brian daniels

Whilst I am painting 26012 at the moment I have finished building an ASAM 1/48th Fox light armoured vehicle to go on the Warflats. I have ordered a few more vehicles to go on these Warflats which should look nice I think if this ones anything to go by. Mind you they are going to be a bit heavy with 2 vehicles per wagon. Definatly a Heljan diagram to move them I think!

That's very nice Ian. What colour/name is Revel 37?

Headcode discs are fine on the Heljan 20 I think. It is a shame about the yellow though isn't it. I ran this at an O Gauge running session a week ago and it ran just fine, until a motor decided to leave it's housing The motors are held in place by a clamp arrangement which had come loose allowing the motor to rise up and de-mesh the gears. Just a case of poke it back down and tighten the clamp up again. No great problem, just hope it don't keep doing it! One good thing on this loco is that when you remove the body the wires are long enough to get in and do stuff.

I have just finished detailing up the Heljan 20 a little bit. It's generaly bufferbeam stuff to do. The first thing to do is take it apart. This done by unscrewing the chassis via 4 shiny screws then to remove the cab from the body you have to use a sharp knife blade to prize the 2 large rear windows out. Then there are 2 screws in the cab front to undo. The 2 small front windows pushed out ok but the side windows are glued in to much to remove them. With the front and back windows removed it's easy to paint the window rubber edge black. I replaced the 2 handrails on the rear with a couple of spare castings I had from my previous JLTRT kits but should be an easy job to bend a piece of wire and make a support for it. I also painted out the silver window frame. The BR Blue version needs the yellow painting round the corner of the cab a bit further so I used Railmatch 304 Yellow with a bit of orange in it to get a pretty good match. Also unscrewed the rad fan and painted that red. The cab interior was removed and painted in suitable colours. Further along the body I painted the small handles blue and put a better curve in the long handrail at the front. On the bufferbeams I replaced the airpipes with some JLTRT under bufferbeam fitting ones and cut off the MU cable from the jumper and replaced it with rubber tubing and also lowered the socket on the right hand side of the buffer. The buffers are from JLTRT as well. I replaced the speedo on the axle end with a spare JLTRT one as well. You could add some pipe work around either side of the battery box if you want but I have done all I want to on this except for a bit of muck of course. I have removed a black and a blue wire from the terminal block to disconnect the red tail lights as I don't want these on with a train behind it. It's a bit of trial and errtr as to which 2 black and blue wire to disconnect. I put a bit of yellow paint on the white LEDs as well to tone them down a bit and some black paint on the covered over disc LEDs as they were shining through the yellow disc! One thing though don't put the steps on untill you have finished doing it up as I now need a new set All in all a nice loco. There are a couple of pictures of it next to a JLTRT 20. I have used a few bits I know from JLTRT but I had them in the spares box so I should use them. I don't know if they would do a "bufferbeam detailing set" for sale?

I have been busy since crimble making a couple of JLTRT 26's. One will be 26012 and I am still unsure about the plowed one One thing I had to do on the 26/0 was to remove the cab radio pod that was cast on it. The 26/1 also has one of these cast on the roof but I am sure the only ones to have these were the ones that also carried headlights? I am pretty sure I will have to remove it on the 26/1 later. The pictures below show the different bogie details on a 26/0 and a 26/1. JLTRT supplied the 26/0 with 2 battery boxes, one with a X on the front and the other plain, so if you want one of these make sure you can see what one the loco you are modelling had. There are still a couple of little jobs to do on both of them but they will both be running double headed tomorrow at the Boure End running session.

I don't know if it was there from new or not Trevor. All the ones around now seem to have it.

This what it should look like, round with a bit on the side.

Well here you are then a blue Heljan 20. It looks the part which is a good sign. As usual there are a couple of improvements to be done. Number one is to put some decent Oleo's on. the front and rear cab windows have the rubber moulded on but not painted so some black paint needed there. The long handrail should have more of a curve on it where it goes from horizontal to verticle. The yellow on the cab end does not come round the cab corner far enough so I will touch it in with Railmatch 204 which is the specified colour match just have to see if the Chinese did a good match. Exhaust could do with opening out or just painting black. The rad fan needs painting red. But apart from these little niggles it's a very nice model. There are spare headcode discs in the box and the usual style snow plows and the cab steps are separate for you to add yourself (which I have done on this one). The air pipes are already fitted but could do with a bit of white and yellow paint on the ends but the MU jumpers are already painted orange. Just got to decide on a number to put on it now.

I have just had a word with the staff in Howes and he said the yellow is matched to Railmatch 304 early warning panel yellow. At least that's what the Chinese were told to match it to!

Sorry for the delay in replying Alex, only just seen your post what with the forum doing a good impression of Tommy Cooper, now you see it now you don't, ha ha ha, just like that. The PCA's are ready to run Skytrex with a little bit of extra detail painting and Fox transfers on them. They do seem a tad too high but in a rake look ok. I have finished one of the Warflats now. Need to do the metal L strip down the wood sides on the other 3 now.

I only had them for a test unfortunatly. I will tart one up a bit when I get one though.

That quote made me chuckle The yellow will be back round the nose and not like the pre production one which as you noted was like some early blue ones were done.

Ones around Southall lasted into the mid 70's when I took this.

Got some transfers on the first Warflat today. The transfers that Appleby do do not have all the lettering that apears on these wagons unfortunatly so we are short of a bit. It was a right mare cutting out the Handbrake On/Off white transfers from a very light blue/white backing sheet . These transfers are not like Fox where each transfer is individual. These are all one on the sheet so you have to cut round each one as close as possible to it reduce the backing showing. By the way it is painted in Railmatch GWR Green! Looks ok to me

Heller goes on 29th January Oh sorry wrong smily as he is my boss, should be this one , not! Toton has done third party paint work. I think the trouble with all these stored electrics is just how much work is there for electric freight haulage in good old blighty? Not a lot I think until we get more cross country routes wired up.

Yep just went past my window in Hinksey this evening. I think it must be Heller's new year resolusion to get rid of them all before we get rid of him later in the month.

Hi Mark Just had a close look at my KFA pics and there are a couple that do look similer to this shade of green. Do you think these are still in the 1976 paint as built? Whether it's right or not I want my KFA's in a nice shade of dark green. As you say the lettering is a cream colour on these. The transfers I have from Appleby are the yellow colour so I really need a darker green.

It's been a while since I updated the Warflat build so here goes. I finished building them a few weeks ago but have been at the mercy of the cold weather as I like to spray the primer outside as with an aerosol can the stuff goes everywhere. For these I bought a can of Pete Watermans etch primer. It has gone on ok and you can't scratch it off but boy was it thin to spray. Our concrete path was covered in the stuff! Then I painted the bodies with Precision Paints MoD Green. Well that's what it said on the tin but as you can see it's more like MoD Mud. Looking at the pic of the real Warflat there are 3 different greens on the 2 vehicles and the wagon but none like the Precision Paint on the model. I will have to go into the model shop and have a look through the paint racks for anything that takes my fancy. By the way I did google MoD green and it came up with Deep Bronze Green? Is that a standard Land Rover colour?

Thanks for that Andy. Wonder what there stuff is like? Found this site with 1:48th scale tanks but when you click on the picture there are no more pictures to see only little red X. ASAM Models

The trouble with them blog thingies is that we can't add to it only the person whos blog it is whereas this style thread we can comment and go off on tangents and things till the cows come home The MU cable casting is fully on the bogie and does not make any problems later. I assume they thought the sandpipes would get in the way but a bit of carefull pulling and poking gets the sideframes off easily. I think I lift the back off first then mor or less slide the front off. Been a while since I took one apart, thank god!

It is a bit close under there isn't it Mike. I am sure I filed the round bit that sticks up on the bogie down a bit to lower the casting. I might also have filed the chassis pad down/up a bit to gain a bit more clearance above the casting. Basicaly though that's all that can be done, file something away here and there. Oh and yes I did put a washer between the bogie pivot and chassis. There is nothing wrong your building it is the prototypical gap or lack of it that is at fault. Apart from that it's looking the part. First one Iv'e seen with the bogie lubricator on.

How did the 40 go Mike? Got my wheels from Slaters so the Warflats are well on there way. Tis one is finished and 2 more need the air piping to be done andthe fourth is still to start. Going to look nice behind my 66. Must have a go at doing the decks.

That bogie bolster looks superb Pugsley. Must go and get some acrylic greys to play around with. Mike I have not filed any bits off the 40 bogies but you are right there ain't a lot of room in there for cornering. These locos realy need a 6' radius and no tight spots! The resin/plastic bogie construction does take up some room that could be used for sideplay as the peak bogies that are etched construction do go round corners better. I don't know what the answer is though.

Mike, I have just filed the top of the buffers flat and soldered a wire from one nut to the other nut which stops them turning. Should sun bleached wood be more of a grey colour rather than a brown type stain? By the way the wood deck is not glued on until after painting. Then there is a piece of L shape brass to paint green and then glue on the side of the wood after it's all done which stops the ends of the planks getting damaged. Attached a couple of pics that hopefully show the greyish look to the decking.

Well the Warflat is as good as done in 2 days! Have ordered some Slaters wheels for it then only have to solder the 2 sideframes to the bolsters. I have added a bit of wiring for the air pipe runs under the deck. Anyone know how to stain the wood deck to look like old wood?