"Voiding the Warranty" - Mol's experiments in 21mm gauge

[Mol_PMB]

Another warranty voided. A perfectly functional Murphy 141 class now in a million bits.

I have removed the cosmetic bogie frames and the fuel tank and started the weathering process on them.

Also I removed the wheelsets, dismantled them and reassembled with new longer axles, Gibson carriage wheels and some spacer tubes to keep the wheelsets central. 

Removing the body was quite an ordeal involving an excess of swearing, but eventually it came apart.

I scraped off the old numbers (149) with a cocktail stick, and renumbered it to 156 using some custom transfers I had printed a while ago. In this case, it is correct to have the large shaded numbers on the front.

I've also removed the tablet catchers and repainted them, ready to refit. I found that Precision Paints gave a better match to the Murphy orange than Railmatch did. 

I've started the weathering process on the body, running a dirty wash into the crevices. There's plenty more to do and I'll get the airbrush out tomorrow. I'm aiming for a loco that was recently repainted but has got a bit grubby in traffic and then been well cleaned on the bodysides and ends, but with a grubby roof and bogies, something like this 181 from Ernie:

It's interesting that even this pair specially prepared for a royal train still have grubby bogies!

156 ought to have its roundel a bit higher up than the one on the model, and I'm trying to decide whether to scrape them off and add new transfers in the correct place. It's tricky as they are under the handrail. I have some Railtec roundels which are the right size but are very 'orange' - they match the paint. These roundels faded quickly and the printed Murphy models roundels nicely capture the faded colour. Hmm...

I have not yet taken the plunge and tackled the buffers. I need to decide whether to hack then off and replace with unsprung, larger ones at the correct spacing. Or live with the ones that are already fitted. I was only able to get one set of the correct type and they're no longer made, so if I do the modification it will be my only 141 with correct buffers.

Also I'll need to refit the coupler pockets into the front valance.

 

More tomorrow, hopefully.

[DJ Dangerous]

35 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

I have removed the cosmetic bogie frames and the fuel tank and started the weathering process on them.

I wonder if there is any way of somehow using the cosmetic bogie frames, not yours in particular, just in general, to create O Gauge equivalents?

[Mol_PMB]

11 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

I wonder if there is any way of somehow using the cosmetic bogie frames, not yours in particular, just in general, to create O Gauge equivalents?

Interesting thought. Years ago I did a bit of Irish O gauge but used the American scale as it was closer to broad gauge. An Atlas switcher on flexicoil trucks had the right style of bogies though not 100% perfect.

It looks like the US version of the Flexicoil is now available as a 3D print:

https://3dcentraltrains.com/products/51001-flexicoil-p48-emd-truck-atlas-o-upgrade-kit