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

[James Harrison]

Well, I've built and painted an interior, fitted new bufferbeams (re-using the original Hornby buffers) and fitted the glazing.

So; all that really needs finishing off now if the roof, and then onto final assembly and decals and varnishing. Which would have been done today had I not been dogsitting...

Now for the next project, it strikes me that I have another Ratio suburban to build (which would then give me a rake of five of that type). Then I'll return to my silhouette cutter and get on with some clerestory stock.

Regarding further Parker stock, I have drawings for a van composite, brake third and buffet. I have three more clerestories earmarked for conversion, but each of those types will require a little more thinking about than the all-first. At the present I believe that the composite type can be used for an all-first and a van composite, whilst the brake third is more suited to the buffet and brake third types. But as I say, conversion for those requires a bit more hacking.

I'm also looking at converting some Ratio 4-wheelers into GCR 6-wheel types.

[James Harrison]

I left off last time with the basic bodyshell more or less finished, but no glazing, no roof as such and no interior.

The first thing I did was to build the interior; I again made use of the article in 'World of Trains' from 1991/92 to fabricate one from 0.5mm plastic sheet.

I re-used the glazing strips supplied by Hornby; but I cut these up into smaller pieces and fixed them in place with 'glue 'n' glaze', which dries clear. Once it had dried, I spent quite some time trying to clean off the residue where it had crept over the window openings, but after doing maybe two or three windows I had the idea to just pour some more of the stuff on top of the plastic strip and let it dry, to see what happened. Surprise surprise it dried to a nice, clear, level finish- so in future rather than worrying about streaks of the stuff going onto the clear glazing strips I'll be flooding the window apertures out instead.

I took a short length of 0.5mm square plastic strip and painted it brass, then I fixed it in place across the back of the three picture windows on the corridor side to form the handrail. For the toilet windows, I painted the inside of the plastic strip with correction fluid.

For the roof, I glued a second sheet of paper over the first. I then raided my spares box for a sprue of roof ventilators left over from my last Ratio carriage kit, and I fitted two of those to each compartment, making a total of 14 in all. The drawings in Railway Modeller suggest there should be some also over the corridor, and some smaller roof vents to each compartment too, however no roof plan is given and the side and end elevations seem to contradict each other.... so I decided that just the ventilators over the compartments would suffice, until I have better information to hand.

Now, all that is needed are some transfers and some varnish.

[James Harrison]

Some of you may recall a few years ago that I mentioned I had bought a couple of locomotives via an auction website; as I remember in the course of maybe an hour I secured for myself a K's 'Sir Sam Fay', a Nu-Cast N5 and a scratchbuilt C13.

Well since then I have of course rebuilt the 'Sam Fay', the N5 has been deemed perfectly acceptable, and the C13 until now has sat in a box waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Things moved forward a little late last year when I ordered some numberplates for it, but other than that nothing happened.

Fast-forward ten months and having gone through a phase of building carriages I decided I wanted a change, so dug out the C13, volume 7 of the 'Green Bible', the December 1996 issue of Railway Modeller, my book of GCR loco liveries and the numberplates.

I was able to identify that the model I had bought was a 9K (LNER class C13), but unfortunately the numberplates I had bought were for a member of the following, similar class, the 9L.

Ah well, differences between the two are fairly minor and it allows me to have a little more fun with the model than a mere repaint.

I started off by separating the body and chassis. The chassis is a hacked-up Triang type, with an X04 motor- now if I recall correctly the model was sold with the warning that it runs well one way but badly the other- but at least being built up of RTR components makes it a lot easier to eventually source spare parts and tweak the running qualities.

Turning to the bodywork, I laid it on top of the Ian Beattie drawings in the December 1996 RM. It's a few millimetres too long, and the smokebox looks to have been stretched, but it's quite nicely made so I've no real desire to start cutting it up just for the sake of 5mm. That decision made, I removed the ross-pop safety valves and the push-pull gear, and the smokebox door numberplate. I then cut away the plated-over coal rails to the bunker and carefully carved the rear bunker sheet to introduce the graceful reverse curves.



The major visual difference between the 9K and the 9L is that the water tanks and coal bunker for the latter a little wider; cab sheets therefore are not flush with the bunker and tank sheeting. I replicated this by adding a piece of 0.5mm thick plastic sheet to each side of the loco.



I then went looking for a set of safety valves. I found a couple of whitemetal castings in my spares box, but they were all either too wide or sat on a base plate which was too thick, so I decided to try to make a set in plastic instead. I used a holepunch to create a 5mm circular plastic blank as a base, then I cut three piece of 0.5mm sheet, 5mm square. I glued these together to create a 5mm square block of plastic, 1.5mm deep, and then to get a bit of a shape to this I wrapped it in paper. Then I took a short length of brass wire and glued it around the top to form the lip. It's probably not totally accurate but it looks the part.



I did find in my spares box a cast brass Robinson chimney; I think it is an Alan Gibson one for the J11 kit. I matched it up to the RM drawings and it seems to match pretty much perfectly; but when I placed it on the model it didn't look right at all. For the moment then I've decided to keep the original chimney; it's pretty firmly fixed on, so I can't be certain of removing it without breaking the model, and in a way it looks right (by which I mean it doesn't immediately jump out, to me at least, as being wrong).

Now the next job on the model is to fit coal rails and then to start repainting it into GCR lined green livery.

[kimballthurlow]

Hi James,
Great Parker job there.
I have done quite a few toilet windows myself in various models, and the one I like best is the use of tissue paper.
Whitish tissue is sandwiched between two clear glazes in the window area. I prefer the softer look it gives.
The only example I have photographed is this French tinplate, which I re-glazed in the kitchen area.
Link to photo - [url]ttp://www.qldrail.net/altkloster/pmp531-side-1000.jpg[/url]
(Photo deleted from the thread out of respect for James' topic.)

regards
Kimball

[James Harrison]

I do like the look of that; very subdued and more subtle. I'll give it a try next time.

[James Harrison]

Just a bit of a difference

I'm about halfway through lining out. Don't worry, that huge white rectangle around the side tanks is not going to stay that way; the thick black outer band will be added soon, making it look like the lining around the front half of the cab sheet. The lining is a big and fairly complicated job and has be done over several modelling sessions, firstly to preserve my sanity (well, what's left of it anyway) and secondly to give it chance to dry out and set before it gets handled again to add the second and third layers.

[exile]

I like what you are doing there and look forward to seeing how the next steps turn out.

[73082gibbers]

Looking great James!

Out of interest, how's your search going regarding Ratio kits for GCR 6 wheelers? Have you considered using the Bachmann Emily coach chassis' as basis's? I've got a fair few lying about, so if you want measurements, let me know!

Nathan..

[James Harrison]

I've bought a couple of Brassmasters 6-wheel chassis kits; my plan (eventually) is to graft them onto the Ratio kits. But it will be a little way off yet as they are quite some ways down the list; the intention is that the chassis kits will be a gentle introduction to soldering before I have a go at some Jidenco Barnum carriages. We shall see....

[Richard i]

James have you tried fine line pens, they are of different widths to 0,5mm from 0.2mm and come in various colours most useful to us are the red and black. I am going to a train fair over here and will look at Bachman Emily coaches to see dimensions, suitability.
Liking the work on the tank engine.
Richard

[Richard i]

Thank you for the photo of robinson's pacific, I can not pm you yet as I have not posted enough! I have to prove I will behave. I promise I will my job is very strict on Internet image of its employees.

[James Harrison]

James have you tried fine line pens, they are of different widths to 0,5mm from 0.2mm and come in various colours most useful to us are the red and black. I am going to a train fair over here and will look at Bachman Emily coaches to see dimensions, suitability.
Liking the work on the tank engine.
Richard

Thanks.

Now for the lining; It used to be my practice to do the lining with fine-liners and paint pens and even tried out a proper lining tool once or twice; but nothing ever really seemed to answer. The last few locos (the Coronation tank and Fish) I have instead used normal foolscap paper and a *very* sharp knife to cut suitable blanks, then done the lining using a ball-point pen. Which seems to work; I do at least have a lot more control over the thickness and direction of the lines! (It's rather like how I've done my boiler bands since time immemorial). Of course this is for the cab cut-outs and other awkward curvey bits; for just standard straight lengths I use HMRS lining transfers. I've spent some time this evening drawing in the outer black lines around the tanks and cutting the blanks for the bunker lining; photos hopefully tomorrow evening showing progress.

Thank you for the photo of robinson's pacific, I can not pm you yet as I have not posted enough! I have to prove I will behave. I promise I will my job is very strict on Internet image of its employees.

That's quite alright; I would like to do a model of it myself but I already have one neverwazza (a mixed traffic mogul version of the Directors) and a project list as long as my arm, so it won't see the light of day for years yet, if ever. One day perhaps; once I have cleared my shelves and cupboards of cripples, unbuilt kits and random parts waiting to be melded into something recogniseable. As ever; too many projects and too little time/space/money to see them all done.

[James Harrison]

And she's finished! What a handsome beast.

My next trick? It may well be a GCR-liveried Jersey Lily.

[James Harrison]

So, my next project is to backdate "King Edward VII" to 1922 condition. As I'd already modelled her (him?) in 1924 fit, there is very little work to do. Switch the safety valves out for Robinson 4-pillar casting, and repaint the cab sheets and tender.



I think I have discovered why the motion on this model is prone to locking up too; the slidebars being off of one model, and transplanted to another set of cylinders, makes them apt to wobble. If they wobble too much, the connecting rod wallops them , locking the motion. I suspect the most sure-fire way of fixing this will be to replace the cylinders and slidebars.

[exile]

You could try soldering the slide bars and cylinders to give a solid unit.

I know soldering is not to everyone's taste.