Very interested in the Class 153 conversion Jeff as I have been wondering about doing the same thing.  What is your overall opinion of the overlays? do they cover up a lot of the excellent detail on the Hornby model and how easy are they to apply?

I have now done the class 158 and Chris is right; they don't line up particularly well. However, I persevered, and cut away the misaligned bits and the result is a stunning looking Sprinter unit. I chose a Regional Railways one to do the overlays so the base livery is not too different in shade to the overlays. Even so, I will have to paint the projections over the bogies, and more yellow on the cab fronts, and the cab side window cross-bar. Photos will follow soon.

 

As to the 153s, the overlays fit better than the 158, although there were a couple of bits of FNW blue showing through at one end and near one of the doors, plus the door open light on one side only didn't line up properly and one of the end sidewindows was a little out of whack - not too obvious with the blue livery overlaid on a blue base. The rivets come out rather overscale with the overlay in place, due to the extra thickness of vinyl all around each rivet - that's after using the hair dryer to "melt" the vinyl around all the raised details. I did all that with the body and chassis together in situ, as I didn't want to end up with a banana shaped Sprinter if I used too much heat.

 

With some reservations, I would deem the overlays a success. They allow liveries that I, and most other average modellers, would otherwise find impossible to do well by hand. The effect from normal viewing distance is great but they don't  stand up to really close scrutiny, in that the underlying details are exaggerated slightly.

 

I still have the pink liveried 153 to do, and I have painted all the possible areas where the FNW blue or gold might show into Barbie pink, which will be close enough to disguise any shortcomings of the vinyls.

Thanks for that Jeff, food for thought.

It is certainly a problem Jeff, it is the only way to create some of these liveries and a few years ago we would have been more than happy!  As you say from normal viewing distance they look OK - perhaps I should have another go with the 153.

I have now uploaded a couple of pics of each of the remaining reliveried models (Hornby class 153 and Bachmann class 158). The 153s now have one Kaydee #19 coupler each - #18s are too close, #19s a little further apart than I want. Mixing them is possible but messy! the 158s will get Kaydee or Bachmann E-Z couplings on the driving ends soon.



 




 




 


 

 



 

As may be seen, I still need to repaint the 158 cab ends as the Wessex Trains "Richard Trevithick" unit didn't have the black treatment around the windows and light clusters.

Lovely colourful work there Jeff illustrating just how varied and complex a livery can now be with stick-on vinyl and (sometimes) the dreaded Contra-vision over the windows as well.

I take note of your comment re the 158 outer couplers as well since I am having trouble finding something suitable to join both my units together.

I am just at the end of two weeks sick leave from work, with swine 'flu'. Coincidentally, I managed to win a DC Kits 3H DEMU kit from eBay which arrived just before I got ill. While I was recuperating I started building the unit.

I don't yet have the motor for it but I ordered a BullAnt unit from Hollywood Foundry as I wanted to try something slightly different from the Black Beetles I normally use for such projects. I know they are similar mechanically but I feel the BullAnt may have slightly better traction - will have to wait and see whether my hunch is right or not but it certainly won't be any worse (not that the Black Beetle is bad to start with).

I have constructed the basic body shells and underframe trusses (not installed in the motor coach yet as I will have to cut clearance for the motor) but I haven't done any of the finer details yet as I am still a bit too shaky for the finer work!

I have not yet decided whether to paint it green or blue but as I have done most of the previous units in green I may just plump for blue for a change. Also, I am not happy with most of the commercial SR greens as they seem a little on the dark side.

I have taken a few photos of the progress so far but they are still on the camera's memory card right now; will get them ready and uploaded soon, so watch this space!

I still don't have a proper layout to run on yet but by the time this unit is complete, I hope to have started something.

Good to hear from you again Jeff and sorry to hear you have been beneath the weather somewhat.

I look forward to seeing the pics when you're ready.  I guess you could always compromise and paint the unit in blue with small yellow panel and white set numbers; not many models that I am aware of wear that livery.

Hi Rick. I have considered that livery option but I think I would go for full yellow ends as the models end up rather dark and dreary with the small yellow panels - I have already done a 2EPB, 4VEP and 4REP in the blue with small yellow panel livery. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

:hi

Here are the pictures of the 3H DEMU under construction. The first one shows the Driving Motor Brake Second (DMBS), while the others show the two trailer coaches, a Driving Trailer Composite with Lavatory (DTC[L]) and Trailer Second (TS). The underframe trusses and bogie sideframes for the motor bogie are visible behind the DMBS.



 



 

I think Eastleigh held some of their "Thumper" motor coaches together in similar fashion Jeff!

But seriously - excellent work so far.  Keep it up!

I thought they used chewing gum and string rather than rubber bands!!

Update: I received the BullAnt motor bogie in January and subsequently fitted it. That meant I could fit the underframe trusses as well.

I have not yet glued the motor bogie sideframes in place but will take a few pics this weekend to add to the story.

I still have not taken the photos of the 3H unit's progress but here are some pics of a much earlier project.

This is a Southern Railway Maunsell diesel-electric shunter in BR 1960s livery, made from a Golden Arrow resin body kit mounted on a modified Bachmann 08 chassis. It is still very much a work in progress and is awaiting glazing, handrail fitment and tidying up of those wasp stripes, which I am hand-painting!

I have not yet fitted a DCC decoder, which will have to be hard-wired as it was an older Bachmann chassis.










EDIT: I forgot to resize these before posting but they seem to be OK - if they do cause problems please let me know and I'll do something about it.

Hi Jeff, providing the photographs aren't too large when you upload them, and I mean large, large, then the Gallery will automatically resize them for posting on the forum.

Thanks, Robert.

I must post some more pics of that 3H unit. I haven't done much more to it but it does have its motor bogie installed now (and has done for some time!).

My latest little project has been a Lima Yeoman class 59, 59 005 Kenneth J Painter. I did add a Digitrax decoder to the original Lima motor but it was never a brilliant performer, although mine was certainly one of the better Lima runners.

Anyway, I recently purchased a Hornby class 59 off eBay for a very reasonable price, with a view to swapping bodies with the Lima one. Coincidentally, it was also 59 005, Kenneth J Painter, but in a later Yeoman livery. Unfortunately for Hornby, they used the wrong mouldings for this one as it has the later style 59/1 or 59/2 frontal treatments, so it made the body swap even more justifiable.

The Hornby chassis has a nice smooth running 5-pole motor and is DCC-ready but neither of the chassis had lights. I then decided i would fit lights, at least at one end. I used two types of white LED, one type with a light tower for each of the twin headlights and a slightly smaller type with a dimple rather than a "tower" for each of the marker lights, together with the necessary resistors.

I decided to drill out all of the lights, including the marker and tail lights, even though I had already resolved I was not going to have working tail lights. I worked out the clearances involved and only needed to remove parts of the front of the cab interior dash moulding to clear the LEDs.

I did have to unscrew the decoder socket and solder white, yellow and blue accessory wires to the correct sockets (matched very carefully to the plug on the decoder!). The decoder I used just happened to be spare after I installed two more sound projects, and is a Bachmann (ESU Basic) job.

The initial installation works nicely (a win for me!) but the wiring is a bit messy and goes up the inside of the cab front centre and corner pillars. They are rather too visible at the moment so I think I will re-do it with some of the LED "legs" shortened and thinner wires, plus a neater way for mounting the resistors but, for the time being, I am happy to run with it "as is".

I may do the lights at the other end soon but I will still not bother with working tail lights as they aren't really needed with this model.

I will also need to touch up the yellow panel just around the lights.

Photos will follow fairly soon, although they will show the installation without the cab interior being fitted.

The sound projects mentioned earlier, for anyone who is interested, were a class 57 fitted into a Bachmann Freightliner 57 008, and Kestrel, fitted into the Heljan Kestrel model. I also now have had my Hornby class 31 reblown so it now actually sounds like a class 31 should. All were Howes' sounds. Now I have a complete circuit to run on, I'll have to charge up the video camera!  :cheers

The lights work nicely although there is still some light bleeding into the tail light lenses at the moment, as well as into the cab interior - I haven't refitted the cab interior moulding at this point.

I have been fiddling with a few more projects lately.

On the railway side, I have an Ayjay models resin kit for a post-war 2HAL unit, also known as a 'Tin HAL'. Some of the detailing is a little on the heavy side but it looks like a 2HAL should. I have removed the moulded jumper cables from the DTC end and will do the same at the DMBS end soon, with separate wire cables to be added. I also filed down the over-thick secondman's window surrounds. Both coaches have been primed but I still have to remove some flash from the bogies.

Sorry about the blurry driving ends - I must stand back a little further to improve the depth of field in the future.







With a view to the upcoming Model Bus Association of Australia's modelling competition in December, I have been pushing a few bus kits up the production line. I can only enter two models in each category so one of the 4mm kit-built items for this year will be the Southdown Leyland Tiger Cub with Marshall BET style body, made from a Westward Models/ABS Streetscene white metal kit with a few minor modifications. I am flush-glazing the windscreens and rear window (not happy with the driver's screen right now as I got some glue on it) but I have yet to do the side windows and doors in these photos. I am also not yet happy with the shape of the cream 'V' at the front. The other entry is the Little Bus Company resin 5Q5 of London Transport, as it appeared in the pre-war period. I haven't glazed any part of this model yet.







For future entries, I have started on further bus kits. The next four are all Little Bus Company resin kits. In order of the pics:

1. An all-Leyland Titan PD2/12 'Farington' as run by Southdown in the early 1950s with an open rear platform. Thos one is partly painted but still needs tidying up before glazing.

2. A Southdown 1957 Commer TS3 coach with Beadle Rochester body.

3. A southdown Leyland Leopard coach with Duple Commander body from the mid-1960s.

4. A Southdown pre-war Leyland Titan TD5 with post-war East Lancs body.

















Also shown with the Leyland TD is a Royal Blue Bristol LL from Weico Models. This is also a resin kit but comes locally from Melbourne.






 

The Hal does indeed look like a tin Hal should, allowing for the fact that they were painted in due course as well ;-)  I had many short trips on those between home and school though the comfort of a 2Bil was preferred and they were often paired with one.

And a superb "rail replacement" fleet in the making as well.  Southdown is quite well represented in the RtP bus market so it's good to se some real modelling of the fleet under way as well.