Macforrest

Brass parts added and Primer coats finished. A few coats of satin black should conceal any blemishes still visible at this stage (except the wrongly positioned holes!)

Some progress on the Mk2 BFK - moulded detail removed and holes drilled for handrails and lamp brackets. It looks quite brutal even though three grades of abrasive strip were used to tidy up after the scalpel blade was wielded. The Lima plastic is quite soft and marks easily, but this should be concealed once a couple of coats of primer have been applied. This should also cover up the handrail hole drilled in incorrect position which has unfortunately gone through the nicely moulded door hinge!

Finally finished! I have to admit to not having been able to find time to fully commit to this, it shouldn't have taken this long! As ever, the wheels make quite a difference and the glint of the discs is quite satisfying. A little bit of finishing to do as I feel the satin varnish I used to seal in the decals is a bit glossy so I'll apply a coat of matt to soften it to a closer match to the roof and bodysides. Only fitted the train supply sockets to one end, so other end still to do but they add that little bit of extra detail goes a long way to improving the overall look of the model.

Another small step....corridor side safety grab rail. I'd already fitted this, painted satin grey, when I came across a photo of a similar vehicle from the correct era (i.e. not a 21st century refurbishment painted in a retro livery) and saw it should be yellow. I had vague memories of this being correct but no evidence! Simply a strip of Plastruct mounted on a couple of slightly thicker blocks of styrene strip to ensure the rail stands slightly off the back of the glazing.

I also bought a 'catering jeffery and his trolley' to accessorise the TSOT trolley bay

The detail packs from West Hill Wagon Works arrived and the Mk3 pipes and connectors have received a few coats of white primer. Viewed up close the fine detail is quite impressive....

The West of England were old Fox transfers. Numbers (not required for this BFK) are Railtec and the coach classification/braking/heating for most of the Mk2 projects and the HST trailers were bespoke from Rainbow Railways. No smoking and 1st class are either Railtec or Precision reverse printed.

Waiting on the detailing parts from West Hill Wagonworks for the Mk3, so I've made a start on a Lima Mk2 BFK. This is numbered as Mk2a 17086, so already correct for the trains being modelled and as you can see I had (many years ago now) already applied 'West of England' route branding and repainted the light grey lower body stripe of original NSE livery which was applied to this model. Not a lot different between this and the TSO-TSOT conversion (which was probably more interesting to everyone!) other than the different window configuration, so the usual process of removing buffer beams, moulded handrail and lamp bracket detail and filing of window apertures has begun.

Nothing new, but the other end of TSOT 6502; for some reason I have only replaced the lamp bracket mouldings with brass fittings at this end and I've also experimented with the electric train supply cable, drilling a 0.4mm hole in the moulding and stripping the outer of some thin multi strand wire leaving a mm or so of the exposed wire to push into the hole. Thinner wire is needed and I don't think it's worth doing this on anything but the end coaches of the rake. I also note West Hill Wagon Works produce ETH cables for MK1 & 3 coaches (but not Mk2!) so putting in an order for some of these to add to the TRFM....

Whilst I was waiting for replacement door droplights which appeared to be missing from my Laserglaze pack I managed to get some time to apply the first class'1's and no smoking decals. These are reverse printed from Precision Decals; quite fiddly and time consuming to apply as they need to be separated from the carrier film one at a time to avoid leaving them submerged too long, as this results in them breaking up. I used the tip of a small cotton bud to position and rotate them. The end result is definitely a reward for the patience required! Brian at Shawplan was quick to get the replacement parts mailed to me and I took the opportunity to stock up on glazing for a Lima Mk3 TGS and a couple for Mk2fs, so hopefully I can get started on a couple more coaches soon....

Perfect for my recreation of an XC set then!

Making good progress though this project shouldn't really have taken this long! Risking trying to be too clever I've tried to replicate the 'peephole' of the frosted kitchen section windows. I applied a tiny dab of Maskol in as much of a circular blob as I could manage and painted over in matt white. Once dried, Maskol was picked off as carefully as possible with the tip of a scalpel blade. With a bit of messing around I'm sure a better result could be achieved but from normal viewing distance it doesn't look too bad!

Before I seal the (rather old!) Fox decals with a coat of satin varnish, the question of what type of vehicle this is needs to be answered! The Lima model is numbered 40619, which is listed (1990) as a TRFM, converted from a TRFB. I think this has the correct window arrangement for this, but I'm no expert.... The close up of the removable coach ends doesn't do the paint finish any favours. but does show the intricate moulding detail applied to the door latches etc, which goes to show just how good this model was for the time despite other shortcomings that often get mentioned.

Some further painting of the interior has been completed just to hide the expanse of bright orange plastic. Not entirely sure of the colour the buffet counter would have been during the period modelled. I referenced a couple of photos from another topic on here which showed first class seats as fawny grey with pink flecks. Whether this would also apply to restaurant vehicles I don't know, but I've not had any success finding pictures of the prototype. Anyway, I hope it gives the right feel to the vehicle.... Glazing on the corridor side has not been fitted yet as the interior was a tight fit with only one side done, so I opted to put that in place first then fit the remaining glazing. This wasn't the case for the open coach which was my first conversion.

Some work to prepare the roof for re-fitting; disc cutter on the mini-drill makes short work of thick plastic that forms the glazing. Cutting just above the 'windows' leaves enough of an overlap to secure the roof without have to use adhesive and does not interfere with the Laserglaze.

Another small task completed.... Lima wheels removed to be replaced by Gibson wheels. Before fitting, Stenson 9.5mm etched disc brake inserts were attached, a few drops of superglue spread over the back of the discs is enough to get a good fix. Careful placement is required to ensure they are not off centre! I think a picture paints a thousand words about how much this easy mod improves the look of the bogies....

I've progressed to painting the interior, ideally this needs to be refitted before the Laserglaze is installed on both sides as the clearance is reduced due to the thickness of the glazing units. I've coloured the seats in a matt fawn with a satin cream to represent the melamine tables. I'm assuming the armrests would be a similar colour to the seats, but can't actually find any reference pictures of a first class restaurant of this era. I referred to a colour picture of the then new Mk4 interior, which would be the right time period but may be completely incorrect! I would be grateful if anyone has photo's they would be willing to share!

Does anyone have any photos of the interior of any type of Mk3 buffet from the 1987-early 1990s period? I'm currently painting the seating & buffet counter insert of a Lima TRFB and would be most grateful for any reference material. Thanks!

Hi James, no plans to re-bogie, though if a 3D-printed option became available it may be tempting. To be honest, I've had these sat here for ages since I started removing the buffers and they are just gathering dust. Still waiting for someone to produce a rectangular buffer back-plate....

Turns out the easiest thing to do is to cut each of the pieces into two, carefully file and sand the longer half and fit as four separate windows!

Started with the glazing as this is the simplest of the jobs...maybe. The difficult bit looking at the parts as they come out of the packet are the two narrow windows behind the buffet 'counter'. The first option will be to have a go at paring back the central pillar of the window frame and fitting the glaze behind. If this doesn't work it it will need to be cut away completely and painted on to the new glazing.

Hi Chris, just some simple improvements along the same lines as the TS I tweaked back in Feb 2022.... wheels/disc brakes, buffers, painted interior (maybe some modification to the buffet counter) and fitting Laserglaze. This will be the interesting bit to see if the results are as good with the tiny window apertures as they were on a standard Mk3 passenger coach. I find that a simpler task like this one is good for getting re-acqainted with the tools and materials after a long break!!

So..... the vehicle has been broken down into it's constituent parts

It's been a while since I stated my intention to start this next mini-project, but I managed to find a whole spare hour over Christmas to take the first steps on this to hopefully get me kick-started to progress a couple more coaches....