GWR Branchline in EM Gauge 4mm Scale

My son was thinking of buying a TVR when they were still going, when we met a salesman on the showroom, the very first words he said to us was "the roofs all leak".

That's why you don't drive them in the rain. And of course the small issue of 400 bhp at the rear wheels with 75% of the weight up front. 

Nigel

That's the GWR for you Phil …………….. ;-)

Oh, sorry, you meant the car not Nigel's wagon ……………….. :cheers

One of our "gang" as young men had one - a Tuscan I think.  We'd all been playing snooker till late at a friend's house in the winter and there'd been a keen frost.

We left to go home, us initially in the same direction as the TVR owner but he naturally, left us standing.  We rounded a corner and guess what - he'd "lost" it on the ice.  The engine and chassis (frame) were sitting next to a ditch but tiny bits of fibreglass were spread everywhere.  The bodywork had completely disintigrated, and I mean "completely".  The scene looked like the finish line of a paper chase with tiny pieces of fibreglass spread over a fairly tight area.  He (the driver), was just getting out of the remains of the car without so much as a scratch. 

Sorry Nigel - you can have your thread back now ………………… :oops: :oops: :oops: :off topic

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

You've made a good job of that Toad Nigel, as Bill said, Mr. Rose will be justifiably proud of his great grandson.  Did Mr Rose work for the GWR or some more respected company further to the north and east  ? …………. :pedal

When I saw the mention of TVR, I thought wow - he's into sports cars as well.   :roll:  Alas, the only similarity between your TVR and the TVR I thought of is in the number of wheels.

Looking forward to seeing how the Mink turns out.  Actually, I like the Coopercraft kits - it's a pity they seem to be disappearing into history ……….

The Toad - thanks. Not perfect, it will do. Mr. Rose worked for the local narrow gauge railway in Oxfardsheer - Grub, Water and Rest I understand. I had a long chat with the owner of Cooper Craft last Friday, he's working hard on getting the injectors to match the tools. New machine, old tooling (metric versus imperial by the sound of things). Fingers crossed, order placed.


TVR. Bin there, dun that. 'Nuff said. 


The Mink is a splendid piece of kit. As is the Provender. Big problem is that with these Cooper Craft models the offerings from the RTR folks look decidedly inferior. 


Nigel

Hi All,

More progress on the sector plate, and some photos of the MINK being built.

Bearimg surfaces on the sector plate frame now have 1/8" thick  UHMW polyurethane surfaces, glued and screwed (countersunk). This is the  material used on table saws and router tables, hard wearing and a very  low coefficient of friction. Nice afternoon, so the bottom of the table  is getting some coats of urethane varnish.






The MINK. An eBay estate find along with the Provender wagon, advertised as vintage and sealed. Well, yes, sealed after the previous owner made a start, and taken off the bits from the sprues using a pair of garden shears. The only bit missing was the cover for the weight compartment. A new price was negotiated. $3 per kit. Not too much damage, some stress marks in the plastic (white areas), couple of breaks in the bar at the bottom of the axle bearings, nothing will be obvious once its fettled and painted. The Provender kit is in much better shape.

Cooper Craft kits are OO kits. so the rails and W irons are too narrow for EM gauge axles and wheels. Packing with styrene sheet was necessary to move them and the brake rodding out. The brake pads are now in alignment with the wheel tread. I added some brass pin point bearings. This was an early wooden MINK diagram circa 1904, sliding ventilators on the ends, covers yet to be added. Note the shape of the coupling hook plate on the beam, used in the period 1900-1920. Nice detail touch.

Hi All,

The Cooper Craft MINK is done and awaits a warm day for a coat of rattle can slate grey.

The mailman delivered a tasty parcel from Hatton's on Saturday, 3 Ratio Iron MINK kits, a Parkside wooden MINK (some details different to the Cooper Craft kit), plus an autocoach. Advertised as a kit, completed, body scuffed and glue marks on the windows. At £7.50 How could I resist. Wrong era of course, but maybe it can be resurrected and used as a paneled model. Turns out it is a BSL kit for what looks like an A27/28 Autocoach built in 1930-33. The kit probably dates from the late 1960's (pre-Airfix apparently), aluminum body shell, white metal and brass fittings, fine scale wheels in metal bogies, detailed underbody in plastic that looks to be not part of the kit. Should be interesting to see how this can be stripped down and refinished, and perhaps back-dated to an earlier diagram with paneled body. Would be a nice complement to the planned matchstick model.

Iron MINKS were abundant at the turn of the 20th century, 4000 had been built by 1901, and some lasted into BR days. The Ratio model is apparently a tad too high according to the experts, so as usual a bit of fettling might be called for. Or then again, not, depending on how it looks when built. Later minks were slightly bigger anyway.

Nigel

The MINK. Note holes in the solebar used for horse chains. Not sure about the roof, as it looks too thick to me, one in thinner brass might be better. See last photograph. I will check some photographs. Brass or plastic, It will need toning down to a grimy white.



Additional support for the floor. The kit uses 2 small pips either end that the floor sits on (just visible outboard of the styrene). I beefed this up with some bits of rectangular styrene either side of the coupler spring, glued to the floor and the inside of the buffer beam . Metal couplers are sprung and are from Markits/Romfords. Three link chains will be added after painting. Unfitted van, so no brake cylinder or plumbing.


Additional weight added inside the body  - steel plate. Note damage to sides where the previous owner went to to town with the garden shears on the sprues. Luckily the roof hides the damage.


Ventilator covers added to the ends.

A very nice job…. I look forward to seeing the painted article!
Michael

Hi Michael,
Grey is…grey.  I might sneak in some GWR red wagons to give a bit of variation. :lol:

Nigel

Hi All,

Heads up/caveat emptor. One of those "well I never" occasions. I ordered a Parkside V12/14/16 MINK kit (PECO, note that MINK should be in capitals) from Hatton's, One of the reasons is that these kits are being advertised everywhere as now including waterslide transfers (decals over here). The picture shows the front cover of the package. Seems pretty clear that this is a GWR MINK kit.



Back cover states that waterslide transfers are included. By Modelmaster no less. So far so good.



So inside the packet is this: I did look hard - not one GW to be seen. It's all BR! Not quite what I need. Ex G.W.R.  (PECO, note that is also wrong! G.W.R). Not what the label says - GWR.



So after a bit of email correspondence with Peco I got the following: Basically "yer on yer own mate, cough up some more dosh".

"We  can confirm that the majority of the Parkside OO kits will be supplied  with BR era transfers only. For pre-nationalisation transfers we would  advise looking  at the HMRS brand who supply a range of different transfer sheets to  suit all the different regions, with enough transfers on each sheet to  letter a number of different wagons."


Now these kits are manufactured in the same factory as the Ratio Iron Minks, which come with GW transfers but no BR ones. What? So you are forcing me to buy some expensive transfers that with postage will almost double the cost of the kit when you have them in  the factory? The wooden MINKS ran for most of their life on the GWR, as did the iron MINKS, and both survived until the 1960's. So 40-55 years under GWR, 10-15 years under BR. Hmm. Correspondence with PECO and Hattons is ongoing.

So if you fancy a Parkside "GWR" kit, I suggest making sure you are not being led astray with what is misleading advertising. Because if it ran after nationalization it will probably come with BR transfers. Caveat emptor mes amis. (BTW, not a good kit, lots of flash and poorly fitting parts).

Nigel

Nigel, you are quite right.  The packet says GWR and that is what you should get.  Peco may well have fallen foul of the Consumer Rights Act, 2015 in that the goods are not as described.  Google the Act for more info.

Regards,

Terry

Well, if you will model the Green, Wet and Rusty, Nigel………………….  


Ed

Hi Terry,

Already have done, plus the advertising standards. Falls under false and misleading advertising. All it would take is the GW transfer that goes into the Ratio kits. I am waiting to see how they respond, along with Hatton's.

Nigel

Hi Nigel,

That explains why some of the more responsible eBay sellers now advertise these kits, ''now with correct GWR transfers''. I was wondering exactly what transfers they were originally with!

As a matter of 'couldn't care less', I was in the UK last weekend for a model railway exhibition and noticed two well know national retailers selling these obviously GWR kits with the BR transfers. Shame on them, particulary at just over £11 a kit.

Hope it works out for you, particularly, as Terry says, they seem to be in contravention of sales description consumer law.

Bill

Hi Bill,

I hope so. Hatton's immediately came through with a credit, which will at least pay for the transfers, although I am seriously thinking about commissioning my own.

Now onto a company that is exemplary in it's attitude - Shapeways. Late last year I ordered a 517 class body shell designed by a member of the club - Stafford Road. The pinkies are not quite up to detailed precision modeling at the moment, so a complete shell with just a few bits to add sounded attractive. Round-topped firebox as well. Designed to fit the Hornby 14xx chassis, this one will have a SE-Finecast chassis and wheels that is waiting to get built. Now as everybody knows I have reservations about 3D prints, but the price was right and there is very little to add - copper top for the chimney, pressure valves, whistles, coal, buffers, that's about it. All in stock in the spares box. The only item I may have to get is a backhead appropriate for the round-topped firebox.

My reservations were well founded. Defects in 3d prints are difficult to see unless you give it a coat of primer. So I gave the shell a going over with #320 paper, followed by a good rinse, and when dry a couple of coats of grey primer/paint. I was hesitant to touch the bunker back given the rivet detail. And there the defects were. An email to Shapeways last week expressing my concerns resulted in an immediate apology and a replacement shell by the end of the month. That is real customer service. After a lot of sanding (3 hours for the initial sanding 6 hours so far after primer/painting) and a scrub with glass cooker top cleaner, it is getting there. I made some sanding sticks by using CA and some very narrow bits of wood. Looks like the print was done on a slight angle, hence the exaggerated stepping at the back of the bunker. Another coat of grey primer followed by some more sanding and it might actually be salvageable.

I suppose the real issue is that this amount of work even at minimum wage triples or even quadruples the price of the shell. Good job I work for free.The 517s I will need had already seen 45-50 years of service, perfect they definitely were not. A few dents in the side tanks and dome would actually be prototypical.

I have no connection with Shapeways. They are just a very nice company to deal with.

Nigel


Before





After

Had a win or two then Nigel , good.

Hi Ron,

I'd call them draws so far.

HMRS GW logo sheet - enough for 3 vehicles in white, 3 in red, 3 in yellow, but at £6.50 plus postage a real ouch. Getting my own printed is definitely on the cards as I have a few wagons to do. Plus nobody does pre-1904 lettering. Or for that matter the plates that they used for a few years that had GWR and wagon number on. Hopefully the second 517 is better than the first.

Nigel

Re Parkside Kits, a few months ago I picked up several from Hattons, one of which was old stock without transfers. That worked for me because I'd bought HMRS sheets to complete some GWR Cambrian wagon kits.

By chance the three new style kits, PC 44 'Bloater' Fish Van, PC 79 GWR Horse Box and PC 85 'Mica' B Wagon all had the correct GW transfers in yellow and red as required so the Transfers issue is clearly hit and miss.

I've heard of issues with print quality at Shapeways - to say nothing of the cost of some of their prints now.

Yes, hats at least tipped for offering a free replacement but that's not the point.  It should have been perfect to start with.  You are now waiting for the replacement with the continued worry that it too will have faults.  In my book, it's just not good enough.  We're paying customers not free test beds.  If they can't do the job properly, they have no right being in the business.

It reminds me of a tale I heard many, many years ago when Japanese companies started setting up in UK.  Their QA was legendary.

A UK company ordered some rough casting from a Japanese run forge and, as was customary in those days, specified they would reject the whole batch should there be any more than "5% faulty"

On the requested day, 95 forgings were delivered.  On asking where the remaining 5 were, they were told those were the 5% faulty they'd requested and were being produced now but, as they were specified as "faulty", the forge thought it better to send them separately in case they got mixed up with the good ones ……………..

The Japanese just couldn't get their heads around why any customer would accept anything imperfect.

Hi Collin,

Definitely hit and miss. Note the comment that the majority of kits will have BR transfers. Reading between the lines they have run out of what came with the tooling and are not doing any more. 

Nigel

[user=1632]BCDR[/user] wrote:

Hi Collin,

Definitely hit and miss. Note the comment that the majority of kits will have BR transfers. Reading between the lines they have run out of what came with the tooling and are not doing any more. 

Nigel

The mystery deepens, I'm not convinced that the Era has been changed.

I've had a look at my PC 44 kit, the GWR transfers appear to be from a new batch. The on-line photo of the product as (formerly) available from Modelmaster uses white fonts for the product labelling. Mine are Black but otherwise in the same format as the older prints. Now PECO appears as Yellow on Black rather than the former white on Red.

Modelmasters site is not showing current photos of these products to further muddy the waters.

Checking back on PC84, the Modelmaster product might always have been the BR version, if the images posted on line from various retailers are any measure. If in the past you were buying a separate transfer sheet from Modelmasters the possible mismatch would have been immediately obvious. Not so now when included with the kits.

Colin