grob1234

Thank you very much, sir. Looks like it comes well recommended.

Hallo Jonathan, another quick question for you if I may. What is the recommended colour for the teak solebars and the teak wheel centres on LNER vans and carriages?

Does the iron tip attract solder or seem to push it away. It could be that the tip needs re-tinning? If it looks black then that could be the case which would stop the heat transfer.

It would be frantastic to see the various stages of 'paintedness' documented here.

Cheers Mick. Thing is, I enjoy the process, and as it's taken me about 4 years to get to this point, time really isn't a factor to me. However, doing a job that is to my personal satisfaction is very important. Getting decals to align properly with rased detail is difficult, and not my chosen approach. However, you have demonstrated what works for you which is great. Let's see how they turn out.

Hallo Mick, Thanks for stopping by. Your Jubilee set looks very nice indeed. With regards to the cant rails being Nickel Silver - mine aren't. However, if they were, I'd most likely still paint them, as getting the cant rails to tie in with the lining would be problematic. If I was to leave them as bare metal, I would still mask them anyway, as scraping paint is too frought with danger for my liking - personal preferance of course. Let me explain my way of working which might reveal the madness behind the method. Prime the whole body and interior with Acid 8 Etch Primer Paint the insides of the coach. In this case, light green, teak or light blue. I do this first, as there is likely to be paint bleed from inside the coach to the exterior. By doing the outside later I am assured of a near flawless as possible exterior. Mask interior windows to protect the insides from overspray. I also attach the coach floors temporarily at this point to further prevent paint ingress. Spray on the chrome paint Spray a light protective coat of semi gloss varnish to protect the chrome Mask the chrome (the most time consuming bit) Spray the main body colour. Mask body sides only Spray the valances, and mask Spray the roof. No need to mask the ends as i just angle the coach whilst spraying Drybrush the raised detail with silver Paint other details. This way I can achieve a consistent finish, as I hope the following image of Coronation shows, all completed using the above method:

Here we are: The van is ready for paint. I have to say its been a pleasure to build it, no fettling or modding required. As has been previously mentioned, the instructions can be a little thin - they're obviously made by somone who knows kits inside out. But with a little reseach online and a few helpful hints from my friends it all came together without a hitch. I have also been working on the silver Jubilee. When you're making a full 8 coach set, it really is more of a production line at times as oppose to modelling and naturally the process can become repetitive. Masking for example will require about 4-5 hours in total with over 500 pieces of individual masking applied in order to get the finish I require. Around 150 door hinges were applied, droplights, chassis to be made interiors to be painted. I dread to think of the hours spent on this project, but it is inching towards completion. The chrome is on, the coach insides are painted. Teak for the corridors, very light green for 3rd, and Marlborough Blue for 1st. Next will be the light grey, they dark grey for the skirts, then silver for the roof then detial painting.

Hello All, Some lovely accounts of how we 'got into the hobby'. My love of trains stems from Thomas the Tank Engine. That progressed into a Hornby 125 Train Set, which my late Father and I set up in the spare room as a layout. I remember my first steam train very clearly - an A4 in Garter Blue - Sir Nigel Gresley. That set my path on all things ECML and LNER in particular. Teak coaches (old style Hornby) and the Flying Scotsman followed. My interest in the model railway declined as I grew older, reaching the point where we advertised the railway items for sale in the local paper. Fortuitously whoever was going to buy it didn't show up, to my relief it turns out - I was too attached to let the trains go. University and early life in the RAF saw my interest fall to near zero, but whilst stationed at RAF Linton on Ouse in Yorkshire, I made a visit to the Railway Museum in York. This reignited my interest in railways, and I began searching on-line for models (TRAIN MODELS!!!!). Single, with low living costs and a relatively high disposable income meant I could afford Hornby's new offerings. I was amazed at the quality, and how much they'd come on since I was young. I began collecting locos. This on/off interest continued, then we moved to Hong Kong. I decided that having a model railway was now essential, but due to size constraints, I opted to model in N-Gauge, GWR due to the availability of stock in RTR. I built a fictional model called North Moreton, which I still have, and still intend to finish. This also brought me to the N Gauge Forum, and subsequently to RMWeb. By now I was fast learning that there were other aspects to the Hobby, other more interesting stuff that ran on railways in days gone by that weren’t available RTR. I found this thread and others detailing kit-building. With a lot of kind encouragement from Tony in particular, I started kit building. The rest as they say, ‘is history’. And that brings me back to today. A D&S Pigeon Van to Diagram 120. Which do you prefer, brass, or works grey? Also, the Silver Jubilee rake is going through the paint shop. It requires endless masking to get the finish I desire. Currently 5/8 coaches masked in readiness for the next paint stage. There’s more on my workbench thread if anyone is interested.

I'm essentially a lazy individual, so hours of work for a 1% gain isn't really my thing. My wife would be exceptionally happy to see me spending my time on such trivia, as you can all imagine.... I'll just ensure no one gets within 3ft of it, then they probably won't notice... plus when it's going a scale 50mph behind a train who's gonna notice?! A good result I'd say, but I do fancy having a go at the plastic rooves one day. When I'm retired.

I find a 50w iron to be sufficient. I think I'd struggle with 25w. Sometimes 75w might be nice when the amount of material starts to get bulky and you start to feel the tip of the iron biting.

I've gone for the MJT roof in the end. Looks pretty good, I filed down the cant rail, and fitted the roof gubbins. Just got the various pipeage to fit and I can get it primed tomorrow with a fair wind and possibly a full moon. I wonder if a good way with rooves might be to scan your etched coach ends, import them into some sort of CAD software then 3d print roof formers about 2mm wide, which could then be super glued to thin styrene sheet to form an accurate roof profile. Alas I can't do CAD and I don't have a 3d printer, but otherwise basically all there.... PS: Dave I just sent you a PM

Incidentally, the lowest temperature I can set on my Antex is 180c. Like Tony, I prefer to solder hotter but quicker. For brass, I tend to use 300-360 ish but somtimes higher for larger bits or where I'm using 179c solder for small bits. Whitemetal for me is between 180 and 250. I've not yet gone as far as Tony and used 300c on whitemetal, but being as impatient as I am, I'm sure I will sooner rather than later!

Hello Ade, Frank, Jonathan, It's good to be able to do a bit of soldering and proper modelling again - very good for the mind. As for videos; let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here... rushing into things 'willy nilly' could be disasterous - I have nearly 2000 subsribers don't you know!! I do plan on doing some in the future though, as and when time permits, at the moment I'm just happy to be able to build As luck would have it I do have an MJT roof, Jonathan. It fits very well give or take a few thou here and there. My only slight concern is the rail at the side, and also the thickness of the roof. On the real thing it looks a little thinner to my eye: LNER Pigeon Van Here is the supplied roof from Dan, looks more Howlden like to me... I might make up the D&S roof as best I can, using a plasticard base and a couple of formers inside, and see how it looks, I have nothing to lose. Failing that the MJT roof is 95% of the way there anyway...

Wonder how many real world miles that loco has done? Must be a few...

Hello All, A gentle return to the workbench after a long absence. I finally have somewhere to make models, and very nice it is too. My recent project is this lovely kit from Dan Pinnock in the form of Diag. 120. I have included a shot of the underframe to show the layout here which I found a little challenging as the instructions are a little thin on the ground in places. Spot the obvious error – I soldered the Vacuum pump on the wrong side. I wondered what the tab was for! Never mind it is a very minor detail. No door handles were included, so I simply bent and filed 0.8mm and 0.5mm brass rod to look handle like. I think at viewing distance these will look ok. For the handrails, I felt normal handrail knobs would have been too large – the prototype had very slimline sanctions. I simply pushed thru some 0.4mm wire and soldered from behind. I haven’t forgotten the axle boxes - they will be epoxied on later. Next update should include something on the Silver Jubilee set, and maybe the C1 too. Edit: Anyone got any ideas how to do D&S plastic rooves?

Hi Jonathan, Just to prove it all worked ok: Hardest bit was actually the bend at the top by the toplights, even though I scored through til there was a witness mark on the front. Must get a decent set of bending bars! Thanks for the help

Thank you Jonathan. I'm slowly getting back into it after finally settling, having a permanent place to make models and also having a little more time than usual. I have a bending tool that was made for the original Coronation, which supports the piece very well. I'll give it a try, as you say the etch is pretty thin and its a small bend... what could go wrong. I'll let you know the final result - no pressure

Agreed. In all honesty I'm leaning back towards following the instructions. There would be 1.5 times etch and 0.5 times etch and they'd prbably bend differently.

Hello Jonathan, I hope you are well? Just a very quick question for you regarding a D&S Pigeon Van I am building. Dan recommends forming the tumblehome on the main side, then forming the inlay to fit... I was thinking of soldering the inlay to the main side, then forming the tumblehome... What do you do? I'm loathed to stray from the instructions too much, the kit fits very well and I am sure Dan knows what he's talking about?!

Nice to see a few completed LRM D2's. Incidentally, I have two to build as my next project(s), and it appears the pressure is mounting to do a decent job. Well done on the tender flare - probably the hardest part of these kits...

Hello. I believe it was asked 'what have you made during lockdown?' Well, not as much as I would have liked, ideally. Now this is a little O/T but I know Tony, that you like model ships too... so I think a pic or 2 is permissable? This is my interpretation of HMS KGV in 1/700 scale and mounted on a sea base. And here, to qualify my post, is some progress on my C1. Sloshed a bit of paint on, now just some lining to do. The tender is treated in a similar manner. The green might look a bit 'off' but thats my camera phone.

Very lovely indeed. As are the coaches. I have 2 x D2's in the stash to build, so thank you for providing me with a handy guide

300 years would be about right for my 12 as well. 25 years per kit. Seems pretty quick to me...

Genuinely thought you'd have more than that, Tony. 25 is a perfectly reasonable stash. I have about 12 or so in mine, and a healthy supply of motors too, importantly.

I've almost had enough time to build a 1:1 model of it, let alone a 4mm scale version!