Taz

Cheers Nick, Does this mean that it's my turn for the Vee jigs on Monday? If not I might have to build another coach while I'm waiting To be fair, I have been working on this on and off for a couple of months now. I'm toying with the idea of fitting some Keen Systems close couplers so I can fit the Hornby/Roco type that I use on my other coaching stock. But we shall see as it will involve hacking about the bogies and floor.

Nice work. I've got one of the ex Jackson Evans County detailing kits which I intend to inflict on my County one day. Although she will keep her County of Cornwall identity

Thanks all for your kind comments. Mike, that is very brave of you, offering me your kits to practice on

Thanks Cap'n. Rob, In answer to your question, the plasticard spacers are 20 thou. I have compared the Comet bogies to some Bachmann ones and they do appear to be slightly higher: The comparison has also shown that it is quite a bit wider than the Bachmann version : So, assuming the Bachmann version is correct, it looks like I shall have to do some filing in both the vertical and horizontal planes.

Thanks all for your kind comments. It is much appreciated. Rob, I'll measure the plasticard later and get back to you. Bachmann bogies could be a backup plan but I would like to use what is supplied with the kit (waste not etc). Good tip re 1mm angle. John, I don't know if I'm brave enough to solder whitemetal yet, especially as I don't have a temperature controlled iron. I think epoxy will be the order of the day for the moment. Do you mean the tumblehome? If so, it was actually almost spot on. I just needed to slightly increase it for it to match the shape of the end etchings. In hindsight, I agree with you and that is the way I will be doing it in the future (I think that is the way Comet recommend as well). The tumblehome is already preformed on these Comet kits so no issues there. I would be more worried at getting the roof right on a Hawksworth (ligning up the two end castings with an aluminium roof......) Thanks Geoff, that is really decent of you. I'l fire of a pm in a bit. And thanks again for producing such a quality kit. I'll definately be back for more

For a while now I've been really inspired by the work of Coachmann and others with their brass coach building and wanted to have a go myself. So after asking for advice here on a suitable beginners kit I purchased a complete kit for a Collet K42 full brake (kit W13) from Comet at last years Scaleforum. This is what you get with the complete kit. I also added in the coach super detailing detailing etch (C26) and some coach roof tape (C20) - which it turns out I will not need for this coach. This is the first time I have ever built anything in brass so I was expecting it to be a learning process with a few mistakes made along the way. As with most things I buy, this kit spent a lot of time in the cupboard until I dug it out a couple of months ago to make a start. I wanted to add as much detail as possible to the model (hence buying the super detailing etch) so I started off by adding all the bits to the sides. This included door hinges (supplied on the detailing etch), handrails (0.45mm wire), droplights and also the door bangs. The position of these is marked on the sides with half etch dimples. I drilled these out and inserted stubs of 0.33mm wire which were then filed back almost flush: This particular coach only has steps and alarm gear at one end so with one end I soldered the step etch flush to the back of the coach end and then filled the etched holes with filler to produce a smooth surface. The roof was then cut to length and drilled out to accept the roof vents and grab rails. A lesson was learnt here, that it is not a good idea to mark up the roof in front of the TV. I was obviously distracted and it wasn't until I had drilled the holes that I realised they weren't parallel to the roof. So they were filled in and I started again, taking more care and using a pair of deviders to aid positioning. The vents and wire were then secured with epoxy. The ends and sides were then soldered together and the roof secured with epoxy : The chassis was then folded up and soldered and the footboards added, following the plan provided in the kit. This is where my next mistake occured, as I hadn't read the plan correctly and in effect used it upside down. This mean tthe footbaords didn't line up with the doors : So off they came and using the body as an additional guide, they were resoldered into place. This kit doesn't come with an interior, but K42s had a corridor, so you couldn't see all the way through, from one side window to the other. So I decided to knock up a simple interior out of plasticard: I'll probably find that by the time windows have been added with representations of the bars behind and the whole coach weathered that this will have been completely unecessary... I was then going to fit the underframe details but hit a problem. I didn't realise until I got to this stage, but Geoff has accidently supplied me with LMS coach fittings insted of GWR ones: So this will have to wait until after this years Scaleforum, when I can purchase some replacement GWR coach fittings from Geoff. I was also surprised that there is no representation on the underframe of the cross bracing between the trusses: I may decide to add these in myself from scrap etch or plastic section. So I moved onto the bogies. I added the etched brake blocks and soldered 0.7mm wire to represent the brake gear. Before adding the whitemetal sides I put it all together and tested the running which was all ok When I came to add the whitemetal sides I hit my next problem. The sides are slightly taller than the brass frames and this meant the bogies now hit the coach solebars and wouldn't rotate freely. My first thought was to add a packing piece of plasticard as shown in the above photo. This fixed the rotation issue but meant that the coach now rode too high. I took it to DRAG last Monday to garner opinion on a possible solution and the general consensus was that I would have no alternative but to file down the tops of the whitemetal castings. Any other thoughts on this? So at the moment this is how she looks: Although I've made a few mistakes along the way I've thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend anyone thinking about it to take the plunge. These Comet kits are excellent and I'll certainly be building some more in the future, once this one is finished. The only problem is it means there is less modelling time for me to actually spend on building something for it to run on

Mmm, very good...... Actually I'm just wondering how long it will be before I'm thrown out of the P4 society for getting everyone to convert to 00-SF. I've already convinced John, Rod and Tim it is the way to go

For those that may be interested I thought I would show the process I use to lay my pointwork. To start with we have the Templot plan laid over the grey painted foam base: The pointwork is built off the layout on a piece of glass using a copy of the Templot plan (as detailed in this thread: http://www.rmweb.co...._25#entry593873 ) It is then removed from the glass ready to be placed on the layout. As can be seen the timbers with the slide chairs become detached but I numbered them with marker pen so I would know which order to reinstate them: The new point is then pinned in place over the templot plan : and the plan is cut out around the point and removed : Whilst the point was in place the position of the tie bar was marked. Once removed a 9mm hole (the largest bit my batter drill will take) was drilled through the baseboard : Then, using the method described by Normon Soloman in the Right Track DVD, I place a small piece of foam over the hole and then cut a square slightly larger through this piece and the baseboard foam: The cut out square (with the drill hole in) is then removed from the baseboard and replaced by the square of green foam. This method ensures the replacement square is the exact same shape and size as the piece removed. The green foam will be painted grey to match at a later date. A slot is then cut into the square to allow the movement of the point motor pin connected to the tie bar: I then solder droppers to the point. Each rail has 2 droppers (for redundancy) and I also wire the switch rails to their corresponding stock rail: I then drill the baseboard where the droppers are present and feed them through the holes: Once I am happy that the point is laying flat and in the correct place, I draw around it with marker pen and then lift it again. Febond PVA is applied to the area and the point relaid for the last time, connected to neighbouring track and then it is all weighed down with books until the glue dries: Once dry, the books are removed and we are left with the point in place : I then wire up a Tortoise to power the point. Note I use both inbuilt switches for the Vee polarity change (again for redundancy): All that is left to do now is connect up a temporary loop and test with a variety of rollingstock: Castle heads an express over the new PW. I hope that may be of interest to someone and I am also open to suggestions on how I could improve my tracklaying

On any other layout, that would just look silly

Jeff, Not a book, but I can thoroughly recommend the RIght Track 7 DVD, Building Buildings with Geoff Taylor. He's the guy that did a lot of the buildings on The Gresley Beat and Dewsbury Midland. I find that being able to see someone demonstrating techniques on the screen helps that bit more than just reading about it. Cheers.

You lucky, lucky man. Your vision in bringing this altogether does you credit. Now lets see some trains under it

Nope, don't have a cup like that Looking good so far.

I've got one of those mugs! It's eerie how much we have in common. We've both got one of those mugs, we've both converted our double garages, we're both using smp track and we're both going to have curved viaducts. I also have a physics background (Exeter uni graduate). Spooky

So long as he doesn't wany us to add an O gauge loop to the DRAG TT2

Hi Jeff, Just caught up with your thread. That is some impressive wood work you have there. Funnily enough, I have done something fairly similar with my double garage (link in signature), although I didn't document it quite as well as you as it coincided with lack of digital camera. I expect with retirement looming you will be making much quicker progress than me. I look forward to future developments. Keep up the good work

Time for a long overdue update. What with one thing and another I haven't spent much time on the layout but some slow progress has been made. I've started laying the track on the scenic section, beginning with the branch line and the exchange sidings. To start with I layed the foam roll across the whole board. The plan here will be to remove the excess once all the track is down, creating the ballast shoulder at the same time. As the foam is an unprototypical green in colour I painted the area the track was to be laid with some cheap grey emulsion paint. The trackwork is SMP plain track with handbuilt pointwork using C&L and Exactoscale components. Each individual piece of rail has two wires soldered to it and dropped through the board and connected to the bus wire. Hopefully this should stop any future electrical issues. Once I was happy with the position of the track the paper plan was cut and removed and the track glued down. One final detail I added was to glue cosmetic fish plates to the plain track to give the impression of individual panels. Extensive testing has shown that it is all behaving reliably so I am happy to use the same methods for the rest of the layout. Now I have some trackwork and points I needed a control panel. So I've knocked this up: It'll serve for the time being but eventually I would like to replace it with something with LED indication of the turnout route setting. One other thing I found was that without much activity my stock was getting quite dusty sat out in the fiddle yard (not helped by the fact I was doing various DIY jobs within the garage). So last weekend I knocked up some dust covers from 18x44 timber and a cheap plastic dust sheet. Hopefully I'll be progressing a bit quicker from now on and updates will be more frequent than once a year

Speedy work their Damian. That's quite an impressive garage/workshop you have there. No wonder your layouts are always so well presented. Also good to see that food is never far from your mind, although cakes instead of pies.......

One for the Welsh amoungst you. A few years back I was visiting a friend at Bangor University. We were in one of the uni bars and I had to make use of the facilities. One of the cubicles was out of order and underneath the official do not use sign some one had witten 'Dim Dumpio'.

Superb The only thing that stood out to me when comparing the two was the size of the lamps. But you've alrady discussed that earlier in the thread and unfortunately it's just something we have to live with in 4mm. Keep up the good work

Dave, I don't know if this is the full list of proposed models for the first batch with disk headcodes, but if it is could I suggest that it would be worth while doing two versions in all over green with no warning panel? They very often worked in multiple and i am sure there is a significant market share out there who would not want to do a renumbering exercise themselves. Cheers.

So red ones are 47s and blue ones are something else????

Something along the line of: Have you had a shower this morning?

Dave, you've just become my new best friend

Looking good Brian, I'm following this one with interest. Building a rake of these to make up an Ocean Liner Special is on my long term to do list (Once i have built up some practice on some simpler coaches )

...and we are back to root vegetables