Yorky D's Küchentisch - North Eastern - 'Ours graft f'nowt...

[Yorkshire Dave]

Firstly the Brougham has now been glazed and hubcaps fitted.


Then the form of locomotion. An S&D models horse. This is the first one of three to be painted - my first attempt at painting livestock.





Next will be the reins and remaining tack.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

300% increase in horsepower - the other two S&D horses have now been painted....

Believe it or not this was the most difficult to paint - 50 shades of black!


Then the brown one with markings.


And finally the trio....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

As the title suggests it's not the Black Dyke Mills Band playing John Lee Hooker......

.....but an attempt to vanquish the demons of my brass kit building following the Met 6T ballast wagons.

At one of the shows I picked up this Alphagraphix LCDR coach kit which as usual does not contain wheels, couplers etc. Annoyingly you have to open the kit to look at the (scant in this case) instructions to find out what wheels are required. It would be nice if the 'missing' requirements list with part numbers was on the outside of the box. In this case which Slaters wheels and 0.9mm brass wire.


The brass bits.... I've already started some of it. Obviously this photo is an afterthought...

Some card interior parts and whitemetal castings. And thoughtfully they've provided some kitchen roll in case I run out.... Not any old kitchen roll but Blitz.


And some extras I purchased to complete the kit. As can be seen I will not be using the compensation system provided in the kit.

The carriage has tumblehomes which I've never formed before so I plagairised Rob Pulham's idea of using some broom handle - steel tube in my case. The side was taped to the tube with masking tape and then rolled.


The result.

The carriage sides have fold over tabs for attaching to the floor and roof. When folded these add an extra 0.5 to 1.0 mm to top and bottom which is just not there on the prototype and would certainly be visible if assembled this way.

So these came off and the top was replaced by 3mm angle and the bottom with brass strip. The droplights were also soldered in and alas.............. no F7 invisible solder here .

The kit does not have any locators for the ends and it was not stated in the instructions whether the end is to be fitted to the inside or the outside of the sides..... So I used some offcuts of angle to assist with positioning of the end to the inside of the carriage end.


And..... one side completed with the door ventilators and handles.



Other items which jump out are the etched door hinges (yuk) and the lack of door stops..... something to add to the to do list....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Carrying on with the Blues.....

The coach chassis folded up and the underframe detail laminations soldered on.



Rolling the roof using the same method as the tumblehome earlier.

The roof has half etched lines on the inside and either this is to aid rolling or provide the detail for the roof interior or both. Anyway here is the result. The roof will be covered with lens cleaning wipes which should hide the attempted multi faceted diamond cut.

And while I was soldering on the scrap angle to to inside of the roof to act as locators......

Disaster struck... - one arm of the magnifiers snapped.... oh .


Which meant a rummage through the scrap etch box to locate some 'C' section brass. After some cutting, filing, drilling, nuts and bolts from the pocket screw box a repair was effected.

This brass section was sunk into the plastic strengthening? ridge with a soldering iron.


Back onto the coach the end steps were rather plain and puny so I cut some scrap chequer place and soldered these onto the steps.

Then the duckets.... these have taken the most time so far. They are effectively a fold up design......Simple you would think, however..... the half etch fold line is on the outside i.e. the side with all the detail. Which when folded creates a nice round corner on the outside except LCDR carriages have very square corners. To square the corners I tried fillets of solder which was partially successful and finished them off with epoxy followed by much filing... in the marsh.


And plonk the items completed together thus far..... still plenty to do.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

No quite as bad as the title suggests but as the coach build continues there are some leetle niggles..... which has resorted to a bit of bodgery .

Firstly the compartment end. This carries the electrical switchgear (as fitted by the SECR when they converted LCDR coaches from oil to electric lights).

The etch with its fold up switch box just looked too crude so I made up a new one from some scrap nickel silver etch and incorporated the mounting brackets. New hand loops were made from nickel silver wire and the switch box from scrap laminated brass. In addition I added the small arm which operates the switch and the electrical conduit is brass wire. Both my bodgery and the original etch are shown.


The instructions suggest the grab irons be made up from 0.9mm brass wire. Given the short length of these and guessing the formed brass wire will look like what it will be - bent brass wire - and the fact it's not easy bending 0.9mm brass set me thinking how I was going to make these.

It was while I was trawling Laurie Griffin's catalogue for door stops I spotted the Highland Railway Jones Coach Door and Coupe handles and noted they looked very similar to the LCDR door fittings... then I ordered a set to see what they looked like.

And low and behold..... They are now fitted to the coach - to one side at least - as I now need to order another set. At the same time I replaced the 'modern' door handles with the HR versions as they are a dog bone shape commensurate with the age of the coach.


Oblique view of grab irons and door handles.


The completed side..... door handles and grab irons.


I'm now waiting on a delivery of the stuff that's just not provided in the kit i.e. brake end brake 'tell tales', lamp irons, battery box, dynamo, etc among other detail parts.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Slowly it goes whilst waiting for some more detail parts....

Attention was turned as to how the body is going to be secured to the chassis as it was not evident in the instructions. To overcome this I soldered some brass angle, strengthened with some brass strip, into the ends at floor level.


These were drilled and tapped for M1.4 machine screws. The hole centres are different at each end so it can only be assembled one way.


The fixing from the underside. The buffers and couplers will be last items to be installed after painting, etc. This photo also leads onto the axle boxes and springs....

Quite frankly the quality of these is not brilliant and some were poorly cast so bits broke off easily. Perhaps I'm just being too Teutonic in my expectations about the quality of parts and quality control . It's as if the items were removed from the mould, given a cursory glance (rather than check the piece all over) and thrown into the parts bag.

The collateral..... and one has managed to disappear into the ravenous carpet monster of Traal!

Then attention swung to the interior and I started this from styrene sheet. The aim here is to fix this (and the Connoisseur suspension units) to the chassis with small self tapping screws from the underside. The compartment end seat will be fixed to the body shell.


Being a coach with a tumblehome at the moment there is a gap between the partitions and the coach side and I have one or two ideas on how to close these before final assembly....

The battery box was detailed, supports made from brass strip and ready for installation.

Just another photo of the compartment end.

With hindsight what this brass kit malarky has taught me is to produce a checklist of items to check for when purchasing a brass kit. e.g. for coaches:

Wheels, Buffers, Couplers, Grab irons, Door handles, Door stops, Door hinges, Battery boxes, Dynamo, Electrical switch gear, Roof vents, Brake tell tales, Interiors, Lamp irons, Brake pipes, Steam heat pipes, etc, etc. And check the quality of the castings.

When purchasing a kit I'll just have to start asking manufacturers/traders to open the box so I can see what is included and what extras I would require?

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Yesterday I made up the Connoisseur 6w coach suspension units.



And tonight I marked out the centreline of the chassis, drilled and tapped the holes for 2mm machine screws.

Installed the suspension units... from underneath....

.... and above. These will screw through to the hold the interior floor.

The lamp irons and brake 'tell tale' arrived today. The compartment end - the LCDR mounted their lamp irons about 3/4 way up the corner posts.......

....and the brake end with the 'tell tales'. Just noticed one of the end steps requires some re-adjusting .

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Well, well well.... I appeared to have surpassed myself tonight.

I carefully cut off the buffer beams using a piercing saw and soldered them to some scrap nickel silver etch to beef them up a bit.

They were then soldered to the underframe after opening up the buffer and coupler holes.



This is after the coach body has been screwed to the underframe.

Once the buffers, vacuum and steam heat pipes have been installed the slight imperfection will be hidden. After it will be representing one of Col. Stephens poorly maintained second hand purchases!


And temporarily resting on the suspension units.

I've just realised whilst typing these ramblings this is the first brass coach kit I have built in O scale and apart from some few niggles it has been quite satisfying in a way. The previous brass coach kits I had built were the Roxey SECR 60' 4mm birdcage set way back in the late 80's

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

After discussing the LCDR coach on the Guild Tech Comm stand with a SECR Society member at Kettering last weekend he subsequently forwarded some of his notes regarding this LCDR coach.... which included a photograph taken from a footbridge at Lewisham Road around the turn of the last century showing the roof details.

So from this piece of guesswork (using the part provided in the kit).....


... to this. The rainstrips and electrical conduit were fashioned from Evergreen styrene strip and the torpedo vents were some I found in my wagon parts box. I think they are of Parkside origin but they'll suffice.


In addition the photo and notes revealed the LCDR had three lamp irons on their coaches so a third one was added centrally above the buffer beam on the compartment end.....

....and on the brake end.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Over the last few days I've also been messing around with soft furnishings - in this case Slaters seats for the LCD coach.

I have no idea of the LCDR furnishing colours so I painted the first class a deep prussian blue with a purple colour carpet and the second class a dark red with a blue floor.

I've also attempted to show seat wear with lighter worn patches. The antimacassars are cut from toilet paper (clean, naturally ) and stuck to the seat backs with matt varnish. They were then painted with a dilute wash of ivory white and a very pale grey wash was applied.




And to see what it looks like inside the coach.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I was messing about again tonight and added some mirrors and carriage prints to the interior.

The mirrors are made up from polished nickel silver scrap etch and a black marker pen was used around the edges.

The carriage prints were found online. I downloaded, resized and fitted them into the carriage. These are actually turn of the century photographs of scenic destinations on the LBSCR but look the part in the carriages.

I have also added a single ply of cheap kitchen towel on the floor of the first class compartments to represent carpeting...... it was this accident which set the leetle grey cells working .


I wondered if somehow I could represent the luxurious seating found in turn of the century carriages. So I made up a Slaters seat to try out the idea...

Again, good old kitchen towel, this time left as two ply.

I cut a piece slightly larger than the seat and glued this on with plastic weld gently prodding it into the corners - a bit smelly but it did adhere. Once set I made up and added the seat dividers and armrests. The results are below and one half has been left unpainted.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

The coach body has now been dressed.... well, airbrush painted.

The body colour, all Vallejo acrylics, is a mixture of German Red Brown/Rot Braun RAL 8012 surface primer (74.605), Mahagony (71.036) and a drop of Red (71.102). Droplight frames are painted with a mixture of New Wood and Mahagony. White roof and black ends. SECR decals are from Fox.

The whole ensemble was then given a coat of Alclad gloss laquer.

Once hardened off the body will be lined and weathered.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Yes - it's Bodge city's bodgarama time....

This time with the chassis.....

Not liking the axleboxes supplied with the kit I purchased some new ones from Ragstone, however they do not have W irons.

So viewers, you may recall from my LT thread I altered the suspension on the Met 6T ballast wagons, serendipity has intervened.

These W irons removed from the three Met ballast wagons have fortuitously provided me with six W iron etches.


Ragstone castings soldered to the W irons.


And fitted them to the chassis. Polite note to the solder police - look away now .

A bit of bodgery with brass angle and scrap etch was involved to ensure they were at the correct height and secure. Although a bit crude it is solid and will not be seen .


As this coach is being finished in SECR livery some new full length lower foot boards will be made as the kit only includes those as shortened (for the brake compartment only) by the EKR.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Tonight I've mostly been making footboards.....

An office move over the weekend saw the liquidation of these assets - steel sprung paper clips......


Which I used to hold two brass strips together whilst I tack soldered these in preparation for cutting them into lower footboards for the coach. The original short footboard from the kit (lower right) provided the template for cutting out the axlebox slot.

Yesterday I made up 16 C section (bottom right) footboard supports from scrap etch which were soldered to the base of the upper footboard.
I also cut out toe boards from brass strip. These were soldered to the supports first with the supports held in place by the paper clips followed by the lower footboards. The paper clips prevent the supports moving and also act as a mini heat sink during soldering.


Et voila - the chassis with lower footboards.



The LCDR sign on the left is something I idly knocked up from the kit description on the outer frame of the scrap etch, tube, rod and a redundant flywheel. With a few glass beads denoting the James Staats-Forbes Dutch Rhenish Railway connection. The glass beads are leftovers when I used the green and red ones (stacked as shown) to represent port and starboard navigation lights on ships.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

This week saw the fitting of the under chassis gubbins.....



....which was primed, painted and mated to it's glazed and lined body. This being my first attempt at lining after a 30 year gap - only the windows, lower panels, outer end and bottom edges are lined.

The body was given two overall black/brown washes to get into the panels which has hidden the lining in some parts. Once this was dry I wiped over the body with my finger to 'polish' the panels which left a bit of grime in the corners. I've deliberately left the coach unkempt as it was sold by the Southern in 1926 to the EKR without being repainted into SR colours.




A view into the compartments...

The SMOKING signs are part of the Fox Transfers SECR set and like all decals they are designed to be placed on the outside..... however....


....I did not want the decals to be on the outside of the panes so I prepared them as per the instructions but dabbed them with a piece of kitchen towel whilst still on the backing sheet (but loose) to remove excess water. I then brushed a drop of Johnsons Klear (orginal formula from I bottle I purchased years ago) onto the inside of the window and applied the decal with a fine pair of tweezers. Due to fragility of the decals there is very little time to manoeuvre them into place.

A bit of a cruel close up and as can be seen these SMOKING decals represent the etched glass style.



Mmmm. It really needs a 5 compartment 3rd and a SECR ex-LCD loco to keep it company. Preferably an A class 0-4-4T .

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I required a 'modern' building for my proposed London Transport layout to contrast with the Art Deco/1930's style I intend having. The bothy I built earlier is a tad too early for the LT 'New Works' style.

The result is this laser cut kit I commissioned from BrushType4......

......a 7mm model of the Bognor Regis brick staff mess room built in 1955 by the Southern Region. It's a plain mundane building but will suit my requirements of a 'modern' building in the yard.

The parts - as ever they are well executed and fit together very well. So much so I had dry assembled within 15 minutes of opening the package.


The parts identified and some colour coding added to show the locations of the walls.

Firstly some items required laminating:
1 Plinth
2 Inner and outer toilet end walls
3 Inner floor
4 Outer front wall and the inner front toilet wall
5 Top step


These were glued with PVA and clamped whilst drying.


The inner floor was then glued to the plinth using the inner sides as a locating guide. As can be seen I also lettered the locations of the wall parts.

The two inner/outer toilet walls were dressed on the ends to ensure the laminate join was not evident on the transverse bricks (stretcher).


The inner toilet window sill (circled here) required it's sill brick mortar joints.

The inner window is shown here (top right) and the micro saws I used to cut the mortar joints are shown. These are small etched blades designed for the Xacto knife handles. This exercise is a bit academic as the toilet walls will be painted white once the mortar is applied and is unlikely to be seen through the frosted glass! But I know it's there ....

More to follow.....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Earlier this evening I painted the interior walls...


The dado rail was drawn on with a Sharpie black marker pen.


The inner carcass.

Before painting I brushed the outer walls with a brass brush to rough them up a bit. Then it was on with the base coat for 'Flettons' with an old brush which has shed a few hairs - however these will rub off when dry. I'll let this dry overnight before the adding the brick variations.

For the record the colours used were a varying mixture of Vallejo Basic Rust, Yellow Rust, Red, Yellow and White.


The holes in the rear are for locating the chimney.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Some more photos after the addition of the mortar.

Front.


Rear - the chimney needs a bit more work. Mortar will be applied to the outer corners after final assembly.


In this state it looks like it should be on the Salisbury Plain training ground.


Close up of the entrance. The interior of the porch wall will be rendered.


Toilet entrance.


Some random building I photographed to check out the brickwork......

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

The windows have been painted and installed on the outer walls.

The bottom left window required some trimming to fit.



After the windows were painted some gunmetal applied to represent worn paint.


Doors and other woodwork painted including the cubicle partitions.

Test fitting of the door frame.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

The next item on the list was to glaze the windows.

I was pondering whether to glaze the frames individually or use one sheet behind the window frame. So as an experiment to help decide I cut individual panes from 0.25mm clear acrylic sheet and installed the panes with PVA.

The window on the left has individual panes whilst the one on the right has a single sheet behind the frame.




No contest really as the window on the left looks more like the metal Crittal windows of the 1950's. Therefore more panes were cut. Those destined for the toilet were 'frosted by' sanding them.



Once the glazing was completed the outer walls were installed to the carcass. Before doing this I drilled some holes in the floor to take the lighting cable. This conveniently passes through the cavity wall.



The corners were 'mortared' in and the inner wall of the front step brick wall was pasted with a mortar mix to represent cement rendering.


This shows how well the corners interlock.



A bit cruel but this looks better in reality.