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

[Manxman1831]

Looking very nice with your conversion. How do you intend 'waisting' the firebox?

[James Harrison]

Thanks- a few more modelling sessions and it will start to really come together.

When it comes to the firebox and the waisting of it, I must admit I didn't really consider that... I'm working from the photos in the RCTS book (volume 2B) and they all seem to show the firebox as being a pretty slab-sided affair. I could bring in a little at the bottom if it is necessary but what with using the old Triang B12 as a donor, rather than the re-chassis'd Hornby offering, there's the matter that going in more than 1mm or so either side you foul the lump of motor :/

[Woodcock29]

Hello

You don't need to worry about 'waisting' the firebox as all the smaller boilered GC 4-6-0s, ie B1, B4, B5 and B9 had straight sided fireboxes. It was only the larger boilered B2, B3, B6, B7 and B8 that had waisted fireboxes.

Regards

Woodcock29

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
That is very interesting Woodcock.
I have seen pics of Q4's with both straight sided and occasionally waisted fireboxes.
The O4's and O5's both seem to have waisted fireboxes.
It seems that I shall have to buy the relevant Yeadon's volumes.
Anyway I love books, and still have the first school prize that I was ever awarded (1953?) which was a railway book.
Earlswood nob

PS I do like the conversions of various RTR bodies into GCR prototypes.

[James Harrison]

Thanks Woodcock and Earlswood; I knew 'some' GC engines had waisted fireboxes but didn't know which ones, so that is a great help.

I'm really pleased with how this one is turning out at the moment, the only problem I foresee is that it will lead me to replacing my 'Jersey Lily' and 'Fish' engines with similar hackbashes... the 'Jersey Lily' basically being a repeat of the 'Immingham' and the 'Fish' using a B12 running plate and cab and '?' for a boiler- need to do a bit of research into which RTR locos have a 4' 9'' boiler (thought an O4 would suit, but no it's too big).

[James Harrison]

No paint on yet but we're nearing the point where we'll need to break out the brushes!

Frustratingly I came to fit a few parts tonight and couldn't find the materials... the steampipe down the drivers' side of the boiler needs 1mm plastic rod (I had a few odds and ends of this stuff left after my first GC clerestory carriage, but between putting it away a few weeks ago and coming to use it tonight it has done a disappearing act) and I need to buy some new handrail (on order from an Ebay supplier).

Boiler fittings are from the Craftsman range of whitemetal castings and I'm very happy with them. I think actually this is the third or fourth model these particular parts, or at least the chimney and dome, have been fitted to- a pair of scratchbuilt Directors (since scrapped) and my first iteration of a Jersey Lily, I think.

The front bufferbeam was a little involved- it comes off of a Hornby Patriot, if you can believe it! It had to be cut free from the Patriot moulding, then filed and cut down further to suit the B4, and then needed drilling out to accept the buffers- Robinson round pattern whitemetal castings, again from Craftsman.

Anyway; photos!

[James Harrison]

I've made a fair bit of progress since last time:





Let's start with the tender.

Believe it or not, I've managed to re-use the B12 tender... I had to saw the chassis into three, and then use 2mm square plastic strip to lengthen it and also give the appearance of the tank being lower than it actually is. The tank itself was sawn in half and the fake coal sawn away (along with all of the top of the tank). I was then able to insert a 7mm length of plastic sheet between the two halves and then overlay 0.5mm sheet over the tank sides to commence th transformation. I've taken this a stage or two further and added more 2mm square strip, around the top of the tank sides, so that eventually I can run some milliput along the tank top to get the curved outer edge to the tender.

Moving forward onto the lcoomotive proper, One thing I have done is use 0.5mm sheet to give a homogenous edge to the running plate. Plainly it still needs work but already it looks better for losing the 'three-penny bit' effect along the edge of the running plate. I've used 0.64mm plastic rod for the steampipe along the boiler, but personally I think this looks too small- short of replacing it (a real chore now that the only model shop in Birmingham that I knew to stock 1mm rod has closed down), I'm not sure what I can do about this. Boiler bands have been added from paper strips.

It looks much better just for being painted up in primer- even if this does bring out all of the gaps and rough edges- but then again that's why I've painted it!

Next step(s) clearly will be to get the rougher bits sanded out and smoothed down.

[S.A.C. Martin]

Colour me impressed James. I really like the creativity going on here. It does make me wonder if a resin kit to fit that chassis with resin cylinders would make a viable cheap kit, ala the excellent work Graeme King does on here. Would certainly add to the GCR classes available.

[James Harrison]

Thanks!

Considering how versatile I've found the B12 chassis to be- it goes under no fewer than three of my models (the 'Jersey Lily', 'Fish' and 'Immingham') and considering how there is a commonality of parts between two of those classes, and how the third uses smaller versions of same, what it might actually be possible to do is a range of 'bits' that could be bought seperately and then 'mixed and matched' as it were to produce any one of a range of models.

If I were better at 3D CAD draughting I might have a go at it, along the lines of 3D printing masters to take casts from, but given how my B5 turned out I don't think I'm ready for such a challenge yet... the B5 being satisfactory but nothing more (it speaks volumes that I may replace it, if I can find a donor bodyshell with a 4' 9'' boiler- like a T9 or Caley Single).

[James Harrison]

A few weeks since the last update and I'm pleased to say the model is, for all intents and purposes, finished!





The model was painted using Humbrol acrylics and Revell enamels. The apple green was made up using a single coat of Revell 'leaf green' which was then given three coats of Humrol 'apple green', because the Humbrol colour is so thin as to need a bit of help to get a decent deep colour.

I found some Hornby handrail on that well-known internet auction site and used a wire bending jog to get it to bend to shape. It is not quite right but a lot closer than previous attempts....

I always have problems when it comes to lining. Boiler bands and long straights are no problem, but when it comes to cab cut-outs.... This time I experimented a little. The boiler bands were made up by myself, a biro line on a length of white paper cut to size, rolled and glued into position. HMRS pressfix was used on the tender. When it came to the cab I used a paint-pen. After a few attempts I eschewed the black edging and just put in the white inside line (if good enough for Hornby....)

As I couldn't find nameplates for 'Immingham' anywhere I opted for one of her un-named sisters, so this is no. 6103.

Overall I'm very pleased with how it's turned out.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Impressive

manna

[James Harrison]

Thanks!

Since the photos were taken I did my usual thing and decided that this, that or the other just plain wouldn't do.

So I put another thin white line inside the cab lining, and then put the outside black edging on...

.... much better.

[James Harrison]

With my latest attempts at creating GC-esque carriage stock from RTR and Ratio offerings producing results, my first tries (a rake of matchboarded 1911 mainline carriages) started to look a bit tatty. In addition, since first creating them new information has come to light, suggesting I made the matchboarding too heavy in appearance and got the teak wrong- I went for a generally lighter hue, whilst photographs and paintings seem to suggest the matchboarding should be nigh-on invisible and the hue should be much darker.

So I went and had a bit of an experiment earlier this week on one of them.

The first thing to do was to remove my original paper overlays, which was done using a saucer of water, a stiff brush and a decent scalpel. I tried to save the transfers- of which more anon- and after an hour or so of patient cutting, scratching and scraping I managed to get the carriage body back to its original state, or something approaching it.

I then took some white putty and smeared it along the cantrail strip and below the waist of the carriage. Once it had gone off I sanded it down. At this point I used a sharp scalpel blade to carve the doors back into the carriage body.

I then took a very dark brown enamel and wetted it down using white spirit, and gave the carriage body three coats of this. It came out looking as though it had been hit by a train of cocoa powder...

I then took a lighter brown enamel and very sparingly worked my way over the body, two or three body panels at a time. This is almost drybrushed on, what I actually did was to put a nice even coat on and then wipe it away with a piece of rag. The result is that in some areas it sticks, others it is removed entirely and in between you get a nice effect of sheen. I then worked in just a suggestion of matchboarding by varying the direction of the brush strokes.

At this stage I attempted to salvage the old transfers, by wetting the old paper overlays and worrying at them with a scalpel and brush. It didn't work. The paper disintegrated to the point that the only thing holding it together was the transfer, which then itself disintegrated... Ahh...

There was only one thing to do and that was to competely replace the transfers. I think I might just have barely enough on the two sheets of HMRS LNER gold insignia in my spares box to do all four carriages. If not, well, I placed an order for another sheet last night.

The carriage was then varnished in my own fashion using watered-down PVA glue.

The final step was to try to make the matchboarding just a bit more obvious. I didn't want to scratch into the carriage body again and it struck me that what in essence you're looking for is just a simple dark line from the waist down to the solebar. As it turns out, a ballpoint pen will do this perfectly!

So there we have it, at the third iteration. An easy and fairly quick way of getting GC-esque matchboard stock from Mainline/ Bachmann LMS 57' carriages.

[James Harrison]

The last few weeks I've been steadily rebuilding my matchboard stock, as I described last time. I've now got a brake third and composite rebuilt and am about half-way through an all-first.

Now, yesterday a copy of W.A. Tuplin's 'Great Central Steam' fell through my letterbox. As is practically the law the first thing I did was to have a look through and see what illustrations are in it. A couple of interesting drawings of neverwazzas... the 'Super Sam Fay' and 'Super Director' didn't interest me but the Gorton mogul looks good enough that I've bought a GWR 43xx this morning to see what can be done....

[James Harrison]

When I wrote about my third attempt at some Robinson stock I was asked on another forum if I could get a couple of more detailed photos to show what was involved. Now I didn't get all four of the carriages down to photograph, like I said I would, but I did manage to get down the last carriage I rebuilt and get a few more detailed photographs of it.





The simple black line is sufficient to suggest matchboarding at normal viewing distances.

Next up is my latest locomotive, the B4 'Immingham' class. Since I finished the model and showcased it here I've made a few little changes. I've improved my technique with the cab lining, just going over it again with the paint pens and this time adding the black outer lining. I've repainted the safety valve covers in a brass/ bronze hue, two reasons why: 1) The GC did the same and 2) to my eye it just plain looks better. Not visible in these photos is that I've made an attempt at painting the cab interior. On my 'when I get around to it' list are a set of running plate steps between the leading coupled axles, a proper smokebox dart and brake pipes, couplings and so on and so forth.





Finally, I've started another project. Take a pair of 2P bodies and create ? - I'll let you have a guess before I reveal all....



The cab is the easiest bit to alter- cut away the roof overhang, slightly enlarge the side windows and merge the spectacle plate windows.

On the running plate we cut away the raised section, and the splashers with it.



Then we cut out part of the boiler on the second model between the first and second boiler bands back from the smokebox, and splice it into the first body between the boiler barrel and the firebox.