micked

How about something like an inspection saloon and saying that she's rolled in to town as part of the celebrations of the local King Stephen's School's 500 year anniversary.

Great work Charlie_k. That second photo could easily pass for a photo of the real thing. That rusty crane is outstanding. Mick

What a wonderful idea! I was wondering whether 'low-relief' coaches from old HO Playcraft coaches might work as well? Mind you, they could be collectable antiques these days as far as I know. I'm really enjoying this thread, and will keep a look out for updates. Mick

Thanks for those ingenious flux bottle tips everyone. I'll keep a look out for suitable scraps this week and see what I come up with. Snow and freezing weather kept me at home today, giving me the opportunity to progress with the chassis. Next step was going to be the construction and installation of the Comet gearbox. Everything was going very nicely until I managed to loosen the worm's grub screw a bit too much, which sent it flying away to goodness knows where. Not a disaster, but it did mean the end of work for the day. I've ordered a few more grub screws from Wizard, and construction will continue in a few days' time. Here's a shot of progress so far, and everything is still square and free-running. Must clean out the rest of those filings from the gearbox -- it's amazing what photos reveal. Thanks again Anthony, 57xx, Serron and Mark for those suggestions All the best Mick

Thanks Anthony! That sounds like just the sort of thing I need to make. Liquid flux all over the kitchen worktop probably isn't a good idea. (The reason I work in the kitchen is because it has a good extractor fan, which is handy for fumes. It's also nice and warm, which is handy for December) Mick

I spent a very pleasant couple of hours today, starting a Comet N2 chassis. The Poppy's jig described in the last post seems to have worked a treat, and everything seems to have come out nice and square and solid. Surprise, surprise the chassis with coupling rods even rolls along very freely smoothly indeed, with the lightest prod of the little finger. As feared/expected there were a couple of minor mishaps along the way. I'm either going to have to be a lot more careful or failing that make some sort of contraption to make knocking over the bottle of liquid flux more difficult. Probably the latter. So far, so good and I'm feeling quite pleased with progress so far. All the best Mick (Edited for silly typo)

It's been ages since I last posted here, but this morning I managed to complete my first kit in quite a while. No it's not a crude attempt at the Fell, but a Poppy's Loco Builder Box. I gave in to temptation at the Peterborough show a month or two ago and bought a Comet chassis. I should get around to starting it in a week or two - exciting times! As for the Loco Builder Box; it went together a treat. Assembly took half an hour at the most, and the best part of that time was taken up checking that everything was solid and square. Let's hope that the chassis construction is just as straightforward. Until the next time, All the best Mick

The day's family commitments have fallen through, the event's just up the road (literally) and I've just started working for Warners; so where else could I possibly go on Sunday -- thoroughly looking forward to it! Mick

...and this one was built to take the inspector's saloon around the Metropolitan lines.

Thanks cctransuk. I've had a quick look through your website, and that's quite a mind boggling selection of transfers, and I'll certainly be putting in an order next time I need to letter one of my wagons. Mick

Hi Risdale. The ones I used are from Modelmaster. I think from sheet: MM8055 Parkside PC52 B.R. Conflat A with BD Container for the container. Mick

After cctransuk pointed out that the colour of my container's lettering should really should be straw yellow, rather than white, I set about rectifying the matter. Remembering the generally translucent nature of yellow paints, I painted a yellow wash over the lettering. This had the effect of turning the lettering to a more acceptable colour, while barely changing the darker colour of the body. A coat of matt varnish later you can't see the join (especially in this rather shakey photo). I don't have any prototype photos of the containers as built, so can't be sure that the style of lettering is correct for the early period, but I'm happy enough. Just study what I've done very carefully 57xx, and then do the exact opposite. You won't go wrong. Mick Edited to replace blurred photo with a better one

I remember wondering about different axle lengths a couple of months back when buying wheels for a Cambrian wagon, and came across this on RMWeb: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/117242-what-wagon-wheels-are-these-256mm-axle-length/ I decided after reading to use Romfords/Markits on all my wagons Probably not much help, but I found it interesting. Mick

Thanks 57xx. I like your way of thinking! Yup! Fender Jazz. Mick

Thanks Zero Gravitas. It looks as if I've got my brake handles on the wrong sides again on the wagon on the left. Not the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last! Luckily they're the easiest things to detach and swap over.

A month of Job searching has meant that modelling has taken a bit of a back seat over the last few weeks. Saying that hobby are a great way of destressing after a day of seemingly endless internet searches and filling in equally endless forms, and I have found time to keep myself sane with a couple more Parkside wagons. I thought it might be a good idea to build a couple of Parkside BR 12 ton vans as a sort of mini batch. This particular kit gets top marks from me for good fitting of parts, and if I had to recommend a kit for an absolute beginner then this would be the one I'd choose. You'll see that one van is a lot closer to completion than the other. The reason for this is that I misplaced the sprue containing some of the brake gear for one. I'll give it another week or two for it to turn up, otherwise I'll see about butchering something from my pile of Parkside spares to make some new brake gear. I've also been practicing tinning and tacking on some pieces of brass, and have a Lochgorm van ready to be started sometime. Saying that I've also seen a couple of London Road kits that I quite fancy as well. Oh decisions, decisions! By the way, that bottle of Dunlop Lemon Oil in the photo isn't used for model making! Mick

Would I be right in thinking that plain, rather than Parkside's supplied shouldered, bearings are best in this case? Great thread, with really useful advice here -- I'm really enjoying reading everyone's input. Mick

That's absolutely gorgeous. A credit to the kit's designer and, of course, its builder.

Hi Aardvark, How about starting off with the Parkside BR 12 Ton Van-Plank Sides (Diag. 1/208), which has a couple of extra ends included to cater for different prototype buffer types. It would give you a chance to practice removing buffers on the spare ends first. Mick

Yes, that's what I do to keep the original buffer placement - seems to work. Here's one I started this afternoon. Mick

Fascinating. Especially seeing as I've just bought a photo from a (the) large auction site of 43067 standing in Ramsey North in the 50s.

So glad to hear that these fantastic kits appear to have a safe future. Peco really does have a range of wonderful wagons now. Mick

Thanks 31A and Colin for the buffer tips. It looks as if the Coopercraft cattle wagon's buffers are now in line. After taking the bearings out, I measured 1mm below the moulded holes and proceeded to carefully drill them out. The holes were then filled with epoxy and the bearings put back in to line up along the bottom edges of the holes. I'll leave the epoxy to thoroughly harden overnight, but everything seems to be in line now and the wheels still run freely. It's all a bit of a badge, but hopefully I've got away with it. Before starting, I checked the Cambrian buffer height against the Parkside height and they both seem to be pretty close (any very slight differences, I'll put down to my shoddy workmanship on the previous wagons). I only saw Colin's tip about measuring first after I'd finished, but now all wagons' buffers appear to be around 13.3mm (ish!) above rail height. It's going to be something that I'll be checking at an early stage in any wagon construction from now on. Thanks as well Guy for going to the trouble of writing out that V4/V5 piece. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with the van, but I know I'm going to have to wait before trying out DCI brakes. All the best, and thanks again Mick

I'm sure it wasn't John, and apologies if it came across in any way as sounding as if it might be. Yes, I do like to get things right... ...eventually! Mick

Thanks John, Don't worry about sounding negative - you don't to me. Any constructive criticism is gratefully received. I suppose it's logical given the colour of the container. You don't happen to supply yellow transfers for the container do you? If so, and order could be heading your way. Mick