learningtobelost

My 1:87 scale E1 has progressed and is nearly complete. A little bit of tweaking to the weathering is needed, as is the final fitting of couplings and vacuum pipes. The cab roof has not been glued down yet so as to facilitate access to the cab when fitting a crew (once I’ve sourced the figures). She’s not 100% accurate, but is close enough to my eyes. Next on the list is a Q Class 0-6-0, bashed from an old Lima 4F.

In the June 06 issue of the British 1:87 Society newsletter (Issue 46) Tim Stevens details how he bashed a OO Hornby Terrier into its larger brother the E1. The article was very much up my street, being a southern modeler through and through and having a couple of Hornby terriers lying about. Tim?????s conversion was a little on the basic side for my tastes and after studying photos and drawings for a while I was able to come up with some simple modifications to improve the conversion. The E1 was essentially a big terrier. This helps us enormously as the wheelbase and basic dimensions of the tanks etc of the terrier are pretty close for a 1:87 scale E1. The major differences are boiler diameter, cab height and length, buffer beams and chimney. There?????s not much I can do about the boiler without resorting to a massive scratch build job, so I was ok leaving it a tiny bit over scale. The cab, buffer beams, front splashers and chimney were all pretty simple to put right though. The chimney can simply be cut in two and shortened to the correct length. The cab needs around 3mm removed from the bottom and re-fitting to bring it down to scale height. The rear of the cab is too short in length and height, and the coal rails are of a different pattern. I made a replacement rear to the cab out of plasticard, re-using the terrier toolbox which is the correct height for the larger E1 box in 1:87. New bufferbeams were constructed from plasticard as the ???over the top????? terrier type is incorrect for the E1 (and the buffers would be at the wrong height for 1:87. New splasher fronts were created from plasticard to approximate the type used on the E1. These are not perfect as the boiler is slightly over scale, so compromise has to be made somewhere. The numberplate and works plate were removed from teh smokebox door as I cant see any evidence that the class ever recieved either. The loco is seen below in its first coat of primer, with much filling and fettling left to do. The cab front and roof is currently not glued down to allow access for painting and adding crew etc. Looks like Ill need to remove the original Hornby printing though, I was hoping that I'd get away with it these days with modern printing and all, any suggestions for removing Hornby lining? I?????m fairly happy with the conversion, scale wise its pretty close and it certainly looks like an E1 to me. I?????m looking forward to getting the thing finished, I?????m thinking early ???British Railways????? lettering as # 32151.

First a little background. I??™ve been dabbling in several of the major scales for the past 15 or so years, though nothing has ever really stuck. I built a couple of n gauge layouts but was never satisfied with the appearance of the trackwork and the nightmare of couplings (never found a system that I got on with). I??™ve done a fair amount in 4mm too, but the plentiful RTR scene has left me a little bored. I made the decision to make a change to something with less proprietary support, initially being very much drawn to 3mm scale. The 3mm society has some excellent products available and quite frankly it??™s a great time to be going down that route. It was a couple of weeks ago that I randomly came across Lorenzo Ricotti??™s website, on which he has written some great articles on kitbashing continental 1:87 stock into British outline models. I was instantly hooked. I was taken back to the good old days of hacking apart lima OO models to correct their character/errors. A bit more googling turned up the British HO Societies yahoo group, in which they have posted the vast majority of their newsletter back issues for anyone that is a member to download. So armed with a little (dangerous) knowledge and 10 years of newsletters (with some excellent articles I might add) I made the decision to struggle against the current of convention and have a bash at British Outline 1:87!