Scratchbuilding an N gauge Gresley coach

[Atso]

Hi guys,

Still taking a break from the loco projects (I really must finish them!) but I have been experimenting with scratch building a Gresley coach. I have built up one side so far using 10 thou plastic card, some 5 thou brass and sticky labels so that the coach has full relief detail through the three layers of panelling. I've scanned the side and a pic can be found below - please excuse the apparent crudity in some areas - it doesn't look like that in real life.

[smudger]

That's looking good. How are you representing the teak?

Alan

[wehf100]

looks very nice. Did you make he beading from 10thou square section? It looks commendably fine, and I must admit I didnt know plastic strip went that small!

Will

[Atso]

Thanks Alan,

For painting on this coach I'm using Cherry paints teak bass coat and golden teak top coat - the top coat has been thinned to around the consistancy of milk and the thinly brushed on the attempt to create the timber effect. After I scanned this image I gave the side a coat of Ronseal teak varnish which has really improved the look. In fact I've had success painting teak using just the varnish - around 5 or 6 coats on a white bass coat. It looks really good but takes a long time to paint.

Will - the beading is made up out of sticky labels placed over the side, cut to size and the excess peeled off. Its actually not a tricky as it sounds, from start to finish that side took around an hour and I'm sure that once I've made a couple more I'd have got the knack of it and reduce the time even further.

[smudger]

Steve,

When you use the Ronseal do you thin the varnish?

Alan

[Atso]

I'm sure I'm supposed to thin it but no, I don't I make sure I don't overload the brush though - I've got a scary looking prototype somewhere from that!

[Robpulham]

Steve for my gresley BG I used Ronseal teak varnish but I used a base coat of Peach acrylic I found this gave a richer colour than white or ivory that I have used previously.

[Atso]

Thanks for the tip Rob, your FB looks great - I'll try that next time. I've found that several coats are needed to bring out the effect. How many did you use on yours?

[Atso]

Right, I've made the other side of the non-corridor third and painted it using Rob's advice. I couldn't get peach acrylic so I used a very light chocolate colour and applied four coats of Ronseal teak varnish. Scanned image below - the top side is the new one with the bottom showing my first attempt at teak-ing.

[Paul B]

Hi all!

I have only just found and joined this forum today, and this one posting is already making it worthwhile!

I have joined the N-gauge society, and am tempted to get their Gresley full brake carriage kit - but was rather worried about trying to represent the teak finish myself (not wanting to take the easy route and painting it BR maroon - even if it does come with transfers for this finish!) and the info above makes the prospect of buying the kit and painting it much less worrying!

Just as an aside, can anyone recommend any transfers to be able to finish the Gresley full brake in LNER markings?

[richard]

Welcome to the LNER forums! Also welcome to the NGS (I'm a member) - you'll find it very worthwhile for the kits and shop. I was one of the original people that put a deposit down to help the development of the Full Brake, and I wrote the cheque for the remainder yesterday.

I have the same misgivings. Following recent NGS kit policy, the Full Brake comes with transfers - but only for the BR liveries. I was looking in the Fox catalogue, and I think Pack FRH 2320 "LNER Coach Graphics and Numbering" probably covers the transfers we need.
Drawings and photos can be found in Campling's ""Historic Carriage Drawings: LNER" on pages 20-21.

As for the teak finish - I was hoping to glean that from this forum

Richard

[Paul B]

Thanks for the welcome Richard - I have been out of modelling for a number of years, but have been getting to all the model railway shows that I could recently, and plan to join a local club soon. This forum was a chance discovery - who would have imagined just typing 'LNER' into Google could have bought so much info; I have been reading the forum most of the afternoon!

And also thanks for the info too - looks like a book I must find a copy of, and also look out for Fox transfers list too!

Thanks once again - all the best!

[Atso]

Hi Paul and as Richard said, welcome to the forum!

I've got a set of the Fox coach transfers - haven't used them yet but they do look very good! I've just got some of the Dapol Gresley's going cheap at Hattons and plan to repaint them in due course.

Anyway, I've been busy with another project recently, which is just about finished now...

[Robpulham]

Thanks for the tip Rob, your FB looks great - I'll try that next time. I've found that several coats are needed to bring out the effect. How many did you use on yours?

Sorry Steve, I have only just seen this. I put six or seven coats on to get the final finish - very thin ones of course.

[TonyM]

Hi Guys

I have been using the Fox transfer sheets to `teak ` some of the very reasonably priced Dapol maroon coaches from Hattons. They come up very well, the only snag is that the letters LNER are individual letters and are fiendishly small and have minds of their own. The `GUARD` symbol is fine and all in one piece, the numbers are reasonably OK but the letters are a pain in the BUM. I can see why they have done it that way because all the areas for the LNER logo are different sizes so to make them able to fit they are individual AND THEY MAKE MY POOR OLD EYES CROSS even using the headset and loupe. What they do not include anywhere that I can find is transfers to line out the coaches. Does anybody know any transfer sheets that would be of use? I also have got a `Buffet` Car and am using the `Pullman` sheet to get the lettering for that.

Will post some picies when I am happy with them.

TonyM