dj_crisp

I'll get pestering him! Thanks for sharing

Hi Jon That does look cool... how did you do it? Cheers Will

Yeah. It's not too difficult to install a seperate motor to drive the fans instead. Personally it's not high on my list of things that I'm that bothered about so didn't feel it was worth the effort to retrofit the fleet.

The bogie working looks ok to me so I'd expect the "unpowered" one to be causing you grief and the bogie itself causing the drag. The shaft seems very loose to me so I think it's worth taking it apart to see if the ends are broken or someone simply hasn't fitted it right and it's not in the centre of the flywheel. I could only get the shaft to fit by loosening the motor from the mount to allow enough flex to refit mine. Be interested to see what's wrong on this one as it has subtly different problems to the ones I've fixed

I tried running just one bogie and performance for me was rubbish.i put it down to the internal gears of the spare bogie causing lots of drag. I can't see weight being the problem with it. Does yours work fine on a rolling road? I've also noticed that new the mechanism seems a bit tight so that could also be causing issues?

Do you have the drive shaft connected for the other bogie? I've now repaired 4 chassis and they all had the same problem with no movement to one of the bogies. Dapol have used a metal shaft and plastic knuckles (not sure thats the right term but hopefully you know what I mean). I think this is a fundamental flaw of their chassis. I think grease gets in causing the shaft to slip resulting in no drive. The way I've fixed mine is to burr the metal shaft and super glue it to the knuckle. Seems to work. If you're missing the shaft this is available as a spare. It's not a tricky job to fix... my tip is to part unscrew the motor to allow you easily remove and fit the shaft..... you'll see what I mean ;) Tbh the chassis is a bit OTT so needs all 4 driving.... especially compared to Bachmanns effort which IMO is much better on all counts. Hope this helps Will

It looks like the door grab handles have been mirrored which to my knowledge isn't right as they're on the left side facing doors from the outside. Hopefully an easy fix at this stage?

I dont think Rich is making a critical mistake though and is only judging on what he's seen. Tbh I have the same view of the windows and for me jury's out on the roof as to whether it sits right... yet is easy to open. We shall see and I trust you'll get it right in the final models. Mind you... I've only not pre-ordered yours based on the fact you're choosing just about every loco not seen in the south west in the 80s/90s. LoL. Cheers Will (Not the same Will that Rich mentions btw... this P4 stuff is too hard for me)

Personally I don't notice the box when the model is on the layout ;) I do notice them when storing the things as the larger the box the more the boss thinks I own :) I agree both Bachmann and Accurascale look good. At the moment Bachmann is more in my era and location and available now so is rather tempting!

Looks stunning!

There are lots of good bits with the model but I'm looking forward to seeing one.... or a photo of a head-on shot like;

Nice! Please can you ask the factory to do the weathering before fitting the glazing?

It does look pretty

I've fancied a seperate office building for my fertiliser depot and for a break from DMUs I thought I'd construct a laser cut kit from Ebay. I have to admit I bought it thinking I could build it quickly..... famous last words; From the original kit there's just the shell remaining. On opening the brickwork was way overscale for bricks so i can only think it was for a breeze blocks (?) Anyhow I quickly decided to clad it in brickwork which was rather tricky as the stuff is so fragile. Eventually this was done and the edges filled with good old filler.... and then scribed to try and hide the plastikard edge (not all bricks line up - doh!) After priming in white (and then sanding as my halfords primer is rough) I then looked at the windows - The orginals were super thick and desinged for fitting inside the shell - Nicely cut but frankly horrible. So I've had an experiment and made my own using offcuts from a kit and plaini old plastikard strip. Also added the sills so hopefully this'll look ok painted - otherwise I'll have a rethink. Similarly I added a door frame and door. I've used 600 grit sandpaper for the roof - I'll weather it using an airbrush and while it looks ok now I wonder if being sandpaper will cause long term dust grief - time will tell. I'm no expert on buidings but from looking at a few online they seem to encourage rain run off so i've added plastikard to three sides with one end being for rain run off. And for a bit of fun I've added some drainpipes and guttering quickly soldered up in the 30c + in my garage. Painting next to see if this looks ok. I think next time I'll buy some ready done windows and build the building from them! Might be a bit more straightforward! Will

What to do on the hottest day of the year (so far) ?? get out the airbrush of course! Various DMU victims have had a splash of paint over recent weeks and while my airbrushing isn't that great I like to take test shots to see what looks wrong etc! I've been learning which paint matches.... and which paint doesn't! First up is paint matching Bachmanns BR Blue on the 121 DTS. I'm quite pleased with Rainbow Railways enamel which despite me trying to paint myself with it looks quite close to my eyes The work to hide the engine filler cap thing has gone ok this side.... (less said about the other side ATM as I've leant precision P133 rail grey needs a splash of humbrol matt 64 grey in order to paint match :( And I've bought some white paint for lining. It'll all hopefully survive and look ok ) The corridor has been removed and although slightly noticeable I have a few characteristic dents ;) I'm sure with some satin varnish this will blend in nicely. As soon as I've sorted the other side this will get some varnish then weathering. While the blue paint was out I decided I didn't like Lima's Blue and so took decided foolishly to prime and respray the blue as I really didn't think I'd be able to match the original and it might look a bit odd next to a Bachmann DMU.. Roof will be painted next - I haven't decided if the toilet filler pipes should be black or blue? If you know please let me know. It wasn't the easiest job tbh and I've ended up doing quite a bit of lining.,.. oh and i've learnt Lima's grey is Humbrol Matt 64 with a splash of Precision P133 - hopefully I've got away with that. And is always the way with me I managed to spray one of the drivers windows yellow so will have to make my own replacement. Yellow is Precision Pre 85 which funningly enough is a good match for Bachmann's post 85 NSE yellow as below; I tried to be neat and add Shawplans frames without needing to respray any yellow, but that didn't quite succeed so have ended up blending the edges of the frames in ready for painting the black surrounds. The plan for this DTCL is to go with a 116 DMBS so I needed to paint it in revised blue. I used precision NSE paints and that clearly doesn't match Bachmann's blue - but tbf there are loads of shades of NSE Blue and theirs is a nice blue on their NSE 117/121s. The NSE branding is in the original Blue.... which I'm ignoring as I'm sure there was the odd relivery that didn't bother with logos (I hope). I'm not looking forward to painting the bodyside window frames black so will see how it looks with a bit of glazing in. Problem is Bachmanns seem a little on the small size so i probably won't get away with it. Anyhow my "easy" 116 conversion is progressing but not particularly to plan. Apart from the obvious Derby cab roof there are a few annoying differences between a 116 and a refurbished 117. These are my observations and if you know more please let me know as I'm totally guessing! - remove guards air vent - remove guards hand rails and install two piece handrails - removed all handrails on the front cab - change cab roof It didn't sound too difficult at outset.... but I also have to remove a headlight and just for fun I thought it was a good idea to remove the light lenses which of course broke on the final one. I'm just rebuilding one side with some brass tube and trusty filler I'm going to try some Tamiya primer as I don't want to have to do as much sanding! And lastly my NSE 121 has had some transfers added; I think i stirred my satin varnish too much as it's a little bit more mat than usual. Of course I need to rebuild an exhaust which I'm sure broke on it's own as I can't find it - something else to build as these aren't available as spares. Hey ho Stay cool!!! Will

Thanks Guy! I think I'll switch and try them out.

Thanks Guy Is it ok to spray enamels on it? cheers Will

Cool. I'll be very interested to see how you get on.

All good tips. Here's my approach. Bend the grille so it's roughly the shape of the roof or flat ifs the side grilles.. . (Some of mine benefited from this as they wanted to spring off) A bit of masking tape to hold in place (but not where you're doing the first glue). Then glue a small section holding down with cocktail sticks till they grab. Roof Grille I tend to do the middle peak bit... flat ill do a corner. I use cheap runny superglue so if u see too much a quick dap of kitchen roll takes up excess quickly. Then using a super thin bit of metal (I use bits of shawplan roof grille offcuts), decant a bit of superglue in a dish and then on one side only pickup small amounts of glue. As the other side is dry you can skim it under the grille edge without getting glue on the paintwork... hold in place with a cocktail stick or similar till the section grabs then move onto another section. Less glue is better as superglue only needs small amounts. If you can't slide the metal underneath the edge of the grille all is good. I avoid using much masking tape as from experience capillary action of the glue always seeks out the tape and clogs the grilles. Hope this helps and good luck! I managed to remove the factory glue marks from the roof (a hattons special ;) ) with t cut so the paint seems quite resilient. Will

I was trying to avoid a full respray and had lined up a NSE/Blue Grey shells for trying to convert. Wouldn't be a problem if I was doing a full respray as I could either remove or use Bachmanns original release in BR green. Still what's a project without a challenge!

There weren't many and I'm sure you're right! This one is aiming to be 471 as it had the side vents on the DMBS so I can use Bachmanns 117 model... and it operated in the area I'm modelling. I don't think I'll be that lucky doing a 116... I'm sure they werent fitted and those vents look a pain to remove.

Hi Bill Thanks for the tip... I'll check it out when I next run out of primer. If it helps I find the plastic one to be a bit rougher than the normal one tbh. Still really like Halfords rattle cans though especially their matt black. Cheers Will

Thanks James! The fun of varnish! Cheers Will

I've spent quite a bit of time installing decoders into my 117/118 projects and as i want to bin the horrible coupling I'm trying to have a decoder per coach. Sounds a bit OTT but I'm using ancient decoders as function only with my more modern ones for power cars. This should also allow me to have different formations should I feel inclined. So far I've done the TCL and thats working great, but I've run into problems with my DMS. I have the lights all working fine but running performance is terrible under DCC as after a while it just stutters and then the Zimo MX630R becomes unresponsive until eventually it comes back to life. It's really puzzling me as the unit with the decoder installed runs perfectly under DCC. (The decoder is wired direct to the motor and uses the circuit board pickups so don't think there is anything to mess with it. Sadly my SPORG is dead and in SPROG hospital so I can't tweak CVs). Anyhow to distract me from DCC headaches (a common theme with me) I've progressed a few 101 projects; The Lima TCL has had some TCL bits added to it. I've decided this is my first and last DTCL - the water filler pipes (or whatever they are) were rather tricky to bend - I ended up using 0.6mm wire which i think looks a bit more beefy than Bachmanns and it was a challenging shape.... especially as i want them to look like a pair. Other bits in my bodge it roof is some 0.5mm wire sanded to create a peak of sorts, then a larger brass wire which went in my minidrill and filed to suggest a cap. Then a hook of sorts made from 0.2mm wire. Hopefully this looks ok but I'm basing it off Bachmanns efforst as I have no photos of this area. And as you can see removing numerals failed.... which is fine as I was deciding on updating the blue to be more of a match for Bachmanns versions, seeing as this one has plans to be with a 117 DMBS (which may become a 116). Seeing as I've proper messed up the blue front handrails have been added as well as a door handle. A new NSE livery; This is a Bachmann DTCL which will be repsrayed into the revised blue for it's partner DMBS . And it's also recieved some new frames which I think improves the front.... and i quite like the white surronds! But I need to paint a little yellow on this before added the black surround. My Halfords white primer looks terrible!! TBF I've sanded it down as i always do but for whatever reason the white is more rough than grey. Which is a pain as I prefer to spray onto white. Will

Always nice to see a battered duff. This one is a stunner. I'm also interested in matt varnishes - I've kinda given up on them and nowadays use railmatch satin which is the only varnish I've had success with.