The Evil Bus Driver

I only went and put it on didn't I.....

Wow! That brings back memories of trying to make 8 car rakes on the living room table (with 2 buffet cars lol) You'd probably be better off going for one of the Bachmann ones as they are better detailed and you can get closer coupling, plus they go better with the SO/TSOs and better mk2s that they do.

Time to start learning how to build points, methinks.

There was concrete sleepered chaired track as well. I believe the Bluebell used it until recently at Sheffield Park in the platform roads.

Hmm. Look what I've just acquired... 3 lengths of P4 flexi track and a Scaleway 00 gauge point kit. Interesting.

I just finished painting this Dapol 16ton mineral wagon. Like most I have glued the doors shut as having them open whilst on a train would only cause derailments at the least accessible part of any layout. Sods law of course. Weathering to follow.

Yeah a couple of the parts were a bit distorted but I managed to get them on with brute force in the end. I think Dapol do use a different type of plastic (there's a question for Dapol Dave). I picked up 3 Airfix pltform kits on eBay for 99p so really it'd be rude not to.

Another wagon I recently found was one I have had for years which is made up of various odds and sods. Bachmann chassis, Not sure about the tank bit but I thought it could do with an airing. All superglued together with a good bit of weight. IIRC this was always a problem wagon for derailing. You always get one or two that no matter what you do they always derail.

She Rolls Weighting has just been added by means of some Euro Cent coins I found. 3 of them superglued inside and it feels about right. Then the roof was glued on and buffers added. She has wheels!! And coupling hooks with the fake instanter chain thing removed. I might well take off the brake pipes as they foul the TL couplings, otherwise this will go in a rake of 3-linked wagons. I'll decide later. I have added a coupling to one end (and bent up the brake pipe) so maybe a converter wagon would work. Here it is on a scrap piece of track. All that's left now is to paint it. Now where did I put my brushes?

With Added Meat vans Here are some build pictures of the other meat van kit I had. 1. The basic chassis. This whole kit had quite a bit of flash which is normal for these. 2. Chassis sides and brake gear added. 3. Buffer beams and sides added.At this stage I broke the hinges on one side. hence the doors will not open on this van. I won't add the roof until some weight has been added inside. 4. The van with added sides and doors. Conveniently I found a piece of steel to cut to make a few weights but equally conveniently the saw to cut it with is sitting in our club room at Brighton MRC (doh). That'll be all for now. Thanks for watching.

Hmmm. Crimson. Apparently the plastic Airfix used was different too, but I'll keep this one unbuilt until I get desperate. Probably won't use those wheels though. Might go for some VEAs soon. I'll be wanting a rake of approximately 15 vans at some point so I might buy the kits and build them when needed. Ooh! Might have to get one of those. Sounds like a good one.

Yeah I was thinking that, Complete with moulded plastic wheels on a sprue (shudder). I have another unbuilt (as yet) one of thee to build and I'll put build pictures up soon.

Nice! I found an old Ratio van in my box at the clubroom so i built that as well. I'm always on the lookout for good kits as well as getting RTR parts and making a good wagon from them, got a tanker I made that way. I#ll be posting a build of the other van when I get back on Monday, although they could do with some more weight to them. I'll remembr to make the doors open on this one as I glued them shut on the one I posted, then i can put the weights inside if I forget before doing the body.

Part 1 of an occasional series So. Here is somewhere that I can post pictures of my efforts at kit building wagons, after a loft clearout brought a few unmade kits to light. To start here is a Dapol meat van recently built and painted. It has a few bits of touching up to do yet but I think it's getting there. Sorry about the slightly ropey picture quality, they are from my mobile phone camera. Perhaps the laptop isn't the best photographic studio... The same clearout turned up these too. I'll probably keep the Airfix van as it is, I have another Dapol one to do as well as a brake van. A Parkside Grampus has also come to light too so I'll post build pics of these soon, at least, when I have my old work bench back. Much fun to be getting on with anyway. Hopefully people will find it interesting and I'll try to make it enjoyable to read.

Remember to elongate the gangway as IIRC it is too low and puts the indicator too low as well. I think it's about 3 mm or so that has to be added in.

And the Whitby Gothic weekends with a dash of NYMR thrown in too, of course. Shouldn't be a problem for me as I have family in Scarborough.

Indeed. She has to get her fix by watching videos of them online. She did say I had to build her a ruined castle sometime though so that's good news.

My fiancee is fine with the hobby and often appreciates a good bit of modelling. She said everyone needs a "nerdy interest" and hers is tornadoes and extreme weather, Often she says there is a model shop near somewhere she may have been so I know to go in there which is useful.

This is starting to look fantastic.

It's true they are different, although by fiddling around with the CAD you could potentially come up with a version to fit each one. Isn't it amazing how much difference a mil or half a mil can make?

This is where a 3D printed cab end would come in handy. Useful for the VEP too.

Blimey that sounds like it was some layout... This may sound a little bit extreme* but have you thought about making an outer skin and filling the void with concrete? Only needs to be about 2 inches out, then you could use regular shed type walls. Also are there any windows in your shed? You could also have an outer pane made of plastic that way if the dead scrotes that did all that damage tried to throw anything through the window it would just bounce off. *Extreme? Me? Never!

At least that gives me time to get the money together for a couple.

The method I got taught at college was to mark opposite jaws with chalk and set marked and unmarked up seperately until it's basically there, then run it round by hand slowly adjusting until it showed the required tolerance on the DTI (ie no movement). Even a 3 jaw chuck can be out of concentricity if you remove then replace the workpiece so a dial test indicator is useful. One real sin is to hit the chuck with a mallet as i once saw someone do. That would just put the spindle out if you were working in 4mm scale. I was taught as a rule of thumb do all the drilling operations first then turn the work as then you know the hole and turned diameter of the workpiece are concentric in relation to each other.

Sounds like an excuse to go and see if you ask me lol