What is now on the the bench was recently a figment of imagination.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I've been busy with transfers and painting the underframes and bogies. The transfers have been coated with Johnson's Pledge to seal them in place and the bogies and underframes have been painted with Humbrol 85 satin black.

I have ordered some oval buffers that will be fitted along with buckeye rubbing plates and couplings.

One underframe painted, one to do.

Diagram 130 end loading car flat with removable sides.

Diagram 131 end loading car flat

Half of the ten car flats that I've built so far.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

The postal vans have had lettering and emblems applied to all ten of them. I did have some old Replica white lining transfers however the sheets were several years old and seem to have become embrittled over time, when I attempted to use them the lining broke into lots of small pieces. I have ordered more form Railtec which ought to arrive soon enough.

POT 30279, a stowage van with net recess from diagram 2176. This van did not have sorting racks being entirely unfitted inside and was the only one of its kind. Interestingly there was a POS diagram 2185 of which three were built in 1954 that had no provision for nets but were fitted out with sorting racks a lavatory and a wardrobe, they were numbered 30300/1/2. I shall run these two types of van next to each other in the formation once completed.

 

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

The lining transfers for the Postal Vans arrived today but I've been busy with my next project which is cutting and shutting all my old Hornby APT-P stock into variations of the proposed test trains as seen on this site:

http://www.25kv.uk/APT.php

I bought one of the ew Hornby APT-P sets just a few weeks ago and so I've been spurred into action with my cut and shuts. I will have enough bits to build up into the Q, R, S, and T versions of the train seen toward the bottom of the above linked website.

Cut and shuts so far, we have:

• Power Car X3*
• Driving Power Car X1
• Driving Van Trailer X 2
• Driving Semi Powered Van X1
• Semi Articulated coach X2
• Articulated Coach X6
• APT-U Development Coach X1
• Driving Second Class X1*
• Trailer Guard First X1*

 

There is a complete five car set which will be left original and of the above marked * are as original also.

 

See if you can make sense of the photographs !

 

 

Power Car and driving Power Car.

Driving Semi Powered Van.

Driving Power Car.

Driving Van Trailer.

Semi Articulated Coach.

Articulated Coach.

APT-U Development Coach.

Confused ?  I was but after a couple of days its getting clearer !

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

The white lines have arrived for the Postal Vans and I've applied one side of eight of them so far. I'm having a rest from them for a while before I go crossed eyed !

Along with the white lining the buffer heads for the Motorail car flats arrived also, I had  a break from the lining this afternoon to fit them. The next job will be buckeye rubbing plates of which I mad and fitted one out of twenty need for the ten car flats.

The new buffers and rubbing plate. The buffer stocks have been shortened to 1.5mm long to represent the buffers in their retracted position.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Yo Dudes,

I've been steady away with the APT project, my eyes are still googly from doing postal van lining which still requires to be finished. So far I have been jointed, filled and sanded most of the cut and shut parts of the bodies although some bits will have to be done once they are fitted back together and ready for paint so those bits will have to wait for now.

In preparation for fitting the coach bodies back together I have painted all the seats and internals ready for reassembly as one together I won't be able to get at them. These seat units will have to be cut a shut to fit the respective vehicles but at least they are painted. I'm not too fussed about the shade but they will look a lot better than pink and light blue plastic, I didn't paint the floor as it can't be seen once together.

Painted seat units ready for cutting to fit appropriately.

The next job was to remove all of the bogies to make working on the coach bodies easier and also so that spray painting will be easier. For paint colours I have chosen RAL 7043 Traffic Grey B and RAL 7032 Pebble Grey, Railtec transfers do a full set of APT markings along with red and white stripes so only the two shades of paint are required. Masking the windows is a challenge to be dealt with however I have an idea which may work. While the bogies were out I fitted new wheel sets of the correct size, these are 10mm Lowmac wheels from Peter's Spares.

Bogies with the Peter's Spares 10mm Lowmac wheels fitted to them.

The original Hornby APT was a bit square looking at the cab ends, the rest of it was pretty well proportioned, and so I took the step of filing one of the cab ends to improve its shape. It came out very well and much better captures the look of the real thing comparing well with the new Hornby model. Fortunately the front corners of the nose end are quite a decent thickness and allow for a reduction of almost 3mm across the front edge. I shall get all of the cabs to a similar condition as the shewn below and then I shall do the relief details around the head lights. I plan to fit clear glazing to the cabs and so I also filed a taper the area around the cab side windows. The windscreen requires a slight enlargement which is also on the job list.

Juxtaposition of the new Hornby, old Hornby modified, and the old Hornby original.

Side profile view.

End on view.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I've been working upon two DVT's, a DPC (driving power car) and a test car known as Pilot which was marshalled between the later iteration of the POP train.

The two DVT's, the pencil lines shew where the van doors will be.

The DPC, there is on ly one van door as the rear of the vehicle would have had traction motors fitted into it.

As you can see Pilot was made form all the left over bits hence it is made from three sections as the left overs were not long enough to make it from two sections. 

d

Pilot with the side blanked off, it had no windows, and all of the joints filled. The bogie pivot mounts had to be moved as the sections were from non articulated bogies. The POP train sections will have to be scratch built.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

Here are the beginnings of the POP train's outer two cars, They have been made from .040" plasticard form drawings supplied to me by a friend who has one of the Leadley Kitts POP train kits. His one was one of the original space frame design, the version I'm building is the same two vehicles after the side had been fitted with cladding and the centre car added.

Base plates and entrance vestibules with the shaped bulkheads in the back ground.

The first bulk head was made and checked for symmetry before using it as a template to cut all of the other bulkheads, this way they all end up the same shape although due minor disparity I marked them with an X so that would all face the same way. 

The bulk heads had gussets fitted so that they would stand perpendicular once glued in place. The gussets were mostly made from scraps. The one in the rear has a compartment for seats and will have a window which is why the gusset spacing is slightly odd. If you look carefully you can see the doors have been scribed onto the vestibule sides.

The roof was fitted next and was cut slightly wide, this was done a flat surface and weights were placed on the top so that it stayed flat and straight while the glue cured. the lower bodysides were then added again using a flat surface as a datum to align the pieces.

The upper sides were fitted last and had an angle scraped onto them so that a sharp edge would be formed at the waist line. The cuts are for opening out the vestibule are to be seen in the front one, the rear one having already been cut and trimmed to shape.

Gibbo.

 

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

Here is POP II on its bogies, the end two have tilt and the centre car is yet to be attended to. The centre car is made form bits all cut and shut and so does not have the tilt slides, they will have to be remade as I have done with the outer cars.

All three in formation, I should really get on and paint the Mk1 set instead of building more stuff but that would be boring !

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Yo Dudes,

Still "Badgering" on with the APT POP II train,

The tilt ramps were added to Pilot, as may be seen the bogie mounting has been altered as the coach has been made from leftover bits and bobs. The glue shews up pink because the brush used was to glue the top and bottom halves of the body together and it joins along the lower edge of the red line.

The corridor ends connections being fabricated from .125" Plastruct rod, I filed a 1mm flat along their axis so that they would have a decent adhesive area and also that they wouldn't roll around while the glue cured. The tops of PC3 and PC4 have had filler applied to create the peaked roof section.

Once the filler had cured I used a sheet of 120 grit sand paper to flat off the filler and create the angle required. The moment after applying the filler I had a thought that I should have glued a 1mm piece of strip along the centre of the roof as a datum to both fill and file to, good old hindsight !

The result of the sanding has turned out quite well despite my idea of fixing a guide to the roof being about five minutes too late. There a re a few small low patches which will be treated remedially. The wavy edge of the filler is due to slight undulations in the roof and despite the wavy edge the formed roof is actually flat when checked with a straight edge. I filled and sanded the undulations in the body sides in the same way as may bee seen from the patches of filler on the body sides. The corridor end connection were also filled and sanded to shape.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

Hindsight has struck again !

This time in that I found some more photographs of the POP II train on a website dedicated to test trains and it seem that PC3 only have one set of side doors on one side only. My annoyance at myself being that one of the sets of doors that I had cut in now had to be filled in again, just grand.

Said website:

http://www.traintesting.com/Index.htm

POP Train:

http://www.traintesting.com/POP_train.htm

There is some fascinating reading and unusual photographs about all sorts of engineering problems on this website, very good indeed.

Newly filled in doors.

After filling and sanding, as well as may be expected but annoying al the same.

The upside of all this is that I found out that the side windows of PC4 were offset and I thought that they were directly opposite and so with a bit of calculation I worked out the positions of both of them. One side was the same as the spaceframe POP train and the other was almost central to the car itself. I also found some good shots of the ends so that PC3 could have the end door and PC4 its end door and windows marked out correctly.

Don't look at the wonky track pin !

In other news I've started reassembling the first two of the articulated coaches for the rest of the project, photographs to follow.

Gibbo.

[LNERW1]

I sometimes wonder whether it’s just one person making all of this. You have too much spare time Gibbo! Your layout looks very interesting too. I’m guessing it represents one of the endless junctions on the West Coast Main Line (or West Coast Main Web as the case may be). You don’t seem to be one for scenery, though. I don’t suppose I blame you. Best of luck as always. 
LNERW1

[commerlad]

@gibbo675  I know you keep busy but check this out if bored

 

APT-P Vehicle Specifications

 

licking on the image of each part brings up scale plans. 

And you can search other versions as well.

APT-POP Train

 

Edited October 13 by commerlad

[gibbo675]

Hi @commerlad

I had already discovered that web site, and have used all sorts of information from it so far into my build.

Thank you for including it all the same, and also thank you for posting on my thread I do like the communication, by all means ask any questions.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

 

I've been perusing the website noted by @commerlad and I found this photograph:

The reason it interests me is that I built this one. It is an N gauge APT-e that I built for a friend of mine and it runs on his Burshaw North Western and Nine Mills layouts on the British exhibition circuit. It is made form a Graham Farrrish class 91 chassis somewhat altered with modified B4 bogies taken from some Mk2 coaches.

Here it is again on Burshaw North Western alongside the Prototype HST.

Gibbo.

 

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I have been fitting the glazing and seating to the APT-P stock today, the POP II train has been shunted into the nearly started siding along with the postal vans.

All but one of the coaches have been glazed by cutting at the mid point between the windows to fit two pieces into each side which requires only minor filling at the joint and on some minor filling at the ends due to the slightly different dimensions of the first and second class sections of glazing. The one coach that has not been made up from two sections per side is the TS3 which is for the APT-R/S/T versions, it has eight sections per side as it used up all the left over sections. A little more filler required on this one.

The pencil marks are to line up the inner edge of the window so that the marking out of the cut could be made.

The other job was to cut and shut the seating to be placed inside the various coaches. I have painted the seating up in red for second class and unclassified and a mid blue for first class. I haven't worried too much bout seat arrangement so long as there are seats is good enough for me. worse still the aisle swaps sides in first class as the seating is 2+1, Rule 1 applies in this case !

The seats for  the buffet car should really be second class pattern but I didn't have enough so I used left over first class which have sine been repainted red. i did however build up the kitchen and serving bar area also since painted.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I altered the seats in the first class sections by doing yet more cutting and shutting. I took from the split in the centre of the carriage to one bay form the end and reversed them so that they lined up with the other end and glued them back in place, quite simple yet it does look a lot better.

One of the altered first class sections, the unaltered bay is over the bogie pivot pin and I decided that was too much like trouble to try and reverse.

The main job I have been doing today was lining transfers on the postal vans, only the lining across the ends of the vans to apply now.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

Most of the coaches have had their interiors fitted and have been glued together. Once the glue had cured I set about filling all the joints and sanding down the sides so that they will be flush ready for primer. The ends of the coaches also required filling where they clip into place, the eradication of this joint looks better already and they are not even painted. This is a bit of a boring job however it should make the finished model a lot better than having lumpy transfers and wonky paint lines as a result of uneven surfaces and groove where the body halves join.

Sanded filler always looks patchy, no doubt there will be more filler to deal with after I have primed the body shells.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Yo Dudes,

I've been mostly sanding down filler on the remaining coaches however I had more excitement when the postman delivered an extra Driving Trailer Second. The whole point of getting this DTS is so that I could have one with the nose in the up position so that it could be used to form up test trains and the like.

I even went to the trouble of opening out the drivers windscreen despite the fact that it cannot be seen at all once the nose is fitted, I won't be bothering to glaze it though !

Here it is almost finished, there will be a bit of filler to put round the top of the bulk head which I can only do after the body is finally fitted. This will be done after the interior is painted and so far only the seats have been painted.

Gibbo.

[Musdy Water]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/jj5K7QKdKgbfbJqs/?mibextid=K35XfP

Amazing fast work!

Are you working from plans or just photos for this conversion?

Did you make the nose cut with the body and chassis attached?

Edited October 17 by Musdy Water

[gibbo675]

2 hours ago, Musdy Water said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/jj5K7QKdKgbfbJqs/?mibextid=K35XfP

Amazing fast work!

Are you working from plans or just photos for this conversion?

Did you make the nose cut with the body and chassis attached?

Hi Musdy,

There isn't really a chassis as the body shell is in two parts, top and bottom. These were together for both the reprofiling of the nose end to taper it and also to the nose off also. I used a razor saw to mark out along the mould line that shews where the joint is and then worked around the groove to cut the nose off. The bulk head is attached to the bottom piece and is filled behind with Milliput to strengthen it and will be glued and filled once the body shell is finally fixed. I did take the bogies off although they were reattached to work out the buffer heights.

This is what I'm working from:

https://www.apt-p.com/APTNoseEnd.htm

As may be seen it has both photographs and a decent diagram.

Gibbo.

[Musdy Water]

The Facebook link I had above is to the group looking after the remaining APT. Some nice photos on there. Sadly a lot of filler in an attempt to restore it cosmetically.

Have you thought about offering your services to the missenden college for railway modelling ?

People talk about soldering and electronics being a dark art. But people also shy away from modifying RTR models and cutting and shutting.

The course could go through the research, planning stage, tools and materials. Then the practice of turning two Triang/Hornby MK1 BSKs into a BG and a SK!

 

 

http://missendenrailwaymodellers.org.uk

 

 

[gibbo675]

5 hours ago, Musdy Water said:

The Facebook link I had above is to the group looking after the remaining APT. Some nice photos on there. Sadly a lot of filler in an attempt to restore it cosmetically.

Have you thought about offering your services to the missenden college for railway modelling ?

People talk about soldering and electronics being a dark art. But people also shy away from modifying RTR models and cutting and shutting.

The course could go through the research, planning stage, tools and materials. Then the practice of turning two Triang/Hornby MK1 BSKs into a BG and a SK!

 

 

http://missendenrailwaymodellers.org.uk

 

 

Hi Musdy,

I was blissfully unaware of said college !

I might give them a look up and see what there is to be seen. Cutting and shutting Mk1's was a speciality of mine and now I've got loads of them, and Pullman cars, they mostly need painting and lining though.

As for shying away the trick is to buy second hand tat from eBay, that way if it goes wrong you have not ruined a good model and second there is always the chance that whatever you do will improve it !

Here are a selection of cut and shuts I've built, some of which are finished and some are in the nearly started category:

Mk1 Leyland coach form Hornby Pacer bodies.

Mk1 BG's

Mk1 FK

MK1 SK

First class parlour with kitchen and coupe std K steel

Third class brake and third class parlour with kitchen std K steel

Third class parlour and third class brake std K steel

Third class brake std K

Manchester Pullmans form Airfix Mk2's

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

Today's job is one that requires a Podcast, (Dimitry Orlov entertains today) as I'm masking up the windows ready to start the paint job for the APT coaches.

I have made a cutting jig for shaping the masking tape, I lay out a strip onto my cutting mat and then using a brand new blade very carefully cut around the inside of the jig to then peel away the excess leaving the piece of masking required. it is then a matter of lining up the masking onto the windows appropriately.

Masking tape blanks and the jig used.

Masking applied, I intend to get some silver window frames made up from vinyl decals rather than paint the window frames on as this will be far too much like trouble.

 

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

Second post regarding works done today, it is the DPC2 which has had the rear part of the roof altered to match the other power cars. The section under where a pantograph could be mounted was spliced in from the offcut that was left over from making the DPC4. the DPC2 and both of the DVT's have had the windows in the van doors cut and shaped. There will be filler and sanding to do and windows to fit before painting however the project is going well so far.

The area of roof that is flat may be seen either side of the section over where a pantograph may be fitted. The scheme was to use a roof level jumper cable and only use the pantograph of the adjacent power car for power collection.

The outline of the doors will be scribed in after the body shells have been glued together and sanded down.

Gibbo.

[Musdy Water]

2 hours ago, gibbo675 said:

Hi Musdy,

I was blissfully unaware of said college !

I might give them a look up and see what there is to be seen. Cutting and shutting Mk1's was a speciality of mine and now I've got loads of them, and Pullman cars, they mostly need painting and lining though.

As for shying away the trick is to buy second hand tat from eBay, that way if it goes wrong you have not ruined a good model and second there is always the chance that whatever you do will improve it !

Here are a selection of cut and shuts I've built, some of which are finished and some are in the nearly started category:

Mk1 Leyland coach form Hornby Pacer bodies.

Mk1 BG's

Mk1 FK

MK1 SK

First class parlour with kitchen and coupe std K steel

Third class brake and third class parlour with kitchen std K steel

Third class parlour and third class brake std K steel

Third class brake std K

Manchester Pullmans form Airfix Mk2's

I was more thinking you could be the teacher, rather than a student!
Your presentation skills are excellent!

We need more constructive modellers, rather than the box opening brigade!

(There are even some that never break the seal and the wrapping on the boxes! )

 

[gibbo675]

1 hour ago, Musdy Water said:

I was more thinking you could be the teacher, rather than a student!
Your presentation skills are excellent!

We need more constructive modellers, rather than the box opening brigade!

(There are even some that never break the seal and the wrapping on the boxes! )

 

Hi Mudsy,

Are you taunting me with the above post ?

If you are, then here is my comedy response for your amusement :

"Ha ! Ha ! Box openers !?!

I got into loads of bother on RMWeb for using such terms, not that I care. Buying stuff is not modelling, it is buying stuff and then opening the box, hence the term "BOX OPENER".

It isn't a derogatory term, it is an observable fact that some folks mislabel themselves as modellers when all they do is open boxes and plonk the contents on the track laid over the carpet in the back bedroom at their mother's house. My-My haven't the Chinese been busy for your benefit , etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, ad nauseum !!! " 

I'll probably get booted off here for that, unless of course humour is not understood as wasn't in England some time back.

 

With regard Missenden, I'm not sure they would have me, I'm rather too............ how might I put it............Anarchistically individual in ones own approach to life.

 

More seriously, many thanks for the fine compliment in that you class my work as constructive modelling.

I post my work as an encouragement to those that wish to have models of an unusual nature, those prototypes that are not available rather than to showcase my own work. I wish that my work serves as example that lots of pleasure may be had from constructing such models and also that something worth while comes of that work. There are many decent models that may be improved and adapted to render rare subclasses, or as with my APT project some types that were proposed but never actually built.

Imagination is a most powerful tool, seeing what is available and may be built or converted either by cutting and shutting, kit bashing, and even scratch building. There are plenty of drawings available, in fact I was gifted quite a lot which I ought to file into the IRM library.

My current APT project has been languishing in a storage box for far too long now and yet strangely only got properly started after buying a full fourteen car version from Rails of Sheffield. Yours truly - BOX OPENER - guilty as charged !!!  I have the Rapido APT-E also for the same reason in that I have always thought that the APT is the best train ever from the point of view of an engineering project designed to revolutionise railway vehicle dynamics. From the audacity of that premise alone it is to my mind indeed the best train ever. The APT project was born out of outright imagination which is another reason that it is the best train ever.

should you start building stuff then all the left overs and spares may then be made into something else so nothing is wasted and it all comes in eventually or you could swap bit with your mates.

• The Motorail flats are left overs from MK1 cut and shuts.
• The postal vans because I wanted a mail train with a class 40 at the head (I have some class 40's at the ready in the nearly started box)
• I have an ongoing project to bash, kit build or scratch build one of every class of main line diesel and electric locomotive, including subclasses, from models from before 1990. Old Hornby, Lima, Mainline and Airfix as feed stock.

The Irish scene would be perfect for someone like me for I would cut and shut myself silly using all sorts of different methods to create prototypes that are not available commercially. I see that things are improving that way and this is a good thing which will only improve with time however there is always room for adaption and conversion of other things to add that extra. I build cranes for that very reason:

LMS Craven 50ton crane, currently in the nearly started box along with too much other stuff.

Get on and build stuff, whatever it is you like the look of or is unavailable in the shops !

Gibbo.

[Ironroad]

1 hour ago, gibbo675 said:

 

With regard Missenden, I'm not sure they would have me, I'm rather too............ how might I put it............Anarchistically individual in ones own approach to life.

 

Hi, having read many of your postings, I'm glad to see this acknowledgement of knowing yourself. However while I think the fraternity on this forum in all probability generally possess a better sense of humour than those on RM,  suggesting that so called "box openers" are not modellers may nonetheless be viewed even here as offensive.  I think your skills and the things you do are quite fantastic, but this hobby is a very broad church and to each his own. Just because someone opens a box that contains a model that none of us could hope to emulate does not necessarily demean them as a modeller. 

[commerlad]

@gibbo675 I don't bother with labels, As for opening boxes, If someone else has done the hard work and you feel the price is acceptable then so what,

To make those models your own by adapting what comes out of said box is an art.

No less so than starting with a piece of Plasticard or a Brass etch (whether built as originally designed or adapted to be something else.)

Rule 1 applies in every case IT'S YOUR RAILWAY so do what you want.

RULE 2 is an afterthought, You can't have too many loco's, It's just that the layout;s not big enough yet!

[irishmail]

14 hours ago, commerlad said:

@gibbo675 I don't bother with labels, As for opening boxes, If someone else has done the hard work and you feel the price is acceptable then so what,

To make those models your own by adapting what comes out of said box is an art.

No less so than starting with a piece of Plasticard or a Brass etch (whether built as originally designed or adapted to be something else.)

Rule 1 applies in every case IT'S YOUR RAILWAY so do what you want.

RULE 2 is an afterthought, You can't have too many loco's, It's just that the layout;s not big enough yet!

Love Rule No.2 ,  I need to extend my layout.  

[gibbo675]

Yo Dudes,

I have been making up the underframe details to the POP II train. I decided to build the framework onto a base as it would be easier to position and get square upon the model proper.

Fabrication began by making up the lower part of the frame work from .040" Plastruct rod, the next job was cutting out the base plate and positioning the two central stanchions that the lower framework was to be attached. Once cured I glued the lower framework onto the stanchions and to get the framework parallel to the baseplate I used a temporary prop which was secured by a very small spot of glue so that it may be removed later.

This shews the base plates with the stanchions in place with one having the lower frame positioned with a weight to keep it on the prop.

I then made up and fitted all the other pieces and once the majority of the structure was cured I removed the prop and fitted the diagonals as the final four pieces to each structure. The whole will then be attached and with luck will clear the bogie tilt mechanism.

The structures will have the various points and edges filed down before fitting.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I have now fitted the underframes to the undersides of the PC3 and PC4

This was a test fit to see that the bogies had clearance which is why the base plate has been cut back to allow clearance for the tilt ramps.

PC4 with its underframe fitted, PC3 is similarly adorned. The next job will be to fit some of the other underframe details, these will have to be worked out by photographs.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I have been faffing about with the sanding of filler and the application of grey primer on my APT project which is a bit boring but needs to be done before finish paint. Various areas of various bodies required remedial work and re-application of primer.

The power cars are too high and as the wheels are about the right size then the ride height of the bodies had to be lowered by 2mm, this was done by reducing the depth of the height of the tilt guides where the bogies locate. There is a guide rail at the other end that was removed and replaced with block of plasticard as the lugs on the bogies would have interfered with the body sitting correctly.

The tilt guides as original left and reduced right.

The bogie guides at the other end, the plasticard block retains the position of the bogie when fitted into place and prevents fore and aft movement in relation to the body.

I also took the trouble to fill in the oval hole in the roof where the pantograph mount on top of the motor bogie passes though. I decided against making up the passageways where the pantograph support structures pass through as with the real thing as I would have only been able to do one end as the motor bogie fills the area where theses voids ought to be at the other end. I got some pantographs from Peter's Spares which will fit over the repairs so it won't be overly obvious that the holes have been filled in.

Shewing the patch repairs tot eh oval holes.

After all that the body shells were ready for paint, the areas around the cab windows and marker lights were masked up and the electrical insulators were removed from the roofs of the power cars in readiness for priming which was done yesterday and first finish coat of the light grey this morning with second coat this afternoon. Fortunately I got finished about an hour before the rain came as I do my spraying outside.

Twenty APT vehicles in light grey. This is the first time I have used RAL 7032 Pebble Grey as a BR colour and I have to say it is as near as makes no difference to the shade of Lima's Mk3's that I have although Hornby's version does seem a little more yellow. The differential to the new APT-P in the background is mainly due to lighting considerations. I'm, sure that the dark grey and the red and white stripes will make a difference.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I masked off al the APT vehicles and applied the dark grey, unfortunately it was a little cool for spraying and the paint bloomed slightly. This is not to much of a problem because it is only first coat so the colour will good after the second coat. I have ordered the transfers from Railtec and these should arrive in good time along with the transfers for the POP II train.

The one on the left shews bloom and the one on the right is free of bloom.

Another job that is being progressed is the three MK1 postal vans as they have been half painted in the grey for quite some time now. I do have to finish off the other LMS postal vans as the lining is not yet finished.

First coat of blue, these have been brush painted as they were previously painted in Railmatch Royal Mail Red and would have reacted with the spray paint. I have just enough transfers left over to letter them up.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I've been painting things today, see below:

Merlin 85 in Humbrol 48.

Underframes painted black on the ten Road-Railer wagons and also the two of the conversion trucks, the third is in light grey.

The Mk1 postal vans had their second coat of blue along with the underframes, corridor ends and roofs painted appropriately. The blurred photograph does make the painted window frames look that bit better !

Tool and riding vans have had a second coat of red after filling the side where windows had been filled, they will need another coat yet as the colour is not very solid as may be seen.

BR Std Cowans Sheldon 35 ton crane has had first coat of red to be going on with. I took my time getting around to this particular job as I built it about five years ago at least.

Second coat of red for the POP II train, this will also require a third coat as it still has a touch of undercoat shewing through.

I have also painted an LMS 35 ton crane black and a Dapol Presflo wagon into grey to match several others that I built a while back. I ordered some more paint the the main part of the APT project however it has not yet arrived so that is one reason for paining all my other stuff that should have been done previously.

More red paint in the main tomorrow hopefully three coats will do the trick.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

 

How about this for some modelling nostalgia from 1984. Good old Bob Symes !

Enjoy folks,

Gibbo.