blackout60800 wrote:I'd agree the P1 has to be the best, but they are all great
EDIT: When will this page end?
More than likely with your post, given you get 15 posts per page.
My votes for Graeme's projects for the 100th page would have to be the K4, O4/8 and A2/3, for no other reason than they've inspired me to do exactly the same models myself. Currently I have a pair of A2/3s on the workbench for a well-regarded customer, more of which anon once I eventually set a workbench up....
As Tim's post was at last enough to tip the scales, then I must bid everyone
Welcome to Page 100
and express my thanks to many for the recent stream of kind remarks. Give me a little while to sort things out, and I'll post up some pictures of recent refinement of the A1/1 prototype.
Maybe somebody can supply an answer to a question too. The Hornby A3 cylinders are so completely hollow that it appears to me almost certain that at least one set of end covers must have been moulded separately and glued in place - it may in fact be a case of both ends being separate from the wrapper. Now has anybody succeeded in pulling off one or other end cover, undamaged? If it is possible to do this, the option of resin moulding a complete set of A1/1 ready-adapted cylinders (albeit in glue-together peces like the A3 originals), and preserving the easy plug-in fit of the slidebars, piston rods and valve rods, becomes much more real.
Last edited by Atlantic 3279 on Sat Dec 03, 2011 1:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Most subjects, models and techniques covered in this thread are now listed in various categories on page1
Dec. 2018: Almost all images that disappeared from my own thread following loss of free remote hosting are now restored.
Here's the master for the replacement smokebox, off the loco. I've incorporated the greatest length of plug-in piece that still avoids having to remove or relocate the DCC socket, although the block of metal that sits ahead of that on the chassis has to go (unless you cut a chunk out of the base of this smokebox behind the saddle). The length of the plug, and its tight fit within the cut Hornby boiler, should make it easy to obtain a straight extended smokebox.
In primer, smokebox back on loco along with deflectors - rears of these now built up to a thickness to provisionally suit casting in resin, again with tapered "visually thin" edges, rivetting still to be added. Of course, anybody who wants GN as first equipped with the deflectors can clean all of the rivets of again as flush rivetting appears to have been employed at first. I've also completed the cylinder mods by adding a cap and tail-rod cover to the front of the valve chest. Mr Clumsy was around today too, breaking the original ejector pipe into so many pieces that it wasn't in my view practical to mend it, hence the new one in plastc rod. On a future loco I would cut the ejector pipe back to one of its fixing points on the green part of the boiler at an early stage, leaving nothing loose to snag/twang/snap, and reinstate the front section only (longer) in plastic rod towards the end of the work. A thick resin smoke deflector has hidden advantages in respect of the ejector pipe - it makes it impossible to see the elbow at the front of the pipe (so no need to model that), and a groove on the rear of the deflector keeps the front of the pipe at the right height, nice and tight against the smokebox side.
Most subjects, models and techniques covered in this thread are now listed in various categories on page1
Dec. 2018: Almost all images that disappeared from my own thread following loss of free remote hosting are now restored.
Before I pull it apart to make moulds from the masters, have I missed anything serious that will be awkward to add later? I know that as yet there are no lamp irons, no vac pipe, no coupling, two redundant knobs on the smokebox front, no oilpipes on the smokebox sides, no rivet heads on the smoke-deflectors, no oil-boxes on the "plain" side of the running plate, no speedo of either kind, no reversing rod, and no operating rod for the sanders. John Houlden has kindly just reminded me that the boiler handrails are not at quite the right height, but in order to lower them by the little that is necessary I have to risk leaving visible scars in the green paint above the new handrail position, so I'm planning to leave in that "defect" in the model's dimensions.
Most subjects, models and techniques covered in this thread are now listed in various categories on page1
Dec. 2018: Almost all images that disappeared from my own thread following loss of free remote hosting are now restored.
You're dead right about the ejector pipe, although the pale colour at present makes it look even larger in the pictures. The piece of plastic rod that I had available is a bit oval, and because it was easiest to drill holes through it and fit stubs of mounting wire while it was "lying down", in the pictures you are seeing the flat face of the oval. I need to either replace it, or run a scraper along top and bottom edges a couple of times before restoring the roundness with a quick rub-down.
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Dec. 2018: Almost all images that disappeared from my own thread following loss of free remote hosting are now restored.
Tell you what Graeme, you deserve a medal for bringing the Thompson Pacifics to the masses. Astounding modelling and the end result is markedly better than any of the kits.
I think on the cylinder issue, I do recall having prised out the centre of a Gresley cylinder many moons ago - it's a tight fit as opposed glued in, and normally has some lubricant in it applied by the factory for the valve gear.
Was that the super-detail cylinders or the older, more basic type? I suspect they are quite different. I remember older Hornby A3 cylinders being a more solid moulding, with a separate plug-in rear. The s/d ones to me really do appear to be full of nothing but air - I was surprised that the slidebars and rods still seemed a fairly secure fit with nothing but the shape of the holes in the thin rear cover to guide and hold them.
Most subjects, models and techniques covered in this thread are now listed in various categories on page1
Dec. 2018: Almost all images that disappeared from my own thread following loss of free remote hosting are now restored.
I am a returnee to this site, registered ages ago and then got side tracked with other life events, whilst I did keep modelling I managed to forget all about this one
I am going to make a start on my own W1 using the Dean Siding kit as a starter, but will be heaverlly detailing it as I think its lacks, and chucking the tender completely as I have a spare china hornby one, and putting it on to the latest A4 chassis
I must say that this thread has given me many many hours of enjoyable reading, you are a very talented modeller and deserve the award you where given mentioned many pages back
As a side line, my brother is embarking on a P2 with the A4 nose, he has most of the donor parts needed, but needs a boiler barrel, what would you recommend for this please?
I also see many names on here from another forum I use, MRF, so hello to you all, I go by the name of 'Mercator II' over there now
Also I see you are a regular up at Pete's shop in Caistor, does that mean you also live in Lincolnshire? I do and work for my sins at Skeg Vegas!!! but used to work up at Barton which is how I know Pete, I was also a semi regular at the Caistor club until I moved
I look forward to reading your many adventures in conversion's
All the best
Brian
oOo
Brian
Garage Hobbit!!
Modelling in 00 on my heritage line, very GCR inspired
Hi bro sewell, and a welcome return to the forums. I have no scratchbuilding experience myself, but I would recommend a 90's hornby A3 boiler for the boiler barrel. I'm sure someone can go into more depth with this matter though
