DavidK71

2012 already, which seems like time to review what's on the workbench. The answer, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, is too many projects on the go at once ... Why is starting a new project always so tempting? 😍 One project that has progressed far enough to be interesting is an Ultima Hawksworth J18 sleeper, shown here with the roof and sides just tacked in place to check everything is okay: This does provide a few challenges above and beyond the Hawksworths I've done before. The biggest source of complication is the massive six-wheel bogies this coach sits on. These are also from Ultima and are very nice: all the axlebox and spring detail is etched (rather than white metal) so can bear close inspection. They also run well, though they are a bit reluctant round very tight curves, unsurprisingly. With a six-wheel bogie the bogie pivot is directly over the middle axle, which makes life for this kit builder more difficult: I've had to discard the screws that are supplied as bogie mounts in favour of smaller M4 ones, which I had to heavily file down to get sufficient clearance for the axle. I've also replaced the square LPG box on the underframe that comes with the kit with a gas cylinder, filed down to fit, which matches the photographs in Russell Appendix 2. The next challenge to deal with is the roof header tanks, one of which should be double sized. I have several ideas that involve having a go at etching, so the header tank may have to wait for that.

You are right, though oddly the photograph makes this look more pronounced than it is. (Must get a better camera...) I have some very thin brass washers somewhere: I need to pack one under the bogies to lift it slightly.

That's interesting stuff. I think I'm ready to try the more complicated 2mm Association bogies - I've got a six-wheel bogie on the workbench at the moment that seems to work, so I must be getting the hang of them! I think Alan was working on persuading Dapol to let him sell them separately - hopefully he'll succeed.

Thank you! The transfers are all Model Master, from the NGS. The numbers are from their sheet for ex-GWR coaches, cut up and re-arranged to provide the numbers I want. I applied them with plenty of Microsol to get them to flatten down completely, and then a coat of lacquer and a final thin coat of satin varnish to hold them and hide the carrier film. I do find the carrier film on these a bit thick - on the full brake it can still be seen if you hold the coach up to the light at just the right angle. I think for the next one I am going to try removing the film and see what happens. The AR 530 rosso red is cellulose paint - what I think of as old fashioned car paint. I only seem to see cellulose paint these days in custom mixing services - presumably enamels and acrylics can't be mixed in the same way easily. I think a 400ml rattle can made up to AR530 cost me about £16. There are companies on the Internet and eBay that advertise similar mixing services and may well be cheaper or more practical from Germany. The grey and black Halfords paints are just from their standard range of acrylics.

And one more for the collection - this time a Hawksworth K45 full brake: Construction was as per the previous brake third, except that this time the underframe was painted by spraying with Halfords satin black, which has produced a nice fine, even finish. I am not entirely happy with the bogies, however, as they really should be GWR 9' pressed steel ones. Time to investigate the 2mm Association's range ...

More Hawksworth coaches are on my workbench, but I thought I'd post this as a teaser of a more adventurous project: The sides are from Bill Bedford, and are of a H15 restaurant coach. The roof is from a Masterclass Models 70' toplight kit, which will also be used to provide the correct underframe. I still need to source (or make) some appropriate gas cylinders, and decide on 4- or 6-wheel bogies.

Thank you both for the tumblehome suggestions - I shall start work on my "tumblehome jig" soon 🙂

Crikey, it's been a while since I updated this thread ... I have finally got round to finishing the Stanier full brake, and here it is, with a Dapol/NGS Stove R behind for company: The bogies I'm very pleased with. Despite a few problems early on, they run very smoothly, and I'm glad I experimented with using top hat bearings. They were brush painted with Humbrol primer, then Humbrol satin black, and finally a coat of Humbrol matt varnish to give the final finish. The underframe and sides were sprayed with Halfords grey primer, and then Hycote satin black sprayed on top. While this looks pretty good, I have had better results spraying with Halfords satin black on a Hawksworth full brake I'm also working on: the Halfords black seems to give a better finish, with the Hycote being a little bit thicker. Painting the roof was a source of woe, and the main reason it took so long to finish this coach. I ended up repeatedly spraying the roof with undercoat, then sanding and filling the join between the roof and the sides, then spraying again ... in the end the finish on the roof was terrible as I'd sprayed too much paint on it, so I took it off, stripped it back and tried again, this time with more discipline about how much filling to do before considering the join acceptable . I also took the opportunity to remove the torpedo vents and replace them with shell vents, as I intended to model one of the later batches, which most sources say had shell vents. Looking at the pictures on Paul Bartlett's site I'm not completely sure I've got this right, as most of his pictures show either all torpedo vents, or a random mixture of shell and torpedo vents. Ah well, I'm not changing it now ... The sides were sprayed with Halfords red primer, then sprayed with Alfa Romeo 530 rosso red, this time mixed by Halfords. To my eye this gives a very pleasing version of BR crimson. Custom cellulose paint in spray cans is definitely harder to work with than the standard acrylics, but I'm getting better at not applying too much, and the result is worth the effort. Transfers are from ModelMaster via the NGS, and then the sides were sealed with a coat of Halfords clear lacquer, followed by a final, very light coat of Humbrol matt varnish from a rattle can. I've had bad experiences with applying too much of this before, so this was applied very sparingly (one pass with the can 25cm away from the sides), which proved enough to take the glossy shine off the sides. One thing I'm not completely happy with is that I don't think I got enough tumblehome into the sides. I've not found an entirely satisfactory way of doing this, and I've been wondering whether to trying to acquire a length of metal tubing to roll against might be an answer. Any suggestions? Anyway, there we go: one Stanier 50' brake, and another very nice kit from Ultima. More coaches to follow in time ...

Looks good, especially the lining. Is the lining good enough that you'll be using it in preference to transfer lining in future?

@Alan: Thank you! @Simon: The kit is still available, I think. It's listed on the Ultima web site here (http://www.ultima-mo...by.cs?Section=K) as the first entry in the list. The list is slightly misleading as it says "etched sides" but means "kit with etched sides" as opposed to "kit with pre-printed sides". You'd also need bogie etches and axle boxes (listed here http://www.ultima-mo...by.cs?Section=K) as well as wheels and top hat bearings (which Ultima sell, but can also be obtained elsewhere). Looking at the above link the bogie etch is now out of stock but I expect Alan will have an idea of when he'll have more in stock. You'll also need couplers, plasticard rod and some way of tackling the roof rain strips. Building the bogies did challenge me a bit (as described in a previous post) and I've modified what I've done with them since that post to get the couplers in close enough. Having said that, they do run very smoothly. As an alternative for bogies, you could also see if you could get hold of some spare Bachmann Farish Stanier coach bogies - I've not tried this, but looking at a Stanier coach they seem like a decent representation of an LMS bogie. And yes, the silver finish does photograph well 🙂 @Kris: For the glazing I think the trick is thin etched coach sides, a thin plastic glazing strip and a small amount of a thick glue to stick the glazing strip in place. I used Evostick Impact which is a bit like the consistency of warm Mozarella, but its thickness does mean that you can put a small blob close to the window and then press down hard without having it run everywhere. On the painting front I think we'd all do even better with an airbrush, it's just a question of getting the courage to buy and try it!

As previously promised, a few further photographs of the Hawksworth brake third, taken in rather better light: These photographs do show one area for improvement: you can see at the very bottom of the coach sides where the paint doesn't cover the actual bottom edge of the sides. Will do better next time ... Speaking of which, as mentioned in the past, the next project is an Ultima kit of an LMS 50' full brake. This is now mostly assembled, though the roof and sides are just tacked in place at the moment for the photograph: I've not made many deviations from the instructions. The instructions describe soldering a small platform to the truss rod to hold the voltage regulator - instead I've attached a length of scrap brass fret to the side bracing and used that to support the regulator, which seems a more sensible arrangement (and was taken from the Comet instructions for their 4mm kit). Nickel silver wire has also been used for the rails at the ends, also following the Comet instructions. The roof has had the lining tape described in a previous post applied, along with the vents, and the roof then sprayed with undercoat - this seems to have worked well. I've also re-modelled the bogies somewhat to move the coupler holders back into the bogie, so that the coach couples acceptably closely.

Finished! The following photographs aren't brilliant as it is rather overcast today, but I will add better ones when the weather is more suitable. There is actually some work to do on the couplers, but that will wait until I have another Hawksworth made up and can judge how closely coupled they can be. Since the last post I've been experimenting with the finish on the coach sides. In the end I've left it as Halfords clear lacquer, which is glossy but not too glossy. While I could get satin varnishes like Purity Seal to apply okay to test pieces, I didn't really like how it made the colours, especially the crimson, so much less vibrant. The final effect, hopefully, is of having just emerged from the Swindon paint shop 🙂. Apart from that, I've added the glazing using the supplied strip in the kit. The lavatory window has been frosted by rubbing the glazing with fine sandpaper. It doesn't show up well in the photograph but looks good here ... Curtains are simply painted on the inside of the glazing strip, and the corridor handrail is sections of nickel-sliver wire glued to the glazing strip. Anyway, I'm very pleased with the result. On to the next coaches ...

Thanks! I intend to investigate 'Purity Seal' - if you can lay transfers on it then I should be able to just use that as the top varnish coat without needing to use another gloss layer to protect the decals. Is that what you do?

Where does the time go? I've at least managed to get a little more done on the Hawksworth coach: lining and numbering has now been applied to the sides: The initial attempt at lining did not go well. I had hoped that the paint was sufficiently gloss that decals could be applied directly to it, so skipped applying a gloss varnish. Not a good idea: in particular the fact that the crimson had been sprayed on top of the cream meant that there was a step that the lining decals folded into. Applying Microsol just made the decals conform better to the uneven surface, making the unevenness more obvious. After removing the first attempt, I glossed the sides with Halfords clear lacquer from a rattle can, which gives a nice, glossy finish. You have to be careful with it though as it's easy to get too thick a coat - the trick seems to be to keep the can moving quickly when spraying. This has given a much better surface for the decals. In places the carrier film is still visible where it catches the light, but I'm confident that a further layer of varnish will deal with that. Anyway, once the decals are thoroughly dry, another gloss coat to seal them in, and then the next task will be to experiment with satin varnish, as the full gloss finish is just too shiny.

Some more progress with the LMS bogie has been made. To start with, all seemed fine: I glued on the overlays for the bogies, and the white metal axle boxes and springs. I then tried the slightly cheating method used earlier for the GWR bogies of not bothering with top hat bearings, and just letting the axles run in the holes in the axle boxes. However, that proved a definite no go: as the brass is a bit thiner (and therefore more flexible), and the bogie a bit wider, than the GWR ones, the axles kept coming out. Disaster! As that wasn't going to work I carefully removed the axle boxes and dug out the top hat bearings I had. The holes in the bogie were enlarged for the top hat bearings with a 1.6mm drill bit - I used the somewhat unorthodox method of turning the drill bit by hand in the hole - as the brass is thin this doesn't take too long, and gives fine control. The bearings were pushed through and then filed back from the other side, the axle boxes glued back on, the bogie refolded, and, much to my relief, it worked 😃: Thr photograph shows that I've attempted to make the bogie more rigid by attaching several pieces of plasticard rod transversely across the bogie frame, which seems to have worked quite well. The last photograph does demonstrate one mistake I have made, though: I've filed the top hat bearings too much, so that the axle doesn't fit snugly in them, but has rather too much play left and right. This doesn't seem to affect it's running, however. Next time I'll go easier with the filing. That sounds like a much better idea, to which I will definitely pay attention to next time! I had wondered about that, but wondered if the microstrip would stay stuck down, and how to glue it sufficiently. I should perhaps just give that a go if the tape doesn't work out. Happily, it isn't as bad as the photograph makes it seem. I have flattened the etch a bit more and the assembled bogie seems to be okay when used under the Hawksworth coach.

Very nice indeed - I like your corridor connectors a lot.

While waiting for the lining and transfers to finish off the Hawksworth brake third, I've decided to start on a few other coaches, so a few days ago the postman brought a parcel from Ultima, containing a couple more Hawksworths (including a rather scary looking etch for GWR six-wheel bogies that we'll come back to later) and an LMS 50' full brake. I've started in the same place as before, making up bogies. The photograph shows the current state, after removing the bogie etches from the fret, filing off the edges and drilling out the holes for the mounting screws: On the left is a GWR bogie, with an LMS one on the right. After the last coach I'm feeling fairly comfortable with the GWR bogie: glue on the axle boxes and springs, fold into shape, insert wheels, and glue the corners together. The LMS bogie is going to be a little more interesting. As the photograph shoes the brass is somewhat thinner, and despite being as careful as I could, you can see that the metal around the bottom of the hole has started to tear as it was drilled. To fix this I've filed off the torn scraps and then re-flattened the etch by putting it in a vice between two steel rulers. You can also see that the LMS bogie won't be as rigid as the GWR one, as it doesn't fold up to give four corners that can be glued together. My current plan is to glue lengths of 1mm square rod in as bracing - we'll see how that goes. There will also have to be some experimentation with the roof. The kit comes with an aluminium roof and the instructions describe using "Letraline" 0.5 mm tape to add the rain strips. Unfortunately it seems that this tape, at least in such thin widths, was discontinued a few years back (Letraset's whole range seems much smaller than it used to be) - there's a post from a certain well known coach-builder from this board commenting that he stock-piled what supplies he could get when they stopped making it. As an alternative I shall be trying Model Technics Trimline, a tape used for lining remote-control cars and similar. Has anyone tried this, or have any other suggestions of tape to try?

Definitely not a stupid question, as soldering irons generally scare me off. The kit comes with instructions that cover bogie and underframe construction both with and without soldering. I have gone for 'without' - I used slow-setting cyano-acrylate ("Slo-Zap superglue") for small parts, and Evostick Impact for the larger joins and for metal-plastic joins, where some flexibility in the joint is desirable.

No further progress until the N Gauge Society shop re-opens, but the nice weather today has allowed for a few rather better photographs to be taken outside:

All such posts are always welcome!

Thank you 😀. It has been a very enjoyable experience, and I'm already planning more adventurous GWR coach projects ...

Time for another progress report ... After much cursing, bending of wire and test fitting, I now have filler pipes that I'm reasonably satisfied with. They aren't perfect, but are at least passable, and after several hours I reached the point of accepting I'd done my best. They still look somewhat over-scale to me, but I don't see any way round that. I definitely made a mistake by following the instructions, which deal with the filler pipes only after the roof has been painted and glued in place. In the end I have attached the pipes to the roof only, so that they just touch the coach ends, making it possible to remove the roof in the future. Once they were on, I re-sprayed the roof and very lightly glued it to the body. Lots of progress has been made with the coach sides. I've acquired a can of Alfa Romeo AR530 red car paint (the same colour as used by Coachman, no less). This had to come from a supplier of custom paint as it is not that common - last used on 1980s Alfas, apparently. Given the propensity of 1980s Alfas to rust at the slightest provocation, there can't be many such cars still around. (Though of the ones that remain, I suppose that their owners must spend most of their time patching up the rust, so at least there will always be a market for this paint!) To demonstrate, I've further sprayed the test piece of plastic kit from before: To recap, the cream is Vauxhall Gazelle Beige from a Hycote spray can, the light red sprayed horizontally in the bottom half is Vauxhall Crimson from the same source, and the wingtip is Railmatch BR Crimon, brush painted. The two new vertical strips of colour in the centre are, on the left, AR530, and on the right, Halfords Ford Cardinal red, which was mentioned in another RMWeb thread on the perennial question of BR crimson. As I think the picture shows, the Halfords red is too dark, while the AR530 is just a bit lighter than the Railmatch colour - in other words, just right 🙄. Being from a custom paint can, though, it's much less easy to spray than Halfords or Hycote paint - the droplets come out larger, and the spray doesn't seem to travel as far. The photograph shows that there's quite an 'orange peel' effect on the AR530 red, resulting from me spraying from too far away. I decided to use Vauxhall Gazelle Beige and AR530 red for the coach sides. Several thin coats of Hycote white primer where applied to the sides to start with, followed by a coat of the beige. Once dry this was masked off, then the red applied. Given that spraying AR530 was proving difficult, I first sprayed Vauxhall Crimson and then a single coat of AR530 over the top of that, which seems to have worked out quite well. From doing all this I have learnt the value of test spraying before painting an actual model - for each colour I had to experiment to find the optimal distance to spray from, and how many passes of the can to use for a coat to get good coverage without using too much paint. After discussion on D869's blog, I've also attempted to strengthen how the coach sides attach to the ends in two ways. The first has been to glue two vertical pieces of square 1mm plasticard rod to the brake end of the coach, giving a greater area to glue the sides to the end. This wasn't possible at the non-brake end, due to where the doors are on the coach sides. I've also glued some sections of 0.25mm plasticard strips to the folded up sections of the floor to provide something to glue the side to along its length. Testing indicates that the sides will fit nicely to all this, and should provide a sturdy coach. At this point, I am in a position to test fit the coach sides to the body. Here is the result, with blutac holding the sides in place: I have to say that I'm very pleased with the result so far. The last picture does show that I did not quite get the masking tape completely horizontal all the way along, though. In my defence, trying to align beige masking tape on a side you've just painted beige is annoyingly awkward. But still, I shall have to be more careful next time. The next stage is to consider transfers and lining. I'm not completely sure that I want to line the coach - I am worried that it will look over-scale. Anyway, I will acquire lining from the N Gauge Society shop (this is the only source I know of, unless anyone has another suggestion) when it re-opens in August. Once that is done all that will remain is varnishing the sides, glazing, and final assembly. Then I'll have to decide what to build next...

I did notice that 🙄, but as far as I can see, the tank cover isn't asymmetrical enough. Consider these two images: http://www.ultima-mo...mages/1212a.jpg http://www.rmweb.co....1585_169281.jpg The first image is the drawing of the tank cover from the Ultima catalog, and it shows the position of the filler cap as being about 3/7 of the way along, which matches the actual etch. The second image is one of Kris' photographs from earlier in this thread. Note that on both visible tank covers, the filler cap is more like 1/4 of the way along. Of course it's hard to be sure from a photograph taken at an angle, but it does seem odd. You should also be able to see the effect by using the cut-out roof guide from the Ultima instructions: stick one on a Hawksworth roof, use it to mark out the position of a tank cover, then stick a tank cover on. If the etch is right, the filler cap ought to then be on the coach centre-line, but it isn't for me ...

I'm using Evostick Impact for gluing important bits together, and a slow setting superglue for small parts. This has generally worked for me in the past, though I've never built a carriage before.