Daddyman

Thanks, Mike - it wasn't a criticism. I just wanted other people to know I'd asked. Might save you loads of emails!

That's the man that used to be at Grosmont, yes. Very fair buying and selling prices.

Still there and his policy of taking everything from a collection, rather than cherry picking, can be attractive, but his buying prices are rock bottom (as to be fair are his selling prices - most railway books £3). Is the OP looking to buy or sell? There was also the shop in Grosmont and I have feeling the original owner, George, stayed in the trade and went somewhere up Cleveland way?

Yes, good news, but a rather inconvenient time to be asked for so much money so soon after Christmas. I've emailed them to ask what they mean by "make payment when you're ready".

C Can't remember - haven't done it for a few months. I have a feeling I use PCB or Tufnol with the twisting method. Punching I haven't done for years but would have followed whatever the advice was - yours probably. This - one of yours - was all done with twisting except at the ends of the solebars where I replaced with rivet transfers as there was some dressing to do. EDIT: this is before I realised I had the solebars upside down and had to strip the paint off and switch them round!

There's much more control with a twisting motion, which is why l gave up punching/dropping. With a twisting motion you can stop and check - usually about 10-12 turns is enough, but you'll need to work out the pressure. I use the same pressure as l would with a 1mm drill in a hand chuck - i.e. quite a lot.

I use an old-fashioned record stylus - basically a steel rod about 1mm diameter with a pointed end - and twisting motion (as if I was drilling) rather than a punching or pressing motion. If you can't get hold of a stylus (mine was kindly given to me by @micknich2003) you may be able to get the same effect with a drill and stop before you break through.

Is this something that SLW have said?

It looks from Paul Bartlett's site that a lot of them just had a yellow band daubed on the original livery, with the band cutting through the old lettering, the rest of which they didn't bother to paint out/remove - though I can't find any in your livery.

Just found this thread and hope I'm not too late. It's not a flaw with the kit as such, but I think it requires a modification to better represent the curve between bonnet front and bonnet sides. Photos on Flickr suggest the radius is greater than can be achieved by filing a curve on the components as supplied - as most builders of this kit do. On mine, I soldered some 1mm square rod up the back of the corner seam and then filed the radius on the outside - without the 1mm rod you'd break through the metal when filing the corners.

There are hundreds out there - you should have asked! Well, strictly, the TB ones have a different stanchion pocket spacing/position from the Hornby ones....

You cover the area with matt white first, right? Glad the boxes have worked out. Body didn't arrive today, sorry! Maybe Monday...

It won't do any harm to remove one pillar - all mine are held in with one screw (and bodies held on with one screw too - 8 is excessive!).

Along with all their other steam models - I called the lines at 10, 2, 4 and 8 o'clock years before the model appeared, and the lines were visible from the first pre-prod shots.

Agree on both points (though DJH is a fairly low bar!). It also makes conversion to P4 very difficult - you lose half the boiler when you chuck the chassis! But at least you get rid of the manky wheels.

Not even that is necessary, Justin: Bachmann felt no need to split the chassis and boiler in the way Hornby have chosen to do, resulting in the gash (which has also stopped me buying it). Hornby's motivation seems to be the desire to get more weight in, probably having been pestered by people who want Class 2 locos to haul express-length trains. The haulage on Bachmann's was well within prototypical without the need for all this diecast junk that Hornby have gone in for.

Good to hear! Tippex is a good filler too, though soggy plastic rod is its own filler. For the marker rims that's a tricky one. I'd print if you can as a first choice. After that, I'd be inclined to try brass tube, yes, or skimming the back or surrounds off some Shawplan marker dot panels - or just using transfers. Or ask Steve at Railtec to do 3d black rings - they'd be extremely useful to many people I'd imagine (me included). In fact, I think Steve would be first choice.

I was thinking maybe of the next one.

Square rod slightly large doused in solvent then forced into the hole is a good bet.

I've never seen the point of 25w irons.... Can't you thin down the solebars from behind (either before or after fitting)? You have to do that on the Hornby OTA. Having the solebars at the wrong spacing will impact on the "look" of the wagon.

I feel for you! And very brave of you to detail your experiences on here. However, I wouldn't see it as a failure: just see the suspension unit problem as a lesson that cost you £12.99, and that's not a lot to pay to learn a new skill. The only reason I can see the bearing plates breaking off is if you folded them the wrong way first - something I've done a few times on that part and others. So the lesson there is to check and check again before folding. You could probably reattach them even after they broke off, but it may be too late for that now. As for the soldering iron, I always use a 50. If you have a 40, I can't see any reason not to use it... By the way, the Cambrian axlebox units are a dead loss - the fold never works, and the detail is rubbish, even if you could get them to fold up. I've never used Will's units on Cambrian kits so not sure why they need to be fitted to an unbuilt kit. Is it because there's some sort of moulding on the floor to take the kit's axlebox units and it needs to be removed? If so, yes, unbuilt would be better, but you can always grind things like that away once the wagon is built up. I use these files, picked up at an exhibition, plus a Dremel, to grind out the Hornby OTA floor to take Will's units: - they allow you to get into tight spaces without damaging adjacent parts such as solebars or brake fittings.

If the pantograph is no longer needed, then could you drill out the locating pegs from below? - a drill bit of the same approximate size as the spigots (but not larger) usually works in these sorts of applications. Tug at the pantograph as you drill, and stop when it comes loose.

Some good modelling there, Rich!

Managed to make progress on the various projects. 184 has had a coat of varnish today - well, two coats as when I first sprayed the reliably satin Ronseal Mattcoat this morning it came out of the airbrush gloss - result of not having been used for a few months and indeed there was a sticky deposit at the bottom of the tin. However, after a few minutes' mixing, it was back to a perfect satin to match Bachmann's finish this afternoon. Slightly out-of-focus shot showing the sheen: Gratuitous one - note the 1984-era chewed-up data panel. No panel on the other side. I remade all the fuel-tank-mounted sandpipes in 0.6 copper wire to represent the thicker pipes seen on 37/0s. Bachmann's were too flimsy anyway - snapped the first time the bogie turned, so I just keep the top part that sits in the cut-out of the fuel tanks. I drilled a hole in the front of the fuel tanks to trick the eye into thinking the pipes connect up with Bachmann's top part. I thought most Eastfield 37/0s lost their front sandpipes, but perhaps they're just hidden behind the ploughs; I can now see that they are there on 184 too, so I need to attend to that. 406 getting closer too. Now has its new boots - and a shameful attempt at buffer grease. Needs its handbrake chains connecting up, Matt's handrail touch-up, more weathering ... and a twit who can focus a phone camera... Original pattern 11-stanchion OTA has had white undercoat and red on the ends. I've nicked some of Will's Stenson suspension units from a stalled 2000s period OTA but it has the later axlebox covers and I see Will is out of stock on the "hooded" castings, so this may be going on the backburner, whether the Killers like it or not. As I only needed to spray these two small units in etching primer I got out the dreaded Upol rather than airbrushing, and after years of no use and my impugning it, it took its revenge, so they'll have to be stripped and redone. I also shortened all the stanchions - looking at photos it seems that around 2000 they became taller and stuck up above the top of the flat ends (or the angled point on later ends) but when the wagons were first built the stanchions were flat-end height. Oh, and Happy New Year!

I have all three and have never run them... think I might have voided the warranty too!