NiuModels

The paint is Railmatch Doncaster Green. The photo is a little deceiving as its actually slightly darker then the Hornby green. Both Railmatch and Precision paints have the same issue when matching back against the RTR models.

Back to where we began with our first kit. ACFI Feed Water Heater as fitted to A1 'The White Knight' and A3 'Shotover' between 1928 & 1938. Designed to fit the current Hornby loco drive range, the kit consists of ACFI Support Bracket, Zenith Separator, Boiler Feed Cleat and Smokebox Mixing Chamber, along with etched brass nameplates for either of the two locos. It does require brass or copper rod/wire of various thicknesses to complete the pipework on the model. The photos below show:- 'The White Knight' & 'Shotover' with the ACFI equipment fitted. The kit of parts , including etch nameplates. The parts assembled onto Hornby 'Book Law' Model. Completed model of 'Shotover' after pipework has been added. The kits are £19:50 each and available for both locos.

GNR cabs will be available separately.

Hope to have that one ready soon too. These are a few pics of the second test print of the K3 GNR cab. There's a few tweaks needed to the handrails and fit onto the footplate. I'm hoping to have this ready in a couple weeks.

Rather then having a multitude of separate threads covering our conversion and detailing kits, I decided to cover development and notification of all new kits within this single thread. For the snowplough and other similar models I'll continue to cover separately. I'll summarize our rang so far a bit later, but I'll start this thread off with our latest kit, Gresham & Craven feed water heater and Hulburd boiler cleaner for K3 No. 227, as fitted to the loco from 1935 to 1940. It’s designed to fit onto the current Bachmann K3 model and consists of water feed unit, operating rod for the boiler cleaner and loco front steps. It is a relatively easy kit to assemble onto the model, requiring removal of part of the RH side handrail and locating holes for the operating rod. The photos below show:- No. 227 at York North Shed in 1939. The Bachmann model with the kit assembled (show in grey). Painted and numbered model awaiting living and weathering. It will be available in a couple weeks Price will be £12:50, and will be available either direct from us at niumodels@gmail.com, or from our ebay shop.

Updated photos of our J36 tender cab that fit the current Hornby model. The kit requires minimal alteration to the model to fit. The kit consists of a 3D printed and rear tender steps (show in grey on the Hornby R3621 J36 model). It's available either direct from us or via our ebay shop. at £12:50 plus postage

It will be of the type fitted to 65424. The kit will also include the new loco cab.

No. 7837 with weatherboard fitted , and detailed & weathered.

A number of J15 operated on exposed branchline, that lacked turntable facilities, which required them to spend a large amount of their time running tender first. To offer some protection to the crew, several were fitted with a wooden weatherboard across the front of the tender. Using GER drawings and reference photos we have designed a 3D printed weatherboard that fit the current Hornby J15 model with minimal alteration to the tender. The kit consists of a 3D printed weatherboard and handrail assembly (show in grey on the Hornby R3415 J15 model). It's available either direct from us or via our ebay shop. at £9:50 plus postage

We're slowly building up a range of conversion parts for LNER RTR models. The latest is a GNR cab designed to fit on the Bachmann model, allowing the model to be converted to the K3/1’s No. 4000 to 4009. First test print is test fitted onto our donor loco and looks pretty good.

Our Stovepipe chimney kit on Bachmann V2. Originally in BR green, the model has been and renumbered 813. Detailing, including coal, crew and lamps have been added along with an over all weathering.

Hot off the press is the first test print of the Tender Cab to fit the Hornby J36 model. J36's were regularly assigned for snow-plough duty and a number were fitted with tender cabs to protect the crew during adverse weather. The model is based of the cab fitted to J36 No. 9793 (BR No. 65345) from a number of reference photos. The cab was fitted to the loco early in it's life and remained in place on this loco until it was withdrawn from service is 1967. The CAD design requires a couple alterations to the right hand side and to lower the high. A second test print will be due next week. along with confirmation of the price.

We'd be happy to look into this if someone could forward a few photos or drawings.

60813 test print has arrived.

The test print for the 60813 Chimney and Defector convention has arrived and its been trial fitted on to a Bachmann V2. Pretty pleased with it. I had a few concerns about the angle of the rear of the deflector, but now its on the model, it looks alright. Once the smokebox door plate arrives the kit will be available on e-bay.

I don't disagree with any of those comments. More research has produced more photos which have fed into an updated CAD model.

60813 chimney and deflectors. Heading off for a test print this week.

Tod. We received your email, thanks. The ploughs operated as a pair. They were attached to either end of two of three locomotives. Plough 18 can be seen in the film 'Snowdrift at Bleath Gill'

Hi Steve. We've had a few enquires regarding conversion to EM & P4 wheel sets. The plough chassis is designed for OO Gauge wheel sets, however there is potential to modify the it to accept the wider back to back distance.

I hope you are well and you are surviving the current Covid-19 crisis. Here we’ve been very busy, but unfortunately not with Niu Models. Both the wife and I work in the railway industry and our day jobs have both been extremely busy these past few months as we play our part in keeping the railway running. This, combined with has impact on our suppliers, has meant the release date for the Snowplough model has been put back to spring 2021 at the earliest. If you have register your interested in the Snowplough model, we'll issue out a newsletter in the next few weeks with more details.

Humorist flangeless double chimney show fitted to Hornby A3 body. The parts are a good fit onto the Scotsman body with only slight trimming required to the superheater covers for the winglets. The kit will be available shortly and will include chimney, done, etched brass winglets and Humorist namelates.

First pics of the Humorist 'Stove pipe' smoke box and chimney conversion kit fitted to the Hornby body. I'm reasonable happy with the way it assembled. Fitting the inclined smoke box top was a bit more fiddly then I expected, and does require a bit if trimming to both body and part. The finished kit will include all parts show in blue, as well as etched brass deflectors and 'Humorist' nameplates.

Less then 2 weeks...... OMG......!

The first test prints for the ‘Humorist’ and ‘Coronach’ smoke boxes were a bit of a failure; a combination of design and printing issues. The second test have arrived and look much better. They're being trial fitted to Hornby’s ‘Book Law’ model. We hope to have the kit out to complement our ACFI kit within a few weeks.

Update on the plough. Back in November we had the pleasure to meet Brian Blundell, the owner of plough 18, at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and was allowed access to the preserved plough to photograph and take measurements. These were fed back to our CAD designer and this weekend we received the completed CAD files for the model. Attached are several screen shots for you to view. Renders of each plough in the three liveries will be completed and will be posted up on our Facebook page shortly. With this being our first venture into RTR models, we’d initially intended to dip our toe into the market with a limited run of 135 models. However, the response from the Expression of Interest has been incredible with more than twice this number of emails received. We are therefore looking at increasing the production run to meet this demand. The model will be released in North Eastern Indian Red, LNER Engineering Blue, and British Rail black liveries. With all three ploughs represented in each livery. We will release the pre-order scheme in the spring once we’ve firmed up manufacturing costs and confirmed the price. At present we anticipate it will be in the region of £45 per model, with a release date in late summer. To register your interest in the Snowplough and be kept up to date with developments of this and other models, please email us at Niumodels@gmail.com