brian daniels

The hole should not be there it's a boo-boo on the Chinese part not the Danes. It is being filled so, as you say, a green un can run steam heat only and a blue un will have an ETH cable that plugs into the bufferbeam and due to it being a stiff Delrin/plastic affair it will be in the correct position on the body. You could stick the ETH onto the body with a bit of pva glue I guess so it would come off later should you want to remove the body. I have filled the hole on this sample. Long wait to get one isn't it, who's going to start the bidding for this one:D

Bluex5 the whole profile looks good to me you can see the slight tapper in from the rear of the cab to the nose, it all looks good. It has a big yellow nose now so should be blue by tomorrow night:) It is going to be 9014, got a set of Shawplan plates on order. I said that this is a pre-production sample and as such the ETH was wrong but it is being corrected so until they are available and they send some spare spues it won't have any ETH:( I could put some "scale" ETH boxes on it but this has to remain faithfull to the Heljan model, not a kit bashed model.

Resistance is futile Nidge:( more rest days required! The green roof grills are a soft plastic glued at the bottom then curved over and glued at the top. Now i am spraying this blue I hope I don't get too much blue in the grill as I can't paint "inside" them with a dark colour later. I just did this little thing on Photoshop which I will admitt I am not worlds best user of but managed to overlay a model picture on 55014 and to me the profile round the windows and nose looks spot on (mind you that's if I have done it right as the 2 pictures are not quite the same angle but close)

Here are some clearer pictures showing how much room there is for speakers and possibly smoke?

I will take a more general shot of the body and chassis apart tomorrow so you can see the room in it. It has to be the lightest Heljan loco to date. Like the "keyring" caption

Think you ought to change the thread title to D5900 as I think there are enough Teddy Bears in service already

For those that want to fit speakers there is a place for one in the tank but you may get more in there and there is a nice big space either side of the curcuit board/DCC chip in the middle. As my local model shop is also the Heljan UK rep he knows I have a layout to phot and run the 7mm products for him. Unfortunatly he asked me to paint this blue as I have it in bits and we can't wait to see it painted. So watch this space There is a pic in a book of a green Deltic on a 4 wheel van train somewhere as they were tried on fitted freights.

Here are a few pictures of the new Heljan 7mm Deltic for you to cast your eyes over. This is a pre production sample so there might be some issues still to sort out.

I suppose I could pop into the local branch of Anne Summers and ask for some black latex

Nice pictures Bob but how the bl**dy hell do you paint it? I will go for the blue as it will brighten up the interior a bit. Could I get away with plain rail blue for seat covers?, I don't know. Has anyone done a waterslide transfer for seat covers

Too much spare time Nidge, you don't want to be driving trains all the time it's bad for your modelling time Handbrake duly applied on the BRUTE Primed the insides of the sides and ends so I can paint them and then I can glue the sides and ends onto the chassis. I am demoing on the JLTRT stand at Telford so I won't paint the outside of this coach until after the show as all Pete has on his stand are finished models but I will have this there so the punters can see what the kits are made of. I will be messing about with something else there but don't know what just yet. I got hold of some transfers today from Appleby for the Slater vanwide and general vans. Might have to get a few more vanwides to use these nice transfers up on. The vanwide now has a nice glossy finish to put the transfers on next week. If you get up to the screen realy close you can just see what's on the transfer sheets, or are my eyes that bad

Damn I was hoping you would be too kind and not mention that My fault a bit over enthusiastic with the file but there is filler drying there as I type this!

Done bit more this afternoon. The etched footboards on the solebar are a fold over etch to get a bit of thickness to them. Then you are supposed to glue them on the solebar. Well I am no engineer but that is not going to be a good joint, so I soldered 2 brass strips on the bottom and drilled 2 holes in the solebars to locate them. A much better/stronger joint. I cut one of the guards access steps short as it's etched too long in my opinion and had to modify it to fit over the electrical box. I have got a Kadee fitted at one end and a JLTRT drop head buckeye at the other, dropped. It could be lifted and pinned in the upright position but it sticks out a bit far for use as a buckeye. The buffers at this end are sprung with a spring in the shaft and a piece of wire soldered through a hole in the buffer shaft that runs in a horizontal slot I cut it the buffer locating boss to stop it rotating. The buffers at the Kadee end are glued in the pushed in position. The interior is painted apart from the seats as I still can't make my mind up on what colour to do them A couple of shots looking through the windows shows that you can't see much especially the guards compo. Note the picture of the door next to the guards compo that has the rubber bangers moulded on, it should not have any fitted and then the door that has no rubber bangers that should have them fitted Still tempted to glue the sides and ends to the chassis now before painting as I just know I would mess up the paint finish if I painted it first.

Yes Jim when ordering you have to specify if you want the frames or not. I don't know if they are moulded on the bodysides or the windows though as I have not seen that version yet.

Thanks for that Darren, will have visit to the local craft stores. The JLTRT instructions are a bit vague on a number of aspects on the build of these coaches. My time frame for running my trains is late 70's so probably need the blue/green check so as DJP says I will wait until early April to see if I can get any check paint

Very nice Julian nothing wrong with that. You have also confirmed that I have got the wrong style rubber corridor connector. The one in my kit has a straight top to it and not curved as yours is. Still wracking my brains how to fix the end water pipes as the roof has to come off. Thinking along the lines of the end brackets being removeable with the roof brackets fixed and hope the "spring" in the wire holds them on the end of the coach. What colour was the second class seats? I recall them a grey/green colour but what colour to paint a seat patern? A bit like trying to get tartan paint!

Thanks for the feedback chaps. Regarding the white line I did use Fox waterslide on a Westdale but it on an inch at a time again is a bit daunting (damm stuff keeps cracking up). On my Mk II D I used a Bob More lining pen but it's a bit skinny so I shall try the HMRS stuff this time. Thanks for the info Bob I will keep it in the number range as suggested but I don't yet have a prefrance for a region to do a train from. To be honest where I chopped the armrests off it looks like they are in the upright position. I got 2 weeks off work with nothing else spoiling so can crack on with it but I am waiting to see if JLTRT send me some better vac cylinders because i am not putting the riveted ones on that came with the kit! Undecided weather to paint it now or after I have the sides and ends glued on the chassis. Can't see as it would be a problem painting it when built as I am painting the interior now and should be able to glue the windows in ok later. Any chance of a pic of yours Julian?

The axleboxes do indeed float in the axleguards but what good it is I don't know. In my experiance unless they have a spring to force them into any undulations and dips in the track then they just ride ove like a solid bogie The guards comprtments do look good and there is also a desk and brake setter with an etched letter rack above to put in against the carriage side wall. Why we do it though I don't know because unless you take the roof off the only window you can see anything through is the guards door on one side and believe me looking through it what you see is "not a lot". Although these are relativly easy coaches to build I am coming to the conclusion that I hate building coaches and I still have to do the white line on the blue/grey livery. Now how much are those Heljan ones

Thanks Richard but I just cut em off! I doubt if the arm rests would have been like the models with the "pillar" up the back as well as the arm rest which to me is first class seating. All mine are done with the arm rests up and tucked inside the back rest! Early ones were built without the window frames so I will number it in the early ones. A few pictures of it slowly coming together.

I am having a go at a JLTRT MkI Brake Second at the moment. They have been around for a while now so I thought it was about time to do one as I have done a couple of their MkII's. Here are a few pics to show what's in the box. They come with either white metal or etched bogies, I opted for the etched ones but if/when I do another I will try the white metal ones. The vac cylinders supplied are the wrong sort, these being a rivetted cylinder! The instructions are a bit basic as there is no mention that on on a BSK the battery boxes are positioned differntly and there is no mention as to where the guards extra long steps locate. Talking of the solebar steps these are a brass etch folded in 2 and then stuck on side on which does not seem a very strong joint to me on something that sticks out so I will solder some wire spiggots on them and locate into some drilled holes. This coach does not have the window surrounds on as I ordered one without as I had a cunning plan to add these from an etch but that ideas gone out of the window I am sure some escaped having the frames put on as a few MkI's in preservation are still like this. The seats supplied are with armrests for a first class compartment. When I enquired if this is correct I was told that is the only ones they do so I will have to carve the armrests off

I have finished the vanwide and banana van except for the weathering. Had a nice job painting the lettering on the banana van, not I did a very nice job of it with a fine white pen but after 24 hours it still had not dried! Apparently it was a white gell pen and it will not dry on hard surfaces. So it was out with the Bob More lining pen which has worked but not as neat as it was before. I will do one more banana/barrier van to go either side of my 4 (so far!) vanwides. I have just ordered some 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 explosive information diamonds from Appleby to put on the vanwides. I am painting my 4th vanwide at the moment which is a VEV as I put roller bearing axleboxes on it.

I just can't believe that no manufacturer has done a VEA conversion kit either. It would be a good base to do the air braked OHV and VVV's as well The Vanwides do look good that's why I have now got 4 of them, so far.

I have been going through my wagons recently, doing a bit of weathering and seeing if I could get rid of any as space is at a premium now so I could buy some more . So I bought 2 Slaters Vanwides (already have 2 so will make a nice block of 4 of these) at £30.40 each and a JLTRT Banana van at £39.95 so I could see what their vans are like. I have a picture of a Banana van as a barrier van in 1979/80 so is ok behind TOPs diesels. The Banana van is quite straight forward to build but the instructions are a not clear on where the little whitemetal brackets go on the solbars but I managed to work it out. Not a lot of work to do on the body! The axleboxes needed a bit of work to file out the guides so they run up and down in the axle guards. These kits are easy to do but one part that needs a bit of work are the buffers. The buffer shanks need drilling/cleaning out with a piller drill. I have used Slaters vac pipes on this van as I did not like the cast whitemetel ones supplied in the kit. Acouple of pictures of the Slaters Vanwide added as well.

I have been weathering a few of my 7mm wagons recently as I have a lull in loco building. One thing I am thinking of doing is to renumber the 02 with TOPs numbers as 3 ended their days with these.

Just scanned these B&W negs of a Jim Harris 7mm 02.