Darius43

The interior photos helpfully posted by 97406 show that the headrests are definitely present in the Class 505. Cheers Darius

Upholstery completed. Cheers Darius

Driving motor coach interior constructed using plasticard and Peco/Ratio compartment coach seating. The compartment wall positions had to be individually marked as the punched window openings in the MTK coach body don’t line up on either side - there’s about a 1mm stagger. Cheers Darius

That’s fantastic!!! Many thanks 97406 😀 Cheers Darius

Question to anyone here who remembers or even travelled in these units: did the first class compartments have arm rests and were there four seats per side? Cheers Darius

Upholstery moquette decals printed for the interiors. Cheers Darius

Masai Rot Move over Mazak… The description states that this is a Hornby Class 31 suffering from Masai Rot. Cheers Darius

Buffer beams and glazing fitted to driving motor coach. Cheers Darius

You seem to have lost all your full stops and other punctuation in the process… Cheers Darius

Today I have been mostly making carriage door droplight windows. Strips of Tamiya tape cut to the required width were affixed to a clear acetate sheet (old report cover). The strips were marked for the required clear glazed height and lightly cut leaving a 3mm gap between droplights. The 3mm tape sections were removed leaving the masked droplights. Once this was done more tape was applied to the rear surface of the acetate to protect against “underspray” and the sheet was sprayed with primer. Once dry this was followed by several coats of Rail Blue enamel airbrushed on. Once dry again, the masks were removed. The sheet is then cut into strips and individual droplights can be cut away. I’m going to need rather a lot of these… Cheers Darius

I got the same email (as presumably did everyone else with pre-orders) so it must be based on their pre-order customer database irrespective of whether those orders were for Hattons Originals or other manufacturers’ products. I was able to log on to Hattons website, check my pre-orders and move the three non-Hattons Originals preorders that I had to another retailer. That left the Hattons Originals which they say will be honoured and which can’t be pre-ordered anywhere else in any event. Simples. No confusion at all. Great organisation by Hattons in what must be trying circumstances. Cheers Darius

Locomotion No1 pre-ordered from Kernow Models. Just the sort of quirky model I like. Cheers Darius

Really enjoyed watching that and am looking forward to seeing more 😀 Cheers Darius

The first class stripe is painted. Cheers Darius

Centre coach painting completed. Cheers Darius

Sad to hear this news and wish everyone at Hattons the best for the future after this difficult time. Darius

I haven’t had any problems. Main issue is remembering to put the top back on the bottle to stop the stuff from evaporating away. Cheers Darius

The one on the left. Cheers Darius

10mm wide strips of 1mm plasticard are glued in place as the bogie pivot beams. Plasticard strips are also glued to the bogies to enable a smaller pivot hole to be drilled. The chassis pivot hole is drilled through using the initial hole as a guide. Plasticard shims are glued in place so that the chassis floor lines up with that of the driving motor coach. Once set these are drilled through. Each bogie is attached with an 8BA brass bolt tapped into the pivot hole. I also fitted weight in the form of self adhesive tyre balancing weights that fit between the chassis edge strips. The trusses were made from Plastruct square section cut against a card template. The verticals were cut over length and trimmed once glued in place. Plastruct angle section was glued between the trusses and trimmed once the glue had set. Finished chassis in place. Cheers Darius

The chassis floor is marked out on a sheet of 1mm thick plasticard - sized to just fit within the lower edges of the coach body. The bogie pivot locations are drilled out with a 2mm diameter bit in a pin vice at this stage. I’m using Bachmann LMS bogies in place of the unusable MTK bogies. Four 2.5mm wide strips of 1mm plasticard are cut along with two 3.5mm strips of 0.5mm plasticard. The strips are glued flat to the long edges of the chassis floor with the 0.5mm thick strip fixed last with its outer edge proud to form a step on which the bottom edge of the coach body will sit. Cheers Darius

I built a vague representation of the undergibbons from plasticard. This was painted black and fitted to the chassis. I also lowered the bogie ride height by 0.5mm. Cheers Darius

Since WCRC provide the coaches to several mainline steam heritage train operators is there any news as to whether the 2024 excursion programme can take place? Or is this an Official Secret? Cheers Darius

Essentially the same fixing technique, in fact, that I used for the plastic rainstrip. I prefer plastic strips as the contact area for the bond is greater and, since the glue really doesn’t want to bond to the oxidised surface of the aluminium, there is more chance of it remaining attached. Once the roof is painted, its overall thickness compared to, for example, brass wire doesn’t seem so apparent. The coach side beading is quite subtle on the prototype and the beading doesn’t run across the doors so there would need to be multiple short lengths of wire glued between the doors, all aligned longitudinally. IMHO there would be a real “mess” of superglue on the coach sides if that was attempted. I prefer to leave the “impression” of beading with the neater scribed line. You do it your way, and I’ll do it my way. Cheers Darius

I noticed that too - it has been fixed back in place. The plasticard rain strips are superglued in place starting at the centre of the coach and working out to the ends glueing a short length at a time. The glue is applied using the end of fine brass rod. Cheers Darius

Will do 😀 Cheers Darius