SomethingTrainLover

So following Skarloey's completion, I decided to take a note from Luke aka Expl_Cookie,(I recommend checking out his twitter @Expl_Cookie for Talyllyn and very well done RWS modeling, especially his own SR collection), which was to buy another bodyshell and convert it to an earlier spec, namely, 1860's as built and delivered. Now he had done the aforementioned build and circa 1930s era, the latter taking heavy inspiration from how Talyllyn looked during the same period. I decided to just do as delivered...for now. 
Anyway, I ordered a shell and running board from Bachmann's parts department and got to work, much of it exactly the same as I had done to my "modern" shell. So the cab plate was cut, cab mostly gutted, smokebox handrails filed down and a proper one added. The main difference was that I completely sanded down the tank handrails with no wire ones to replace them. Body then went through the normal priming, painting, transfers. The spare running board was put through a bit more, the splashers were cut off and excess plastic removed and the left hand sandbox was cut off and then filled in with a piece of styrene and tamiya putty. It was then painted. Lastly I had some spare wire which I bent and cut to the correct size and painted to make the cab rail.
The end result was, I think, pretty good:

I had mentioned previously that I did prepare a back tank with no cab so Rheneas would also be able to be in as built condition, as can be seen:

For now, Skarloey and Rheneas are done, bar varnishing which I keep putting off. I do however eventually want to get another shell for each of them, given their liveries are, by all means, their 1860s ones. In the books they've been seen to have carried the same liveries but the corners are straight edged, not indented. Either that or I go at Rheneas and Skarloey's main shell and attack the corners of the lining and add new sections of transfers to make them straight edged.

So after I had Rheneas, mostly, finished, I moved on to getting Skarloey done. I started by cutting off rid the metal slab in the cab so the forward cab windows could now actually be windows. The smokebox hand rails were then filed down and the molded knobs were used as guides to drill out holes for some proper ones. Once the holes were deep enough I filed and sanded down the rest of the molded piece. The knobs themselves are Alan Gibson short knobs with the handrail wire off an HO engine. 

The model was then stripped, and using the molded tank handrails as a guide, I drilled out two holes for new proper ones, the wire used also came from an HO engine.

After these holes were drilled out, the molded handrails were sanded down till the tank was smooth, bar the rivet detail of course.

The new handrails were carefully bent to length and shape, using pics of Talyllyn as a guide. I had noticed that others modeling Talyllyn using the Bachmann Skarloey have had a tendency to make the handrails stick out quite a lot, nothing against these models of course, these conversions almost always tend to turn out brilliantly, but I did want to avoid it. This meant constantly checking the length against the body and accounting for the tank weight that the body sits upon. After the handrails were firmly lined up and glued, Tamiya putty was lightly added to the holes to fill any gaps between the wire and the holes, before being sanded smooth.

The model was then primed and painted red.

The rest of the model was carefully painted through spray and brush techniques. Once the body itself had finished painting, it went off for lining.

The running board itself was still in the midst of being repainted.

This was followed by using water transfers to represent the painted name, as in the books, this was a 4 hour or so process cause the letters just didn't want to stick.

Like Rheneas, the face was replaced by a far superior one from an ertl toy. The handrails were then primed and painted and here he was as originally finished:

Not long after this step, I decided to attempt to copy a few others and give him a decent cab interior. This didn't entirely go to plan, and adding brass inserts was abandoned, with the now visible metal weight instead being painted, but a 3D printed backhead was added

Thankfully, I was able to acquire a NP slimline kit and after a couple days of fiddling and taking it slowly, Skarloey finally got his new cylinders and motion, and he's far better off with it.

Of course I also fitted the included works plates and took order of 2 sets of etched number plates from NP, one for Skarloey and the other for Rheneas.

As always, thoughts, comments, opinions, etc etc. welcomed.

36 minutes ago, peterl said:

Are the faces on permanently or can you remove them?

Peter

Swappable with the respective smokeboxes.

Starting this thread up, a recap of what went into converting my stock Bachmann Rheneas into a more prototypical form. I of course acquired the NP Dologchifcation kit for this conversion.

I started off by dissembling the model and went straight for that admittedly terrible funnel. Started by cutting off the funnel and then using a grinding bit on my dremel to get rid of the rest of it and the base, then drilled out a new hole. The funnel was fitted, with some excess of the model and funnel being chipped away at.

The model was then stripped completely and the new cab included with the kit built, This also required some grinding away at the coal load in the right hand bunker, which i chose to keep cause...reasons. I also primed and painted the cab, making sure that I liked the red I got to represent the Skarloey Railway's red in the books, it's darker in pics but in most lighting it's pretty bright. I also fit the etched smokebox front plate. The body then followed the cab in priming and painting.

I wound up stripping the bodyshell a few times, whether it be after priming and/or painting due to major chips.
I had acquired an Ertl Rheneas toy a year earlier at a flea market, and before this major conversion had already taken the face of the toy, given it's a far better representation of the character from the original TVS Season 4 models, and in turn the books. I also temporarily added the kit handrails and whistle to see how they looked.

Of course, would't be one of my builds without some sort of disaster...So here's a disaster: At this point, my general inexperience with assembling kits like this had started to go a bit wrong, this being the cab. I hadn't really added the roof correctly...at all. I glued the roof before actually bending it to the contour of the cab, so it wasn't exactly resting neatly, nor was the top vent and small traces of glue surrounding it. There was also the fact that I hadn't painted the roof, so i had to paint it black with the rest of the cab bar the coal rails being red. Oh and the coal rails dropped off at the rails and front section that bends near the front of the bunker. What was the real disaster was that it wound up crushed. Won't go deep into the details but some yelling was involved. However, the back section of the cab survived. So I got a bit innovative.

The rear tank was cut free from the remains of the back of the cab, so now I could have as built condition. You also may note that I had started painting the smokebox and side sections black as needed, along with the running board and cylinders now being painted up.

Eventually, another Dolgochification kit arrived and learning from the first build, I assembled the cab fairly quickly, minus roof and vent, which were both carefully bent to the contour's of the cab and glued together and painted separately. It was at this point that I forced myself to add the kit splashers and remove the stock ones. the cab and splashers were quickly primed and sprayed red.

Compared to a stock Bachmann Skarloey

Eventually, January 2019 came and I finally made myself get back to work on Rheneas after about a month doing nothing on him. Granted i was away at University and then away for all of Christmas to New Years, but still, it was time. I managed to pick off another usable part of that Ertl Rheneas, the sticker nameplates. They were in incredibly good condition and at this point the Ertl Rheneas had given up it's smokebox for another project i was working on, and I'm not kidding about that. I also painted the cab window lenses brass and the coal rail black.

Then I started the part I had been holding off on...the lining. This was my first time ever using waterslide transfer decals. So I got to work. I also finished up the actual smokebox itself and added the cab roof proper.

And soon after I added everything else, bar the westinghouse pump, still need to get to that, from the kit and finished any paint daps and touch ups. And skipping forward about a year, with the number plates and letter decals being applied, along with using glue n glaze for the windows, here he is:

 My RWS Rheneas, with a sneak peak at the next engine that will be addressed on this thread :

Opinions, feedback, thoughts, etc. are welcomed and appreciated.

For anyone reading this: Sadly in November of last year my twitter account was permanently banned cause Twitter false flagged one of my tweets as violating their rules, what this means is that ALL the photos posted to this thread no longer show up. While not necessarily lost, it would be grueling to repost every single wip photo that hasn't been uploaded via my current account. I won't hide this old thread, but I'll be keeping it as an archive for the written aspects of the posts. A new thread will eventually be started, as of writing this April 2021. Maybe.

Decided to start up a separate thread for my 009 stuff to make it easier for others it may interest to find and see. For those unaware, I mainly model The Railway Series, which in this topic means the Skarloey Railway and Mid-Sodor. I'm mainly focusing on doing the Skarloey rn. 

So Welcome, please feel free to give feedback, thoughts, etc.

Looking excellent, may steal your method for getting rid of the pillars for my RWS coaches ;). Still waiting for the Meridian Models Coach 3 and Brake 5 to come back into production before I can have the full original "vintage" rake though.

On 06/02/2020 at 05:03, lapford34102 said:

Hi,

I use Tamiya flat a lot and rarely get an issue. It sounds like you either need to thin it more or going on too thickly.  A couple of questions, when you say spray is that with an airbrush and are you using Tamiya thinners.

Out of curiousity no access to Mr Hobby/Gunze paints ?

 

Stu

No I use the aerosol spray 

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has ever used any of the Tamiya clear coats, gloss, semigloss, or flat(matte) to varnish over Fox Transfer lining? I’ve experimented a bit on a spare body and using spare lining, and I either spray too close and it starts to peel as the coat dries or too far and it starts to almost frost, it just look like the body is misted permanently. Anyone have any advice? And for the record, Tamiya is the only hobby brand I really have access to, being in the US and all.

Looking for either a complete, unbuilt Meridian Models 009 TR Brakevan No.5 kit, or one that's been partially completed or fully completed. Must ship to the US. Message or reply with offers, much regards.

It’s odd, speaking solely on their looks, not that big a fan of Thompson’s Pacifics, but in model form, even the early samples Hornby has shown, they look very appealing. I’m tempted to pick up one of the A2/3s but I should probably wait until after I’ve gotten the W1.

On 24/01/2020 at 11:45, Phil Parker said:

 

I brought up the subject of Annie and Clarabel being 4-wheeled models but bogie coaches in the only acceptable guide - the first 26 books. The people on the stand looked at me as though I was mad...

 

Tri-ang shorties are perfect when painted brown to recreate the coaches AS THEY SHOULD BE!

 

(I also complained that Edward wasn't part of their initial offering. I'm fed up of that upstart Thomas getting all the glory. He didn't turn up until book 2)

Or Stanier 57’ Subs ;). I used the cheap Dapol ones personally

Anyway, I’m surprised they aren’t also starting with ANY Ng stock, though it would’ve been wise too given the huge amount of 009 buyers.

The first prototypes for the UK release of the models have been revealed. Thomas himself has thicker lamp irons, thicker dummy couplings(which are now painted black), and thicker eyebrows. They also reportedly run smoother than their US equivalents and now have 18 pin DCC sockets, so yes, they’re DCC ready now.

Got around to finally getting a bunch of them, 2 reds and one of the blues are now converted into the Standard SR coach stock blue w/ cream as seen in the RWS.

Now I just need Coach 3 and Van 5 to complete the full original “vintage” rake

Well the coaches in the show that the red coaches are "based on", as seen in the catalog, are the ones seen in the CGI era, which is loosely based on Coach 4, but it's proportions and dimensions are just all over the place. The only "base" those "provided" for the Bachmann model was the TR livery.
In terms of the classic series, ie S4, then yeah. The red coaches in S4 were based off Coaches 1-2, but the livery was as Tom said, Black foot boards, red livery with the waist level paneling painted yellow and the number 1 painted in yellow on the doors.

On 28/07/2019 at 20:57, 298 said:

 

Only on one side....

You'll be happy to know both coaches only have the doors on one side. They're as I thought they would be, accurate to their prototypes. Shame I can't get my hands on mine until after Christmas. Even then, the 2 red's will be painted into their RWS liveries, may have to repaint the blue too, to match the red after the repaint.

News at last. 
The shipments with the coaches are finally starting to arrive in the US. Some model shops already have them, as some people have picked them up. And Bachmann's US store now has them available to purchase.

So for the few of you who actually look at this thread, you'll remember, and probably just scroll up otherwise, that I discussed in detail my RWS Percy. Since that post, Knuckles, aka SCC, created and released the Green Goblin range, for the W4 Peckett chassis and a eventually it's own specific chassis. 
I started by cut away at any remaining sprues, filling in the print lines and small gaps, boring out the handrail knob holes etc etc. Percy Mk2 is painted in the same color as the earlier MK1, Tamiya Park Green. It's fitted with Alan Gibson small knobs, handrails off a junked HO engine and of course, the chassis of a W4. The Green Goblin kits come included with cylinder shrouds that fit over the W4 cylinders to fill the gap between them and the running board and to beef them up a bit. Also included is a backhead, which I of course also painted and fitted.

The front buffers are Bachmann sprung ones out of those spare packs, mounted on modded 3D printed bases, which came from some old 3D printed buffers. The whistle is also from the SCC range, the vacuum pipe is a spare off an E4. The front coupling is a sprung screw link, shortened behind the bufferbeam with a new hole drilled out and using a cut down spring to still allow it to be sprung. Rear buffers are from the ones included in the kit. The chassis donor was one of the 560 Pecketts, with the red paint stripped off the rods as other examples of this kit on the whole have kept this, which while interesting and nice looking, is incorrect to the illustrations.

The number is a temporary one. It's a left over from the MK1, as I had lost my decal paper and as such had to settle with the sticker paper spare. As a result, the number is not entirely stuck on and is only applied to the seen side,

From here on, the only real plan for Percy is to add a rear dummy coupling, probably a Vacuum pipe as well, and I'm considering getting the spare motion off another W4 that has the motion entirely blackened. As can be seen there is quite a bit of contrast between the blackened crosshead and the connecting & coupling rods.

Just now, RJS1977 said:

 

Relatively obscure? Daisy and Peter Sam are proper Awdry characters..... ;-)

 

It may also be that in the case of Peter Sam there's the possibility of releasing it in the main range as Edward Thomas, although they haven't done that with Skarloey and Rheneas (yet).

Nah, due to how the licensing is, and doubly because Mattel was the one who effectively commissioned Bachmann to make the NG engines, Bachmann can’t reuse the toolings for the engines to make the TR engines for their main range.

Surprised by the fact the packaging appears to be unchanged. Thought this would’ve been a good time to make the move to more conventional packaging given the current stuff is...well it’s not good for reselling unless you know the few tricks to remove the model and keep it mostly intact.

Edit: Just found out that they are indeed doing new packaging, though whether it’s just modified from this style or a more conventional style remains to be seen. I’ve also heard that they maybe removing details such as lamp irons for the UK due to the lower age demographic.

2 hours ago, eldomtom2 said:

Bachmann are definitely aiming for the adult market - see their big new releases for 2020 being the relatively obscure Daisy and Peter Sam as opposed to new main characters of the CGI series Rebecca and Nia.

Tbf, Narrow gauge range sells well, mainly due to the 009 market and accurate TR engines, bar Rusty though there is a reason for that, so them making the Skarloey engines and NG stock in general makes sense. And Daisy was very prominent since she was brought back some years ago, until the major change in format last year. But I definitely get what you mean.

On 02/11/2019 at 22:43, Ribird said:

Maybe not right thread, but the Bachmann US site has the prices for all trains and rolling stock increased by a huge amount. For example: the Bachmann Skarloey was priced at around $100. Now they are showing a price of $155. That is just one example. Bachmann Gordon, now $155

Not really that surprising, Bachmann raises the prices of the main range a bit every year. Though the Bachmann Skarloey has always been that price straight from Bachmann. The prices right from Bachmann have always been ridiculously high, the actual prices from retailers is always much more accurate and fair, and it is mainly due to the license fees.

On 02/10/2019 at 10:32, Corbs said:

Looks great, like you say really nicely balanced. Not dissimilar to the WW1 Baldwins and Hunslets in proportions.

Aye thanks. Yeah, that was the sort of vibe I was going for. Got a banged up Ertl Lady a couple months ago at a train show, so that's currently in progress. Plan to make that engine a sister engine, with a few alterations of course.

So it's been a while. So about 2 years ago, I bought an unfinished bash of a 009 engine from a friend. It was bashed from an Ertl Lady with a brass funnel and dome, running on a 7000 chassis. It was meant to be an 0-4-2T, with the trailing set coming from shapeways.

Of course I did try to finish it...buuuut that quickly fell through with the chassis proving temperamental. Eventually I broke up the body for the plasticard, took most of the paint off and kept it in my draw of many bits. Cut to nearly a year later in the summer of 2018, I stumbled across a Bachmann US N scale 0-6-0 that was lost years ago. Suddenly, I had a bit of epiphany, and took the body off the chassis, and dug out the old bashed shell. To my surprise, I could make it work, but i would need to grind down parts of the body internally and I would need to do the same to parts of the chassis. Just so happened I nabbed a cheap dremel a few days prior, honestly the timing couldn't have been better. 
So I got to work, and within a few hours, and learning I would need safety goggles cause flying metal bits, she looked like this: 

I should also mention that the initial plan was to make her an 0-6-4, using the screw slot for extra motor support to hold a spare bogie set off a piece of N scale rolling stock.

However, there was one major issue: The body was limited to how far back it could go by the short smokebox, meaning the cab and bunker would be MASSIVE. But then I had an idea, using the Ertl Rheneas I had recently disassembled for its face (Look up the thread to see where that went), I could theoretically cut off the smokebox of both bodies and use the Ertl Rheneas smokebox on the Lady body...so I did. It wasn't easy, had to grind out a lot of die-cast from inside the smokebox and completely hollow it out and cut a slot in the bottom of it.

I also conveniently had the running board piece from an Ertl Lady i had had years ago. This was broken up, with the rear section and bunker being roughly made and sanded down to become the bunker and rear of the engine.

By this point, disaster struck with the wheels on the chassis de-quartering and I was unable to fix it. So I decided to look into a new one and discovered that the chassis block is shared between 3 different wheelbase variants, these varying in terms of pony truck and rear truck. So i decided to switch from the original 0-6-4 plan to making her a nice and far more balanced 2-6-2.

Other work done was the modification of the pilot to become the bufferbeam, one of the few pieces left over from the original unfinished model, the creation of a smokebox saddle, the tanks were starting to be expanded, and the cab and bunker were well under way.

Tanks were extended and the cab was closed up more, with filler putty being used quite extensively throughout.

Of course eventually, everything was smoothed out. and now it was time for final priming and painting. Decided to settle on a nice blue with red lining, and, after hyping myself up a bit, I decided that I would give her black borders all around. This was about a week of on and off work, and heavy use of my calipers to keep the thickness as even as possible. But at last, over a year and a half after initial purchase, she was done. I had settled on the name "Elise" when I had originally planned to finish her as an 0-4-2. So here she is:

Note that somethings have been changed since these pics were taken; The black bordering just above the rear bufferbeam was extended much further downwards to lessen the amount of red seen, among a few other things.

Been quite busy over the past few weeks, mainly with NG stuff
To start, Rheneas at last had his sticker nameplates off an ertl toy replaced by proper transfer ones, matching Skarloey and the illustrations. 

I also completed a project I've wanted to do for a while, ever since I finished Skarloey's transformation., which was to make Skarloey in his 1864-65 condition. I bought a spare running board and shell off the Bachamnn parts store and got to work. The running board had the splashers removed, and the left hand sandbox taken off and filled in. The bodyshell underwent similar work as the standard "modern" shell, mainly in the cab department. The molded handrails were filed and sanded off, though only on the smokebox did separably fitted handrails get fitted, as Skarloey, much like Talyllyn, wouldn't receive tank handrails for decades. Other than that it was the standard painting and lining procedure although his dome would be painted brass/gold. The shell and running board are meant to be swapped out with the normal shell and running board, with an additional cab bar and the removal of the trailing wheel completing the transformation. And here he is:

53 minutes ago, 9402 Fredrick said:

Idk if there ever was a Hunselt built 4-6-0T for narrow gauge, I know of the Baldwin one, which Bachmann have released already.

There was, they were one of the other notable trench engines alongside the Baldwins.

4 hours ago, HonestTom said:

 

Possibly, although the 0-4-0 Thomas was definitely specifically made for the Thomas range. Pretty sure Dart was too, although I don't know how big the gap was between that being announced and the Railroad version. Maybe they could have got around the issue by developing both at the same time. I must admit, I don't really know how the copyright thing works with this kind of issue. Everyone seems fine with Bachmann developing Talyllyn slate wagons and calling them Skarloey slate wagons first, so who knows?

From my understanding, the engines themselves are the ones under this clause for Bachmann, especially when discussing the NG engines as they were originally commissioned by the current owners, Mattel. The rolling stock I figure is outside of this clause.