Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[CVR1865]

I am amassing stock for a flying Scotsman set so I would be interested to see some pics...

[Atlantic 3279]

Okay, Ill organise some pictures shortly Gents.

[Atlantic 3279]

Triplet images now posted in "Classifieds" section.

[Atlantic 3279]

Owing to pressure of time the restaurant triplet is now listed on eBay, please make any offers via the eBay bid system.

[Atlantic 3279]

After discovering the easy way to take out the handrail knobs, as mentioned under another heading within the Model Railways section, I decided to do some more finishing off on my Bachmann A4 improvement scheme. It appeared previously on here having had its tender completely rebuilt to non-corridor streamlined shape and size, a Hornby Cartazzi unit fitted, and its dome cover more neatly recessed into the boiler moulding.
I have now fitted slimmer handrail and knobs. Patient and tedious work with a OOO brush has reshaped the lower part of the "nose" of the parabolic lining curves, and though my results aren't a a patch on the work of Goddard, Rathbone etc I think I've almost matched the style of the original Bachmann lining. Hiding it in some wethering may help further. I have also had the buffer heads out, turned off the silly collars that were wider than the sockets, and added a packing ring to extend the rams to a more reasonable length. Kean Maygib streamlined Spencer buffers would be nicer still, but I don't have any at present. For good measure in the buffer area, I painted the sockets and some of the adjoining bodywork in Garter Blue, Bachmann having left too much of this area black. As I felt the backings to the nameplates were too thick I've had those off and slimmed them down too.

[Atlantic 3279]

The loco still deserves some better bogie wheels plus toned-down rods and valve gear, but with the previously added screw coupling and vacuum pipe I'm much happier with the appearance now. It no longer need rush to hide in shame when a Hornby A4 appears.....

Front end as was:

Front end with finer handrails, altered lining, altered buffers and more blue paintwork adjoining those:

The satin varnish protecting and toning down the lining wasn't quite dry here:

The overall look so far:

The idea of using transfers for the parabolic lining curves (not that I had any) struck me as a non-starter by the way. That's why I avoided doing anything to require repainting in this area on my W1 and 4-8-2 projects. Even with the total flexibility of free-hand work, it was a nightmare trying to get a curve of the desired shape in side elevation, on a curved surface that wasn't necessarily the right shape, and looking like a smooth curve from all directions rather than a random doodle!
I'm sure that trying to fight a transfer into precisely the right shape would have been a nightmare. I do however admit to having not created the curve entirely from scratch using just the paintbrush. I began by sticking masking tape over the area, using a pencil to sketch in the desired curve and adjust it until it seemed right. I then peeled off the tape, stuck it on some paper to stiffen it slightly, cut the curve with a knife and then re-applied the paper to the model as a template around which I began to very faintly paint in the first colour of the lining curve. The paint job was then built up in stages after removing the template.

[Atlantic 3279]

The previously featured Hornby F10 fridges vans aren't yet finished but now have all of the intended underframe modifications done, solebars and headstocks in the right colours, and the new home made ladders and roof grab-rails chemically blackened and lacquered. Transfers, touching in of paint details and weathering will follow eventually:

Jonathon Weallans' tip regarding these buffers has given me pleasing results. Nice castings, and the Lima Toad D now has buffers of the right length, in the right places! Mine came via Parkside Dundas, although Nairnshire Modelling Supplies was the originally tipped source from JW and perhaps their website lists these a little more helpfully and attractively that Parkside's does?

Exactly the same buffers solved my problem of needing correct-looking buffers for my GC 6 wheeled brake too. With the curved sides of the base squared off, and the ribs trimmed back to small triangular webs, these buffers appear to me to exactly match the appearance of the buffer most commonly featured in Tatlow's photos of the GC 6 wheeled brake vans:

The model now looks like this, roof still loose until painting is more nearly complete:

[jwealleans]

Now that looks lovely. A real silk purse job. Has the sleeve on your chimney levitated slightly?

While I remember, I found an excellent picture of an array of north eastern brake vans taken at Banbury (I think) during the war. It's the frontispiece picture of the third volume of Geoff Kent's wagon books. I knew I had it somewhere but hadn't found it when I was reading up the Toad - that's what you get for diving straight into a book instead of starting at the beginning.

[Atlantic 3279]

My impression from a suitable picture was that the sleeve on the chimney (some sort of rain deflector?) should stand clear of the flat plate on the roof through which the chimney passes. I wondered if it was a cunning arrangement to get rain to drip and run away from the inevitable slight gap around the stovepipe/plate/roof joint.

[CVR1865]

Hi,
Great work on the A4, I agree that what you have done will not be totally affected by the new Chassis as they won't have put right the front end. i was looking at my Hornby A4 and it struck me is the Bachmann boiler too long. I don't have one to hand to measure but I wondered. I'll measure Mallard tonight and then post here if you fancy a comparison

[S.A.C. Martin]

If I may go a little off topic to postulate a build...

If you take a V2 body, and replace the smokebox with a Thompson style one, and fit a new running plate up to the edge of the boiler from the front end, you can in theory (as far as my thoughts have gone) make a scale A2/1 body. The question is - how would you power it?

You have the wheelbase under the new Bachmann A2, but not the correct position nor type of cylinders, or connecting rods. You can move the front bogie forward to match the wheelbase of the A2/1.

Crazy kitbash? Pure flight of fantasy? Waste of time? Possibly all of the above. Just wanted to hear your thoughts Graeme.

[Atlantic 3279]

Thoughts:
The Bachmann V2 body would still have a boiler with the wrong taper, even for an A2/1 which should have a parallel front section, 6 foot diameter over the clothing, and a coned section carrying the steam collector, not a long continous taper from firebox shoulder to the over-fat smokebox as moulded by Bachmann.
The A2 chassis gives the correct coupled wheelbase, and could come either from the RTR Bachmann A2 or the Finecast A2 chassis etch.
The style of motion bracket on the V2 is correct for the A2/1 also but Bachmann represent it adrift from the slidebars on the V2, which is wrong. It is more correctly portrayed bracing the ends of the slidebars on their K3.
The con rods, and probably the eccentric rods and radius rods would need shortening by cutting/splicing, or you would need new ones. B1 or A2 style cylinders are also called for, again either as replacements (from a B1 or A2) or produced by building up the tops and restyling the valve-cylinder ends on V2/K3 style cylinders, for example.
All in all I think you would be lucky to get the right combination of parts without wasting other parts of the donor models, and would still have the challenge of making them fit together successfully in a final model still compromised by the boiler shape. It doesn't strike me as project of choice unless you happen to have the parts lying around, or available for very little cost, and, as you suggest, you simply want to take on a strange job and perhaps prove a point.

Whilst it would be no picnic either, I think there is more chance of producing a successful model of an A2/3 or suitably chosen A2/2 from a combination of Bachmann A2 (and/or A1) and some alternative valve gear parts, maybe with a spare A3 or A4 cab thrown in. Even then, I think you would have to share my strange views in order to consider this to be a realistic or attractive alternative to say a DJH or PDK style kit. I looked into doing this for a friend who has most of the right spare A1 parts, but he didn't believe that I could make it work out as he wanted it, so I dropped the plan and got on (fairly thankfully) with some of the many other modelling jobs that I want to do.

[Tom F]

Apologies I've been a stranger to your thread for sometime Graeme

Great to see what you have been doing....have to say, best looking Bachmann A4 I've seen, not bad at all now, and something for
myself to think about

Tom

[S.A.C. Martin]

Fair enough Graeme, I thought it was pie in the sky! Guess I'll get a comet chassis to put under that spare V2 body instead...!

(Or a new Bachmann one, should it be offered separately...!)

[Atlantic 3279]

The strange thing about my "doubting Thomas" friend, was that whilst I have already successfully produced an A2 from and A1 for him, a W1 from an A4, and he has seen all of my other conversions, he still thought that the A2/2 or A2/3 could not be done. Never mind though, it saved me some work.