woodyfox

Hi, Try toothpaste on a cotton bud. I've got a decent outcome from fogging on glazing from old CD cases. The toothpaste is about the finest polish we have lying around.

Those levers are great. Makes you want to have a cloth in your hand when you're throwing them!

Class 37 ends have been detailed. The WTT boxes will be added last with describer digits inserted. This will be a NE based loco. I need to research either Thornaby or Hull based ones around 74/75. I have an image of a split HC one at Darlington around 75 still in green somewhere. Might be a good one to do. Next fuel tank detailing. Cheers

DMU progress. The seating and other innards are now complete. From previous experience I have found it's good to have an assembly/disassembly sequence for adding figures etc.. Here's mine: The seating and cab parition are built as removable units. The vehicle is modified to accept the units in slots with securing wires and using tabs and nuts/bolts. Here's the cab unit fitted. Leading seat units fitted into the tabs. All are marked as you have to visualise it all the right way up. All seating units fitted. A staple shaped piece of 0.3mm wire is placed between the seat units to keep stop them sliding inwards. The floor is added. This one (DMBS) needs two short bolts in the door vestibules and a short swinging lug under the cab to keep it secure and flat. And with bogies on. The sole bars have been added via plastic strips with Slater's rivet detail sheet sections added where noticed on the prototype. Once all has been painted the vehicle should look OK. Cheers

And me too please! Thanks. I got some from EBay due to the font being very hard to copy!

Mmm. I would start with a ball bearing in a tube at roof level above the coach ends rolling side to side with curves. It would have to move contrary to centro-fugal forces. But i'm no engineer!! Good luck with it!

Have you thought about tilt? I know it's early days, but the bogie pivot points will probably be a critical part of it i would imagine? Nice parts and an excellent project!

Lots of progress over the last few days. The internals of the DMU cars has commenced. I have decided to glue the made up partitions to the cross bracing/floor attaching points i installed earlier. These are ideally located. I will make up strips of plastic with the seating glued on as removable units that will slot into the tags on the partition bottoms. I've also added some plastic strip to the roof channel that will represent the strip lighting fitted to refurbished sets: I've also made up a box from plastic sheet that fits inside of the fuel tanks on the 37. This was heavily reinforced with strip as it is full of small steel ball bearings. It had a lid glued on once full. It weighs about 750g and will add somewhat to the tractive effort.. The 37 noses are also in mid-decoration. I have fitted some scribed brass sheet to represent the centre doors pre-refurb. The WTT boxes will have some covers made up to go on them probably with the obligatory 4 zeros as common per the period modelled. There's quite a bit of filler around the boxes that needs smoothing off. Cheers

Back to the DMU today. Buffer beams fitted along with shank extentions. I've also fitted the handrails and remaining cab door hinges. Now, anyone who has built a 7mm kit will, almost without fail, have encountered the following type of issue: One of the exhaust stack castings hadn't formed properly. The castings supplied by Easy-Build are generally really good but the odd one probably slips through.. It was an easy fix: I cut off the deformed end. Filed flat and drilled out a 1.6mm hole. Cut some 1.5mm brass wire to act as a plug and cut some 1.6mm i/d brass tube to match the length of the other stack. I inserted wire into drilled hole and tube onto wire and all done: I drilled out the other stack to 1.6mm to match. Should look OK now. I also drilled out the other ends of the exhausts to 1.5mm to accept some wire that will form the exhaust from under the car. I thought it would be easier before they are fitted on the vestibule end. Next up is fitting the stacks and destination boxes. Then it's the partitions etc.. All good fun! Cheers

DMU desks complete bar the painting. These shouldn't look too bad when viewed through the cab side windows. The 37 cowling has moved onto the stage where i can do the rest of the nose end detailing. There will be some odd patching to do here and there with filler. Fitting the buffers temporarily helps me to see if i have achieved the 'if it looks right, it is right' impression i strive for: Cruel close ups but at least it shows the crudeness i had to resort too in order to 'unrefurbish' this kit.. Cheers

Work on the 37 buffer skirts is ongoing. I soldered in the buffer shanks. These are lost wax castings and all 4 needed drilling out to make them work well. I used bits of plastic for packing and forming overlaid with filler. This has all been filed and sanded back to form the correct shape. Here it is with the second level of filler waiting to dry before sanding back again. I've also started on the DMU cab desks too. These are fairly generic as supplied so I've altered the handbrake wheels to a more 108 style and made up some dials that are a bit more 3d. The throttle and gear changer will have a handle fitted somehow too. The small brass discs i'm using for the dials are cut from DJH marker light etches. Cheers

I have no personal experience of MM1 van kits but seem to remember reading that the buffer centres are out? This may have been corrected of course.

Yes, that was my initial thought. The problem is all the different curves and angles and achieving that in brass. The buffers are PRMRP ones with separate heads. I'm inclined towards using plastic and filler and building up and taking back layers to achieve the right profile. This will allow me to mark and redrill the holes in the beam for shanks. Cheers

Another evening of contemplation beckons (perhaps a large armchair, pipe and brandy should be sought). The issue is to backdate the PRMRP 37/0 to a pre-refurbed buffer beam as per this image (sorry for the graininess!). This is what the buffer beam post refurb looks like on my 37: So far i've made a template from thin brass which due to the several curves of the buffer cowling on the original is a weird shape when flat: Now i need to decide how i'm going to add the cowling and buffer housings. PRMRP supply oval buffers and I have already sourced large round Oleo's as replacements but the holes in the beam are way too large (of course). There's also a gap to fill between the beam and cowling. Lots to ponder before the next step... Cheers

I also checked the slope on the 37 nose and its fine - possibly the angle of the image? Cheers

I've altered the steps. I've used the same wood as it's only 1.3mm which equates to around a shade under 2ins in 1:1 scale. This is thinnest wood i have to hand and now I've managed to heighten the upper step they look much better. Thanks Hal Nail. I just need to touch up the paint work now: Cheers

Yes. I'll check the nose. And you are right about the steps on the DMU. The steps are also too close together which adds to that effect i think. I'll see if i have some thinner wood and change them. I don't think the spacing between them can be altered too easilt though. Cheers

Class 37 fuel tanks are now fitted. These have been braced with scrap brass strip underneath and on on the sides so that weights can be added. I fairly happy with progress and how it looks when sat on the bogies: Just detailing, the nose ends, buffer skirts and buffer beams to do now. Then i'll need to add the rad fan and scratch up some cab desks etc.. Cheers

Hi, DMU progress. I've attempted a new way to obtain a captive nut effect for attaching the solebars to the vehicle bodies on the 108. The issue of captive nuts for me are: 1. It is a nervy job soldering a steel nut precisely over a hole on a sheet of brass by getting a good bond and not flooding the nut thread with solder. 2. The DMU cars are plastic and bonding brass firmly enough to it would involve using a two part epoxy that is messy and wasteful. 3. The brass holding the nut would require further strengthening to provide sufficient support. So i opted for this method involving soldering lengths of 1.5mm brass wire in parallel to the sides of the nut: These were the superglued to a base of 1.5mm plastic that was cut to the width of the doorways on the cars (15mm) and to the width of tge bodysides for later bonding. I then added further plastic pieces to lock in the brass wire and nut. This was left overnight to harden off. It was then fitted into the cars as below: These are bonded in using MEK and extra plastic support packing. This will be left another 24 hours to harden. The nuts are now solidly captured in the bracing which should be strong and barely visible when the cars are complete. I also cut down the length of the bolts to further enhance appearance: The cut off bolts were added to my scrap metal pile. This is all my plastic, and metal waste. I've saved it all to eventually make into scrap metal loads for 16 tonners. Cheers

The bogies are now done bar the pick up wiring. They'll be collection from both DMBS bogies. The differences in the cab and van steps can be seen as per below: I've also got the windscreens fitted on the 37 too. There is much fettling required here due to my previous cab roof surgery: Next stages: Body to solebar fixing on the DMU. Sanding the filler on the 37 windows. And i'm midway through building a Parkside SPV diag 1/800. Cheers

Brilliant weathering job.

Yes, the squealing of wheelsets entering Waterloo station always grated on me. Just reminded me of something i've never seen modelled, the greasing blades with container sited at the entry to tight curves. Might do a couple of those! As i model diesels, my main consideration is the wheel flange striking the sole bar or bogie swiping the fuel group - it's usually one or the other below about 5 foot. Cheers

I work to a more generous radius of about 1600mm only because one of the fundemental aspects that make models look realistic is as near a prototypical ride height as possible. This tends to diminish (allowances increase) as the radius tightens. Just a personal preference of course.

108 DMBS van steps. Images of the prototype show the van steps are longer than the cab steps to span the double doors with 3 support struts as opposed to two on the cab steps. Easybuild supply step etches only like those of the cab however, you get twice as many as you need! I have modified these to represent those of the prototype a little more closely. I cut one strut off one of the etches and folded up the steps on both (repeat for other steps). I then took the 'scrap' strut and used it as a brace to solder the two sides together: I then cut some wood to length and width (lollipop stick) and rounded the facing corners. These were glued to the folded etch steps. I also added some rivets as per prototype. Here are the completed steps with the correct number of struts and (roundabout) the correct length: Cheers

Hussar! The DMBS has sat on its bogies for the first time. I'm able to check bogie swing/clearance, motor swing, squareness, ride height and step positioning. The cab steps are good and i can mark the motor bogie for the alignment of the van steps. Pick ups are a work in progress as are the brakes on the motor bogie. I have also made good progress on the 37 profiling too: No1 end No2 end. The below shows the very slight slope now from back to front on the cab roof: Might look like a EE type 3 now... Cheers