Phil Brighton

Agreed. I don't fully understand the reason they were cut up so early.

P1 finished

All my locos have a live chassis and are DCC I don't really see why it is any different in that regard to DC. You still have to eliminate shorts and DCC is very sensitive to them but it's not like it would be good practice to have intermittent shorting on DC.

I always think, usually when I have dropped a tiny part on the floor how impressive the level of detail people working in a scale half the size I am working in manage. If people don't mind going back to soldering for a moment I have finished building my first majority brass loco kit (the PDK P1 below) having done a few white metal ones. I actually probably prefer it as a material but even using 145 solder I do find soldering to large areas can be a problem. For example on the tender here I could not get my 60W iron set to 400 degrees to melt the solder properly when attaching the front steps. The rest of the tender just acted as too much of a heat sink. Is this only able to be got round with a more powerful iron? I got my temperature controlled one in a Maplins sale and for everything else it does a very good job.

I think its time for the paintshop. A bit of trouble getting the thing to balance as the whitemetal booster hanging right out the rear pulled the centre of gravity back and meant the front wheels didn't have enough weight over them. This caused them to rise up and over the frogs on some points. I have stuffed as much lead between the frames as possible as far forward as I can and sprung the rear truck wheel. This seems to have sorted it though I can't say I am convinced the spring does much. At least its a simple paint job.

P1 progress. My first go at Walschaerts and it works. There was *some* swearing involved but not as much as I feared.

Yes please if you have them and can snap a picture or scan. Thanks

P1 chassis has been painted and is drying so here are a few other things I have been finishing up. Nu-cast J3, a D&S LNER horsebox and the old Hornby Gresley conversion I started first and finished last. The coach is a 56'6" full brake which needed to the Hornby coach to be shortened and narrowed. I have't been able to find anything yet to tell me where to put transfers on the horsebox so if there is any help with that it would be very useful.

Chassis is working with about 4-5mm of resin removed from the top of the boiler. Lead sheet gives some weight with a little slot for the decoder to poke into. The kit goes together very well and makes a change from the filling and filing of old whitemetal kits. Instructions aren't that clear though!

Given how quiet Christmas is this year I have started a kit I had been collecting bits for over the year. Its the first full brass loco kit (and first one not bought secondhand) I have attempted. A PDK P1 2-8-2. All going together nicely so far but I have had puzzle over how to get the motor in without it being seen in the large gap between the running plate and boiler. I have settled on setting the gearbox on its back and having motor vertical. This meant using the mini-drill to carve out the top of the resin firebox to enable it to fit and I will need to workout some way of doing the rear pony truck, but will cross that bridge when I come to it.

Thanks. I have some pictures on my thread that show it better than I can explain but basically I sanded down the Hornby sides and then stuck the cut side over the top. The flush glazing was also done using the cutter.

When I started my ECML layout a few years back I made a decision to use Kirk kits for the Gresley coaches and add some more details and flush glaze them. Other options were Hornby RTR and brass kits. Kirks basically won on price (even just a couple of years back you could get them for around a tenner on ebay - not any more). Also the variety of diagrams available is far more than RTR and the shape, I think, is better than the Hornby ones. To be honest once I have added detailing parts and metal wheels the price difference, even picking up the kit cheap is not that great so looking back I am not sure I made the right choice. I am happy with them though and have enough in the to do pile to keep me going. If starting now I think I would put brass sides on secondhand Hornby coaches as the optimum way to get a variety of coaches that look good at a reasonable price. In terms of value I did make use of the old too short Hornby Gresleys that happen to be just the right length for GNR coaches and can be picked up for next to nothing. These have sides cut myself on a Silhouette machine. They don't stand up to super close inspection but it gives me something a little different.

I don't know the origin of the Nu-Cast kit but wouldn't surprise me if originally Ks. The chassis is brass but also not very detailed or up to date. No brakes for example so I had to add them myself.

Nu-Cast J3 underway. Struggled a bit with the Hi-Level gearbox this time and couldn't get the first gear to fit under the worm so it engages off centre to enable it to fit. I must have done something silly somewhere. However it does run very smoothly albeit with quite a lot of noise.

The whole process is: Brown undercoat Cream on the panels Using a couple of different shades of brown for variety paint the panels using a thin coat so as not to obliterate the cream completely 2 or 3 thin coats of wood stain. Transfers Cover the whole thing in black weathering powder and then remove most of it with wet cotton buds Brush on varnish Line if needed Varying the shade of the undercoat, the shade of the brown paints over the cream and the number of coats of stain can all give a different look to the teak. Pictures show the shade varies a lot with age on he coaches.

Thanks. It's all about the Ronseal Teak Woodstain I had left over from doing the front door!

A few pictures of progress. The old Hornby Gresley conversions to GNR coaches are pretty much finished. They make up the 5 coach Cambridge Buffet Express.

A few updates on builds I haven't popped up pictures of and are finished. The McGowan B12/1 needed loads of work not just to get it to sit on the Hornby chassis but because the kit just didn't fit together or was simply wrong. To say what I thought would be a quick project took a lot more work then expected is an understatement. Its weathered and all running now. The railcar is performing well on its little Tenshodo - which is a relief as I understand can struggle with the weight. Finally the Quad Arts.

Progress on the Quad Arts continues and am pleased with how they are looking. The McGowan B12 is continuing to need a lot done to it to get it to both fit together and look like a B12/1. It was too long, the smokebox front was wrong, steps in the wrong place and the decorative valencing didn't match the castings. After much though and a realisation you can use solvent to stick plasticard to white metal I ended up making a thin skin for parts of the frames, the smokebox, top of the running plate and cab front. This was after a very large amount of filing the castings down all over.

I am being very undisciplined and starting all sorts of new things. I had a old version Hornby B12 I had ruined when practicing weathering and I have a picture of a B12/1 running through Potters Bar on a Cambridge train. So when a Mcgowan kit for a B12/1 came on ebay for what I thought was a reasonable price I went for it. The idea being it a simple looking kit, use the old Hornby B12 chassis and quickly and easily get a decent and a little bit different B12 for far less than a new Hornby B12/3. Unfortunately the kit is proving a pain, the parts don't fit together, it needs loads of filing to get the close and is going to have a ton of filler needed before the end. On top of this it appears the B12 chassis has chewed up its gearwheel so a new one will be needed. All in not proving a simple project.

Also while I do know they didn't run through Potters Bar I have always liked the Sentinel Railcars and have had a Nu-Cast kit on the shelf for ages. I had to swap the wheels on the motor bogie as they are very small. I know others have said the Tenshodo couldn't cope but so far mine seems ok.

Progress on the Cambridge Buffet Express has stalled and instead things have moved onto a quad art train. Kirk kits, one of the two kits was part constructed but when it arrived it looked like someone has been shooting glue at it out of a cannon. Thankfully very little of the sides was ruined by glue and I had spare bogies and could make other parts that couldn't be rescued so after a lot of rubbing down has come up ok. Footboards made of staples and scrap brass were a pain but pleased with how they turned out.

Have sent you a direct message

Thanks. I was pleased with how it turned out. I found the blue quite simple to weather. The silver far more difficult to not over do it.

A few images from around Potters Bar.