CF MRC

Probably a 6mm diameter Maxon with a 1:4 gearbox driving through to the back axle with a carden shaft. Interestingly, I have some wheel blanks that Denys Brownlee made that will serve well for the engine. The sole bars, water and other tanks will mask the motor, although it will slightly intrude in the central gangway of the carriage. Will be perfect for CF; they were shedded at KX. Tim

It will be the smallest GN engine ever built. Don’t have many decent original photos yet, but I do have works drawings for the engine. I’m afraid that the valve gear will not be reversible. Paul Craig is currently drawing up artwork for the carriage body. Tim

It will be No 1, but not as we know it, Jim... Thank you for all the kind comments, I have enjoyed posting the “how-to” stuff in this thread. Actually, the engine still needed glazing, which was done yesterday at Ally Pally and last night at home. The front windows took three hours to do, they were swines (equivalent to a difficult root treatment in an upper second molar). I made about three times the number of windows required and they are a tight fit, held in place with a bead of varnish. I wasn’t happy with the final finish in some areas and so they were rubbed down with a pledget of Duraglit wadding, followed by polishing with a paper towel, especially the smoke box front and tender sides. The deliberately reflective photo shows the improved finish; indeed the camera now has difficulty focusing on the black. Judicious weathering will follow. Tim

Lord President probably only came to London once, Gareth, whereas Mons Meg came a number of times when new. It also had nice red nameplates! Tim

Green on the edges. Windows were glazed at Ally Pally today; the score was Mons Meg 4: AP floor 3. The engine will be weathered shortly. Tim

Ex-works, red nameplates. Tim

After a month in the paint shops we now have an ex-works engine, called “Mons Meg”. This engine was named after the medieval cannon resident in Edinburgh Castle and the engine, when new, visited Kings Cross a few times - it should look at home on Copenhagen Fields. Few more little jobs to do, but tomorrow I’ll probably make the cab windows on the MRC Demonstration Stand at Ally Pally. Tim

These are what I use for my modelling and (obviously) professional activities. You could get a Golden Age 00 A4 for the same amount. Google surgical telescopes. These are Finnish made, very light, with linear optics and the co-axial illumination helps a lot; the lenses can flip out of the way. The magnification is 2.8x, which converts my models to nearer 7mm scale. The focal range is adjustable and gives me a normal, comfortable, working distance. Tim

Gransmoor in its original form, as written up in the Constructor, spurred me to make my original N gauge layout at home: ‘Gouldby for Caldecote’ in the early 1970s. This then morphed into Chiltern Green & Luton Hoo at the MRC. Chee Tor had a relatively short exhibition life, as it made a magnificent scenic statement, but was then not really developed further. Tim

All of my outside cylindered engines have front crank pins without collars Tony. One of them, the Baldwin 2-6-0, has covered hundreds of miles. Tim

Well they are Midland engines? Tim

The ink I used many years ago is Speed Dry Magic Colour, Simon. Found this link. https://www.saa.co.uk/paint-colour/acrylic-paint-ink/magic-color-acrylic-ink/magic-colour-liquid-acrylics-28ml The black is Rowney Indian ink. LP will become MM very shortly, Jim. Tim

Whilst compensation might disguise wonky wheels, I’m not sure that the added complication is necessary if you have decently true wheels to start with. For many years the 2mm Scale Association provided wheels that looked nice but didn’t run true. A major blitz on quality control, tolerances and manufacturing techniques in the late 90’s, instigated by the much missed Bill Blackburn, revolutionised the scale. I often wonder whether compensation and finescale modelling in the larger scales isn’t a little bit of a chicken and egg situation because the wheels supplied aren’t made to a good enough specification. Tim

The boiler bands on the P2 are transfers, which very adequately represent the metal strips that hold the cleading in place. The transfers are made by spraying plain transfer paper with a good coat of the grey lining colour. When dry, black lines are drawn on using enamel paint and a bow pen. Before cutting out the transfer a piece of paper is used to give a rough guide to the length required. The transfer is cut with a single light stroke of a razor blade, using a straight edge (for this I use an old power hacksaw blade on my workbench - bolted through at one end to stabilise it). The tricky bit is getting both sides of the line the same. There will be quite a few rogue lines, so make plenty to play with. To be suitably narrow, the ‘white’ line should only just be visible from the margin of the straight edge, and the black line relatively wide - that is the proportion of LNER lining. The razor blade is much sharper and finer than a standard scalpel. However, a scalpel is used to gently cut through the paper either side of the lines. The strip is then soaked in water and the excess white strips peeled off, rather like one of those ghastly cheese straw thingys. The transfer proper is then re-wetted and slid into place from the backing paper, with Micro Sol decal softening solution on the model to make sure that it is well adapted; helped by a gloss finish on the paint. Final positioning can be undertaken using a wet paint brush and the ubiquitous cocktail stick. The lining is now in place. It will tone down with the varnish coat and some weathering. Tim

Lining out on the P2 has progressed with the use of pens, paints and ink. It’s important that you have a painting cradle to support your hands and straight edge when painting, whilst also holding the engine: the white plastic bar helps to stabilise the object and all surfaces have a soft neoprene lining. The photo shows the set up that I made years ago. It’s actually a bit small for the Mikado, but works well enough and the old school ruler certainly has heritage. I would again heartily recommend Ian Rathbone’s book on painting and lining, and what I am going to describe is very much based on Ian’s input. The bow pen needs to be well made and have very smooth jaws that meet rigidly. The tips can be honed with a file and fine grit carborundum paper. For lining from an edge, a pair of compasses can be useful and a dogleg on the passive side will allow the blades of the pen to sit at a better angle to the work. The paint is loaded into the pen using a cocktail stick and any excess wiped off. The paint should be quite viscous, such that it wants to stay in the pen and is always gloss. The white lines are, of course grey, and the red lines maroon. To get the paint flowing, I always try out the pen on a spare body, painted as per the current project to check line width: a gentle tap downwards on to the work will sometimes start it off. Also it is better to leave the gap between the white lines rather than one solid white line, as it is then easier to fill in the black line. The ruler (with polished edges) is used bevel side down, so that there is clearance for the pen above the workpiece, and of course is mainly supported by the cradle. Very important to take your time and ensure that the lining sequence doesn’t interfere with itself and smudge the paint. Any mistakes are wiped off immediately with a pledget of paper towel, held in tweezers, soaked in lighter fuel. The cellulose paint will resist any actions with the oil based solvents. A sharpened cocktail stick will again be very useful for tidying up stragglers. With everything nice and dry, the next stage is to place the black line between the white ones, or at the edge of them. Ian uses black gloss Humbrol in a bow pen for this, but I prefer Indian ink through a drafting pen. These are much easier to use than bow pens and the Indian ink is water-based so can be removed with a moistened paper pledget (saliva) without affecting the white lines. The pens I use were made by Mecanorma, but are now made by Aristo in Austria. 0.18mm will produce a good black line, although there is a 0.10mm that will work in tight spaces. They make it much easier to see where you are going than a bow pen; especially important when you are putting the black line down the middle. These pens do not work with white ink as it is not opaque enough. However, I have very successfully used a yellow acrylic ink in the past for full panelled LMS coach lining. Next stage will be to make the boiler band transfers. Tim

For the LNER experts: what colour were the backs of the seats on the P2s? Or other big green engines for that matter. Thanks Tim

Well, I’m on my fifth scratchbuilt loco over 40 years. Having said that, I have made quite a few layout loco mechanisms. Must try harder. Tim

Got the tee shirt on that one David. Tim

It would be great to see some of those adding variety to the flying kipper on CF. Tim

All paints can be rubbed down Justin, it’s just that oil based paints take longer to harden. I always put the engine under a lamp when finished to accelerate the drying process. Colin Wesson sells some colours in cellulose. Tim

More lining! (Although there were some green A4s for a short while). Tim

The front curved junction between the smoke box black and apple green is quite subtle on an A4/P2 front end. The line passes through the second handrail knob and is then straight back to the chimney rear. The curves at the front end feed back to the corner of the blast pipe and streamline casing and then do a jinx round this. The problem is that if the smoke box black is masked and put on first - not a trivial exercise - then the lining has to be made to accomodate that. So, discussing this with Ian Rathbone, it became clear that the trick is to do the lining first. Even so, determining where it should go is tricky and making some marks with a dark green permanent marker gave me something to aim at. A twisted straight edge was made out of styrene sheet to guide the bow pen on the straight bit: the photos shows it in place after use. The white (actually grey) Humbrol gloss line was put on. There will obviously be errors, but these can be reduced by judicious use of a cocktail stick, dampened with lighter fuel. The black border was then applied in Humbrol gloss paint using a long thin brush, laying alongside the white line until it came down to an acceptable width. . With it all dried off under a lamp overnight, the apple green and lining were masked off with Tamiya tape and a really useful masking solution from Japan (Google U.K. suppliers) It is water soluble and can be painted with some finesse using a fine brush. It can be used to make sure that the ordinary tape is also well sealed. After spraying the tapes and masking solution are peeled off very carefully. This is within 20 minutes of spraying the cellulose: better to remove the tapes before the paint becomes hard and brittle. Very nerve racking: a bit like a plastic surgeon removing post-op bandages! The weathering varnish will tone down the whole assembly when complete. If it were a blue’un, the engine would be painted and lined by now.... Tim

The push along versions had a B/W picture on a pamphlet of a magnificent layout you could build. I always wanted one like that: I suppose I’m a lucky boy. Tim

Quite a successful session spraying today. The engine and tender were firstly masked using Tamiya 6mm tape, which is jolly good stuff. Most of the large black areas have been made black. I have discussed with Ian how to paint and line the front end and a cunning plan has evolved.... Tim

The original Farish diesel had brass gears. Tim