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Sailor Charon

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Blog Entries posted by Sailor Charon

  1. Sailor Charon
    As I said somewhere else (in one of the kitbuilding threads, I think) it's going to be a busy few months. One of the things on my plate at the moment is bashing a streamlined B17 from a Farish A4 body (and it was the last one that BR Lines had) and a Dapol B17 chassis. I had some bad luck with my old Dapol B17, but I don't want to talk about it. I'm told that a lot of other people have had B17s that worked just fine, so... fingers crossed eh?
     
    Anyway, while I'm waiting for the chassis to arrive from Dapol, I made a start on the body. Job Number One is to remove the moulded handrails and the pipe on the left hand side (which isn't on the B17) or was it to strip the paint? (After removing the cab, naturally...)
    At a quick glance, putting the body alongside my old B17, it looks as if the body needs about half an inch taking out. The problem is... where from? Too far forwards to try and get the bottom level, and the top has a step in it. Too far back to get the top level, and the bottom has a step in it. Cut diagonally? (eek!)
     
    I'm planning to put some pictures up at some point. When I've got my camera charged. And I've found a good place to take pictures.
     
    Oh yes, I was saying about how it was the last A4 body that BRLines had. Which is slightly... not annoying as such, but... oh yes, awkward. That's the word. You see, the other option than a streamlined B17 was the streamlined V2 that never got off the drawing board. (it's in the RCTS LNER locos book 6C) [A cut down P2 was another option] And now it looks as if I'd have to either buy an old Farish A4, or else learn CAD to get a body printed off... which might be a good idea anyway
  2. Sailor Charon
    Not much to say about this at the moment - if only because the bits are in the post, and there's no post for a while, but just a quick heads up, I think, while I take a break from stripping wallpaper (did you need to know that? Probably not. Did you want to know that? Ah, too bad...)
    The basic idea is to take the PD Marsh Grange body kit and put it together with an Ixion Manor chassis. I've picked the name, Derwent Grange, because there's a River Derwent that flows through Derby. And as I'm from Derbyshire...
    I know I'm going to need to do something about the splashers (put them in the right place for the Grange, not the old Graham Farish Hall) but hopefully I won't have to fiddle with the length. (That's the thing I'm dreading most.) And yes, there will be pictures...
     
    Again, if this works, I'm considering... Ah, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
    The problem is that a few years ago, I bought some very expensive books - or should I say, potentially expensive books. A few of the RCTS books, for example. Anyway, for someone like me who's almost interested more in the might-have-been, and the nearly-was... they list some interesting stuff.
  3. Sailor Charon
    Well, just a quick update, and then I'll move on to the Mk1 Horsebox.
    One slight d'oh moment. You remember I had to drill out a couple of the buffer holes slightly? Well, guess who forgot to glue the buffers in? That's right. Now guess who didn't notice when they initially fell out? And now guess who's going to have to get a bag of buffers? (I keep mistyping that word. For some reason (possibly because the keys are next to each other) I keep typing g's instead of f's...)
     
    So, why have I moved on to the Mk1 Horsebox with the Mink C not quite finished?
    Well, I meant to go to Nottingham, (where my nearest local model shop is) and buy some paint, varnish, etc. But the last few days I've been not that well. (And indeed, if I was to post this in the way I sound at the moment, the text would be about half the size.) So I've moved on.
    And yes, the Mk1 Horsebox is a very nice kit. It goes together well. Yes, there are some very little pieces, but nothing that can't be handled with a pair of tweezers. I've even made the handrail - admittedly, I used 15 amp fuse wire rather than the wire that they included. Why? Because fuse wire is less springy, and can be bent and unbent fairly easily. When I've painted it then I'll attach it. I need to drill a couple of little holes to fit it to the body with, but... other than that. This has been fairly easy to build. Good clear instructions too.
     
    Would I make another? Yes, I would.
  4. Sailor Charon
    Well, here's the latest update photo.

    The metal that Farish used for their A4 bodies... is really tricky to cut. Fortunately, I managed to get it to the right length. (Sorry that the picture doesn't show that... ) At the moment, it's held together with blu-tack just while I wait for my B17 chassis to be chipped.
    There's a small amount of metal at the cab end that needs to be removed so that it clears the last set of wheels and pickups.
    Also, I need to adjust the body just behind the cut so that it joins together nicely - at the moment, it's a fraction too low.
    As for the chassis, well, I need to chop the running plate at the back to separate it from the chassis. Other than that, it seems to just clip on.
    Once it's done, I'll need to fit some handrails. And for that, I need some handrail knobs. This could be fiddly. It could be a bit too fiddly.
    [And yes, I still haven't stripped the paint. I haven't got round to getting any stripper yet. And I have a feeling that I might need to remove the whistle first...]
     
    [Oh, just as an aside, I've trimmed the Grange boiler to length, and now I need to get some milliput to finish off the boiler, so that it's round all the way round, not missing off the bottom...]
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