of plasticard glued the chassis to stop rotation as described on the EMgauge 70's site. The cradles will be finished in bauxite and transfers on order from railtec. Thats about it for the minute, awaiting a new jar of bauxite so hopefully get things moving soon. Cheers James Edited June 30, 2020 by jessy1692 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tomlinson Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 Hi Jesse, I've had an 18 wagon mgr rake in the slow rebuild pile for a while now, and do a bit as I feel like it. How fortunate that it dismantles so well for respraying! Like you I'm using the cheapo Railroad ones, I don't think the full fat ones at 3 times the price are actually a lot different. One thing I picked up on another thread that you might like to consider is that the top end edges of the hoppers are in reality gently curved, so as to make a symmetrical bow from one side to the other, rather than straight as moulded by Hornby. A picture will make this clear. For a few seconds work with a file it seems like a worthwhile mod. to me. Great to see your work again, Best wishes, John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 2 hours ago, John Tomlinson said: Hi Jesse, I've had an 18 wagon mgr rake in the slow rebuild pile for a while now, and do a bit as I feel like it. How fortunate that it dismantles so well for respraying! Like you I'm using the cheapo Railroad ones, I don't think the full fat ones at 3 times the price are actually a lot different. One thing I picked up on another thread that you might like to consider is that the top end edges of the hoppers are in reality gently curved, so as to make a symmetrical bow from one side to the other, rather than straight as moulded by Hornby. A picture will make this clear. For a few seconds work with a file it seems like a worthwhile mod. to me. Great to see your work again, Best wishes, John. Cheers John, feels good to be back modelling again with some decent projects to get my teeth into. Thats good info on the top of the hoppers, will have to have a look over some pics as iv never spotted that or read it on here. Post a couple of pics of yours if you can? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tomlinson Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 If you can find "James Makin's Workbench" on here, there are some great pics of his models on page 27. I'm sorry I've never known how to do links on this site. John. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 5 minutes ago, John Tomlinson said: If you can find "James Makin's Workbench" on here, there are some great pics of his models on page 27. I'm sorry I've never known how to do links on this site. John. Thanks John, i know the thread i was reading it at work yesterday but must have missed the top flange bits, will have a look over again tonight or tomorrow. Just off to prime the cradles now its not raining! All the best James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John76 Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 James Here are a couple of the old Hornby MGR wagons I detailed, repainted and weathered a few years ago. Ten done so far, many more to go! I used one of the new style MGR wagons as a template for the curve on top of the hopper. As well as the changes that have been described above, I also did a bit of work on the under frames to make them look a bit more respectable and replaced the buffers with ones from Lanarkshire Model Supplies. Ps. Where did you get the VBA etches from? John 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted July 1, 2020 Author Share Posted July 1, 2020 16 minutes ago, John76 said: James Here are a couple of the old Hornby MGR wagons I detailed, repainted and weathered a few years ago. Ten done so far, many more to go! I used one of the new style MGR wagons as a template for the curve on top of the hopper. As well as the changes that have been described above, I also did a bit of work on the under frames to make them look a bit more respectable and replaced the buffers with ones from Lanarkshire Model Supplies. Ps. Where did you get the VBA etches from? John Cheers John, they look smashing, just spent the day looking over threads and pics at work and will be filing my ends down as they do make a huge difference. I am tempted to replace the buffers but i think theyll do and being a bit tight after shelling out for new wheels i may pass. What did you do to the underframes? Iv trimmed the coupling mounts right back on mine last night, tedious work and shoukd have been done before id glued some in! The VBA etches were A1 models ones, i think they may be long out of production as i dont think iv seen any before or since, was a lucky purchase off ebay for a couple of quid. Should have some updates later on, hoping my bauxite paint has arrived when i get home. Cheers James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibbo675 Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 Hi James, Good to see you back at it after quite some gap. I say this in an, it takes one to know one sort of way as I've done next to nothing for months. I think all those container boxes fried my head ! A single DC kits Craven 105 car arrived today so that might get me going again, plus its raining so playing out is rubbish at the moment. Gibbo. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted July 1, 2020 Author Share Posted July 1, 2020 26 minutes ago, Gibbo675 said: Hi James, Good to see you back at it after quite some gap. I say this in an, it takes one to know one sort of way as I've done next to nothing for months. I think all those container boxes fried my head ! A single DC kits Craven 105 car arrived today so that might get me going again, plus its raining so playing out is rubbish at the moment. Gibbo. Cheers Gibbo, yeah its been a mad month getting my mates house sorted but we did it, glad to have evenings back for modelling though. Not surprised the boxes put you off a bit, think we did well to keep going through that saga... Be good to see you getting back to the bench too, at least the weather makes it easier to stop indoors at mo! All the best James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheesysmith Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 For replacement buffers for the HAA, you need 13" oleo. We don`t have a ACCURATE manufacturer who does these as a spare LOL. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Tomlinson Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 (edited) I had a look at my efforts so far this morning. i concluded that the buffers on the Railroad version have the right size heads, 13" = 4+mm, however they are a bit short, probably by 0.5 - 1.0 mm. I concluded I would live with this as I will use the Smith's Instanter couplings, and it'll give a bit more leeway on curves. John. Edited July 1, 2020 by John Tomlinson typo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted July 1, 2020 Author Share Posted July 1, 2020 (edited) Evening all, thanks for the comments and tips. @John Tomlinson, im with you and i can quite happily live with the standard buffers for now. Perhaps ill revisit in future but theyll do for now. Thanks for the heads up on the curve on the ends, iv had the file out and they really make a difference to the look of them. So, progress tonight hasnt been much, the bauxite hasnt arrived yet and the weather here against any silver spraying for the tubs. To keep things ticking over i have bobbed a coat of grey on the vba & vda rooves. The HAA chassis were given a coat of matt black last night so tonight i went around all of them and drilled out the 2 holes on each of the W irons, slightly tedious but worthwhile. Also i have been fiddling with some coupling arrangements, basically a chopped down paperclip dropped into the rivet hole left after the tension lock was removed, i think itl work pretty well and looks better than the old Hornby couplings. Along with that i trimmed the mounting block back a bit so its not as prominent sticking out from under the buffer beam. Note to self, its easier to do this before gluing them solid! The replacement wheels arrived today so they have now been painted up and awaiting me sending off for brake discs. I got 14.1mm 4 hole wheels, just because i like them. (I think 2 hole may be more prototypical?) Hopefully the jar of later bauxite will be here tomorrow with some weathering powder im keen to have a go with on these. Railtec transfers dropped in today so its all systems go once i get the paint on! Thanks for looking in and all the comments, if i get these anywhere near other members efforts ill be chuffed. Cheers James Edited July 1, 2020 by jessy1692 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John76 Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 James Great work. You asked about what i did to the underframes? not a great photo but here is a modified and unmodified one side by side. First thing i did was cut off the representations of the door stops that are in line with the brake mechanism bits and the plastic that is between the brake and door opening mechanisms. Then I built my own door stops with plastic card and strips. With the other mods, they do scrub up well. For info, the buffers i used were from Lanarkshire models BP03. As for the couplings, will be changing them from Kadees at both ends to fixed rakes of 5 or six wagons. My plan is to run them as a rake of 22 wagons. When i do my next lot I will do them empty with the strengthening bars across the hoppers. John 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 6 hours ago, John76 said: James Great work. You asked about what i did to the underframes? not a great photo but here is a modified and unmodified one side by side. First thing i did was cut off the representations of the door stops that are in line with the brake mechanism bits and the plastic that is between the brake and door opening mechanisms. Then I built my own door stops with plastic card and strips. With the other mods, they do scrub up well. For info, the buffers i used were from Lanarkshire models BP03. As for the couplings, will be changing them from Kadees at both ends to fixed rakes of 5 or six wagons. My plan is to run them as a rake of 22 wagons. When i do my next lot I will do them empty with the strengthening bars across the hoppers. John Thanks John, i do have a couple with snapped off underframe bits so this info is very handy, every little helps to bring these up to scratch. I was going to do mine as an empty set but a few of the tubs have some old lumpy bits of coal stuck in them that i cant get out so will have to run as loaded, otherwise i was going to make up the horizontal bars. Maybe another rake to be made up one day! Thanks again James 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted July 2, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 2, 2020 10 hours ago, cheesysmith said: For replacement buffers for the HAA, you need 13" oleo. We don`t have a ACCURATE manufacturer who does these as a spare LOL. Apart from Lanarkshire Model Supplies! Also, as an aside, the tub ends aren't curved, they are three flat angles. Mike. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessy1692 Posted July 2, 2020 Author Share Posted July 2, 2020 1 hour ago, Enterprisingwestern said: Apart from Lanarkshire Model Supplies! Also, as an aside, the tub ends aren't curved, they are three flat angles. Mike. Cheers Mike, great pic for info there, thought they might be angled so didnt put too much of a curve on, couple of passes with a file will sort them. P.s any unpdates on your UKF van detailing? Got a couple next in line once the VDAs are done Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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