M51625

+1 for the connoisseur kit. Have just built his J39 kit, good quality etches, good castings and surplus of the smaller ones 'just in case' instructions are well laid out with text and exploded diagrams, i found the fit of the parts to be excellent. As Jim says you can always add detail as he describes his kits as basic and i would deem them ideal for beginners, i did, my first etched kit was his BR standard brake van back in 1996. If you can, go to a show and have a chat with Jim from connoissuer, very approachable and will help you out with lots of advise and suggestions and no doubt have kit open to show you whats in the box. No connection with connoisseur just a regular customer and considering a 4F or a G5 next, now have a bogie bolster C from his range to tackle, hope it rains this weekend. cheers.

nothing wrong with antex, my 25w iron is my weapon of choice for most things, including many 7mm kits, it is like triggers broom though, 2 elements and numerous tips replaced in 22 years. I do have a generic (halfords?) 60w heavy duty iron for big jobs but it rarely gets used as the antex is usually upto the job. Certainly sufficient for connoissuer models kits..some are still holding together after 20 years. Not expensive either. Hope that helps.

i'd certainly be interested in some feedback on the CRT bulleid coaches, i'm planning a 6 coach bournemouth set after the current workbench is cleared.

week 5. Bogies continued, most of the whitemetal castings sorted, some needed quite a clean up. Not a fan of the 3d printed dampers, very delicate. Brake rigging next, instructions a little hit and miss, so if anyone has a couple of decent side on photos of this type of bogie please share them, particularly interested in any handbrake linkage.. As you can see i have fitted Delrin cogs, initially planned to use a timing chain, but the drive wheels are too big, so will save that for another day, with the sand boxes fitted there is very little room for the bogies to move. Test run next week.

There are plans to have a preserved DMU set in mixed colours in the next few years... Just need to order a few tins of blue paint and convince the management!

week 4 Unfortunately real work keeps getting in the way, anyway i now have a rolling loco.. Couple of issues now arise: 1 the centre bolster that holds the fuel tanks is too long and needs cutting down to allow the bogies to fit, this item has had 2 issues, and the clearance for the motor isnt great, might have to start cutting 2. ride height, when compared to a random selection of my stock it seems to be on the high side by approx 1.5mm, no big deal, just needs lowering, but the problem is that the bogie sides are already resting on the bolster and comapred to the photos on the instruction CD we should have a gap, not sure what to do here Will ponder while i switch attention to a 12" to the 1' project for a couple of weeks. G.

week 3 Not had much time this week, but managed to complete the brass work on the bogie sides and the outer ends of the bogies, instructions pretty good in this area. Hoping to get the bogies assembled in the next week, then on to the detailing. Elsewhere the cab is built, considering how to fix it to the running plate, it needs to be removable but the kit makes no allowance for that.

steam heat was only a through pipe, ETH was a modification which rendered them non powered (traction) and had to be dragged around. Well thats my understanding, why they had 4 air pipes on the buffer beam i'm not sure..

week 2: Buffer beams details all completed, quite a busy buffer beam for what i understand to be a vac braked, no heat loco! All good but will be a difficult paint job. Before i make a start on the bogies i have cut the cab etches from the fret and have a couple of issues, the cab front and rear have 1/2 etched area for window frames to be fitted and a 1/2 etched line and slots for the body to fit, however the window recesses appear to be on the inside. and then looking at the cab sides/roof all in one etch it has some strange half etch arrangement to enable the curve, this seems to show through to the outside and will clearly need attention before paint.

i believe so, although looking at some of the catings it may have been to expiry of the moulds..

i'm not steve... I do build for other people, but at the moment i'm building for myself and have quite a queue in the cupboard as a result of working for others.. Cheers Gareth

After hearing that Steve was retiring this kit I jumped at the opportunity to get the last one at a greatly reduced price from a well-known auction site. This is described as a 3rd generation kit, a friend built a 2nd generation one about 10 years ago, it wasn’t easy but was described to me as a good challenge, I’m a kit builder, so before anyone asks why I’m not buying one from the little loco company that’s the reason, my hobby is building, I don’t as yet have anywhere to run, that’s another project one day! So what do you get in the box, a packet of resin castings, all looks to be cab interior related, a packet of nuts/bolts and sprung buffers, a pack of brass castings, a large amount of whitemetal castings, and nicely wrapped etches, the body comes in 3 pieces and is already folded. Also a bag with the cast body ends (I have concerns about the quality of these), a bag of 3D printed small items (a first for me), and a CD. The CD contains 2 instruction manuals, (body and bogies) along with about 20 photos of the real thing. Ignoring the process in the instructions I started with the running plate, no problems here all fitted together well, then the fuel tank, slight issue, its mounted to a bolster that is designed to be screwed to the brass but the screw holes don’t line up, no real problem just use epoxy instead. I’ve added extra details around the fuel tanks, fillers and drain valves come in the kit but I’ve added the brass taps and also some electrical conduit that runs to the brass battery boxes in front of the tanks. All sorted and fitted, the bolster may need cutting back as it may affect the bogie clearance will find out in due course. Next buffer beam detailing, in the kit there is no mention of what goes where, it’s a generic ‘now fit the castings’ of which there are too many so you need external reference material for this, indeed the CD does not contain any end on photos. The air pipe(s), vac pipe(s), and multi working castings, I’ve decided not to use they are not great and an order to MMP has been placed, a screw coupling has also been ordered from that supplier. The steam heat bag has been used, it’s the best of them, buffers, not a problem, the holes in the buffer beam did not need opening out. With all the running plate planned my thoughts turn to the bogies, its recommended by the instructions that Roxey wheels are used, they would be my preference so happy about that, it also suggests Mashima motors and Markits gearboxes, so will have to see what is available, I think I’m only going to put one motor in anyway. one slight problem, the bogie bolsters are located in half etched lines, but the front bogie are etched through and will need filling from above, the other bogi is half etched but will also be covered by the cab, looks like the designer got a little mixed up. The won't be a fast 'jazz' build but hope to be complete for Easter. Cheers

and several other people/companies it seems, had dealings with this railway when i arranged to collect a DMU many years ago, it was a farce! and it seems hasn't changed at all. Buxton seems so far away...

looking forward to seeing how this works out. I have a DMU kit on my desk myself to start in the new year, concerned that the body profile doesn't represent the 117/118 actual shape of these easybuild kits, the top half of the bodyside is flat not curved on the real things..

It is very difficult to model a type of coach throughout its life and get all the era appropriate fittings and alterations correct through the time period especially when so many were built by so many works, but.. The list of issues is significant it seems, i applaud Mr Parkins for taking the time to inform what i see is potentially a rival supplier to himself, where they are going wrong, having built an MMP Mk1 kit and worked on restoring a number of real MK1 coaches i do agree that they are very very good representations of the actual thing and are hard to beat, but if you need a rake of 12 to run at speed around a garden or attic then while MMP coaches would look superb, in the modern world who has time to build them all, i would love to add to my rake of 1 vehicle, and in due course i will, but at my built rate it will take a decade to achieve decent length rake. I guess there is a market for these coaches, and gives us modellers plenty of choice across a varied price range. It would seem that another manufacturer has tried and is about to fail on Mk1 coaches, but does seem to be listening, i guess it depends how far down the production line things are, that said i would be interested to know what research they did, first thing i did was get a copy of the Parkin book, very useful indeed. Would be interested to see what a rake of Mk1 coaches would look like if we had one from each of the current suppliers (RTR & kits) all painted in the same livery.. Gareth

I hope you took up the option of a cast backhead and the cast slidebars and crosshead? I built the V3 a couple of years ago and was really disappointed with some of the kit, especially the motion. Does this kit have the trailing axle in a tube method as per the V3? not the best idea. I'm part way through a K4 from this stable, tender went together great, loco chassis in progress.

still at grip 3 (Network rail terms) no single option identified, over 8 in recent months. Will be years before anything gets built, but a blockade of 9 days was one option, amongst many.. Gareth happily no longer involved in that scheme..

Thanks guys I appreciate you replies. Gareth

The j94 is looking good, not far behind you with my own attempt but from a NMRS kit, generally been a struggle but getting there. Anyway is that a small crest, and which size numbers did you use, just about to order from fox so any help appreciated? Waiting for warmer weather before painting though due to the location of the paint shop! Thanks. Gareth

It wasn't because of the lack of gear changing equipment, it was because the driver (in the 127) drove the unit as normal (for a hydraulic unit), and forgot about the poor old mechanical set at the back and as a result of being dragged around in 4th gear constantly, the gearboxes overheated and in some cases caused fires. 127s have all the wiring and controls to change gear, this can be used in multiple (i've done it), what you can't prevent it the driver doing it wrong and simply forgetting. 127s are wired as a blue square units as per all other blue square units, they became red triangle to act as a reminder to drivers of the different drive train set up. The 127s don't have engine rpm gauges in the cab so judging when to change gear was done on the speedo, which in some 127s was coloured in segments to aid this.

Dmu green bs 381c 224 deep bronze green. That's the later one. I painted the class 127 dmu at the midland railway in this colour. Bs381c 226 Middle Brunswick green. This is the lighter green as used before the darker, the 114 dmu at butterley is painted this colour.

hi, i think the kit you mention is one of the ealry ones DJH did, i recall that the standard 2 kit has issues, but later production runs of those have been amended and upgraded to remove these issues, not sure about the fairburn. I'm working on a DJH v2 at present, excellent castings, all clearly labelled and packaged, well laid out etches and very good exploded view diagrams for the instructions. Good luck, DJH are not cheap but i think you get what you pay for, the manufacturer is happy to help and will replace odd castings if damaged etc. Regards Gareth

Hi Jazz, Looking very good, still have my DJH twin tender scotsman kit in the cupboard, i'll get around to it one day. As you say its heavy so it won't need any extra weight. Do you fit pickups to just the loco driving wheels? Good luck with it.

Is all this beam compensation and pivot points in the brake gear all a little excessive and over complicating matters? Plus it all prevents plunger pickups being fitted something which is pretty widely used in the hobby, do the instructions suggest how current collection is achieved? It may be a new kit on the market but is the designer trying to prove something, the brake gear on the real thing doesnt pivot, so why make it so on a model? Agreed about the side play, we need some float on those middle axles to get round the corner, this seems to restrict this, it will be interesting to discover just what radius this chassis will be happy with when completed. I was considering going for this kit but i'll wait a while until you finish and make a judgement, as this is from the Scorpio models stable (kind of) what are the castings like up to the usual scorpio standard? cheers

Jazz, You've made a very good job of what i knew was a difficult kit, and i have memories of john Berry stating just as is mentioned above, taking the line its the builder and not the kit thats at fault was the wrong attitude, certainly didnt make for a long living brand of kits... I too am very interested in what you are to be building next, i'm still fighting with an Ace products V1, and cant wait to move on to something 'better' but i'm undecided as to what so this could be interesting. Keep them coming along, do you actually have a favourite manufacturer of kits, not because of the prototypes available but because of the kit design, instructions, quality of castings, aftersales sevice etc?