justin1985

Many thanks for the replies! I think I'll just get a replacement air dam from BR Lines for the split one, and then experiment with the "plug and socket" approach using small holes and wire, as suggested by etched pixels. Justin

I'm in the middle of detailing a Farish cl.90, and as part of the project I'm trying to attach the air dam, moulded in the 'oily' plastic of the bogie frames, onto the base of the plastic body. However, I've not had any luck! So far poly cement produced only a very brittle joint, and two-part epoxy failed to key well at all, and simply peeled away once the air dam was poked! I've just tried butanone, but it doesn't seem to be having any more luck ... any other suggestions? Also, I've managed to split one of the air dams where I've tried to cut out the coupler pocket - trying to glue this plastic back to itself is even less successful! Butanone doesn't even seem to touch it when trying to glue it to itself! Thanks Justin

Thanks for all the replies! Quite silly of me not to think of the Farish Mk1 as a donor - it is the most obvious option! However I don't actually have any of the old Mk1s, and amazingly they still haven't hit rock bottom on eBay, so this could be an expensive option. (I also need two for some EMU barrier coaches I'm doing with Hurst overlays). I guess I was thinking that Ultima\BHE\someone "must" do a Mk1 roof section, despite not being able to find one! The TPM chassis kit had been my first thought, but the Bachmann chassis unit that is required as donor seems to be doing a very good impression of hen's teeth at the moment! The Greenmax chassis is pretty much spot on dimensionally and only worked out to cost about £20-£25 from 1999.co.jp so I thought I'd live with the boxy underframe.

I've been very busy recently with things other than modelling, but Boxing Day has given me a chance to do a little more work on my N gauge collection. Back in the summer I spoke to Allan Doherty of Worsley Works at the 2mm Association Expo, and asked whether there was any chance of getting his Class 309 etches adapted to the refurbished version of the units with hopper style windows instead of the original Mk1 sliding windows. Very soon after the etches arrived, and have sat in my "gloat box" ever since ... ... until now! I made a start on the the TS, as the simplest of the coaches that make up the unit. As I understand these were simply standard Mk1 coaches inserted into the 4 car versions of the 309. However, as far as I can see from the few pictures online, the TS doesn't carry much of the standard Mk1 underframe equipment, so for now I've only built up the underframe trussing with none of the other equipment. 71569 (TS) at Stratford on 4th April 1985 The MBS is probably going to be the next item on the agenda, and I'm planning to build this around a Greenmax chassis, and try and fabricate a low relief impression of the underframe equipment to disguise the rather low-slung chassis. One problem I've hit though is the roof - I had planned to use some sections of Mk1 profile roof that I'd obtained from the 2mm Assoc shop. Despite being a perfect fit in terms of profile and height, they are a few mm too short! I guess this is the scale difference between N and 2mm. Other than cut-and-shutting some of these, can anyone recommend an alternative?

I can identify with what you are trying to do here! In the end I gave up on having a roundy-roundy (for now at least). I do wonder if there might be more mileage in trying to fit a Tomix close coupling unit to the coaches rather than producing sprung buffers in N. As far as I'm aware there aren't any N sprung buffers commercially available at all, and I've never even seen anyone using them in 2mm Finescale. The old Farish 4 wheel coaches were very much freelance, and i think had quite a long fixed wheelbase, as well as no close-coupling. Chances are you would have had the same problems. However, if you're looking for an off the shelf solution, you might consider changing to German prototype? There are quite a lot of short wheelbase steam locos available in N, as well as quite a range of 4 wheel coaches. Some of which have close-coupling mechanisms as standard (look for "kurzkupplung" or the logo that looks like =)(= in the catalogues). Fleischmann 4 wheel composite coach

This is looking great! The point motors, trunking and ducting really transform the PECO track and make it look much more believable. The green foam looks good in that shot, like typical low weeds. Those equipment cabinets would look great with a little weathering and some more weeds, maybe long dead grass etc around them. Justin

I would probably be interested in some ends for an early 317, although maybe etched sides would be better than vinyls to portray the bodyside vents, hopper windows etc. I hadn't really thought of butchering Farish Mk3s, but there should be quite a glut of them now the Dapol model is well established. You've inspired me to think about designing a 321 cab for Shapeways 3D printing ...

Those bright metal coupling rods really do make the model look "unfinished". Looks like they need a very good dunking in blackening fluid! As people have said, not what you expect on a model over £100! After getting the wheels and motion to look so good on the B17, its amazing how Dapol have managed to step backward with the Britannia and B1. But then thinking back, wasn't the first release of the Hymek a bizzare backward step, with steamroller wheels? I can only imagine, but would be happy to be corrected, that Dapol change their Chinese sub-contractor for chassis really quite often, or that one subcontractor is a little variable in quality or interpretation of specifications. Once a batch of chassis have turned up in the UK, I don't imagine there is much choice but just to accept them in the form they end up having been finished in. So often with Dapol it seems to end up being "so nearly, but not quite"

317? or 455? Or both? Is this the first sign of a new kit?

Hi Nick, Glad you like the look of the project! Yup, on the prototype the couplings are BSI, but Dapol have used off the shelf Tomix TN couplers that are generally described as "Scharfenberg", although they actually do look more similar to the BSIs with their square character. JapanModelRailways shop Overview of TN couplers Justin

Hi Jo, Thanks for your thoughts! I started off thinking I would thin down the ploughs width-wise as well, but looking at prototype shots again, I was wondering if in fact the width was correct. On the prototype it does look wider than I'd expected. However looking logically, it seems like in reality it should be about half way between the width where the bottom of the cab tapers, and the full width before it tapers. On the model it is the same width as the body, so perhaps 0.5mm on each side? I'm not intending to change the livery or renumber, so I'm planning to leave the cab alone - I don't think its as noticeable as the lack of bodyside tumblehome, but then I'm not going to do anything about that either! The rainstrip is on the separate roof moulding though, so I probably will thin that down before I weather the roof. How are you planning to couple the 153 to the 150? Add a scharfenberg to the 150, or a rapido to the 153? Annoyingly you can't seem to get Tomix couplers for NEM sockets, or any other coupler with the Tomix close-coupler mount! Cheers Justin

Several people have said that the Dapol 153 isn't quite as convincing as the Farish 150, for example. I'm inclined to agree, but for my plans of a layout set in East Anglia in the early-mid 1990s, a 153 in Regional Railways livery is pretty much an essential! When I was able to pick one up on eBay for about half the RRP recently, I thought I'd think about how to improve it. The most obvious thing that screams "wrong" is the snowplough. It juts out far too far at the top - I have no idea why, its not as if that is needed to operate with the scharfenberg couplings. So, I attacked them with a file. Just a few minutes with a needle file, working cross-wise and following the angle of the lower edge of the plough yielded something much more acceptable. The general shape is pretty much correct, its just that the top is carried far too far forward. See before and after: The next problem (certainly with my model) was that the Scharfenberg coupling was very sloppy, and seemed to like to hang out to one side at a 45 degree angle. I've not actually had the chance to play with another model equipped with a close-coupling Tomix TN coupler like this, so I don't know if this is how its designed to be, but I suspect not. The coupling housing just pulls off the bottom of the model, and while the back of it appears to have been melted together with a soldering iron, the front unclips. To tighten things up a bit I made sure that the metal spring was sitting on top of the coupling arm and that the arm's pin was between the two prongs of the spring, then used fine tweezers to really tighten them in together as much as I could. I pulled each side right across the other and bent it as much as I could so that the two prongs now rest almost touching in the middle. This retains the coupler arm much better and stops it from slopping right out, while still letting it slide forward and return naturally. The last thing that really grabs me about the model is the windows. While they are reasonably well moulded and sit quite flush, the thick silver printed line around the bottom half makes it appear as if they're not, and makes the windows look under-size! What I would like to do is remove the window strip, clean off the silver printing below the "hopper", and then run a little silver pen around the inside of the window frame (rather than the window itself) to give the correct impression. However, I can't seem to get the windows out! Unclipping the roof lets you get at the window moulding, but they also seem to be retained by the seat moulding from below. I can't seem to find a way to safely unclip the main bodyside moulding that would give access to this. Has anyone done this successfully?

This layout is looking seriously good! Do you have any more details on the TPWS grids you have found? Cheers, Justin (PS. looks like you've made a better job of painting the yellow stripe on the Clam than I've managed! How did you mask it?)

Whoops! Bit of a slip up there ... which reminds me, I must at least get around to putting some Easitrac on a plank to pose models on properly (I've been using that section of copperclad on the wood stick as a base for airbrushing weathering) Kris, the transfers on the wagons ... I'm pretty sure the LSWR lettering is from Fox (they do a small range of pre-group Southern area wagon transfers amongst all the modern stuff!), and the two private owner sides are from either POWSides or Dragon Models (I think POWSides 2mm only available via the N gauge society, and Dragon only via BH Enterprises). Both these are rub-down, rather than waterslide like Fox, which can be quite tricky on a 2mm model, although I should try to build a "model holder" as per Geoff Jones was demonstrating at Oxford, which should make it easier with a surface level with the wagon side. I've only just noticed that the text on the 1887 wagon isn't level now!

As I described in my last post, I have been modelling in both 1:148 N gauge, and 1:152 2mm FS. The high quality of modern N gauge modern-image stock has meant I have decided to concentrate my 2mm FS efforts in the pre-grouping stock, and (for now) accept N gauge wheel\track standards for my modern stock (although ElDavo's handbuilt N track on Waton is quite tempting!). Although I have a Fencehouses Model Foundry 2mm J72 kit "on the go", I haven't made much progress on it in the last year or more. The chassis binds quite a lot, and I think my efforts to correct it and perfect the quartering have actually bent the chassis frame! I now think think the problem might have been as simple as having failed to ensure the crankpins were correctly aligned on the wheels, introducing eccentricity here. However I think I'll probably try and get hold of a replacement chassis etch and try again from scratch, building on what I've learnt in the process (and use waisted crankpins from the 2mm shop rather than the steel pin supplied in the kit). I have managed to complete a reasonable collection of goods stock though. Mainly these are 2mm Assoc. shop items, including quite a few private owner wagons. I've also got a pair of LNWR vans ready for painting, as well as a pair of GER cattle wagons. Here are three open wagons that are completed with transfers, some weathering and couplings. I've used a mix of B&B and DG couplings so far for this stock, and it seems to work ... In the absence of a working J72 "just to get something running" I used one of the dead-cheap Dapol 73s in mainline livery for a quick conversion, with the supplied wheels turned down. Fortunately the top of the coupling pocket seems to be just about the right height to glue on a DG coupling! I also gave it a quick weathering with Phoenix "sleeper grime" painted on and then swabbed off to tone down the silver, and bring out the grille detail, as well as carving off the bulk of the coupling pocket and some of the box around the underframe detail. (apologies, the other bogie frame is missing in the picture!) Any comments or thoughts much appreciated!

I thought it was about time to post something online about my actual modelling projects. As my previous posts might suggest, my interests are pretty eclectic, but are all in 2mm/N. Basically while I don't really have the space or time for a layout quite yet, I have been working on stock for three broad themes: 1) GER pre-grouping in 2FS (2mm Finescale), most likely set in the period around 1915-1925 2) East Anglian mainline circa 1990-2000 in standard N 3) Scandinavian, particularly Swedish (some Danish), the same broad period 1990-2000 Here are some of the things I've been working on recently, and comments welcome! Detailed and weathered Bachman\Farish Mk1 BG in Rail Express Systems livery. As the 57' full brake doesn't appear to amongst the models that Farish are planning for the new Mk1 model, I took the opportunity to buy some cheap examples in RES and Intercity Executive liveries. The BG is one of the better detailed models in the Farish mk1 range, with relief for door handles etc. However I found the handrails, noticeable on the real thing, a bit lacking, and replaced them with 0.3mm wire using a simple clear plasticard jig. I also fitted the Ultima detailing kit for the underframe. Detailed rake of Farish PGA hoppers, inspired by a motley collection that used to sit in the sand siding at Marks Tey. Five Bachmann\Farish PGA hoppers, one in VTG livery and four in ARC. All detailed with TPM detailing kit and weathered quite heavily over the original liveries. I'm not sure about the prototypical nature of having this combination together, but its what I had to hand! I'm also looking to get some of the British Industrial Sand wagons and appropriate detailing kits when Bachmann get the new batch in stock. N Gauge Society PNA wagon kits, completed basically following the instructions, but painted with a mix based on Phoenix Precision's BR(S) coaching stock green, rather than left as bare plastic. Lightly airbrush weathered with a mix of matt varnish and some Humbrol brown\tan. Like the PGAs these have been fitted with Microtrains couplings, although I haven't yet figured out a suitable uncoupling system!

I'd just like to second the support for the CLASP style station!

Hi Rich, It was great to meet you on Sunday and have a chat. I am really impressed with the layout and especially the quality of your stock! I will have to get around to sorting out the pictures that I took ... Justin

Shame! I thought the old DSB Gods livery was particularly stylish! At least there is a greencargo logo on there to spruce it up a bit ...

Hmmm, I hadn't really noticed that the pantograph was incorrect when I saw the modern liveries on Nigel Burkin's blog, but it seemed a bit more obvious on the BR blue models. I wonder if the Tomix? (or Greenmax?) plastic pantographs would actually be much of an improvement over this? Perhaps an opportunity for some after-market etched cosmetic replacements? Perhaps etched in stainless steel for strength? Still, I'll definitely buy one if\when Dapol do a model in Anglia Railways livery!

Somewhat bizarrely Ratio do a small pack of modern N gauge diesel high intensity headlights, item no.249!