7mm The Colonel's Birmingham Bodges. EMU's & now Mk2 coaches.
- Thread starter iploffy
- Start date
iploffy
OC Blue Brigade
Mr Dunkers here's the offending conduit (the curvy silver pipe in the middle of the picture), picture taken at the asbestos stripping yard showing the door to the passenger compartment
I think that during the midlife overhaul they had this door fitted as I have found other drawings with a long seat next on the other side of this bulkhead
Col
iploffy
OC Blue Brigade
Up date Cutting and Gluing, Filling and sanding nearly complete, Pan well just needs a skin of filler
The Amount of cutting required on this coach to get it the right length and to get the structure as strong as possible
Now the bit I didn't want to do sealing up the windows , as anyone who has done a Big Big conversion will tell you the plastic is 40 years old and very brittle so a drastic solution was needed to give the coach more strength armed with 2mm plasticard and copious amounts of resin glue and the Dremel I began, Slowly.I decided that I would cut out sections of the old windows 2 at a time on each side so as to stop it trying to warp and it looks like I succedded let it go off for a couple of hours then I will do the other side
it looks a little messy but the plastic stands slightly proud of the original body i should be able to blend it in easily enough. Onwards
Ploffy (play acting OC the BLUE brigade)
The Amount of cutting required on this coach to get it the right length and to get the structure as strong as possible
Now the bit I didn't want to do sealing up the windows , as anyone who has done a Big Big conversion will tell you the plastic is 40 years old and very brittle so a drastic solution was needed to give the coach more strength armed with 2mm plasticard and copious amounts of resin glue and the Dremel I began, Slowly.I decided that I would cut out sections of the old windows 2 at a time on each side so as to stop it trying to warp and it looks like I succedded let it go off for a couple of hours then I will do the other side
it looks a little messy but the plastic stands slightly proud of the original body i should be able to blend it in easily enough. Onwards
Ploffy (play acting OC the BLUE brigade)
lancer1027
Western Thunderer
Coming along nicely Ian
. How are you going to do the windows to the new config??
When i scratch built my TPO's i used 80 thou with large rectangle window apertures then skinned it with 10 thou overlays with the correct window apertures cut and filed .
Rob
. How are you going to do the windows to the new config??When i scratch built my TPO's i used 80 thou with large rectangle window apertures then skinned it with 10 thou overlays with the correct window apertures cut and filed .
Rob
Phill Dyson
Western Thunderer
The Russian Novo's are a lot harder to work than the plastic on the Triang ones Ian
as I hope it will be made out of M/Steel it should be good for a couple of thousand
iploffy
OC Blue Brigade
Well the first coach has it's witness coat on a glowing red primer it has shown up a few blemishes but not too many
And this is the amount of butchery to be done before we get to that stage
Ploffy (OC the BLUE brigade) at the moment watching his avatar as he can feel another attack on the rights of the free living BLUES any moment
And this is the amount of butchery to be done before we get to that stage
Ploffy (OC the BLUE brigade) at the moment watching his avatar as he can feel another attack on the rights of the free living BLUES any moment
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
"Blues" is an expression by the living when oppressed... even when free
S
Simon Dunkley
Guest
Impressive work, but I amreminded of something Cyril Freezer once said, after hearing someone describe all the work he had done on some Tri-ang* clerestories, to convert them into something else: "Very nice, but wouldn't it have been easier to start from scratch?"
(To which the thoughtful response was, "You are probably right.")
*Tri-ang was once the biggest toy manufacturer in the world.
(To which the thoughtful response was, "You are probably right.")
*Tri-ang was once the biggest toy manufacturer in the world.
marsa69
Western Thunderer
I think scratch might have been an option but getting the Mk2 shape right would have been a bit of a bugger. The fact that any kind of Mk2 coach is a bit thin on the proverbial ground has dictated the use of butchering the old Big-Bigs. We know JLTRT do a Mk2 kit but neither of us could see the point in paying all that money for one of their kits just to go and hack it up into something vaguely familiar 
The same applies to the PRMRP Mk 2 kits. Although a lot cheaper than JLTRT they would still have entailed some serious modification work. At least with the Triang stuff if we cock-up a body-shell we can bin it and start again. Better to waste 15/20 quid on a couple of plastic bodies than £100+ on a propriety kit. It also allows us to perfect things in the long run and fingers crossed things will work out and we'll be the proud owners of a fairly convincing set or 3 of some unique EMU's. If they turn out crape then we're pretty sure someone on the Bay of Flea will take them off our hands and let us have a go at something else 
Either way we'll have a laugh doing it
The same applies to the PRMRP Mk 2 kits. Although a lot cheaper than JLTRT they would still have entailed some serious modification work. At least with the Triang stuff if we cock-up a body-shell we can bin it and start again. Better to waste 15/20 quid on a couple of plastic bodies than £100+ on a propriety kit. It also allows us to perfect things in the long run and fingers crossed things will work out and we'll be the proud owners of a fairly convincing set or 3 of some unique EMU's. If they turn out crape then we're pretty sure someone on the Bay of Flea will take them off our hands and let us have a go at something else Either way we'll have a laugh doing it
S
Simon Dunkley
Guest
Thanks for the picture - missed your post earlier this week.
I can confirm from personal usage that originally the long seat went right across the carriage, and I remember the surprise when I saw a doorway appearing after refurbishment.
I realise that. I wondered if it might make sense to simply remove the whole side (one at a time) and fit some plastic card into the resulting aperture.
This is not going to be easy to describe, but I will give it a try...
Keep the ends as well as the roof, and form a piece of (say) 60 thou or 80 to match the body curvature, or laminate some pieces together and file/wet and dry them to the correct profile. Don't worry about getting a dead smooth finish, but make the piece slightly longer than the aperture.
Where there is to be windows, cut a rectangular hole slightly bigger than the final window.
Put a top layer of 20 thou onto this which has the window apertures carefully cut out to size and shape, and door outlines scribed to about 10 thou deep. Cut another piece of 20 thou to match this in outline, but do not join it to the other pieces: this can be painted a sort of fake wood colour (from memory) on one side: this side will become the interior of the body.
Leave to harden thoroughly, under a weight.
When fully hardened, carefully remove a little bit from each end, to get the side to be a nice fit into the aperture.
Cement this into the aperture of the body shell. Leave to fully harden, then apply filler, leave to hard, and file smooth.
When the work on the body is completed, and it is painted, cut some glazing material of the same thickness as the main body insert, to sizes to match the windows (IIRC, you only have 3 to worry about, so careful cutting out out of the rectangular holes and of the glazing should speed things up). Some of the droplights can be cut shorter, to represent open windows. Cement the inner side in place.
Glazing trapped and providing there is not too long a time interval between all these processes, there is a triple laminate which should avoid distortion over the years.
Does that make sense? The idea was to create more or less flush glazing.
S
Simon Dunkley
Guest
...now take it out and put it somewhere else!
Always glad to be able to help - I haven't done it quite like this, but I have done it using layers of 10 thou plasticard behind some etched Zinc sides, and it worked there.
iploffy
OC Blue Brigade
The idea of using the Big Big conversion was first muted about 3 years ago but was discounted as there was a lot of work involved and not enough time to complete them. Lets look at the whole of the project it's not just the body that makes this unit it's the shape the under gubbins, the cabs. when MTH went to Coventry Electric railway museum he took a load of pictures for me to add to the ones I already have ,with the drawings I dimensioned at the scrap yard in Rotherham it works out to be quite a lot of information. These have shown a number of not insurmountable differences namely the odd appendage that is above the gangway connection, the whole shape change on the ends of the units non of these can be reliably made in brass. The first Units to be constructed are the test beds for the project, from these we can convert to almost any of the Mk2 shell EMU's with the added potential later on that we can bring in the Mk2 southern EMU's PEP and co.
S
Simon Dunkley
Guest
Seriously impressive project there, mate.
40126
Western Thunderer
I see you've been taking photo tips off Rob (Lancer1027)
I'm enjoying this thread mate, keep going
Steve
