murphaph

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.

Thx again gents. I should point out that I took extra time to fully burnish the edges of all the tapes with a cocktail stick, getting into any grooves and whatnot especially around the doors. In a later iteration I intend filing off the handrails and door handles and fitting with brass replacements. I figure adding a bit of 3d detail this way will enhance a cheap model for very little money.

Thanks chaps. The white stripes are reverse masked with 1mm Tamiya masking tape. You can just spray the whole thing with white primer and mask this I suppose. I had no white primer to hand so primed in grey then sprayed white and reverse masked over this. 1mm in 4mm scale is exactly 3" which is what those stripes were in reality I believe.

Vents ordered from dart castings and some other bits from Peter's Spares. In the meantime I've applied the transfers. I've also started to investigate if I can make a passable 2c with the AC windows by grafting them from a Lima mk2d bodyshell.

Judging by the buffers of that wagon on the tippler it was on one of its first duties and the sides are getting manky already.

Maybe take a pic of the roof? That's the bit you tend to see most of as a modeller. Nice work Whenever I build up the courage to weather my MM IE stock that's the sort of look I'll be going for. Dirty but not as manky as the IR stuff.

Did the red oxide ones ever have the old style lids or had they all been replaced by then?

Great update. Looking good.

I had the same error yesterday when trying to add a pic to a PM from my Android phone. Same format I always use also. Just checked now, still getting the error. Tried a pic I sent before in the same PM thread and it's also giving the same code 200 error.

I was just wondering if you're using some search tool outside of eBay but I guess not. Did the link I provided show you MM results?

Are you using some third party tool perhaps? I see results for mm stuff: https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=murphy+models&_trksid=p2380057.m4084.l1313

Thanks again guys. Very encouraging words also. I'm on the right track and it reassures me that spending more time on the prep won't be wasted by a catastrophic paint job. I was expecting all manner of bleed but only had it in one or two spots at the coach ends where a touch up will be under the weathering later anyway. I watched quite a few YouTube videos about all this before having a go. The Everard Junction respray videos are a good resource for example. Galgorm Hall also had some useful info.

FL: I would like to get the roof vents right. Have you any suggestion for a source of scale vents though, or something else I might be able to make work? These two will be "simple resprays" to test the waters so I may just spray the roofs on these and then "up my game" on later ones. I can always throw them back in the brake fluid some day and redo them to a higher standard. popeye, I used a RAL 2011 rattle can from Belton. I did replace the nozzles on all the rattle cans with low pressure types to reduce the amount of paint coming out. I don't know if this helped but it seemed prudent as these caps cost very little. Does anyone have a RAL or other code for the red of the gangway doors?

Thx a lot chaps. The second one came out just as well. I can see that my 1mm masking tape was about half a mil short at the ends. I didn't notice it when masking up. The next challenge (after they are fully cured) will be applying decals which I've never done before.

Work continues. I'm very pleased with the results for a first attempt.

Was the Ballylinan branch not the one that ran over the Barrow past the cement factory? The Brickworks was to the north of the town. It seems Barry Carse wrote something about the brickworks siding. It was taken out of service over a century ago! http://irishrailarchives.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IRRS_J192_2017_February_sample.pdf