Deconstruction

I knew it had been a while since I posted anything, but I didn't realise it had been over a year!  Any readers left will not be surprised to learn that I've not a layout in that time, but have built a couple of buildings, and a been to a couple of railways, so I've got material for a few blog posts.

The reason for this post is that Michael Campbell's recent posts about building a Kerr Stuart Skylark inspired me to have a look at the partially constructed kit I bought a couple of years ago.  I was obvious that it would require some modification to fit on the Dapol 14xx chassis I had in mind for it, but I'd need to get it into the component parts before I could work whether it would fit.  I'd been meaning to buy some superglue remover, but a quick google search suggested that hot water might do the job.  I found a jug and ran the hot tap and a couple of minutes later I had all the parts.  Checking it against the 14xx chassis shows I'll need modify the footplate, and probably the boiler too.  I'm undecided as to whether to modify the doors like Michael, there's no question that his loco looks nicer with the modifications, but I'm wondering if I should keep it as simple as possible to increase the likelihood of me actually finishing the thing.

Drewrybashing

Last night made a card footplate to go around the Life Like GP38 chassis that I'm planning on using for my Drewrybash diesel.  I'm was concerned that my design was going to be too long for the chassis, as it is around 13cm long, the chassis is just under 10cm to the end of the bogies, or about 12cm to the ends of the rapido couplers (which I don't plan on using). Building the footplate confirmed that is was too long, so I've now got to decide how to make the loco shorter. I posted this on my workbench thread on ngrm-online and the consensus seems to be that I need to remove one body panel. Other ways of saving length would be changing to a single bonnet design, reducing the length of the footplate at the ends of the loco, however both of these would make it look more like the loco the kit is supposed to build. I'll have to re-read the advice I received on how the mechanics of this loco would affect the bonnet designs, and then do a bit of experimentation to see if I can come up with something I'm happy with.

A1 Models 009 Diesels

A while ago whilst browsing Mick Thornton's pictures of Sussex Downs Group Open Day I spotted this picture of a body kit for the Bachmann Plymouth. The kit is only £6.95 and it's available from MG Sharp and Parkside Dundas. it looks like it should be a good introduction to soldered kit construction, and saves me from scratch building something on my Plymouth chassis.  Martin of the Mog Trains Blog has been building one too.

A1 Models now make a second version of the diesel, and a boxcab loco for the Kato tram chassis, both of which are £7.95. Over on ngrm-online "Snowdon Ranger" has detailed how he has built all three kits in his workbench thread.  He's also build the test etch for their next release - a centre cab diesel which was inspired by his conversion two of their original kits which recently featured in the 009 News.

At Warley I bought the second version of the Bachmann Plymouth conversion kit and some brass rod and tube to make an exhaust for it. It'll be the first brass kit I've built and I'll let you know how I get on.

Narrow gauge diesel progress

I've made some progress with the Drewry bash diesel. I took the kit, chassis, some plasticard and some tools away with me at Christmas. However I forgot to take pack the glue so nothing got stuck together. I spent some time cutting and filing off moulded handrails and other details that I didn't want. I also had a bit more of a think about how the cab is going to look. My plan is to build a locomotive with two bonnets, as this will make the locomotive roughly the right length for the Bo-Bo chassis. The Drewry has only one bonnet and has larger windows at the back of the cab so I couldn't fit a second bonnet and keep use all parts of the cab. I considered cutting down the second bonnet so that it was lower than the windows, which would give the driver better visibility, however this wasn't the look I wanted and I couldn't see how I could do this with the Drewery bonnet sides. The only thing for it was to clone the cab front in plasicard. I started work but still haven't finished the windows yet. When I got back I glued the larger bonnet together and used some milliput on mounting hole for the horn and a couple of places where there are dents in the moulding. Next task is to finish the cab and then work out how to make the second bonnet end.

Diesel Plan

Here's a quick mockup of the Bo-Bo diesel Drewry kitbash that I'm planning. My version of the kit has an extra bonnet side piece in so I should be able to make this with only the parts in the kit, styrene sheet and some other bits. I want to give it Lyd2 style lights - hopefully working. One thing I've not worked out yet is how to fix it to the chassis.

Bo-Bo diesel

With the Life Like GP38 I recently bought and some bits from an Airfix/Dapol Drewry shunter I'm planning on building an Eastern European influenced loco. I'm planning on an off centre cab design.

To make sure I have a sensible loading gauge I'm planning on using using the height and width of the Lyd2 as a guide. Working from the measurements of the Lyd2 here gives me a maximum of 28.9mm wide and 42.7mm high.