DavidK71

Fox do "No Smoking" decals - not a sausage, but a triangle: https://fox-transfers.co.uk/transfers/no-smoking-window-graphics-58259

Time to revisit a past project ... In 2016 I did a D.121 brake third and as an experiment I left off the crimson banding below the cantrail. I was never very happy with the result, and it looked odd compared to all the other ex-GWR stock I've built. So the time came to take the sides off, strip and repaint them: Definitely an improvement! I think that 2017's C.67 third will probably receive the same treatment at some point as the paint is a bit too thick, but there are other things to work on first.

If there's still space, could I have one, please? David

The Masterclass Models GWR E.152 brake composite of 1936 is now finished: As ever, these are lovely kits. Certainly the nicest 2mm coach kits I've ever come across. The only thing I did for this one that I've not tried before is the roof handrails, which I'm rather pleased with. And now, a cautionary tale ... When it came to numbering I was looking through the available numbers I had. Russell Appendix 1 has a photograph of W6985W, but I noticed that with the numbers I had it would be much easier to make up W6859W, and 6859 was the number of the first coach in this diagram. So I used that. The next day I was considering what to do next, when I had the idea of doing one of the coaches that was rebuilt during WW2 due to bomb damage: these are a mix of a toplight era underframe and a 1940s body. Reading the section in Harris about these coaches, I wasn't entirely thrilled to find that in 1942 6859 was damaged and rebuilt with a different body. Argh! Off came the number decals, and back we went to W6985W. Which leads to the second mistake ... On the corridor side the number should be on the right, not the left. I am not sure how I managed to get that wrong. Fixing it would leave an obvious mark on the varnish now, and I can't face stripping and redoing the entire corridor side, so I shall live with it.

I've been watching your progress on the County on the Other Site - it looks very nice. I can see I'm going to have to branch out into loco kits ... I can see why, they really are a big step beyond anything we've had before! Out of interest, how much manual work goes into a new roof, once you've got the profile? Could the process be automated so that a program could spit out any GWR roof, given just a few details like the vent locations?

Since someone was asking what I'm currently working on, it's another of Chris Higgs' Masterclass Models coaches: an E.152 brake composite. Progress is now stalled waiting for some sunshine and warmer weather to tackle painting. Shown here with sides just held on with blutac to make sure everything lines up: One new thing that I've attempted is the grab rails on the roof, which have come out rather well. Let's hope they survive painting!

Yes, the Comet instructions are invaluable. The owner of Comet Models died a year or so ago and the range changed hands, so I took the precaution of downloading the instruments for every coach in the range that I might conceivably make. Roofs are a difficult one. I've got quite a few Masterclass Models resin roofs that will hopefully keep me going for a while. If I run out or need something else, the most practical option looks to be experimenting with 3d printing. Chris Higgs has posted some results of his experiments, which look really good: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/126806-going-to-the-agm/&do=findComment&comment=2936986 But designing a roof for printing will be quite a bit of work. Etched Pixels have various roof profiles, but I couldn't comment on how accurate or not they are.

The two obvious suppliers are Modelmaster (https://modelmaster.uk/) and Fox Transfers (https://fox-transfers.co.uk/). Modelmasters decals used to be available from the N Gauge Society, and did both lining and some very useful sheets of BR-era numbers for pre-nationalisation stock. I believe that these transfers are now available directly from them, though I haven't had the need to order any myself yet. Fox do both lining and numbers, though their numbers look to be for early BR stock. I've always found that the number I need isn't quite available, so I end up cutting up number decals to get the number I want. It's fiddly but not too hard. I used to use Modelmasters lining but have switched to Fox as it's rather finer, although that makes it harder to apply, too.

I usually use ones from N Brass: http://www.nbrasslocos.co.uk/fitcoach.html#buffer

Thin acetate doesn't really stiffen up sides much, or even at all. Generally stiffness comes from adding the tumblehome (like corrugated iron is stiffer than just a sheet). I also try to make sure there's support for the sides in the middle below the windows, usually by adding plasticard strip to whatever is below.

Like Karhedron, I use OHP acetate sheets, cut to size and glued to the inside of the coach side, before I attach the coach sides to the model (which is usually the very last step). For toilet windows I gently rub the sheet first with fine sandpaper to give some opacity. This generally involves some careful cutting to get just the right shape to avoid details like grab handles poking through from the outside, which is why I haven't attempted Chris Higgs' glass suggestion. I can believe glass looks the best, though. I've not used it - I prefer Evostick Impact for most bits, as it isn't completely rigid when dry, so there's no danger of thermal expansion cracking it. I'll use superglue to join small bits of the same material. Not yet. I expect he's snowed under with people wanting stuff.

One more source of a (very) few 2mm/N coach kits: Lochgorm Models. Only two coaches, but if you're making LMS portholes, you might be able to justify running old Highland coaches. Definitely unusual, at least! That's an interesting idea, I hadn't thought of looking for a table with a curving edge. Everyone seems to have their own way of doing this - provided you get an even curve with no kinks, it's not as scary as is sometimes made out.

Always good to hear of someone else experimenting with making coaches! There was a post from Alan on the N Gauge Forum earlier this month indicating that he's hoping to get the Etched Pixels stuff out of storage soon, so hopefully EP will be back in business in 2018. I've not bought anything from BH Enterprises, but I have used Bill Bedford sides in the past. There were a few posts a little while back on the 2mm mailing list commenting that his website has lost the link for 2mm sides that he used to do to order, which is a shame but I guess there wasn't exactly a vast demand. So yes, Worsley Works are probably the only sellers out there right now. Stuff does crop up on eBay occasionally, too. I currently seem to have less and less modelling time, so things are going slow! I have a Chris Higgs GWR E.152 brake composite on the go at the moment which will probably take me until the Autumn to finish. I also have an idea for something a little more obscure that will involve etching my own coach sides, but more on that when there's something to show!

I've tried 7mm wheels from Farish and Parkside Dundas, and had these issues with them both. My understanding is that the axles sold by the 2mm Association were designed for the Farish wagon wheels, so it's perhaps not surprising that the coach wheels don't work quite so well. Still, I've come up with a solution I'm happy with, and had fun figuring out how to get a design etched.

I did, but all the 7mm wheels I've found had centre holes too small for those axles. This can be addressed to some extent by widening the holes with drill bits of increasing size, but that tends to produce wheelsets that wobble. I managed enough by this method to have wheelsets for the six-wheeled bogies under the Hawksworth sleeper, but then seemed to loose the knack: after six failed attempts to get a non-wobbly wheelset I got so fed up that I switched to Etched Pixels wheels and my widened bogie frames. It was a bit of a pain to design, but not that expensive to get PPD to etch it. However if the 2mm Association really are going to do more N-gauge wheelsets, that's going to be the best solution.

Time for what seems to have become the once-a-year update! One new coach, a C.67 corridor third that Chris Higgs created etches and roofs for a while back. This coach represents the last of the 1920s style Great Western coach, with its high waist and one door per compartment. Michael Harris wrote in his book "Great Western Coaches" that the coaches of this period "... were probably the most undistinguished of GWR coaches", which seems a bit harsh, though they are much less attractive than the "Sunshine" stock that followed. Still, their relative lack of attractiveness makes them appealing to model, I think. A few things are worth noting for this build: this is the first time I've had to cut up a roof (the supplied roof is a scale 60', while the coach is 57' long). That was rather scary but seems to have come out okay. In this I was greatly aided by buying a cheap Mitre box from Amazon to be sure that the cuts were exact. This coach is also the first time I've used Halfords Matt Lacquer to finish - as a matt varnish it seems very good. The bogies represent quite a lot more work than is obvious. The 2mm Association is now out of N gauge wheelsets on 12.25mm axles, which no likelihood of there being more supplies. However, Alan at Etched Pixels has acquired some wheelsets on 13mm axles, which is just slightly too wide. I had a go at drawing up a sheet for etching with Inkscape to produce versions of the 2mm Association's bogie frame etch, widened for 13mm axles: These are all slightly different sizes, as I wasn't sure what would work, but the results have proved more successful than I'd expected. Unfortunately Etched Pixels has been shut all of 2017, but I am hoping I'll get more wheelsets at some point.

I've tried painting the rail on the back of the glazing, and it was very hard to get the line thin enough to look right. Possibly with a bow pen would be better. The best results I've had are with gluing lengths of Slater's 10thou Microrod behind the glazing. At least you've only got two doors in the main corridor side, so you'll only need three lengths of Microrod.

But here's a photograph of a Thompson corridor coach where the ovals are white on the corridor side! http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/uploads/monthly_06_2014/post-2326-0-28177700-1403873290.jpg It looks like you could justify either white or clear ...

Searching the VCT site for photographs of the corridor side of Thompson coaches only brought up two, both on the NYMR: LNER 18477: http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=990 LNER 1623: http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=948 18477 has white in the ovals, but the coach is in pretty bad external condition, so that might be just boarding to protect the interior. 1623 is restored, and you can clearly see the handrail visible in the oval window, so I think the slightly surprising answer might be "no". But it would be nice to find some more photographic evidence one way or the other.

Real life continues to make doing any actual work towards a layout unlikely for the moment, but coach production for eventual use still continues in the background. A few years ago Chris Higgs did etches for 1930s Collett coaches, and this is the first of the ones I bought from him. As ever, it's a lovely kit, very easy to put together. This is a van third to diagram D.121, from 1935. It was one of the first of the "sunshine stock" coaches with huge corridor windows. It is also from the period where Swindon seemed to change coach lengths and window arrangements at whim. Standardization? Never heard of it, mate ... On difference from previous coaches is that I've switched to using lining from Fox Transfers. These are distinctly thinner than the Modelmaster ones. While good for the appearance, it does mean that they are a swine to work with: one side took ten attempts to get the lining to look good. This takes a while as after two attempts a break is required to keep your temper under control! You may have noticed one significant change I've made: I have left off the band of crimson and lining above the windows. There is a colour photograph of a D.121 coach in Kevin Robertson's book "Great Western Coaches in Colour" and I was very struck that the crimson line above the windows is so thin as to be practically invisible from any reasonable viewing difference. Testing showed that I even the thinnest line I could paint and apply lining to was way too thick, so I decided to try leaving it off to see how it looks. From normal viewing distances I'm pleased with the result, although I'm not quite so positive about how it looks under extreme close-up. Whether to repeat this with other late Collett coaches is to be decided ...

Time to revisit an old project ... I've never been completely happy with the six wheel bogies on the GWR Hawksworth sleeper coach from Ultima / Etched Pixels I did back in 2012. The bogie etch itself is very nice, but it is designed for 15mm axles. By modern standards these seem very wide and make the bogie stick out beyond the sides of the coach, as can been seen in this close-up: The trouble is that these are the only N/2mm GWR six wheel bogies available. However, browsing the 2mm Association product lists, I had a sudden insight: the 2mm association does a six wheel LMS bogie, and if the wheel base matched, perhaps I could graft the side frames and details from the Ultima GWR bogies onto the frame of the LMS bogie. The result of this experiment is this: I am rather pleased with the results, which are just waiting for some warmer weather for spraying. Using the 2mm Association bogie frames brings the width down to just over 12mm, which makes a real difference to the appearance. A further challenge was that the 2mm Association no longer do 7mm coach wheels with N gauge profile on their axles. They do do axles on their own, and widening out the holes in some Parkside Dundas 7mm wheels with a set of drill bits has allowed me to produce sufficient wheelsets. The operation is a bit hit and miss - about 50% of the resulting wheelsets have to be discarded due to wobbling, but at least I get some useable wheels.

I've noticed that the large roof vent wasn't available through Shapeways: I've added it, though it's really only a guess at the right shape. The small vents, by the way, were made from the buffers of a Farish LMS brake van that had already been dismantled for other purposes.

I asked for them to be printed in yellow, and John replied that he could do them in "pure lemon yellow", which I took to mean printing them in CMYK with yellow on full and everything else off. I had half expected it to be too aggressively yellow, but decided to try it to see what I got, and was rather pleased with the results. I suspect that the difficulty of printing pure yellow for any printer means that it doesn't come out that strong. In case it's of interest to anyone, I just used the text tool in Inkscape to generate the text, in 3.2 point "Gill Sans MT", which I already had installed on this Windows box as part of Office 2010. The font size and line spacing was chosen by just printing out the required text on a normal printer at several different sizes and spacings, cutting out the square with the text on, holding it over the etched sides with tweezers and comparing against a photograph until I got what seemed to me the best match. Yes, they're available here: http://www.shapeways.com/product/TXL8QCKW9/gwr-gas-cylinders They were generated very simply with OpenSCAD: I have attached the OpenSCAD source file in case it is of any use. Feel free to use it as a base for any cylinders you want. (It's actually a text file, by the way, despite the .doc file extension.) Gas Cylinders.doc

A few more completed coaches: this time I've got the TPM conversions done. First, both sides of the C.60, as W5703: And this is the K.40, as W1177W. John at Precision Labels printed the decals for me, based on artwork I supplied (which I made with Inkscape):

The roof seems to be the real challenge with these 3D printed bodies - I've yet to manage to paint one myself that I'm entirely happy with. I have wondered about the practicality of printing a roof or two in FUD or FXD with the rainstrip as part of the printing process. One day I will get round to trying this.