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The Fatadder

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  1. The Fatadder
    Picked up a bunch of Shawplan bits on Thursday night, and have spent the weekend fitting them.
     
    First up the 47s: both 47709 and 768 are both getting fitted with the new Shawplan roof grills this afternoon, I have also found some Heljan parts to start modifying 709's underframe to have long range fuel tanks.
    Finding that having tried a couple now I am really getting the hang of fitting the new grills. Certainly the method of applying glue to one half of the etch, fitting in position before applying glue to the other half and adding the top ring is working for me. One thing I have done on these 2 is make sure that the mesh alignment is not straight, having spent a lot of time looking at photos, it was very clear that they were rarely fitted with the mesh parallel to the sides as intended!
    47768 has also had the top pipe added, (a case of drilling two .45mm holes and then gluing a length of .45 wire into position, again this was roughly bent to match photos but there is a lot of variation in the prototype (some go to the left of the fans, others over the top to varying degrees.)

     
    Finally for today I finally got round to painting the tail light surrounds white, and adding a Bachmann ETH socket.

     
    Fitting new underframe tanks to 47709 is also now finished. First the Vi Trains chassis block had to have the ballast weights chopped off at the battery box end, and the fuel tank end needed filing to the top to provide clearance to the Heljan moulding.
    The Heljan moulding also needed major modification in order to fit, firstly removing the fictional box between the battery boxes, then cutting the inside edge down to provide clearance for the step in the Vi Trains chassis. Finally the centre section had to have a couple of mm width removed, before gluing it all back together and fitting to the chassis. This gives a correct battery box hight (Vi trains have added a step on the bottom of their moulding that cant be removed without modifying the block.) I think the Vi Trains tooling has a bit of fineness over the Heljan, but the latter has the correct design of battery box. Both toolings (along with the Bachmann one iirc) mould the battery boxes as one solid beam across the chassis rather than separate boxes.

    The next job on 47709 is going to be finishing off the fitting of the new roof grills, and correcting the plate over the boiler port (need the rectangular version) before respraying the whole roof to get the right colour for 709.
     
    Moving onto 67006, this has had the old shawplan nameplates removed to be refitted with their new 'Extreme Etchings' version, this is the correct size, along with being much better detailed with a better representation of the extra thin nameplates (the old ones just looked like normal plates) along with finer etching meaning that the by appointment to plaque is completely readable. These have all just been superglued into position. This pack really does make renumbering the Hornby Royal 67s a lot easier given they should now completely cover the printed names.
     
    Old Shawplan:

    New 'Extreme Etchings'

     
     
    Finally 37667, this has now had the final components fitted for now with the reinforced windscreen added, along with some Heljan multiple working sockets (and the holes drilled for the pipework.) its now waiting for the new nose grills to be finished.....
    The ends have now been primed, but given the wet weather today dosnt look like I will be able to spray the yellow. Fingers crossed Tuesday will be an improvement.

  2. The Fatadder

    Virgin HSTs.

    By The Fatadder,

    4th January 2010
    Going back to the Virgin rake, I have finally finished the renumbering of the powercars. Just need the City of Aberdeen nameplates now, and to convert the roof grills to the other type.
    Planning to get some wheels for them (hopefully at the Warick show on the 16th), then the final job will be adding the kaydees to the rake.
     
    Starting to think about replacing my converted TRSB with the new Hornby one (depending on how good the model turns out to be.) While the Hornby model would need to be resprayed, my converted model will also need a new coat of paint....
     
    Not in a huge rush to get the mk3s finished at the moment (given that even if the layout was finished, it wont take the HSTs yet), so not in a huge rush to finish off the mk3s, but it will be nice to be able to run the powercars....
     

  3. The Fatadder

    PTAs Part 3

    By The Fatadder,

    And now it hits a problem.....
     
    Last night I finished the first wagon, adding the 10thou strip to the bottom of the chassis ribs that brings them to their full width. At the same time I also posted on DEMU asking for PTA underframe photos. Phil came to the rescue in the linked topic, however the photos sadly show that I have got things rather wrong.
     
    The prototype should have 2 beams running the length of the wagon, then a gentle angle before the sharp angled pieces at the ends of the rib. I have modelled them flat before the angled end pieces.
    While I have thankfully only done this on the first 5 wagons, its something of a paint to have only realised now that some are finished (and the others of this batch are practically finished.)
     
    http://www.rmweb.co....wform&blogid=50
    Its times like this that make me wish rather than persisting with these I had just brought some of the kits while they were available and solved a great deal of hassle for what wont be the most accurate model in the world.
     
    The question is, do I fix it (ripping off all the ribs and starting again), do I live with it and model it right on the other batch of 5 or do I just say sod it the rest of the models accuracy is far from perfect so just model the other 5 wagons to match the first......
    In the end I chose to go with the option of doing the other 5 models to match the first, tbh the discrepancy just isn't bad enough to justify the time rebuilding.
     
     
    So the first batch of 5 are now finished, (although they are lacking the final details such as air pipes, tank and distributor) these will hopefully get painted tomorrow (and then transfered up before the Leamington & Warwick show on the 16th)
     
    The second 5 are also making good progress, with the basic work on the chassis now completed. these differ in construction from the first five, in that I have started off with the central beams and then added short ribs (rather than the full width ribs with short lengths between them used on the first 5). made construction a lot quicker.
     
    The next job is going to be finishing off the ends fitting the ribs to the end (along with the small plates on the headstocks over the buffer locations (not exactly sure what they are for....)
     
    This then will leave the final job being the adding the top strip to the chassis ribs, very time consuming task which can wait for the morning (and TMS)
  4. The Fatadder
    Yes I know I still havent finished Clan Line (still awaiting the con rods), but I've now made a proper start on my second P4 steam loco, 4472 in preserved condition (i.e. the Hornby NRM release)
     
    The planed work pretty much follows that of Clan Line, with the model gaining a new Tender chassis (this time from Comet), new front bogie (I think the sideframes for the LNER bogie that come in the same pack as the Buillid one used under the MN is the right version for the A3? If so I plan on scratchbuilding a new sub frame and using those rather than wasting money on another complete set of etches.)
    Wheels are again by Gibson, currently in the process of being painted green, finally the valve gear is currently the Hornby stuff (which this time is in good condition), depending on how fiddly the Bill Bedford stuff is for Clan Line I will decide if I will do the same here or just live with the Hornby stuff.
    The final area I am a little unsure what to do with is the rear truck, I know Comet do a part for it so I need to find out if its a modification worth making. I'm a little concerned how it will perform with a scale flanged wheel in there.
     
    Other than that theres only a few modifications to the body (increace chassis frame width and reduce the body to tender gap) and its good to go.....
     
    Today I finished off preparing the driving wheels (fitting the crank pins and assembling one axle.) To make the wheels fit properly in my Exactoscale back to back gauge I removed about 1mm from the outside of the raised bit around the axle on the inside of the wheel. I did find on my test axle that it was a real pain to get the wheels to fit to the axle. In the end had to bore out the hole to fit (not something I am that happy doing given that I dont have a 3mm exact broach (it says its 3mm but its actually 1/8 or what ever that imperial size axle is thats practically 3mm) I found out the hard way what happens if it was just forced by ruining an axle of bogie wheels for Clan Line (thankfully had a spare)!
     
    No doubt that this project will get held up once Gibson release the drivers needed for City of Truro with a 3mm axle.....
  5. The Fatadder

    More PTAs

    By The Fatadder,

    I've returned to my improved Lima PTAs this evening, spurred on by a photo showing a rake operating in 1998 (i.e. perfect for the layout!) I've got on with a little more work on this rake.
     
    Not quite as much as I would have liked to do, (given that I've left my 'chopper' back in Bucks, along with most of my evergreen strip.)
     
    The first job was some prep work, this batch of 5 wagons had already been detailed a fair few years back, just not to the standard of the more recent batch of 5 detailed in a previous blog post. As such the first job was to remove all of the plastic that had been added, and sand back to get everything smoothed off. Once this was completed there was further materiel to remove from the headstocks, cutting off the triangular supports (that had been very roughly cut when originally converted) which will now be replaced with accurately cut evergreen strip to the correct angle. the headstocks were also removed at one end (on the original model one end is attached to the chassis moulding which has been disposed of.) Again these will be fabricated from Evergreen strip, with a cutout for Kaydees. On the outer wagons the different shaped headstock had been carefully removed from the original chassis, which has been tidied up ready for refitting. One end was formed from a Lima oddity, despite having 2 chassis toolings (one with buffers one without) they also did a third tooling which had the outer headstock without buffers. Given that I was short of one buffer fitted headstock I fitted a set of brass buffers to this to match.
     
    Moving to the ends, the only job that could be completed was the rectangle of 10tho plasticard which forms the base for the new end, having cut these from the sheet it was a simple case of aligning and gluing into position with plasticweld. Once this was dry I cut out the recesses in the fixed headstock for the kaydees.
     
    The final job for the night was playing with a set of bogies; I have enough castings to fit to one 5 wagon set. The intended method of assembly in common with most white metal bogies is pretty poor, so I have been modifying some etched subframes to fit. Given that none of the existing etches are a perfect match, I have gone with the A1 DMU etch, mostly because its pretty solid (and I have a ton of the things that I will never use!) Its snipped to profile on the top, and has some materiel removed from the inner sides to clear the bearings (that are fitted directly to the casting) Still need to solder it all together once I get back to Bucks, but it will do for now. Given that the layout will initially only be able to hold a 5 wagon set, at least this will allow me to get a rake running while I wait for S Kits or Intercity Models to release either of their respective cast bogies.
    Which leads me to the most worrying thing with this rake, Despite all the work (and the fact that the finished model does look the part.) there are some pretty serious errors with the sides and basic shape (stemming from the lima base model), end result means that the return of a decent kit will be tempting.
     
    I am planning to take this rake (along with the etched kit for the O&K box that will go with it) to the Leamington show next month where I will be on the DEMU stand on the Saturday.
     
    The final thing for this blog is on liveries with a slight change of plan over my initial thoughts, the shift in layout focus coupled with photos showing PTA rakes in use c1998 means that for the most part its all going to be finished in the CAIB version of Foster Yeoman with heavy weathering. One wagon will end up finished in ARC for a bit of variety (and because the pack of ARC logos I want for a 59 comes with 2 sets).
    Speaking of transfers, the sheet for the O&K boxes does 2 wagons, so I think I may end up buying another wagon to do there as well (might help with the fabrication of the new floor for the one I have come to think of it...)
    t
    An enjoyable evenings modelling, made even better by the highlights of Bath vs Gloucester being on the tv (though if only ITV would show more than two minutes worth!)
  6. The Fatadder
    A little more work on the buildings for the layout,
    Next step is starting to clad in the south east finecast block sheet, (which will hide the gaps between panels) after which I can get on with the detailing the sides. The roof will be the last thing to go on (given that the overhang will make access to the sides a bit more difficult to get at.)
     
     

  7. The Fatadder
    Another spot of renumbering in front of the tv tonight,
    Started off with my Freightliner 66/6 thats being changed to a 66/5 (very thankful here that the differences are all internal!). The Freightliner 66s are my favourite to work on, while they have 6 numbers to remove, they are all located on flat surfaces (so no repainting needed to repair the scars from removing numbers over the bodyside ribs here!) The Bachmann printing is my favourite of the RTR manufacturers, given that one application of microsol over the number and they normally will just wipe off the model (without any shinyness left behind) As per the photos found on fototpic showing 66539 in 2003 it is missing the Fr from one of the cabside logos, so this was carefully removed at the same time. Sadly I think this is probably one of those things that just dosnt look right in model form (just looking like I've mucked up the transfer...) still will see how it looks when its finished, and consider replacing the logo.....
    The loco is now ready for new transfers in a couple of days time.
     
    Next up was a pair of Virgin Trains powercars from Hornby, being modelled as 43155 and 43157. 155 is being modelled in Virgins original livery with the XC logos. Once side has already been finished (just using the XC off a fox transfers logo) along with some new numbers. The original numbers tool 2 applications of microsol to remove as the printing is rather thick, much worse was the nameplate which one assumes in order to make up for their lack of etched plates, Hornby print extra thick, this required a lot of microsol to remove and has left a certain amount of ghosting in the area.
    Still waiting on Shawplan brining out the nameplates (City of Aberdeen) so hopefully they will hide all of the old nameplates ghost, else will have to apply a coat of varnish to blend it in (which worked very well on 57008 on which you cant see the ghosting any more.
    43157 was much easier, given the base model dosnt carry a name (so it only needed the numbers removing) this loco is fitted with silver lady logos and will (at some point) get the HMS Penzance vinals for the name.
    Both powercars need the roof grills converting to the other type (that one day I will get on and draw up...)
     

    The flash has made the ghosting around the old nameplate look a lot worse than it actually is, in natural light you can barely notice it (hence expecting the nameplate to completely hide it and not need varnishing)
  8. The Fatadder

    An update on 57008

    By The Fatadder,

    First of all, apologies if I have taken a photo of the unmodified side.... But its now impossible to see the remains of the old nameplate and I cant remember which side it was........
     
    As mentioned earlier this has previously had the incorrectly placed nameplate removed with Tcut and was then varnished to get rid of the shine. Obliviously prior to doing this I striped down the model removing the lights, cabs and glazing.
     
    While all of this was very easy to remove, it was an absolute swine to replace everything! Still, having finally got it all back into the bodyshell, all that remains is a need to solder up a new circuit board (having removed the RTR one when breaking down the body and chassis.
     
    Getting the body back onto the chassis was also something of a pain, taking a while to get all the wiring into a position where it dosn't interfere with the fit. (a problem I've also had on my other 57s)
     
    Still a fair bit of extra work is needed, along with the aforementioned wiring the model also still requires the usual end detailing, removal of the NEM coupling pockets and fitting of new wheels.
     


  9. The Fatadder

    A Class 66 fleet

    By The Fatadder,

    A start of a project I have been meaning to get on with for a while now, a sequence of blog posts detailing the stock for the layout starting off with my Class 66s.
     
    The work:
    Conversion to P4 has been completed using the Bachmann gears with Keen Maygib wheels on the outer axles and black beetle wheels on the centre axles.
    DCC is either by Lenz Golds, or loksound (although the loksound fitted locos are intended to revert back to golds and have the sound reblown as something a little more interesting.)
    The same basic detailing has been added to the whole fleet, adding sand pipes, air break pipes, bogie details and drilling out the buffer beam lashing eyes.
     
    EWS
    66001
    This has been renumbered to 001, with a number of modifications to accurately model the loco in 2003, gaining EWS red grills, revised lifting eyes and the removal of the buckeye couplings. The EWS gold stripe has been completely resprayed partly to correct the colour, but also to further help eliminate the remains of the original numbers (which were a pain to get rid of.... Given that it's modelled in 2003 condition, some of the original differences between 001 and the rest of the fleet (such as the horn grills) have been rebuilt to match the production.
    One final job that still needs doing is painting the multiple working jumper white to match the prototype photo.

    http://busnut.fotopi...t/p1368423.html
     
    66135
    Couldnt see any real reason to bother renumbering this, but detailing has been focused on the buffer beams in order to accurately model the coupling arrangement. using the spare buckeye coupling removed from 66001 it was possible to add the buckeye to the other end (cut down so that it fits next to a romford screwlink and dosn't foul the buffers.) Fitting the operating linkage for the buckeye requires removing the left hand lashing eyes (as per the prototype), it was then painted (still needs a coat of yellow...) and glued into position.

    http://phillip.fotop...et/p400804.html
     
    Freightliner
    66539
    This is the next project in line for some work (just as soon as I source some transfers.) its currently a standard model of 66610, but an Intermodal loco would be a lot more useful to the layout.....
    http://carl-watson.f.../p11197338.html
     
    GBRF
    66705
    Bachmann release which had the blue sides resprayed (again failure to perfectly remove the original numbers), has then had the large flags applied along with the new numbers. Still needs a coat of varnish to hopefully force the transfers to stay in position as a couple of bits have lifted since application...
    Will add a photo of the model in the morning (once we have some light)....

    http://johnlawonther.../p34561822.html
     
    66709
    This is probably the loco which has had the smallest amount of work, other than fitting a sound decoder, the included nameplates and the usual work mentioned above.
    http://theironroad.f...ic.net/p52932264.html
     
    The final locos in my fleet 66405 (now with a correctly painted roof), 66522 and 'Eddie the engine' are now surplus (unless in the case of 405 I find evidence showing it in the south in 2003)
     
  10. The Fatadder

    EPBs

    By The Fatadder,

    A bit of attention has turned back to my pair of EPBs, a 2EPB and 4EPB (both BR build) from the DC Kit. While neither of them are of use for the layout, having been long since withdrawn, it does give another unit to play with........
     
    the 2 EPB is already half painted in NSE so will have to finish it off and paint the other one in the summer.
     
    The 4 EPB is currently primed awaiting painting, rather than spray in NSE which will be rather hard work to get to a decent standard. I was thinking it would be a lot easier to just paint in all over blue. The question is, when was the last blue 4EPB repainted?
     
    (Very annoyed that the celebrity green repainted 4EPB was the other design.)
     
    Edit:
     
    A few photos taken from my old workbench thread.
     

     

     
    Going to need a fair bit of extra work now to get them completely up to standard, as I've now decided that both are going to need all of the extra detail on the sides adding (door hinges, grab rails etc) along with more end detail (have some buffers to fit to the inner ends for a start)
  11. The Fatadder

    More on Class 73s...

    By The Fatadder,

    Some Research:
    Having spent some time suffering fotopic on a day when it seems to not work for more than it works, I've come up with a few links to photos of the stock being modelled.
     
    73109, Battle of Britain in South West Trains,

    http://martinchealsl.../p56833405.html Not dated (and with the late logo) heres 109 rescuing a stranded Freightliner http://steve-clark.f.../p45510980.html 2002 with a hybrid livery http://johnlawonther.../p36959638.html Tricky loco this one, given it carried 3 different versions of the same livery, in 96 the red and orange bands were the other way round, in 98 it matches the condition of the model (although it will need the OHLE flashes changing to post 98), finally at some point between 98 and 04 it gained the new SWT logo, in 2002 it carried both old and new logos.
    73101, Royal Alex in Pullman,

    On VSOE 1999 http://neil-higson.f.../p37444884.html looking rather smart with only the pullmans and no barrier coach VSOE 1998 http://bobfostersrai.../p57430777.html 73129, City of Winchester

    on VSOE 2001 http://steve707.foto.../p58944927.html Old Oak Common 2000 http://rss.fotopic.net/p57572160.html on a railtour in 1998 http://bobfostersrai.../p52038930.html This is going to need a full respray at some point to correct the dodgy stripes (red stripe is in the wrong place, white goes too high, and the point on the side of the yellow warning panel is wrong.
    73128, OSV Buillid in EW&S,

    Test train in 97 http://bhpc-southern.../p56425371.html VSOE 98 http://britishrail19.../p60003442.html On shed 2001 http://mickspix.foto.../p47846905.html 2001 tpo http://paulbigland.f.../p34544985.html Found out that sadly no names in EWS condition Very tempted to spray this up as 73131 in EWS given that lasted until 2003. though unless done with different logos each side its not possible to run in both 98 and 2003 given the change from EW&S to EWS logos. Still, given I have 108, 101 and 129 in 1998 condition its not too big a loss.
    73108 in Dutch,

    1998 working on the quidhamton http://bobfostersrai.../p59296442.html 2000 on TPO (with 101) http://timeaster.fot.../p50101762.html 2000 showing clearly that it retained cast BR arrows until the end http://gallery39764..../p20661126.html 1997 on a nice short Engineers working http://deancornthwai.../p48407364.html Additional:
    73136 in Mainline with no stripe, as with 131 will be modelled in 2003 condition.
     
    I've tried to slim the list down a bit, in the light of day it just seemed that I had much too many 73s.
     
    of the list 109 is the most useful, lots of potential light engine moves, can stick it in the branch platform, or run in multiple with the EMU fleet.
    101 is perfect for my VSOE rake, so again that stays.
    129 only needs minor detailing, and fits nicely with EWS opperations in that period so again that stays.
    I have one shell that is lightly primed over EW&S livery (so you can see where the stripe goes, this will be sprayed as 128 (given that I have the plates for it) This gives a loco to run in multiple with wither 101 or 129,
    Finally 108 in dutch, again I have a loco part painted in dutch so it makes sense to finish it off.
     
    As for the rest, sadly I think as E6003 was withdrawn in 96 that will have to go, I finally the donor for 133, given I havent got any cantrail grills for it I suspect this will be in an unsellable condition at the moment (at least unsellable at a price that makes it worth the effort.) So I think I will keep it for now and use it should detail bits become available, that would then give cover while I go through the rest of the fleet detailing.
     
    One final aspect of the detailing is couplings, Given that the 73s were fitted with both buckeyes and screws. The SWT 73109 will be fitted with kaydees at both ends, the rest will all have a dropped buckeye at one end with a modified slightly longer hook for screw couplings. Need to check if the buckeyes are used for coupelling to VSOE or TPO as it may bean that a buckeye is needed at the inner end.
  12. The Fatadder

    More drawings

    By The Fatadder,

    A little more design work on buildings for the backsceen, with a continuation of work on the retail park.
     
    This is the style of structure I am going for

    Although it is based upon the rear of the building (which if i remember correctly is completely block built construction rather than clad in metal), my design is slightly different to the prototype in the radius of the roof (I started building it years back pre google earth, so the dimensions were all estimated from this photo. I have now gone back and made a much better job of taking dimensions which showed that roof radius apart (its about 10mm too high in the centre) the only other main difference is that the 3 shop units are all the same width (whereas the prototype has a pair of long units for the Homebase store, and then 2 short units for the smaller retailers next to it. Still at the end of the day it dosnt need to be an accurate model of a prototype, just in the style of...
     
    This drawing is a hybrid of the prototype and the model details, (it still needs about 20mm taking off the length and and extra 10mm hight in the centre), also need to double check the sizes of doors etc.


     
    Construction so far has got a core of 80 thou plasticard in 2 parts (each 2ft long), There is some damage from storage where the origonal glue bond has failed in the corners which will need fixing, and a rough edge on the bottom (the original building was about an inch too tall and was chopped down, the resulting rough edges were never tidied up at the time as it pretty much corresponded with the end of the layout it was originally intended for. Because of the same rebuild there is also a need now to modify the size of all the doors to add the hight lost when the size was cut down.
     
    Once the core is repaired, the intention is to then clad the building in South Eastern Finecast block embossed sheet, adding in the I beam above the door ways, a long with a bunch of extra details after painting (aircon boxes, lights, wiring etc). On the left hand side there is a large covered area suspended by wires from the wall. Finally there are a couple of fire doors that will need adding, along with the window strip along the top (that I havent worked out how I am going to model yet...)
     
    Hopefully should look pretty impressive when its finished........
  13. The Fatadder
    Everything is still going very slowly with the layout, again mostly down to the fact that I wont pay over the top postage just to buy a single jar of flux.....
    End result - I cant do any track laying.....
     
    I have made a start on building the bufferstop for the branch platform, using an old mainly trains brass kit. So far I have binned the majority of it leaving me with the two sides, along with a left over length of bullhead rail. This said the side castings are still rather crude, so im getting quite tempted just to copy them with rail and scratch build my own. Either way will have another look tomorrow as I really aught to be getting ready to head to Graduation up in Loughborough.....
     
     
    Still, the design work is still moving along nicely.
     
    At the non station end I am going to go with the retail park, should make for quite an interesting backsceen being 3ft long and quite tall with a fair bit of detail to be added. Just got to hope that its survived a couple of years of storage in one piece so I can dig it out and finish off the core structure that had already been built.
    In the end it aught to look something like this

    Although of course will be modelling the rear of the building rather than the front.
     
    The other area is the bridges, which continue to be something of a pain. Mostly because I really dont like the look of the stone structures that typify the area in which I have always intended to set the layout.
    This said things may be changing,
    I've been spending some time reading one of my Southern Electric books again.....
     
    The end result being that something 3rd rail is suddenly becoming rather tempting again. Now more likley than not this would be more of a long term aim (afterall there wont be a refurbished CEP for some time), it has the added advantage of having another 'new' task to model in doing the 3rd rail accuratly, along with allowing me to use brick built bridges...
    The fact that Wessex ran some services to Southampton meaning that I could justify running my Wessex DUMs alongside SWT EMUs makes it all the more appealing, likewise the majoirty of my late clay stock can also be justified either being taken else where or some off scene paper making...
     
    At the moment while I am still early in construction I suspect there will be a fair bit of this indecisivness, while things can still be changed. So I suspect that I wont make a firm decision once I see Hornby and Bachmann's plans for 2010 (with any CIGs/VEPs/Refurbished CEPs making a favorable decision a lot more likely).
    It also raises the question 'Why not just model Botley accuratly?' however there the answer would be two fold in that to model it in the space I have available you would loose pretty much all of the structures (and hense other than the bridge and platforms the vast majority of the modelling is building a large concrete pad on one side and a grass covered bank on the other (hardly interesting modelling), the other problem is that it would also require much longer trains.
     
    A fictional location (probably on a fictional line) solves this problem in that I have a prototypical track plan (solves the first problem in making a fictional layout look real!) but I am free to decide on buildings etc based on how interesting they will be (both to build and on the layout) rather than being forced into building them because they are there.
     
    As ever I am interested to hear peoples thoughts on this.
  14. The Fatadder
    The next step on the building design for Bodmin was the signal box, drawn using the same method as described in my previous post. Still need to correct a couple of details (chimney location) but its pretty much there.

     
    The next step is going to be looking at the bridge, though without a bit more photographical evidence to work from this is going to be a little tricky...
  15. The Fatadder

    More on 37667

    By The Fatadder,

    Having reached the limit of what I can do on Clan Line (at least until the con rods and tender chassis arrive), I've got on with finishing off 37667 'Meldon Quarry' in EWS.
     
    The first job was finishing off the fitting of the sandite port. The etch isnt great, being far to overly simplified at the expense of detail, but I am getting somewhere from it...
    First the half etched centre was cut out and discarded, then a hole to match was cut into the locos body side. Given the thin brass frame attempts to press the bolt head detail on just destroyed the etch (I cant stand this method, much preferring to just half etch the detail on!) Anyway, having got it glued into position and the hole filled with a piece of plasticard it was out with the paint.
     
    The Bachmann shade of EWS gold is a bit more orangey than the prototype, so I mixed in a bit of EWS red to match before painting the panel. Its still slightly lighter but this will be sorted with weathering. Once the sandite port was in place it was a quick job to add the final set of numbers to the side.
     
    Moving to the ends, the headcode boxe plates were filed off (its getting a set of etched ones to save having to mask off the black panels), scratch built headcode clips were added, as were a pair of Vi Trains lamp irons and a replica high intensity headlight. This is now awaiting a new can of railmatch warning yellow so I can get on and finish it.
     
    A little more chassis work, finally getting a set of Hornby Class 60 buffers fitted.
     
    The final area of work was the cab windscreens, a simple case here of gluing the Shawplan reinforced window etch over the centre frame.
     
    So now all whats left is to replace the nose grills with the correct type (once the parts are released), add a Shawplan roof grill. then paint them (Again mixing colours to get as close a match as poss) and finally a bit of weathering (particularly to the areas repainted) to blend everything together. Its also going to need the usual work of fitting DCC & P4 etc but that can wait for the time being...
     
    The loco is annoyingly slightly out of period for me now, so sadly may well end up having to go on the forsale list Will see when I make my final decision on when my upper limit will be...
  16. The Fatadder

    Clan Line pt 3

    By The Fatadder,

    That's quite enough work on Class 47s for one week......
     
    So now back to Clan Line.
     
    I've spent the evening working on the rear trailing truck, I started off trying to build it with bearings and pinpoint axles. Unfortunately there didn't appear to be enough space between the frames as they splayed out when the wheelset was fitted. Rather than mess about trying to reduce the axle size I took the alternative option with inside bearings instead which seems to have worked ok. Hopefully it wont affect the running quality.
     
    To re use the Hornby location point, which required drilling out an extra hole and then re-bending the attachment arm in order to get the frame parallel with the track with the wheel in the right place.
     
    Going to leave it there for now, I've worked out how I am going to model the frames now, aiming to get the castings in the new year and rebuilding the Comet frame etch to add the upper flange.
     
    The next job is getting the soldering iron out so that I can start building the front bogie (although until I get on and order another axle from Gibson, I wont actually be able to fit the wheels to it...)
     
    After that its going to be a bit of a wait, as until I get my orders from Masokits & Bill Bedford for the tender chassis and connecting rods respectively there's not a lot more to do.
     
    One other job that is going to need some thinking is how I am going to couple the loco to tender now that the Hornby trailing truck (and the attached loco to tender coupling) has been removed.
  17. The Fatadder

    47768 yet again...

    By The Fatadder,

    Sorry if your getting bored with this one....
    ...But its yet more work on 47768
     
    Transfer work this time, replacing the OHLE flashes with the post 98 type and correcting the blue flashes on the RES logo with the correct colour.
     
    With the OHLE flashes unfortunatly I wasn't able to use my normal method where I remove the red part of the flashes with microsol before adding the new transfers, because the Vi printing just wont shift. Thankfully the printed ones were a bit of the thin side colour wise, and arnt showing through the transfer too badly.
     
    The RES flashes were a pain in the backside. Vi Trains made 3 mistakes here, getting the size fractionally too big, the lower stripe fractionally too low, and the colour completely wrong. Thankfully the first two arnt really a problem (more a nuisance on correcting the colour.) Fox's transfers were a poor fit but also have the grey background as part of the flash, as such these wern't of use. Thankfully I had a set of Replica ones in the transfers box that just have the blue flashes, these were cut into 4 parts (one for each stripe) to avoid the problems with the spacing issue. While they were fractionally too small, they were bigger than the fox ones, so its not noticeable on the model. The most annoying thing with them was that they were rubdowns, (I didnt think these hateful things existed anymore, and must have purchased them by mistake!) In the end the first 3 logos went without a hitch, but the last stripe on the last logo took 6 attempts to get right wasting one side of what would have been another locos worth of stripes.
     
    Still, pleased with the end result, and probably the biggest improvement to the model thus far. Certainly the black doors/windows are barely noticeable from where im sitting now looking at the loco.....
     
    Thats going to be it on this now until I get the bits of Shawplan for the rest of the work, unfortunately the modifications to the chassis will have to wait until after I next go to devon so that I can attack the chassis block with a cutting disk.....
     
    Shocking photo time, unfortunately taking evening photos I cant avoid the grainyness..... That said I think it does give a nice comparison with the photo in the previous post showing the improvement the stripes change makes.

  18. The Fatadder
    I have attached a photo showing 47768 so far, now fitted with most of the details. The plan is to use a different ETH socket as the Vi one isnt great, I have a couple of Bachmann ones at home which I want to have a look at, else there's a bunch of Heljan parts somewhere. Pipework will be added once I've painted the ends (again of course I've forgotten to bring the paints with me.)
    The tail light surrounds need painting white (again with the paints....) finally I have some Hurst jumper cables that I plan on using to replace the lower half of the Vi ones to get something closer to scale.
     
    One thing thats bugging me slightly is that the blue flashes on the res logo look to be a bit bigger than the transfers I wanted to use to correct the colour. That said the colour didnt look that different from the fox transfers anyway so I guess it can stay for now.
     
    The final job I can be getting on with while I wait for parts is rebuilding the underframe to remove the bit below the battery boxes. Need to have another search for photos of that type of underframe (the only decent underframe shots I've found so far are the ones with 4 battery boxes.) I think I'm right in saying that there is a metal block in the tanks thats part of the main chassis block (and hence is probably too much to remove with the small tool kit I have here.)
     

  19. The Fatadder
    A little more looking at Class 47s today,
     
    One of the plans I have been considering recently is to rebuild the majority of my Heljan class 47 fleet with Vi Trains bodies, while this does involve a lot of work, it does appear to be the most cost effective method given the very low value the Heljan locos currently have (both due to the release of better models, the fact all couplings have been removed, P4 Chassis and finally in some cases a lack of hand rails...
     
    Now I havent yet been able to take measurements off the Vi Trains body, and for the time being have been making use of a Bachmann shell, but it appears that approximatly 1mm of metal needs to be removed from each side, along with the removal of the buffer beams. My intention is to chop the buffer beams back behind the cab doors so that the Vi Trains inertia can be retained, along with removing 1mm of metal from each side and taking 2mm out of the underframe tanks.
     
    I have got a small milling piece that fits in the mini drill that might be a bit easier than fileing off that much materiel, but will see how I get on with the first chassis. There are a couple of areas that I am a little worried about with this method, firstly I worry that the two out riggers which will support the bogie will be suspect to bending over time (I've already had one chassis block fail and I am a bit worried that once the ends have been chopped off there is going to be a weak spot at the joint between the sides supporting the bogies and the centre section. To try and combat that I plan on fitting a brass plate over the top of each bogie tower.
    Again unfortunately because of the amount of materiel that has to be removed this will not leave enough metal left to screw into, so this plate would have to be glued into position.
     
    The other option I plan to consider is to build a new chassis block to support the Heljan motor/bogies. I have attached a sketch outlining how I intend to build the prototype,

     
    It would be of brass construction, forming a long U shape out of 3 pieces of 2mm thick brass sheet. Along the length of the chassis are 2 square tubes, these serve a duel purpose, adding much needed strength along the chassis length along with giving the correct hight for the bogie pivots. There are also extra benefits in that they can be filled with lead to help increase the chassis weight and will also aid in the alignment of side pieces. the sides will require the most complicated part of the fabrication, ensuring that they are identical. these will require cutting out the holes in which to mount the bogie pivots along with the recesses to hold the body retention clips that will hold the Vi Trains body in place.
    Once thats finished it will be a case of glueing on the underframe takes (using the Heljan part with 2mm removed from the centre) and adding extra lead in order to bring the weight back up to that of the original Heljan chassis
     
     
    While this does sound quite a long way round of doing things (part of me does just say sell off the unfinished Heljan bodys are a price to clear them and then buy complete Vi Trains locos...) the new chassis option does involve a good number of skills that I havent used before so it should be an interesting experience. The CAD file will now be redrawn to accurate dimensions (based on what thicknesses of brass I manage to source and the internal width of the Vi Trains body. Once thats done its out with the saw and the soldering iron......
  20. The Fatadder
    Had a packet arrive from Hurst this morning with the etches for the sandite port on 37667, and have now set about fitting it.
     
    The etch is a little old fashioned (more of the lets make things idiot proof than the high quality components available today), and is compromised so that everything is on a single etch. The problem with this is that on the prototype there are raised bolt heads on the frame, and the fill is significantly recessed. To rectify this I have carefully cut out the centre of the etch and then used this as a guide for cutting a hole in the loco side. Once the hole matched the frame, a small piece of plasticard will be fitted (im trying to work out at the moment if this can be fitted as a backing piece, or if it needs to be fitted into the hole.) The frame is going to need the bolt detail adding, for which rather than risking damage to the thin brass pressing them through (which tbh would look a bit naff anyway) I am planning to get hold of some of those bolt head transfers and use those instead (hopefully there will be a source at Warley...)
     
    Once that is done its a simple case of adding the actual sandite port (small length of plastic rod) and painting it all up (which will be fun matching Bachmann's dodgy shade of EWS red & gold.)
     
    Thankfully this is the only 37 I have which is going to need this modification doing on it, as its a rather tedious process I'd prefer not to have to repeat. Though if I ever do have to model another one, My thinking is towards drawing up a stainless steel etch fro the frame with the bolt detail included, along with a filing jig for getting the hole the right size quickly and easily.
     
    Once this bit of painting is out the way the loco can then be fitted with its last set of numbers, at which point its just a wait for the new nose grills before the final stage can be done. (although chances are I will end up doing a full respray at that time...)
  21. The Fatadder

    37667 Meldon Quarry

    By The Fatadder,

    Think think this one was started on the old RMWeb, so a bit of a recap:
     
    The aim is to produce an accurate model of 37667 in its condition from around 2004, starting with a Bachmann 37411 the work involves:
     
    Phase 1:

    Fitting new buffers using Hornby parts Renumber to 667 and fit Shawplan nameplates Rebuild the headcode boxes with the correct type for the loco, add the brackets above the headcode box, add the large dent at one end and fill the hole from the old ETH socket. Other details - lamp irons, pipework, break bits etc Phase 2:

    New roof grill Rebuild underframe New nose grills (to the correct design) fit Hurst Models sandite port Anything else Shawplan bring out when they finally do the nose grills. The 2nd phase is all being left until all parts are available, given that I expect to have to mix paint to get a match with Bachmann's colour (and hence want to do it all at once).
     
     
    So far I have completed the modifications to the ends which are now awaiting spraying yellow (they will have the black headcode box plates fitted after painting), and have finished the renumber. The new buffers are now fitted, so all that remains is the minor detailing, and waiting for parts to enable phase 2. The Hurst part is unable to be ordered until they get more items I require in stock so that I can make an order, and the other grills I keep pestering Brian about whenever I see him!
  22. The Fatadder

    Class 67 grills

    By The Fatadder,

    Well the 'final' version has now arrived, and other than one area in which a grill hasnt etched properly (cant understand why as one slat at the bottom of one has been half etched rather than fully etched) That said I still am unsure if that grill really needs to be replaced as tbh I think the moulded one looks ok in comparason to the prototype (on which you cant see through.
     
    What I intend to do is paint one up and see how it looks...
     
    Everything else is perfect! Production will follow soon...
     
    Edit: A little more work on the loco this evening. Everything is now painted (with the exception of the horn grills) and I am planning to assemble the first full loco tomorrow morning......
  23. The Fatadder
    Over the time RMweb has been offline I have been getting on with a couple more wagons:
     
    The first is a Hornby CDA, the intention with this was to get a wagon working reliably enough to be used for track testing on Bodmin, The CDAs I had converted with Exactoscale wheels on the last layout were very unreliable (part due to the finer wheel profile, part due to the awful axle design), as such I've decided to go with Maygibs for the fleet which will hopefully be fitted with etched break disks.
    In order to provide clearance I have attacked the insides of the wirons with a milling bit in the dremmel opening them out to accept scale wheels.
     
    I have also started work on looking at how I am going to detail them up, at the moment I am looking at:

    New roof Add missing end detail New buffers Remove fictional ballast box New couplings Drill slots in the side Thin the tops of the sides Of course given the fundamental errors with the basic shape of the hopper it wont be perfect, but hopefully it will get it passable. The sooner someone makes a decent HAA/CDA in 4mm scale the better!
    The plan is to have one rake in their original blue livery with ECC logos, and a second rake in EWS condition.
     
    ________________________________________________________
     
     
    The next wagon to go through the works was a Dapol KIA in Tiphook blue livery. Was rather disappointed by the model as it came, missing half its lettering and with shockingly bad quality control (the whole thing fell to bits after taking it out the box). Still so far I have glued all of the 'steel' loads in place (giving a little bit of extra weight) then glued the roof/end into position (they kept falling off the model). final job so far was to cut 4 lugs off the inside of each bogie in order to be able to fit proper wheels. Still want to do some more work, including adding the missing lettering, getting rid of the rubbish buffers and the hugely overscale hand-break wheels.

     
    ________________________________________________________
     
    The final wagon is a Bachmann VDA, this has been renumbered, fitted with Bill Bedford suspension and 51L axleboxes, and converted to P4 using a set of Colin Craig 10.5mm wheels. Just needs some couplings, extra weight and a bit of black paint on the w-irons now...

     
    ________________________________________________________
    Along with the wagons I have been working on was a Regional Railways Bachmann 150, This is the start of another major detailing project which is principally concerned with getting rid of the OTT all axle drive mechanism that Bachmann fitted and replacing it with a full inertia, black beetle (or similar) motor bogie and clear windows.
     
    So far I have been concentrating on the non powered end (mostly because I need to have a 150 available for testing clearances on the new layout.) Working off some incorrect information I fitted it with some disk fitted wheels (which now need to be replaced with plain ones). Thankfully the wheels just droped in (and better still the breaks are in the right place!)

  24. The Fatadder
    First off I needed to make some minor changes to the track plan, shifting point locations in order to clear cross members on the baseboards. Once this was sorted I then made a start on test fitting templates onto the two baseboards. This was made slightly more tricky by not having the station board built (with the end of the platform being the datum from which everything else needed to be aligned...) Thankfully a combination of the CAD drawing, and positioning the station boards templates on the floor, enabled me to accurately determine where the joint would be, and start laying templates on the next board.
     
    At the moment all I have done is place the templates on the board, firstly so that I could start overlaying the Colin Craig templates for the S&C, but also so I can start to get a proper idea of the layouts size.


     
    Further discussion with Colin has identified a few more areas which require changing, principally the need to convert the track heading into the station to jointed track (its going to have the top line as jointed FB with BR1 base plates, the next with PAN11 base plates and the bottom road in BH. This also thankfully removes the need to make so many adjustment switches!
     
    The final job today (shown in the bottom photo) was producing a simple plasticard jig for correcting the Exactoscale F27 sleepers to a 700mm spacing, took a while to get enough bits of plasticard cut to the right spacing (for some reason the chopper wasnt producing accurate cuts!) but got there in the end. Haven't tested it with rail yet, but looks like it aught to work. A length of the exactoscale track as it comes is shown above for comparison.

     
    The next job is going to be determining exactly how much of the BR1 and PAN11 sleepers are going to be required so that I can get them (and the adjustment switches) ordered and have something to work on while I wait for the S&C kits to be released. Suppose I also aught to get on and get baseboard no3 built as well at some point.....
  25. The Fatadder

    Bridge Design

    By The Fatadder,

    A little more progress this afternoon, having found a lot more information on the original road bridge in the MRC article on the North London Scalefour group's Bodmin layout, I have set about drawing up my version of the bridge.
     
    Having finished copying the old bridge from their drawings, the next step is going to be adding the more recently built foot bridge (however thankfully there are quite a few photos of this, so it shouldnt be too difficult to suss out the sizes.....)
     

     
    I have also began thinking about how the bridge will be made,
    The plan is to work around a 60tho plasticard core for the supports, which will be faced with the local stone (This needs some experimentation to decide which method for replicating this stone I will use.)
    The three bridges will be built as seperate units, and the fitted to the supports once the layout is built, This is a result of a minor problem experienced on Blackcombe where it was very difficult to get decent access under the bridge for painting once it had been fitted to the layout. This time given the added complexity of the local stones colour, much greater access will be required for painting in order to get an acceptable finish.
     
    the construction of each bridge is very similar, with a number of longitudinal I beams, with associated cross members with a more detailed mesh barrier on top. The Wentworth branch bridge is a little more complicated being of fabricated iron construction rather than a single beam. I am to add this detail from microstrip, allowing the use of the same long plastic beams as the other 2 bridges.
     
    For the barriers I am going for an etched construction, comprising of a stainless steel mesh in brass frame for the footbridge, and multiple part brass etch for the road bridges. this will need a half round section adding to the top to complete the profile. In each case the intention is to etch the whole bridge side as a single component (Saving on soldering and adding strength).
    Given the extra cost involved with this, The actual bridge sections will be one of the later components to be built (as I do not want to get the etches done until I am certain that this project will be completed.)
     
    Next up I guess its back to playing with the templates on a baseboard, although thats a bit tricky given im still 5ft short of baseboards...
     
    While looking for photos of the bridges on fotopic (before it decided to give up working!) I found a better image of the road end of the station building, showing I had made a slight mistake with the roof. this is now corrected.
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