EHertsGER

Richard, how did you get the tender wheels out? I have looked under mine and am stumped as to how to do so!

Lovely sense of the scale of the 9f without losing that ‘lightness’ they had. Impressed!

best,

Marcus

Wonderful work - well done!

Best,

Marcus

Oh, this is definitely the expensive route - and yes, the more trouble I get myself into the more I keep muttering about the Finecast kit as a whole...

Expensive? You forgot to add the cost of the Ultrascale wheel sets...

Maybe I should have just done the Airfix kit...

Best,

Marcus

My mistake/unreliable powers of recall, but my thanks to those who have put me right. It was the absence from the MRJ index that had me puzzled!

Best,

Marcus

I wondered about the Finecast chassis - I have a vague recollection it was drawn originally for Guy Williams’ model of the class, but I cannot find the article he wrote to cover the build - MRJ I think, but I’m not going through all 250+ copies unless it is a really wet day out!

Don't Finecast offer the tender axleboxes as spares? Or are they cast as part of the outside frames?

Nope, Dave says they are integral to the frames, which leaves me with a) buy frames and cut them out, file back the frames until I am left with just the axleguards (and break the shackles off doing so) or b) fabricate. Ok, fabricate.

Don't Finecast offer the tender axleboxes as spares? Or are they cast as part of the outside frames?

I'm awaiting a reply to my email on that very subject! I've seen them on a finished kit and couldn't tell if they were separate, but if they are, problem solved! 

The lead is all (the body is now +/- 225g) secured with lashings of superglue. Do this in a well ventilated room - it is very unpleasant and I believe dangerous. It is also a sound way of finding out if your tanks/boiler leak...

That looks great! How did you do the cab floor? I need to do that for a couple of NLR engines I'm working on...

I took a leaf out of my plasticard days; .015” nickel silver sheet scribed 2mm width planking. While doing so I thought up the idea of etching sheets of the stuff for cast metal kit wagon floors...

Dave; yes that's how it is to be. I'll get to 'details' in the entry about how I get the whole thing moving, but the Finecast chassis gives one the option of beam compensation, rigid axles or sprung throughout - though only to the extent of marking the hornblock cutouts. After that, you're on your own...

Best,

Marcus

Thank you!

James

I imagine you have already joined the Great Eastern Railway Society; that would be the principal spurce of information. Otherwise, as for the actual items, my suggestion is to write to Danny Pinnock of D&S kits. He may well supply the bits you need - or indeed the whole coach kits (I recently bought over 100 kits off him, so he is still in business!)

As for GER coach and wagon lettering - if you are patient there will be a waterslide sheet of each available early next year (I will be behind that edfort, commissioning one for my own, and other GER modellers' use...). Ther will be correct complete number sets included for all lf Danny's kits.

Best,

Marcus

Thank you for your kind note, especially the part about being unable to go around corners (living in the USA, as I do, is no excuse; I like cars that can go around corners, especially right hand corners!).

The chassis did prove to be a challenge, but not for long; we have adopted what I call 'ponial' trucks, which are pony trucks pretending to be radial trucks. Alas, the minimum curve is still about 3'3"/1m, but as it is aimed at P4/EM modellers, we felt they would not mind too much as anything less would seem to be an anathema to them! The main driver hornblocks/bearings are installed on the outside of the frames, giving us some setback too, without losing that 'looks right' factor.

My chosen prototype, 106, was gone by 1938, so no lined black, I'm afraid; I have GER blue to which to look forward!

Best,

Marcus

I do have photos, but checking them over, the sunlight seems to deceive on many occasions. Now I have an informed opinion I can go ahead with....chrome. So, thank you. Half the reason I had yet to paint them was a nagging doubt about white...

Best,

Marcus

So where did all this bright idea type stuff go, then? Well, we got it all together, including the replacment EE exhausts ("as any fule kno" the 30/31s never made it to blue livery with Mirrlees engines, if you have been following my ramblings scattered around this site).

Right now it is in a nice new coat of blue paint looking like a 'modified' 30 (i.e. a 31) and will soon be graced with some filth as I peer into the prototype photographs to bring it up to a condition I will call 'loosely' 'early 1970' (as my pics date from 69/70/71).

2ktechnologies on Ebay ships Railmatch acrylics to the USA, if that helps...

As a McLeod of Harris I heartily encourage the wearing of the...skirt..? 'Tis a skirt if anything is worn underneath, but I can only assume all is in full working order...

Best,

Marcus McMarcus of the McMarcuses (of Harris)

...no, really...

Paul

Thank you for your kind comments. I have listed the source of the detailing parts below:

All handrails - brass wire [Eileen's Emporium]

Buffers - Lanarkshire Model Supplies LB11B BR early diesel oval buffer

Buffer beam pipes - from the Hornby detailing pack that came with the 'donor' locomotive

Front handrail destination board brackets - fiddly fabrication!

Buffer beam steps - fabricated from 1mm N/S section strip and 0.7mm wire filed to a square section once fabricated and (solder) assembled [Eileen's Emporium], the wire secured in a hole in the plasticard reinforcement (see comment about the chassis below)

Fan assembly - Shawplan, but the insert to the body was discarded in favor of two 0.7mm wires set into the roof. The grille and ring will be set on this last of all to stop me putting my thumb through it. The grille is painfully fragile and best left till you have finished handling the model.

The fan is set onto a plasticard tube below the fan aperture (I have posted about this elsewhere)

Couplings are Exactoscale using their hook (I know its not quite right but its the best profile I can find) and screw link couplings with the top link replaced by fabricated links to better represent the links of the prototype. More fiddly work!

Lamp brackets - more fiddly work fabricated from brass scrap from an etched kit fret

Washer nozzle shrouds were very thin brass snipped out with fine, sharp scissors (remember to put them back in the sewing box before you get caught!) folded over at the top and soldered to wire that acts as a brace secured in a hole and superglued. I felt this was a better represnetation than the ususal plasticard lumps I have seen.

Windscreen wipers and glazing will be Shawplan once it is painted

The buffer beam shroud is from the Honrby donor, but with plasticard beam backing and reinforcement, now attached to the LIMA chassis. I has thought of screwing it on as the Hornby one does, but got tired of taking it on and off etc etc...

The fuel tank is also from the Hornby model, replacing the LIMA one.

Describing how I did the chassis is an answer in itself. In summary the LIMA chassis is lined with black plasticard - 0.080" or 0.060" - not sure, probably the former and fabricated to replicate the Hornby arrangement of securing the bogies. In amongst all that lie several slabs of 1/8" thick lead sheet bringing the weight up to around 250g I think.

Once the paint is dry (just cleaned the airbrush!) I can add pictures of the chassis 'as is '. I can also add a blow by blow approach when (!) I do the next one - probably about a week or so hence as I have another project to work through.

All in all its a relatively easy conversion depending on your willingness for fiddly bits. If you have a Hornby donor you may be able to use the steps from the buffer beam, but my donor was damaged and two missing. The buffer beam shrouds were snapped in half, hence the reinforcement. As the buffer beams are part of the 'soft' casting, one of those disintegrated while I was sizing it all up so I was driven to fabricate new beams. I can't comment on a 00 version using NEM couplings and the need to mount them as it is not my chosen discipline.

Paint stripping was done using Testors Easy Lift Off, but I don't like its relationship with the LIMA plastic - on and off in quick succession before the plastic crazes. Next time I will use ScaleCoat Paint Remover as that is the best here in the USA. In the UK I would recommend Phoenix Precision model strip - I have heard it is ScaleCoat repackaged or at least a similar formula and more gentle on plastic. I tried dilute Sodium Hydroxide but the LIMA paint wasn't having it.

Hope that helps.

Best,

Marcus

Hmmm....push your existing dome into some plasticine, remove locomotive, then 'cast' a new one from Milliput? But Horsetan has the best idea...SEF!

I have to add that my premise is that of a local pickup goods in which one or more wagons are shunted by the loco - pushed, that is, with no pulling - and that is often with other wagons still coupled, so the separation point makes sense to me. Of course, others locations did things differently according to manifests, but as I said, my thanks for germinating this idea at a practical level for my needs.

...and that has got me to the point of sorting out how, as a dyed-in-the-wool 3 link devotee, I was going to shunt etc effectively. Taking this approach and a knowledge of how a train will break to be shunted should allow a strategically placed wagon with these couplings as described above to be the point of separation, leaving the 'realistic' 3 link equipped wagon(s) in their siding and the 'separation wagon' to recouple to the train to proceed onwards. Local shunting may be an issue, but right now I leave this page educated and for that my thanks are profuse!

Best,

Marcus

Adrian

'Subtly' is the best answer I can give. As I have yet to even put pencil to paper in search of a design for the whole thing. The first question to consider is how are we supposed to see the station with those trees in the way?? Then, do I model the weir as well and how? Do I let things just vanish under the bridge or should I model a 'half-length' cutting for interest's sake -and how to cope with trains vanishing off-scene at each end?

I am am really aiming for a 'timewarped' perspective that would result in everybody being stuck in a version of, say, 1930 that keeps all the good bits and fails to move forward in time, thereby avoiding nasty things like that 'orrible loading gauge. The actual 'life' of the model could be played out in a series of 'snapshot' periods, so the whole 'theatre' passes as a series of staged 'scenes'. Thus I am likely to be subjective about some stuff and oblivious to other in the interests of the overall feel of Widford.

All will be sorted out by compromise (not an unfamilar phenomenon in this hobby...) and an avid peering into the archives of the BRLHS...

Now, back to the workbench, there is a J65 chassis calling...

best,

Marcus

That prompts me to consider moving or copying content to Blogspot - I have a feeling this is going to get out of hand!

How is Portishead going - a nice location and a unique station/railhead setup (depending on your period - it got oh, so complicated out there with the Power Station arrival!)

I'm curious as I had a summer job in the Esso garage in '78. Love to see more pics...