murphaph

That sounds wrong what eBay have done. After so much publicity surrounding the protocol, you'd think eBay would be aware of NI's special status. https://www.revenue.ie/en/customs-traders-and-agents/brexit/information-for-businesses-trading-with-ni/vat-trade-with-ni-after-transition/index.aspx#:~:text=Northern Ireland continues to be,not apply to Northern Ireland.

I've started preparing the next coach to be a mk2c with the oblong sealed toilet windows. I believe most of the IR ones were of this type. The plan is to cut out the glazing bars and vent, then cut the upper third of the frame out before filing the sides down and refitting, thus producing a shorter but still oblong window where the lower edge of the top of the frame lines up with the upper edge of the door droplight. The gap at the top being filled with plasticard (a little proud, so I can file it flush with top edge when it's all set)

Actually that's the best idea to use the Bachmann as a template as even if it's slightly wrong it'll be left as is and it's really more important that the Lima conversions match up rather than anything else.

Much appreciated but I appear to have stumbled across the info I need for now: http://www.barrowmoremrg.co.uk/BRBDocuments/CS/Book_No_200_EK_web.pdf The dimensions are absent but it's clear to see what the vents line up with and as long as I am consistent in my own fleet that's all that matters. While poking about in there I realised that my mk2d style AC windows are the wrong shape, d'oh! They weren't square in reality on the mk2c. I had no perfectly side on pics and always assumed they had used the square AC window that became standard in the subsequent mk2 models. This was an incorrect assumption it seems. The window was in fact slightly but noticeably rectangular and unfortunately it was shorter than the mk2b rectangular windows, so just cutting the glazing bars out won't be enough. I knew something wasn't adding up but I was blaming inaccuracies in the Lima model. I will have to both cut out the glazing bars and then cut out the upper half of the toilet windows, file a bit off and then put back in, replacing the missing material above with plasticard as I did before. There's no point in making cut n shut windows from the mk2e coach now. It's just more work as there's more filling and sanding that way. Ah well, you live and learn

ok but €700 is a bit much lol: https://www.amazon.com/British-Rail-Mark-Coaches-InterCity/dp/1898432481

It's really odd that they tend to leave them off. The Lima mk2e is a good deal better than their mk2b but they still didn't add the bumpers despite clearly updating the tooling in that area (if not the whole coach). A question for the mk2b experts: I know that the FK's had 14 equally spaced scalloped dome vents in a straight line but does anyone have rough dimensions for where they should begin, ie how far in from the end of the coach? I'd really like to buy "the" mk2 book but they are like €100 or something.

I'm kind of jumping between things but here's the latest on my Lima mk2b -> mk2c conversion "proof of concept" lol. The concept I'm trying to prove is whether or not I have the skills rather than whether or not the conversion is possible, which it surely is After a lot of filling and sanding I ended up cutting the right hand toilet window back out and binning it. It just looked crap really. I then installed the cut n shut window I'd made, taking more time not to botch the filler part. In fact I did not use filler, having read that normal super glue applied to cracks can act as a good filler in such situations I tried that with more success this time. I still had to sand a good bit but it came ok this time. As it was a cut n shut I had to fabricate my own vent out of plasticard which was my first time doing anything like that. The left hand window was salvageable using super glue to fill the remaining gaps. I also ordered 40 thou evergreen scenics half round stock to make up the door bump stops while I was at it and then undercoated the lot. The mk2e flushglaze fits even worse than the mk2b stuff at least the toilet windows so quite a lot has to be filed out of those toilet windows to allow a loose fit.

Personally I prefer sellers in the UK to deduct the vat (if they are vat registered) and ship it with a handwritten label. I've found stuff will often sneak through customs here if it's a smaller, lighter package especially. The volumes of parcels are so huge still that a lot gets waved through.

That was the plan for Germany too. Do the parcels have some marking on them to say delivered duty paid? I haven't bought anything from them for a while but I see reports on the German forum I'm on about vat being charged. Hattons refunds the vat but it's a hassle for everyone. I'd almost prefer them to deduct the UK vat but their German turnover is seemingly too high and they are obliged to charge vat at the checkout.

Hattons keep sending stuff to Germany without the proper duty paid paperwork so customs charge vat on the lot. Do they do it properly for Ireland?

So that's what those compensators do. I never realised they convert a push to a pull motion and vice versa. Cracking work as always.

They're all great. The more pics the better!

Thx for the shapeways tip. I was wondering where to pick up the roe vac vents.

I thought that was the case too but on page 40 of Michael McMahon's Irish Railway Rambler there's a pic of a freshly painted 4104 getting it's IR vinyl decals in Inchicore in 1990 and the window frames are definitely painted completely black. I wonder was this a one off but it serves as "evidence" for me that black window frames in an IR livery happened lol. Lovely job. I have the two Bachmann mk2a's in a box as well waiting for the time to block up that door and respray. Did you make the mk2d roof hatch yourself or buy the one from Southern Pride?

Yeah I think I will give them a try at least, perhaps one on or two "extra special" coaches. They are really nice. I have a load of flushglaze to use up though so I won't be abandoning it completely lol. I wanted to try dying the PVA glue black when I fit the next batch. I think it might help a bit with the look of the flushglaze, which to be fair from 2 feet away is perfectly acceptable for layout use. Are you talking about packs of the Shawplan etches as well Robert?

Great you are correct, it now says z-c so I guess the AC toilets are included. I will send him an email. Am I correct in my assumption about the assembly? cut out acetate sheet and glue to inside of frame then glue the lot to coach side? Are there instructions with the etch at all? Do they fit exactly over the Lima window frames or do these need to be sanded down? ( I get that the window bars themselves need to be cut out at least)

I would definitely try them if but I've read on RMweb that they are difficult to get from Shawplan. I asked previously in the questions section about them in fact but I think the question got lost in there. I was curious how one glazes them as there is no lazerglaze to suit the etches. Do you cut out acetate sheet and then glue it to the inside of the frame and then glue the lot to the coach side or how do they work in practice? The detail on them is cracking. Correct me if I'm wrong but they only go up to the 2b model. The mk2c coaches had those square AC toilet windows from the 2d's. The etch doesn't include those toilet windows, right?

Indeed it takes a good evening to file out one coach so not a 5 minute job by any means. I'm trying to source a small flat file with no profile on either of the thin sides. The Americans call these pillar files. I'm not sure what the proper description is of them on this side of the pond. At present my small flat file passes nicely into the left and right top openings but it has profile all around so I have to be very careful not to accidentally file into the vertical bars. If I had "safety files" I'd be a lot quicker. The above photo also shows my first attempt at removing the upper paint moulding which is not at all prototypical. The trick I've found to cleanly remove most of these paint mouldings is to get the tip of the scalpel at the right angle and then pull the coach to me rather than pushing the scalpel away. I can keep my scalpel hand much steadier this way and there's little to no sanding required. What are you cutting out to make the large pane of glass Robert?

I did cut them in two, main pane and the top vents but I might just try cutting them up more on the next try Rich, cheers. Having said that I like the more lightweight effect of thinning out the glazing bars as much as possible:

Flushglaze installed. You can't expect miracles from something that costs £2.50 but IMO it's a huge improvement over the original Lima glazing. It's definitely not plug n play. A lot of filing is required and these examples were a good learning experience. There's definitely things I can do better next time.

There's a global shortage of timber. I went to get a couple of sheets of OSB for an unrelated project and found the first two DIY superstores I went to had none of any shape or size left. The third place was clearly running out too. A friend told me there were problems with the Canadian harvest and the Russians are refusing to sell rough timber to the Chinese any more. They want to do the processing in Russian sawmills now. The Chinese think it's cheaper to buy European logs and process them themselves! Normally European timber is the most expensive as we just don't have that much of it compared to North America and Russia.

Yeah the "presentation" aspect or theatre of the whole thing is also a main theme of his shelf layouts book. I want to follow this way so the whole visible layout is a stage with the actors being the models, entering, performing their scene and then leaving.

What about narrow gauge 00n3? I mean if you're going to scratch build n gauge Irish stuff that's incompatible with the RTR Irish stuff then you could alternatively consider a 3' layout that could later be at least partially recycled into a larger 00 scale layout. I know nothing about this stuff but others here surely do. I believe RTR track (TT gauge) is available.

Thanks again. George I followed your advice by the way and masked off to spray the gangway doors white then neon red. I don't know how close the shade is to the real ones but sure there was do much variation on Irish Rail almost any shade could have been used. I'm probably going to fit a close coupling mechanism and floating gangway ends to this rake so in the end probably only two doors will ever be visible. Robert I have new flushglaze to fit. The window openings have all been filed out and test fitted before painting. Hopefully the paint isn't too thick lol. I believe Shawplan did start production of the mk2c extreme etches but no lazerglaze. I am trying to balance the economic aspects as well.... lazerglaze or even the extreme etches are going to be worth more than the coach itself, so I said I'd use the flushglaze, accepting the extra filing effort into the bargain. I think I will directly convert these to 21mm. There's no point in me putting the original bogies back on as is as long term I want to regauge everything. The mk2d coach is very close in profile to the mk2b. Are you sure it's an Airfix moulding? It looks pure Lima to me. I can't justify cutting up perfectly good (and more expensive) Lima mk2d coaches just to get the two toilet windows out so I'm experimenting with a cut n shut toilet window made with two ends of the passenger compartment windows:

Looking forward to the weathering. I love this layout. So much atmosphere in such a small space. Someday I will model the Tegral siding in Athy and if I can capture even half the industrial atmosphere of this I'll be very happy.