Fastdax

Many thanks 37114! I'll get back to OQ when I've finished the current workbench coach build (documented here).

Ian Kirk Coach Seats are going in. Not as many as in the composite coach, but still less interesting than watching the proverbial dry. The sides/ends are also glued to the chassis now. The clamp holds a side in place while the MEK dries. The false panels got a single under-seat block of JB Weld at the compartment end: ... but two smaller blocks on the guard's space panel, as a single one would go right through the middle of the bogie pivot: I'll disguise these later as parcels or crates.

Ian Kirk Coach As I did before, I made a couple of false dividers to attach the roof to the chassis. One can go right up against the compartment-end panel but the other is against the panel that divides the driver's cab from the guard's space. The white strip of plasticard ensures a small gap under the false divider, so that it doesn't bottom out on the floor before the roof is pulled down tight. Here's a quick video of the coach having its first run. The roof is just sat on the sides, which are just sat on the chassis, which is just sat on the bogies. I added buffers and couplings so that it could be moved properly.

Decoder upside down?

Ian Kirk Coach I've been fettling the ends to fit under the roof profile. As before, it was a case of sliding the roof up to the inside of the end panel, marking the profile with a sharpie, then cutting and filing the panel to suit. I also marked the roof profile on the brass end. You can see that the Sidelines brass end has a quite different roof profile to the Kirk roof (and is probably more correct). The brass end is also a couple of mm narrower, but a bit of filler will overcome this when it's planted on the outside of the transparent styrene end panel. I also started gluing in the partitions, attached to the sides but not to the roof:

Great stuff, Dougal. How are the cosmetic side frames removed? I also have a Tri-ang Hymek body and PRMRP chassis kit waiting on a shelf and this mod looks very useful to me.

Ian Kirk Coach The errant guard's doors have been filled and sanded. Bump-stops have been added throughout. I added cant rail gutters as I did before and fixed the sides to the compartment end panel. This allowed me to measure the gap between the gutters and trim the roof moulding to width. In this picture, the sides and roof are held to the chassis with laccy bands and the whole lot sat on its bogies, but it's starting to look like a coach:

Ian Kirk Coach A step forwards and a step back. The backwards step consisted of realising that I'd assembled one coach side wrong. I had assumed (wrongly) that the guard's compartment doors were mirror images, side-for-side. here, you can see that the double doors are mirrored, with the droplight door nearest the driving end: This is wrong, as careful examination of some rather grainy old photos showed. The droplight door is hinged on the left on all droplight doors, compartment or guard's. This makes sense as the builders then only had one style of droplight door to build. So I cut off the upper sections of both doors on the "wrong" side (the right-hand side as seen from the driver's seat in the driving end). The lower parts of the doors were too firmly glued to the backing strip to release, so I cut above this strip: It will need filling, sanding and drilling but now the droplight is in the right door. For a step forwards, Ray (Marshall5) very kindly posted a couple of spare driving end etches to me for this project. There is a choice of plain or bolection windows, window blinds, a driving compartment divider, and various small bits that I haven't sussed out yet (although part 31 may be the driver's seat): Many thanks Ray!

Thanks George. I'll get back onto it when I actually make it home! Work is keeping me 150 miles away from my workbench :-(

Thanks Ray! PM sent.

The chap I spoke to (didn't get his name) implied that there had been a problem which prevented the planned release this year.

Yesterday at Warley I enquired on the Dapol stand about the availability of the Class 121/122 and 117 DMUs. They told me that there had been a problem with the initial prototypes from the factory and that all of those DMUs had gone back into redesign and re-tooling. They will be all the better for it, they said. They are now not expected until at least the middle of 2020. (So I went over to Ellis Clark and spent the saved pennies on a couple of nice BR Mk1 Suburbans )

I think I would opt to replace the details anyway. The cast-in items have no grab-rails at all, so those would need adding. The ventilators don't look like the photos of Period 2 stock that I have, and the T-handles have a strange, round base to them which aren't on the prototype (AFAIK). I would certainly attempt to slim down the door panels a bit more though, to minimise the amount of post-assembly sanding required.

Hal, I did try to scratch-build the bump stops from drilled styrene strip for the bases with rod for the rubbers, but realised how much of my life I would spend getting all 72 made the same size and lined up properly. So I ended up using these: A short-cut perhaps, but - rule 1.

Ian Kirk Coaches As I did before, I sanded off most of the moulded detail on the sides - ventilators, handles and bump stops mostly. This was in order to make the door mouldings flush with the windows mouldings because they are a bit too thick as they come off the sprue. I tried to preserve the bolection mouldings round the fixed windows this time. Then I used the drilling jig I made for the last coach to drill holes for the T-handle, grab handle and bump stops: ... followed by the jig for adding ventilators. I made enough last time to populate this coach as well: For the ends, the compartment end moulding was relieved of its cast-on lamp brackets, jumper cable outlets and buffer bases. i will add new ones of these. For the driving end, I kept the buffer beam but cut off the black plastic end panel and replaced it with transparent styrene sheet. This looks white in the photos because I'm keeping the protective film on as long as possible. I intend to make a brass end sheet with windows, blinds and other details on, then apply it to this transparent end. I also started making up the Wayoh LMS 9' bogies:

Ian Kirk Coaches While I'm waiting for transfers for the composite coach to arrive, I made a start on the driving brake third while my mojo is still present and correct. I used the assembly jig from last time and built up the segments for the sides on a 13mm reinforcing strip: I made both sides with reference to the various source material already mentioned in this thread. For some reason, these panels are cast in a translucent white plastic instead of brown:

Ian Kirk Coach OK, where did I leave the composite ex-LMS Period II coach? I think it was last seen in primer but now it's had a coat of maroon from a rattle can: Ends and underframe in black, then brass grab handles and door handles and acrylic glazing (54 separate bits!). This low-angle shot shows how effective the automatic LED lighting is: Some basic underframe weathering was added by airbrush from my pot of generic muck 'n' grot colour: <Sorry - photo has been lost to the mists of time> The pale patches on the sides are dried T-Cut. This will be washed away soon. I want a fairly glossy finish under a final layer of weathering grime, as if the sides have been cleaned recently.

Looks great George. Despite "missing bits" (was this the fault of the kit or a careless previous owner?) would you still recommend MOK if I want a Q1?

Hi Ellis, Will you have a good range of 57' suburbans for sale at Warley? Thanks.

Hi George, are you permanently wiring the tender to the loco? I use tiny 2-pin plugs like these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20-SETS-Micro-JST-GH-1-25-2-Pin-Male-Female-Connector-plug-with-Wires-Cables to connect mine.

Fantastically rusty wriggly tin there, Richard!

I was at Hazel Grove yesterday and I kept an eye out for you, Mister Peters etc. but didn't spot you. At least I bought a nice book about Q1s.

Great stuff George! I really want to build an MOK Q1. Following your pictures with interest.

Thanks John.

Fencing Fence wires are rust-coloured EZ-Line fine to represent rusty galvanised wire. It also stretches when caught with a solid object. How do I know ... ? I may need to add a fourth wire where the ground dips. The fence posts do come with four holes already installed. I made some additional shrubs from rubberised horse hair for brambles and crumbled foliage for bushy bits. Dead stalks are natural sisal fibres glued into a small hole.