Mr Grumpy

Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
The guard's compartment is just about finished, and I had to make up four chains with hooks attached for the doors. I couldn't successfully open the chain links, so I made links from wire and threaded the chain through and soldered up. This chain, hook and plate is around 7mm long.
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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
As I said previously, the guards compartment is just about finished. The hand brake, seat, letter rack and heater screen are removable for painting. Once painted, the mirrors and glass will go in to the periscopes as will the dials on to the gauges. The door chains will also be glued in place.
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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
I bought a great book a couple of weeks back, 'The Henley on Thames Branch', and I got totally engrossed, followed by a frustrating repair to a Heljan railbus. So not much coach progress to report.
I have finally fitted the seats and under seat heating panels. For the life of me, I couldn't get the seats in with their ends attached. I removed the end panels and made some from paper and glued them to the compartment sides. I have made up the ash trays and heater controls and 'shrunk' several railway posters for the compartment picture frames. I should get that lot fitted over the weekend :) also, the transfers have arrived.
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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
I'm going to get cracking with the luggage racks tomorrow, but in the meantime, I have hung the pictures and mirrors (a few are a tad out of level, but will be levelled during 'snagging') fitted the door locks, ashtrays (in the smoking compartments) and heater controls. The handbrake and seat are fitted in the guard's compartment.

Then if the weather holds I'll add and seal the transfers with varnish later in the week.
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farnetti

Western Thunderer
[Then if the weather holds I'll add and seal the transfers with varnish later in the week.}

All looking very lovely Mr. G.

I am toying with the idea of a small rake of these suburbans to go behind an MOK 4MT I have recently purchased. (Don't get too excited David, won't be soon).

Just out of interest have you tried fitting the interiors to the external body together with the roof?

Your letter rack looks far better than mine and I found the periscope controls fiddly, fine etches and clumsy fingers.

Ken
 

Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
Hi Ken,
That should look like a nice train :) I looked at buying another NG suburban while DJP had his sale on, but the one I was after was out of stock. The funds have now been put aside for my 6 milk tankers.
I soldered the letter rack with my 1mm pointed tip and a microscope :D
The end compartment seat is attached to the rear panel which itself is attached to the roof and is fitted with the retaining screws. I have found that if I sit the roof on to the interior, by first sliding the seat in square to the compartment, then sliding the whole assembly in at a downward angle from the centre of the coach, it looks like it will fit.
I have decided to glue the windows in after varnishing and lightly weathering the body first, then hopefully slide in the interior. Still not 100% sure if the roof will sit down nicely yet.
 
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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
The luggage racks are going to take some time :) I managed one today, but I'm sure I will get a little quicker! I made the rack on the work bench as you can't slide the rear wire through the brackets if you fit the brackets to the bulkhead first.
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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
Of course you're now going to have to install lighting in the coaches to see the detailed compartments :rolleyes:.
You're probably right! I'm thinking of using conductive paint on the wheels and making both bogies live as I don't want to try and fit pickups on the bogies now. I also need to source a suitably dim LED strip also I'll fit a function only decoder so I can turn the lights off/on.
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Richard

The coach looks great.

If you want to dim LEDs just use a big resistor, don't rely on the decoder dimming option, that can make them flash on and off.

Richard
 

Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
Richard

The coach looks great.

If you want to dim LEDs just use a big resistor, don't rely on the decoder dimming option, that can make them flash on and off.

Richard
Thanks Richard,
I think the more detailed the interior gets, the more I feel the necessity to install lighting. I have some 1k and 2k resistors in stock. I can't remember which I used for my Hymek but the lighting was nicely dimmed.
 

Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
The fixing holes for the body/roof are partially hidden inside the ends of the chassis, so I couldn't get access to the nuts with a spanner or spinner.
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So I drilled a couple of holes in each nut and spun them on with a piece of wire inserted into the holes.

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I also got the transfers on, I'll leave them to fully set for a while then I'm going to try Halfords lacquer to seal them.

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I'll give the body a very light weathering then glue in the glazing and fit the interior complete with roof.
 

Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
I'm having a bit of a battle with the roof at present. I just can't get it to sit on the body correctly. The interior is, as advised in the instructions, a very tight fit. So much so, while giving it a final wriggle to the coach end, the side and rear parted company at the top corner. So I will have to take it all out again and solder the corner from the inside. I think I'll just glue the roof in place. Anyway, after 5 months, I need a bit of time away from it for now, and will have a look at making a start on my tankers and decorating the railway room, and take a fresh look at it then.
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Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
I'm having a bit of a battle with the roof at present. I just can't get it to sit on the body correctly. The interior is, as advised in the instructions, a very tight fit. So much so, while giving it a final wriggle to the coach end, the side and rear parted company at the top corner. So I will have to take it all out again and solder the corner from the inside. I think I'll just glue the roof in place. Anyway, after 5 months, I need a bit of time away from it for now, and will have a look at making a start on my tankers and decorating the railway room, and take a fresh look at it then.

I can empathise - when I hit this sort of impasse I tend to walk away from the model and revisit it later. I have found trying to sort it out immediately results in making matters worse and thereby taking longer to resolve.
 

dibateg

Western Thunderer
As you probably saw Richard. I had similar problems getting the roof on to my GUV, so resorted to threaded rods to pull it in to place in the middle...
It might also be worth a look at Heathers thread with the RMB.

Tony
 

Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
As you probably saw Richard. I had similar problems getting the roof on to my GUV, so resorted to threaded rods to pull it in to place in the middle...
It might also be worth a look at Heathers thread with the RMB.

Tony
Thanks Tony, I liked your solution. I have cleaned up the inside corner of the body to solder it back in place, and will do that later. While I was at at it I also made a couple of profiled roof plates to which I'm considering soldering threaded bar and doing as you have. I'll pick some up at the Reading show.
 

farnetti

Western Thunderer
Hello Mr G,

Commiserations on the roof fitting. Heather, Tony, you and I have had the same outcome, and is why I haven't finished the BG thread.

The roof sits down perfectly without the interior but, despite gentle filing down of the tops of the interior sides and guards compartment, it will not sit down with the interior in place. I have not been able to find the reason that this is so.

I considered finishing the vehicle without the interior in place but that would be a shame as it is so detailed.

Heather and Tonys' problems seemed to be due to a bowed roof, yours and mine don't so unless the tabs line up with the slots, with the interior in place, the bolts will just take the roof down to the top of the tabs.

Your idea of gluing the roof on gave me an idea though. If I deconstructed the interior and trial fitted each bit with the roof on before continuing I might find out before final attachment of the roof. Not sure about this yet, comments gratefully welcome.

I had the same thing with the corner becoming unsoldered, thankfully before painting. Necassarily, on the BG with rounded corners the joint is very thin, and the interior doesn't allow a solder fillet inside.

I'm looking forward to the tank wagons.

Ken
 

Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
Hi Ken,
The reason I cracked on and painted the coach was that like yours, the roof will sit down without the interior in, so I felt confident to do so. Also, as I explain below, the glazing had to be fitted before the interior and roof.
I filed Vees into the roof under the gutter corresponding with the compartment bulkheads which helped a bit. Also, I couldn't fit the roof as designed after the interior as the rear compartment seat and luggage rack are attached to the panel which is attached to the roof. The seat and rack are too wide to go in at right angles as there is no give in the body at the ends. So the whole assembly was slid at a downward angle from the middle of the coach. The guard's compartment end has some 'give' so went in ok. This is why I glued the windows in prior to fitting the interior.
To cut a very long saga short, I eventually removed the rear panel from the roof which allows the interior to be fitted far easier. The corner is now soldered and re-painted, just needs blending in. I really want this to work as the coach really does look superb, and runs beautifully. The axleboxes sit just right on the springs I fitted.
As for the tankers, I bought 3 LMS and 3 GWR for variety. I also bought the name plates and a couple of platforms for the GWR tankers from Rumney Models for a bit more interest. Just debating getting the sprung axleboxes..
 

farnetti

Western Thunderer
I'm thinking from what you say that it might be easier to use interiors from Easybuild for the suburban coaches. I have asked and they are willing to sell seats etc. A bit more fiddly and probably not as detailed as MMP but may help the roof issue.

This is no criticism of MMP, just that my abilities may not always be quite up to their kits, but that's the way I like it.

Ken
 
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