Mister Spoons

This is a simple jig I built for making the seat backs; to have cut 30 seat backs identically would have been rather tedious, so I think the ten minutes or so putting this together was worthwhile. Then I cut some strips of 40thou plasticard...... Slid the strips into the jig, four at a time..... Made the diagonal cut first, pressing down on the strips rather than pushing them towards the 'stop' End result- sufficient seat backs, all the same size (with one exception) with the same angle on the inside edge. The exception? That's the seat marked 'R' which is the rear nearside seat upstairs, the blind box sticks into the inside slightly so I made that seat a fraction narrower to compensate. I'll be making the seat cushions the same way, they will all of course require hand finishing, to round the edges and round off the top corners. Ill then make an assembly jig so that I get the back angle relative to the cushion the same on all those seats; thinking of something like a Scrabble rack.....

So many questions to answer here today, so apologies if I miss responding to anyone, @ Hayfield; initially a static model, but it has been built with motorisation in mind using chopped-up Faller Auto components, I need to see if I can produce a working Ackerman steering rack to suit, the parts are small enough to fit unseen beneath the floor. @ Western Star; to begin with I found the image of the fabric which was a small sample but there was enough to copy/paste until I had created sufficient material to cover all the seats, see here for a jpg of the result; the file I created is bmp but weighs in at 92mb!!! And here's the real thing. @ Ceptic; very nice pics, some of the detail shots I managed to miss on my visit, thanks for posting! @ PhilJ W, thanks for the info - I'll be painting mine rather than polishing through the paint back to white metal so they don't look too polished.. Cheers for now, David

While the paint is hardening properly I'm going make a start on 'fixtures and fittings'. I am going to make a simple set of jigs for the seating; just from scrap wood - to make 15 identical left-hand seats and 15 right-hand could be a chore, so a simple jig for the seat bases and one for the seat backs will make it so much easier, then I can cut sufficient backs in one go with a fine-toothed hacksaw which will just need the corners filing, likewise the bases. then a strip of wood with another at the correct angle for mass-assembly of the seat assemblies. Upholstery? I have a cunning plan, I found an image of real trolleybus moquette on line, and after a bit of fiddling to make the pattern line up, I now have a sheet of moquette that in 1/43 is around 25 feet wide and 18 feet long! I'll print this onto white decal film, and lacquer it, followed by a coat of matt varnish for that 'clothy' appearance. Seats will be painted with satin brown on the front and satin green on the back; when the moquette decal is applied, there's a strip of brown leather on the aisle side of each seat, which the satin brown will replicate..... Handrails? Again a simple jig; two nails bashed into a piece of wood the right distance apart, and a spool of 0.75mm silver coloured wire - simples! Bit of old-school modelling there!

LED's arrived safely Bob; many thanks, I should have PM'd you so apologies there - they are very nicely spaced for my model, if a touch bright, but I have a tin of clear yellow lacquer that I will spray a little on one lens for a comparison - do you mind me asking which supplier you bought from? Regards David

@ SRMan; I always forget Tonys wonderful stuff; When they become available again I will have an L and a K, suitable replacements for the Corgi Q when I sell them to a Spanish collector; a sort of 'Art imitating life' as it were; your L is a super job; do you spray or brush finish? I do like the look of the L3, and my mind is already working overtime on how to achieve that smooth dome; P38 and formers method I think, and add the rainshields in plasticard, Check your PM's a bit later too SRMan @Ceptic; feel free to post them here Sir! I was up at Covent Garden taking pictures of the cab and roof of 1253 a couple of weeks back; full of screaming bogie-munchers but I got some useful images - the balcony over 1253 was very handy! I'll be up there again soon, joining the museum friends was a good move, free admission to the museum.......

Up early this morning to drop my wife at the UndergrounD; and decided to get the paint out! Trolleybuses in different scales here to show the size of my effort; in the middle is the Corgi Q1, and to the right the Oxford Diecasts model; also a Q1. The only pre-war London trolleybus model in (fairly) recent years was the Pirate Models 461 model, a white metal kit that made up in most classes from C2 to K2; I must have built a dozen of these in the 80's in different flavours, including a cut-and-shut of the short B1, and the rather odd 1671 with 4-wheel steering. Wish I still had them now; they were sold to Model Road and Rail, an excellent collectors shop in Worcester Park, long gone alas..... The red hasn't rendered well in the photos, I think that my lighting has a lot to do with it, we have all these new-fangled CFL bulbs, down to Mrs. Spoons who hugs trees in her spare time and makes a lot of meals involving pulses......... The finish is actually not bad, apart from one small fibre which fortunately is not going to be visible one the adverts are on, I'll rub it down locally with 2000 grade once the paint has hardened. The colour on the front is probably closer to reality than the side which is directly lit; I'm currently waiting for my new airbrush to arrive which will be used for the detailing once I've had some practice, the rear dome is to be gloss brown and there's several cream bands to apply, as well as some black lining which I'll cheat and use decals; my hands aren't steady enough to do otherwise...... I'l resist the urge to 'fiddle' with the shell until the paint is properly hard, and crack on with other stuff; I've another set of adverts to work on....

Here's the roof; depocked! I've gone all round the shell with the P38, filling the small imperfections and smoothing, and repriming. Now I'm happy with the finish - I'll leave the shell overnight now, and in the morning will rub down and providing I find no last minute cosmetic issues I'll be applying the first coat of red; again a Halfords can - the colour I have is Ford Rosso Red which is a pretty close match to London Transport red, which is actually called Ayres Red; It's almost indiscernibly darker than Humbrol 19 which I feel is a tad bright on larger scale models; I've used the Rosso Red on a 7mm scale LT tram with satisfying results, and having matched a small swatch to 1253 at the LT Museum at Covent Garden I'm sure I'd not find anything that matches the original so well. I don't know what others feel but I think that the current LT Bus red is a fair bit brighter, but this could be down to the differences in application or paint technology. At a guess I would say that the best a bus will now get is a one coat 'blow-over' with two-pack, compared with a multi stage application back in the days when public transport in London was a quality service, not a profit-led enterprise operated by 'entrepreneurs', I worked at Aldenham in the late 70's/early 80's and the paintshop there was still producing quality, even though the 'writing was on the wall'..... Oh, and the canteen food was brilliant too

Thanks for the link to Kingfisher Models Alan, they do have a couple of suitable wheels; there's an AEC type with step rings that I think I'll order, not a lot of money involved so if they don't suit this model they will get used on something else! The trolley has now had a light coat of Halfords grey primer and this has highlighted a few areas that need attention before the colour coats: I like the effect of the louvre transfers on the lower front panel; they are produced by Archer Fine Transfers in the USA, not cheap but very effective! They are a resin printed on a carrier film and I came across them by chance; I really don't think I could have done better with plasticard strip, and there's so many on the sheet I could stock Isleworth Depot, and Fulwell Depot with a full complement of 1/43 trolleys and still have some decals left! I recommend these.... It's much easier to see any flaws once the model is all on colour, and there's a number of pock marks on the front and rear domes that require a smudge of P38, like these below on the front dome: Nothing unexpected there; I've also got a couple of pinholes around the rear mudguards, and on the rear 'tween deck corner panels; I'll give the primer another hour or so to settle and deal with these blemishes.

One went on Ebay recently...... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WISTOW-MODELS-7mm-O-GAUGE-GREEN-LINE-COACH-KIT-/261444671395?pt=UK_Collectables_Bus_CoachCollectables_SM&hash=item3cdf5117a3

A superb build of an interesting kit, I'm following this with interest! Cheers David

You could be right there Merfyn; when I saw your post I had a 'light-bulb moment' regarding wheels/tyres, and came across a picture of the Wistow Models T Type AEC - the wheels look perfect for the trolley project so I've mailed the address I found for Wistow on the Gauge O Guild wbsite; hopefully he will be happy to sell these as a separate part...... Which bus are you building? I believe that Jon Fitness is building the Leyland PD on here and a fine build it looks too!

Well, that's the front cab window frames completed, and the construction of the main shell draws to a close; I'll be giving the shell a good wash and scrub before priming, and once the shell is all one colour I'll be able to see any areas that require remedial attention. I know there's a couple of pinholes around the wheel arches and a few small pocks where two strips of moulding meet, these will require a smidgin of filler or stopper. There's also a few holes that need drilling for small items such as mirrors, wipers, sidelamps etc, and these will be drilled after priming but before the colour coats are applied. That way the holes should only require a couple of twists from the drillbit, so less likelihood of damaging the painted surface...... That's not to say I'll not be busy; there's seating for 71 ( 70 passengers + driver), cab equipment, lighting, roof & overhead current collection stuff, etc etc all to be fabricated and finished! I'm also considering a rush-hour load of passengers and crew to bring the model to life as well; so I may have the task of creating a Gibson ticket machine in 1/43 too.. Happy days Dave

The rear end, now complete; nice idea Evil Bus Driver; I was thinking that making a mould of a Corgi Regal wheel and casting six reproductions would be less wasteful than buying three Regals merely to use the front wheels; I've seen silicon moulding kits on Ebay and was wondering what hardness of silicon would be appropriate; any ideas? I've started construction of the roof 'plug-in' as well; I'll be using the same technique as with the rear dome - the formers are all cut and fixed, and its a case of using the spacers and skimming with body filler - apart from the section with the trolleypoles which will be plasticard laminates almost to the top with just a light skim for shape. The reason for this is to give the trolleypoles something stable to locate into - they come with a short tube which will be located and glued into a drilled hole. I've also added the front lower window frames to the cab windows; these were fixed panes on both offside and nearside of the K's, some earlier classes had an opening window on the drivers side and a single piece of fixed glass on the nearside. The opening sections were hinged at the top and in later years were often packed at the bottom (where they lay over the lower fixed glass) with newspaper to prevent draughts and rattling. 1058 doesn't appear to suffer from this malady and in photos seems to be in fine fettle up to the end in May 1962...... So no crafting 1/43 issues of the 'Daily Sketch' or some other defunct daily paper! I've also shaped the lower edges of the front mudguards as they were too 'straight edged' at the bottom - they now curve smoothly, following the bottom edge of the bdywork

Now the centre sections of the roof have been filled, shaped and refilled and smoothed, Isopon P38 is really good to work with, being very easily shaped by sanding and carving with a scalpel. Aside from the roof shape, the 'tumblehome' on the lower edges of the body is quite apparent by the trailing edge of the mudguard. @ bobster; you have a PM Bob :-)

Here's a quick shot of a different method of constructing the rear dome; the front just had simple formers for the shape whereas I've tried a different approach for the back. I made the formers and then added a strip of plasticard at the top of the window and at the leading edge of the dome, and then cut and curved some 20thou to follow the roofline, thus the rear dome will require only a skim of filler and be much lighter; this should reduce the likelihood of warping. The corners will be similarly packed, maybe with some expanded polystyrene, carved to shape, or possibly some hard foam, origin unknown, that I have found skulling around the bowels of my bits box.....

I'd appreciate input from you learned gentlemen here; I'm looking at adapting a coach lighting kit to illuminate 1058, yep, I've already numbered the model, on the basis that I've got several pictures of this trolley from a number of angles, so I can decorate the model as it was, almost to a particular date! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DCC-COACH-LIGHTING-KITS-IN-WARM-WHITE-COOL-WHITE-or-AMBER-/161163610716?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&var=&hash=item2586198a5c If you could take a look at this item and let me know which you think would be most appropriate for the vehicle; either warm white or amber - there's a small pic on the drop down image menu on the left with a comparison; I've already eliminated the cool white option which would be far more suitable for modern vehicles with fluorescent lighting. there's a video taken at Carlton Colville museum on the above link - my first inclination was warm white but I'm not so sure having looked at the video; maybe the amber would give a better effect as the lighting on these trolleys was low voltage (I believe 24v 12w as on the RT bus), and would value anyone elses opinion, whether viewed through rose-tinted specs or otherwise; it's the overall effect I'm looking to recreate here!

As predicted little work was done on the trolley over the weekend and I decided to leave the rear dome until after the mudguards, so armed with a sharp blade and some outlandish thicknesses of plasticard I came up with this..... the front mudguards are made of 30thou for the 'sides' and the centre section is a strip of 10thou which is pretty tough stuff to work surprisingly, as it has a nasty habit of splitting when you try to curve it too sharply, or make a reverse curve (i.e. an 's' shape; and often will save this act of defiance until you add solvent; shaping the curve round a former and giving it a quick dunk in very hot water does the trick, and this is what I did with my second attempt, after tossing effort number one in the bin in disgust...... there's some small gaps around the edges of the mudguard, particularly on the sweep at the rear of those from mudguards, which I did expect as the solvent evaporated, no big deal; a smudge of P38 will do the trick here! The rear mudguards were simple to create but time-consuming in the cutting as they are made from what I believe is 80thou; they needed to be fairly thick as the lower sections do not follow the tumblehome of the body, and the thickness of the plasticard allowed for the smooth curve to be sanded on those edges adjacent to the body sides. I have also added the holders for the running number plates on each side, and the vertical former for the rear dome. I've now got the way I'm going to proceed with this clear in my head and will most likely get stuck into the dome this evening.... A front view to finish, excuse my collection of bottles in the background! @ suddaby, I have two options with wheels; either cast white metal one piece, or whitemetal hub + rubber tyre, I am also looking at the plastic nub and tyres that Corgi use on their AEC Regal bus which are quite well detailed, although I'd need to find three of the model in a swapmeet bargain bin, as only the fronts suit my purpose. The trolleypoles are coming from East Lancs Model tramway supplies; they come in kit form and you have to solder them together - I did one for my Brussels PCC and the result is quite effective - I'll need to lengthen the booms and accept that they will not be 100% accurate but they will be pretty close by the time I've butchered them! I am considering whether to motorise as I believe that a faller-type mechanism could be incorporated at even a late stage of construction, there's ample room beneath the floor for such a thing to power the forward of the two rear axles, the rearmost would be trailing - and the faller steering mechanism could easily fit under the front end and be completely hidden from most viewing angles. Sadly I don't have room for a working layout beyond the bookshelf; I do intend to fit some lighting to the model using LEDs as they run cool and will not warp the model..... @ SRMan; yes, please do post a pic of the L3 trolley, I'd like to see that!

Not much progress this week due to things of an Ikea nature rearing their ugly heads; I did manage to complete the front dome and rainshields. I started with the false roof and cut it to fit between the bodysides, and shaped it carefully around the window pillars so that the front rainshields were the correct shape, and then left on one side for the bond to set. I then taped up the rainshields to prevent excess filler from sticking to them - Then I set about creating the dome. This was achieved by using plastikard formers one at the back full width, this gives the correct shape to the main part of the roof, two diagonal formers to the front corners, and a central front/rear former at right angle to the first one. the dome is then built up using Isopon P38 as with the corners of the shell; thin layers are better as the filler becomes warm as it cures, the thicker the filler, the warmer it gets - which could warp the plastic! Once the filler has been built up to above the level of the formers it is shaped using a mixture of wet or dry paper, nail file sticks and diamond files. The rain shields on the real vehicle was slightly proud of the dome and creating the effect took a bit of patience! I then cut the false ceiling for the rear dome which will prove even more challenging! I'll be cracking on over the next couple of evenings with any luck, as the weekend is going to be busy with the RT bus events at the museum and in London, but I hope to be on the next stage of the work on Tuesday which is going to be the front mudguards-by comparison to the domes it should be a walk in the park; but I guess it's unwise to take any thing for granted! Watch this space! Dave

Glad you enjoyed it Chris! If my current model meets expectations my next trolley will be a Class L3 as used on the 667; more streamlined at the front top deck, and a few detail differences. The real thing was substantially different under the skin to the K, being of chassisless construction. After that I'd like to do the C2 class which ran on the 660/666, with streamlined rear wheel spats.... Can't find a picture of the real thing but have a look at Broadway Clives page here: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/broadwayclive/18097977 Super stuff!

If anyone is interested in seeing the K-Class in its natural environment here's a little film of trolleybuses in the area I lived in, just a few minutes walk from the Chiswick flyover, I remember a couple of occasions where the poles departed the wires, flying in all directions, as the 657 and 667 came off the roundabout heading towards Kew Bridge. Must have been either a problem with the overhead, or driver speed! This location is shown on the film, as the vehicles approach a brown building on the right hand side which was the GPO Telephone Exchange - about 18 seconds from the beginning. The background music is old radio themes, I think the first piece was Housewifes Choice on the BBC Light Programme, or as they said then, 'The laite progrem'. Anyway, enjoy! .

Last shot of the day, I'll not have too much time for things plasticky until the weekend now but I think progress has been good today, front 'tween decks panel and headlight shells done

@ Suddaby; there's a real presence on the road with the six-wheelers, far more than a four-wheeler of the same dimensions - compare a London RML with a Trolleybus and you will see what I mean! @ SRMan, is Tony taking orders for his LBC K class again, or is it a pre-order situation? If you need any info on London trolleys just ask! I've a pretty comprehensive archive of books and diagrams and I am in touch with the author of some definitive LT trolleybus books, who has kindly sent me some wonderful scans of original blinds from Isleworth Depot, and has invited me to visit him, which I am looking forward to; his knowledge of the subject is vast and in tremendous detail. Meanwhile here is a couple of pics of progress; the rear end has been filled and smoothed, it still needs work but that will be once the shell is in primer. I'm currently working on the front upper deck section and then it will be the front and rear domes. These will be integral to the body to minimise joints in the model, the central section of the roof can then be simply 'plugged in', but that will be the final stage of assembly. My plan is to complete the shell, prime, do any remedial work, and then paint the shell. This can then be put on one side for the paint to properly harden while making the interior components, seats, staircase etc. I'm going to use the PC Models trolley pole kits and build the roof detail as this separate unit, with gantry, trolley planks and ventilators etc. Regards Dave

This is the same type as I am modelling; you can ride the real thing at the East Anglia Transport Museum too!

When the Plastic Weld fumes get too much I'm working on these the original file is far too big to post here so this is a much smaller jpeg, the file I am working on is huge; I'm using .bmp format and scaling on the printer for clarity and crisp lines, I've got two different sets to choose from, and will upload the other when it's finished. A mixture of Kingsway John's 1/24 posters that he drew for the Revell Routemaster kit, and my own homegrown efforts. The blinds I am particularly pleased with - my initial try at these was less than satisfactory but these are OK. Some of the colours are slightly modified from the real thing as when printed there was a noticeable dither effect, too much like a grainy newspaper photograph........

Hi all, Its been a few days since my last post, and I've now started assembly; I'm now working in three dimensions! I'm very pleased with the front lower panel and am now going to start on the upper deck front; I'll create a laminate as with the lower deck - there's three layers on that.7 As for the rear corners, I shall be using 10 thou plastikard for the curved panels from inside the shell and skim from the outside with car body filler, which sands at a similar rate to the styrene sheet; I've created the destination blinds and adverts and I've just had a scan of an original blind set sent to me which I will have a play with too. Regards Dave