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pete_mcfarlane

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  1. pete_mcfarlane
    The detailed 04 has been on the back burner for a while, whilst I work on my 2012 Challenge entry, but a burst of activity tonight saw it ready for painting.

    Since the last update it has been given the extra Southern region marker lights, and various other small details. The airtanks under the footplate were replaced by some larger ones made from evergreen tube, and the various front and rear end clutter added (including extra handrails, and the rackets that hold shunting poles).
     
    Now ready for some touching up and transfers.
  2. pete_mcfarlane
    EMU workbench
     
    by pete_mcfarlane
     
    original page on Old RMweb
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by number6 on Mon Jul 20, 2009 3:13 pm
     
    Enjoying your rapid progress as usual Pete! As Dave says the bowing of the BIL is the biggest pain - make sure you make the floor rigid or it will go banana shaped before you can say "roof conduit".
     
    Is the unpowered pick-up bogie basically the same design as the powered but just without motors? I used a spare pair of white metal power bogie sides and forgot about it. Now I'm beginning to wonder again!
     
    R
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by dasatcopthorne on Mon Jul 20, 2009 10:24 pm
     
    Re the leading trailer bogie.
     
    No, it's different. It's of a lighter construction but heavier than a normal trailer but still 8' 9" wheelbase.
     
    Dave
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Tue Jul 21, 2009 11:34 am
     


    dasatcopthorne wrote:
    I was prepared to live with the lopsided roof (dome end) but when I fitted two sides to the floor and they bowed in at the top, I'd had enough.
    I'd not looked at the roof yet, but I see what you mean about the dome. I'll have a go at reprofiling
     
    As for the bowing, the sides are really thin to give a continuous rebate for the glazing which doesn't help to make them rigid. The edges of the moulded floor aren't at 90 degrees, which doesn't help either.
     
    I'm still pondering whether to build down from the roof (with a separate floor) or up from the solebar (with a detachable roof). The latter will give the top of the sides more strength.
     


    number6 wrote:
    Is the unpowered pick-up bogie basically the same design as the powered but just without motors? I used a spare pair of white metal power bogie sides and forgot about it. Now I'm beginning to wonder again!


    dasatcopthorne wrote:
    Re the leading trailer bogie.
     
    No, it's different. It's of a lighter construction but heavier than a normal trailer but still 8' 9" wheelbase.
     
    Dave
    This is one of the reasons I stalled on building the kit for so long - finding a suitable replacement trailer collector bogie to match the other replacement bogies. I couldn't face having 3 nice whitemetal/brass bogies and a horrible plastic one. Many years ago somebody explained to me about about the different methods of injection moulding plastic - I seem to remember there's a cheap lower pressure process that gives less detail with softer plastic. Presumably this is what is used on these kits as they are very soft and lacking in sharp detail, especially compared to the DC kits ones.
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:36 pm
     
    I've finished detailing the ends - mainly using the Branchlines castings, with some bits of fuse wire and plastic.
     

     
    I reckon some of the castings are a little of the big side - the jumper cable on the left hand side is too long for starters so there's no room for the lamp iron on that side. The overall effect is OK though.
     
    The buffers are ABS. I bought some Branchlines ones, but the heads didn't seem quite the right shape - more like those on the earlier spindle buffers which were oval rather than an elipse. Using these buffers means I'm doing one of the last batch (2017-52) which were the only 2-Bils to have them.
     
    Windscreen wipers deliberately left off until after painting and glazing.
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by dasatcopthorne on Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:49 am
     
    Looking good.
     
    Dave
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by dasatcopthorne on Wed Jul 22, 2009 12:46 pm
     
    Pete.
     
    Here's a few pics of my effort at an ex-Tyneside Epb.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:51 pm
     
    Not much progress today on the Bil.
     

     
    These are the short sections of sides around the cab door, which are moulded separately. For some reason (strength probably) the driver's door goes down the bottom of the side, rather than stopping short so that the door cab be opened inwards. A few minutes with a sharp scalpel and needle files fixed this.
     
    Dave: Thanks for uploading the Tyneside photos - it looks fantastic.
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by dasatcopthorne on Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:07 pm
     
    Fantastic? Mmmmm
     
    But thanks for that.
     
    This is one of my older units, probably build in the mid 80's
     
    It has the rubbing plate from the bottom of the Hornby gangway connector, and oval buffers just pushed into the original Hornby buffer shanks. The reason being is that the end has been re-shaped from the Hornby Mk1 coach that the unit is based on. You probably recognise the Hornby roof as well.
     
    Some pics of converted coach ends appeared in the following post viewtopic.php?f=5&t=39513
     
    Dave.
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Mon Jul 27, 2009 10:44 pm
     
    Tonight I got a boring job out of the way - drilling the holes for the door handles.
     

     
    This I did by making a jig out of scrap tinplate to drill the holes.
     

     
    I've also attached the ends to the floor, having first cut out the space for the motor bogie from one of them. The floors needed a bit of work with a file to straighten out their edges so the sides will be at the correct angle. I've decided to build from the floor up with a separate roof.
     

     
    Starting to look like an EMU.
     

     
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by number6 on Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:25 pm
     
    Pete - how do you do those cable clips either side of the headcode box? I think the jumble of stuff on the front is looking really good.
    R
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Tue Jul 28, 2009 1:33 pm
     


    number6 wrote:
    Pete - how do you do those cable clips either side of the headcode box? I think the jumble of stuff on the front is looking really good.
    R
    Sticky tape! Tamyia paper based masking tape cut in to thin strips - it seems fairly secure for now (a wash of solvent helped) and a few coats of paint will secure it for good.
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Fri Jul 31, 2009 11:31 pm
     
    The body is now assembled. Firstly I added some reinforcing strips inside the door sections, so that the sides would line up properly.
     

     
    Then I attached the sides.
     

     
    24 hours later when everything was set hard, I added the ends.
     

     
    I'd have like to have a removeable interior, but this doesn't seem to be possible due to the need to fit loads of bracing to the body to stop it going wonky. The Interior mouldings that come with the kit are generic ones that bear no relation to the real Bil interior and so were modified.
     
    Before:
     

     
    After:
     

     
    The composite interior had one third class compartment removed and another cut down to form the coupe. The spare compartment was then added to the third class moulding to give the extra compartment needed for the driving trailer. Bits of plasticard have been added to the ends for the toilet section, and then they were both reduced in hight to give roof for the cross bracing. The plastic used for these mouldings was horrible and brittle and the odd bit shattered on me, so they are now a bit rough in places but hopefully this wont be obvious when they are in place.
     
    Speaking of horrible, I've started on the roof. 5 thou plastic has been added to reprofile the flattened bit of the dome to try and get it symetrical.
     

     
    I think the most difficult bit is going to be battering the roof in to shape, so that it fits properly on the body,
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by 5Bel on Sat Aug 01, 2009 9:17 am
     
    Hi Pete,
    The Bil looks great. It's good to see someone else doing one. Mine took me about five years to finish!! I have built two now and they both had the bow mentioned. I used cross bracing at the top of the bodysides to cure mine on the second one. One tip I could give is to sand down the rainstrip on the roof. This gives a much more prototypical profile. DC Kits are going to re-release this kit this year so I can see myself going through the process all over again. Keep up the good work.
     
    Cheers Ian
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Sat Aug 01, 2009 12:04 pm
     


    5Bel wrote:
    Hi Pete,
    The Bil looks great. It's good to see someone else doing one. Mine took me about five years to finish!! I have built two now and they both had the bow mentioned. I used cross bracing at the top of the bodysides to cure mine on the second one. One tip I could give is to sand down the rainstrip on the roof. This gives a much more prototypical profile. DC Kits are going to re-release this kit this year so I can see myself going through the process all over again. Keep up the good work.
     
    Cheers Ian
    I'm trying to avoid spending years on mine! Given how many of these kits get sold it's odd how few you see made up - perhaps people give up on them because of the various problems.
     
    I've tackled the bowing with lots of cross braces.
     

     
    It's now setting. Next step is to fit the remaining partitions. I'm making my own partitions out of plasticard, as the ones supplied with the kit are about 1mm narrower than the seats
     
    I think I'm going to remove all of the roof detailing and replace with Evergreen strip.
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by ferries2008 on Thu Aug 06, 2009 7:07 am
     
    Morning, Thanks for the shared info and photo's Pete, Tracking your posts.....dt...
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:59 pm
     
    Progress has been a bit slow, due to the roof needing lots of work.
     
    I've added the remaining compartment partitions.
     

     
    Now for the roof. I removed the moulded on detail including the very thick rainstrips. These make the roof about 3mm too wide Untouched roof above, modified one below.
     

     
    I then filed the ends and underside of the roof to make them fit properly. This took a while, but eventually I got there. As you can see, the roof is a couple of milimetres longer than the side. Some trimming is needed. The thickness at the ends also needs reducing a bit more.
     

     
    This is the current state of play with the front. The strip around the front is being increased in thickness with plastic strip. As supplied it is too narrow on one side, and the front end is asymmetrical. Still working on this. The roof has had a coat of white primer to show up any imperfections.
     

     
    Lastly, I've assembled the brass inners for the NNK trailing bogies. After the problems with the slop on the collector bogie wheels, I packed the bearings out with brass washers (from an MJT inside bearing etch). This cured the problem.
     

     
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:29 pm
     
    As per my last post, the roof took ages. It needed a lot of sanding and filing to get it to fit and to make it symetrical. Both are now done, and the driving trailer is mounted on it's bogies.
     

     
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:34 pm
     
    The motor coach is now on it's bogies as well. The mounting cradle for the black beetle is just a piece of plastic sheet, packed out from the floor by a couple of strips. I discovered the hard way that the fuse boxes cast on to the Branchlines side frames are over scale and project above the top of the side frames. I had to cut them off to get the coach to sit at the correct height - I'll replace them with NNK ones later on.
     

     
    To make marking out the roof easier I've scanned in the Branchlines drawings, played around with the size to make them fit roof (including widening them to take the curve in to account) and printed them out of self adhesive paper. Next step is to drill out the holes and fit the various cable runs and fittings.
     

     
    __________________________________________
  3. pete_mcfarlane
    I bought this kit at an exhibition at the old BAe site in Hatfield in Autumn 1996 (my last year at University!). So sometimes kits from the great kit mountain do get built, rather than sitting forever in the cupboard or endlessly changing hands on Ebay.
     
    Now at last it's finished!
     

     
    The only thing I'm not 100% happy with is the fit of the roof - it's OK, but not brilliant. I'll work on this on subsequent 2-Bils, as I've been buying up a stock of the kits now that they are (temporarily?) available again. 3 more Bils and a couple more to turn in to 2-Hals should fllow of the next few years.
     
    The 73/0 is nearly painted - just some touching up of the blue and the jumper cables to do, then it will be time for transfers.
  4. pete_mcfarlane
    I finally tracked down some suitable square shank buffers for the 2-Bil. They are Slaters GWR coach buffers, and are sprung. Not cheap but very nice.
     

     
     
    This has spurred me in to finishing this unit. The inner ends have been detailed with various bits of wire and plastic (not the best photo as the roofs aren't attached and the toilet fillers aren't properly attached yet),
     

     
     
    The worst bit was doing the toilet filler pipes - I hate bending bits of wire in umpteen different directions. Anyway, it's now ready for a spot of green paint.

     
  5. pete_mcfarlane
    I'm still plodding away with the roof. This is the current state of play:

    The ventillators are some very nice NNK castings. The periscopes are from Branchlines, and the electrical cabling is a mixture of plastic rod and wire (mainly steel guitar wire, with some brass for the short cross cables) on Southern Pride turned supports.
     
    There's still quite a lot to do on the roof, but having drawings and some decent photos helps quite a lot compared to the EPB.
  6. pete_mcfarlane
    A trip to the local Sorting Office after work on Friday resulted in a parcel from Branchlines. The E2 chassis now has a Mashima 1220 motor and 67:1 Branchlines Multibox two stage gearbox. It drives the rear axle under the cab, and the gearbox needed a fair amount of it's sides removing to fit (and not be visible). I also had to reduce the thickness of the moulded backhead.
     
    It's pictured on my hi-tech loco test facility - none of this rolling road nonsense for my locos.
     
    This is the current state of play with the T1.

    It has a proper cab floor and front cab bulkhead, since the cab won't be full of motor, some Gibson LSWR buffers and various bits of beading attached. My fingers survived this quite well.
     
    The biggest problem were the etched coal rails - the needed shortening to fit. They weren't the easiest of components to modify with a file. Other than that it all went together with no major problems.
     
    You can also see my dodgy soldering - this wont show when it's painted......
  7. pete_mcfarlane
    This is the state of play tonight. It's sitting on it's bogies, with the body and underframe mostly complete. The nastiest bit so far was adding the bogie footsteps - the etched brackets were rather small (scale size?) and a bit flimsy. Some then dropped off when trying to bend them to shape and had to be replaced. Soldering the footboards in to place without melting the whitemetal springs needed a steady hand and plenty of patience.
     
    Next step is the brake linkage. I cheated on the bogies and left off the brake shoes as they looked very fiddly.
  8. pete_mcfarlane

    Another shock!

    By pete_mcfarlane,

    I've built yet another shock absorbing wagon - in this case a Red Panda Shock Van (bought off Ebay for a sensible price as this kit seems to be out of production). It's been completed as one of the batch with the shock absorber located between the frames and not visible.
    .
     
    It uses some rather nice case buffers from Lanarkshre model supplies, some Parkside solebars and the original Red Panda break gear.
     
    I've also finished the BR wooden Lowfit - actually about 2 months ago but it took me ages to get round to fitting the couplings This was built from various Parkside bits, mainly from their LNER Lowfit.

  9. pete_mcfarlane
    The T1 can move under it's own power. After the problems with the chassis on the J, it was something of a relief that it needed very little adjustment to run smoothly. Just some tweaking of the bogie pivots and some slight enlarging of the cutouts for the bogie wheels. The pickups are a bit non-standard due to the odd design of the chassis - a piece of PCB was bolted to the top of full length frame spacer between the frames. The do work.
     

    The main castings have now been added. I'm battling the base of the dome with filler to get it reasonably smooth. It wasn't the best casting ever.
     

    The inside of the cab, showing how far back the flywheel projects. I think the backhead will need to be slightly further back than it should be to hide this.
     
    And lastly, a quick update on the E2. It now has the correct smokebox saddle/cylinder covers, and I'm working on the tank top beading. The cab openings have been enlarged, and the tops of the tank and bunker adjusted to match the real thing. Why Hornby got these wrong I don't know - they are nothing to do with the dimensional compromises needed to fit their standard chassis.

  10. pete_mcfarlane
    Now ready for painting in rusty bauxite. The original Parkside chassis was reused with modified axleboxes. Various details were added from scraps of plastic (the buffer beams are Evergreen channel), shock spring covers were spares from another Parkside kit and some MJT shock buffers finish it all off.
     
    For some reason none of these wagons seem to have lamp irons, despite being fitted. Presumably there must have been a reason for this - other shock wagons have them.
  11. pete_mcfarlane
    I thought I'd start a new blog to record my slightly hamfisted attempts at building 4mm loco kits.
     
    The first victim is a Chiver's SECR J class 0-6-4T. These are one of Harry Wainwright's more obscure classes - there were only five of them, and all were scrapped by 1951. I've heard it claimed they were the last 0-6-4T tanks in Britain (although the type survived in Ireland until 1969 due to the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties' peculiar attachment to them).
     
    When finished it will be 31599 in early BR condition.
     
    The chassis is a pretty conventional affair in etched brass, with a separate etch containing the coupling rods, brake gear and a gearbox (to go with Romford gears and a DS10 motor). I'd experimented with the settings on my camera, the combination of an LED desk lamp, flash and macro mode on the camera produced the slightly odd effect in the photo (which reminds me of a German silent film).

    The kit suggests starting with the chassis, but then mentions that it needs shortening slightly to fit the running plate. So I started by assembling the running plate (using epoxy). This needed a bit of filler, but otherwise went together OK. A couple of millimetres was then removed from the chassis etch to ensure that it fitted before soldering it up.

    I used a Comet jig to help with the assembly. I also added extra frame spacers off one of their etches to ensure that the chassis was nice and rigid.
     
    The next step was to paint the basic chassis before fitting the Alan Gibson wheels. These were then fitted using a GW models wheel press. This is my first use of the Gibson driving wheels, and no major problems so far. Once they are on, it's not straightforward to remove them, hence the need to paint the chassis (or at least the bit's behind the wheels) first.

    The moulded plastic gearbox is from a firm called Northyard, who hail from New Zealand. I bought it from Branchlines a few years back and have now finally found a use for it. The huge side tanks will hide a fairly large Mashima 1628 motor driving the gearbox via a length of neoprene tubing. Again this is something I've not tried before, but so far it all seems to fit.

    The motor will intrude in to the bottom of the cab, but with the doors modelled in the closed position this shouldn't show.
     
    So it has taken a week of odd hours here and there to get this far. The rest of the kit seems pretty straightforward, so I'm hoping for a quick build.
  12. pete_mcfarlane
    I've spent quite a bit of time on the J this week, but have struggled to get a smooth running chassis. The coupling rods bind for no obvious reason - despite all the usual remedies such as opening out the holes in the rods. I've also checked the wheels are correctly quartered, the chassis is square with all wheels touching the track etc etc.
     
    After a few hours of this, I'm starting to suspect there's something fundamentally wrong with the rods., probably through my hamfisted assembly although I'm never keen on having the rods etched on a separate etch to the chassis.

    The next step seems to be an order to Alan Gibson for a set of his etched coupling rods - I've always had success with these.
  13. pete_mcfarlane
    The loco has now been painted. First several coats of dark grey (not black) paint and a red buffer beam. The Vallejo red paint covered incredibly well - two coats were enough to get decent coverage.

    The loco is modelled on a photo in the Bradford Barton album on Wainwright locos showing it in Southern livery, but recently renumbered with it's BR number which is still pretty clean. I added the HMRS southern lettering before doing any weathering to get this effect.

    The light colour streaks (Limescale?) were then added.

    Then several coats of thinned matt varnish, tinted with various combinations of grey and leather to give a dirty effect.

    I'm not sure if the area around the new numbers was repainted or just cleaned - I masked it off and painted it black.

    And then applied the numbers. The renumbering on the real thing must have been a rush job - the lack of symmetry is copied from the photo, and they didn't bother to give the loco a thorough clean first.

    Coal was added to the bunker - before varnishing so the matt varnish removes the unrealistic shiny glitter effect that you get with small lumps of coal. I'm still using a tub of crushed coal that my late Grandfather crushed and sorted. The custard tin has a best before date of 1978.

    And this is the loco ready for varnishing, with crew (Bachmann Scenecraft), fire irons, headcode disks and a few spare lamps. The plastic driver will be less shiny after a coat of varnish. He's staring in to space, mentally composing a letter to his ASLEF rep about his cab being full of motor.

  14. pete_mcfarlane
    I'm not a very "clean" modeller. Some people seem to be able to models that look immaculate even when unpainted. Mine, on the other hand, are covered in blobs of superglue and badly sanded down filler.

    I've sprayed the J with a light coat of Tamiya grey, which has exposed all of these rough bits. I'm leaving it to harden overnight, and then I'll make a start on rubbing it down and getting rid of the mess.
    I'd normally use red oxide on a loco, but the grey is intended to make it easier to position the grey rivet transfers when I come to do them.
  15. pete_mcfarlane
    Another update on the J.

    Pickups are now fitted, and it runs under it's own power. Despite all the earlier problems with the chassis, it's turned out to be a smooth runner. I'm partway through fitting the usual myriad details - handrails, lamp irons and so on. The curved pipes that run down the side of the boiler were surprisingly difficult to do, an took several attempts to get convincing. On the real locomotives the pipe work was a bit wonky looking in places, and it's difficult to get this right on a model without looking like poor modelling.
     
    I'm expecting it to be ready for painting in about a week or so.
  16. pete_mcfarlane
    Some pictures of the detailed Hornby 73 - now with lots of bits of wire and plastic attached to the bogies to represent the various cables etc. The 73/0 has vast numbers of cables on it's bogies, far more than the production loco.


     

     
     
    The roof mounted horns are from A1 and are soldered to a mounting plate to hopefully make them a bit more robust.
     
    It's taken a lot of work to get this far - the 73/0 looks superficially similar to the 73/1 but there are a huge number of detail differences which the Hornby model ignores.
  17. pete_mcfarlane

    Coal 21

    By pete_mcfarlane,

    Having done the fitted version, I've also turned out a trio of the unfitted 21 ton mineral wagon.
     

     
    This is a Chiver's MDV modified to remove the top doors (with a very sharp scalpel), and mounted on a Parkside chassis to represent the unfitted welded variety which nobody does a kit for. Even in 4mm scale there are plenty of common wagons that aren't available as kits.
     
    It's riveted cousin is a straightforward build of the Parkside kit. The only modifications are buffers, wire handrails, a decent tiebar from 1mm nickel silver strip, and some spare door spring from the Chiver's kit
     

     
    Lastly, a Hornby ex-Airfix riveted ex-PO mineral - a very nice body moulding like most of these Airfix wagons. A query on here pointed me in the direction of a photo of a suitable prototype. This has the same Parkside 12' chassis as the other two, but with MJT W irons and springs, and 51L heavy duty axleboxes.
    Next step is to paint them all in a rusty c1970 grey! The weird pretend MDV livery on the Hornby body has to go
  18. pete_mcfarlane

    Coal 21 VB

    By pete_mcfarlane,

    Not much progress recently due to all sorts of other distractions (skiing holidays, parties, boring stuff like that) but I've managed to get a few wagons ready for painting today.
     
    A Parkside BR van built as the Fruit van version using the optional ventilators. It's also had the solebars replaced with the plate fronted ones from the ever useful PA16 underframe kit. The yellow van is a Dapol ex Airfix "LMS van" which is actually a BR diagram 1/204. I bought a job lot of "second" bodies from a trader a the Grantham show last year, and this is the first to be tackled. Parkside underframe as usual, body modified to represent 3 part rather than 2 park ends and removal of some non-prototypical reinforcing around the bottom of the strapping were the main modifications. Presumably the yellow is a base for some strange Dapol livery, but this will be in bog standard Bauxite.
     
    Next up are a couple of Chivers "Coal 21 VB" - the MDV TOPS designation is a bit after my time. These built up very well despite a surprising amount of flash for such a new kit (must be selling well and wearing the tool out). My only gripe with these was the poor quality of the cast buffers - luckily I had some spare from a third kit being converted to the unfitted version. I've added wire handrails, rivets on the door springs and vacuum pipes - everything else came with the kit.
  19. pete_mcfarlane
    Saturday was spent soldering up the T1, an these photos show how far I got:


    It was a lot easier than I epxetced. I made one modification to the body - E75 (the loco I'm modelling) had a flat top to it's cab cutouts. The kit is for the batches with an arched top, so this was adjusted with needle files. I also found that the bunker rear was too high, so it was cut down to fit - I suppose it's better to spend a few minutes with a file than finding that it was too small and having to make a replacement part.
     
    The chassis needs a bit more work than the body. These are the frames.

    A bit basic - so I'm making two modifications. Firstly, I had some Alan Gibson cast springs for the E2 project. I'll order some more for the T1 - they aren't quite correct, but will do.
    The second modification is to fill the visible part of the motor cut out with brass strip, since I'm not planning on using the Airfix 1001 motor the kit is designed around.
    The only real problem I found with the chassis was the slightly odd construction - a single continuous frame spacer sits at the bottom between the two frames and is located by various tabs and vertical pieces at the ends. Or do if the tabs aligned up with the holes in the side frames. I cut it in to two sections to get it to fit.

    I'm now waiting for a set of Gibson driving wheels. I also have to work out what to do with the bogie - the kit comes with a lump of whitemetal, and is essentially an 0-4-0 with a loosely attached bogie flopping around behind it. Apparently that's how they used to do things
  20. pete_mcfarlane
    This is almost the current state of affairs (it's now had a scrub and is drying off as we speak!)

    I've now got my head around the design of the etches. They are too wide because it's intended to use a Comet roof - I had to reprofile the ends to take the shortened Southern Pride Bulleid roof. This is much closer to the real thing.
     
    The main problem from narrowing the body was that the chassis no longer fitted. As per Comet kits the chassis etch had an upward projecting strip to align the body sides and add strength. You can see it in this picture.

    Removing this allows the body to sit on the chassis. This makes the chassis quite flimsy, so I had to add some cross members to the underside to keep it all parallel. It is now all straight - the curvature in this photo is down to my camera....

     
    Bogies are spare Hornby ones from a cheap Maunsell First that is providing bits for this and other projects.
    Next step is to add detailing.
  21. pete_mcfarlane
    I bought this at the Doncaster show in either 1999 or 2000 - I'm not sure which, but it was soon after it came out. It's very much been at the back of the 'to do' pile ever since, and Bachmann have even bought out an RTR version in the meantime.
     
    Brief details of the build;
    DC Kits plastic kit - I used the plastic mouldings but ditched the detailing components as they weren't up to the standard I was after.
    Black beetle motor bogie.
    Underframe detail is a mix of Southern Pride, NNK and scratchbuilt. These units had 1951 type control gear, which isn't covered by the Southern Pride plastic underframe kit.
    Roof detail from guitar wire and SP turned lamp tops.
    End jumpers from MJT.
    NNK etched window frames.

    Since I don't have a layout at the moment, here's a couple of photos of it on my hi-tech photo display stand (which happens to look a bit like an ironing board).

    Overall I'm quite happy with this, even though Bachmann got their one out before I'd finished it.
  22. pete_mcfarlane
    DC Kits Class 71
     
    by pete_mcfarlane
     
    original page on Old RMweb
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:42 am
     
    Finished my Class 71 this evening. I bought it at the Derby show in April 2006, so this must be one of my quickest builds ever Apologies for the slightly ropey pictures but I'm still working out how to take photos of models with my ancient digital camera.
     
    It's a DC kits resin body and whitemetal bogies. This is a really good kit - quite basic in places but generally accurate with plenty of scope for adding detail.
     


     
    I replaced the underframe gear as I wasn't too happy with the brass etching supplied. I also detailed the bogies to add as much of the piping as possible along with the steps and fitted cab interiors.
     
    The bogies themseleves are cast metail with a small DS10 type motor:
     

     
    I know DC kits have moved away from this design, but the quality of the sideframe castings is first class and a lot better than the resin ones that come with the class 74. The bogies ran fairly well from the start and only needed a bit of tweaking to get smooth performance. It also has the correct spoken wheels.
     
    I've only got a short bit of test track, but it doesn't seem that powerful. Mine is only going to move a few parcels vans, but a full length Golden Arrow is probably out.
     
    I've tried to represent the slightly tatty and faded look that these locos had in their later years. I suspect that not having much work, they didn't accumulate much mileage and so weren't overhauled and painted that often. The grilles were very fine mouldings so I painted them first with a thin coat of Dark grey, and then masked them off with Humbrol Maskol. This preserved the sharpness, as they didn't get clogged up with the body colour.
     
    The body colours were mixed with a fair ammount of white to make them look faded, and the blue was selectively rubbed with car body rubbing compund an a cotton wool stick to give the streaky look. The inspiration for this is a photo of a completely knackered looking Class 74 in "Southern EMUs in colour".
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by Phil on Sun Nov 18, 2007 3:27 am
     
    Fantastic job Pete, well done.
     
    I can just imagine that on the Eastbourne papers with a few SR CCTs and a BR GUV. Nice !!
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by Adam on Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:15 am
     
    An impressive job that.
     
    The bogies are definitely my favourite element - Are they the correct wheelbase on the 71? Those supplied with the 74 exasperated me to the extent that I cut the spring/bearing mouldings of them and scratchbuilt the rest, likewise with the rest of the underframe. The improvement is really obvious, as it is with this model.
     
    I like the fact that you've taken the time to put in the traction motor cables on the sideframes which are so distinctive on the real thing (and the 73 an 74 too for that matter). These are a bit of a fiddle to do but worth every minute I think.
     
    Is that 2x DS10s or just the one?!!
     
    Adam
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by lapford34102 on Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:16 pm
     
    Hi,
     
    That is very nice
     
    Edit - did you use the kit glazing or do your own - I've a 74 to finish.......
     
    Cheers
    Stu
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:01 pm
     
    Thanks for the nice comments.
     


    Adam wrote:
    The bogies are definitely may favourite element - Are they the correct wheelbase on the 71? Those supplied with the 74 exasperated me to the extent that I cut the spring/bearing mouldings of them and scratchbuilt the rest, likewise with the rest of the underframe.
    The 71 has the correct wheelbase, as presumably it's a bespoke motor bogie for this kit. Unlike the 74 which has a Black Beetle 2mm too short (I dont think they do them long enough).
     
    I got halfway through scratchbuilding some new bogie sideframes for my 74 along the lines you've outlined, but then I got sidetracked by something else... The bogies are by far the weakest part of the 74 kit
     


    Adam wrote:
    Is that 2x DS10s or just the one?!!
    Only 1. There is (or was - I've not seen these kits on their stand for a while) an option to buy a second motor and gears.
     


    lapford34102 wrote:
    Edit - did you use the kit glazing or do your own -
    Both
    I didn't like the vacuum formed glazing provided that much as it suffered from the usual curved effect around the corners that you get with this type of glazing. I glazed the side windows with clear plastic cut to shape and held in place with Crystal Clear floor polish. I chickened out of doing the front windows as they are an awful shape, and the front glazing supplied wasn't that bad.
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by 10800 on Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:06 pm
     
    Very nice Pete - what's the pantograph like? Did it come with the kit or did you source it separately? (Any photos with the pan up?).
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by Adam on Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:13 pm
     
    Thanks for the answers - Mine has the bogies from a Bachmann Warship and a big Mashima can motor, so that isn't an issue.
     
    You might find this thread useful:
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?
     
    Adamp=16777&highlight=#16777
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:33 pm
     


    10800 wrote:
    Very nice Pete - what's the pantograph like? Did it come with the kit or did you source it separately? (Any photos with the pan up?).
    It's a sommerfeldt pantograph, which is not 100% accurate as it has a single contract strip rather than 2 like the prototype, and different cross bracing. None of this really shows when its down (the alternative would be to run the loco without a pantograph as sometimes happened).
     
    I suspect that nobody does a correct one. It came with the kit. In fact the kit comes with everything you need to build a basic OO gauge model except glue, paint and solder.
     
    Mine is stuck down so no photos of mine with it up I'm afraid
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by 10800 on Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:39 pm
     


    pete_mcfarlane wrote:
    It's a sommerfeldt pantograph, which is not 100% accurate as it has a single contract strip rather than 2 like the prototype, and different cross bracing. None of this really shows when its down (the alternative would be to run the loco without a pantograph as sometimes happened).
     
    I suspect that nobody does a correct one.
    I think you're right Pete, which is a shame (unless Judith Edge or No Nonsense are up for it). Camberhurst (see link below) will need a couple of these (and a couple of Boosters) and it would be nice to consider a DCC-controlled motorised pan for entering and exiting the goods yard.
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by Supaned on Sun Nov 18, 2007 8:13 pm
     
    Pete ,
     
    Thanks for posting the pics - fantastic finish on the HA, I really like the knackered appearance , if my DC 74 comes up half as good I'll be happy.
    I especially like the additional bogie detailing.
     
    Rod:
     
    First time I've read of your layout idea , but I really like the thought of 70s and 71s - not something you see too often (Hull MRS excepted!).
    The DCC pantograph idea is great , there should be ample room in the bodyshells to fit this.
    __________________________________________
  23. pete_mcfarlane
    This was going to be a quickie - back in March. Now 8 months later one of the shunters is finished.

    It wasn't even repainted - just some touching up, followed by new numbers (of the 'wrong' type for this livery as per the prototype) and a spot of weathering. The glazing was cut by hand from plastic sheet, and looks very good, but was a real pain. I ended up doing one window an evening over about two weeks.
     
    It looks pretty good in my opinion. The 03 is still not ready for painting.....
  24. pete_mcfarlane
    Another detailed Southern Region locomotive on my workbench- this time a Bachmann Class 42 Warship. This has been lurking on my bench for a which, but the purchase of some fan etchings from Shawplan last weekend will hopefully speed things on.
     
     
     
    I'm doing 816 in blue (using the Bachmann D812 as a base). There are a limited number of Warships that can be produced from the Bachmann model without major work. It's suitable for the D814-832/866-870 range (except for D830 which had a different engine). Class 43s didn't work on the Southern, and I've not yet figured out a way of modifying the side grilles for D800 - 813.
     
    The first thing I did was to replace the rather crude wheels with Gibson EM gauge ones, mounted on the original Bachmann OO axles. These look much better - I've lost the photo so you'll have to take my word for it until I take another.....
     
    Moving on to the body, apart from the roof grilles and catwalks (which will be replaced), the biggest problem seems to be with the front end. The moulded glazing is a poor fit with areas of unpainted plastic showing. On mine it was also very well glued in, so I resorted to masking it off with Copydex to protect it from damage and paint rather than attempting to remove it and risking damage.

     
    I then carefully filled around the window frames with filler. This will be sanded down and painted yellow to match the rest of the front.

     
    Other work I've done on the front end includes:

    Removing the plastic buffers. These are a bit flimsy and will be replaced with some sprung oval headed buffers from A1. Removing the tension lock couplers and glueing the front cowling in place. This has been blended in with filler and painted Removing the front headcode panels. These don't fit very well and look crude. These also look too small, which I think might be down to the surround (which is part of the body moulding) being painted yellow rather than black. Removing the handrails, which are attached too close to the body.The ones under the window lacked the distinctive centre support.
    I've also drilled out and removed the roof fans, ready to take the etched replacements.

     
    These do look very nice. In the past I never understood the fetish for replacing perfectly good moulded grilles and fans with crude etched replacements, but these are a million miles away from the horrors of the past!
  25. pete_mcfarlane
    Progress over the last month or so has been slow. I'm not at the stage of adding detail to both locomotives, and there's an awful lot of it.

    The J comes with some very nice castings - even the clack valves with their piping were usable. The I3 on the other hand is needing a lot of minor detail scratchbuilding. Luckily I have photos of all sides of 32029 courtesy of the Bluebell Museum's photo service.
     
    The I3 is a mass of pipes, being air and vacuum braked, and has a Westinghouse compressor (still to be fitted - I've bought the rather nice Alan Gibson cast brass one rather than use the slightly undersized looking whitemetal one). The J is less complex, but has the added complexity of the steam reverser and it's piping. It's going to be a while longer before they are finished.
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