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James Harrison

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Blog Entries posted by James Harrison

  1. James Harrison
    For the last few months I have been looking for a specialised freight train to model. I have, in the past, built a bogie fish van or two and had another gifted to me, so you might be thinking a fish train would answer the bill, but my understanding is that fish trains usually ran to 30 or more vehicles, just a little too long for my tastes and storage.
     
    It was whilst discussing some alterations to an N gauge cattle wagon with a friend that I first found this image, courtesy Steve Banks' website.
     

     
    A bit more manageable, I think. The loco- yes, you can get those quite easily. The brakevan?- built one of those previously and got the drawings for an improved version. It's the cattle wagons that need a bit of thinking about.
     
    So, having a look at what is available (and more importantly available on my budget of maximum £20 per wagon). The Bachmann ex-LMS cattle wagon- the framing is wrong. The Oxford LNER wagon- well there's the obvious issue of the sides being identical rather than handed, then the framing being of approximately the right pattern but the wrong material (angle iron rather than timber).
     
    It did give me an idea though- the Dapol (ex-Airfix) kits. Well, I had one of those to hand (one I built many years ago) and offering it up to the drawing in Tatlow's LNER wagons book suggested that the overall dimensions were about right. Worth a shot?
     

     
    Well, this is what we're aiming at.
     

     
    And the starting point. First impressions? Overall dimensions are suitable, framing is about the right pattern but the wrong material, the doors are wrong and there are probably a multitude of little details that are wrong but would pass my 3' viewing distance yardstick. Better put in an order for a lot of plastic strip and sheet....
     

     
    To see some progress at an early stage the first thing I did was to build the chassis. This is a remarkably robust set of mouldings and went together quite well, once the flash had been removed.
     

     
    Each panel of the body is an individual piece. Making for an easier job of the conversion- especially when it's all still on the sprues!
     

     
    First job is to cut away the excess strapping to the bottom of the body panels. We don't need it for these wagons. Then the angle iron strapping has notches cut into it at the joints.
     

     
    Why would we cut those notches in? Because we're turning the angle iron into timber- a strip of 0.5mm square section plastic down each side of it to bulk it out. Don't forget to add the extra vertical to the top of the body panels. Then some plastic sheet into the corner.
     
    Well, I managed to butcher two panels- leaving another pair to look at, and the ends, and the other five kits, but then the pink elephants told me to stop for the evening. I don't know where they went last night after I packed up but they weren't at the table this morning.
  2. James Harrison
    Progress with the loco has reached the lining out stage. The easiest way to line it, I reckon, is to start with some LNWR/ BR mixed traffic lining (grey with an inner red line) and then touch in the yellow outer line afterward.
     
    To which end I have ordered some appropriate lining transfers. Whilst waiting for them I succumbed to itchy fingers and began another project.
     
    You may remember last year when I had a few attempts at building some original 1898 GCR carriages. The conclusion I reached, after building a pair of them, was that they can't be hackbashed convincingly from ready-to-run models. But then I found that some slightly later carriages (from around 1905/ 06) are strikingly similar to old Triang Caledonian coaches.
     

     
    Composite brake carriage, builder's photograph.
     

     

     
    All first and all-third, scale drawings in George Dow's Great Central Railway. vol.3 (this work forms the backbone of my little reference library).
     
    So comparing the carriage bodies to the photograph and drawings, suggested that I could build a model of each from the three Caley coaches I had in my project stash.
    Each body only required one cut to each side to arrive at a close approximation of the GCR carriages- and even better, the beading matches up! No need to sand the bodies smooth and rebuild the beading afterward.

     
    The brake carriage was first under the saw. A big plus with these old Triang coaches is that once a pair of fixing screws are removed, the roof drops out and then the sides all loose. Being reduced to a set of flat parts makes it so much easier to cut them up and change them.
     

     
    The all-third followed. The windows on the corridor side make a pleasing match with the drawing- and even better the number of compartments matches.
     

     
    Finally the all-first. My comments on the all-third about the match of the windows and compartments stand true here too.
     
    Right, that's the easy bit!
     
    Now to cut up the underframes..... which are much chunkier pieces of kit. I cut two up and then called it a night.
     

     
    So one of the underframes cut down to length, then the carriage sides glued into it and left to set. The all-first has been likewise treated, leaving only the all-third still flatpacked.
  3. James Harrison
    Onwards, now, to a new project, and I've chosen to model a Class 18 converted.
     

     
    Photograph from the RCTS LNER locos books.
     
    These are quite interesting engines which started life as 0-6-0 tender locos in the 1880s and were converted to tank engines in the early 1900s.
     
    My starting point for this project is a Triang 0-6-0 dock shunter, which looks vaguely similar but the similarities stop there.
     

     
    I started then by cutting the bodywork up into separate components. The saddle tank, cab and bunker form one, the smokebox a second and the running plate a third. There was a fourth part- the skirt running around the loco below the saddle tank. I decided that as the bodywork needs to be lowered it would make sense to tank material out of that skirt, and as I'm not confident I could take a neat 3mm slot out of it I decided to remove it entirely and replace with new material.
     

     

     

  4. James Harrison
    There were three ex-GC 4-6-0s on Ebay this evening and I came away with one of them.
     
    The other two were a B6 and a 'Sam Fay' (which I was also bidding on but lost in the last 5 seconds )
     
    Anyway, I ended up with a B3 or 'Lord Faringdon' class.
     

     
    There are a few things with it that are suspect and I'm sure I can improve. I'm considering giving it a new chassis, new cab sides and a new paint job at the very least, and at the end of it I'l have a nice and certainly unusual addition to the loco stud. But I doubt I'll get around to it before the end of next year....
  5. James Harrison
    Ending 2017 and beginning 2018 as I mean to go on, clearing some more of my longer-waiting projects, I've started on the last of the four cardboard ex-Metropolitan Ashbury carriage kitsI started last Summer.
     

     
    Carriage underframes; having started with the simple open box structure from the kit (a floor and four sides to fold up), I added a sheet of 0.5mm plastic sheet on top to brace the floor and provide the carriage footboards. I've also added the couplings (knuckle couplings from the Kadee range, same as now most of my coaching stock) and the buffers (I think these are from the Dart Castings stable- I could be wrong!- but they are intended for British Railways Mk.1 carriages, but don't look out of place for that).
     

     
    Now from below; firstly you can see the original cardboard element of the floor and solebars. Left to its own devices that's not really a very strong structure, so you can see I braced it up with some 2mm square plastic strip running the full length of the carriage down both sides. At the ends, where the buffers and couplings are fitted, I put two of these in (making a 4mm by 2mm block) and then cut the middle out of that to allow a gap for the coupling. I also drilled 2.4mm holes through the blocks to provide a form footing for the buffers. The bogies are plastic kits by Parkside Dundas intended for one of their long bogie wagon kits; the reason I have used these particular bogies is that the original carriages had very short wheelbases on the bogies (of the order of 5'), which are pretty much impossible to source either as ready-to-run items or as kits. It is a case of using wagon bogies (which are shorter than carriage bogies), or using carriage bogies with a wheelbase of 8' or so. Which on a carriage of about 40' length looks pretty ridiculous. Finally, in the middle of the carriage, are two iron weights of 10 grams each. These are some of those self-adhesive balancing weights you can buy for balancing car or motorbike wheels.
     

     
    Coming up to the bodywork now, you can see how I've used two kits to create the panelling. I've also used 10mm lengths of 0.5mm square plastic strip to create the louvred vents. The sides and the roof are drawn as one piece and to create a nice even curve I scored the roof at approximately 2mm centresto induce a curve. I also know from previous experience that the roof is a little too wide, so I cut a 2mm strip out of it down the centre of the carriage.
     

     
    The carriage ends are separate components and fit inside the carriage sides.
     

     
    For the interior of the carriage, I am using spare ends from the main kit and otherwise useless parts from the second kit (bought for the panelling) to create the bulkheads between the compartments. These will be then be painted, and some seats built out of plastic sheet.
  6. James Harrison
    I don't like throwing money at my hobbies. There, I said it. To my mind there is always more satisfaction in building something that looks good and doesn't cost too much than there is in going to a store and opening my wallet.
     
    So, for once I've surprised myself and spent some 'proper' money on myself and bought a few little beauties from Ebay. None of them perfect (that is probably why I got them at such a bargain price), but they'll do me.
     
    First up we have a GCR 9F (LNER N5) 0-6-2 in GCR black.
     

     
    (Bleurgh. What is it with camera focus these days?) Not a bad little model, but the transfers let it down somewhat. Now you may be thinking 'James, you built an N5 a few years ago- why buy one?', but the thing is that whilst I was pleased with my hackbashed example when I built it, since then it has fallen down the ranks and now languishes somewhere on the 'really needs replacing' list- alongside the D6 that I was so proud of a few years ago.
     
    Next up is a GCR 9K (LNER C13) 4-4-2 in BR black.
     

     
    (That's better!) This was sold as being a scratchbuild effort (I wish my scratchbuilds were quite as good!) with a dodgy motor- it runs perfectly well backwards but not quite so well forwards. There are also one of two bits that look to be missing- eg the whistle. Now my plans with this one are to repaint it in LNER black and replace the motor and chassis. I'll be looking through my old Railway Modellers this afternoon for the Ian Beattie drawings of the C13 and C14, to compare the driving wheel sizes and spacings with the GWR 14xx, which strikes me as being perhaps the most likely candidate for a donor chassis.
     
    And so on to...
     

     
    ... GCR Class 1 (LNER B2) "City of London". I've wanted a B2 for years (see my previous blogpost) and I'm really pleased I won this loco. My original aim was to repaint it into LNER livery as "City of Lincoln" but I think the GCR dark green and claret livery suits the loco much better than apple green. I'll be reading John Quick's GCR liveries book today to see if "City of Lincoln" ever saw GCR green or whether it remained in black through to LNER ownership. It does need a bit of attention both structurally and in terms of paint finish (there is, for instance, no attempt at cab lining on the model).
     
    And finally, I've started work on my Gorton mogul neverwazza.
     

     
    Quite a handsome looking machine in W A Tuplin's "Great Central Steam". The first step to take was to measure up the 43xx boiler against the D11 spare I bought a few weeks ago. There was about 7mm discrepancy- the D11 being too long- however re-reading the book it says that the boiler was merely based upon that fitted to the Director's, rather than being a proper Director boiler. I felt therefore that the easiest solution to the problem would be the most appropriate, and carefully cut away the rear 6mm of the ex-Director's firebox. Now the next step will be cut away the 43xx boiler and running plate between the cab and the bufferbeam.
  7. James Harrison
    Long ago I bought a resin kit for a large Welsh tank engine with intentions of turning into a Metropolitan loco. Well, that hasn't happened but it is being hacked into something else.
     

     
    An 0-6-4 mineral engine of the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway. Interesting railway, that. In the middle 1890s the Company set out to build somewhere around 170 miles of track, in the process gaining the distinction of being the single largest railway scheme to be approved by Parliament in one session. Unfortunately it ultimately reached neither Lancashire nor the east coast, the only section actually being completed being the line between Chesterfield and Lincoln (and even then the last few miles into Lincoln were along Great Northern/ Great Eastern property). Within 10 years of opening it had been bought by the Great Central; much of the route closed in the 1950s but a 10-mile stretch survives as a test track.
     
    So, the model. The real thing was built to haul coal trains to the east coast in the period 1904-06; six of them entered service under LDECR ownership, and three more were completed shortly after the GCR bought the line in 1906. They survived into the late 1930s/ early 1940s. You might see some vague resemblance between this model and the big 2-6-4 freight tank I built recently. The reason being, the LDECR's locomotive superintendent was quickly made Robinson's right-hand man at Gorton; it is believed that he had a hand in the conception and design of the GCR's freight tank locos of 1914.
     
    Yes, the model. Let's try not to sidetracked again.
     
    I started, as I have said, with a resin kit for a Barry Railway class L 0-6-4.
     

     
    It's basically one moulding with a couple of brass and whitemetal castings to fit; of which more later.

     
    The first thing I did was to cut the cab away; it needs to be completely replaced.
     

     
    The side tanks are longer, wider and taller; so I made up some new plastic side tanks and fitted them.
     

     

     
    Then the joint between the side and the top of the tanks had to be sanded to a radius, and then I was able to fit the chassis (I'm using a Hornby 0-6-0 chassis under it, which is what the original kit was designed for).
  8. James Harrison
    With the chassis completed I've been able to at least start the bodywork. The body comes as a single cast resin block, with a myriad of whitemetal castings tgo complete the model.
     
    With the L1 you get a choice of no fewer than three different chimneys, two domes, two safety valves and a top feed. This is where drawings and photographs really come into their own....
     
    I already knew that the L1's originally carried tall domes which were swapped in the 1930s for shorter, squatter examples to bring them into the LNER composite loading gauge. Similarly I knew that they originally carried GC Robinson chimneys, which were swapped for an austere flowerpot design and then swapped again for a shorter version of the Robinson design. Much the same happened with the other boiler fittings- originally equipped with top feeds which were removed at some point and with Robinson-pattern safety valves which were swapped for Ross pops at some point.
     
    The problem is that the article in the April 1973 Railway Modeller is rather vague on dates when these parts were swapped over. Whilst I'm not fastidious about these things as a general rule, it is also a general rule of mine that models I build are accurate to the best of my knowledge. So the very fact of knowing that they were swapped over dictated that I should make every effort to make sure I got the right set of parts fitted to suit my chosen period- which would be 1925-30.
     
    Luckily the article had a nice clear photo of #5276 at Neasden in 1924, which provided me with a prototype to model. The loco is more or less in GCR condition in LNER livery, though interestingly even at this early date it had lost its top feed (a bullet dodged there, I feel- I'd have just fitted it regardless without the photo).
     
    So the work of an hour or so today saw the holes drilled out for the handrails and boiler fittings, and the latter fitted.
     

     

     
    The next step is going to be to sort out the coal rails, which in my opinion let the rest of the model down badly. Quite how I'll manage this I'm not quite sure, though I'm leaning toward lengths of copper or brass wire, soldered up and then UHU'd into the insides of the bunker.
  9. James Harrison
    Progress has slowed somewhat on the D11... I managed to get as far as building the tender and adding Romford bearings, and bulking out the frames around the tender axles to stop the wheelsets falling out. I have a tender now that actually wants to move....
     
    ... But then I remembered that even before starting my L1 I had a Mainline LMS 57' brake third on the workbench. I've posted somewhere on the boards about my conversions of ex-Mainline (now Bachmann) LMS stock into something that looks GC-ish. The process, for those that haven't read the thread, is quite simple. You take apart the donor carriage to its components and leave them in paint stripper for a few days. After drying the body off you have to remove, either with dremel or sandpaper or a scalpel, all of the beading, and the roof ventilators. Then you have to make the matchboarding, a simple but fairly mind-numbing process of taking a 10mm strip of paper, marking vertical lines on it at 1mm intervals, and then measuring up each lower panel of the carriage and cutting a corresponding length of the strip. Then you have to score into the paper on each vertical line using a scalpel, roll it up and roll it back out again (this whole process is to make the matchboarding effect more noticeable), then glue it (I used UHU) onto the carriage body.
     
    You end up with something that might look a bit of a mess (all photos are of the first carriage I converted):
     

     
    Now the next stage is to paint it. For the teak I use a double coat of Humbrol #118 and then drybrush some Humbrol #10 over it. On the interior I use one coat of Humrol #118, and for the upholstery and floor I use either Oxford Blue (Humbrol #115, I think?) for first class or Wine (Humbrol #73) for third. In third class as well I paint the compartment walls with Humbrol #60 to give a creamy finish (this inspired by the internal finishing of an GNR compartment carriage preserved on the Severn Valley Railway).
     
    The roof and toilet windows are painted matt white.
     

     
    I then re-assemble the carriage and paint the solebars and footboards with Humbrol #118. Once transfers and varnish are added I work the teak over with some artists' chalks (generally the browns), which brings the teak up to a nice lustre. At the same time I work some greys and black over the roof and dirty browns over the underframe. Eventually I end up with something like this:
     

     
    It's not 100% right but it certainly has the look of GC rolling stock. I've two more to convert after the one I'm working on...
     
    ....not to mention the trio of Ratio Midland carriages I've decided to rebuild, the seven Hornby clerestories I'm going to work up, the Ratio carriage that arrived in the post this morning and the pair of Ian Kirk kits I ordered last night- a buffet car and a 7 1/2 compartment composite. And my old Hornby teaks....
  10. James Harrison
    I've finished, for a given value of finished.... there is always more to do or bits to improve as and when time permits and my skills get better.
     
    So, this is how 'King Edward VII' looked when I first finished her (him?) back in January....
     

     
    Some may remember it from a post I made in one of the sub-forums describing how I bashed it from a B12.
     
    Now at the time, I was really pleased with that. But then little things started to irk me- like the wonky handrail and the lining on the cab (once noticed it couldn't be ignored). Also the boiler looking a bit patchy in places, and the splashers were too thin.
     
    Yesterday I said that the plan was to make a few small alterations, like a more robust fixing for the pony truck and replacing the handrails. Well, that was supposed to take the weekend but instead I managed to finish it all in a day. Looking at the model this morning I thought 'that looks a lot better, it's just marred by....'
     
    Long story short, I very gently pulled my new handrails off and then set-to with some fine grade sandpaper. I removed the lining transfers to the boiler, the paper boiler bands and the worst of the lumps and bumps on the boiler barrel. I then gave the boiler a bit of a repaint (1 coat of leaf green and 2 coats of apple), and then touched in areas that looked a little 'grotty'.
     
    Since building the model originally I've been lucky enough to buy a couple of good books on Robinson locomotives, and the cab front on my model was a bit weak. So what I did was to make a partial new cab front in paper and glued it to the original plastic example. I then very carefully cut some spectacle surrounds out of the same material and painted them brass. They're a bit overscale but they look the part. I also took the opportunity to replace the safety valves. I'd originally fitted a pair of Ross Pop valves but with my new references it seems that they were only fitted in the 1930s and 40s. Not good for a model of a loco in its 1920s guise. I had a Craftsman whitemetal Robinson safety valve cover in my spares box, and I fitted that instead. The visual impact of such a tiny change is suprisingly huge.
     
    The final job was to replace the boiler bands. I didn't much fancy the 'faff' of using transfers again- I can't say I was in the mood for it this morning. So I did a little experiment I'd had in mind for some time. I took a sheet of paper and marked some lines at 1mm intervals in pencil. Then I took a biro and lined down the middle of the white gap between them. The trick is to understand that the ruler needs to be offset a little to take allowance for the thickness of the black line and the body of the pen- 1.5 to 2mm is perfect. The effect when applied to the model is really every bit as good as a transfer.
     
    Anyway, here are some photos of the finished model (before varnishing and weathering)....
     

     

     

     

     

  11. James Harrison
    Picking up the three ex-Triang Caley coaches again; last time I had cut down the bodies to achieve lookalike versions of GCR 1905 mainline carriages.
     
    I then started to look at the carriage ends; I would have to sand down all of the detail and then rebuild. The ends of the GCR carriages being panelled, and the Caley coaches re-using Mk.I ends.
     
    I then recalled I had six Hornby Gresley carriage ends in a spares box lying idle. These won't be quite right but they are at least panelled, and in any case will be closer to what I'm trying to achieve than would fettled Mk.I ends. So the carriage ends were cut away and the Gresley ends fitted.
     

     
    I then primed the bodies, not in readiness for final paintwork as such but more to highlight areas still requiring attention.
     

     
    The all-third.
     

     
    All-first.
     

     
    Brake composite.
     
    I went for a green paint partly as an experiment, partly to use up old paints in the paint tin. I have many shades and tins of green that see little to no use, also a shortae of space for colours I do actually need (a dark green, various shades of brown and teak, black and greys). So I'm using the lesser-used paints for priming purposes.
     
    I then started to blank out the extra windows and doors with plastic sheet- you can see this most clearly on the brake composite.
     
    That done, I have started to remove the bogies. The carriage ride height is too high- the mounting bosses need to be cut down- but also the original bogies were damaged and needed replacing. I'll be using Bachmann Gresley/ Thompson bogies as replacements.
  12. James Harrison
    Herein we start to see why this blog is titled "The GC and Met in OO"...
     
    ... Because I've started my next loco build, and it's a red (well, chocolate brown) one....
     
    It's a Radley resin kit for a Metrovick Bo-Bo which I am planning to build pretty much straight out of the box. Sorry, no, got mixed up there- I never do that
     
    I want to see what can be done with this fairly basic kit to improve it.... I know the panelling is overstated by miles but my efforts at removing panel lines on carriages are poor to very poor, so I' not about to start sanding the body down to correct a fault that personally I have no proble with. No, my efforts are directed more at the 'being able to see right the way through the engine room from fore to aft and port to starboard' issue. I'm going to have a go at building an (admittedly fairly rudimentary) interior for the model.
     
    No work on that yet but last night I did manage to wash off and clean up the main parts- which were fairly clean castings anyway.
     

     

  13. James Harrison
    Well, I've managed a few hours here and there in my evenings this week and this is how the Ratio suburban carriage is shaping up....
     

     
    The eagle eyed will see that I've replaced the Ratio bogies with Gresleys. Let me explain....
     
    Basically, I found a really nice clear image in George Dow's Great Central Album of a rake of GC suburban stock which shows the bogies very well. They are (were) quite hefty, slab sided things. The Midland ones supplied in the Ratio kit, in contrast, are light and spidery. The closest things I have to the GC design are a pair of Coopercraft/ Mailcoach Gresley bogies (about the only good part of the 'Coronation' beavertail observation car I attempted a few years ago). They roll exceptionally well, better even than some of my RTR stock. So last night I switched them over. I kept the Ratio bolsters and couplings, and used wood screws to fix the bogies to the chassis, by means of a 2mm hole through the bolster and a 1.2mm hole through the floor of the carriage (hidden, of course, under my new interior). Result? A very well-riding suburban carriage. Next steps? Adding plastic sheet and strip to the Gresley bogies to make them closer to the GC examples. I've also gone and ordered 4 more pairs of same from the Coopercraft website, a steal at £3/pair, to fit to my other Ratio stock as I re-work it.
     
    ~~~
     
    Also, the 1880s express moves forwards a little as the Hornby 4-wheelers arrive....
     

     
    I found out my old Ratio GWR 4-wheelers too... two of them are in quite good serviceable condition, so they'll be part of the express. The third is broken quite badly so i reckon I'll keep it in hand as a grounded coach when I finally get around to building a layout. My plans for these five Hornby carriages are shaping up as follows: two will be converted to full brakes whilst the other three will be merged into two longer six-wheeled vehicles. This will give me a rake of 6 carriages...
     
    Ah yes, the loco. My first attempt at a conversion/ hackbash a few years ago. It's spent quite some time on my bookshelf, hidden behind (variously) a Bradshaw's, some Discworld and a couple of Anthony Trollope novels. It looks a little worse for wear, and I'm compiling a list of things to alter on it. I'm thinking of adding new brass splasher detail, spectacle ports, an entire new tender front, new paint job, new lining and decals, separate wire handrails.... it won't be a slavish perfect model of a Stirling Single but it will certainly evoke the 'feel' of one.
  14. James Harrison

    Success!

    By James Harrison,

    Yesterday I mentioned how I got started on my L1, and promptly got myself stuck.
     
    Well, as it turns out sometimes it's good to just go away for a few hours... and then it all becomes crystal clear.
     
    The main problems I had encountered yesterday were of the order of trying to shoe-horn a chassis under the L1 for which the kit hadn't been designed... well happily I can say I've succeeded.
     

     

     
    These two images show how far I managed to get yesterday.... basically building up the extra chassis components that come with the kit and then adding them to the jinty chassis (although the kit does come with screws to attach these bits, I found they were too tight to fit the holes, so re-used the screws already on the chassis). Cleverly, the pony truck and bogie are designed to fit into the holes that are left behind when the tension lock couplings are removed.
     
    The first alteration I made was to file down the pony truck a little. By this what I mean is I filed away some the material either side of the screw fitting it to the chassis- although it fit perfectly well as supplied, there wasn't all that much sideplay in it and I somewhat doubted that it would be able to negotiate curves.
     
    Having filed away part of the inside of the body to get it to sit lower down on the chassis, I found I also had to file away parts of the cab floor to get the chassis to sit level within the body. As this meant removing the ability for a snug fit I was a little concerned about how to make a semi-permanent joint betwixt body and chassis. Thinking about it last night it struck me that if I glued the cab floor to the chassis rather than the body I can make a snug fit between the floor and cab, which neatly side-stepped the problem. Working on the the model this morning I discovered that tyhe cab floor is moulded with a raised portion, which filed down a little fits neatly into the 'horns' on the back of the jinty chassis which are intended to hold the jinty's body on:
     

     
    So I fitted it into these horns and then liberally applied UHU to the area to get a nice strong joint. You will note at this point I had removed the bogie, to improve access.
     
    And then with the body fitted:
     

     

     
    The body appears to have been moulded straight and true; the only area this doesn't hold up is around the coal rails- they dip in towards the cab. I don't know if this is a fault with the moulding or a part of the original design; immediately above the rails are the cab windows, so if I were to removed them and replace them with wire to get a more level finish I'd be stymied. I must remember to get that copy of RM out with drawings of both the L1 and A5 to check....
  15. James Harrison
    It is starting to feel like I'm on the home straight with this model now.
     

     

     
    The loco itself is being lined out, I only have to add the red lining around the cab edge to finish it off. I've reluctantly come to the conclusion that full GCR livery is, at the moment, beyond my skill level and beyond what I can reasonably achieve, so I've simplified it a little. Unless you get right up close to the model, you can't tell. Besides, I work to the 2' rule.
     
    The loco now needs the last bits of lining applied, cab handrails, reversing lever, nameplates and numberplates.
     
    The tender is a bit more involved, as the original plastic chassis it was fitted with broke apart.... I would have needed to do something with it anyway as it sat too low on the track, and I had a spare Jaycraft resin Director tender to hand which when paired with a Triang 2P tender chassis sites at the right height. So I now have a K's whitemetal tender in my spares box, and a Jaycraft tender running behind the loco. The 2P tender chassis has to be extended a little at the rear, which is why there are no buffer or drawbar fittings yet. I've also got to line out and add handrails to the tender- more work required here!
  16. James Harrison
    The state of play of my Radleys Met Bo-Bo this morning. Frames were sprayed with Revell 'Ferrari Red', body was brush painted in Revell 'Chocolate Brown' as a precursor to spraying in the same colour (which, all being well, I'll do this afternoon). Internally it has a rough coat of matt black and a rough coat of mid-green. Im not too concerned about the finish in here as it won't be visible when the model is finished....
     

     

  17. James Harrison
    Hot on the heels of the L1 comes the next loco project....
     
    .... a BEC whitemetal 'Improved Director'.
     
    This is a kit I bought late last year and for reasons I'm now starting to remember put in the 'I'll get round to it someday' pile.
     
    Well today was that day and I'm starting to regret it, though I must say I do enjoy a challenge.
     
    The first problem was a biggie.... the castings are buckled. The footplate I straightened out by gluing the splashers to it fore and aft and then applying pressure in the middle of the splashers using pliers. The boiler halves were the real issue; they went together nicely at the back and around the smokebox but part at the the bottom of the front and in the middle.... it took a fair amount of fettling, and I'm sorry to say some colourful language, to get them back straight-ish. They're still not quite right now.
     

     

     
    I was able to use the boiler fittings from the kit, though I did replace the chimney with a spare casting from the L1 kit (the L1 and D10/ D11 share the same boiler diagram- I'm not entirely sure this extended to boiler fittings but the L1 casting was so much neater than the BEC example).
     
    Overall at the moment- bleurgh. Just look at the amount of filler I've had to use to fill in the worst of the gaps.... and I've still to go back over it once the glue has dried. Oh yes, I'm gluing this together with UHU. The last time I used a soldering iron I managed to pick up the hot end....
     
    The basic model's gone together easily enough, but I think that the experience has been enough at the moment to put me off whitemetal kits. The material strikes me as being too soft and pliable for larger castings like boilers and the fact it melts at low temperature has put me off soldering it. I think if I decide to go down the metal kit route, I'll go for brass ones.
  18. James Harrison
    The eagle-eyed will have noticed there was something odd about the look of the newly-finished L1 in my last post.
     
    Specifically, the curved handrail above the smokebox door, a distinctive feature of Robinson designs, was missing.
     
    There's a reason why that has been the case on all of my models to date- I have never been able to get a curved rail I'm happy with. Either the curve I get is wrong, or the material breaks, or it just stubbornly refuses to bend. Usually leaving them off doesn't detract too much from the appearance of the finished model- my D10, both J11s, N5 and C5 attest to that- but somehow this time the omission was glaringly obvious. Something had to be done.
     
    What I did was to take a length of 0.5mm plastic rod and wrap it around a piece of 20mm brass pipe I had in my spares box. I then held it over a candle flame for a few seconds to soften the plastic and coerce it to take up the curve. If you hold the plastic too loose, it will part. Likewise if you hold it too tight it will part. The skill seems to lie in judging how tightly to hold the plastic to the brass, and how long you hold it near the candle flame, and how close you hold it to the flame.
     
    After about the third attempt I dropped lucky and managed to get a curve which, although it isn't perfect, is 'good enough' for me.
     
    The next step is to thread on a handrail knob and then using tweezers and pliers put in the 90-degree bends. It helps if the strip of plastic used is longer than the intended handrail!
     
    I was then able to glue the handrail onto the model- the handrail knob into the smokebox and the rail itself glued on a butt joint to the straight rails I'd applied earlier in the build.
     
    It's a small change but it really makes all the difference:
     

     
    When I get around to it and have the spare material I'll no doubt put my other GC locos through the same procedure.
  19. James Harrison
    Someone recently asked me how I built my N5 and it occurred to me that I hadn't actually discussed that particular project here.
     
    I built it somewhere around about a year ago, and I regard it as the first of my successful hackbash/ scratchbuilds.
     
    I started with a Hornby J83 body and a Triang 3F chassis, the reasoning being that the boiler is about the right diameter and length (not including the firebox) and that the overall proportions are more or less right for some stretching.
     
    The first step was to decide upon a datum point on the model from which to extend the loco body. In my case I chose the front of the side tanks.
     
    This done I stripped away the boiler bands, hand rails and steampipes with a stanley blade, and then cut away the splashers. I cut away not only the splashers but also the moulded underside of the boiler, which on the Honby body is modelled as a flat vertical slab.
     
    Things then got serious as I cut the body up entirely into four pieces for reuse:
     
    - The boiler, smokebox and frames ahead of the side tanks
    - The pair of tanks themselves
    - The lower half of the rear bunker
     
    I then glued these bits onto a frame of plastic strip, to get this:
     

     
    You will note that I had also removed the top 2mm or so of the side tanks.
     
    At this point I put the body on the chassis to test for height. There is a goodly chunk of metal that can support the body, but it is blocked by the chassis weight. Off with the weight and we can carry on.... to add the radial axle. The chassis is also used under the Jinty tank so has a couple of lugs for a rear coupling which had to be removed with a hacksaw. I then used a couple of pieces of balsa wood and plastic sheet paired up with an axle and glued to the underside of the loco body.
     

     
    The boiler was then added using a length of 20mm ABS pipe and to disguise the joint I used a sheet of paper to create an overlay for the length of the boiler.
     

     
    I then used 0.5mm plastic sheet to create overlays for the remaining bits of the sidetanks and bunker for the tanks, bunker and cab.
     
    A second layer of plastic sheet on the cab sides created the characteristic step-out above the side tanks.
     
    To create the spectacle plate I re-used the Hornby cab. Cut in half 'amidships', I glued a sheet of plastic to both front and rear sheets and then drilled out new windows. This also provided a good foundation for the cab roof.
     
    The firebox I built using a layer of paper, gently curved on a length of pencil, then filled the curve with filler before gluing it to the boiler. I re-used the J83 chimney but I first very gently worked it over with a file to get a more Robinson-esque form.
     

     
    Compared with my older N5 (now scrapped)- my first ever scratchbuild. Much improved!
     
    I then added more paper to create the smokebox wrapper and the cover between the frames in front of the smokebox. The safety valves are a whitemetal casting from Craftsman Kits, whilst the dome was an old whitemetal part I found in my spares box. Boiler bands were added from paper slips and handrails added using piano wire and Hornby handrail knobs. A whistle came from an old Hornby 2P. Staples provided a set of cab handrails.
     

     
    I added some coal rails using paper and a set of cab doors in plastic sheet and strip and then painted it in matt black. Completed and weathered I think it a fine effort for my skills at the time.
     

  20. James Harrison
    In my last entry I casually mentioned that I had started work on some ex-Metropolitan Ashbury carriages. These are card kits by Street Level Models/ CDC Designs, which I bought several years ago and which have been sitting in the rainy day stash ever since.
     
    The first step was to cut out the windows and paint the resulting white edges.
     

    The main reason these kits have sat unbuilt for so long is because I have been trying to find some appropriate running gear for them. The bogie wheelbases are around 7', and the shortest RTR bogies I could find were 8' type. I didn't want to go for longer bogies, so eventually I went for some diamond frame wagon bogies from Parkside Dundas, which are if anything a little too short.
     
    Once I had built the bogies, I was able to build the carriage floor and solebars.
     

     

     
    I was more than a little concerned about how the card floor might flex and twist, so I braced it up with some plastic sheet and strip.
     

     
    In the angle between the floor and the solebars and bufferbeams I fitted some lengths of 2mm square plastic strip. Above the floor and running between the bogie centres I fitted a large plate of 0.5mm plastic sheet. I may add some more bracing; as I am planning to build an interior though I anticipate that the body and internal partitions, once fitted, will provide sufficient strength.
  21. James Harrison
    Thoroughly tired of laboriously hand-painting my models, and then finding a streaky finish and brush hairs on the completed model, I decided to have a go at airbrushing.
     
    I found a very cheap airbrush on ebay- now I know some argue to only buy the best but I've been burnt before spending lots of money of something that turns out to be a disappointment. So I bought a cheaper brush-if all goes well then no doubt eventually I'l work my way up to more expensive equipment. I've been given a compressor and I've ordered a water trap, but for my first attempt I used a can of compressed gas.
     
    At first I put just a few brushfuls of paint into the glass jar thinned roughly 50/50 with white spirit. Then I wondered why it kept running out.... eventually I just put about half of a Humbrol tin into the jar, thinned it and went for it. First lesson learnt- put as much in the jar as you can!
     
    This is what I ended up with...
     

     

     
    A much better result I feel. The only problem is that at the moment I've got to keep my airbrush attached to the can of propellant- the regulator on the can can't/ won't screw down completely to stop the gas escaping and relies upon the regulator on the brush to keep pressure. Not ideal.
  22. James Harrison
    I was reading the June issue of Model Rail last night and thought the feature on modelling the London Underground was superb. The first of the trackplans in particular I found interesting, as it basically shows a station throat and a bit of a station in a space 7'6'' by 2'. It planted the germ of an idea...
     
    My ideal model would be of Marylebone in a 'what-if' scenario of joint LNER/ Metropolitan operation. In the real world of course the ex-GC shares tracks with LU as far as Canfield Place, two miles from Marylebone. But what if the Met shared tracks with the GC all the way down to Marylebone's buffers?
     
    My idea is that Marylebone itself would be completely 'shared'- that is, Met trains would be allowed access to all platforms and all four running lines. Obviously, this couldn't be the case for the whole route- for one thing, only the Met could operate services to stations between Marylebone and Amersham under the terms of the joint agreement. The answer clearly is to split the four tracks into two for the GC and two for the Met at the first available opportunity.
     
    To my mind the point that this would happen would be at the end of the tunnels out of Marylebone- in real life where Finchley Road station and Canfield Place are.
     

    Canfield place by Duke of Chalfont, on Flickr
     
    Now my plan I've titled Canfield Place to differentiate it from the real-life Finchley Road. Left to right we have, at the rear, the four tracks from Marylebone split to two sets of two, with a Met station on the 'bottom' pair (GC expresses and goods trains would take the straight tracks behind the station, GC suburban trains might run through it but wouldn't stop). At the left hand end of the station, a pair of purely cosmetic lines split off from the joint- running down to Baker Street.
     
    Limited in operating potential? Yes- but as say a diorama for photography, or as an addition to a larger scheme- it has interest. And it would be a good testbed for scenery before launching in to Marylebone itself. Now if I can just find a 8' by 2' soace going spare....
  23. James Harrison
    A friend of mine recently asked if I could do a group shot of all of my projects together. This is what I came up with.
     

     
    From front to back and left to right we have
     
    -LNER class D10 'Director' "Sir Clement Royds"- a resin kit.
    -LNER class D11 'Improved Director' "Jutland"- a whitemetal kit.
    -LNER class L1- a resin kit.
    -LNER class N5- a very heavily hackbased Hornby J83. Though all that can be seen of the J83 is the smokebox!
    -LNER class J11 'Pom Pom'- a whitemetal kit.
    -LNER class J11 'Pom Pom'- a hackbashed Airfix 4F.
    -LNER class C5 'Jersey Lily' "King Edward VII"- a very heavily hackbashed Hornby B12. Some small alterations planned.
    -LNER Class D6- a hackbashed Ratio Midland Johnson kit. Complete rebuild/ renewal planned for next year.
    -GCR brake third- a hackbashed Mainline LMS carriage.
    -GCR all first- a hackbashed Mainline LMS carriage.
     
    It's really the sort of thing that would look so much nicer as a shed scene or something- but sadly I've neither the time to build one at the moment, nor the space to keep it...
  24. James Harrison
    The last week or so I've been trying to get my D11 into apple green. It eventually took two base coats of Revell 'Leaf Green'- a horrible bile green colour- and then three coats of Humbrol 'Apple Green' acrylic on top. The result of using these two colours is that the final finish has quite a pleasing depth to it.
     

     

     
    I'm also trying a bit of an experiment on the model. When I first started lining out my models I bought an 'easi-liner' tool. It is basically a caligraphy pen with a nin that has a tiny reservoir. The idea is that you charge the reservoir with paint and then use it like a pen. Unfortunately my early efforts with it used matt paint, and it kept clogging up. Eventually I turned to transfers and gave up on it.
     
    The problem is with transfers that I simply cannot get the cab lining right. So I'm having a go at some hybrid lining.... the boiler bands and tender panels will be transfers, whilst the cab lining will be gloss paint applied through the 'easi-liner'. So far I've managed to get a couple of nice neat evenly applied lines. I just need to find my gloss black to finish the cab panels once the white has dried. I've used the same tool for the brass beading on the splashers, though in this instance the paint was possibly too thin and has run. Something to clean up there I think.
     
    The really nice thing of course is that with lining starting to go on I can see the finish line coming up with this model...
  25. James Harrison

    Some wagons

    By James Harrison,

    I'm taking a break for a little while from my carriage building... and have turned my attention on the (smaller) pile of unbuilt wagons I have to hand.
     
    First up are a pair of unpainted Dapol 9' wheelbase wagons, which were a quick little project. Some paint and transfers- and job done, except for the couplings.
     

     
    And then onto the next project- an open wagon from Cambrian Models.
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