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Morning - James - thanks . the Bachmann tdm cables are a bit of a smack in the face! I have a pack of Heljan ones, although they're not much of an improvement on bachmanns fittings , still chunky! Then there's the Hurst etched ones, - nice , when you can get them ?? I've used them before but have now run out...Its just dawned on me to so what Shawplan do - I've never noticed TDM bits in their range , but then again i've never looked for them. To remove the Bachmann grease, I just use lots of cotton buds, and kitchen paper to mop it all up. The bogie sideframes get a good scrub In the sink and i scrape out as much excess grease as I can from the gear tower with a small screwdriver. Its a right pain! This topic came up at scaleforum a few times when I was asked about converting the Hornby 50 to P4 - I strip the Hornby bogies right down to individual components - gears and all , and degrease everything. Once re assembled I never put any oil back on the moving parts (other than a smear of grease on the brass worms - all my 50s run 'dry' , and I think they run better for it - there's much less resistance in the gear train when you get rid of the sticky grease. It works for kato !

Goodevening - A quick post from me as ebay doesnt want to upload my pictures this evening so i've given up on that .... As much as I love my vitrains 47s, I've decided to give a Bachmann version a try, as the livery on their latest release looked ideal for a quick identity change. As soon as I clapped eyes on the new 47/7 'shove' model in Scotrail livery , I thought of 47706 , in its flakey NSE branded Scotrail livery. The original Bachmann numbers, printed names and Scotrail branding are easily removed with Modelstrip, left on for about an hour, then washed off . The NSE flashes are from Replica , who also do the transfers for the scottie dogs that were added to both sides . I've made a start on weathering , attacking the body with a fibreglass brush , then some washes of rail white, the black much on the roof is enamel put on with the smallest oldest paintbrush I could find - I used satin black , as the photos of 706 showed its roof grime was really thick , with its own texture - so its no wonder the washing plant didn't shift it all. Bachmanns TDM cables are a bit chunky! and a bit later on with some more work on the cab roofs: Before I go any further I need to prep the chassis for weathering - and remove all the ectoplasm (Bachmanns pink factory grease) from the bogies so they can be painted/weathered along with part of the body. Thats all for tonight!

Evening - well 10 months ago I started this top with a the pair of EWS barrier vehicles - and now its about time I showed what they look like now - almost finished! The original GUVs have vertical window bars printed onto the glazing , but the newspaper conversions had horizontal bars - so out with the T-cut , polish the printed bars off and add new ones from Nickel Silver wire. I made a little jig to glue them at the correct spacing etc - but it was still very very time consuming . The paintwork has been faded in patches using a mix of varnish and NSE white , plus rail white - I worked on the roofs mostly (although I forgot to photo that bit!) as I didn't want to go too mad and ruin my EWS paint job , after the amount of work thats gone into it! How lucky that in the time its taken to build them , we now have a nice class 67 too

My Parcels livery 47 did the same - but at both ends it had been in my display cupboard thingy since I bought it - no exposure direct sunlight or anything. Lucky Mr Hanson does some very nice replacement glazing

Hi all - im sure as giwwer described , I think the problems may be down to clearances between the bogie and chassis . There's quite a few models that suffer from excess gap between the bogies and body/chassis - but the Bachmann 66 weirdly is the other way round , and sits a little too low on its bogies compared to the real thing. The top of the bogie sideframe can easily catch on the lifting points on the chassis and the guard irons can also catch on the sandboxes if the bogie isn't level when its turning. The Bachmann model ideally needs raising up by approximately 1mm Try and insert a 1mm thick shims of plastic between the chassis casting and the bogie tower pivot (after loosening the screw that secures the bogies a little ) - that means you can then add the all important missing suspension between the bogies and the chassis tfn Jon

I like that hint a lot!

Morning! Here's a better shot now with the valances - I've also given the whole bodyshell a coat of Klear so the green has has a bit more depth and gloss to it - this was another thing that originally put me off the model. Hi Charlie - fitting the valances to the body doesn't seem to effect the clips that hold the body/chassis together -so it wont fall apart - but it does mean you have to be a it more careful removing the bodyshell. Tfn Jon

Hi Charlie - On my first baby warship I fitted the valances to the chassis as they were intended - nightmare! On this model I've fixed them directly to the body instead . So much quicker and easier to do. I'd take some more pictures but the body is drying at the moment as i've just painted out the incorrect silver window frames tfn Jon

Hi all Earlier in the thread I mentioned modifying the bogies to move them up - Here mine - I think its well worth doing if you have the model in bits - I've had to remove the NEM pockets in the process, but I think with a little more work they could be kept in place too. tfn Jon

Hi Again. Today I've been looking at my Dapol class 22 an fix the height of the bogies - The real things had a very distinctive stance , which doesn't quite carry over on the Dapol model - Id like to get my 22 looking just right as It does look very nice on my little layout - even though I didn't even have the 22 in mind when building it The issue with the Dapol 22 is the sideframes sit too low down in relation to the wheels - Here's the model as supplied On the real locos the tops of the wheels wouldn't be visible above the sideframes , and the bottoms of the sandboxes (is that what they are?) on the bogies , should line up with the hip in the fuel tank. Plus, of course , much more of those lovely spoked wheels would be visible as a result. A couple of minutes later with a razor saw, I cut the sideframes from the gear cover/baseplate at each end of the bogie and simply moved them up just over 1mm. I've added some thin shims of plasticard to make up for thickness of the saw cut - Some pictures will show this better than my explanation , but first here's the effect - the bogie on the left is orignal , on the right modified - I think it improves the model but the effect will be better when i've added the lower body valances - A worthwhile little job I think! - ill do some more follow up pictures of the bogies when both are done - I may do the second bogie slightly different tfn Jon

Hi all - thanks for reading and for your comments - Hi Andi - the MW bits are a mix - the 'Elephants trunk' on the left of the bufferbeam is a Heljan fitting. The jumper itself uses the original Bachmann fitting for the bit thats on the bufferbeam - the other end thats mounted on the nose is a vitrains part - both these are are carefully drilled out then sprayed orange - then joined together with some rubber cord - I only glue the cord in at one end so you can still split the body and the chassis! back with an update very soon (after soup!) tfn Jon

Lovely stuff jon - those Peco buffers have turned out nice - makes a change from seeing them just used 'out of the packet' . Ive used both the new and old 'Klear' on ballast - with the new version i found the ballast flaked off a little , but a second coat after the first had fully dried did the trick . Wont ever go back to PVA!

Thanks Pete - I wasnt sure how Mona would turn out - incase it just looked poorly done , as opposed to poor condition , if that makes sense?? As promised - some shots of the 37 - The lights were all given a little blob of epoxy , to 'glaze' them , and the last bits to go on were the wipers , that are from Shawplan. Folding over the blades of the wipers took a little practice as they're so tiny. I fixed them with a tiny spot satin varnish - nothing special, just humbrol stuff , neat from the tin. Now , whats next? Im itching to get the new Hornby 67 . I would like to do 67004 in tatty EWS livery . Still a few months to wait though till its out tfn Jon

Hello , Part two , its 'Mona' another Brighton Belle Trailer , again modelled in its current condition , but quite different to 'Vera' Mona has yet to be restored! ill write more - My chilli is ready! mmmmm jon

Afternoon, The 37 is finished - ill take some pictures after I've typed this. I'm nearing finishing some Pullman stock too. First is 'Vera' which was one of the Kitchen trailers in the Brighton belle EMUs and uses one of the new Hornby 'Belle' trailers. The model represents (I hope!) the coach now converted to loco hauled use in the current VSOE set. The 5-BEL trailers didn't have much in the way of underframe equipment and it seems what was there was virtually all removed when Vera was rebuilt. All the new underframe stuff is from Replica, using a mix of their mk1 and PCV underframe sprues , plus some scratch building. I have to make some educated guesses with the (only just visible) air brake equipment. The bogies use the cosmetic sideframes from the Hornby 4 vep , fitted to an MJT etched bogie frame. My picture doesn't show very well, but the mountings for the roof boards have been removed , and the roof resprayed - plus all the jumper(?) boxes have been removed from the ends of the model and the ends resprayed. The only detail that remains on the ends of the coach in its current state is the lighting jumpers. This in progress shot shows the original end details , on the right , and the rebuilt end on the left , and Hornbys terrifying coupling! The original gangways have been removed and replaced with Pullman style gangways , robbed off another Hornby Pullman. The original buffers were also removed on the real thing and replaced with what look like BR style buffers. For the model I grafted on some southern pride bufferbeams , but swapped the buffer heads for some Bachmann ones as they're a slightly better shape. The finishing modern touches are OHLE flashes , plus ETH fittings and pipework added to the buffer beams. Unfortunately there' s a huge compromise on this model , the livery as modern VSOE stock is painted in a completely different interpretation of Pullman livery to the original - the lining is much simplified and the shade of umber is much richer and more like a milk chocolate soft of color. But I don't think I could do as good a job more soon.. Jon

Another vote for the Western tfn Jon

The same would apply to the 47 as well - this also has a very thin bit of plastic that you have to lever to get the bogies apart - infact I snapped mine on my very first attempt I seem to remember, even trying very carefully not to - think the 47 (and the 66) are about the worst for this . I'd like to think the Scottish atmosphere is fairly clean , and so , while I've given the underframe of 37248 a good deal of 'road dirt' etc , I wont do much to the body , and the real thing seemed fairly well kept , oh and the livery has grown on me far too much to go attacking it with the airbrush . I do like locos that have been scrubbed up , but aren't 'ex' works , if you know what I mean - dirty running gear but with the yellow axleboxes cleaned off - that sort of thing - they tend to come across nicely in model form I think. When it comes to weathering I like to go somewhere between 'all' or 'nothing' tfn Jon

Hi again - A quick shot of 248 tonight - The noses have been varnished , to help match the factory paint finish on the rest of the body - Hopefully you wouldn't be able to tell its had a partial respray. I've added the top lamp brackets (vitrains parts) and aerials , they still need trimming down to the correct length , and the air horns. These shouldn't really be painted maroon , but I like them The roof has also been part painted to match the factory color where I added the new roof grille. I also decided at the last minute to replace the moulded grab handles on the engine room roof hatches, just using some fine nickel silver wire - so again this area has been partially resprayed , although again , I hope its not too obvious! It's nice to see this nearly finished. I am pleased how the headcode boxes have come out . tfn Jon

Evening all Peter - I use thick superglue , such as zap-a-gap , combined with zip kicker accelerator to set the glue. As you rightly point out , when clipping the bogie back on , this can break the joints as you are forced to bend the plastic to get the front/rear clips to engage. The best way to avoid this is to remove the bogie gear tower , and file the front and back angled bits of the gear tower moulding , where the bogie sideframe/keeper plate clips on : This reduces the amount of bending/stress on the parts required to re assemble the bogies - so far I've not had any of my re-glued bogies break. I remove quite fair bit of plastic , so that theres only just enough for the bogie sideframe/keeper plate to 'click' into place. This also makes it easy to remove them again in the future -no need to go prising things apart with a screwdriver. I'd go so far as to say this modification would apply to most other Bachmann diesels as well. tfn Jon

Hi Jon - thanks for looking - I had to think what 37 you were referring to at first - I'm guessing it was the green one - I don't think I could do all that underframe detailing again! One thing is does show however is how far things have moved on around the Bachmann 37 - the detail (or lack of) below the body is a bit 'Railroad' out of the box. I've finished patching in the paintwork of of 37248 now - the noses have been painted - feathered into the existing paintwork , and the yellow panels re applied. The noses now need a coat of varnish that will finally bring together the maroon i've sprayed and the Bachmann maroon. The there's more bits to stick on - aerials lamp brackets and the nose handrails Heres a quick photo before I go and varnish tfn Jon

A couple more pictures - this is the new roof grille , again from shawplan - fitted and given a light coat of etch primer. The mesh is stainless steel , carefully rolled to shape and fitted with a tiny smear or varnish, so as not to flood the detail, and the etched frame that sits on top the mesh is secured by threading the finest wire i can find through the mesh , to tie the two together , the tails of the wire that are inside the body are twistied round to pull the two componants together securely and given the tinyest spot of solder - again , no glue , in order to preserve the detail that's Brian Hanson has produced on these lovely etches. here's a close up - hopefully showing one of the fine wires I mention above, holding the two bits together tfn Jon