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

[earlswood nob]

G'day people
I hope the 0.45mm wire works for you.
When I started modelling over 40years ago, the kits were supplied with a coil of Nickel-silver wire and split pins. It was a pain to get the wire straight and pinch the split pins onto it.
I returned to modelling 5 years ago and found that using the straight brass wire is so much easier and better. I do occasionally use split pins for things like the handrails at the front of GCR tenders.
It still is difficult to get the correct curve for the smokebox handrails that were fitted to some locos.
I have recently bought Bill Bedford's wire bending jigs from Eileens Emporium, but haven't used on a loco them yet. They do make coach grabrails a lot easier.
By the way, the McGowan C4 kit on Ebay went for £86, which would make an expensive loco to complete.
I do have a Millholme Q4 which has much better castings, and I'm thinking of converting it into a B9. I was going to cut down a Kays O4 boiler to make the B9, but I hadn't realised that the B9's were rebuilt with a Q4 boiler when they were superheated. This will leave me with an O4 boiler to use on the McGowan B4 that I have, in place of the oval one supplied with the kit.

Earlswood nob

[koros]

You can easily straighten your own wire. Cut a length 2--3ft. Secure one end in a vice, grip the other end with some pliers. Take up the slack, then pull firmly until you feel it stretch. Your wire will now be straight, practice on your fuse wire first..

[earlswood nob]

...Koros, that's probably how I did it all those years ago, but I can't remember. I did drill a small hole in a piece of brass and push the split pin, with the wire threaded,through. Then pulled the straight ends of the split pin to pinch it onto the wire. I remembered that, because as mentioned above I still occasionally use split pins.
It's so much simpler using straight brass wire.

Earlswood nob

[James Harrison]

Thanks Earlswood and Koros.

I'll be trying out the straight brass wire on the D9. I have tried to straighten my coiled wire before but as that was in the days before I had a vice it of course didn't work out very well- I think I shall have to give it another go at some time.

I did see that the C4 kit went for £80-some-odd yesterday, I did consider putting in a bid earlier when it was still at the £20 mark but to be honest having been advised on the other place that it wasn't seen as a particularly good kit I let it go. Probably for the best really- I bought five new locos in February (a B2, B5, J11, C14 and N5) and my bank balance was complaining- when the B5 arrived I had 'buyer's remorse' for the first time

There'll be another opportunity sometime or other no doubt- when I was looking to buy a 'Director', and again when I was looking for a 'Sam Fay' I lost out maybe four or five times before getting lucky with a bargain.

[James Harrison]

The Mogul is now finished, and I'm very pleased with it...





I used HMRS pressfix transfers for the number and insignia- I wanted something a little more unusual so went for the lettering with an ampersand in it, setting the model in very early LNER days. I came up with the number by looking up the highest GCR loco number - 1252- and then adding 5001 to it. I did have a look to see whether there was a real loco numbered 6253 but drew a blank.

The D9 continues to come along nicely.





The boiler fittings are castings from Alan Gibson, the boiler bands and beading are 0.5mm plastic strip and the handrail is 0.45mm brass rod set into brass handrail knobs. I'm quite pleased with how the handrail has turned out- with a little practice I think it promises good results.

[earlswood nob]

Evenin' all
The handrails make a great improvement.
I think the Great Central Cabs had a grab-rail between the cut-out and the cab front.
It should be easy to make from a piece of 0.45 wire bent at the ends.
Earlswood nob

[James Harrison]

You're quite right, there are short handrails on the cab sheets. They're the next little job on the loco (today was spent fitting the safety valves and then working on the tender). Usually I use staples to represent them.

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all on a beautiful Sunday morning
It never ceases to amaze me what modellers can do with R-T-R locos.
Converting a Triang 2P into a D9 is great modelling, but then converting a Fowler tender into a GCR tender. I wouldn't even think of that route.

Earlswood nob

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Nice looking locos aren't they, excellent.

manna

[James Harrison]

Good morning all on a beautiful Sunday morning
It never ceases to amaze me what modellers can do with R-T-R locos.
Converting a Triang 2P into a D9 is great modelling, but then converting a Fowler tender into a GCR tender. I wouldn't even think of that route.

Earlswood nob

G'Day Gents

Nice looking locos aren't they, excellent.

manna

Thank you!

For the tender (I'll post photos later), I think I have found a method of converting a Fowler tender into something that looks like a Robinson one.

Take the Fowler tender and cut away the top at the level of the coal rails. You'll end up with a rectangle of material about 15mm high. Then take some plastic sheet (I used 0.5mm sheet, which I had to hand) and cut 2 off 81mm by 20mm rectangles. Cut 1 off 31mm by 20mm rectangle. Glue the longer rectangles to the sides and the smaller rectangle to the rear of the tender body (having removed all rivet detail, steps etc off the tender body first of course). The longer rectangles should overhang the rear of the tender body by around 1mm. Once all has set, file back the new tender sides until they meet with the rear (if you do this with a gentle curving motion on the file you end up up with a subtle radius at the end).

Now take some 1mm by 0.5mm plastic strip and cut off 2 lengths of 82mm and 1 of 32mm. These should be glued edge-on at the top of the new tender sides. Once set, use some model filler to sculpt a fillet under the plastic strip. This creates the flare to the tender sides.

At this point I filled and sanded down the body. I then turned to the interior of the tender. I cut a piece of 0.5mm plastic sheet, 32mm long and 8mm high, and I ruled off a line at 5mm height. I dropped this into the body to check where this line fell- just at the top of the flare, with 3mm protuding above. Very good. I then drew in a gentle arc in this 3mm high area, then filed down to it. Then I glued this piece to the remains of the forward bulkhead of the original tender and to the new tender sides.

I then cut a 34 x 10mm rectangle and this time glued it straight to the remains of the rear bulkhead. It will need filing down at the edges to fit into the tender body, but be sure at the top (above the level of the flare) to leave it at 34mm width. At 34m wide it should sit just inside the outside edge of the flare.

I then cut a rectangle of plastic about 32 x 26mm and glued it behind the rear bulkhead at the level of the flare to create a new tank top.

If you have used an old Triang-Hornby donor tender, you will find that when you cut through the top of the tender body you took out the top of the bunker, and end up with a loose tender body and a coal bunker resolutely screwed down to the chassis. I remedied this by cutting some plastic rectangles, size about 45 x 8mm, and gluing them to the the tender sides and the coal bunker, basically reinstating the bunker top.

The final touch to the basoc body of course are the coal rails. Draw two rectangles, size 60 by 5mm. Now on one long side measure in 5mm from each edge. Draw a quarter-circle of radius 5mm in each top corner, and carefully cut out. Alternatively of course cut it out as a series of flats and file down to a smooth curve. Place these in the centre of the tender body and glue in place- you will find that the rear bulkhead actually helps hold them in place and stops them falling in or out away from vertical.

[James Harrison]

Photos of the tender:

[James Harrison]

I'm about halfway through the painting stage of this model, so I reckon it is time for an update.





I began by giving the model a coat of humbrol dark grey as a base and then lightly sanding down and filling in any gaps or marks.

The first part of the model to see any colour were the frames, and following the colour plates in John Quick's excellent book on Robinson loco liveries I started with a coat of humbrol #73, matt wine. This however looked too bright so the following evening I washed over it with revell #85 matt chocolate brown. Of course this then made it too flat and dark again, so I today gave it a final coat of humbrol #73. This time I think I achieved a shade pretty close to what I'm aiming for.

I gave the boiler, cab sheets and tender a coat of humbrol #105, olive green, to start. Then I worked over this with a coat of humbrol's 'Railway Range' brunswick green (#35, I think?). It needs a second coat yet.

The black is simply humbrol #33 matt.

[James Harrison]

It has taken me about a week to line out the loco, all of it by hand with paint pens. The result? Well it won't stand close scrutiny but it does look impressive from normal viewing distances (about 2' away).

I've found a source of GC transfers but I have to wait until later this month to get an order in.

Until then I'm regarding this model as finished...

[James Harrison]

... And so on to the next project.

I've decided to bite the bullet and complete my rake of GCR clerestories. There are a pair of brakes 'to do', a lavatory all-third brake and a composite brake.

I've started on the lavatory all-third and I think it has the potential to be quite an easy conversion. The main problem(s) are that the GC carriage has double doors, rather than a single door and guards ducket, and four compartments instead of five.

The way I've found to replicate this is to leave the two outermost passenger compartments as they are. The third compartment loses two windows (these will eventually form the lavatory compartment), then the remaining window is appended to the fourth compartment. The fourth and fifth compartments are shifted along by a window, and the window left over at the brake end of the fifth compartment is blocked in and added to the van.

It'll make sense later when I get some pictures up.

Now with the ducket I reckon if you are careful it is just about possible to remove it with a hacksaw and leave enough material behind to form the basis of the double doors in the van. I managed this on one side of the carriage, and then on the other side went and messed it up- I've a little rebuilding to do....

[James Harrison]

Next up on the bench are a pair of GCR brake clerestories- an all third and a composite- I've started work on the brake third as being the easier of the two. I'm using the same methods I've previously described on the all-thirds and the composite.