brian daniels

Here are a couple of pictures showing the 4 EDM bolts I used on the handbrake fixings and some lift rings that I made up. These are made from a lost wax loop on a spigot that's spare from my CPL chain tensioners that I am useing to fix loads to my wagons. Made the loops from .5 wire. Should be giving it it's first run tomorrow at the Hurley test track together with a Heljan 61xx! Just weathered the Heljan 26-27 conversion. Still got to get the right straight style windscreen wipers from JLTRT.

Not sure Ian. Will look in my transfers box to see if I Lowmac on any but apart from that the rest can be made up with what I have. If I don't have the Lowmac one I see Fox do it on a sheet.

I have got a tail light unit from DCC Supplies. It has a flicker circuit for the fire in the stove and a steady circuit that I will use for the tail and side lights. It is on a button battery that will hide in the roof. The last few days I have been building a M&M Lowmac. To say it's an interesting kit is an understatement! It's the first kit I have built where nothing locates into another part so every part can go where you like buy a mill or two either side of where it should be. But we got there in the end. Buffers are from NMRS to replace the solid ones in the kit. Vac pipe is from Slaters. Coupling plate is from CPL and the coupling is an Exactoscale one that I had spare, I have ordered some Exactoscale screw couplings for this. Nice and strong underneath. I have changed the cast on brake pulls on the shaft for etched ones that were spare from the Queen MAry Brake kit. Whilst not acurate they are a lot better than what was there. Original brake cross shaft. Modified brake cross shaft. Handbrake guide has been anchored to the axleguard with a bit of flat wire. I have since drilled out and filled the 4 holes by the handbrake pivot with EDM plastic bolts as the casting with four bolts on them that should have protruded through these holes were at a different spacing than the four holes!

Yes I did enjoy it Andy, always helps when a kit falls together. Wondering if I could add some working sidelights but am thinking where to put a battery!

Replied Martyn

M&M ones Ian.

The last few weeks I have been building a Connoisseur kits Queen Mary brake van, and very nice it is too. All the parts fit together very nicely, it will never catch on! I wanted to do it as one with the sandbox on the ends and the side planking still on it, I have only found one picture of one like this in Engineers Olive. Would have been nice to use a resistance soldering iron on this but we got there with my trusty 25W and big 75W irons. It is fully sprung and runs really well. The couplings are the kits hooks and CPL bits I had spare for the links.

27010 is now finished apart from a bit of muck on it later. It's a JLTRT one next to it. I am still waiting for some straight windscreen wipers from Laurie so in the mean time I have put the Heljan ones back in. Shawplan roof grill. Details here will show better once weathered.

Does look like ones adrift.

Just had a meet over the diamonds. Good to hear the coal train going at a good speed and in run 8. Glad the double stack was missing the top deck.

I will be using CPL hooks and chains to secure the load. You notice I have put a couple of the whitmetal solebar eyes with the rings upright ready to take the hooks and chains. I see from your pictures Ozzyo that you put the L piece across all the trusses on the outside of the uprights but if you look at pictures they should go on the insides http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brbcv/hbfcbe50#h1e00dd89

Hi John We can all join the bent solebar club then! I did fit the wooden floor between the bolsters although I did have to cut it a bit narrower to get it in over the top lip of the sides. You are right about the colour of the floor, it does need a bit more doing to it before I chain the girders down.

Hi chaps. The buffers on the shock opens are what came with them many years ago when these were sold as DA kits. But they do look a lot like these available from NMRS-Models. I have used these on my Bolster C and have bought these for an M&M Lowmac. I have weathered the Bolster C now. I see Ozzyo that you are building one of these Bolsters. I gave up with the two middle U shape frames down the underside as when I fitted them the body went like a boomerang and I could not get it back level. But unless you are into big de-railment's you can't see that they are not there. I also added Archers rivets on the solebar as they are devoid of any detail, they do show, just! Still have to chain the load down which is Plastruct sections.

Think I have done all I can think of now. Should get some paint on it next week I hope. I painted some Halfords primer on the bits that had a bit of filler on them to how bad my rubbing down was. Shawplan etched rad grill added and a bit of brass for the rad overflow. I glued the Heljan radiator grill mesh molding into the roof and then cut out the mesh bit leaving the outer ring in the roof. This was then filed down flush and the etch glued in place. Side grill mesh just resting in place to see what it looks like. Noticed that 27010 had a drain pipe along the solebar on one side. In my spares box I had these little lugs for the bogies so thought it would be a shame not to use them. The Heljan bogies are from their 33, close to a 26/7 but not quite close enough. It was a job to remove the larger molded lugs from the bogie sideframes without getting the knife dug into some other details. It should look ok when painted black and muck. Forgot to mention I also removed the two little safety clips on top of the batterybox etch overlay as if you look at the black and white picture of 27010 it did not have these at this time.

Think that's about it Although I still need 2 door handles on one side and some long windscreen wipers, Laurie sent some but they were the short ones for 37/40, you need the ones from the Western. I keep looking at the body and finding small pinprick holes in the filling so seem to be forever filling and rubbing down Steps changed, lifting lug added, airlines and sand gear added. Corners of the bufferbeam filed at the correct angle. Sanding valve casting is from the JLTRT class 20. I had to file away the front of the bogie sides to clear the snowplough brackets. I have also left off the front bogie frame bit as it just fouls on the plough brackets as well and to be honest you can't see it behind the ploughs. Door handles are bonnet handles from the JLTRT class 20. I only had two in the spares box so have ordered some more. Water tank brackets are from the JLTRT class 27. Battery box brackets are from the JLTRT class 33.

Afraid not Jeff.

As I said if you look at the rad grill "etch" and brake pulls they are white. Pete does have trouble now and again getting etches, I am waiting for a 2251 steam loco kit that' he's waiting for etches to complete the kit for me. The eth female box under the secondman's buffer is missing on this model. Looking forward to building a few of these! Glad you like the old Euro pics, great years in Germany, nice liveries and plenty of branch line loco hauled trains. I still have a few trips to scan in, mostly Swiss, so keep checking in for updates.

Not quite ready yet as there are no etch bits on it yet. The rad grill and brake pulls are plastic on this model. There was also not a full set of ETH details on it I noticed.

I was in Bludenz in 1985. Don't you just love that orange livery

I take it you are going to remove the vac cylinder from the modern version?

What have I been doing lately? Well I built a Bogie Bolster C from M&M that's painted now. But recently I have converting a Heljan class 26 to a class 27 using etches supplied by Vin off ebay. Unfortunatly Vin has disappeared off ebay so I doubt you could still get these, which is a shame as he did a good kit complete with LED's ready wired for the headcode and tail lights. I have used a few JLTRT castings as well and am waiting for some of their windscreen wipers and bogie steps. I will have this with me at my demo stand at the Bristol show this coming Sunday. I have decided to do it as 27010 as it was one of a few that had the beading missing over the gangway door blanks. JLTRT ploughs and bufferbeam pipes added. One thing the camera shows up is that I need a bit more filler and rubbing down in places Fuel tank etches to give the correct slant to the bottom of the tank. JLTRT Bogie airpipe castings. Also need another airline out of wire. I have also moved the coil springs inbound a bit. Token recess filled with plasticard and then filler. JLTRT lampbrackets mounted on a piece of plasticard so they point straight rather than follow the body contour if glued straight onto the body. Roof detail added together with JLTRT lifting lugs. Not sure whether to change the rad fan for a Shawplan etch or not. Bodyside windows raised up using the etches supplied. Must say looking at my JLTRT 27's the bodyside windows don't look quite right next to the small grills. The bottom of the windows should be inline with the top of these little grills. Looks nearly like the real thing!

It's called Modelmates and comes in a little plastic jar like Acrylic paints do. The interior of the shock open you can see the ends are a bit lighter which is Rusty Red. The darker is Rust Effect. You can mix a bit of both together on the wagon to get effect.

Added the Archers rivets to the Bolster C, hope they will show when painted! I too ended up looking at the NMRS buffers Kev Lewis and ordered some from Invertrains. It's the GWR/Lowmac ones that are ok for these. Whilst I have been a wagon mood I did something I have meaning to do for ages, use the Modelmates rust on the ends of some wagons. So I used it on the ends of another M&M (DA Kits) wagon, a shock open. I also added some laser cut wood interiors that I got at Reading. Got some interiors for a Pipe wagon as well. I have been waiting to get the bottle to rust the end of a van as they always look very black with years of rust. So I got in and had a go on a JLTRT Banana van that I am using as a runner. Must say I am pleased with the result.

Got that wrong! I was on a Wolverton stone much to my surprise. This must have been an additional as we certainly did not have a booked turn to the stone terminal. This view hasn't changed much either I bet.

Can't remember the year but it would be about 1981. I am on the Old Oak -Wolverton coaching stock move that was a Didcot job.