dj_crisp

The Z21 app does which i use on my mobile (used as a temporary stop gap as I haven't got round to finding anything else I like). They keep adding symbols so you can allocate functions to symbols which i find easier to use than function numbers even though I try to have the same function doing the same thing across the fleet. I haven't fallen for sound and tend to find i get a bit irrated by it tbh so all my 66s are the silent type. Mind you they still eat up 10 functions for the lights.... I wired mine to have markers, tail, night, day and cab lights independent for each end.

I've just checked my archive and I think I was playing with them rather than taking photos! (One of the downsides of using my phone as the controller which doubles as my camera). I'll hopefully have some new photos soon... my layout is still early in the build phase and is currently having a new fiddleyard, new legs and an extension board and so isn't that photogenic atm ;)

Sorry no and that was way too kind! After applying a base coat of enamel underframe dirt with an airbrush I've been experimenting with acrylics applied with a brush to add highlights... (both dry brushing and also applying washes). Something I'm going to explore more and hopefully improve on. I've enjoyed using acrylics Vs enamels for this task. Well worth a try.

I didn't find the Hattons version much work compared to other models and has been one of my shorter projects! I totally get the criticism for poor running though as the rotating axle box isn't the greatest. Early on I made the decision to fix mine but losing its rotation. They were going to be converted to EM and that feature seemed hard to maintain. The bug eyes do have lighting issue but there is a cheap lighting kit to sort that problem out which is easy to fit. True it should be right in the first place but seeing as pretty much every loco I own has had its lights replaced that crictism can be labelled at pretty much all manufacturers. Anyhow I like my ex-wobblers, ex-glue marks on roof and ex-loose grille examples (all now superglued on) When I was weathering mine I kept being surprised at how much is modelled... made weathering quite fun! It does pay to use some extra glue to keep bits on though especially the roof grilles. Oh and I quite like the printing of the freightliner logo ;) I won't be buying anymore as four is plenty for me but I do hope some more are produced. Cheers Will

This is nice! I have been tempted to do a small model of Coombe Juntion in the 70s just to model this structure :)

I expect so or just file them off. I have plans for experimenting with destinations mounted in the front screen and just use the existing blind for illumination.

Hi Nick Cool..! You'll enjoy a spot of DMU hacking which has been quite a fun sport so far. I look forward to seeing your efforts! ATM I've a very low tech solution to fitting the Dapol body onto the Bachmann chassis. It's a snug tight fit and the chassis is so light that I've used a bit of plumbers bathroom seal putty to hold the body in place (very similar to the sticky black stuff used to prevent light bleed). In fact I kind of struggled removing my RR body this evening when I was trying to remember how I wired in the roof destination box... and that was just a bit of putty on each front. The hard bit is the roof area if you want to keep Bachmanns internal lights. Some photos from earlier in my thread that haven't come back to life will hopefully better explain.... You need to get the roof off for access using this method. I'm not so sure the cross members really add much as the roof is pretty sturdy (and I couldn't save all the tabs so mine have both been superglued back on. But having the roof off makes improving the roof a much easier task Agree on Dapols chassis. Details aren't terrible but Bachmanns has way more finesse. I'm also expecting a high failure rate with Dapol units as the drive shafts have a really flimsy plastic end which is prone to slipping... especially if grease gets in. Its an easy fix (I've done 3 driveshafts now) but I can imagine alot of people won't bother. However Dapols slow speed running seems rather good! Thanks on the 118... im pleased with the 118 so far. Doing the 121 DTS wiring this evening has kind of given me inspiration to remove Bachmanns massively ugly couplings and use decoders instead. Main problem with the couplers is i find they're a pain to seperate... I much prefer something quick and easy. I hope all this helps! Cheers Will

I've been working out how to illuminate the 121 DTS using a 117 DMS circuit board (so no decoder option like that in the DMBS) I'm using a cheap 4 function decoder to hardwire in. First of there are alot of wires in the coupling that Bachmann uses!!! The circuit board has some helpfull lable hints as to what each one is.... and by tracing them along the circuit boards I reckon in the DMS circuit board they are ; So I've wired them as follows; Top of bottom board Bottom of bottom board As I only have a 4 function decoder I'm using the same function for interior lights as destination. Anyhow it's taken a while to understand why the interior/cab and destination didn't work...... Until I hotwired the common on the top ciircuit board; Amazingly my total bodge seems to work; The decoder just fits between the chassis and the interior so its all nice and hidden. So I know next to nothing about electrics and DCC so if I've done something daft please let me know! cheers for reading Will

I think I might have sorted my issue - please shout if I've done something daft! I've hotwired the top circuit board so that the common goes to all lights. Not sure wht the VCC option is? Then soldered up the bottom board as; So I think S5 is the destination blind, Ln- is the interior lights and S4 the cab lights. As I only hae a 4 function decoder I've chosen the destination blinds to be on at the same time as the interior lights. Seems to work! Please let me know if this wrong as if it works I'm tempted to get rid of the horrible coupling in the 117s cheers Will

Hi All I'm trying to understand Bachmanns circuit board in a 117 with the aim to use a funtion decoder for my 121 DTS project.... and while at it label each tab to understand why so many wires are needed for the coupling connectors. Labelling of them kind of makes sense and I've made a start; Above are the ones I'm confident in as I've managed to get the front and rear lights to illmuniate which felt like progress of sorts. I'm however struggling with the Interior/Destination/Cab lights and think things are complicated by the switches in the DMBS car not present in the DMS car. Hopefully the photo explains what I'm trying to do. It all does fit! Just haven't been able to get the interior lights working! Thanks for your help Will

Probably a bit late but t-cut worked fine for me

A good idea... could fit a proper base box into one of them to really annoy the neighbours

Exactly my thoughts. Going with an O gauge Deltic.

Rather than watch TV I've cracked on with reassembling the TCL (minus L) bits onto a DMS chassis. it isnt pretty! First up was chopping up the TCL chassis frame to provide a bearing pivot for the bogie in place where the motor should be. I wouldn't normally bother and make my own but it was easier and tbh I don't think I'd do anything with the TCL chassis frame. The chopped out section is then supported with plastikard so it's actually quite sturdy. Trusty filler then hides a few sins. As I've been researching the underframe I've noticed a few extra wires so added these with brass wire. I'm not so sure what goes on underneath though... as shots of this area are hard to find so I ended up copying the TCL for much of it. With a splash of Halfords Matt black I think it looks ok... I've some bogie steps to fit and then the general buffer beam detail kit but if there's anything else I've missed please shout!! Bogies have been converted to EM using my standard approach of using solid disc wheels to keep the electrical pick up. Ive retained some but not all of weights and seems to hold the track well. It'll look better weathered i think. I admit it's a lot of effort to go to have the steps line up with the doors...! (Well also the body will click on and I'm aiming to use the DMS circuit boards for DCC lights). I really hope I can paint match the body as otherwise the project is turning out how I hoped.

I'm quite pleased with my 118 project; I've painted the roof to get some texture and it'll next have a coat of weathered black to remove any shine. The prototype I've chosen trundled around St Erth/St Ives a bit and I noticed that it had different style headcode boxes (which confused me at first). So a bit of scrap brass has attempted to replicate the sealed look. There is a small seam on the join but i can live with that (excuse the rough painting.... it's a weathering trial - honest!) Letting the 118 dry I went on a destructive path..... removing all the bits from a 117 TCL and DMS chassis.... this shot is before I had a glass of wine and took the drastic option to cut out the TCL bogie mount to fit onto the DMS chassis; Proper hacking and I've used plenty of filler!! Now just have to remember where all the bits go! Also Sunday marked the end for a while of converting DMUs to EM using DCC concepts wheels using the original axles so as to not change the pickups. An easy but lengthy job. This does use up alot of solid discs but I'm planning on using the spare insulated double insulated wheels on wagons. One thing I've noticed with DCC concepts wheels is that the plastic bushes have improved on the latest 8 wheelset packs whereas the last of the 12 wheelset packs had quite a few wobblers! Still my go to wheel though for 10.5/12/14mm sizes

🤣 the 118 is bound to be announced..... my weekends work awaiting weathering

Thanks. I've been trawling through flickr and they do seem very similar. Hard to find good underframe shots but I'm going with they're the same. I've seen that the guards handrails are different... and not yet found the air vent on a 116 which looks the trickiest thing to sort. Cheers

They'll announce when I finish my attempt ;)

Hi Bruce Thats good to know! Thanks! I've just ordered some rainbow railways blue and also some precision early BR blue as i realised I have later BR Blue (i didn't know there was a difference! I just thought they started off blue and then faded LOLs). Will see which is best! If they fail or i can't mix up a combo to match I shall try Lifecolors attempt, cheers Will

Thanks! These bodies all came from their spares department which is why i felt a bit more confident in hacking them - they've been really helpful and sorted me out with quite a few bits (especially 101 stuff)! I've contacted them directly for my bits and pieces as they haven't catalogued everything yet so quite a few bits aren't yet listed. I'm also experimenting using a new Bachmann 158 motor/bogie in a 150 so as to be able to have an interior rather than a massive block.... again sourced from them. I admit to snapping a few speedo cables too.... now the first thing i do is to unhook them until the model is finished! (It seems a popular problem as I was only allowed to order one set per order as Bachmann need them!) As one of my project 117s is a 2 car so I have a spare centre car going which is going some way to the DTS. All this inspiration has come from finding a copy of Brian Goldings BR DMUs book - it's great for bodies but has less info on underframes so I'm sure I'll miss subtle differences. After doing the 122 I really like Dapol's effort and like their cab roof profile - which is handy as it can be seperated from the body. I have plans for a NSE 116 DMBS so have been trying to find differences between the 116 and 117....seems the only annoying difference is the 116 didn't get the air vent grille thing on refurb. Otherwise it looks straightforward chop a bit of roof off, remove a few front handrails and alter the guards handrails. Interestingly yesterday i just discovered kier hardy has done a 125 using Bachmann parts and a Dapol 122.... so the roof idea should work and the body can be used for the extra windows. It looks great and I do like the idea of a few cut and shut projects! I'm sure a 115 projected would be fun!

Hmmm what to do with a nice and shiny Bachmann DMU and a Dapol 122 bodyshell... 🤔 Hack it about a bit! I've just embarked on my 118 project which I'm hoping is going to be on the lighter end of projects.... We shall see. Anyhow I've been thinking about how to do the curved headcode box and a Dapol 121 is on standby incase this all goes wrong.....! As I happen to have a Dapol 122 body for another project not yet launched I thought I'd use sections of the roof to get the right curve and see if I can make a passable attempt... before and after; It's a faily complex shape and my attempt is certainly not perfect but hopefully will look ok under primer. As the 117 shell is a refurbished example it means I have limited choices of 118s to go at.... but the one I've found didn't have many vents left after refurb so out came the snippers. I really tried to pop the out the vents but Bachmann have used so excellent glue and i could shift them. A shame really. No doubt priming will show up faults so this'll will probably have some more filler. On that topic I've been using Humbrol filler and noticed it seems to have a tendency to melt Bachmanns plastic! I'm also trying to have a go at doing a 121 DTS from a DMS body. So far I've removed the gangway and engine filler cap thing... All primed in white and ready for paint.... but the ends needed more filler! If anyone has colour matched Bachmanns BR Blue I'll be very interested in knowing what you used! So far I've ruled out Precision P152 (post 85 blue dull) and the closest i have is railmatches version which isn't spot on. So may try some more colours before diving in..... I guess you can't have enough BR blue paint! Also in the photo is a Lima 101 which has had some excellent shawplan frames added - I'm going to use these on all of my 101s (including Bachmann versions) As my knowledge of DMUs is fairly light but is growing please shout if there is anything obviously wrong! Cheers Will

This is brilliant - thanks for sharing! Will

I like the sound of your MK2 project!

Just in case anyones interested.... here's a link to the nearly finished waiting room.

Earlier in the thread I started hacking a pair of Dapol 122s to fit onto a Bachmann 121 chassis which perhaps sounds a bit mad seeing as the Dapol offering isn't that bad. However it looks a pig to convert to EM (or P4), the chassis is less refined and nearly every one I had needed repairing. As I've also gone for Bachmann's 117s and 121s it's quite nice keeping a standard chassis for the lot.... (and I may be having a go at doing some 116 DMBS and possibly a 118 all based off the Bachmann 117.... just need to sort out what the differences needed are to be modelled!) Anyhow first off the workbench is W55002 Personally I think Dapol has captured the fronts really well which has the centre window being slightly bigger than the other two; As i probably mentioned earlier on (haven't bothered to check) the roof needed a bit of rework involving reducing the ribs(welds) and adding new ventilators which I think improves the appearance. I also thinned the front windows and did homemade laserglaze which I think improves the face of the model no end! Also replaced were the windscreen wipers. I'm quite pleased with the destination blinds - they're a printed destination sandwiched between two bits of clear plastic and then illuminated behind by modifying the circuit board as demontrated in the next two shots Being an idiot I broke one of the exhausts but thankfully these are available as spares. The tops have been opened out to suggest its a tube. Weathering is suitable but hasn't come out that well in my dodgy camerphone shots. I think I'll dig out my bridge camera and try and capture some better ones. 122100 is at the glazing stage and I'm being lazy in hoping some proper laserglaze will come along.... but I'll probably end up having a go soon. Will