Kingsbridge - workbench

[Dave]

Lovely work there Noel.

[Noel]

Securing pins to hold containers on wagon and prevent movement.  Holes drilled in floor of C-Rail 20ft containers to match and facilities mounting containers in either direction as well as running containers empty.

First coat of paint

[Noel]

GSV almost finished!  Just the water fillers left and a change of couplings to do.  Lightly weathered using weathering powders applied both dry and some wet using cotton buds to adjust.  Not too heavy as back in the CIE single stripe B&T era they were kept reasonably clean unlike the later IR/IE era.  Gloss varnish ready for SSM waterslide transfers, applied the decals using decalfix, then finally matt varnish to seal.  I will lightly weather the sole bar and undersides to fade the white decals on the chassis. 

Shaping and fitting the door grab rails was a challenge with my shaky hands and poor eyesight.  Thanks to Eoin's @murrayec advice I filed off the moulded plastic ones.  Reasonably happy the way it turned out for a first GSV conversion.  Next up a Bachmann BCK conversion to maroon 3173 hopefully over the Christmas holidays.

What I've enjoyed most is learning from the mistakes I made along the way.

[ttc0169]

Excellent work Noel, just the right amount of weathering which is not overdone-look forward with interest to your 3173 conversion 

[jhb171achill]

Stunning - absolutely superb job.

[popeye]

Just beautiful, looks perfect 10/10 

I love the grass, where did you get it please? 

[murrayec]

Excellent Noel

It looks great and done very neatly

Eoin

 

[scahalane]

Very well done Noel.

[David Holman]

Good on yer. Well done.

[Noel]

Thanks guys for the kind and encouraging comments. Will post a pic in natural light tomorrow and perhaps a video clip. It took a lot longer than I'd thought when starting out but enjoyed every bit. Looking forward to trying 3173. 

[burnthebox]

Noel sir, you have again, set a barrier with your skills, congrats & very well done sir, I'm challenged to say keep up the remarkable work, but I have to do something like that in the future....I did say LIKE THAT..!! heaven help me....

Paul

[aclass007]

Lovely job! Something to be proud of...... 

[John-r]

Noel,  what a fantastic job on the Gsv,. You rightly should be very proud of this achievement .  Very well done.

[Junctionmad]

as an aside 

can anyone discern from the real thing what the text immediately over the fillers was 

 

its Has " Tank filler " , followed by something , that I cant resolve in any picture I have 

 

 

Dave 

[Dhu Varren]

I presume this is what you are after. You can just about make it out as 'Tank Filler Water'.

Edited December 18, 2017 by Dhu Varren

[Noel]

Its too small to make a readable transfer or decal as evidenced by photos.  You could paint a faded white patch to make it look like there is lettering there but doesn't seem worth the hassle given its too small to read without a microscope.  

[Junctionmad]

thanks Diu Varren , I also unearthed a pic on flickr that was very clear 

 

Tank filler water 

 

29 minutes ago, Noel said:

Its too small to make a readable transfer or decal as evidenced by photos.  You could paint a faded white patch to make it look like there is lettering there but doesn't seem worth the hassle given its too small to read without a microscope.  

its about half the size of the main lettering , might be doable , Ill email a few custom decal people 

[Noel]

1 hour ago, Junctionmad said:

its about half the size of the main lettering , might be doable , Ill email a few custom decal people 

Interested to see how it turns out  

[Noel]

Work continues on the 20ft skeletal container wagon rake.  Four more painted bauxite (railmatch acrylic 235).  They are awkward to airbrush and waste a lot of paint due to the need cover all the shaded angles of the skeletal chassis.

Ready for decals and weathering. These will be used to haul C-Rail 20ft Bell containers in mixed goods traffic formations behind B&T locos.

The 3D kit was supplied by ifm and is quick and easy to assemble.

[GNRi1959]

Very realistic assembly line, impressed!

[Mayner]

On 12/9/2017 at 3:49 AM, jhb171achill said:

The BR livery vanished in its entirety before entering traffic - the entire coach was painted in the standard CIE livery with black roofs from the outset. Nothing orange and black ever ran with grey roofs. Dirt, of course, can throw up many shades of many things.....!

The structural alterations to the coaches were carried out by British Rail possibly at Derby and delivered by train ferry to The North Wall in grey primerfor fitting out by CIE.

Well done to Noel for the conversion. I never mastered the art of cutting and splicing plastic coach sides, I will probably go for the option of Bill Bedford etched sides in combination with Comet MK 1 parts if I ever get round to building a van to run with my MM Craven coaches.

[Noel]

2 hours ago, Mayner said:

The structural alterations to the coaches were carried out by British Rail possibly at Derby and delivered by train ferry to The North Wall in grey primerfor fitting out by CIE.

Well done to Noel for the conversion. I never mastered the art of cutting and splicing plastic coach sides, I will probably go for the option of Bill Bedford etched sides in combination with Comet MK 1 parts if I ever get round to building a van to run with my MM Craven coaches.

Thanks, you read my mind John.  I have a set of Bill Bedford sides ready for the next project 3173 using Bachmann BCK donor.  The brass sides are nice but lack surface relief features such as window frames, hinges, door handles, etc.  There is also a set of double doors where there should be a single door (see below).  The alternative is to cut'n'splice the Bachmann plastic sides or SSM may have 3173 BCK brass sides available in the new year which should have the correct single door and may have relief features such as window frames, etc.

Bottom of pic Bill Bedford brass sides for 3173 and Bachmann BCK donor

[flange lubricator]

The Bill Bedford overlay has the correct door arrangement for the ex bck  as used by CIE/I.E. the RPSI may have closed the double door during its overhaul in RPSI ownership.

Great work on the recent BSK conversion .

 

[StevieB]

Good as it is, the Bill Bedford is overlay is inaccurate in that the double doors next to the guard’s door should be closer to that door by one door’s width. If you look at the BCK next to the overlay, you’ll see what I mean. The blank door of the pair is where the 1st class passenger door was. The RPSI BGSV has lost this blank door during the recent renovation. Hope that all makes sense.

Stephen

[Noel]

Thanks Stevie.  Two photo sketches below showing mapping of BCK to GSV 3173 layout a) brass sides b) Bachmann BCK donor. At the moment I am leaning towards the plastic option of cutting and splicing Bachmann BCK donor sides rather than the brass which seems rather featureless.

Bill Bedford sides

Bachmann BCK donor

Edited December 20, 2017 by Noel

[Noel]

I used to absolutely hate applying waterslide transfers/decals. Fiddle/faddle, shakey hands, impossible eyesight, folded transfers, argggh. But through trial and error these past few months I'm just beginning to learn to cope with them. Despite what they say about using products like 'decalfix' to assist on matt surfaces, transfers are so much easier to apply and blend the edges on gloss finish and later matt varnish over them to seal. Finally finished the chassis numbers on the 20ft skeletal container wagons.  Just a light weathering with RailMatch acrylics tomorrow and they will be ready to run under Bell containers.

[Noel]

Finished the 20ft Bell container wagons. Coat of frame dirt for the wheels.

 

Then a bit of light weathering for the wagons and springs.

 

They look better dulled down with a bit of light frame dust

 

Drilled the bases of the C-Rail Bell containers with four holes and tested each containers mounting holes aligned with every wagon.

 

A fun and very simple kit to put together. Happy the way they turned out.  Will post a video of the full rake in traffic at some stage.

The Bell's themselves are now due a visit to the paint shop for a very light dusting to get rid of the clean 'toy' look.

[jhb171achill]

Fantastic work!

Incidentally, does anyone know why some Bell containers had white roofs, others navy and purple / pink like the sides, and others all-white?

I think the all-white ones may have been refrigerated or insulated - but the other variants?

Edited December 23, 2017 by jhb171achill

[Noel]

33 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Fantastic work!

Incidentally, does anyone know why some Bell containers had white roofs, others navy and purple / pink like the sides, and others all-white?

I think the all-white ones may have been refrigerated or insulated - but the other variants?

Thanks Jonathan. Somebody on here explained the reason for the white roofs last year and I vaguely remember it may have been to reflect heat, but I could be wrong. Photo of a BELL refrigerated container below, but it badly needs some weathering to get rid of the 'fisher price' toy look.

[popeye]

They look just right, good job. 

[jhb171achill]

15 minutes ago, Noel said:

Thanks Jonathan. Somebody on here explained the reason for the white roofs last year and I vaguely remember it may have been to reflect heat, but I could be wrong. 

 

Ah! That would make perfect sense....

[seanrail]

On 23/10/2017 at 12:35 PM, Noel said:

Side one:  Body modified, now filler and rub down, see blemishes, refill and run down again

 

Humbrol model filler seems to dry in a few hours and then files and sands very easily

Side two: Completed modifications to other side.  Twin doors swapped with window, two single doors filed flat ready for filler. Vent window squared off. Plastic panel RHS inserted to replace double doors moved where LHS 2nd window used to be.  Next step filler, file, sand and first prime to reveal any blemishes.  As these Lima roofs are snap fit and pop on and off really easily will leave interior for another day, but will have to make mods to under frame and source B5 bogies.  Haven't really worked much with plastic card before but enjoying trying to figure it out.

 

This is kind of fun.

lovely work on your coach modifications. keep it up!

[Noel]

Next up on the workbench will be some Silverfox resin kits I've collected over past year or two.

• A class B&T livery (rebuilt stepped orange band) - 071 donor chassis
• C class flying snail green Eau-de-nil livery - 141 donor chassis
• Sulzer 101 class flying snail green Eau-de-nil livery - Bachmann donor chassis (BR cl 24 sound project)
• Dutch GSV - RPSI green to run with their mk2 rake

These may take some time. Will start by doing some of the common work on all four in parallel to save time. Then its cut'n'shut time for some centre drive donor chassis.

Silverfox A + C class kits

Silverfox Dutch GSV kit + B101 class Sulzer kit due for 'eau-de-Nil' flying snail green livery

That'll keep me busy for a while

[Robert Shrives]

Good luck ! A large amount of work but I am sure end will be first class. Like you I have A to work on which will give the  office lads time to procure the RTR one !!!   Certainly the luxury chassis plan will give lots of power !  

I think  Kirley has contact for lovely whitemetal side frames for the A class  which will really help.

robert 

[Noel]

Four started. Spent a few hours removing flash and preparing these before first stage prime using Halford plastic grey primer in the spray booth. A few hours filing and sanding, but the resin bodies were in pretty good shape, mainly work to tidy up around the windows and buffer beams.

The SF B101 sulzer will be first to get attention as next before any more painting there is the matter for fitting a cut'n'shut 071 donor chassis and figuring out how I can transfer the lighting from the 071. The chassis will need two cuts to shorten it each side of the motor so the cardan shafts will still be long enough to allow both bogies move freely when she goes around bends and over points.

This is when it starts to get exciting . . .