Continue it has, Chas, but not to completion as I expected tonight. My soldering iron has failed me - again - so another one is on the way from a different manufacturer. Antex have had their chance. This is what we achieved last night while it did still work:
Some of the detail is speculative - the GA shows skylights on the roof, but I reckon they've been removed by the time of the photo. There is a handrail at the roof end, so there must be steps. The layout of those was derived from contemporary 6 wheelers. The vertical pipe at the other end is steam heat, I reckon and the lines scribed into the panelling are for the opening panel we reckon is there so the guard can put a lamp out without climbing. I'm open to any other suggestions people might have.
Hi Jonathan
I reckon the banana van had roof ribs, if that's what they're called, like Howlden brakes. You can just see them in the photo. I expect you haven't got to those yet. A most interesting and unusual van. I don't think I could justify one though as I probably have enough oddities already!
Mind you the Hound Van, should anyone do etches for that migt be a different story?
Andrew
Last edited by Woodcock29 on Fri Jun 19, 2020 12:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I agree. I believe I have some whitemetal ones from a Danny kit, so they'll go on once the hot iron has been put away. Not that it's getting hot at all right now. I expect it'll turn up Monday, so I'll lose a whole weekend.
Absolutely lovely, Jonathan So sorry your iron failed you though - never a good thing. After several bad experiences with Antex and Maplin, I moved to Weller - more expensive but totally reliable. The temp control and digital readout are very handy and 80W means it doesn't run out of juice easily, even on big pieces.
But back to bananas: I'd agree with Andrew about the roof ribs in the picture, they definitely look like Howlden brake roof ones; would the ones you have Jonathan from a D&S kit be correctly termed Spare Ribs? (sorry ).
Difficult for me to agree with you though Andrew about it ever being possible to have enough oddities... and this is quite a small oddity...
I'm thinking about the banana van in LNER livery unless I have a better offer in terms of transfers, which is unlikely.
A weekend mainly doing other things including a long awaited reorganisation of the workbench which will be no bad thing. I did manage to do some work on this, which is another long awaited project:
I shan't embarrass myself by mentioning how long it is since Mr. King cast the conflat - or the container (original courtesy of Caroline Middleditch) but I did finally get my finger out and have the lettering printed. I've used these letters before - I scanned letters from the HMRS sheet on a black background and made up text I needed - but the yellow seems to make the misshapes of some of the letters much more apparent. Some of the transfers were very fragile, even more so than usual and it was a relief to be able to seal them all down.
Some more containers are in the paint shop and I'll need to make up some more conflats, but it looks as though we may have some for the Scotch Goods the next time Grantham is allowed out.
Now, do none of you clever types with a 3D printer fancy doing a pressed steel B type?
jwealleans wrote: ↑Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:38 pm
I'm thinking about the banana van in LNER livery unless I have a better offer in terms of transfers, which is unlikely.
As the Banana Van is NPCS, for GNR isn't it the same gold/blue/white lettering used on coaching stock? For the GNR OCT I'm just finishing, I used some I had a couple of years ago from Steam and Things who are based in Australia. The ones I have from them are actually in 3mm scale, for coaches where things like the word 'Guard' wouldn't fit on a 4mm door in 4mm scale but fits if it's slightly smaller, but they print to any size. I just emailed to ask if they're currently accepting orders and if they still do the GNR ones I had before (I couldn't see them on their site: http://www.steamandthings.com) as I want to get some 4mm once too, for other NPCS - none of the letters on the HMRS GNR/ECJS sheets are small enough. They also print custom jobs to order though, so - assuming they're accepting orders currently - I'm sure they'd be able to do the 'For Banana Traffic' lettering too
Gentlemen
I know Robert Kosmider (Steam and Things) as he's a member of our South Australian group of the British Railway Modellers of Australia of which I'm the SA State Rep.
I've emailed Robert to check if he's still doing transfers. I have a requirement for LNER lettering for the D&S Howlden 6 wheel Parcel, Fruit and Milk Van as I'm not aware that anyone else has done these? Also some of these for the D&S Howlden bogie Milk Van. I might even contemplate the Hound Van as well in anticipation?
The 'Guard' lettering in 3mm scale is a great idea and I'd be prepared to get quite a few of these on a sheet as the HMRS LNER version is certainly too large.
Thanks Andrew, I had the same (very good) news this morning too .
I too have the D&S Parcel, Fruit & Milk van to build and I hadn't thought of asking Steam & Things: do you think it might be worth doing a combined order - is that kit one in your pile too, Jonathan?
I have a couple of the Fruit and Milk vans to build and would be up for more than one set of the Banana Traffic lettering in the LNER style - i suspect a few people may want to build this into an almost certainly mythical LNER livery. The correct size 'GUARD' lettering would also be a boon as I'm forever running out of both that and the LNER letters when I build carriages. If your man can fill in whatever constitutes a sheet with those then I'd be up for some.
I know the GNRS are aware of this model and (if Dave's agreeable) there might be a demand for them in GNR colouring as well.
Woodcock29 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 2:09 am
I might even contemplate the Hound Van as well in anticipation
That is one I'd like and is on the drawing board, there are a couple of variations to it and it's trying to cover those without the etch being too big. (cost)
Interesting re the transfers.
The 3mm 'Guard' idea came from discussion in a thread on here quite a while ago, where someone (I'm very sorry but I can't remember who it was) mentioned that the 3mm Society had reprinted some HMRS sheets in 3mm. Mick (on here) very kindly sent me a 3mm LNER version of 'Guard' which got me through the coach I was building at the time and since then, I joined the 3mm Society in order to be able to buy some of their transfers (available to members only). You have to buy the complete sheet but in the case of the LNER Coach set for instance, there are about 10 'Guards' per sheet. The problem is though that they haven't reprinted all the HMRS ones, only some... and not the GNR/ECJS sheet (& they're only in Methfix btw). That's what led me to Steam and Things - their pre-1906 GNR sheets have 'Guard' four times and they print in any scale.
If I understand you correctly though Jonathan you're building both Banana and Fruit & Milk vans in LNER livery? I think you would have to commission them as custom jobs from Steam & Things, as it doesn't look like he has LNER, only GNR (& various other small company ones).
An entire sheet of 3mm 'Guard' would be very useful - wish I'd thought of that instead of buying multiple full sheets! I still find it quite odd though, that pretty much all the other 4mm transfers fit where they're supposed to, but the word 'Guard' will nowhere near fit the panels on quite a few 4mm coach doors.
All the HMRS 4mm lettering transfers are too large. Mike Trice has advised them of this, but there seems to be a great deal of inertia when it comes to transfers. Fox have now done some sheets at the correct size.
Andrew, when I ordered from Robert last time (about 18 months ago) he already had three GNR sheets on his site so I simply ordered those, some in 3mm, some in 4mm. I didn't send him anything in the way of guidance or photos at the time, because I wasn't asking him to produce anything he wasn't already offering.
Whilst placing another similar order today, I did ask about other wording; I asked whether he could produce transfers in the same typeface as the GNR sheets he already does, but with different wording such as "FOR BANANA TRAFFIC" or "PARCELS FRUIT AND MILK" and what the cost would be. And I'd assume that if simply typing in other wording using an existing typeface can easily be done, then it could equally easily be done for LNER too; we would just need to specify the size of the lettering.
Re. your 'Guard' x 20, I can recommend 3mm as a very workable compromise: the word doesn't look unduly small next to the other markings but the 25% reduction is easily enough for even very narrow doors...
So sorry your iron failed you though - never a good thing. After several bad experiences with Antex and Maplin, I moved to Weller - more expensive but totally reliable. The temp control and digital readout are very handy and 80W means it doesn't run out of juice easily, even on big pieces.
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