West End Workbench

[Dave]

Thanks Jonathan, I had it in my diary already, looking forward to seeing Rob and Chris after a long break due to no shows.

[Atlantic 3279]

I still recall the "irony" of finding that nice easy Southern Pride etched sides were available for that 5 car steel panelled set just after I'd completed the marathon of modifications, improvements and substitutions to make something reasonably convincing and reliable from the Phoenix SRG (former BSL) aluminium approximations.

Public warning: I may visit Thirsk, petrol prices, Covid resurgence, Vlad, and various greedy selfish extremist trouble causers permitting.

[Dave]

Look forward to seeing you if you make it Graeme.

Unfortunatly I'm unable to join the skype call tonight.

[jwealleans]

Well, I'm spoiling you. Two updates in less than a week. This one has a bit of a story to it. As some of you may have gathered if you read this thread regularly, a few of us convene over Skype from time to time to chat with Jesse's mum and look at photographs. On this occasion the subject was a B15 with an up working north of Newcastle in the later 1920s. We'd covered the obvious stuff and it was Jesse himself who asked what the third vehicle behind the tender was.

Clearly a Doncaster design of the Howlden era; I thought it might be an M&GN luggage brake, but Steve White pinned it down as a Hound Van to GN D339. He also mentioned that Crispy Dave (Dave S in this parish) might have done some etches....

Well, he had. They were forthcoming and with the addition of some scratchbuilt bits and Mike Trice's 3D printed components for GN 6 wheelers, it is now waiting for me to get my finger out and prepare lettering so it can be finished off.







Another characterful vehicle which might well be seen hanging around on Grantham once it's in a fully presentable state.

The very sharp eyed might note more vents in the initial photograph - there are annotations all over the diagram book about various amendments to individual vans, so I've gone with the roof furniture as shown in the clearest photo I have. That van is also in goods livery with the original sliding door. They were teak when built and are illustrated as such in Nick Campling's book, so I've gone with that for my example. The LNER replaced the sliding doors with a hinged pair. Dave's covered both options in the etch.

[jwealleans]

Heavens, it's been a while. I wish I knew what I'd done with all the time since July.

Couple of things I did do for Grantham's trip to Fareham:



J21 from an LRM kit. Built by Ron Goult of Little Engines and I acquired it from Tony Wright. It had OO wheels but EM frame spacers, so no sideplay. New chassis and drivetrain (High Level) and it went very well at the weekend.



This was a lockdown Ebay buy - DJH kit, built but scruffy, about £80 with a Portescap in it - and after a brief tussle between a platform and an out of gauge step, it proved a handy puller. Both these will be back on the bench for coal and crews in due course. For anyone interested, here's a video of it hauling the Flying Scotsman set on Grantham, after a clip of the ex-Hitchin 3255 on the Queen of Scots set.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTFKbS_5Jqo

After a couple of days not wanting to look at another train it was back to the workbench and to start with some repairs after Fareham.



The Chivers CCT had some trailing brake rigging which was catching in pointwork. The SR open had had a wheelset pop out and the bearing go walkabout, a ten second fix once back home. The fruit van had no couplings and I hadn't noticed when I packed it. This van was one of half a dozen very kindly given to me by notascoobie of this parish, from an acquaintance of his who wanted them to go to an LNER modeller. Well, they did. This van decorated the front of Grantham for the weekend at Fareham, a twin ran in the Scotch Goods all weekend and for the record I've also painted and weathered the others:



There's a brake van too but I haven't remade the steps for that as yet.

I've seen one or two of the Oxford GE vans pass through different workbenches over the summer. Nice model, I have to say and the obligatory cockup isn't too noticeable or difficult to correct.



I do have a fitted one as well, adapted from a banana van, but that went into the Grantham Scotch Goods box and it's too much of a faff to dig it out now.

I've gone back to the Easterling set, for anyone waiting patiently for that and will put some pictures of the vehicles up in due course.

[jwealleans]

The Easterling set was duly recovered from its storage tray yesterday. It has been so long since I worked on these that I'd completely forgotten what stage I'd reached with any of it. I had painted, lettered and lined the first three vehicles and then, by the look of it, balked at the glazing. These all have the interiors built into the body which makes painting and glazing really awkward and is usually anathema to me. There's another the same yet to paint, so it's not over yet.

Anyway, the most complete is the RTO, which just needs handles, buffers and couplings by the look of it.



This has the GE panelling which is wrong for this vehicle after the mid-1930s. I believe Bill has now drawn the sides as rebuilt by the LNER.





I bit the bullet and glazed the BTK, which I think is a D 40. The joy of the corridor handrails awaits. This is an early RDEB kit and for me the droplights look a bit small.

[Woodcock29]

Nice to see what you've been up.to Jonathan.
I need to get back into some modelling now our BRMA Convention which we hosted here in Adelaide last weekend is over.
Andrew

[Woodcock29]

Something I could have mentioned is that I've always thought the DJH C1 kit, with its over-large boiler and particularly the smokebox, looks too big. As I've acquired 2 second-hand Bachmann models to join my initial purchase I'm satisfied I have enough. Particularly as my old dismantled Ks kit will form the basis for a model of 3279 eventually. I had built the DJH C2 about 20 years ago and with its smaller boiler its not so obviously out of scale to me. I guess on a large layout like Grantham the DJH C1s don't look so out of scale.

I did have a DJH C1 kit in the stash but I've just sold that to Jesse and a member from Sydny took it back for him after the Convention last weekend.
Andrew

[jwealleans]

The C1 isn't the most obviously oversized DJH kit for me, the B16 looks a lot bigger. Before we went off to Fareham I put this scratchbuilt C1 next to the DJH one to compare. Height-wise there was very little in it, but the Hitchin one is visibly narrower, especially on the cab. I didn't have the Bachmann one to hand to add to the mix.

[Hatfield Shed]

Something I could have mentioned is that I've always thought the DJH C1 kit, with its over-large boiler and particularly the smokebox, looks too big. As I've acquired 2 second-hand Bachmann models to join my initial purchase I'm satisfied I have enough...

When the Bachmann C1 was first released, did anyone of good reputation in measurement ever run the rule over it and put up findings online? Have to admit the only area I was interested in, following various discussions while Bachmann were developing it, was how the coupled axle spacing problem had been resolved. (Satisfactorily subtly was my assessment.)

For the rest it looked sufficiently like Mr Ivatt's Doncaster team's good job; the most important UK C20th steam express design, at last with a decent RTR OO model. The arrival of Hornby's all steel Pullman cars meant that I could have an authentic looking express train - all from RTR - that could be seen on the LNER 1928 - 39. Bliss!

[jwealleans]

It's hard to show progress when you're glazing, but it is being made. The D40 is now completely done and I've moved on to adding other details. I have given the roof another coat of dark grey as the undercoat was showing through in a few places.



In its wake I've started on one of the D23 TKs (and have made a start on the other one this evening). I've also adjusted the height slightly on this one, it looked low against the D40. I think the RDEB sides are slightly too deep which accentuates the effect.



I was rereading my comments almost a year ago when I started these about how hard it was going to be to glaze and fit handrails and it turned out every bit as trying as I expected.

For some context, here's the set as built so far:



Once these first 3 carriages are complete, there's a Diagram 7 Composite to build, which will be vehicle 4 in the set, then the two Lowestoft vehicles.

What is pleasing, although not obvious through the lens, is that when I painted the first 3 carriages I used different coloured undercoats on them, knowing the topcoats are fairly transparent colours and all 3 do show as slightly different shades of both read and cream as I hoped.

[jwealleans]

Lots of shows through October, so not so much modelling time and not much worth showing.

I have painted the MJT D6 Composite which was in brass in the last post. For variety I've teaked this one, in wartime 'N E' branding, class indication on First Class only and a post-1946 number. The intention is that this will be quite a scruffy vehicle relative to the rest of the set. Once this one is complete I can crack on with building the Diagram 7 which runs beside it.



While I was doing blood and custard vehicles, my thoughts returned to this, a Bachmann Thompson bought out of curiosity at a show well before lockdown at a knockdown price. You can always use a D 329 on a 1950s layout. Back in the days when Larry Goddard was on RMWeb, he repainted the very dark Bachmann crimson and I have done the same here.



The interior was also a very sombre dark brown, which went against my recollection of riding in the restored D329 which seemed very light and airy. That was painted Humbrol 62 and the seats a lighter shade of red. What was less successful was removing the printed corridor handrails and replacing with brass wire. It's made a bit of a mess and i shan't bother doing that again.



I've had another distraction running alongside these and my Australian friend Mr Sim needs to take responsibility here. He brought to my attention a set of John Fozard carriages which were being sold by Ellis Clark. They weren't exorbitantly dear and I can't resist a 58' Gresley, especially ones which are no longer available. When they arrived it was clear they'd need some work.



It goes very much against the grain to criticise other people's work, especially when they're no longer able to defend themselves. I corresponded with John Fozard and met him once. He was a nice chap who produced a sadly missed range of kits and I have no way of knowing what the terms of the commission for these was. However, as LNER coaches, they were well wide of the mark. Apart from the drab uniform brown finish, they had black solebars and wheel centres and no rain deflectors above the (roof coloured) cantrail. The grab handles were also the wrong shape and size, so they'd have looked odd in a rake with other carriages.



They were never going to stay like that in my care, so into the stripper they went and they're now on their way to being refinished. This is the D274 BT seen above:



It needs an extra skylight on the guards compartment so the roof is not yet repainted. There was also a D164A Composite, the one with 3 lavs:



Finally, I should say that I will be demonstrating wagon building at Warley on the 26th/27th, adjacent to my friends and colleagues Mr Nicholas, who will help you plan your layout and Mr King, who will liberally shower it with resin. If you're in attendance do please come and say hello. We're very handy for the Gents. I will be concentrating on cheap and cheerful kits and RTR upgrades this year, all with an LNER theme.

[Atlantic 3279]

At current prices I won't be going so far as to shower everything in resin at the NEC, but I can supply as much hot air as necessary providing that there's somebody with a sense of humour to provide hot air in equal measure.

Those re-dipped Fozard coaches are immensely improved compared to the original (not so) "economical" paint finish.

[JASd17]

I have some Fozard models too, his North Eastern elliptical roof types, they too have the same drab painted finish, which perhaps one could just get away with on later 1930s NE Area models, although I find the particular colour a bit odd. I think the lower footboards are rather wide and that will need a fix, but in general very nicely made models.

John

[Woodcock29]

Jonathan
I like the upgrade of the Fozard kits. I've got the Dia 274 to build one day.
Andrew