brian daniels

Best of luck with this project. I am busy shunting there this week! Did you know that you have not quite got the layout right at the north end?

They are Methfix or Pressfix Boris. As I said I have found them straight forward to use. And as you say you do get a lot on a sheet, some of which is actually usefull!

The transfers I used on my Westdale GUV were the HMRS ones. Never had any trouble with them. Blue solebar gets my vote Nice job on the GUV by the way.

Ah CME I did not make myself very clear there did I. I should have said window apertures were masked from inside. I also placed the roof on so I did not have to mask off the interior from the top. The windows are clear injection mouds that can be glued in after painting. If you look back at page 8 on this thread there are pictures of the windows in the raw. It was a bit of a squeeze to get my finger and a window with glue on the outside ledge down between the corridor side but I managed it ok. I will take a few pictures of the RMB build soon to show what is involved with a JLTRT kit. I should take more pictures when I do things like the painting but I tend to just get on with it I'm affraid. What H&S precautions do I take? Probably not enough Just stick a mask on that should do. I paint my primer on outside but do the spraying of the enamels in the attic, except in the summer when it's so hot up there the paint would dry before it gets to the model! If I remember right the bloke in Howes told me that none of the Railmatch paints contain lead anymore. They spray ok but tend to take a couple or more coats if brushing some colours. Coachman, re-spraying some of your older models is a cheap way of getting a new(ish) model I think. I will be re-painting my green 121 railcar and a chocolate/cream inspection saloon into blue grey after I have done the 56.

Hi JP I only use Railmatch as my local shop, Howes, is also the manufacturer of Railmatch so always has every colour in stock . And Enamel is very definatly still made! After masking off the windows from the inside I sprayed it with Halfords grey primer first. Then did the blue. I then masked the blue as I found it easier to do the masking this way round to get over the door hinges etc then sprayed the grey. The grey covered the blue ok, only a couple of coats required. I did the roof with their roof dirt.

Richard The vac cylinders supplied were riveted cylinders! At Kettering on Saturday Laurie said he has since located the correct cylinder castings in the GUV kits so hopefully they will supply the correct ones now. I used some Easybuild ones. To me the dynamo is too skinney. I have got hold of some more meaty ones at Kettering to put under the next coaches and maybe replace the one on the BSK. I have made a start on the RMB so should have something worth showing soon. The 56 is now in primer so should get some Railmatch paint on it tomorrow.

It does seem a shame to re-paint the 56 I know but it just looks out of place on the shelf with all the blue loco's I have. Mind you I have a 58 and a 60, these don't fit into the late 70's either The plan for the cantrail grills is to glue some black felt behind them. Just never got around to it, thankfully as it would have been more stuff to clean out after paint stripping. I did not put any extra bulkheads into them as I found them ok. At Kettering today I bought a Steve Beattie class 47 resin cab interior to fit in this. I know it's not quite right but it's better than nowt! Just hope it fits. I also bought a JLTRT RMB and CK MkI coach kit so the blue grey rake is slowley taking shape.

Now the MkI is done I am on another project A cheap one as well! I built an RJH 56 many years ago and finished it in Loadhaul. Seeing all I do now is good old banger blue I thought it should have re-paint. I striped it with Nitro-Moors and have been busy re-doing the filler . Picture of it before and after attached. I will also be re-painting my green Westdale class 121 into blue and grey I think.

I have just been lent this production 26 to give it a blast round the test track at Kettering tomorrow. There is a bag with all the pipes/jumper cables and folded over discs for you to fit as they were getting broke on the 33's whilst in transit. If you see me walking round tomorrow and you want a look at it please ask me.

It's behind you! Oh no it isn't. Oh yes it is.

Hi Richard I too have a limited life span and could not see me making a rake of MMP MkI's, as good as they are, and they are damn nice when done it's just too much for me. I think i have built too many JLTRT kits now, they are in my blood Did you notice that I also changed the vac cylinders on this coach and I will change the dynamo on any subsequent builds. I used Westdale lost wax grab handles on the doors as the JLTRT cast ones are a bit tired (polite way of putting it) CME, are you going to do a workbench thread on re-building your Lima's and other stuff youve done?

Hi CME I have not tried an MMP coach just Westdale and JLTRT. I think I will stick with JLTRT and make up a rake of blue and grey. That weathering is just superb, the best rust I have seen

Hi Richard, I used .7 wire for the handrail/toilet filler pipe. I used a couple of split pins squeezed round it for the supports. Where it goes into the filler casting on the roof i managed to drill out the end of the casting .7 and the wire is a push fit in it so I can disconect it to remove the roof. For the 2 extra gutter strips for the toilet filler I used some Evergreen L shape strip. The corridor connectors on the ends are solid so the use of a cloth materiel for the top covering is not essential as it does not go in and out but it is what's needed to get a bit of texture up there.

A few pages back I was building a JLTRT MkI, well I have finally 99.9% finished it All that needs doing is finding some materiel to do the little bit over the top of the corridor connectors. On the van end I have poked a bit of black felt in there to see what it looks like but I think it's a bit fuzzy. So, one down 9 more to go What held this up was deciding what to do about the white line. In the end I used HMRS pressfix lining. I cut it into about 4 inch lengths and found it easier to do than I thought it would be.

Nice one Mr W. That's the first pic showing the "slight" difference in size. Now, do I bother changing the 33/1 models buffers? Probably not I think.

Here are a couple of blow ups from my website that I worked from. I can't fathom out why the tanks were changed so late in their life, surely not for the sake of adding another couple of gallons of diesel? I can't fathom out the use of larger buffer heads on the 33/1's either as the only time you might need larger bufferheads is when propelling at 85mph. But the buffers are pushed in and play no part in propelling the TC units etc. The only thing I can come up with is that retractable oleo's only come with large heads and that's it, you don't get a choice in the oleo catalogue!

I saw one of them on test at Bedford in 1982 whilst I was running round the Westbury to Leagrave stone.

Thanks for the info PCM. Must try and get down to Swanage for their diesel gala and take some pictures of the tank. I don't suppose your friend knows the size of the buffers on these 33/1? As was mentioned earlier they are larger than standard 33's. I think they are the same size as 47's

Welcome to the mad house CME. I think we need to see some more of your weathering on here On my 33105 I did cut the recess in the tank as the Heljan model does not have it. For some reason all the preserved 33's don't have it either.

Getting back on topic for a while I have now painted the castings added to my 33/1 conversion. I will not be weathering it for a while as Pete Harvey is doing some etched replacement steps for the bogies so I will wait for these to be attached first. I have also painted the solebars blue as per 33's.

Empties passing a loaded coal train at Foxhall Jct, Didcot.

Very nice build Boris. When are you doing the rake of Mk I's to go with it Nice choice of colour as well in BR Blue

No problem showing 4mm front if it's still to do with the discussion on here Raffles. Here's a picture of my DJH 47578 that shows their screens have a slight curve on the bottom as per prototype. By the way I do not want to do another Heljan 47 with all the trimmings on it, honest Somebody else do it, please, I beg you.

Behave will you It is such a shame that most kits don't get done. I would just love to see a 47 with everything added on it. Oh well maybe I ought to do another one? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

No problem with "hijacking", keep discussing away chaps. Thanks for the info on your window etches Dave. If anyone else asks I will let them know they are specific to the Heljan model, thanks. By the way has anyone used all your Heljan 47 upgrade bits? Would like to see a picture of one with everything on it. Regarding the 47 cab one area with a little discrepency is above the side windows as there is slightly too much bodywork between the top of the side windows and the rain strip. But it does not worry me after doing my 47091, I and quite a few others were surprised that it did not show all these horror stories that have been mentioned but that it looks like a 47! I too can take my glasses off and everthing looks superb