Nile

Thanks Mikkel, the coaches could do with some subtle weathering, I'll put it on my to-do list. On with the 1F, the new Midland dome from Alan Gibson fits perfectly into the hole vacated by the LMS dome. Unfortunately this leaves it sitting too low, below the top of the boiler. So I made a 'disc' of plastic card to fit into the recess. While gluing it I held it in place with the dome, pushed down with a file. A trial fit of the new dome and safety valve cover. Some filler will be needed around the disc before I glue the dome on. The safety valve cover won't be glued on until after painting, as it's staying bare brass.

When gluing the buffers in I used the weight of the wagon to hold them in place. Placing the body + W-irons on some track I could see that the buffers were about 1mm too low. To correct this I used some 40thou plastic card pads. With the w-iron base plates now glued to the pads under the body. The axle-boxes needed some filing for them to fit over the bearings and under the springs.

The steam locos were painted black, so no reason for them to be the same colour as the wagons. It's possible the green paint was mixed and applied at the front, so could be quite variable in appearance.

After filling the joins I stuck the cab onto the body. I had to fill a small gap at the back of the firebox with a thin piece of white plastic card. When I cut out the Belpaire firebox I removed the tank straps (I'm guessing that's what they are). As you can see they are now too short. So I made new ones from micro-strip. After studying photos I decided that the boiler band at the front of the firebox needed to be moved back, so that it was mid-way between the next one and the cab. I cut off the bolt at the top, for re-use, and sanded down the band. I made the new band from pieces of sticky tape, and glued the bolt on top.

The floor was made from the included piece of planked plastikard, trimmed to fit. On its own it would be far too flimsy, so I added some 20thou plastic card to the underside. At the same time I re-enforced the joint with the white metal parts with epoxy glue.

Cutting up a new model? I'm clearly bonkers! On with the fun, with the glue fully set I cut away the excess bits of plastic. A test fit on the chassis shows there is just enough clearance. With the cab on you can see some work is needed here to fill the gaps. I've added some thin plastic strips along the sides of the new firebox, to match the rest of the boiler. On the cab I've removed the raised bit around the firebox and filled the gap with plastic card. I'll be adding filler after it's set.

Next I am going to finish a kit I started some time ago, in someone else's workbench topic. It's a Midland Railway long low sided wagon, by 51L. The contents include etched brass, white metal and plastic card. This is where I'd got to before, one W-iron unit assembled. The axlebox isn't glued on yet. I've made up the other unit, this time non-rocking by bending up the ends of the base plate. The tabs that stick up through the middle will be bent over to hold the W-irons in place when the model is finished. The sides and ends of the body are white metal castings. After cleaning up they were glued together with small amounts of superglue gel.

Hi Simon, I've been working my way up to the Tilbury tank body. I plan to make a start before the year end.

I'll finish this build with some photos of it on a layout, with a van. One last piece of detail added was the coupling hooks. I found some plastic ones in a bag and glued them on. Next up will be a more traditional kit.

This is the result after it cooled down. A trial fit into the model shows it to be about the right shape. I've also cut away the area under the dome, as it was in the way of the replacement dome. After cutting it to the correct length, I've glued it in place. It's also glued to the flat piece at the bottom that is helping keep it to the correct shape while the glue dries. I added an extra support piece at the end to help maintain the shape, it will be just above the gears. When all the glue have fully set I will cut away the excess plastic.

Looks like that decision may come back to bite them.

The next model into the workshop is this. I shall be back dating it to Midland Railway condition with a round top firebox and Johnson safety valves and dome. Here is the model stripped down. The main task is to remove the belpaire firebox top and replace it with some curved plastic. To create the new firebox top I wrapped some 40thou plastic card around the spindle from a CD tub, as it was about the right diameter. This was placed in some boiled water and left for a while.

I've added a handbrake column, I think this one is a 3mm scale accessory. As I need the cab floor to be removable I had to check this was still possible before I glued the column in place. Painted and fitted.

Not being happy with any of the brass paints that I've had I tended to use gold instead as that tended to look a lot more like real brass. This time I've used Phoenix Paints brass, which does actually look like it. Here is the result. The now finished coach next to the previous conversion. I'm going to leave the Kadees on as I may actually use them in the future.

Maybe the cab needs to be a little taller. Or maybe it will look ok when painted. Hard to tell at this stage. Dare I suggest the new dome is looking a bit tall in relation to the chimney, maybe lower one, raise the other, or a bit of both. And it is a reverser. Cracking stuff so far, keep it up.

For the rear coupler, the solution was to cut a hole in the chassis big enough for the tail of a Kadee coupler. I had a no.18 that already had a hole drilled into it and the end of the tail cut off. With some trimming this fitted into the hole, some brass rod retaining it. (keeper plate removed) Just enough clearance under the buffer beam. And the right height too!

After sealing in the transfers with a coat of Klear, which gives a glossy finish, I needed to spray on some matt varnish. This meant masking the windows. Fortunately when I built this coach I only glued the glazing to the sides between the compartments, making it possible to slide paper between them to mask off the windows. I also added some masking tape on top to protect the insides of the windows. On the roof I removed the second rainstrip to make it look a bit different. The almost finished model, I still need to paint the handles brass.

I forgot to mention that. I re-used the weight from the Pug, it was glued inside the boiler.

And now for the couplings. I intended to use Kadee's here and needed to find a way to mount them. At the front I tried a NEM362 box with a no.17 very short coupler. This is roughly where I want it. A mounting point was made from a small piece of wood. Two bits of plastic card were added to represent the front of the frame. With the front of the chassis cleaned up it all fits together well. Checking it against a Kadee fitted van, it looks ok. Now to work out what to do at the back.

Pressfix transfers applied. The different styles represent different periods, the plain blue being earlier.

I reused parts from the pug body for the handrails along the tank sides. The knobs for the front handrail came from the spares box. Handrails for the cab openings were made from brass rod, super-glued in place. For the smokebox door handles I used Alan Gibson shoulderless handrail knobs, shortened and mounted on a brass rod.

Thanks all, looks like that experiment turned out ok. While I was in a coach sort of mood I thought I'd repaint my old Ratio 4 wheelers, or at least one of them. These were built long ago and painted with a matt blue paint. I've gone over the first class coach with Revell Lufthansa blue, the brake coach shows the original dull finish, which is what I wanted at the time. Then the white paint in the panels, as before, followed by retouching the mistakes with more blue paint. But only on one side, I'm leaving the other one plain blue.

This is the result of much painting and sanding. There are still a few rough bits, but overall it's fairly smooth.

For the vacuum and steam pipes I used some 51L LNWR carriage pipes, pre-painting them black makes life easier. I added footboards to the bogies, using 20x80 thou plastic strip. With all the underframe bits now painted black, here are some photos of the finished model.

I'd agree that 3D printing isn't a cure all at the moment, and may never be. What it does do is give us another option to make things, just like brass, whitemetal, plastic, etching, moulding etc does. The next printed thing (the last for now), is an experimental model from Shapeways. http://www.shapeways.com/model/2648909/4mm-scale-peckett-w6-Dapol-pug-chassis.html?materialId=6 It's a replacement body for the Hornby Lanky Pug, converting it into a Peckett. This is how I've fitted it to the Pug chassis. I forgot to take a photo of the raw model, imagine a white fuzzy blob. First thing to do is remove the body,footplate and motor from the pug, them refit the motor. The chassis needs some strips of plastic card added to get the body at the right height, as below. I soldered some brass rods to the clip around the motor. They locate inside the cab to hold the chassis to the body. The front of the body is held in place by this screw. It doesn't screw into the body, but against part of it. There is enough friction to hold it in place. I made a floor for the back of the cab from plastic card. It is pushed down into place from above, held by friction. I wanted the cab roof (which is a separate part) to be removable. To hold it in place I made this from a piece of scrap brass. This is how it sits in the cab. The long part goes down the front of the motor. It will be attached to the cab roof. Here it is glued to the roof. Without the body in place you can see how fits around the motor. It doesn;t actually touch the armature. Next will be painting and detailing the body.