Mayner Posted December 15 Posted December 15 On 11/12/2024 at 4:28 PM, Darius43 said: I found this somewhat distressed MTK Class 50 body on eBay and thought it deserved a second chance. An offer was put in and accepted and here it is. It is definitely in need of some tlc. Its builder had soldered it together - unfortunately with a banana-shaped footprint. Some serious surgery was needed to straighten it out. This was done by making two cuts across the roof and the inside curve sidewall using a razor saw. Once cut the body was carefully straightened out and the sides reprofiled using judicious finger and thumb pressing. The soft white metal construction makes this quite easy. The inside surfaces will be cleaned up using a Dremel and plasticard backing pieces glued behind the cuts to strengthen them before filling and sanding. The plan is to mount the completed body on a re-wheeled Lima chassis. Cheers Darius General layout, quality and fit of the castings is remarkably similar to the whitemetal CIE 001 kit supplied by Model Irish Railways (Portadown) during the 1990s. The 001 in supertrain livery as 018 powered with Athearn SD drive parts mounted on a simple scracthbuilt brass frame/chassis was one of my pride and joys at the time. At the time some modellers were re-powering British outline 6 axle diesels (possibly Class 31 & 47 )with Atheran PA1 chassis. Quote
Darius43 Posted December 16 Author Posted December 16 Decals applied. Still to make the bogie-mounted steps and add etched windscreen wipers. Cheers Darius 3 Quote
GSR 800 Posted December 16 Posted December 16 What a mighty beast! The detail is fabulous, excellent work. 1 Quote
Darius43 Posted December 16 Author Posted December 16 Bogie steps made from plasticard. Cheers Darius 1 Quote
Darius43 Posted December 17 Author Posted December 17 Additional buffer beam hosiery fitted and light weathering applied to chassis to (almost) finish. Just waiting for the etched fan grille to arrive. Cheers Darius 4 Quote
Darius43 Posted December 17 Author Posted December 17 A1 Models etched grille arrived today - primed, painted and fitted. Cheers Darius 4 Quote
Patrick Davey Posted December 17 Posted December 17 What a brute!!! Magnificent work once again Darius. 1 Quote
Darius43 Posted December 17 Author Posted December 17 Thanks Patrick. I’m enjoying restoring/building these MTK kits. There’s a certain presence that the less than perfectly flat body sides gives to these models that you don’t get with RTR models. Cheers Darius 3 Quote
Horsetan Posted December 17 Posted December 17 2 hours ago, Darius43 said: Thanks Patrick. I’m enjoying restoring/building these MTK kits. There’s a certain presence that the less than perfectly flat body sides gives to these models that you don’t get with RTR models.... I think you'd enjoy having a stab at a Jidenco Class 50 kit.... Quote
Darius43 Posted December 18 Author Posted December 18 4 hours ago, Horsetan said: I think you'd enjoy having a stab at a Jidenco Class 50 kit.... 1 Quote
Darius43 Posted December 18 Author Posted December 18 Calling this finished - perhaps on every level… Cheers Darius 5 Quote
Galteemore Posted December 18 Posted December 18 (edited) Excellent - and the undulating bodywork gives it a real ‘patina’ of use. Think you have a similar mantra to the US armed forces. To paraphrase…no kit left behind. Edited December 18 by Galteemore 1 Quote
skinner75 Posted December 18 Posted December 18 Reminds me a bit of the Airfix Saab Vigen kit I had as a kid, and used the grill of the cooker as a 'hanger'... 1 Quote
Darius43 Posted yesterday at 16:13 Author Posted yesterday at 16:13 (edited) The rather nicely painted MTK bodyshell was obtained recently from eBay. There is a bit of cosmetic damage to one buffer at one end and a few scratches. The other end, however… The plan is to deconstruct, repair and reassemble the body to fit this Hornby chassis. First I’m going to try the hot water treatment that Phil recommended to see if it will melt the soldered joints… I plan to finish the locomotive as 47213 “Marchwood Military Port” as I worked as a civil/structural engineer on several port redevelopment projects in the early 1990s. The hot water immersion treatment worked after a fashion and the roof and bodysides were able to be separated. The lower inside faces of the bodysides were smoothed using a Dremel to enable them to fit snugly over the Hornby chassis. The undercut was made to the cab fronts and the cab sides. The cab windows were too fragile to survive the body separation process so will be recreated in plasticard. The body was then reassembled prior to filling and sanding and replacement of the cab front window framing. I also drilled out the fan vent apertures - to be covered by A1 Models etched grilles in due course. Cheers Darius Edited yesterday at 16:16 by Darius43 6 Quote
Darius43 Posted yesterday at 17:46 Author Posted yesterday at 17:46 Plasticard cab front windows fitted. Primer on and test fit of body to chassis. Cab ends tidied up and headcode blanking plate/lights fitted. Cheers Darius 7 Quote
Darius43 Posted 1 hour ago Author Posted 1 hour ago Window frames picked out using a silver marker pen. Cheers Darius 1 Quote
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