Chris Higgs

Very late reply, but these look yellow to me https://www.flickr.com/photos/21611052@N02/3650492465 So perhaps they did come in both yellow and white. EDIT: or perhaps they are white, and its just the grim Yorkshire day? Chris

I am hopeful of the test etch arriving very soon. It was promised for last week but no sign yet. When (if?) it builds OK I can look to put it on a production sheet. The Black 5 will be ahead of the M7 - hopefully the production etches on the same order will come out OK and they can go out to the shop.

inwards and upwards...

Here is the Class 11 version more or less done. Those tanks will not remain in mid-air - they are in the correct position but will end up attached to the functional inside frames. https://www.shapeways.com/model/3dtools/3834267/0/114?key=a8526b760addc3f12ad66a49d0f0343e

Yes indeed. Worth noting though that there is a handling fee per item, so a saving can be made by having more than one uploaded as a single item. Here it is. https://www.shapeways.com/model/3dtools/3828349/2/114?key=0363809a6a27dfb468992326da009f60 Still plenty to do - underfloor tanks, versions for Class 11, Class 13 etc etc

It could do that, if done to 1:148 scale. Certainly the Farish lower half is far too wide and needs a replacement, and this would be a much easier solution to build than the etched replacement outside frames in my conversion chassis. Or equally it *might* be something to use with the 2mm 08 and 11 kits if done to 1:152.4. The kit requires a combination of etched frames, whitemetal castings and a PCB footplate, and this could replace them all, and at a stroke remove the issue of isolating a metal bufferbeam from a split frame construction - which required another piece of PCB. It is almost a decade now since the 08 and 11 kits were released, and technology has moved on. This morning I have added the sandboxes to the artwork. Much easier to do than I had thought Chris

Here's my latest idle doodlings so to speak, run up from the 2D artwork for the Class 08 shunter kit.

Happy days, I saw the prototype HST myself at Swindon sitting on that bench on the left - and arriving there on the DMU from Cheltenham. I even sneaked down onto the line at the platform end and got it to run over a 2p piece.

Not as an injection moulding I recall. But somehow think they could be done using 3d cad and then cast in resin.

Nice. I bought a bunch of the NQP Mk3s with the intention of producing an early set - before BR added the 125 suffix to the Inter-City branding on the coaches. Looks like a pair of prototype HST power cars could go nicely with them. Is it clear whether this train had a 252 power car at the other end as well, or was it hybrid 252/253?

Production HSTs ran with two different catering cars and Dapol don't produce those either, I think I could live with it.

Hey guys, This is a tra tra ta ta announcement. You surely don't think anything actually exists yet except as an idea in a marketers head... Chris

Are the gas cylinders etc available for purchase on Shapeways? I could do with a few of those Chris

OK, try this one. Look slike I didn;t have the dieplay to public attribute set on the model. https://www.shapeways.com/model/3dtools/3760293/1/114?key=c39a6df24ca9cc3670dfe11e773ca426 Chris

Here's the first of the L&Y designs https://www.shapeways.com/model/3dtools/3760293/0/114?key=83e343fdd7102afcca1fe3bb0c5277c3 Apparently if I do the two other 1-Plank designs (17'6" D2 and 20' D80) I will have covered 25% (by numbers) of all the wagons the Lanky ever built. Chris

I will have to see. It's a pity that the Shapeways WSF is not of a higher finish quality. For it is certainly both strong and flexible. I have a 4mm scale roof 1mm thick that can be twisted through 90 degrees end to end will no ill effects. Or perhaps I should just move to 3mm scale modelling. Then my sides will be the ideal 0.75mm thick...

I thought these were already finished. I saw them at one of the recent AGMs. Or at least it was something LNWR. Chris

No doubt. There is a photo in the LNWR Wagons Book of a 1 plank D103 at Swindon in 1933, still in LNWR livery. 10 years after the grouping. So with the common user agreement they got around. There is that famous photo of Inverness goods yard in 1923 with the sidings well stocked with GWR wagons For the LNWR I have done D1, D2, D4, D84 and D103 which covers the most prevalent opens. I don't own Volume 2 of the LNWR Wagons book so cannot move onto the vans yet. Whereas for the L&Y I found a whole bunch of high quality works drawings online at the L&Y Society website. Chris

On holiday this week, but I have got a bit distracted away from the etching towards some 3D CAD: https://www.shapeways.com/model/3dtools/3744693/1/114?key=a0b7a5ca2c9f7e99b8d447929318e6ac https://www.shapeways.com/model/3dtools/3744693/1/6?key=d8733892838b26e5cc3adb9735d4469e https://www.shapeways.com/model/3dtools/3745821/1/6?key=2e0113465a89484762061980d3d297ec It's only when you get into this stuff you realise just how much subtlety you are losing by having to turn things into an etch. I particularly like the rounded cornerplates. To get a decent price, they're going to have to be sold as multipacks. But churning out some 3mm scale versions will just be a work of minutes. These still have a few tweaks needed, and they're going to need some etched underframes. Enough LNWR for now, I think I'll get out my L&Y book next...

A three horse race? As they say in some show or other, I'm out. Do you have any plans for bodies, I have always felt that it would easier to just build from the ground up (either etched or 3D printed) rather than hacking around with the Lima bodies (if you can get one). Chris

Please carry on if you feel you want to. I would suggest including two underframe bases, as I have done with the Dapol Grain hopper (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/twomm/files/NPCS%20instructions/), one for the 14.8mm axles and the other fore 12.25mm. Then people can choose whether they want to put in extra work to produce a model with a scale-width chassis. Chris

Don't let me stop you on the horsebox if you are already working on it. It was my intention to use it with the Lima body, but perhaps also later with a 3D printed version. I was meaning 1/235 for the pallet van - the big ones with Ford printed on the sides (not the Peco body, that is way too short). I think 1/211 just has a standard BR 10' underframe that we already have in the Shop. 1/221 would be another possible Pallet van. This had an 11' wheelbase and the underframe we do for LMS fitted cattle wagons is close enough for this. 1/221 and 1.235 also ran together in trains. Chris

Here's some more I might add to the list. Basically ones I have already done some work on GWR Mink G GWR Mink D GWR 12' horsebox chassis L&Y 10'6" wagon underframe L&Y 12' wagon underframe LNER grain hopper BR Pallet van. All of these would need 3D printed bodies to go with them. BR 2/240 Lowmac. I did this one, but then couldn't build it - too long and spindly to get straight and true. I'm hoping a 3D printed spine will make it do-able. Peco grain wagon chassis. I love the body of these, and it is basically accurate. But these is still a lot of missing information regarding the chassis.

Everyone wants your herrings. Chris

This guy seems to have mis-interpreted where the brake lever goes. The 3D body could be a candidate for an etched chassis, if Bryn cannot be persuaded to get the fully etch available. Chris