4mm Hatchet coaches (Partwork BR Mk1 mods)

[Jon Gwinnett]

Thanks to Jordan for suggesting both the thread and its title. Others will have their own take on these coaches, but for £4 they're not half bad.

The wheels are a bit hit and miss, but mine are getting EM replacements anyway.

The undercrackers are solid (never nice!) but there are various ways to improve these.

They are marginally over length, but I personally can live with that fudge, ymmv.

I've numbered one body shell so far, as a LM one for a potential Pines Express. Apart from a coat of Klear to gloss up the sides, and a spray of Tamiya German grey for the roof, that's about as far as I went, although I did replace the short roof handrail with wire.

The next body shell is being converted into a TSO, with a replacement interior from Replica for a quid or so.

The sides have had the obligatory coat of Klear, now the roof is being worked on after my ignorance in these matters was addressed in another place.



The offending vents are marked ready for excision, then carefully rocking the blade around the rim first, are sliced off:



More to follow, please add your own projects as I'm sure we'll all approach them differently.

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

Here's the SK I did earlier, not done anything to the underframe as plan A, using replica bits, doesn't seem like a goer



And with an unmodified original (apart from branch lines wheels).



Finally with a Bachmann for comparison:

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

The roof has had the vents moved and handrail added. Have left the toilet pipes alone for now.



The Replica TSO interior has had the corners of the partitions modified to match the shape of the cheapo donor interior - this is necessary to clear the roof/side join in the new coach.





The interior moulding has been sprayed with Tamiya RAF dark earth, as the original moulding is a lovely pale peach colour.

The roof is up in the loft getting another couple of coats of gunship grey, now onto the underframe.

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

Having given up, at least for now on the idea of using the Replica under frame, I decided to try another low cost intervention. Unfortunately I didn't have any L section styrene to hand, nor did my local model shop. So a bit of lateral thinking saw me splitting U beam instead:

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

I then attacked the underframe with razor saw, scalpel and spruce nippers (half done in the image):

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

Now I should qualify all this as being bodge central, but I'm hoping the end result will suffice at "normal viewing distance". The new truss has been installed. A coat of black paint followed by some dirt should hide the worst of the bodgery:

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

I can't show the underframe after paint, the Humbrol (just for a change) Matt black just sucks all contrast away. Will have to wait until its weathered. And the roof had to be filled and rubbed down again, so the paint is still wet.

I tried to do something about the prismatic windows. However, I'm not convinced its made any difference, will see once its in the coach. Probably won't bother with this bit again.

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

I'll confess to owning two of these coaches, but they're just to bulk out my lad's passenger trains as they hurtle around our loft layout - I shan't do anything to them. I've read a fair bit of the "Over There" thread (given up now it's got past 20 pages!!) and noted comments about the wheels - the two I have seem fine; the coaches run nice and steady and go through Code 100 points no problem, so they do seem a bit 'hit'n'miss' as to quality. My lad couldn't give a stuff about underframe details or moldings, and I'm wondering how long it'll take him to notice they haven't got numbers....

If I'm honest, I'm not sure the underframe bothers me either, but I had to take the day off today as my wee lad is ill, so I was at a lose end and thought I'd give it a go. Will have to see once it all goes back together if it was worth it.

Trying to be patient now whilst paint dries.

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

Numbers are on, using Klear as a decal fix. They look ok from this angle but I think the varnish coat of the transfer will be visible. Have only had mixed success in the past removing this so may leave as is.

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

Best laid plans and all that...

It turns out that the Replica TSO interior is too wide to fit between the el cheapo body sides with the glazing installed.

After a pause to feed the family, brute force and a large sheet of glass paper remedied that, although tbh it could do with a wee bit more off, I may yet have another go. However, here is the fruit of today's labours:

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

 

[Neil]

A most pleasant result so far Jon. I'll be coming back later to take another look at the underframe mods once my conversion progresses. I can't make up my mind whether I've got the bottle to do a blue/grey repaint or wimp out and go for maroon. I'd prefer the former and have done a sample piece to see if I can get a close match to my Bachmann brake second. I have a cunning bodge in mind to reuse the original wheels set to EM gauge. More on all of this later as the crane and Italian diesel (not to mention the matching baggage van) will be taking priority.

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

So, was it worth it? It was an entertaining way to spend a day. The TSO conversion is feasible but not without effort. The roof worked better than I expected, as did the bodged underframe. I don't know if painting the edges of the glazing made any difference.

Would I do it again? The underframe yes, it was relatively easy and cost pennies, and if you had L section to hand would be even easier. I'll almost certainly do some more of my stash. Painting the roof makes a huge difference, although the Tamiya paint really needs a flat coat and it could all benefit from some weathering.

The Klear on the sides didn't work as well as it might - the theory is sound but my application was a little thick and would have been better by airbrush or perhaps a fresh bottle and brush. That said, I think the photos make it look worse than it appears to the naked eye.

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

I

A most pleasant result so far Jon. I'll be coming back later to take another look at the underframe mods once my conversion progresses. I can't make up my mind whether I've got the bottle to do a blue/grey repaint or wimp out and go for maroon. I'd prefer the former and have done a sample piece to see if I can get a close match to my Bachmann brake second. I have a cunning bodge in mind to reuse the original wheels set to EM gauge. More on all of this later as the crane and Italian diesel (not to mention the matching baggage van) will be taking priority.

I'm looking forward to the Truman/Whitcomb very much, so any delay in playing with the coaches is understandable. I'm going to repaint at least one of my stash, although I'm tempted to try both blood and custard and chocolate and cream.

 

[AJC]

That's a neat bit of work Jon and, I imagine, won't look remotely out of place bimbling around in a rake. If I didn't already have a backlog of coaching stock to complete (and if I actually set eyes on one) I might be tempted. The trussing is worth it I think, but underframe and brake detail is rather my bag so I would say that. Dad and I really need to compare notes on what coaches we have and plan our buying more strategically; we've no good reason for having three BCKs in three different liveries...

Adam