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SRman

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Blog Entries posted by SRman

  1. SRman
    Here are two more vans of the workbench, weathered using the same techniques as the previous two vans. For dirty roofs I use a lot of Humbrol #66, a very good all round weathering and roof colour - good for tyres on road vehicles too.
     
    For the previous crimson SR Van C roof I used the same grey #66 at full strength, then a very thin wash of the Revell brown #84.
     
    The next two vans have variations on the overall weathering, starting with the roofs using thin washes of Humbrol #66. The Fruit D (a Parkside kit I bought second-hand already built) had an all over wash of Humbrol #66 followed by a thin wash of Humbrol dark earth #29, then a little of the Revell #84 brown partly washed and partly dry-brushed around the door edges and lower sides, plus the underframes. The SR Bogie B had a similar but lighter treatment on its sides, plus a little dark steel around the axleboxes, springs and brake linkages.
     
    All of the vehicles had their wheels and brake blocks painted with the Revell brown.
     
    The Fruit D and Hornby bogie B are shown below, together with a pristine bogie B, untouched by my paint brush ... so far!
     

  2. SRman
    Another new project started: a 2 HAP unit of the 5601 - 5636 batch built to the Bulleid style.
     
    This is based on the Ayjay Models resin kit, bought through Radley Models. As I intended to use Hornby 2 BIL running units and chassis, I asked Phil Radley if he could sell me just the body shells and seat units. He very kindly did this and included the floor/chassis units as well as he wanted only the bogies for other uses.
     
    Having adapted the same manufacturer's 2 HAL unit to the 2 BIL chassis recently, I had a fair idea of what to look for this time. Modifications involve cutting/milling some notches out of the sides of the seating units, removing part of the seating unit on the motorised coach, and removing the buffer beams and fittings from the body shells. I also drill and ream out various holes in the floor or under the seats to clear some of the projections from the Hornby chassis and also the Lenz decoder. These holes can be covered over with a bit of thin plasticard later, before painting occurs.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    The 2 BIL buffers will be replaced with non-sprung white metal castings for BR retracted buffers - this will be consistent with BR practice, where the Pullman buffing plates were normally used in conjunction with the buckeye couplings, and also with the Bachmann 4 CEP or 2 EPB units with which this one will be able to run. It could also run with a Hornby 4 VEP - I have a couple of photos (in reference books) of this occurring.
     
    At this stage, I am planning to finish the unit in plain BR blue with full yellow ends, but I could change my mind before getting to that stage of the construction.
  3. SRman
    I have now revived work on my partly finished Class 22 - a Silver Fox resin body perched on a Bachmann Class 20 chassis. While this has been a runner for some time, it awaited fitting of the resin bogie sideframes and glazing of all of the body side windows.
     
    I have now fitted the sideframes but the bogie frames are now a little flimsy so further work required to make the joints firmer. Nevertheless, it ran several circuits of the layout reliably with a trailing load. I did fire off a couple of photos late this evening so will upload them in the next day or so.
     
    I have also packed some plasticard into the body and chassis ends to make it sit correctly. The body is still loose at the moment but I will drill a hole at each end through the screw holes in the chassis and use some self-tappers to hold it all together when I am satisfied I have all the other work completed - I don't want to screw and unscrew them too often.
     
    Further improvements could include some sort of cab interiors and lights for the headcodes, which would mean drilling and filing them out then glazing them and setting up some LEDs behind them.
     
    Currently it has a TCS MC2 decoder, a type I have only used on this model, so far, although I have lots of M1s, DP2X and DP2X-UK decoders from the same manufacturer. I need to tweak its settings a bit more before I can be entirely happy with the behaviour.
     
    Just to keep things going, here is a much earlier photo of the locomotive, numbered D6356, still with its class 20 bogie frames. I need to check whether it is an early or late body moulding for the headcode style as I am not entirely certain I have chosen the right number for this particular model!
     

     
    Of course, all of this will be eclipsed early next year when the weathered Dapol model I have ordered arrives from Kernow Models!
  4. SRman
    A couple of shots of the Bachmann SECR 'C' class from my phone camera, using only the effects available on the phone. I actually took these to show off the newly painted crew, which actually look a little too glossy still - matt varnish coming up shortly! The full colour originals show the true colours, then the 'sepia' and 'antique' effects on two of the shots show how they might have looked at the turn of the 20th century. I was unsure what colours to use for them so made it up as I went!
     
    My good friend Graham in Brisbane picked up the crew for me on his recent trip to Britain.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    All that's missing are steam and smoke effects (these would not be in the spirit of the 'How realistic are your models' thread if I was to photoshop them in but I may yet do it for my own satisfaction). I will do something about that metal coal load, too!
  5. SRman
    Well, I have now done 14 of the door springs, so one side done! It is extremely fiddly fitting the small, semi-circular bits of plastic! I was using my Opti-visor with its built in light to see what I was doing, and two thirds of the way through this process, we had a power cut! I just carried on while the ladies in the house squealed and muttered something about finding some candles. Fortunately for everyone else, the power came back on after a few minutes!
     

     
    Next jobs are to do the other side, add the bangers to the solebar sides, fill any minor gaps in the floor of the wagon, then glue the sides on and lastly paint it all ... after repeating all the previous steps for the second wagon! I'll probably do one in early black and the other in the slightly later olive livery, then weather it all down again.
  6. SRman
    My modelling abilities have been temporarily curtailed, along with my on line presence and reading abilities; I had a cataract removed from my right eye last Tuesday and am having the left one done this coming Tuesday. I am typing this with one lens in my glasses and a patch over the right eye!! Once the left eye is done, I will have to wait for some reading glasses before I can see properly to read and type again - I will be doing a little of both but with severe limitations for a month or so.
     
    I did have one small wheeze though: I decided that the wheels on the Southdown Duple Commander coach were wrong for the vehicle it represents, as all the photos show proper coach trims fitted. A rummage through the spares produced some Pirate Models coach wheels from their Duple Dominant II kits, left over from the reverse swap I did when building a Metrobus AEC Reliance coach which had standard bus type wheels. The only reservation I have is that the Pirate wheels are about a millimetre larger in diameter than the LBC wheels. It's a bit hard to judge while they are unpainted, but I think it will look right once I have done that.
     

     
     
    Just for the record,here is the previously mentioned Pirate Models Metrobus Reliance coach (all white metal), together with Paragon kits for an Optare StarRider (resin) and Tillingbourne Valley Plaxton Bustler (etched brass and white metal), all built some years ago.
     

  7. SRman
    I have been completeing or pushing a few projects further forward in the last couple of weeks, besides the layout progress in preparation for a BRMA meeting at my place on Saturday 18th August.
     
    One project was to fit headcodes to the Dapol/Kernow class 22. I chose some Heljan Western headcodes to fit inside the headcode boxes, which entailed removing the cab interiors by cutting the glue until they loosened sufficiently to take out (thanks Rick/gwiwer for the heads up on doing this). This pic also shows some of the newly completed ballasting at this end of the layout.
     

     
    The (fictional) maroon Hymek now has its glazing fitted. I need to reduce the yellow panels a little and fit tail/marker lights.
     

     
    The class 455 with the new treatment of the cab front handrails - these have to be painted white when I am ready. As this treatment looks much more successful than the previous one, I'll be redoing the other cab front to match.
     

     
    Bachmann class 57/0, 57 008 'Freightliner Explorer', lights. I had to repair some wiring and replace one of the marker lights with a new LED. In the second pic you can see that the new marker light is a little dimmer.
     

     

     
    And here is the Bachmann Collectors' Club Porterbrook class 57, 57 601, now with sound fitted (I swapped the Howes sound decoder out of 57 008 while fixing its lights). Enthusuasts nicknamed it "Purple Ronnie".
     

  8. SRman
    As a quickie project, I bought a Hornby class 60 on eBay for a quite reasonable sum with the intention of updating the old class 92. I made a previous attempt to improve it with a 5-pole armature and DCC decoder but it still didn't run as well as I would really like. In some ways it is almost a shame to lose the EWS 60 as the only fault with it was the windscreens were broken (easily replaced if I wanted to).
     
    The real class 92s used a very similar body shell to the 60s and after examining the 92 shell and 60 chassis, I decided that it would fit, provided I removed the PCB. I also found after test fitting that I needed to grind a little metal off the two metal 'towers' along the edges f the chassis block - only about 1 millimetre was removed.
     
    The body shell, cab interiors and lighting blocks fitted very neatly , with a small amount filed off the mounting spigots and spacer moulded on to the clear plastic lighting blocks..
     
    Next I have had to remove the class 60 fuel tanks, compressors and battery box mouldings, then cut off the class 92 electric equivalents file down those to fit the 60 chassis. I fitted one of the choke mouldings (I think that's what it represents) to fit over the metal ridge on the chassis (also ground down a bit). The other bits still await filing and fitting but I have made good progress, considering I only started this on Christmas Day and it is now Boxing Day!
     
    I have to rewire the beast but that's not difficult. I intend reusing the small PCB with resistor and diode from the class 92 but if that doesn't work, I have plenty of resistors suitable to wire each end's lights separately to the decoder white and yellow wires.
     
    Here is a photo posed on the temporary workbench. I'll post one of the chassis separately next time and of the finished product when it is done.
     
    I have already added the etched tunnel rings and will shortly be ordering the Shawplan BR arrows and Charles Dickens nameplates.
     
    I'm looking forward to having a class 92 model that will actually run very smoothly and haul trains that suggest the 5,000-odd horsepower available on third rail!
     

     
    Edit: I have to reglue that missing shoebeam - it can be just seen at the left, in front of the locomotive. I have glued them on several times with a superglue but obviously the plastic is resistant to that particular glue!
  9. SRman
    I have made good progress on this project.
     
    I wired the chassis back up, initially for a quick test on DC power, which involved tack soldering the feed wires to the brush wires. It ran perfectly, so the next step was to wire in a decoder. I chose a TCS M4 that I happened to have lying around. While I am only using two functions at the moment (for the headlights), it leaves the way open to improving the lighting later with separately worked tail lights or cab lights, if I so choose. One correction from the last post: the PCB I referred to did not, in fact have a resistor; it had two diodes and the actual lighting is provided by incandescent grain of rice bulbs. This meant I could discard the PCB completely from this project and wire the lights directly to the decoder.
     
    The presently unused purple and green wires were left intact and secured out of the way. The blue, yellow and white wires were also tacked temporarily out of the way and the red and black wires were shortened and connected to the track pickups and the orange and grey wires were similarly shortened and connected to the brush feeds. I removed the capacitor at the same time. The decoder was secured to the top of the can motor with a piece of double-sided thick tape that also acts as an insulator. I tested again on the programming track, and it all read properly. Address 9222 was allocated (for 92 022).
     
    A quick track test proved it ran very sweetly indeed. You can also see the shiny bits where I ground the height down a little.
     

     
    After that test, the lights were wired, noting which way the locomotive had run, so the white wire was connected to the forward bulb and yellow to the rear, with the blue common return connected to both.
     
    Photo with lights on at the forward end:
     

     
    ... and photo with the light off so you can see the wiring a bit better.
     

    The body was clipped back on and it had its first run around the layout, minus couplings.
     

     
     

     
     

     
    The lighting is fairly crude and is crying out to be improved ... later! The whole cab is illuminated at the moment when the headlights are turned on, as are the tail lights in white. It works as well as I had hoped, though and that's the main thing.
     
    There are still a few minor things to do. I did fit couplings immediately after the last photo. It could do with some handrails on the ends. The cab interiors need painting, which would also reduce the lighting effect. The body is still sitting about 0.5mm too high on the chassis.
     
    I made a small error with the undergear and stuck one small bit on the wrong side so will fix that later too. I suppose my only other problem with it is that I cannot tell which is the front (for DCC operation purposes)!
  11. SRman
    I wasn't sure what to do about adding couplings within the 4 SUB unit. The motor coach, using the Hornby 2 BIL chassis, already had NEM pockets; a rigidly attached one at the driving end and a swivelling one at the trailing end. I have a few of the NEM pockets, as marketed by Bachmann and Hornby, so thought I would experiment a bit with these.
     
    I filed a gap in the resin bogie ends and superglued the pockets in. I wasn't too worried about exact distances as I was going to experiment with different couplings to start with.
     
    As it was, I started with Hornby tension lock couplings but these held the coaches too far apart. Similarly with the Hornby close-couplers. The 2 BIL rigid couplings were too short, as well as being less practical for handling a four-car unit. Kadees seemed like the way to go. I have settled on combinations of #17 and #20 couplings to get reasonable coach spacing while allowing for my tight-ish curves.
     
    Once I have settled everything properly, I'll reinforce the pocket-bogie joints and cut off the dropper arms from the Kadees within the unit (no need for automatic uncoupling in a permanently formed EMU!).
     

     
     
    Edit to add video link and additional info:
     
    The NEM pockets superglued into the small recesses in the bogie frames seem to be a success, using Kadee #17 and # 20 couplings. I'll strengthen the joints with Araldite later.
    The reason I had to use the odd mix of Kadee sizes was because I needed to keep the coupler heads clear of the headstocks, and each type of coach has slightly different overhangs from the bogies.
     
    Here is a short video of the unit running temporarily as a three-car 3 SUB.
     
    http://vid98.photobucket.com/albums/l265/jslynn/Rail/3SUB%20test_zpssxckqxrl.mp4
  12. SRman
    School holidays for Christmas are here. I am hoping to get a bit more modelling done over the break, including getting the 4 SUB and 2 HAP completed, wiring and more tracklaying on the layout, and some weathering on more of the Hornby ex-SR units (2 BIL and 2 HAL).
     
    The first move on this has been to scrape and file off the moulded on pipes on the Ayjay 4 SUB and replace them with separate wire fittings.
     

     
     
    Next job is to add lamp irons, windscreen wipers (both of these items to be from selectively flattened wire), and handrails on the cab and guards' doors.
     
    I'll be cutting those roof-mounted horns off and leaving the whistle in place, as many SUBs still had their whistles in the late 1960s.
  13. SRman
    More details added to the fronts of the Ayjay 4 SUB. Lamp irons and windscreen wipers added, horns removed from the dummy motor coach but not yet from the motorised one.
     
    I must change the wire gauges used for the jumper cables. The ones I used match the resin moulded-on ones but they are really too coarse - I seem to recall I discovered this when I did the 2 HAL previously. I think most would agree the effect is still better than moulded-on detail though.
     

     

     
     
     
    EDIT: I decided I just had to fix the overscale jumper cables. The wire used originally for the centre cable is now the thickness used for the outer ones, while much thinner wire, from some multi-strand cable, was used for the centre one. I am now much happier with the effect.
     

  14. SRman
    After a long pause, I have done a little more work on the Bratchell class 455/9 unit, having received a message from Adam of Electra Railway Graphics that he is nearly finished with the South West Trains vinyls for the unit. I have long been putting off painting the window frames, but recently bought a Sharpie permanent marker pen in silver with a view to trying it out on the frames. So far, I think it has been very successful: marking out the raised frames took me around 45 minutes to do the lot, and the paint/ink medium seems to dry quickly and can stand a bit of handling.
     

    Painting the Window Frames - 1 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr
  15. SRman
    Further to my earlier posting, I have fitted an NCE decoder with a 9-pin JST connector and harness, so I can substitute alternative decoders if I'm not happy with the NCE one. I haven't yet wired extra pickups on the trailing bogie so running was a little hesitant in places but it has now completed several circuits of the layout as a 1HAL!
  16. SRman
    Yet another project which has been sitting on the back-burner for a while is my Bratchell Models class 319. The pantograph, salvaged from a Bachmann class 350/1 being converted to a class 450, should sit on quite a substantial framework.
     
    I have a good photograph of the pantograph well, kindly supplied by another modeller, so used that as a guide to make up something resembling it, albeit rather cruder. Some of the plastic sections I have used are not only too big, but also the wrong cross-sections, but I had to use what was available. The insulators are from Somerfeldt. There are still a few finer details to add, but I think I have captured the effect, if not quite super-detailed.
     

     

     

    And after adding a couple more details and painting:
     

     

     

    The pantograph is sprung and capable of being used, but on my layout it will only ever be in the down position, because it is all on third rail!
  17. SRman
    Further to the last post, I have painted the tyres on the coach wheels for the Duple Commander bodied Southdown Leyland Leopard. I think they work in this new installation, in spite of the extra diameter.
     

     
     
    I have also started on another Little Bus Company resin kit, this time a Bristol MW bus with ECW body from 1958 or so, to go into Hants & Dorset livery.
     

     

     

     
     
    All work done at this stage has been achjeved using an optivisor type magnifier because I can't yet focus on closer objects. I am typing this using a 60" TV set and an HDMI cable from my laptop, so apologies for any typos or other errors.
  18. SRman

    Ayjay 2HAL update

    By SRman,

    Here's another pic of the HAL, this time with some more coats of the green and solebars, footboards and some of the details picked out in black. Roofs are still in undercoat and the bogies still have flash to be cleaned off before proper painting. Handrails on the cab ends and around the driver's and guard's doors are also yet to be added.
     
    I suspect I have used too heavy wire for those main jumpers. Still they are relatively easy to change if I decide I don't like what I have done so far.

     
    Sorry, I still don't have that focus quite sorted out. I used manual focus but I need to change the aperture priority to get better depth of field.
  19. SRman
    And now for something completely different!
     
    I performed a quickie weathering job on a Bachmann blue class 25, 25 276. This locomotive has lost its sound-fitted chassis to a green example. I have used the usual weathering mixes of Humbrol #62 leather, #85 coal black and metallic gunmetal, plus some matt varnish.
     
    I have tried to be subtle on the sides, leaving some nearly pristine blue showing. As a visual displacement technique, I have carried the yellow of the front up over the centre part of the gutter to disguise the too-flat curve over the windscreens. While this is fairly obvious in the photos, it works reasonably well to the naked eye at normal viewing distances.
     
    I may, at some stage, renumber this locomotive into the pre-TOPS style.
     

     

     

     

  20. SRman
    Continuing on from fixing the Silverlink class 150/1 Sprinter, I have now repeated the steps with my Provincial sector class 150/1, with photos!
     
    Dismantling is relatively easy, once the three body fixing screws are removed from the chassis. Two very small screws hold the PCB in place, and two larger screws retain the bogies. A flat-bladed screwdriver at the inner ends of the bogie side frame mouldings will release those (easier to do before removing the bogie retaining screws), and the axles just pull out with a small amount of force.
     
    This is what you should have before any soldering occurs:
     

     

     
     
    Insulated wires are prepared by tinning the ends, and the copper pickup strips on the bogies are also prepared with blobs of solder - one up near the step, another just above the "tee" formed with the strip along the bogie sides. The wires are soldered at one end to the strip. Meanwhile, some brass (or copper or phosphor-bronze) pickup wires are prepared by cutting to length (a little shorter than the bogie wheelbase) and the centres are tinned with solder.
     

     
     
    The pickup wires need to be bent outwards and slightly downwards to bear on the wheel backs when the axles are reinserted later.
     
    The insulated wires are fed up through the slots in the chassis block. The wires can then be soldered to the springy strips that bear on the tops of the bogie strips.
     

     

     

     

     
     
    Reassembly is mostly the reverse of dismantling, although I found it better to screw the bogies back on as soon as I had soldered the wires to the PCB. Axles and sideframes were clipped back into place, ensuring that the wires go behind the wheels. From outside, one would never know there was anything different!
     

     
     
    After a quick test, the body is replaced and the unit is ready for service, with no more hesitations or flickering lights. I'm not too sure whether the Provincial liveried units would ever have run in multiple with Silverlink ones, but here are the two units posed together, regardless!
     

     

  21. SRman
    When visiting Peter Mantle's (PCM) Llanbourne layout for the monthly BRMA meeting yesterday, I took along two locomotives that were recently reblown with legomanbiffo sounds. One, 37 698, behaved perfectly (although I noted that I have at some stage lost the horns at one end, probably when transporting it to an exhibition). The other, class 40 D211, disgraced itself by dropping the bogie frame at one end. I was still able to run it and show off the sounds but it looked rather odd - like one end was floating on air!
     
    The cause of the bogie frame falling off was the inner end transome actually breaking off. Unfortunately, the centre part of that transome is what clips over a lug on the end of the bogie's metal chassis.
     
    I worked into the early hours of this morning fixing it, after thinking about how to repair it so that it would regain some strength.
     
    The answer was to use a 2mm wide strip of 60 thou plasticard, reinforced with handrail wire drilled into the ends through the bogie side frames, plus more wire drilled and bent around the attachment points for the bottom part. This was then superglued thoroughly as well to retain all the wire bits and strengthen the joints.
     

     

     
    It works perfectly on test and seems to be very strong. All that remains is to apply a coat of black paint, to be followed eventually by a bit of weathering on the whole underframe/bogies and on the roof.
  22. SRman
    When the Bachmann Collectors Club offered the class 150/1, 150 123, in Silverlink livery, my wife offered to buy one for me for my birthday. Naturally, I accepted this offer! Around the same time, I had bought a Regional Railways Provincial liveried version, 150 148, pre-fitted with Howes sound, at a very reasonable price. I swapped the chassis on the motor coaches so that the prized Silverlink set had the sound.
     
    However, there has been an ongoing intermittent problem with minor power interruptions on both units. Initially this caused the (non-sound) Bachmann decoder I fitted to keep resetting itself back to address 3. After fitting sound, it was more noticeable because the unit would stop, then restart the engines, then accelerate again.
     
    I have investigated the units several times but could not see any reason for the interruptions. Then, the more recently released Bachmann class 40 with sound alerted me to what might be the problem. As I have documented in an earlier entry, I found the class 40 pickup arrangement was causing intermittent breaks in power collection (as reported by several other modellers in the forums as well). The solution with the 40 was to add soldered wire pickups bearing onto the wheel backs. I decided to do the same with the 150 123 (and may well follow up later with 150 148).
     
    As some people had also reported problems with some of Bachmann's DMUs not transmitting power reliably through the rubbing contacts between the bogies and the main PCB, I decided to use a few decoder wire off-cuts to solder connections between the vertical contacts on the bogies, and the tops of the contacts on the PCB.
     
    While all this was a little fiddly, it wasn't all that difficult either. The bogie side frames simply clip off the bogie chassis and the tops are released by undoing the screws through the main chassis block, so access is not hard. I checked that the cardan shafts were engaged before reassembling (they never came out of their sockets) and test ran the chassis before replacing the body.
     
    Running of 150 123 is now faultless. When I tackle 150 148, I'll take a couple of photos to show the work done.
     
    This is quite an old picture of the unit, running on my old layout.
     

  23. SRman
    Just a couple of small changes have been made since the first part of this build.
     
    I have added the turned brass buffers (as per Simon0r's suggestion in his topic), and I have substituted some slightly larger diameter Hornby spoked wheels, which somehow look more spindly and archaic, and entirely suit the style and character of the SECR brake van, in my opinion. With these wheels it runs even more freely than with the Romfords. I suspect the Hornby axle length is a tiny fraction shorter and therefore has slightly less friction in the bearings.
     
    I have also removed the moulded gutter lines from the roof, although I have retained the moulded stove chimney, at least for the time being.
     

     

  24. SRman
    After adding the brake blocks, I have been tweaking them a little to get them clear of the wheel treads and flanges when the axles are at full travel sideways. It still runs freely, but not quite as freely as before I fitted the brakes!
     
    I gave it a coat of grey primer earlier on Saturday, and now have applied the first coats of paint, using Humbrol #67 for the initial approximation of the SECR grey (to be followed later with the proper grey after I drill the handrail holes). The roof has had a first coat of satin white (Humbrol #130), and the wheels a coat of Humbrol #133 brown, followed by a black wash on the wheels, brakes and W-irons (more or less everything below the solebars).
     

     

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