-missy-

Hello The summer holiday away from my modelling desk has caught up with me and although I have finally sorted the front windows (hopefully!) things have slowed down to a very very slow pace. I do have one excuse though, it all happened yesterday and I am still smiling because of it..... Some of you might be aware of THIS POST I made a (short) while ago. This was the result of myself and a friend going over to the railway to see a pannier tank being 'delivered', we were kindly invited onto the railway to see it being off-loaded up and close which was great. After talking to a few people we were then invited to come back on the weekend to see it in steam which was fantastic. On Sunday myself and my friend walked round to the railway (I live next door to it) and were met by a guy called David who promptly invited us onto the footplate of the pannier tank. Hopefully the pictures tell the rest of the story... This is the engine I am talking about. Pannier Tank 6430 About half way between Cholsey and Wallingford, its not easy to take good photos on moving steam engines! Time for a quick break at Cholsey before the trip back. Leaving Cholsey on the return to Wallingford. At Wallingford there isnt a run around loop so they have to use a shunter to release the pannier tank from the end of the line. This was amazing as I ended up driving (with expert guidence) it and shunting the coaches around!! Walking from the parked up shunter back to the train to repeat the trip again. My friend, David the driver and 'Norm' the fireman. It was an amazing day, something that was an absolute surprise and something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I must say a big THANK YOU to David, Norm and the rest of the C&WR peeps for a fantastic time. Now, is that a good enough excuse to have not done any modelling? Missy

Hello James I think you have every right to be pleased with that engine. It has come out really really well. I hope it runs as good as it looks though! Missy

Hello Steve Well for a 'luddite' they are a couple of brilliant first posts! Im definately with Mark on this, long may this thread continue.... Missy

Hello Andrew I have a friend who has access to a laser cutter so I guess I am lucky. As for alternatives I guess the most popular company for Railway Modellers is YORK MODELMAKERS who seem to have grasped the Railway bits. Im sure they would be able to help. Missy

Hiya Tony That comming along really well, those trees do look good. I especially like the final picture with the shunter, if it wasnt for the edge of the baseboard it would look fantastic. Missy

Hello Thanks guys! Its a bit of a relief as this was starting to turn into a whitemetal kit with the amount of solder I have been adding! M.

Hello OK. Third time lucky? To me it looks much better and you can see by how much gap there is between the roof and the top of the windows how much I have lowered them. I havent figured out the best way to fill that gap yet! Missy

Hi Chris Thank you for the information, that is very useful. As you can see these railcars seem to be a bit of a minefield, especially when the railcars look different in each photo. As previously mentioned somewhere there were a few different manufacturers too which adds to the confusion and I am guessing that if they were each made by hand 'to fit' then that would influence how they looked too. I think I have figured out the shape of the windows now and once I get one end fitting right I will post a picture. Third time lucky I hope, but I am determined to get it right! Thank you again. Missy

Hello Davy I totally agree with the others, that looks brilliant! Its a fantastic blog entry too, you have taken time to explain how you did it which is great. Missy

Hello Tony As Andy says its fantastic to see Brafferton on RMWeb. Its weird that I was just looking at the fantastic results you are getting with static grass on you old blog earlier today. I love the whole look, feel, and design of the layout and am looking forward to seeing more on RMWeb. Missy

Thanks for the replies guys As far as MB bits go, I am currently looking for a headset and pretty much all the drivetrain (crankset, cassette, derailleurs etc) as the ones on my bike right now have seen better days. If you can help then let me know, but send me a PM so not to go too off topic on here. Rich - Please dont think this is impossible. The way I see it is let me make all the mistakes on your behalf! I am doing this so hopefully others can get inspired to have a go themselves. I think one in a shiny GWR livery would look amazing, remember mine is going to end up crimson and cream with added grot! Thanks. Missy

Hello Folks Thank you so much for your help and advice. As Bernard says the railcar is a tricky one for sure and I will take all your comments in and give it another go. Something like this will make so much difference to the look of it and its worth spending time getting it right. I have started to chop the end apart again and will post the results sometime soon, third time lucky I hope! Its definately a tricky shape to get right, the compound curves really confuse things the shape is very dependant on what angle you are looking at it from. I havent given up on it yet though, its just taking a bit longer than I first expected. James - Thank you for the offer but I have some pictures I am working to (believe it or not!) unless you have any pictures of railcar number 12? Its the one I am modelling. Bernard - Thank you for the picture, that is very useful. Paul - I would love to see what you could do in 2mm, your 4mm stuff is amazing and I am sure you wouldnt have any problems concentrating your skills onto a 2mm model. Andy - Send me a list of your MB stuff and you never know I might be able to buy some of it off you, if of course, you want to sell any of it. Missy

Hello Again I have learnt a few things this week... 1. Its not possible for me to survive a week on £10! 2. There isnt such a thing as a 'standard' mountain bike part! 3. Adjusting the windows on a flying banana isnt as straightforward as it first seems... I havent done much modelling this week mainly due to number '2' above, but I have managed to get one end of the flying banana changed... BEFORE. AFTER. I ended up cutting away the central window frame post thingy then splitting the top of the windows with a 0.5mm wide file. I then bent this upwards until the two parts met then soldered them together, after that I then replaced the window frame bit with an etch offcut plus on this end I had to replace the left hand frame too as I was a little too 'enthusiastic' with the sanding and it became a little too fragile. The roof was that hardest bit to reprofile hence there is a little more filler on this end than before. I really would like your opinions on this as its a fair bit of work to get it looking right. In my eyes its worth it because it would have bugged me rotten if I left it as it was. Missy

Hello Folks Thank you Craig for the help. I am tweaking the windows so I waill look into that too. Hello Peter. Im glad that did! I struggle to explain things sometimes. I miss read your original question a bit so apologies... I found that once I had the roof together with the brass, PCB, and plastic it 'clipped' into place and with the partitions too it made the whole bodyshell quite rigid. I never held the bodyshell in a vice or anything but rather clamped it between one hand and the table with just enough pressure to hold it while shaping the roof and ends with the other hand. I would guess that it might be possible to clamp the bodyshell lightly in a vice or similar on the body where it is soldered to the floor (but I didnt risk it). Hi Bernard. I missed this little gem so apologies. When I did the moggy minor I used that idea to do the lights which works really well. I didnt know you could do it to plastic rod too which is very useful as these railcars seem to have quite a few airhorns so thank you. Missy

Hello Peter I started by soldering the sides to the solid PCB floor along its length. Once this was done I then soldered the 3 partitions in place and this held the whole thing in place enough to form the basic shape of the ends. I found it easier to form the curve around the buffers out of a sheet of brass instead of the parts that come in the kit which was soldered in place then sanded down flush with the sides. Another thing to check is the partitions at the ends supplied in the kit were slightly too high and because of the windows and curved sides it would have been tricky to file down so I made them from brass sheet instead. Once all that is in place then it should be possible to form the cabs. I hope that all makes sense? Missy

Hi Guys Thanks for the comments. Its really helping to get peoples opinion on this. One thing for sure is there definately seems to be quite a few variations of railcar which certianly shows how useful it is to try and get pictures of the actual prototype you are modelling to make sure you get things right. Hi Andy Thank you for the pictures, they seem to be few and far between online and I have been struggling to find any so those ones are very useful. I think out of the two the second picture is a better one as it seems to be taken at roughly the same height as the front windows (although not square on) so I would rely on that one more. Those pictures helped me decide the course of action to take so much I started to chop one end up last night to adjust the window shape. Of course pictures will follow in the next blog post (probably at the weekend). Thank you. Missy

Hello Grrr, this is so annoying! The more I look at pictures of the prototype the more I notice how different the shape of the front windows are on the model. I am itching to get back home from work right now to see what can be done to correct it. I dont think I could live with an error like that but I do know for sure that its not going to be easy to modify.... Missy

Hiya Pete Thats amazing! That mod has totally transformed the look of the engine, its especially noticable in the comparison shot. That is definately worth doing for sure, I wonder if its possible to do the same thing on other diesels too? Missy

Hello Nick and Alex Thank you both for taking the time to clear things up for me, this is all VERY useful to me. As I said previously I am not really that good on the technicalities of this kind of thing. This is very useful. As I am aiming sort of around the 1950's in theory I can get away with using a red lamp on the railcar itself instead of a removable tail lamp. I still havent figured out how to make a working removable tail lamp in 2mm (is it possible?) and I didnt want to run the engine with a tail lamp on each end, so I will have to rely on the railcar one. Although I wont use the 2 white lamps near the buffers on Highclere I am still planning on making them work (independently) so they are there if I ever need them (you never know!). Thank you again. Missy

Hi Guys Thank you for the comments. Hi Al. I will be using a tomix TM-06 chassis. Hello Mike. It was nice to meet you again Sunday. Thank you for the help with the lights although in this case I think I will not use a tail lamp but rely on the lights on the railcar itself, unless you can think of a way to do it without having 2 tail lamps fitted! Hi Bruce Thank you. The earlier ones were rounded like my model, they changed to the square ones during the war (as far as I know). Probably because of the work that had to put into getting the curved panels to fit. Hi Craig That one in the link is one of the first ones. My one is a later 'model' and from the pictures in the book the ridge seems hardly noticable. As someone mentioned in an earlier blog post there were so many different models and variants that its difficult to get something accurate. I have found a picture HERE which is the closest I can find to the one I am doing but the windows on the model look nothing like the photo! Hmmmmm..... Missy

Hi Alex and Nick Thank you. That has helped clear up a bit of a vague area for me. I wondered what the bit was inbetween the buffers and now I know its the red light. Its a bit larger than the others so I will have to figure out how to do it. Im far from an expert on the technicalities of railways so apologies but what does the class 1 and 2, A and B mean? Thank you. Missy

Me again Im still working on the flying banana. Things have now turned to a bit of detailing plus adding the bits for the lights. The roof proved to be a bit more of a pain than I first thought getting it to fit flush onto the top of the sides but now its nearly there plus it seems to 'clip' on so I dont think I will need to hold it in place with anything else. Anyway here are some pictures... The above two photos show how far I have got with one end. I have added the buffer pins with little foot steps above them, also handrails and the beginnings of the lights. The tube in the roof was a real pain as it had to be drilled through the brass bit of the roof at a really small angle. I managed it by firstly drilling the hole at right angles to the brass then slowly working the drill to the correct angle by treating it as bit like a file. This shows the underside of the roof and the brass tube that will eventually hold the fibre optic. The plan is to fit the LED to the backof the cab which will line up with the fibre optic once the roof is fitted, hopefully it will also light up the cab too. The final picture shows the tubing and C section brass that is fitted behind the buffers inside the fairing. This is for the buffer lights and once I have found some larger diameter fibre optic I will also fit one for the red tail light. Thats it for now. Missy

WOOHOO! Missy

Hi Guys Thanks for all the comments and Elvis quotes too! Fantastic stuff Hi Steven I would love to scratchbuild a chassis for a diesel sometime but for this one I am planning on using a TOMIX chassis (TM-06 18m one as Bernard has mentioned previously) and re-wheel it. They are cheap(ish) all wheel drive and pickup plus have flywheel drive. Missy