westernviscount

Sorry John this comment passed me by. The layout is a fictitious location. I took inspiration from the raised station building at Tysley but mine is a small terminus with single island platform. I imagine it to be like the branch from West Drayton to Uxbridge Vine street. It is set in 1970. My interest in parcels vehicle has outgrown the layout I am afraid and I have plans for a new one, perhaps based on a dark corner of a parcels only station, perhaps like Manchester Mayfield. Cheers

A couple of finishing touches on the livery of the Ratio Bogie B. Completion has been slightly frustrated by a problem sourcing the window etches. The kit involved: Very sharp fresh scalpel blade, strait edge, tweezers, small brush, cotton bud, decalfix (or other) and a bowl of water. For this vehicle I have gone for an approximation of what the markings would be. They are taken from the modelmaster white coaching stock sheet. The required decal is cut to size and soaked for a few minutes in water. The decal is then lifted out with tweezers, grabbed by the card backing and placed near the intended position on the vehicle. A cocktail stick is used to manoeuvre the decal into place with a cotton bud used to absorb the water and begin to flatten the decal into position. Air pockets are gently pushed out. Decalfix is brushed over the transfer. I use this to avoid silvering as I often forego the step of gloss varnishing the vehicle. The railmatch blue is a satin finish and with the decalfix and a bit of time the decal will be set in place nicely. a few hours is needed to wait for this process to complete. The image above is just after the decalfix has been used. If this was a loco in ex works condition then I would go all out and apply a gloss varnish before setting the decals. This vehicle is going to be a disgrace to BR however!!!

This is a follow up thread to my original post on the construction of a Ratio Bogie 'B' van. The original can be found here: After a brief hiatus in modelling activity I have returned to this project. We left off with me having solved the ride height problem. Next came the fiddly etches. There are separate etches for every door hinge. The added value they bring is not that obvious and a moulding integral to the side would have probably given superior results. However the etches do add the satisfaction value when they are completed. Other etches for the chalkboards are also included. I use superglue to attach all of these items these items. I place a small puddle of glue from which I can pick up a tiny drop on a cocktail stick to apply to the etch or the surface onto which the etch will be placed. Sadly, I neglected to photograph the next steps. These included handles for the doors and grab rails for the guard's doors and the ends of the vehicle. The above picture shows the remaining etches. the the grab rails at the ends are folded to shape an two holes drilled to secure in place. What I think is the buiders plate and the lamp irons were next. The doors have locking handles, small grab handles and T handles. A lesson on egg sucking here; NEVER work with small etches in a room with deep pile carpet!! I lost one of the door hinges which remains in the mythical land all lost items seem to go to. Only one side of the vehicle has T handles as frankly they drove me to distraction and the enjoyment levels fell away entirely. I was also still a bit sulky about the missing door hinge and just couldn't focus! A replacement using plastikard was added, with weathering planned to obscure the fact it has no rivets. Now onto painting. Initially I planned to have a very heavily weathered BR)SR) green livery. However, I decided the vehicle, although plausibly being still in green livery in 1970, would look little out of place. I also already had Rail blue paint!! Every picture I can find of the real thing are of heavily weathered vehicles of which the livery is unclear. So I must confess I am using the Graham farish N guage model as my livery reference. The body and solebar is sprayed using Railmatch BR Blue including the buffer shanks. The roof is Railmatch roof blue/grey. The underframes, vac and air pipes, and buffer heads are hand painted using thinned Humbrol black 33. I am now waiting on a delivery of Window bar etches from Roxey Mouldings to place behind the glazing (yet to do). Transfers will follow.

So the story continues. Onto stage 3 of the instructions which cover the bogies. This led to much head scratching and self doubt about my ability to complete this kit! The two centre cross members are cemented in place onto one of the bogie side frames. The pivot is then loosely placed in the centre and the second side frame cemented in. I left these to fully bond before proceeding. The wheels were sprung into place and a quick spin highlighted a distinct wobble. To correct the wobble and set the back to back at the same time I remove one wheel by hand and loosen the second. The back to back gauge is held tight against the wheel still on the axle, then the second wheel is squeezed tightly onto the axle against the gauge. The axle is then pulled with the pliers to ensure the wheels are set evenly and to try to make the wheels sit true on the axle. The bogie end plates are set in then the L girders between the wheels. This was fiddly but the length of the pieces are spot on and didn't require fettling. At this point the instructions turned a little vague....or was it my brain? The best I could decipher was there needed to be some sort of plate between the bogie and chassis and this was the part that seemed to fit nicely! Now the bogies are mounted with the screws supplied and then the brake shoes put in. The mouldings are universal with one of the pips being removed to make them either left or right hand. And Viola!!! The damn thing's ride height is a full scale foot too tall! Much muttering ensued. The issue goes back to my vague grasp of the instructions when mounting the bogies. Luckily I never cemented the mounting plates in place to removed them and tried again. Ride height was corrected but a distinctive lean replaced the height problem. There are two pips on the pivot outer circle which I needed to file away to allow the body to sit flat. Phew, the height looks loads better and the lean has been corrected. And, I AM still enjoying this kit!! Good night all!

Here here. A consolation perhaps that said imbeciles have taken a path of meaninglessness thankfully we cannot even comprehend.

This is a heartbreaking incident. The mindlessness and destruction stand in stark opposition to what the hobby is about, a community of inventive and engaged creatives. I hope every modeller involved in this doesn't wait too long to get back to the modelling bench and keep doing what they love.

The boss and daughter went out this afternoon so.... Buffers were fitted to both ends ensuring the step was at the top of the shank. The locating pins were too long so were cut done to save interfering with the chasis. Holes for the buffers were opened out with a 2mm bit (bigger than stated in the instructions). Onto the roof. Holes for the Torpedo vents were drilled from inside were locators are moulded. A smaller bit than is required was used first then the holes opened up with a 2mm bit (the instructions recommend a 1.6mm bit) The hole are cleaned with fine wet and dry rubbed over the roof surface. Torpedoes fitted. I am unsure whether they should stand up straight regardless of their position on the curve of the roof or they should be set 90 deg to the roof. I went with the latter. A quick slotting together to check all looks well. Another item which appears overly complex are the guards look outs for the roof. There is a lot of flash in the opening which I needed to clear. It was sat in the vice and gently scraped away with a fresh blade. This picture is out of sequence but shows a part that confused me a little. Her are the lookouts in place but now with wiper pivots either side. The instructions say to glaze the lookouts and use the filament to create a wiper blade! I need to hang fire as I will be priming the body prior to painting and will need to glaze after this stage. After mislaying the pin vice, this is the second set back for the project. I attempted to remove the rain strips from the sprue only to break the very first one. I promptly lost the big bit! I ensured I used a knife and not a sprue cutter for the rest! Each time I removed one strip I lightly sanded the flash away from the next rain strip in situ as trying to do this off the sprue would lead to more disasters! Obviously the strips have to line up with the doors so the roof was placed in the correct position and taped in place (tape well away from the rain strip positions). There is an overhang at each end so I made sure these were equal at boths ends as the strips would be misaligned later. The height of the rain strips was determined by the diagram provided in the kit which appeared to be on the curve. A set calipers was set at this height and gently run along the roof edge to scribe a line. This was done so gently as to be barely visible. Masking tape was used to mark the position and the rain strips placed on with tweezers. These are so delicate! I began construction of the bogies but needed to let the cement cure completely before continuing (I forget to photograph this). Pipes were cemented to the ends just to finish for the evening. The second rain strip from this end is hand made from .6mm plastikard cut as thin as possible. Dependent on how fast you cut through the plastic, a curve is naturally put into the strip. Hope this is of some interest. Nos da.

Hi Rob, These are all I have at the moment but will take some more detailed shots if needed. It isn't very complicated as I needed to knock up something quick to aid in last minute wheel cleaning for an exhibition! Foamboard is so easy to use, is very rigid when joined and is very very light weight. Cheers Dave

Mine didn't last long in pristine condition.

What a find! What was it doing in Smiths do you think?

Sadly, progress ground to a halt due to a mislaid pin-vice. After much muttering and moving of thinks from one place to another I gave up and had an unscheduled visit to Hobbycraft. The v hangers and cylinder cranks needed the holes opening to .5 mm to receive the brake gear bar, made from .5mm brass wire (supplied in the kit) The V hangers and cranks are all connected to the brake cylinders. Each hanger and crank is thread onto the connecting rod before cementing them into position. Next to the battery boxes. These were gloriously fiddly, made up from 3 mouldings then filament cut and glued in place by a speck of superglue applied with a cocktail stick. Next the dynamo was assembled from four pieces, illustrated in the first picture on the bottom right of the sprue. At this stage I am much enjoying the amount of detail going into a section of model unlikely ever to be noticed. I am being cautious how much I celebrate this about the kit as glancing ahead the bogies and detailing etches look very fiddly! My homemade cradle has been invaluable to this build and I wonder how I have managed without this piece of kit for so long. Its simply foamboard hot glued together with sponge to hold the kit or loco tight. I built it to assist with wheel cleaning originally. Anyway, hope this has brought some interest to you. Onward! Hope you have a happy evening of modelling ahead.

My Dad loaned me an old bradford barton parcels stock pictorial survey with an example of just that.

It has been fun so far i must say.

Yes, i think this is a fair warning, i haven't reached the fiddly etches yet for the doors but i found so far that it is challenging just enough to absorb me fully...which is what i love about this brilliant hobby. I notice you are finishing in BR Blue. What decals do you intend using?

Progress last night was better than i thought. I reckon the underframe and body are the straight forward bits but i'm happy so far. One issue is that the image on the front of the package shows the vehicle finished in BR Blue with white number decals but the kit is only supplied with decals for finishing in southern railway green or BR(SR) green. I am now considering how to finish the vehicle as my period is 1970 so BR green could be appropriate and add interest to the layout. Still a bit to do before i reach that point though.... I rather like the etched droplights which allow one to position them in the open position (only left hand doors according to the instructions) I fitted the etches with the doors still on the sprue. I dab a tiny amount of superglue onto the top of the etch with a cocktail stick, place it glue up on the end of my left index finger and lower the door onto the etch so i can see the position of the etch. The small amount of glue enables the etch to hold long enough to add more glue or fine tune if necessary.

So i have come to realise i have a growing obsession with parcels vehicles. I have also been stretching my kit building muscles recently so thought i would combine the two and build the ratio kit of tge SR bogie B. Here it is in it's unboxed state. I have also just poured a wheat beer so progress of any kind is not guaranteed this evening. Happy modelling for now.

Thanks ken. Still enjoying the layout and looking forward to having a good old running session on the 21st. Dave

Looks like no-one else has started a thread so thought I'd take the liberty. Templefield will be at the exhibition at Canvey Island Transport Museum, 105 Point Road, Canvey Island, Essex. SS8 7TD, On Sunday 21st April 2019. See ya there.

Hi Folks, I thought I would share the results of a chance find in Hobbycraft, Basildon the other day. I was in for some bits and bobs for my daughter when I noticed a load of jars filled with decorative stones. As I was mentally scoffing at what I thought was a rather tacky interior design accessory I noticed this... The jar doesn't have any detail about what the material is but thought i'd take a punt as it looked very much like 4mm coal. The jar is about the size of a coffee jar and was priced at £3. I built a plastikard "shelf" on legs to sit loose in the wagons. The coal was poured on top of the shelf,removed from the wagon and a masking tape wall stuck around it to enable the coal to sit nicely on the shelf. It was then lightly sprayed with "wet water" then soaked in pva/water mix. As I poured the coal, I placed a magnet inside to allow the load to be lifted out with my shunting hook. I am often sceptical of cheap alternatives as they rarely match up but if you want a fine coal substitute I recommend this stuff...worth a try. cheers

Hi folks, I have completed a parkside Fruit D kit and am now struggling to find suitable decals to finish it in br blue livery. I know modelmaster do a sheet of yellow lettering for earlier br maroon liveries but i can't find a white version. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Looking forward to this.

Looking forward to Shenfield on Saturday. Would also love to see the clayton on Sunday but not sure what the boss would say!!! See you there Saturday for sure. :-)

Late response but like you i drill the holes first and make the first bend with pliers, not necessarily long nose as these often have rounded sides. Pliers with nice right angled sides are best (for me). To ensure a right angle i bend the wire to shape and use another pair of pliers to press the wire into a right angle. I line up the bend end with one of the holes and mark the other bend position with a fine liner pen (preferably permanent) then make the second bend with the pliers positioned to obscure the mark i made. It usually works just fine.

Late response but like you i drill the holes first and make the first bend with pliers, not necessarily long nose as these often have rounded sides. Pliers with nice right angled sides are best (for me). To ensure a right angle i bend the wire to shape and use another pair of pliers to press the wire into a right angle. I line up the bend end with one of the holes and mark the other bend position with a fine liner pen (preferably permanent) then make the second bend with the pliers positioned to obscure the mark i made. It usually works just fine.

With regards to movements, would the vans commonly be left in the sidings with loco and barriers departing and returning for the van at a later time? Cheers