Darius43

Painting started. Cabs first, followed by the rail grey. Left to dry overnight and then masking applied for the rail blue coat. I removed the brass wire "eyebrow" rainstrips above the doors to make masking easier. They will be re-applied after painting. Cheers Darius

That looks really good. What did you use for the foliage? Cheers Darius

Excellent picture that brings back memories - and will be used as a guide for the painting of the interiors Cheers Darius

I'm not sure I understand the question. If you mean the gray coloured metal block, that contains the motor that powers the motor bogie and it is required to be fixed to the chassis for the motor bogie to push the train along. Without it the chassis and body shell are not that heavy. Darius

Thanks David. The NNK brass bodyshells were supplied individually wrapped in tissue and, most importantly, were not supplied slotted together (like MTK aluminium bodyshells) and so were not distorted. The brass is quite thin and so is easier to fix to the white metal ends. I also did a lot of trial fitting and put marker lines across the joints once I was satisfied with the locations so that the ends could be fixed with the proper alignment. Cheers Darius

Driving coach chassis primed and painted satin black. Body shells primed. Some minor filling and clean up required. Cheers Darius

Many thanks - I'm really enjoying building this kit Cheers Darius

I have already trimmed most of the Kadee coupler drop bars apart from one you see in the photo, which is in the NEM pocket that slots into the Bachman motor bogie and sits a wee bit lower than the other Kadees. The others are in the Kadee "black boxes" and are screw-fixed to the bogies. Cheers Darius

Seats added to motor coach and first trailer coach chassis completed. Cheers Darius

The cast metal mounting block that Bachmann use for their DMU motors provides a decent amount of weight directly over the motor bogie. So far it has had no problems pushing and pulling itself and the other driving car under DCC at low speed. The test track at home is only 4 feet long so high speed running is not an option (or advisable as there is a three foot drop at the end ). I also have some self adhesive tyre balancing weights that are useful if added mass is required. Cheers Darius

Second driving trailer bodyshell nearly finished - needs roof rainstrips and vents plus some body side details to be added. The shell is not fixed to the chassis yet- just popped it on to check the fit. I also replaced the cylindrical tanks next to the bogies with new ones fashioned from plastic tube and card - the kit-supplied ones were too large in diameter and looked wrong. Cheers Darius

DCC harness and wires connected to circuit board - space left for possible connection of LED lights . Tested on DCC and works fine - hurrah!!! Wires tidied up within depth of chassis. Cheers Darius

Added pickups and wired up the trailing bogie. Motor wired up and in place. Will solder wires to some circuit board in the centre of teh chassis and then attach a DCC harness to the board. Cheers Darius

Thanks Titan, I'll get the brake shoes removed. Cheers Darius

Started on the motor coach today using the motor from a Bachmann DMU (obained as a spare chassis from eBay - not wrecking a complete DMU for the motor). The motor block and motor bogie are removed from the Bachman chassis. DMU bogie sides removed and Class 508 bogie sides cemented in place. Other bogie assembled at the same time. Hole for motor bogie cut in MTK aluminium chassis and chassis sides cut down by 1mm in motor location to get correct ride height. Plasticard strips cemented either side of hole to strengthen chassis and to provide a fixing point for the Bachmann motor block. Cheers Darius

I considered grafting the Piranha cab and end onto the MTK body shell but the profiles were different and I would need to saw 10mm of each end of the body shell. That and having to butt join the resin cab ends made me persevere with the kit cast ends. Piranha is releasing the resin kit part by part so eventually there should be sufficient parts available to build a complete carriage. Until that time there is this kit... Our joint efforts should ensure that an RTR model appears before not too long Cheers Darius

Made a start on an interior for the driving coach. A plasticard template was shaped (took two attempts) to create the door vestibule and carriage end partitions. The template was used to make several more - each partition was laminated from two sheets for rigidity. The door vestibule partitions had the glazed and walk-through areas removed and brass wire used to form the grab rails. The coach end partitions had the doors scribed in place. Partitions cemented in place - the door recess plastic helped reinforce this connection. Floor and seating units constructed. I had one less seat than the prototype in order for people's legs to fit between the seats - I know space for people's legs and arms was not really a consideration in the full-sized trains but there is a limit to observation of the prototype. As the floor width is wider at seating level than the gap at the base of the bodyshell (due to the tumblehome) the seating units were split lengthways so that they could be inserted without having to pry apart the boodyshell. Cheers Darius

Rainstrips added using plasticard strips and kit-supplied brass wire. Kit white metal roof vents added. Plastcard doorsteps added. Cheers Darius

The kit came with a Black Beatle motor bogie but I plan to graft in the motor and motor bogie from a Bachman Class 108 DMU. I have done this for other DMU and EMU kits that I have built. Cheers Darius

Lowered Cheers Darius

Thanks David, It should be simple to drop the ride height by a few mm. Looking at the roof profile compared to the Mk1 it could do with being lower to avoid loading gauge issues. Cheers Darius

Started on the underframe using the pressed aluminim part supplied with the kit. I added plasticard layers to thicken the part to level it with the lower edges of the bodysides. Screw holes were drilled to enable it to be fixed to the "shelves" moulded with the cast whitemetal ends. The plastic bogie mounting parts were also screw-fixed to the chassis. I used plasticard pieces to thicken this area so the screws have a purchase. The kit-supplied underframe boxes etc. were cemented in place as per the instructions - most of them fitted. There is a random selection of bits for this but they are insufficient for the complete four-car train so some scratch building will be needed. Cheers Darius

Plasticard strip used to create door recesses. Brass doors cleaned up and cemented to plasticard recesses. White metal cab and corridor connection ends fixed and will be left overnight to set. Will fill joints and then create a better-defined chamfer to the body ends. This is a distinctive characteristic of these units and the cast parts look a bit wishy washy in this area. Cheers Darius

I have seen and purchased these - they are resin casts of 3D printed parts. They look good but the profile (most likley correct) does not match that of the brass bodyshells. The eBay parts are the first in a series of parts to make a complete kit with the alter parts to follow. I have decided to persevere with the NNK/MTK kit because I am an awkward sod Cheers Darius

I thought about leaving the flush doors in place but it would have bothered me so I decided to cut them out and re-mount them inset from the main body. Sliding the bodyshell over the edge of the modelling table onto the cutting mat helped with this. The pre-curved tumblehome did flatten out a bit with this process but it was reasily re-profiled. Only three more bodyshells to go To rest my aching arms, I moved on to the bogies. These are provided as white metal sides with the standard chuncky plastic MTK mounting frames. I had bought a bag of plastic bogies cheap from somewhere a few years ago and this included a load of Class 508 style bogies. These had better and more consistent detail than the white metal sides and were modified to fit on the MTK mounting frames, which were themselves cut back to redued their "chunkiness". Wheel bearing holes were marked out and drilled. They run quite freely. Cheers Darius