James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

[73082gibbers]

That coach looks fantastic James! Looking forward to seeing the completed article!

Nathan...

[James Harrison]

Thank you; I have four of them finished now (and a fifth in gloss yellow waiting to be teaked).

None of them have been given transfers yet though; which reminds me I must get around to ordering yet *another* sheet of HMRS loco/ coach lettering...

[James Harrison]

Not only do I now have five ex-GC clerestories finished, but a rake of four ex-GC mainline carriages too! Sadly no photos as yet though, as the camera batteries died...

The current project is a re-working of my Great Central-liveried 11B/ D9. As this is essentially a repainting and relining job I'll be saving photographs until the model is finished.

I've also put together my 2015 Build Programme.

-LNER class C5 "King Edward VII" as she appeared between April and September 1924 (GCR livery, LNER number). A McGowan Models kit that I acquired half-built in plain back, it needs a tender and a chassis.

-Two B4 'Immingham' class. One in 1922 lined Great Central black, the other in 1923 lined LNER green. Both of these are McGowan Models kits, one fully built and painted into a rough approximation of 1906 GC green, the other half-built anf again lacking tender and chassis in plain black.

-LNER class B2 "City of Lincoln" as she appeared between August 1922 and February 1924 (GC condition). A K's kit that I bought already built, but in need of some TLC.

-LNER class B8 "Sutton Nelthorpe". A hackbash built by somebody else which I am planning to re-chassis and rebuild.

-LNER class D11 "Jutland" in 1924 condition (GC livery, LNER number). The GBL Bachmann knock-off that I plan to detail and motorise.

-LNER class J10. A DJH kit that I bought already built, it needs some mechanical attention and an appropriate tender (it arrived at 'the works' with a North Eastern type tender instead of the Pollitt one it should have).

-LNER class C13. A scratchbuild by somebody else that requires mechanical attention and repainting into LNER black. 4

-LNER class J58. A hackbash from a Triang shunter from the 1960s.

-GCR 1911 mainline stock. Open third and Restaurant composite to be hackbashed from the Mainline/ Bachmann LMS Period 1 stock, a rake of two brake thirds, a composite and a compartment third to be old OO Graham Farish stock suitably detailed and repainted.

-GCR 1910 Barnum saloons. Etched brass kits.

-GCR 1903 suburban stock. Suitably amended Ratio Midland suburbans.

I'm also receiving a copy of Peter Tatlow's 'LNER Wagons Volume 1' for Christmas, so it is likely a few GC wagons will be appearing.

[73082gibbers]

Looks like you've got a busy year ahead James! Looking forward to seeing what comes out of them in the end! Is there any way to make a catering vehicle from one of them LMS coaches at all that'd look LNERish? I feel a bit ambitious for doing something similar to what you're doing next year...

nathan...

[James Harrison]

There is indeed; the way I'm planning to do it is to use a Bachmann LMS period I carriage with the beading removed. There's a drawing of either a 1911 or 1916 restaurant composite in George Dow's 'Great Central' trilogy, volume 3.

You'd need to do a heck of a lot of hacking out of windows and rebuilding in styrene sheet- that's partly the reason why I left this carriage until next year- but with a bit of work it'd look quite convicing.

[James Harrison]

These last few weeks I have been quietly working on rebuilding my Great Central 11B. The original model was 'good' but I was convinced I could do 'better'.

What finally convinced me to do it was two things. Firstly I found Narrow Planet will custom etch GCR numberplates, and secondly in the E M Johnstone GCR loco volumes there is a photograph of the real no.1042 as she appeared in 'late GCR days' (post 1920) and there are a couple of differences:

1. Ross pop valves instead of the more stately Robinson covered type;

2. A tender with four coal rails;

3. No lining to the driving wheels.

The first thing I did to my model was to remove the thick boiler bands and the safety valves, then I gave it a good rubbing down and put it into primer. Then I rubbed it down again. (One of the things that was annoying on the original was the lumpy texture to the boiler).

Then followed what I think I shall call 'the quest for a better Brunswick green'.

The original finish was simply a coat or two of Humbrol acrylic brunswick, and it looked pretty mediocre and mean. I wanted to try to get closer to the finish on my Bachmann 'Butler Henderson'.

I started with two coats of Humbrol enamel gloss brunswick. Then I rubbed the model down and gave it another coat, and then another on top of that which I rubbed over with a cloth even as I was applying it. A coat of matt acrylic brunswick green followed, and when this had dried I- yup, you guessed it- rubbed it down again. Then another coat of acrylic matt brunswick was applied, again much of it was removed with a cloth even as it was being applied.

The overall effect is to get a nice sheen to the paintwork. I then painted the frames in a satin mid-brown and the smaokebox and running plate in a matt black.

This then is the state of play at present....







As you can see, I've started the lining out with the brass beading to the splashers. I think this is a massive improvement on what it was before- the big challenge of course is the lining out and I think this time I'll limit the paint pens to the cabsides and splashers, with transfers for the tender and my usual white paper and black ballpoint pen for the boiler bands.

[James Harrison]

After a few hours' work on the model this weekend I've managed to add coal rails to the tender (scratchbuilt from lengths of plastic rod, plastic sheet and paper), the boiler bands and the outside lining to the tender panels.

These photographs I've tried to get roughly the same angle as I did the previous three...







The boiler bands are my usual method; a thin strip of paper with the black band lined in in ballpoint pen. I've been asked before why I don't use waterslide transfers for these and my answer is twofold; firstly the boilerband has a thickness to it that although very slight is still noticeable, which the lining transfer lacks, secondly the paper is that bit more durable and pliable and hence less likely to tear whilst being pushed around and pulled hither and thither whilst getting it into position and properly aligned.

With the tender lining I went for HMRS pressfix transfers; however I quickly discovered that the LNER red lining lacked the power to show up against the dark green background. I then decided to try the black edging first; using the LNER loco lining sheet there are some balck lines that have a white line to one side only and I thought that an ideal use of these on a pre-grouping loco would be to use them as they are, the white line then providing a good locating key for the red line.

Wrong! The white line is ever so slightly thicker, and then the red line kept bunching up as I tried to coax it onto the black/white one, then bits of it tore....

After an hour of patiently pushing the transfer around, wetting it, drying it, trying to coax it around some more, I finally lost patience. I removed the transfers, masked off a couple of lines along the tender length, and painted in the black with acrylic paint. The masking tape was then removed and the verticals painted in, then I switched to a dark red and painted in the red lines in the same fashion. When all had dried I went back to the green paint and very carefully painted over about half of the thickness of the red line (this naturally requires a very steady hand and, needless to say, a very fine brush).

I think the result works pretty well. For the tender inner lining I intend to use HMRS transfers again as it's so much easier- a white-black-white line- and requires radiussed corners.

As a final photograph I posed my 11B against the 'Great British Locomotives' Butler Henderson. The whole point of rebuilding my loco was to get a better representation of the Great Central's passenger livery- and it is turning out pretty well, I hope you'll agree?



This is likely to be the last chance I get to do some meaningful building before the holidays- I hope everyone has a great Christmas. Here's to 2015!

[James Harrison]

So, after a break for Christmas and the New Year, I've pretty much finished GCR #1042, with the exception of the brass beading to the spectacle plate and the numberplates, which are on order.





The lining is much finer this time around and the paint finish much closer to what I wanted. I'm happy to chalk this one up as a success.

[James Harrison]

Onto the 2015 build programme then....

First up is a GCR 1911 open third, as illustrated in Volume III of Great Central.

Having copied the drawing up to 4mm scale I removed the glazing and window mullions from the donor vehicle (a Mainline LMS composite) and then copied up the new window layout onto a sheet of 0.5mm plastic sheet.

I was then able to glue the new window layout inside the carriage and build up the new mullions with plastic sheet.

[73082gibbers]

Certainly looks interesting! Will be keeping an eye on this one for sure!

Nathan....

[James Harrison]

Thanks! (More to follow on the all third very soon).

I've been experimenting these last few days with making my own waterslide transfers. I largely followed a series of blog posts on the other place but with the slight refinement of scanning the model alongside a piece of squared paper as a scale reference.

With the model scanned, put the scan into Photoshop (or any other photo manipulation software) and trace over the lining, then print it... then apply to the model. Simple... unless the printer plays up and prints to 95% size! I had to cut the transfers in half and fineline some paint into the resulting gap on the tip of a screwdriver blade.





Just waiting on numberplates now.

[James Harrison]

The GCR all-third has had a little more work done to the bodywork; largely ventilators above the doors and larger windows and some detail begun on half of the picture windows. The drawing I'm following is a little ambivalent on exactly what these are; either blocked-in toplights or tiny versions of same. I'm going for the easier option and assuming they're blocked in....

[James Harrison]

What was supposed to be a quick little project has finally been finished. I started it just after Christmas thinking I'd have it ready a little after New Years'.... three weeks after it has finally joined the roster.

When I left off last time I had a basically finished body that just needed teaking and final detailing- the teaking was done easily enough but the interior was a job that bored me to tears, as it had to be completely scratchbuilt. The best way eventually was just to buckle down and get on with it.... it took several days of monotomous gluing piece 'A' to 'B' over, and over, and over again, but was definitely worth it- those big picture windows are very unforgiving.

I followed a method detailed in 'World of Trains' circa 1992 to model my interior- pieces of plastic sheet (in all, 12 pieces laminated together for each seating bay) glued together and painted.

Now of course all I need is a drawing of a Robinson kitchen first to follow and I can accurately model a London Extension express.... brake third, kitchen first, corridor composite, open third and brake third...

[Manxman1831]

I like the 1911 all-third - very GCR. Something to try for the future perhaps - a lot of the frosted glass in the toilet windows apparently had surviving Great Central crests well into LNER days, maybe you could try your hand at a few of these particularly for the Barnums?

[James Harrison]

The GCR crest on the frosted glass is a feature I would like in an ideal world to include. Unfortunately it is a very delicate and intricate detail to model and I've yet to find a way of modelling it convincingly- though I'm sure with enough experimentation I'll find a way eventually.