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Timara

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Blog Entries posted by Timara

  1. Timara
    Love them or hate them, the Ivatt-built Caprotti 'Black Fives' aren't exactly the most attractive of machines. Nonetheless, I cannot get away without modelling a few of them for my chosen line, thanks to nine of them being allocated to Llandudno Junction (6G) and being used on a lot of the main passenger work for that shed. They were especially common on the 'Club Trains' to and from Liverpool/Manchester.
     
    I've had this model on the "ongoing" list for a while now, but it's never got very far in terms of detail. Prompted by the fact I need to get on with my two Standard 5MT conversion with the same style of valve gear, I decided to use this one as a test bed for scratch-building it instead of using the Golden Arrow white-metal castings I've used before.
     
    Here is how things stand at present. All the various mounting blocks and brackets are now in place, bar the link between both sides just behind the cylinders. I have to say I'm not entirely happy with the chimney, so that will get replaced by one from Brassmasters. The one for their 'Royal Scot' is about right as others "designed" for use for a Black Five are rather on the large side....
     

     

     
    A close-up of the lubricator support bracket and motion bracket on the right-hand side. The slidebar brackets were carefully cut from 80 thou black plasticard with a piercing saw and then finished with fine files. The profile of the mainframes is apparent here; these were fixed during the re-wheeling process (in this case, Alan Gibson; fitted last summer). The sandboxes have also been fitted. These are made from Evergreen plastic section (4mm x 2.5mm), with the angled section cut with the piercing saw and glued on top afterwards.
     

     
    Finally, a shot of the tender. I need to tidy up the gash on the left hand side where a little too much came off during the thinning of the side raves. I've got some thin slivers somewhere.... This is a version unavailable from Hornby; the part-welded version. I've removed a few lines of rivets where required and then carefully smoothed off the witness marks afterwards. I forget how many of these I've done now, but they're not that difficult to now in fairness. Axleboxes are from Comet.
     

     
    If all goes to plan, I should have this one done by the end of the month. Part two should cover the valve gear itself.
     
    Cheers for now!
  2. Timara

    Time for a Beer

    By Timara,

    During a bit of tidying up of my storage cupboard, I found a box containing a Parkside 7mm scale box van. Going back not-so-long ago, I was involved with the Happisburgh group in the MRC and this one must have been one taken in for repair to the underframe (wheels etc were loose and the brake gear was all-to-cock).
     
    Anyway, before it gets its long-overdue handing back in time for the MRC's/Warners Alexandra Palace show, I thought I'd finish the job I thought I'd done ages back and give it a bit of a weathering job too. it being Happisburgh's last exhibition appearance and all that .
     

     
     
    I'm probably going to change the number on the side as it's evidently off the set of numbers Parkside supply in one of their kits - need to gen up on the right number for this diagram (D1828 all steel) and pick one accordingly.
     
    As per the minerals in the previous blog posting of mine, I've used a combination of Humbrol 186 and gouache. Four shades of the stuff in total - Raw+Burnt Sienna and Raw+Burnt Umber. The big rust patch really works with all fours shades together in a lovely mixture.
     
    For the little areas where the paint has puckered up, a drop of Butanone soon saw to those and then a tiny dab of gouache to finish off.
     
    Rather pleased with this one as it's a bit bigger than my usual 4mm scale comfort zone. Might spur me on to finish the pair of minerals also found with this box.....
  3. Timara

    Royal Sovereign

    By Timara,

    It's been a while since anything of the D&E persuasion got worked on here, so it makes a change to pop up a rather long-term resident of my workbench. Rather intended to assist NickL2008, I've decided that an entry covering the remechanising of one of my Lima 87s was worth doing.
     
    Some years ago, I obtained a Swallow liveried 87 at a reasonable cost. Having grown up with all liveries from banger blue right through to the current day, my favourite was always IC Swallow. There is a matching set of mk3s on the go, but they're a much more longer-term project.
     
    Here's now things have got to since the last working session on it.
     

     
    I've tidied the front ends up and have been ready to add the MW blanking plates for some time now. All light mouldings have been drilled through to allow clear optic to be inserted with a view to giving it fully DCC controlled lighting. None of this over-bright stuff of course...
     
    On the recommendation of Jim Smith-Wright, a Bachmann 'Warship' chassis was cut into various sections and installed in a much-modified chassis moulding. Two-part epoxy was used to give a really secure joint and left for 24 hours to fully harden, before cleaning up the excess adhesive.
     
    The bogie frames are spare Hornby class 90 parts and need to be shortened to 42mm wheelbase. Strictly speaking, they should be 43mm, but the Warship chassis is a scale 10' 6" instead of the 10' 9" common to 81/85-90. It's a darn sight better than the 40mm of the originals though! In order to give the correct ride height, around 1.5mm of the bottoms of the Flexicoil springs were removed, using the underframe of a Hornby 86 as a guide. I have a feeling Lima did this to allow the model to travel round trainset curves. The sideframes are fixed to the metal bogies with superglue, with accelerant to give a slightly stronger joint.
     

     
     
    There's barely any room to swing a cat in the model once the new chassis parts are inside, so I was faced with a bit of an issue as to how to DCC it, not least with being able to control the lights effectively. I settled on a length of verroboard along the "grille" side and installing the decoder in the least visible place underneath. The replacement battery box comes from a Hornby 90 underframe moulding, obtained ridiculously cheap off eBay. Precise position for it was gained from photographs, thankfully before Fotopic went belly-up.
     

     

     
    Performance is pretty good and can manage a scale top speed of just around 120mph, thanks to the higher-torque motor from the Warship. The same motor is found in the Voyager and other small-wheeled central drive models, so adding 14.5mm wheels does give it a fair turn of speed.
     
    Hopefully having posted this lot up, I might actually get the model finished off. Things yet to do are replacement Brecknell-Willis pantograph (I have a soldering jig on loan from a fellow modeller) and various other minor detailing. Once the fronts have had their blanking plates etc added, I shall give them a coat of WP yellow.
     
    That's all for now!
  4. Timara

    Thompson O4/8

    By Timara,

    The many uses of a Bachmann O4 2-8-0...... In this instance, a Thompson rebuild to class O4/8
     

     
    Going back to when Bachmann announced their O4, I wondered how long it would be before we would either see an offering made by Bachmann themselves or indeed an enterprising modeller in the form of one or other of the rebuilt versions. The latter appeared in the form of Graeme King over on LNER forum, both http://www.lner.info...t2443s375.html and http://www.lner.info...-t2141s45.html. Scroll down to see the relevant posts of course.
     
    Not so long ago, a chance discussion was had between myself and Tom Foster about whether it would be worth doing and I somehow agreed - I try not to turn work down these days. Inspired by Graeme's thread and being in the possession of the remains of a B1 (the chassis had long self-destructed), I set to work - the O4 was provided for the work, of course! Graeme supplied me with resin castings for the replacement dome and rear sandboxes too, which do make a difference. The chimney is an Alan Gibson J39 lost-wax brass casting, which is just that bit taller than the original B1 version. The main handrail is 0.45mm brass wire fitted through Gibson long handrail knobs. A large slug of lead in the boiler makes the model tip the scales at 325g. Capable of hauling almost anything sensible I care to throw at it.
     
    The following pair of images show the finished model prior to glazing and light weathering.
     

     

     
    Now, here's something I hadn't realised was wrong with the Bachmann reversing rod, which I now see is around 4ft underlength. The scratch-built brass replacement is the correct length and has the lever in the right place at the top of the curve of the main splasher.
     

     
    I have finished the model as 63653 of Frodingham (36C) shed with my usual combination of HMRS cabside numerals and Modelmaster smokebox numberplate+shedplate.
     
    Cheers for now!
  5. Timara

    Great Northern: part 2

    By Timara,

    By way of a follow-on from http://www.rmweb.co....great-northern/, here's the finished article, ready for delivery next week.
     
    Very little to say about this one really, so I'll let the pair of images below do the talking.
     

     

     
    EDIT: so that's how the "Blog it" button deals with things..... Experiment kinda worked....
     
    Cheers,
     
     
    Source: Tim's weathering workbench (mostly steam)
  6. Timara

    Great Northern

    By Timara,

    It's been a while since the last entry, so by way of showing what's been keeping me occupied lately, here's a taster of the current incumbent of my paintshop.
     
    A recent commission has been a repaint of 60113 'Great Northern' into British Railways express passenger blue livery. Now, whilst I'm not a fan at all of Thompson's essays in Pacifics (no, I'm not going to open the debate here), I must admit that blue certainly suits this machine better than green. Suffice to say, it's just "different".
     

     

     
    There are a few jobs yet to do - cab glazing, running-plate valence lining (a pig of a job), smokebox lamp iron and a final dusting of weathering before handing it back to the satisfied customer. For info, the main body colour is Phoenix XP loco blue and the lining is HMRS pressfix. I don't get on with anything else from many past experiences!
     

     
    As an aside, the background in the first two shots are the overhead wires of the GN mainline, which is rather apt if I dare say so myself!
     
    I'll update proceedings when the model is finished in a week or so's time.
  7. Timara

    Arise, Sir Bill!

    By Timara,

    Another project almost done and dusted.... With the exception of the lining etc on the driver's side, it's complete. As expected, the red shade DID tone down with a bit of weathering. Certainly matches all my colour books, not to mention my own photographs of 46229.
     
    Decided to take advantage of the sunlight this afternoon, so here are a trio of photos of the completed side! I'm rather pleased with it, if I dare say so myself.
     
     

     
     

     
     

     
     
     
    The use of BR coach Crimson is certainly a vast improvement on the RTR colour and pretty much spot on to my eyes.
     
    Comments and questions more than welcome!
  8. Timara

    Porthole Stanier SK

    By Timara,

    Prevarication - something I appear to be good at..... I need a fair number of porthole Stanier period IIIs, but actually managing to complete one has been a bit of an uphill struggle. Suffice it to say, it's not a job I hugely enjoy!
     
    Anyway, the first one to emanate from the works (minus glazing until I've varnished the sides) is below. I think I bought the sides for it about 7 or 8 years back. The donor base model is a scrap Replica open second and the interior comes from a Hornby model bought for pence. Paintwork is Humbrol 20, which is about as close as you're going to get to BR maroon - it's their old railway shade from what I am told by those in the know. Lining is HMRS pressfix.
     

     
     
    Seems to have come out rather ok, so I might just get the pair of composites done on the results of this. A DC Kits mk1 roof has been sourced for the porthole one.
     
    Might get round to completing a full rake if I'm really lucky!
  9. Timara

    Minerals

    By Timara,

    Something I need quite a goodly number of - the humble 16 ton mineral. Having recently bought a large batch of these, that oh-so-clean finish wasn't going to last very long in my hands!
     
    I've been trying to get to grips with using gouache (as prescribed by Pugsley and co on here) and here are the first two specimens.
     
    The one on the left is a 1959 build, so is undoubtedly much cleaner (and less bashed about) than its 1955/6 built cousin next to it. This is where the gouache has been used, along with a bit of MIG Black Smoke powder. Base coat for both is a thin wash of Humbrol 186 brown. May give the left hand one a little more dirt......
     

     
     
    As an aside, I've had a reasonably good degree of success with using my gas-powered Iroda soldering iron with the blowtorch tip. Carefully used at the right temperature, the insides of the wagon can be bowed out a little as per the real thing. Not too much though, else you'll have a lovely hole in the body (not happened here yet, touch wood!).
     
    More on these to come, eventually!
  10. Timara

    A Fruit cocktail

    By Timara,

    The recent Christmas and New Year break has enabled me to get my finger out and finish off a few outstanding projects, most notably some 12t van kits.
     
    Roof issues aside (I've left these alone as I'm game for an easy life!), the Parkside Dundas PC42 BR fruit van kit is a most useful one indeed and can produce 3 main variants of ordinary 12t van aside from the kit as intended.
     
    Below are sides in various states of modification.
     
    Starting with the raw bodyside - note the shelf brackets and vent scoop plates - these all get removed to do the following: LMS Dias 2097 and 2108, BR D1/200. The latter are virtually the same, save for roof vents on the LMS diagram.
     

     
     
    With everything removed, this is how the side now looks.
     

     
     
    The D2097 van goes a stage further and has the pair of diagonal straps removed, leaving just the verticals. These had a different underframe from the rest - standard Morton 4 shoe push brakegear instead of the 8 shoe clasp as fitted to the rest. More on those anon!
     

     
     
    Finally (for now) a pic of a completed van to D2108 awaiting the paintshop - roof vents are the usual MJT torpedoes. The underframe spare from a D2097 conversion goes nicely under an Airfix/Dapol LMS planked body, which does a few diagrams in its own right.
     

     
     
    As stated at the start, I'm fully aware of the wrong roof profile of the Parkside kit, but when you're building the quantity I need (I have a good couple of dozen of these), life is very much too short.
     
    Underframe detail is confined to adding brake shoe actuation rods, main cross-shaft and pull rods. A combination of 0.4 and 0.7mm diameter brass rod/wire does the trick neatly. Buffers are 13" heads from the 51L range using the original shanks. Further detail can be given over to replacement axleboxes for those that had them replaced with the BR pattern (or in the case of D1/200, built with them).
     
    All in all, a nice kit to work with and produce a goodly variety to a fitted van train.
  11. Timara

    Much duffage

    By Timara,

    Had to start somewhere I guess, so here goes. The humble 47, maid of all work. I'm not a massive fan of these locos, but in my modelling period, they're a necessity.
     
    For the 4mm modeller, there isn't really a "definitive duff" out there. Close, yes, but not "bang on". I think we can discount the rather heavy and wide Heljan 47, much as people seem to like it. It's wrong in more ways than just the width!
     

     
     
    As far as the body is concerned, the ViTrains body is just about spot on, with a couple of very minor niggles that can be fixed in no time. I'm not so keen on the chassis though, particularly the fact it rides far too high and the bogie frames (although very crisply moulded) just don't look right. Here's a pic of a Vi bogie above a Bachmann bogie. Neither scream out to me.
     

     
     
    Almost all the 47s I'll ever require have life-extended modifications, which means that using a cheap Bachmann 57 chassis is a bit of a win. They crop up on ebay from time to time or you can pick one off the Bachmann returns stand at Warley/Ally pally if you must and then either flog the body on ebay or use for weathering techniques.
     
    Inspired by Jim Smith'Wright's Bachmann 47 some while back, I've also gone down the route of adding modified Heljan bogie frames to the Bachmann bogies. The improvement is rather marked and definitely worth the effort.
     

     
     
    Aside from the modifications to the Vi body to allow fitment onto the 57 chassis (more in another topic later) the only major mod has been to the paintwork, in this instance repainting the windscreen surrounds and cab doors in black (they were originally RES grey). Just needs a set of Shawplan laser cut windows (hint Brian) and the handrails fitting on this side. Various other detailing hasn't been done, yet.
     

     
     
    Hoping to get this one finished fairly soon so that I can get a few more important items of stock finished off......
  12. Timara

    Lady in Red

    By Timara,

    My current workbench incumbent: A much modified Hornby Duchess as one of the Ivatt pair, in this instance, 46256 Sir William A Stanier FRS.
     
    Now, I've long disliked the shade of BR Loco Red used by Hornby on any of their pacifics. It's darker than the BR coach maroon used by Bachmann on their darkest issues and has a horrible purple tint to it. In short, it's wrong!
     
    I've been yet to come across anyone who does the right shade (ie: badged as such) and I have a nasty feeling that most people just use BR maroon. Wrong again - it's BR loco red! Look in any colour books where the shot is taken in full sun with the colour as visible as possible and you'll see that the loco will always be lighter (and brighter) than the stock behind it. Cue endless debate on colour and films - that's for another day
     
    So, what to use? Most of my repainted coaching stock is given Humbrol 20 - a colour that works and looks spot-on for BR coach maroon. As said before, loco red is both lighter and brighter, but not by much. Coach crimson, as marketed by both Phoenix and Railmatch, is darker than it should really be. Proof, if it were needed, that colour doesn't scale. Just so happens that the above shade of red is near enough to BR loco red. I've chosen the Railmatch version, though there's very little difference between the two, aside from the former having a bit more richness to it.
     
    Here's the comparison between RTR and repainted.
     

     
     
    Now, in bright sunlight, it does look very red, which slightly alarms me, but it'll probably look totally different once lined out and toned down with some thin grimy washes. Going by the front cover of Power of the Duchesses, it's about right.
     
    More to come when I've finished it - the tender is being built this week (hopefully).
     
    Thoughts/comments?
  13. Timara
    Well, I'm getting there, slowly.....
     
    Next job to do is undercoat + paint the tender underframe, followed by the soul-destroying task of lining it. I'm not looking forward to it, especially as the lining I bought to do this task is a pile of dodgy doodah. Word from the wise: NEVER use the Fox stuff if you want an accurate looking model. It's far too thick and evidently been sized from something a lot bigger and not so true-to-scale - it was quite a bit longer+taller than the tender body. Suffice it to say, I'm not impressed one bit!
     
    However, all hasn't been lost..... It's a rather good job that the HMRS BR coach lining is a very good match for what I'm trying to achieve. Ok, so it only comes in straight lines and can be a PITA to align round curves, but it's done the job.
     

     
     
    The tender is a very nice Comet etched body with a heavily modified underframe. Thanks have to go to Mucky Duck in his Black 5 thread for the idea on this one! Completely changes the look of it. As for the trailing truck, I'm trying to find some suitable bolts/nuts to allow me to fit the pony wheel as they're not included in the kit (unless they've got lost). Yellow axle box cover yet to be painted.....
     

     
     
    More to come as and when I finish this, which needs to be in the next few days as it's one of the locos appearing in a photoshoot on Wednesday for Hornby Magazine.
  14. Timara
    I felt it worthwhile to "break cover", as it were, with one of my current projects. Seeing as the forthcoming article on repainting a Hornby 'Duchess' doesn't require me to go into much detail on the deflectors, I thought I might as well make mention of it here.
     
    I'm not a fan of the plastic ones as supplied by any means. The only options open to the modeller these days are either from Comet or Jackson Evans. I've chosen to use the former here, but with a bit of a modification to produce the variant required by my chosen subject.
     

     
    The head-on view above shows how much of an improvement they make. I did modify a set of the original plastic deflectors on my original model of 46256 but as they're lacking a bit in the height department, I chose to use Comet ones as my standard across my small fleet.
     

     
    These are the deflectors meant for a utility front Duchess, because those supplied by Comet for the fully curved running plate version do not have the foot hold at the base. Out came the 6 thou brass and some wire and a pair of new extensions to the lower front were made.
     

     
    I've worked from a few photographs on Flickr of 6233, which really made my life a lot easier. Next job is to prime and paint them before fixing them permanently to the model so that I can finish it off for HM! The other side still requires lining as it is.....
     
    Cheers for now.....
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