Darius’ Workbench

[Mayner]

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. 

[Darius43]

Dunglazin.

Cheers

Darius

[Darius43]

Decals applied.

Still to make the bogie-mounted steps and add etched windscreen wipers.

Cheers

Darius

[GSR 800]

What a mighty beast!

The detail is fabulous, excellent work.

[Darius43]

Bogie steps made from plasticard.

Cheers

Darius

[Darius43]

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

[Darius43]

A1 Models etched grille arrived today - primed, painted and fitted.

Cheers

Darius

[Patrick Davey]

What a brute!!!   Magnificent work once again Darius. 

[Darius43]

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

[Horsetan]

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....

[Darius43]

4 hours ago, Horsetan said:

I think you'd enjoy having a stab at a Jidenco Class 50 kit....