jessy1692

Right then Cemflo update time. Iv been a bit busy with other real world stuff since the last update but the Cemflos have been slowly ticking along. This weekend saw a big step forward and all 10 are now at the same stage, thanks to a few deliveries in this week. All tanks now mounted on their chassis and underframe stuff has been added from various bits of plasticard and even bits of lego! The tanks are 7mm pipe filled with milliput and the ends domed off A LOT of milliput has been used on the bodies and the under chassis tanks and this afternoon I used some more to represent the tank to chassis gusset plates rather than faffing with cutting strips of plasticard. These wagons are starting to feel pretty hefty now so no need for any extra weight. Vac cylinders have been made up from 7mm & 6 dia pipes and mounted onto plasticard brackets, thankfully they are mainly hidden in the end overhang of the tank so it hides a multitude of sins. Lots still to do, main one being the body side pipework and the distinctive strengthening plates for the sole bars. Buffers will be ordered this week all being well and some hand brake wheels too possibly. I may get some primer on soon too but ideally would like to wait until I have everything glued in/on. Cheers for looking in James

I can't wait for the 2nd run book to open on the 31st, looks a top model so will be ordering one straight away. If GT3 looks this good, the Fell should be another cracker, can't wait for that to appear on my doorstep when it's ready. Ta for posting pics all, enjoy your models. Cheers James

Iv just about given up bar the odd one or two a week with a drink, amazing how much money iv saved but yet spent on wagons and other bits and bobs! I reckon it's saved me about 200 a month... Don't start kids, especially with the price of new models nowadays! Cheers James

The Humbrol sprays iv had have been pretty good in the main but I have had the odd one clog but managed to resuscitate. Humbrol spray varnish is my go to, if you keep an eye on amazon/ebay they tend to cycle in price from silly money to cheap almost randomly, I don't think iv ever ordered one online for more than a tenner including post. Although before Xmas I got 6 tins for 24 quid so have plenty to last. Weirdly there seems to be a knack to pushing down the nozzle, they seem to prefer to be pressed down at the back a little more than pushing directly down in the centre, don't ask me why but it seems to work. Also I tend to rattle them a lot longer than I do with primer etc. If the nozzle becomes 'clogged' I have found that sometimes it's because it has twisted around on the orange stalk under the nozzle and it stops, a quick pull to take it off and then purse your lips to blow through usually works. Replacing the nozzle on the stalk is a bit tricky but can be done by popping on and lightly pressing down to the rear of the nozzle cap until it seats on the stalk then press until they spray comes good. Always a bit nerve wracking is varnishing but touch wood iv had no disasters as yet. It sounds a bit of a faff because it is but I think iv only had to blow through a nozzle once on the last 3 or 4 tins iv gone through. I'm a bit stuck in my ways but I know it does work and gives me a finish that I like so I put up with it. I may have a look at car varnishes though I'm sure they'll do a satin or a matt that will do- I think a trial may be required here on some wagons Hope this helps if you find yourself clogged again! Cheers James

Evening Martyn yeah sounds about right for our local place, not knocking the 'branded railway paints' at all, infact I do love railmatch blue as to me its spot on but as a tight Yorkshire lad I'm always out for a bargain. Wagons are coming along a bit slower than I'd like, house hunting got in the way last weekend but more supplies have been sent for so I forsee a big push on the Cemflo front this week. Hopefully the weather stops being temperamental too as the barrels need a primer coat. Cheers James

I keep meaning to get some rattle cans mixed up of RAL colours for a go. Lockdown wagon projects has this on the back burner though. My local place looked to be pretty reasonable for mixing, certainly cheaper than railmatch

Just like some complained when 37 372? Was chopped up to become the Baby Deltic

Small update on project Cemflo, I now have 10 tanks to length and ready for probably several rounds of filling and sanding. I didn't have much time after tea for modelling this evening so have just made up a chassis for one tank. Gibbo messaged me with some details of his build so I copied his idea of chopping up the original chassis which would keep the headstock and axle boxes in a good square form. After chopping out the chassis middle, I then carefully sliced down the front of the square Hornby axle boxes right down to the sole bar to remove all the detail. This basically leaves you with the headstock and W irons, handily the plastic is that thick that I don't think pin point cups will be required as I first thought. I then cut a 25×90 mm rectangle of plasticard to form the new floor of the wagon, a quick pass with the file behind the headstock and to the raised pips on the Hornby chassis it seemed to sit level with the top of the buffer beam so liquid poly applied and left to dry ensuring things look square I repeated it on the other end. Adding the original weight adds a nice bit of strength but be careful to check the position of it on the chassis so the tank will fit centrally, I got lucky so will double check when I go into batch production. I then added 92mm length of 3.2mm evergreen I beams to create the new sole bars glued flush to the top of the new floor. Then I added some dummy axle boxes and springs I got from 51L BR roller bearing axleboxes which I think make all the difference, the wheel base is just slightly over the correct 60mm at 61mm but this way should be easily repeatable and cheaper than building a full new chassis. The Hornby axle holes are probably a tad low so the tops of the spring mounts aren't quite touching the new sole bar but I may chuck a bit of filler in. Once painted the gap won't be as obvious. That's about it for tonight but im pretty happy that I now have a plan for the chassis, I'll have to order some more axleboxes now as I only got 4 sets originally. These will be for the Gloucester build ones, still trying to find some UIC type to like the metro cammel build but I don't think any are available? Still lots to do, don't worry the tension locks and buffers will be going soon. Cheers for looking James

Very true! Some seem to be going on ebay at a fair old price. Thankfully I managed to ferret out a couple of decent deals, god bless things being spelled wrong or not listed with too many key words

Not as in waste recycling surely! I'm sure sure someone will fancy a bash at them on here?

Thanks Mike but I think 10 or so will be enough for my layout especially with a brake at each end. One day I may have the room for length sets. I hope. I did enjoy re reading the silver Queen thread on here and seeing Accurascale pop up on there for 'personal interest' and within a couple of pages they are announcing their's, I'm thinking there may be a few half started rakes out there. Cheers James

Evening all, had a very productive weekend which has seen me start my next rake of wagons, the lovely Cemflo's. Iv always liked these and I have ummed and arred about buying some Accurascale ones but where is the fun in opening a box? (They are excellent wagons though!) Also in a roundabout way these wagons got the Harrogate - Ripon line re opened briefly after the DP2 incident. Allegedly the Eastern Region did rather a good job in getting it open as a diversion after the incident that BR decided they needed to blow up a girder bridge and fill in a cutting/tunnel once the ECML was back up and running so the old Leeds Northern couldn't be reopened as a useful diversionary route again, despite the arguments and proof of its usefulness. In my alternate world where it wasn't closed in 1967 I think I need a rake of these trundling around behind my blue DP2. I had a few already but won a few more on Ebay so had 8 at my disposal by the weekend so I set to and started chopping them up outside yesterday. I gave up in the end as it was bloody cold out there and started again on the coffee table this morning so I have been at it most of today. I managed to make 7 from 8 which I'm pretty happy with and I have 4 more on the way so should easily get 10 for the rake. Bodies were chopped up like John Isherwood did for his rake to add the missing 5mm and then re assembled, some were cut 2.5 mm off centre and the two long ends joined together and other were chopped in half and fillets from the donor wagon spliced in to get the correct 92mm length. There's really not much left of the donor now! I have just downed tools for the night to try tidy up all the dust and bits of yellow plastic which has got everywhere. I have a plan for the chassies thanksto Gibbo for his useful info from his build of them, I think ill get the tank joins filled in this week and work on the chassis in-between the rounds of filler. I'll have to order some rod for brake cylinders etc. Anyway a start has been made, I'm not going for super duper detail as I'll never get them to stand up against the Accurascale ones but as long as the look like a Cemflo and detailed enough to look good from 2ft away ill be happy, plus, it's not as if there is much else to do so a 10 wagon rake will pass the time nicely. More soon Cheers James

Oh no, I can feel more projects looming looking through this thread! I just missed out on a couple of Salmon's on Ebay not long back and iv been kicking myself for missing them.. Top work as ever Darius. Them cranes really do add to the models, good to know they are available. All the best James

Exactly! Roll on that day.. having said that I probably have about 5 or 6 Hornby ones knocking around so I can start going back over them. I suppose a couple can't hurt though if they appear at the right price.

Hi Bob, I can measure up mine I'm just about to chop up for you but here's an excellent pic from another Darius's thread where Bernard has posted a BR leaflet on these. Hope this helps James

I finally got around to making some thanks to your pic Mark, probably not 100% accurate bit will do for me. Cheers James

No probs Martyn, from the pics tonight you can clearly see the improvement from standard Hornby, it looks to sit just right and certainly doesn't look out of place next to the SLW 24. The close up of the cabs buffered illustrates perfectly that little tweaks go a long way. I bet from usual viewing angles/distances a lot of people wouldn't believe its a Hornby one! A comparison will be interesting to see if/when you get another one on the go. James

I thought it may pique your interest with a mention of the early boxes! I'll see what I and my glamorous photoshop assistant can sort out for them and Tartan Arrow boxes. The Cemflo's are sort of progressing, I have 8 all washed and dismantled and I have had a steady stream of stuff arriving ready for destruction and rebuilding. I think ill have to wait till the weekend for sawing as itl make a bit of dust so will have to be done outside, fingers crossed it doesn't rain and it warms up a bit! Cheers James

Interesting idea lowering the body slightly, I think ill try the same on a couple I have as it does look better. Like you say Martyn there is something about the Hornby 25 that does look 'right' and a bit of work really benefits them. I always thought a converted Hornby 25 to 24 looked better than the Bachman one, but the SLW came along and blew our minds! Cheers James

Evening all, bit of an update from the coffee table. A couple of old bashed up 30ft containers gone through the paint shop and now have the transfers applied for my new variants. Probably not 100% correct but the look the part to me. The doors are a bit suspect but I'll hide them on the train. I have had some more arrive at the weekend too so I have enough to do a 30ft Hapag Lloyd and one 20ft as well as 2 more 30ft ACT ones if I fancy it. The latest arrivals had a lovely bath and a scrub to get rid of some god awful paint that was on them. Thankfully the sun was out so it was quite a pleasant afternoon scrubbing them down after varnishing the flats and ZRX van which have now gone to the layout. I'm undecided what I'll do with the 3 20ft boxes that got stripped, they don't have the gap or raised strip where Hornby printed Freightliner so may have a go at making up the transfers to do the original ones with the yellow stripe and flying box logo- we shall see. The 3 open containers are going to be bashed into 30fters and I'm planning on chopping one of the up to produce a Mark 1 K Type (longer single piece side boards) Iv had some more decal paper arrive today so I'll get on with printing some more PWA stuff to progress the half finished one on the shelf. Iv been watching a few on Ebay recently and they seem to be fetching a fair old price now. Kicking myself I passed up 4 go for less than 30 quid a month or so ago.. hey ho. More soon, a new saw blade has arrived so it may be used in anger on a new project soon.. Cheers James

Evening, bit of an update from the coffee table paint shop. The green ferryvan is now all but finished, I lettered it up as a ZRX as per the pick on Paul Bartlett's site. I butchered a TOPs panel or two up to get the ZRX code, don't look too closely at the numbers though as I think I'd have lost the will to live sorting them. The other van is awaiting me popping an order in to Railtech once iv made a list of transfers I think ill want/need The flats have now had transfers applied, thankfully I had some left from the previous build. A little bit of weathering to go on these then wheels need to be sourced. Finally for now the latest PWA has been started, I was going to keep this back for a bit as Jon Hall hasn't any truss etches at the mo but Martyn@Signaller69 kindly sent me over a pic of one of the Lloyd's & Scottish batch of wagons in nearly new condition I thought I'd give it a go. It appears that these were introduced in a light grey so have used Rail Grey as the base. Home made transfers applied last night and a bit of muck added tonight. The pics of these on Paul Bartletts site show what a state they got in by the late 70's so I'm aiming for something not quite ex works but not as dilapidated as they look. Work still to do on it is white numbers for the left hand end, trusses when they are back in stock and a set of Stenson bogies. Then I'll re run my PWA transfer sheet for the sole bar lettering. Oh and last but not least iv run off a sheet of transfers for the next container boxes currently being chopped down at my Dads so expect these to appear this week all being well. Unfortunately the curtain side PWA sides I added to the sheet havnt come out very well, the blue seems to have a light blue stripe running through it. I'll be ordering some more paper this week anyway so will give them another go. Thanks for looking in. Stay safe, the end is in sight. James

Yes! My payday next week too so as soon as they are ready I'll be ordering! Looking forward to seeing the test build come together, fingers crossed all goes well RT. All the best James

Productive couple of days on the coffee table, 3 flats and 2 ferry vans going through the paint shops. The flats have had 3 coats of blue each, bit tedious brush painting them as there's so many surfaces to paint but worth it, may take another coat on the tops. The ferryvans are just awaiting another couple of coats of grey on the rooves, I masked over the flying box logos on the doors before a coat of early brown on one and decided to do the other in olive just for something different. Both have had new hand rails added and the door slide box thinned down, the 'bogies' lowered by filing the mounts down and one of them glued solid so only one pivots. Learned the lesson from last year when I glued both up and they didn't like reversing over points. Managed to free up all of them except one that I glued a bit too well. Bit more painting today and I can start adding the transfers. Need to source some more wheels for the flats though Iv now finished the artwork for some ACT & Hapag Loyd 20ft Box sides and have my Dad on the case chopping boxes up so these will probably appear this week. Also won some tatty containers on Ebay so will be tarting them up a bit to add a few more. Actually looking like a nice day here so I think I'll head out for a bit to blow the paint fumes away, although I do love the smell of railmatch I'm the morning! Cheers James

Evening Jon, good to see you making progress again even if it is a bit one step forward, two back with the floor! Funny how things like that happen. All the best James