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What's on your workbench?


81F

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The loops are isolated at the crossovers.

 

Just using Insulated Rail Joiners is not enough. It only takes a lapse of concentration and have one loop set to DC and the other set to DCC and then try and run a train across the cross-over and you will end up connecting the outputs of the DC and DCC controllers together. This has the potential to do permanent damage to controller electronics.

 

Are not all the brass wires shorted together in this image or is it an optical illusion due to the camera angle?

 

Optical illusion, they are separated vertically. Correct on the DC + DCC. I generally only plug the DCC in on its own and toggle the 2 loops to that controller.

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Going Large Logo..............

 

The Triang Hornby 37 - most likely R751 - is going Largo logo and being sacrificed so that I can practice with my airbrush and try out a few things as my Mehano 66 heads towards GBRf 66789.

 

/media/tinymce_upload/d4c5a7d33d3afc7ebcccb3b4d05de09e.JPG

 

I must say it has been really enjoyable so far - once I got over stripping a Loksound loco and sticking it in IPA for a week. This may take a while as I'm currently only spraying on one of my days off each week but hope to have it done by end of October!

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Just a thought, but why not practice on a spare sheet of plastic, or even purchase a piece for that purpose - saves spraying up a perfectly decent bodyshell?

 

If they're to be fully repainted, then it's neither here nor there obviously!

Good luck and happy spraying.

 

I keep on thinking of getting around to starting myself, but there are too many super-talented painters out there  - if you can find them - ready to assist.

 

Al.

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@Atom

 

I sprayed a few things over the last few weeks, but there's nothing like a real body to practice on - ask a doctor....but seriously, I felt I needed something with grills, doors and gutters to really see how the paint covers the finer details.

 

I can't really remember where that 37 came from! I think it was from a school friend - I certainly rescued a Mk1 coach from his garden pond where it had lain for a number of years and I think I also still have it. Around 20 years ago I bought EWS decals and maroon and gold paint along with flush glazing and a white metal detail pack with the intention of 'doing' the 37 then, but never got round to it. Now its at least out of the junk box and centre of attention for a while. I'll complete the paint job and if I'm happy with it order up some LL decals. If I go that far, I'll fit the flush glazing and other goodies and I'll have another loco I won't run....but it should be satisfying. The 66 is the real goal here though and if I am happy with it then I have expensive plans ahead....

 

I got the airbrush for my 16th birthday (Badger 200) and after trying it twice and not getting very good results I gave up - just like today's teenagers!!! 35 years later I feel I have the patience, the funds and in youtube, the online tuition to make a decent attempt. I would recommend you give it a go. We've probably all got too many trains and its in Hornby's interest if we all ruin a few of them..........so we have space for more new ones.

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A class 29 has just joint the ranks of my Hymeks still awaiting DCC chips. However, just taken delivery of a Hornby long clerestory brake with scratched body and a badly painted roof. I have been searching for something like this for over a year so that I can use a near mint body I have hanging around.

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A few locos as it is wet today, so no gardening or outside painting to do.  

 

Bman blue class 25. This was slipping and I finally realised how to get the bogie out to look further. The two wires from the bogie are looped under the circuit board, so loosening that off means you can tease the wires out and that gives you an extra 2 inches of wire, so the bogie can drop down enough after releasing the tower screw.

 

I was expecting to find a cracked plastic bearing, but it was fine so it must just have come loose. I have pushed it back on and it now seems OK. However, I was a bit silly as I did not loop the wires back under the circuit board and one got sheared when I put the body back on. All sorted now though with a twist and tape repair until I can solder it. 

 

Mainline Jubillee. This is at least 36 years old to me and I got it second hand for £12 and kept it in the boot of the car for several days until I gained enough courage/picked the right time to mention it to....  It works fine, so body off and I just cleaned and oiled it. I did notice a crack in a drive wheel plastic bearing, but it does not seem to be affecting running at the moment, so I left it be. 

 

Heljan Metrovick. Just a clean and oil, with the body off, and replaced a coupling hook. Can't get to the motor bearings though.

 

Hornby 8F - 48151 - Body off and a clean and oil. The pony wheel is derailing too much over pointwork, so I am hoping oiling the slider mechanism and the axle will help.

 

Hornby Fowler 2P. I bought 2 O rings to see if they would be OK instead of traction tyres but thay are too thick. So I kave left off the stretched tyre and hope that the loco will do OK with just one traction tyre.  I also cleaned the wheels and tested the pick ups and was surprised to find that all 14 wheels have pick ups. I could not work out how to take the body off though to get to the motor bearings. 

 

On the layout, I have been mending an Aifix/Dapol girder bridge - 1 x 50 year old plus Airfix recycled from my childhood layout extended by 2 recent Dapol ones. I have been putting Wills chequer plate in between and on the outside of the rails and it looks a lot more realistic now. Bit fiddly as the track in on a slight curve so I needed paper templates to make sure I cut the plate accurately. I have been generally tidying up the scenic bits around the bridge. The buildings from the high level branch good yard have been brought down for renovation as they have suffered from water damage and are generally filthy - a severe drawback of a loft layout.   

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I've been working on my 2 Brits - retooled 70000 and 70013.

Crawl has not been good, but above they're of course superb.

 

I've found the intermediate gear, driven by the motor worm, has a transparent shim at one side, presumably to possibly protect the slightly smaller, finer gear alongside.

Removing this shim aids substantially in smoothing the very slow speed control I find.

 

In addition, I've replaced the tyres on my loco-drive super detail Schools.

I was surprised to find the body is diecast as well.

Running brilliantly - super smooth and can crawl with the best of them - it can match the Royal Scot video I posted some time ago, which is extremely impressive.

 

Al.

 

Al.

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Two more colours on and although there is slight overspray in a couple of places and the tape has lifted the paint here and there, I am overall quite please with how they both look. Black next!

 

/media/tinymce_upload/af52aa673c691f8258c3c81e71da928f.JPG

 

I have ordered up decals now for the 37, so no longer just a test bed.........it will actually be finished! 

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Two more colours on and although there is slight overspray in a couple of places and the tape has lifted the paint here and there, I am overall quite please with how they both look. Black next!

 

/media/tinymce_upload/af52aa673c691f8258c3c81e71da928f.JPG

 

I have ordered up decals now for the 37, so no longer just a test bed.........it will actually be finished! 

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My super detailed 70000 Britannia - sliding roof vents, cab side window / ash guards - has had a Westinghouse pump on the front for some time, but I'd never got around to fitting the speedo - not coming with the locomotive.

 

I'd had a set of Britannia class drivers for some time, and had removed the flush spigot with the long one some time ago.

I'd had problems mounting the speedo onto the body, but found a little 'careful brutality', sorry, modelling, was required!

Everything is so confined, it's ridiculous, and the chassis literally fills the body as much as possible - virtually no room to add any lead, nor any need.

 

Way around it is simply to trim away some of the inside of the firebox to permit flush mounting to avoid it catching the chassis - some VERY careful use of the Dremel with a drill bit and job's a gud'un - not visible from the outside, and held firmly with superglue.

 

Next is the fact the spigot is aligned for the centre driver, to be slightly offset.

Again, a bit of 'careful modelling' with a firm grip and a pair of pliers, I expected a slight 'wobble' in the speedo, once mounted - normal for most Hornby steam locomotives ... but it doesn't, it's nearly perfectly centred and remains that way - job done!!

 

Al.

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Boring old point motor wiring again today. 

Wiring Accessory Decoders to plug in terminal blocks initially, then wiring the actual motors to the mating half blocks.

The reason for this is later I want to be able to easily unplug these blocks and splice in relay boards that will allow manual switching in addition to DCC/RM Switching.

Only four accessory decoders running sixteen sets of solenoids, five sets of which are paired, so twenty one motors in total.

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The Bachmann blue class 25 seems to be cured, and the Hornby 2P Fowler 4-4-0 is running fine on the one traction tyre.

 

On the bench I have started on 2 of the 4 Dapol Stanier Corridor coaches. Preliminary work putting the 16 vents on each roof and painting the coach ends, bogies and underframe in Humbrol 33 matt black. I have done 3 before and if the wheels are changed to Hornby ones, then they run fine. 

 

I really like Great British Bake Off being on as I then have permission to do modelling ! 

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Twintop, before you start fitting the windows make sre that the actually press in all the way along. I did 3 where the windows wouldn't press home fully without some very minor modification. The Hornby wheels are great fitted to mine. The interiors were fully painted and "No Smoking" signs put on certain windows. At the time I did those I also got hold of two 12 wheel Hornby restaurant cars and detailed the interiors with coloured seating, anti macassers and stainless kitchen items. Sadly I gave up trying to do table lamps as everything was too big. If anyone knows of any suitable table lamps (non working are fine) let me know. If I could get hold of those from the Railroad Pullmans in bulk that would do./media/tinymce_upload/1b2673814ca0727e1804a9665538aa02.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/0c749bd709b12814070c4fb802fa1551.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/fb285f6f81afa57fd95cea8b54080ff7.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/2166ad771ac7760b571423b3180fd840.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/b395cc3d197fdcadb935c3451c63da6a.JPG

I also change the coupling for something smaller that worked with other coaches. Some of the later finer ones were either too long or short./media/tinymce_upload/8848c7d184618ad1aca70dff4de5069b.JPG

They really need the lamps and some passengers so that is still a project to be done.

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@vespa

ref the table lamps I recall someone on this forum years ago doing just that and the lamps were made from DIY jewellery parts. I tried a forum search and came up zilch as usual.

 

As I remember it they used various shaped beads threaded on a fibre optic centre, lit by a common led, same as the normal Hornby Pullmans.

 

Was it you or them did the full table service layout of knives and forks, plates, glasses, etc. I can’t remember if these were simply printed or actual 3D bits and pieces. Way beyond my skill set anyhow whichever it was.

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Vespa, thanks for the advice about the windows. However your models are too good - I won't be able to achieve those standards.

 

One question, I see you have painted the roof in a grey. I did that on the first 3 coaches I assembled a few years ago, but noted this time that the instructions say the roof should be Humbrol 29 - Army Green. I did happen to have that colour and so have painted the latest 4 coaches in that colour, but is it correct ? 

 

I am also struggling on the interior colours. I have painted the walls of the seating unit in a cream, and intend to do the floors in a grey and the seats in a maroon. 

 

I might not bother to do the insides of the actual coach body in the cream as a bit of a risk of getting paint bleeding on to the exterior finish and I never look inside the coaches anyway.  

 

Otherwise, I have painted the underframes, bogies and coach ends in Humbrol 33, supposed to be matt black but it has dried shiny. Am I losing the plot here !! 

 

A final point, the instructions recommend washing the parts before painting as do Airfix kit instructions. I have never done this, is it necessary ?  

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Tri-ang-Hornby class 31 under restoration.  A model shop graveyard box find.  It came in split down the middle with wrecked non-powered bogie, wrecked bogie pivot, messed up clear coat, motor parts missing and a weak motor magnet.  I took pity on it.

 

The loco is looking better./media/tinymce_upload/bc62d5b076a9cadcceb5f4c4419dbfc1.jpg

 

The restored power unit, just awaiting paintwork attention.

 

/media/tinymce_upload/2246b6528d367fa885275dc3b55b5799.jpg

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