M.I.B

Greetings from Eastern Europe.   l and NC are still in existence, however work, and a summer holiday of construction work has taken precedence on modelling.

Orders have been placed and deliveries are pending on:

LORIOT from Rapido

2 x WELTROLs from Bygone Wagons

Suburban Toplights from Dapol

I was unsettled by one of the added brake end sides on the Centenary full brake, so I broke out the added part, did some fettling, and I'm pleased to say that it went back together so well that filler is not required!

Modelling time has also been absorbed by interior decorating for reasons of morale and necessity - I can't have a landing carpet for 18 months or so (long story), so a low cost/high time solution was played out.  About 20 hours work on the floor to hide it.....

That is the project cabinet, which is jammed full.   A nice and lucky position to be in.  

I hope that you are all happy and healthy, on Ungrateful Colonial Cousins Day.  

That white on the SIPHON roof is almost blinding!    Good call on adding some corrective grey/black/gunge/soot/

You are probably going to have to work this out on probability:

Six of these were made in 1925/6 depending on who you read.  How many do you need for Ocean Mails work?  All six probably - two per train - allows for two trains headed Up and one headed Down at one time (or vice versa).

When did the liveried "Ocean Mails" work cease?  I have seen various dates.  All would indicate that these lost their special branding and became normal service stock - cue a repaint?

They, and many more items of NPCCS were seldom subjects of informal public photos: film was expensive, and little boys with box brownies would have been after shots of something exciting like a King or Castle.  If you are super lucky details of one may show up in the background of a grainy black and white photo.    There will be formal photos from Swindon, so perhaps a raid on their records, or NRM may show up something taken after repaints.  

They will have returned to "mundane use" after the end of "Ocean Mails" formal traffic.  They, unlike their predecessors, were of a length and width that would have allowed them to go anywhere on the network.  So well worth keeping hold of.

They operated well into and after the Shirtbutton era, so Shirtbuttons are almost a dead cert, but colours?????

I used all of the above to plan my sole K38  for my late GW collection and ended up with C&C with late branding.

8 hours ago, MrWolf said:

.... bravery isn't a matter of not being scared, it's being terrified but slogging on regardless.

 

A

When I was terrified, I just bucked up and got stuck in, because my greater fear was letting someone down.  That's what made me focus.   We all have different coping mechanisms.

The dog's grave is a difficult one, leave it there and it will get destroyed without anyone to overwatch it.  It's safer with 617, but it belongs where it is.   My personal choice - move it.  And put the dog's name back on the stone - it was not intended to be racist at the time.  Gay meant something else at that time too.

80 years ago this evening 133 hand picked and highly trained men flew out of Scampton to the dams of Germany.   

With British ingenuity and skill, the team managed to design and build a weapon to overcome the most tricky defences, with accuracy set by two lamps and some lollipop sticks - no super computers or GPS used at all.

Only 80 crew survived the night.

One - Dublo Sir Nigel.   In the Pre WW2 Light Blue Box. 

Got a re-mag a few years ago and still runs strongly.

They could well be from the 50s - he has been scratch-building since the 50s.   

They were kicking around for so long that I used them for a simple photo backdrop.

I checked in the tray of "paper scenery" last night and al that is there are lots of brick arches.  No more of these sadly.

Thanks for letting me know.

50 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Merco brick arches!

I think they are Superquick sheets from the early 70s from M.I.B Snr's collection, glued to a shoebox:

While I was rummaging in the stock boxes to find more opens to detail to "empty" I found a few vans in need of some roof grot.    Four cattle trucks, three closed vans and a TOAD.   

Quick mask and the roofs were hit with differing amounts of aerosols:   dark grey primer (Euro Car parts)  Matt black (Halfords)   Weathering Dirt (Precision).    I find it harder to mask the arched to to the ends, so I tend to over mask which requires a brush touch up to fill over the tiny patches of white.

The drip rail outsides are always tough to get with aerosols, without lathering too much paint on to the roof itself.   Same for the roof edges on the sides.  Rather than over-paint the roof and have runs, or lose details on vents etc, I concentrate on getting the bulk of the roof good and get the brush out for the remainder.

So these areas get brushed with a fine brush at the same time as the ends.   Paint colour - Tar, Anthracite and Matt Black from tins: a blob of each onto the tea tray, and mix as you like......much like low I paint overalls on crew.   No two sections are the same colour.

You  may notice that a couple of vans have a slightly patchy finish - the dark grey primer does this for some reason - it seems to stop over paint in tiny patches.   I think it adds to the  grubbiness.

Another one of those jobs done that always seem to get pushed to one side.

J12 beckons.....

Mid May today - nights will start drawing in soon.......I hope that you are happy and healthy.

I managed to get out and about on Sunday, and collected some eBay purchases - some Bachmann coal wagons from London owners.  I try and have at least one, if not two editions of London based coal POs.  I realised that by the late 40s they were pooled and ended up everywhere, but Rule 1 applies firmly to having as many London named wagons as possible.

I say two ( if I can find/afford) - one loaded and another empty.  The ones collected on Sunday were destined to be "empties".   This is how I now do empties - other methods are available......

I use a coffee stirrer, a scruffy large-ish brush, some smashed up steam coal, and two paint colours - Revel Anthracite or Revel Tar, plus Pheonix "Weathering".    This is a very runny dirty black concoction which is perfect for this task.  It is extremely thin, but I will try adding some dirty white spirit and putting it through the airbrush for weathering.

With a coffee stirrer wetted in the colour of choice, I daub a thin blobby line in the centre of the wagon floor leaving a gap at each end.  Then using the scruffy brush dipped in "Weathering" I thin down the paint and spread it all over the floor.  Doesn't take much.

Then using pure "weathering" I dirty down the inner walls of the wagon.

As soon as I put the brush down, I reach into the tobacco tin of smashed up coal, brush aside the big lumps off the top, and dive down to the bottom for a  pinch of dust.  Sprinkle on the wagon floor, randomly, and put aside for 10 minutes.   Do one wagon at a time.    Then after 10 minutes, shake any excess coal back to the tin.  I didn't have much at all.   The thinned paint sticks the dust to the floor nicely.   

 Leave to dry somewhere airy, and 

This had about 10 hours drying and has come out matt, despite this morning's sunshine on it making it look satin-finish.

This is faster and less hassle than thinned PVA and Mattcote.

I did a dozen last night in less than an hour, including pack up time and unboxing.

And then I had another nap..............I'm getting tired of all these naps, but I just feel worn out at the moment.

Great to see other NPCCS projects under way.   There are a few choices for gangways.  

B Set is definitely  the basis for a K40.    But only a K40.    Most of the other K's go onto 57' bodies.  Go for "brake thirds" in either LMS or Hornby - one less roof tank to shave off.

When you buy the sides from Comet / Wizard, they come with a lovely set of drawings.  From there you will see where and how many roof vents and roof-rails to add, and also which base coach is best to use to get the roof detail right in terms of ribs etc.   Mainline 57' are smooth topped, and Hornby 57' have ribs which are correct for some K variants.

To Quote Del Boy - "The sky is your lobster" - buffer swaps, white metal gangways, white metal bogies of various types......

I managed some time on the K44 with the emery boards today...and I tried to cut the glazing with a fine toothed hacksaw.    Both worked out well.

To prevent an overlap of the glazing and the bracing plasti-card, I cut triangles out of both on the side I did the other day:

On today's section I trimmed the glazing before the side panel was added:

The step was to allow for a brace piece of plasticard.  |Same technique on this end - plasticard brace on the centre join.  Once it was hard, the side was put exactly into place at the corridor end, taped on the outside with masking tape, and a bead of Uhu run up the gap on the inside.  A coffee stirrer and capillary action got the glue into the gap , without it getting to the outside.

The lettering?????  I always annotate each coach body, chassis, brass side, glazing and interior as either the A side or the B side.    Then L for left and R.........   Unfortunately the glazing broke in the wrong place when it was removed, and the break was through the centre of a pane on the B side.   There was plenty of spare left over, so I can make it up out of an offcut.

Here's how it looks without the water tank:

That's where I stop for now - I will filler this up when I do the others.

The single door on either side lines up perfectly with the Guard's compartment.  Just as I had hoped for.

J12 next..........I think I will leave the end sections with the difficult dog legs in place on the body.  Then just insert the flat centre section.

The wind is howling, trees are bowing, and the logburner is on.   It's May!     But the forecast for the rest of the weekend is "summer".

I hope that you are happy and healthy. 

The Hornby offerings with a little work are very acceptable to me.  Coal, crew, weathering......

I was very pleased to hear about both sets of Toplight offerings from Dapol, and thought perhaps they were looking to produce other items where there was a gaping hole in the market: Saint has to be the biggest gap out there.....

50 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

….. what would the RAF have on offer in the mid-30’s…. 
 

 

Something wheezy with two sets of wings..........

ten years later they had jets, Griffon engined Spitfires and Typhoons and Sabres that could chase jets, and a twin engined wooden two Merlin lightweight speedy bomber that carried almost as much TNT as a B17.....

That's development!

I picked up on the Centenary full brake again.........After lots of pondering, I decided to do the first side panel by cutting the panel down to a "flat" panel, and then cutting out the body/roof leaving all of the guttering etc in place.  I had considered removing the guttering off the main section and leaving it on the piece to be inserted, but it all got a bit difficult when the carriage end came into the picture, with it's dog-leg back in towards the corridor connector.

First I cut the main body roof section with Xuron cutters, then sanded away with domestic emery paper.  This was folded three times to make a rigid sanding board.  I used a small "square" to keep an eye on the edges and corners.  Inner corners were completed using a square section mini file, and the longer lengths of cut were refined using an emery board along the work, not across it, so as to keep edges straight.

This is the raggedy edge which I started with (this is the opposite side to the one I worked on today).

I got it down quite close with the 80 grit paper and also chamfered the edges to help with filler blending:

This is a view from below, and a comparison of "before and after".  By this stage the fine emery board had been used:

Once the "hole" was square, the side insert could be trimmed and filed down to fit:

 The "ding" in the door is where removal of the glazing actually ripped the body in.  Filler will sort.....

Above is actually the piece just laid in place,  I used liquid poly to stick a small square of plasticard over the join behind the chocolate coloured section.  It stops short of the bottom in case it fouls the chassis which sits up inside the sides a little.   Once this was in place I used Uhu spread along the gaps from the inside.

The final result (for today) looks like this:

I will do the other side soon, then trim the glazing sections ready to refit.  This will be tricky as these shatter when cut if snipped, so adjustments will be done with emery.   Once the glazing sections fit again, I will put them aside while the filler work goes on, to include filling of the destination board holes in the roof.  I also need to remove the water tank from the roof.  This is a hangover from the body donor which was a third brake with one "Lav" at one end.     

Parcels compartments are now cream painted inside, so the interior is complete.

This will be finished in chocolate and cream post '42 livery, hopefully good enough that I won't have to use weathering to hide sins.

I have shingles (again) which explains why I'm inside doing modelling and not mowing the lawns, weeding or riding my big noisy motorcycle.  Thankfully you can only get shingles twice, so I won't get it in old age.

I hope that you are all happy and healthy. 

I have had my eye on a Hornby "ready to plonk" building for a while but the RRP is a little on the high side.   Rails "Pre-Loved" came up with a boxed one last week at a reasonable price....

 R9824 "Station Office" is a little "cutesy", and needs to be turned into a GW office building to be at the rear of the Shed , or to one side.   It was also far too clean for 1940s "West of London".  It is a "pre-coloured" resin structure, and much like the Townstreet buildings, except that it comes fully built.  The bricks and tiles have relief, which makes weathering easier, like the Townstreet stuff.

GWR "Dark Stone Number 3" for me is Humbrol Matt 180, and "Light Stone Number 2" is Revell Matt 89.

Walls and roof were lighty daubed with a pallette of dark browns and very dark greys, which then got a scrub/wash over with Precision P982 "Weathering" which is a very thinned down grubby black/bottom of the turps pot sort of solution.  This has the effect of  evening out the neat paint, thinning it down, and getting it into the nooks a crannies.

it's still drying so there is a slight sheen to the pictures.   It is even on all walls despite the wall arounfd the front door  looking darker in the photos.

Finished off by trimming and filing down the front step, which had a swarf in one corner.  Steps got a darker grey paint, and grubby brown was was lightly run down the two door frames to replicate much from crew uniforms.   Final detail were some bird poos on the roof finials.

Sadly it doesn't have a blank wall on any side because this would be ideal to have an outdoor/open air gents attached, and a bike shed at the other end - I'm sure a bike will get leaned up against, when it is plonked by the Shed.

I'm doing these little jobs in between decorating jobs.   Good wet Bank Holiday activity.      Also on the table today is a Bachmann coal to get the "empty" treatment, the interior of the Centenary full brake to paint in off white, and the breakdown clerestory to  dirty up some more.

On this Coronation weekend, I hope that you are all happy and healthy.

Been away for a few days of work, and no real access to RM Web.    MIB Snr messaged to ask why all of a sudden there were lots of Hornby Saints on a certain auction site.    Turns out that he has been keeping an eye on auction sales of the (longest running /unaltered/ original release) major class of engine in OO modelling.     No idea why.

But all of a sudden a rush to sell Saints?     It could only mean two things:   a manufacturer has finally realised the potential of launching the first new Saint in 40 years, or just coincidence.   I have been guilty of offloading upon sight of an announcement..... Manors, Moguls, Prairies, and even a 47XX........all sold off to make space and raise a penny towards the replacements.........

Turns out it was a coincidence.

I continue, like many others, to live in hope.

I also hope that you are all happy and healthy.

Centenary Full Brake has not progressed!   Sides are still sat on a tray with tools next to my laptop in the office..........   but I have been busy elsewhere.

Sad news, but today I had to take up my order problem with Modelmaster with Paypal who refunded me after filling out an online series of questions.   It was a very painless process and commendation to them.

I had used Modelmaster for over 100 sets of names and numbers over the last 12 years or so, and never had a single problem, even when some other folks were struggling.    I just put that down to some people wanting everything immediately.     I was extra patient with Modelmaster and kept a copy of email enquiries as to where the items were - sent after over a month of waiting for the order - not through impatience after a week.   

Three sets of new cabside numbers are coming from Narrow Planet.   I have used them before for something which MM could not supply.  Can't remember what but it was probably the numbers for either a specific Dean Goods or for my Heljan 4700.

Three sets of numbers = three new engines????    Sort of....... I took a decision to sell three Bachmann panniers which I was never going to manage to chip because they were split chassis engines.    I have successfully chipped a split chassis tender engine, and for this there was lots of space in the tender to hide everything.    Not so in a Pannier.   Off to Ebay they went, sold quite quickly and covered half the cost of three replacement 8750s also from Bachmann.    One came chipped, Two are "ready".   One is in the correct green with correct logo, one needs a change of logo and the third is in BR Black.    Nothing we can't fix.

They are sat in the glass cabinet, along with:    2 BR Castles for backdating, re-paint and re-naming, a green Manor for a colour and name change, a Hall for rename and repaint into unlined green,  and finally a BR British Monarch for back dating and renaming.   I have a BM but without external steam pipes in unlined green - I think it is my favourite of all my repaints.

The NPCCS projects,  J12 and 12 wheel H57 are all in there too.    I find that as they are on display they do "nag" me more frequently and I do find time to work on them, more so than when they were hiding in crates.

I have been working on European time this week as my projects were all based in Denmark.  So the weekend starts right now at NC:  I wish you all a pleasant one when that time reaches you.   Hope that you are happy and healthy.

It's been too wet to work outdoors early in the morning ( 7-9 am)  or after "work", so I have had bonus modelling time this week.   The Hatton's Genesis 6 wheeler is now a faded, jaded brown S&T crew coach.  Not a tough piece of work, and not worth a photo.  HOWEVER,  I will say that I tried out a different colour for "faded GWR Brown" and it looks excellent - try Humbrol SM 251.   It looks great.

If you want a picture let me know.

So while I wait for deliveries, the next project was the legendary, "one-and-only" Centenary Full Brake coach.

Basis for the conversion is/are two Centenary Brake thirds.    Most of one was chopped up and disposed of , or used for "experiments" such as the Dullcote/Matt Cote test from a few months ago.  The chassis from the donor coach was re-sold on eBay along with all the chassis(s) from the body donors for the full brake recoveries.  (hope that makes sense)

All I needed from the donor were the 2 body sides of the Brake end.    These were cut over size to allow for fettling and "options" - more later on "options".  The bodies of these coaches are integral with the roof.

First job was to sort the interior section.  I cut out the seats, corridor windows and doors,  and compartment walls to make one large parcels/goods space. 

Using Plasticard, I re-made the corridor wall where compartment doors and windows were. 

 I also took the opportunity to make the compartment windows "disappear" on what has become the Guard's compartment.   That has all been sprayed brown, and this will be followed by a coat (or three) of white aerosol on the parcels side.  The photos of K series vans show then interiors to be a " white" sort of colour.

Taking the window glazing out is a challenge as these body sides are still quite soft at 30 years old, whereas the glazing is very brittle.   

The outcome, using a flat blade screwdriver, and Xuron cutters, is that one of the sections to be inserted has torn and been pulled "in", because the glazing glue would not budge.  I will have to rectify this with car body filler.

It is important to retain the recesses in the lower edges of the glazing pieces as these accept the fitting of the chassis/running gear (seen below in black).

This is as far as we are tonight, with a weekend of heavy duty gardening ahead:  Body is cut out to receive new side sections, interior is built but needs white paint on the "non corridor" side.

As for "options" - there were two different ways to section the side panels in, and I opted for the ones which have the join on the "non hinged" side of doors.  This means that the joint will be along a door shut line which is easier to work to.  A door obviously has two sides, but working this way means that I get to keep the door hinges.   Be careful if you are doing this conversion, as you can ( if not careful) end up with two recesses side to side. 

I don't feel challenged by the fitting of the panels - once they are filed/sanded to size, and then the sides given a "V" edge to allow for filler, they will be easily glued in with some Plasticard behind to support.

I'm looking forward to painting this - Chocolate and Cream with late GWR logos.  This is definitely not a Full Brake to run in "all brown", or "covered in grot".   It has to be pristine and clean.  This means the bodywork needs to be good .

Watch out for All Fools Day tomorrow.

It's been a while.....

I wasn't going to post until I got on with the NPCCS again, and then only when I got the extra set of sides and made up another one.    You can never have too many Full Brakes.    But I'm still waiting for a couple of deliveries.

I have also had a bit of a shuffle around on the locomotive roster, and three engines have headed away via EvilBay.  More of that soon....

It's "bonus season" and I treated myself to another Hornby open - a second "Lowe & Warwick - Holloway".   There were only six prototypes in the bright livery, and Hornby hasn't numbered the offering, so it's easy to have two or three in a "near London" setting.   This one has also had a few "repair planks" painted in as well as some replacement ironwork left in "red lead" primer.   And a coal load for this one - more details to follow.   I know that all PO opens went into the Pool long before my timeframe, but I do like to have a bunch of London logo'd PO opens.

I'm just in the middle of making an S&T crew coach out of a Hattons Genesis 6 wheeler.   Not spectacular modelling, but keeping me amused on the rare bits of spare time I have at the moment.

I hope that you are all happy and healthy.

Lovely to see some freight on Granby.  Thank you John.

Inspiring as always.

Regards,

Car brake fluid never fails and doesn't harm plastics.   Put item in large Tupperware type container and submerse for 24 hours.  Scrub with a toothbrush in soapy warm water afterwards.

But keep it away from anything ferrous - it will ravage ferrous items.   

As for brake fluid on Dublo type metal items - I would avoid that as well.

Strong IPA works but not on all paints and sometimes won't strip certain colours - red buffer beams on steam locos stayed put IIRC, but all of the other paint was dissolved away.

11 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

 

 

Beautiful long van train hauled by a 28XX.  That and a long NPCCS hauled by a 47XX or a big County are my ambition with North Cranford.

Some of that series of coach never saw GW service.  I believe BGs were only ever in BR service.

Because of a lack of RTR full brakes in  "chocolate and cream" lots of folk ( including me) have opted to use the Hawksworth ones.

Dapol's Toplight BG is I believe the first RTR BG.     

Kits and brass side conversions to make most GWR BGs have been around for a long time.

Rule 7B applies - you need a bridge with a bus on it.............