SRman

Thanks for that one. It looks like it also received the "correct" rail typeface for its numbers, where I had guessed they would have retained the earlier condensed style. Mine is in dirty form so must have been in service for a while, so the arrows may well have been moved to the more conventional position  (ignoring the now incorrect typeface for the numbers). Oh well. I think I'll leave it as is for now. It looks reasonably correct, even if the photo proves otherwise!!

Interestingly, even at this early stage, the photo shows nice smart white handrails along the bonnet sides too, something a lot of the photos of other members of the class don't seem to have received until later, from my observations of the various photos. That, at least, is easily corrected on my model. I also have one of the small handrails over the filter grilles to straighten up. My close-up photos show it very clearly being bent, where using the naked eye I had not noticed this at all.

Once again, thanks for the useful photo and info.

The handrails were given a quick coat of black paint to tone them down. Eventually, all the bonnet-side ones will be in green to match the rest of the paintwork.

Close-up shots like this are extremely cruel, but show me what still needs doing, very clearly! Obvious things to do include straightening up those handrails a bit, so they are all in line, filling the keyhole slots in the buffer beams, somehow extending the footplate/running board at the front and widening the buffer beam to match, and fixing up the black and yellow stripes at the cab end, which are still a bit rough.

Looking at the photos and comparing them to the real thing, those prominent ridges along the engine top cover also need to be filed down and eliminated - the real ones are almost unnoticeable.

Still, overall I am quite pleased with the way it is coming along. Once all the body works have been completed, I can do something about sitting the body down properly on the chassis.

That is interesting. Pure coincidence as the Dapol/Atlas vehicle is purely practical rather than aesthetic or representative of any real vehicle. 

The Hattons livery wasn't unattractive but it did stand out as not really belonging when running, whereas my pseudo BR/Derby livery does let it blend in a little better. That APT coach also appears to have yellow (or possibly orange) ends in the photo.

Keeping the ball rolling, here's the four-car set with the centre cars painted in bright red, but the roofs have received their first coat of Humbrol #66 grey.

Update: A quick first test run was mostly successful, apart from the last car dropping off in the tunnel. After adjusting one of the couplings slightly, the four-car unit ran well with no obvious problems.

Thanks for the compliments, both.

Much of the drudgery of building these is removed in Radley's newer kit versions with their one-piece body mouldings in resin.

What always slows me down on these kit-builds is glazing the things. At least with the F Stock, all of the glazing pieces are relatively short and easy to handle, and all are flat.

Nice to see LT trains running. Those Gresleys really don't look out of place at all.

I did something similar for my EFE '38 stock, with Steam Era wheelsets from here in Australia. As per your description, I also removed the pinpoints from the axles. They do run better but there is still a lot of friction from the 'U' shaped axle bearings on the EFE bogies.

I now have some Metromodels pinpoint bogies to fit, so had to buy more wheelsets (again from Steam Era Models) but this time, retaining the pinpoint axles! I have yet to actually fit these bogies but they do promise to improve the running and will allow me to run the four car set with only one Black Beetle motor bogie.

Cheers,

Jeff.

And another tank container with transfers applied, this time for Stolt.

That really is looking great, Neil. Catenary on models always has to be a compromise between practicality and appearance. It does add a whole new dimension to your layout, and there are some lovely, fascinating and archaic-looking electric locomotives in Europe.

Ha ha! Thanks Ivan,

I have just given the model a second coat of BR blue and it is coming up OK.

A bit of digging for Southern allocated 08s has revealed a few that didn't have the high level connections or a box in front of the fuel tank on the left side of the bonnet. One candidate had no box at the front on the right hand side, so I tried removing the one on the model (they are separate mouldings) but it would mean I would have to remodel the doors and fill the gap.

D3272 looks close to the model's specifications and was based at Eastbourne for a while. It would appear to have the framed droplights on the cab sides (not too difficult to model if necessary) and rather oddly, appears to have had red buffer beams when in BR blue around 1969 or so.

If anyone has any better candidate numbers for me, I would appreciate a quick line to let me know. I'll post a question in the main forums as well.

Would the Ayjay kit cost that much? Their 4 COR kit is around

Hi. 

I intend to use Kadees, probably in conjunction with Parkside NEM mounts on extensions from the bogie pivot points. However this will take a little bit of experimentation. I could also try Kadees mounted directly under the bodies, but I suspect I will have trouble with the tighter (radius 3) curves on my layout.

The 456 will remain a 'dummy' unit for the time being, but I may possibly motorise it at a later date. As such, the 455 will provide the power for the present time.

Classes 313 - 315 and 507 - 508 would be nice but, at the current time, none are readily available in 4mm scale that I know of. I would happily run a 508 (or two) on my layout.

Thanks for the compliment.

Thanks for the kind comment. 

Tony (LBC) does do reruns if there is sufficient demand. However the BT Models version may just kill off any interest in the kit, once they correct their models (as recorded elsewhere, the first two releases are a couple of millimetres too tall).

This one is actually the second of the LBC MWs I have built (not counting the entirely different 1960s MW Royal Blue coach). Tony very kindly substituted the bus seating unit in my kit as the kit was originally one of the dual purpose units.

Technically, my model is not quite accurate for the H & D vehicles as it should have a rear route destination box, even though most were blanked off in their later lives. I may add one at some stage using Milliput.

Hi Malcolm.

I wouldn't say no to those sheets as long as you are offering. I have to say that it is very generous of you, so thank you.

My address is in a PM to you.

I very much appreciate your suggestion and help with finishing the models off properly.

Kind Regards.

Jeff.

Many thanks for all that information - most useful.

It will take me a little while to digest it all but it will allow me to finish them with just a little more accuracy.

I know that many of the earlier batches had the handrail at the second plank level, but later ones had the handrail one plank further up. Some may have had later modifications moving the handrails up or down but it isn't well documented.

I have chosen the numbers on the grey one to be on the grey background as per earlier BR practice. Even so, many grey wagons received the black backing patches before the boxed-in numbers and details came into being.

The one clear pic of the ballast brake I have (Bygone Surrey, K. McCormack, 2009, Ian Allan Publishing) is in black but with later style boxed-in number panels.

Ha ha!! I have a few partly done projects lying around that have been even longer in the making, if that's any help!  

The green was way too light for any of the SR greens, more akin to Adams LSWR pea green but more insipid!

It was difficult to realise what they were when they were sitting in the bin of wagons at the swap meet, until I extracted them and looked underneath - the "Roxey Mouldings" legend etched into the base was a bit of a giveaway!! I knew Roxey do a lot of SR or pre-grouping coaching stock so grabbed these and then looked them up on the Roxey website to identify them further. I doubt that many of the swap meet customers would have recognised them for what they were.

There are many items at swap meets that are not really bargains, but in this case, I think I really did score some bargains.

No worries. It gave me the excuse to do Lord Nelson! I had been thinking I should do this one anyway and having done Lord Anson only a day or so before, I knew what to do and what traps to avoid. The whole thing took less than an hour to complete.

Good luck with the N gauge one. The detail I could see in the website pics looked quite good. I'm not sure if it will be worth the extra effort of replacing the moulded on jumpers in that scale.

A quick update on the class 40: I have now painted the repairs black and while I had the black on the brush, did some initial weathering on the roof.

The diameter is a little small, the top is too rounded, it's a little lopsided, and the base is still a little rough and crude, but it is starting to look like an N15 dome ... sort of. I have painted it roughly as that makes any faults more obvious than trying to detect them on the stark white of the Milliput.



Edit: addendum: I have now phoned up South Eastern Finecast, who were extremely helpful and are able to supply me with a cast white metal dome from one of their kits. That means I probably won't do anything more on Sir Lamiel until that arrives.

Yes, I'll be phoning SEF later this week. With the 11 hour time difference plus working full-time it makes things a little awkward. I won't be doing it tonight as I'm off to see Yes playing in St Kilda.  

Adding a couple more pics of progress. I have tidied up the dome shape a little, although it is still a bit crude at the moment. I'll post a new entry when there is more obvious improvement.

Thanks for that tip, Ivan. I didn't think of SEF.

If I can get hold of one of those that will save me a good deal of filing, filling and fettling.

Next stop: South Eastern Finecast's website!

Cheers.

Jeff.