High Level Kits
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Posts posted by High Level Kits
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The High Level chassis kit was designed to fit the forthcoming Bachmann 94xx, based on the best information available to us at the time. When this was delayed, Jim Smith-Wright decided to see what could be done to fit one to a Lima 94xx and at the same time, Tim Shackleton used a High Level chassis with a Wills Finecast whitemetal body kit.
The Wills kit is a good 50 years old, and the Lima body dates back to the 1970s. Inevitably there will be compromises because expectations were different back then. However if you don't mind doing a bit of work then either route can produce an excellent result. How far you take it – fitting a fully detailed cab interior, for instance – is very much down to the individual modeller. Some will be happy to go the whole hog, others will accept a few compromises as the price for getting a good-looking and comparatively inexpensive 94xx model up and running.-
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If you are going to put a decent chassis under a Lima 94xx body please open out the cab opening!
Tim T
The mechanism does not protrude into the cab so you could do that, and fit a fully detailed cab interior.
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Following on from the above, Hornby magazine issue 123 (September 2017) which is now out, contains a fine article on the 94xx in which someone has done a tidy job mating the High Level chassis with a Wills Finecast body.
The second photo shows what can be done with a Lima body on the same chassis.
Either one's a winner - Lima bodies are available on Ebay for a few quid, or you can breath some new life into the old whitemetal kit, which is basically a sound model. Both chassis have custom gearboxes and can take a huge motor, which is hidden in the boiler space, as is the High Level way.
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94XX in the model press. More details here:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/125216-high-level-94xx-hits-the-bigtime/
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In Hornby magazine issue 123 (September 2017) which is now out, there's a fine article on the 94xx in which someone has done a tidy job mating the High Level chassis with a Wills Finecast body.
The second photo shows what can be done with a Lima body on the same chassis.
Either one's a winner - Lima bodies are available on Ebay for a few quid, or you can breath some new life into the old whitemetal kit, which is basically a sound model. Both chassis have custom gearboxes and can take a huge motor, which is hidden in the boiler space, as is the High Level way.
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Now that would be most welcome.
From the "Mr" of (Mr & Mrs GWR fame!)
You make a lovely couple - I'm picturing the matching jumpers now!...
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The engineering curator of Beamish Museum is a keen and very capable modeller, you could try there...
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That looks very nice. Is the bonnet a lost wax casting, rather than etched?
Yes it is. I tried etched verions but it was a nightmare and the louvres wewren't looking as good as they could.
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Hi I've built a couple of your chassis kits for gwr locos before in EM and they are great, would you consider doing one for the Bachmann 45xx prairie or a Hornby 61xx or churchward 43xx?
Regards
David shackleton
The 45XX is not out of the question.
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Looking top drawer that Chris. Looking forward to that being released!
Alastair
Going to try for Scalefourum, but a lot depends on the etchers...
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The pilot model for the latest High Level kit is finally done, complete with embellishments. It needs a bit of a clean-up to bring it up to exhibition standard, but not sure when that'll happen, so here it is...
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Having built several crank driven locos, this is less about the quartering, but rather about the crank throw. With wheels and drive-crank being produced by different manufacturers, there will be a slight difference in radius. Bad running is the result.
On the other side, if you drill the crank pin holes all in the same jig for wheels and Jack shaft, you can drive from the Jack shaft, like the real thing.
Yes, looking truly forward to this one.
C,-w
The wheels come with the crankpin holes already opened, so jig-drilling is not an option, nor is using the wheels as a jig, as the material is so much softer than the brass cranks. Particular attention has been paid to the crank throw of the flycranks and this is constantly coming out within acceptable tolerances in relation to wheel dimensions.
An alternative wheel can be used from the Gibson range, which can be matched to one of their nylon flycranks, although this doesn’t look as good.
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That looks like a Load Compact+ or a Humpshunter. (Never heard it called an IllusoDrive before.)
I like the name though...
The front wheel crankpin sits right behind the conn rod, so the crankpin nut would have to be paper thin. On the model, the Jackshaft is gear-driven, and this drives the rear wheels; the front wheels are also driven by gears, with no crankpin, so they aren't connected to the rods at all... that's the illusion bit!
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Porcy, it’s always rewarding when someone shows enthusiasm for what I’m doing, so I’m grateful to you for posting this. The brakegear and sandpipes are missing, and the fit of the chassis needs to be sorted, but that’s more or less the finished model.
I was particularly pleased to find that the ‘IllusoDrive system worked well on this model.
Hopefully, the website should be behaving now...
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...any pictures of Mr Gibbon's latest kit yet??
...i take its one of these 'beautifully' ugly little brutes?
It's this larger variant...
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The website problem is still on-going, but anyone who needs to acces it can do so using this link:
http://www.highlevelkits.co.uk/chris/Pages/
Once you're on the home page it should work as before....
Cheers,
Chris.
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Re my website problem, I've been trying to get in touch with the hosting company and can't so suspect there are problems there. I'll try again tomorrow.
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Hi
Any further news on this?
Cheers
Paul
Yes, I've done it. I've been very busy so my attention has been elsewehere. Give me a ring in about a week or so...
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I've posted a few pics from Jim Smith Wright showing what he's achieved using a Lima body and High Level chassis. Here's a link
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/124550-jims-94xx/
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Jim Smith Wright noticed the thread on the Bachmann 94xx and kindly sent me these pics in case they would be of interest to RM web patrons. Hope you enjoy them.
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Thanks for the comments so far, especially The Johnster for such a full reply which must have taken a good while. I'm going to have a further read of that. Any more views are most welcome...
Keep the comments coming about what you would like from a chassis kit particularly the level of complexity. It wouldn’t be difficult to adapt the existing designs into fold-ups, and the kits already come complete with gearboxes, so that's already sorted. Making a wheeled unit that is the right shape and runs smoothly is not a problem, but matching some of the detail from the complex mouldings of modern RTR without multi-part etch assemblies may be a challenge.
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Sorry if I've mislead... just to be clear, a basic chassis means a basic chassis kit?...
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Hello The Johnster. It is high priority to find an alternative to Mashimas; at this stage, we’re still considering options, and will change gearbox fixings to suit if needed.
I understand that highly detailed models can be intimidating, and your response to the problems you anticipate is not unique. Because we tend to push these particular aspects of the products - this is what a lot of modellers who build chassis tend to like, and the standard of RTR is ever-increasing and we have to keep up with this, plus it looks impressive - but most of the tricky stuff can be regarded as ‘optional’ as the kits can be assembles in a more basic format. They come with a custom gearbox, so the major headache of finding a gearbox to fit does not exist and so this simplifies matters considerably.
Would a basic chassis for 94XX interest you?
High Level 94xx hits the bigtime!...
in Kitbuilding & Scratchbuilding
Posted
The High Level chassis helps bring out the potential of the Wills and Lima bodyshells. The heavy Finecast body with a big Mashima will certainly pull a lot, as will the Lima model if it’s stashed it with weight.
The plastic body, used for the stand model, is very user-friendly to work with, coming to bits easily to allow improvements. Other than the firebox being too wide, is pretty accuate with the only major flaw being the flimsy rear mounting Lima used, which has been taken care of using etches.