JDW

The figure leaning out of the window is a great touch

17 hours ago, cheesysmith said:

Such Hornby wheels did you use?  I don't think Hornby did 12mm wheels as spares. They do 14mm coach and 12.5mm wagon wheels.

At this distance in time, I have no idea, I happened to have them in stock, they were as near as made no difference the same diameter as the ones fitted, plain discs, so probably the 12.5mm ones

20 hours ago, DRS Crewe On A Mission said:

This is excellent news. I am particularly interested in the Northern 156s. Have you decided yet on which Northern liveries will feature in this batch? A few I can think of is the blue and green Northern 'Spirit', Northern Rail Serco Abellio purple with branding (as pictured above), Northern Rail Serco Abellio unbranded and the latest Northern Rail white. 

Just a guess but the picture above would appear to be a pretty strong hint that it will not be either of those...

3 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

Could it be that some surface contamination, acquired after painting, has prevented the tampo(?) printing from adhering properly?

 

John Isherwood.

Yes, I wondered that too, it seems to have affected the bottom of the i and f slightly as well

10 minutes ago, Graham Radish said:

Its weird, the loco is brand new, ive literally touched the shell twice and the transfers loose, they are not stuck down very well at all, suppose i could get some black lines waterslide transfers and replaced the damaged area, but quality is slipping with these models

Could you maybe post a picture of the whole model and a close-up of the logo? Is there any issue with the rest of the logos?

19 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

Indeed they are which set my senses twitching in the first place. Paint doesn't tend to "fall off".

It wouldn't surprise me if it were a repaint, Colas seems a pretty common scheme for repaints. Otherwise, I wondered if maybe the packaging were too tight or mis-shapen so it's been rubbing on that part of the logo. 

Did the L actually visibly "fall of" in one piece in your hand or has it just disappeared? The former suggests a transfer, which suggests a repaint (I can think of at least one place where a repainted new model would probably be sold as "new" but we'd better not get sidetracked into that here). 

Just now, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Are not Bachmann "transfers" tampo printed, or is that just the smaller items?

 

Mike.

I was just wondering the same, I thought it was printing rather than transfers. I've not heard of other people having "this issue" so maybe its a problem with that particular model? 

You won't short out the DCC system. You can run (and stop) a DC loco on a DCC system, but as above leaving it sat still for a long time will cause damage. As you've mentioned, painting the rails will have the same effect as disconnecting the motors. So long as current can't flow, it's fine. Alternatively, a thin strip of masking tape the width of the rail top and painted the same rust colour would work and be easier to remove should you wish to re-energise. Saves messing about disconnecting wires. If you want to check whether the rust paint is enough to isolate them, just park a DCC loco there with lights switched on and see what happens. If it stops, no current, so safe.

I wonder if someone with one of the earlier versions (Provincial) might have a set spare - the ploughs weren't originally fitted so someone modelling the first few years might be able to help, if they happen to see this.

If you can't get any, I have a few spare sets of Hornby ploughs that can easily be fitted with a couple of plastic or brass strips as brackets, let me know and I'm sure we can work something out.

I've asked them before and the answer was no so I'd imagine it was just a case of what they had in parts rather than making them available as spares in the same way that Hornby do with their 153 ones. 

There's been a rather expensive Bachmann 150 chassis on Ebay for a while from one of the usual people who dismantles things and sells them as parts, pic shows a snowplough attached, but do you want to spend £25 to get one...? If not, my 950 (from a second-hand 150) has Hornby ones fitted. They don't look quite as good but better than none.

Back to the 1990s and 2000s for a couple more 156 pics, the finished Provincial and Strathclyde units. Lima models with underframes fitted with 3D-printed parts plus Hornby snowploughs and BSI couplings and painted black followed by a couple of coats of 'track dirt' colour.

I don't know if they are or not but I get the feeling if they are they might be the kind of company it is better to contact by phone than email.

You could always put an ad in the Wanted section here if its something specific, someone might have one stashed away somewhere!

13 minutes ago, Peter Eaton said:

Take the train apart man !

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/mr_mike121/m.html?item=133463451041&hash=item1f130aa5a1%3Ag%3AUJsAAOSwbOBfCtu2&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

 

Easier to sell the disassembly instructions !

Indeed! I look at some of his items and wonder how much of it there is a market for, especially at those prices, but looking at the first items that come up (class 150 parts) if he's buying a unit at around 'normal' prices then allowing for the fact that some parts won't sell, or will take ages, and to give a mark up, the prices couldn't really be much lower and him still make any money. £25 for a motor assembly, £30 for a chassis, it seems a lot, but I guess where there's no alternative then sometimes £25 is better than £125 for a new model.

All that said, I have to admit to having bought two items from him (he was very good to deal with), and since they weren't available elsewhere and the alternative was to buy and dismantle a complete model, it was a case of 'expensive but not extortionate' and no more than if I'd bougth a complete one then sold on the bits I didn't use. On the other hand, I'm looking for suitable bogies and potential drive units for my 323s at the minute, and six bogies at £20+ each is just a non-starter. Horses for courses I suppose. 

Not much to report, the weather hasn't been good enough to re-do the purple on the 156 but I did manage to brush paint around the windscreens in black. 

Next to the original Hornby version the lilac is clearly too pink, but the more I look the more I feel a need to re-do Hornby's purple which looks too dark! It should be much lighter than the blue doors. Gotta draw a line somewhere though. That can be a project for another day...

5 hours ago, Luciton St James said:

I’m currently in the midst of building one of Andys 3d print class 323 kits. Arrived 3 weeks ago & so far so good. All arrived safe & sound , bodyshells are the EP test print ones & the halves went together very well, super glue & milliput. Decided to put her into the latest Northern livery , humbrol 130 satin & some DRS blue ( nyon a full tin left over from the class 88 conversion job ) Trusty mix of Lufthansa yellow & trainer matt yellow for the ends. Had some res grey left over & lightened that down a touch for the roof. Pantograph is off a Jouef Eurostar / 3d print insulator pots off a guy on Facebook & some plastic card. It’s been a nice build so car &it should produce a great looking model. I was going to do a 319/769 but the 323 jumped the queue. 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks good so far, it appears to have the same bow in the sides as mine (see my Workbench thread). If you're going to correct that you might want to do it sooner than later, as I found that a few small hairline cracks appeared that needed filling after I heated it in water and straightened it. 

Overall I've found it fine and am happy with it (I wouldn't have a 323 at all if it weren't for the kit), but besides the bow in the sides, I've also found myself increasing the door height and moving the gutters up by about 2mm, and also filling the rebate above where the bogies go as the bottom of the bodyside is level with the bottom of the doors all the way along.

Something else to be aware of is that the strengthening plate below the doors is too long and will likely foul the bogies. It should only run about one third of the width of the saloon window above it. The bogie centre is pretty much under the centre of the middle window.

Some nice work here @9C85. For first attempts they are pretty impressive. Painting is something I never enjoyed, and still find hard, but like you have taken to giving things a go and seeing where it leads. Your approach has worked well, making small improvements to things that don't cost the earth is a good way to start. I started with things like tidying up the livery on some Hornby 142s, and a simple repaint of a Bachmann 158 into WYPTE version of Northern Spirit colours (by cheating and using the Transpennine one, so I could just follow the lines of the original livery). 

I'm working on the original Northern 156 now, in lilac and white. It's a more complex livery but by breaking it down into simple bits it becomes much less daunting. I don't have the patience for an airbrush so have used aerosols so far, and results have been variable, but that probably has as much to do with me as with the can.

Answering your original question about priming (a bit late I know!) definitely, always prime. I had a disaster recently where I thought I'd get away without it, the surface was clean, and plain white plastic. As soon as the paint hit, it was obvious I should have primed, and I ended up rubbing it down and starting again. 

As someone else said already, good masking tape is a very good investment, and has paid dividends. I second Tamiya, it's not too expensive and is very easy to use. Make sure it is neat, and properly pressed down especially around rasied detail, use the back of a blade or your fingernail to get into the corners, and try not to spray towards it so the paint is driven underneath - preparation is key, as the saying goes!

Looking forward to seeing more of your scruffy parcels vans emerge from the workshop...

And for something different...

...still very much work in progress, especially as the shade of lilac I chose has come out a lot too pink, it should be much more bluey, so an alternative is on its way (and at £21.95 including VAT and shipping I hope this one is right!). 

Thanks to those who suggested pantographs, I'll contact Bachmann when I'm closer to needing one. 

In the meantime, some primer showed a good few places where more work was needed, mainly around the joints. 

I've had a couple of places where the bodyside cracked (my fault!) and following a comment elsewhere on the forums I'm going to look at UV resin as a way of repairing rather than the superglue and plastic strip behind the joint I used previously.

Following their more careful hot water treatment coaches 2 and 3 are looking straighter but might need a second dunking.

The only other progress I've made is to realise that the strengthening plates below the doors are too long and need to be shorter to clear the bogies:

Obviously thats not the right bogie, its (unsurprisingly!) from a Hornby 156, which has tread brakes that foul the faring, but its a similar shape/size. The pivot is pretty much centralised under the saloon window.

You mention ballasting, use the finest/smallest grade, as anything else tends to appear over-scale on OO. 

If I've understood right, a train will come from where the red bit is on the left and the platform will be on the line where the pink track is on the right. It's very short, you will only fit a short 0-4-0 loco and a couple of 4-wheel coaches in. The track bottom right is barely long enough to fit a loco in and reverse it into the siding (if that's the coaling siding, then you might as well get rid of the point and just use the straight bit - ask yourself why a railway would put in a siding that needs reversing into from a siding whose only purpose is somewhere to reverse into another siding). 

Depending how realistic you want to be, the platform would normally be on the "straight" route with sidings off the loop.

Putting it at an angle across the board might give you a bit of variety in siding lengths as well as make it look a bit more interesting. If you don't already have the track, try using Y points and R628 curves in places - they are a more gentle radius and look a bit more natural as well as making it easier to avoid all the track parallel to the edge. If you do already have the track, try building it and seeing how it works and what moves you can make. 

It's a bit late for you now, but for anyone else having problems, I replaced the wheels on mine with a set of newer Hornby wheels (12mm plain disc I think), which improved the pick up and running of the trailer vehicles. The originals were the version with metal tyres on a plastic centre, the new ones are sold in packs of 10 which is ideal for the five non-powered bogies on a 110. 

Will you be posting your progress on here as you build it? I came to similar conclusions about the class 323 kit that I'm building (see my Workbench thread). I found that mine had warped outwards at the bottom, some warm water helped soften it to pull it back into shape. It's gone together reasonably well so far.

Be careful, the plastic can be brittle and crack under pressure while working on it, I found out the hard way but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

4 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

No excuse for crossing when the train was in sight - BUT it looks like it would have been hidden by foliage until something like ten seconds before it got to the crossing. ( Stop and Listen - even if it's pointless Looking )

True but when you're still at one side, and start to run to get to the other...? The only reason the last one can have had for starting to run is seeing the train, yet he was still at the edge of the crossing. Even if he thought it was on the right hand track, surely stepping back would be the most sensible thing, not running across...

...actually, no, I answered my own question. There's "the most sensible thing" and then there's what people actually do.

No pics as not much has changed visually. Thankfully no lasting damage and it has been straightened out again, though I am finding the plastic quite brittle in a couple of places where a little bit too much pressure while working has caused it to crack from the bottom of the body up to a window opening. No major problem but something to be aware of. It is still a bit wavy but is now roughly the same width as a Hornby class 156 (I've no idea of the exact widths of either, but that's what I had to hand to compare with!)

All the remaining gutters over the doors have been added, so all that is needed now is a dunk in hot water to soften and straighen, as well as to clean off the dust from filing and sanding, and it's ready for undercoat. 

I expect that it will take a while before any of the other components are available - which is fine, I still have the second to build! - so I'm not going to try and build or source a chassis and motor for it until I have those parts in hand, so I know what I'm working with and how everything fits together. Despite my worries over delivery, and the fears of some over on the Class 323 thread, I think the its so far is fine. It has (in my view) a few minor inaccuracies but I couldn't have scratchbuilt a better one, and it has been a simple and relatively easy task to make amendments to my satisfaction. The quality and resoluion of the print seems good, I have found no issues there.

My only real issue so far has been the warping which I would think could have been designed out by printing it with a couple of braces across the bottom at the 'open' end of each half and behind the doors, either permanent or temporary to be removed during build to allow a floor to be fitted in one piece. Never having 3D-printed anything myself though, I wouldn't like to say "he should have done x or y" as it may not be possible, or there may be other reason's it is like it is, or indeed doing that may have caused a different problem. The brittleness is the type of plastic in general, especially as the sides are not excessively thick. Would I recommend it? Yes. Anyone who has the skills to assemble overhead wires shouldn't find it too hard a challenge!

Question du jour: Does anyone know of a suitable pantograph, and does anyone have any decent pictures of the roof around that area? I'm not bothered about it being exactly the right design, so long as it is close enough (no diamond-shaped EM1 types please!) to look right.

Minor disaster du jour:

To straighten the bowed bodysides I did the obvious thing, I used hot water to soften it. I used elastic bands to hold two stout plastic tube sections along the lower bodysides, before immersing in the hot (not boiling) water.

I then got distracted by work and an hour later had this:

At least we know it works! Unfortunately although definitely narrower it has also put a slight twist in it, so it is now sat cooling down with heavy weights inside and out to hopefully straighten and re-shape it. I wanted it a little narrow so it would spring over a chassis, but not quite that narrow! 

So, lesson du jour: don't leave it in hot water too long!

Not much visible progress but I'm well on my way to a set of finished bodyshells for the 323. Today I squared off the cut-out above the bogies and filled with a piece of plastic strip (1.5mm square section I think, for anyone following suit, but any similar size would do). I was careful to leave the small protrusion (damper mount?) intact, and used plenty of superglue in the hope it would ooze out and fill some of the gaps.

It was relatively successful so after a light pass with some filler, I was able to gently file it back flush to the bodyside until there was just a smooth white rectangle.

While I had the filler out I put a little in the original door top lines, and immediately used the back of a knife blade to remove it from the vertical grooves. Once dry and smooth I used some 0.5x0.5mm plastic strip to add new gutters above the doors. I'd like to say I made a template and did it exactly so many milimetres above the original but in reality I lined them up by eye about 2mm higher, about as high as I could without going into the curve of the roof. They are roughly in line with the top of the windscreen, as on the real thing.

The centre coach is now ready for undercoat, the outer coaches still need the rain strips adding. The work to smooth the sides has meant that the orange door unlocked lights have lost a lot of their definition as have the door buttons, hopefully I'll be able to scribe the latter back in. The side destination screens on the driving cars straddle the joint between the two halves, so were always going to be a victim of filling and filing the joint. I'm not sure how I'll replace them yet but wonder if a small rectangle of clear plastic with black painted border, stuck on after painting, might work. 

And yes, just behind it in the pictures above is the Northern 156 being fitted with the last of my stash of Hurst detailing kits, which is almost complete apart from painting.