Fun with a razor saw

Hi Bill,

i was going to add that you need to do the conversion with an old Airfix or Keyser model, the Hornby one is not amenable to hackery and butchery unless you want that big lump of a motor/chassis visible.The Phoenix kit at £80 is way beyond my zero-cost Keyser kit. I went through the differences in dimensions a few years ago when I was thinking about doing a conversion, the couple of mm difference is modelers license.

That engineer's square might be a tad heavy as a floor, and the MOW folks might have a few words to say on track clearances.

Nigel

 

You're doing a lovely job with this kitbash so far, very nice work!

I saw a Keyser kit for the 517 just the other day on ebay. It went up to £28 as I kept reminding myself I already have a pair of Airfixes, so kept it an arm's distant, as the 14xx conversion will be easy and much fun.

Quite right Nigel, engineer's squares pack a lot of weight for their size, which is why they are such reliable assistants despite demolishing the loading gauge!

Thanks for your kind words Brendan. I'm enjoying this bash muchly, as it's required a fair amount of research, as well as modelling.

A major reconfiguration of very large kitchen furniture continues tomorrow, so progress is severely limited. Today, I just glued a strip of 30thou styrene to the lower inside part of the driving end. This will enable me to safely sand the tumblehome, as I chickened out of bending the end for fear of breaking it.

Bye for now,

Bill 

Regarding 517 options mentioned above. Besides the Keyser kit which sold for a modest £28 on ebay last week, there was also a secondhand Shapeways bodyshell listed, which I was watching on the same auction site. I had a maximum bid set at £26, as a new one sells for just 30€, although needs finishing work and a new white metal dome.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/173215159122?_trksid=p2471758.m4704

The ebay item, which had been painted in BR black over GWR green, needed a good few days soaking in brake fluid to get it back ready for detailing and painting. Ebay madness struck pretty hard, as some uninformed modeler paid a staggering £53 for it.

There is certainly one born every minute!

Enjoy the modelling chaps and buy wisely. 

Bill

Gods, that drives me batty sometimes. How people will steamroller-outbid everyone with a crazy max bid like that because they're so fixated on winning, even when the item isn't worth that much and/or there are several perfectly good "Buy it Now" listings they could have gone for if they were willing to drop that much money.

Little and often seems to sum up my modelling recently, but I got the sides, end and floor together today.







I’ve left the rear end off until last, as it’s brass and needs careful fitting with superglue and plastic angle.

I’ve just noticed, as often happens with these close ups, that some bolection sections are loose, so it’s out with the CA again in the morning! 

Cheers,

Bill

Nothing worse than loose bolections !  :roll:       ;-)    coming along nicely sir  :thumbs  how close are you to the first coat of primer ?
Cheers

Matt

Isn't that always the way?

Still, nice work. This is inspiring me to get back to my own autocoach project

Yes Matt, primer isn't far away, just as soon as I get the partitions in so the solvent can do it's thing with the styrene. Then it will look a whole lot better, or worse, depending on the panel fits!

I remember your autocoach project Brendan and good luck with that. I also have a clerestory version in mind myself using old Triang stock.

Bill

All 7 internal partitions were adjusted and fitted today, with the exception of that to the driving compartment, to allow a little more room for fitting some interior detail, besides the driver.





I trial fitted the roof with every partition to ensure the body shell retained its correct width. This is not normally a big issue with a straightforward kit build, but since the sides are an amalgam of several panels, it’s essential to keep them on the straight and narrow!

I need to find some blue-tac in the morning to hold two really tiny brackets in place though fixing holes in the rear panel while I glue them from behind, then I can fit the end and give the body a careful wash, ready for primer.

Oh and we had our hottest day of the year so far and enjoyed a lovely lunch outside on the river bank of fresh asparagus, fish with baby spinach and strawberries. Roll on summer!

Cheers,

Bill

Hi Bill
My apologies for not commenting before.  One could rightly say I was speechless…. I am so impressed with your patience and attention to detail.

It will look splendid and of course quite unique……..it makes my out of the box autocoaches look very run of the mill.

Not sure if I am quite so impressed with your description of lunch……its rather wet here

Best wishes

John

Getting closer and closer.. They'll be painted and glazed before you know it!

Thanks for your kind words John. I’ve taken my time to minimise errors, although have still made a few, but learned well from the experience and am looking forward to the next builds.
 
I got some fine filler into some body gaps today, attached the brass rear end and prepared the underside of the floor for the front buffer, also a brass etch. Once these are fixed, it will be time for primer.
 
I did notice however, that the 3^rd Class seating is a little tight for space and that the glazing will take a while to fit, as there are 17 separate pieces to fit and I better use Glue and Glaze.
 
The paint and glazing may however take a little while longer though Brendan, as I need to do more work away next week. I just hope the weather’s good enough for exterior decorating!
 
Bill

I had a dreadful night’s sleep last night with chronic indigestion keeping me up to 04h30. All my own fault due to just one last roast beef sarnie before bedtime! Anyway, I needed to snooze this morning and never made it out to buy Blu-tac, so no primer, so instead mainly cut and fettled seats for a while this afternoon.

I fished out some packs of the old Ratio seat extrusions and smiled at the price tag from a few years back!



This is where a mitre block is the essential assistant to Mr Jack the Razor, to avoid ill-fitting seats. I commented yesterday on the cosiness of GWR 3^rd Class accommodation, well this is where those seats need to undergo liposuction, the half millimetre per seat giving a valuable extra 3” between kneecaps in the cheap seats, although the real reason for reducing the thickness is to prevent seeing too much of the backrest through the windows and particularly the space behind the curvature of the seat back showing.



The left hand seat is straight from the pack, while the one on the right is in post-operative care. With ten seats to cut, file, shape and notch round the coach reinforcing strips, it takes a good ten minutes a seat, so like ballasting, it’s best to do it in more than one session!

In finishing, here’s a photo from yesterday, with the rear end firmly attached, detailing to be added later.



I'll finish the seats tomorrow, but am heading north for a couple of days on Wednesday, so may be unable to post until the weekend.

Cheers,

Bill

It’s good to be back from up North and thanks to delivery of the long awaited buffers from Dart Castings this morning, I spent a useful couple of hours trial fitting them to the buffer beams.

  Moving on, I’ve started on the fragile emergency brake gear to the rear end of the coach. I lost one and broke two of four tiny brass brackets holding the high horizontal bar in place, so with one successfully fixed to the coach, I’ll attach one of the damaged brackets to the rod etch, modify the vertical section to fit and then glue the whole thing into place, supported with strategically place blu-tac as temporary support. Someone at Shirescenes thoughtfully provided extra brackets on the etch!

  That will be the task for tomorrow, as my eyes have had enough close work for today, so fingers crossed and I’ll hopefully have a photo to show by the end of the weekend.

  Cheers,

  Bill
  

A change in order saw the detailing of the front end today, not the rear, as I thought it a little more robust than the other, so easier to protect when I do the rear.





I've customised some more steps for the front and will fix these, lamp irons and vacuum pipes before priming. The two roofs were chopped and joined into one and very loosely posed together with the buffer  beam, less the buffers, as they don't go in until I have the correct oval  heads, hopefully delivered soon.

I opened the 'new old stock' K's bogies which need to be fixed soon and was unimpressed with their crudeness, so will revisit a pair of 3D prints in the parts bin and then make a decision, as I need them fitted to set the ride height.

More soon,

Bill

 

Lots of intricate looking stuff on there Bill - you've got to be pleased with that.  :thumbs

Hi Bill. Speaking of bogies, does your kit have Bogies or just four wheels? And how about the chassis and underfame, have you done that yet. It looks like a nice kit but does not seem available . Best wishes. Kevin

Very pleased thanks Peter, and I'm particularly enjoying the detailing process, although fettling and fitting such small parts is tiring on the eyes.

Yes, there are bogies Kevin, as mentioned in my last post above and if you have the time to read through the thread, you'll see how this driving trailer is produced from a couple of Ratio 4 wheelers. There is also a matching intermediate trailer and is a much simpler build.

Here's a photo of the Dean bogies.



They don't have step boards yet and I'm not sure whether to use them or a set from a 3D print. The bogies are bolted through the floor, while the solebars are added, together with vacuum gear, brake linkages, etc to the underside.

Today I fitted the gas lamps and as this set will be in the 1930's simplified livery, I fitted the later two pipe system for gas and pilot lights.



The pipes are fed up to the roof from the guard's compartment via the off centre cover made by removing the lamp top from the white metal casting.



Then came the rather tedious process of the pipe clamps, holding the pipework to the roof. I made these from microstrip which is well over 30 years old and had an anoying habit of breaking once solvent was introduced and even a small amount of pressure applied, so many replacements were necessary.  The eagle eyed will notice some pipe clamps still need fixing down on one side. Gluing each clamp in a two-stage process seemed more successful against snapping, but took much longer.

Just rain strips to add and after some cleaning up with 1000 grade abrasive paper, a coat of primer will greatly improve the scrappy appearance.

Bill
 

Hi Bill. Thank you for your reply. Very good indeed. The patience of a saint. That 1000 grade paper( glass/ sand? ) is that the one that once was called “ Flour “? Is that aluminium that you are fitting just behind the cab? Speaking of eBay? I have purchased a lot of stuff, not all model railway, but the auction lead me to paying more than I intended to pay plus the postage and packing, and of course the waiting. The bogies look like a pair that came with an eBay early Triang Clerestory , but mine, if they are the same? are already assembled and the wheels seem to be “ locked in “ by the assembly. But i’m Sure your ones must be better. Keep up the good work. Best wishes.  Kevin