Atso

Some work has been started on a couple of J3s for my Hadley Wood project. Both will be Hitchin allocated locos (as I couldn't find any pictures of the Kings Cross allocated ones) and demonstrate some of the detail differences that make the J3 class a bit of a minefield. Power will be provided by a couple of heavily modified Union Mills tender drives - tenders will be provided once some drawings for the later Stirling designed tenders surface. Hopefully Christmas Day may see some more wheel sets for the second one! Merry Christmas everyone!

I can't offer anything to the fascinating discussion on wagons (although I might be lucky enough to receive some kits tomorrow), nor can I offer any suggestions as to what differentiates an exhibition from a show. However, I can offer a couple more locomotive builds for Hadley Wood in N Gauge. A couple of J3s that I decided to build, taking advantage of the Peco Collett Spares that became available earlier this year. Both represent Hitchin based locomotives (I've been unable to fit photos of any Kings Cross allocated ones) and have 3D printed, unpowered, chassis as well. The wheels run in Markits 1.5mm 'gearbox' bearings which are held tightly between the frames and keeper plate. Getting sufficient clearances while not compromising dimensions too much was a bit of a challenge but has been achieved on the first one (to become no. 4011). Power will be provided by heavily modified Union Mills units fitted with Peco wheels and re motored with some 7mm coreless motors to gain sufficient clearance for the, close to scale, wheels.

I've been designing a pair of ex-GNR J3s around other bits and pieces, making use of the N Gauge Peco Collett Goods spares that became available earlier this year. The front locomotive will become LNER no. 4011 and the rear no. 4154, both of which were allocated to Hitchin in the 1930s. I would have liked to have modelled one of the examples allocated to Kings Cross but sadly, I've been unable to find any pictures of one of these and the J3/J4 classes are a minefield in terms of details. Both of these locomotives will be powered by heavily modified Union Mills tender drives with the wheels replaced with Peco ones. The motor will be swapped for a 716 motor to gain clearance for the larger wheels and hopefully make a bit more space for weight in the small Stirling designed tenders (when I get around to designing these). Getting sufficient clearance for the loco wheels and coupling rods while not straying too far from scale was 'fun'! 4154 is currently without wheels and coupling rods but I am hopeful that tomorrow may remedy that problem.

Hi Millerhillboy, You've done a lovely job on the V3. Thank you so much for buying (and building!) one of my prints.

Hello Tony, I can't contribute to the C12s (although I have built one in N gauge) but would like to offer these N gauge examples of GNR locomotives to the discussion. An Ivatt C1 which has featured before and you saw at Warley which is nearing completion. The loco body is a detailed and hand painted/lined 3D print with a heavily modified Dapol Hall chassis providing power. The modifications included designing some new front and rear spacers (to carry the bogie and pony wheels), swapping the driving wheels for some from a Dapol Britannia (the largest diameter that would fit the wheelbase), some modest filing of the frames, modifying the crossheads to fit some N Brass slide bar castings (actually for an O4) and bending the con rods to clear the front coupling rod bolt. The motor has also been replaced with a Nigel Lawton 8mm coreless motor as the original Dapol item would not fit in the tender! I've still got some final detailing to do as well as make up a draw bar to connect the loco and tender. An unpainted development model of a J3 which will become Hitchin based no. 4011. With the exception of the wheels, everything in the picture has been 3D printed, including the, unpowered, chassis. The wheels are spare items from the Peco Collett 0-6-0 and the loco will eventually be powered by a heavily modified Union Mills tender drive unit. No tender yet as many of the J3s hauled a Stirling type D tender which I do not have a decent set of drawings for at present. I would have really liked to have modelled one of the Kings Cross based examples but I have been unable to find any photographs of one of these locos - and the J3 class is a bit of a minefield in terms of details. Eventually it'll be joined by a second Hitchin based example, no. 4154, which will differ in some details (mainly regarding the sandbox locations). Whenever possible, I do like to model visual variations within a class when I'm building more than one for myself. Finally, not an ex GNR locomotive but an ex LNER locomotive, a V3 built for a friend/customer. This picture was taken before glazing (Krystal Klear) was applied but otherwise as the locomotive was supplied in a lightly weathered condition. It is one of the three V1/V3 bodies that I used for the BRM article that you very kindly took the pictures for earlier this year and mounted on a modified Farish N class chassis.

One of my earliest prints, a C1, is slowly progressing through the works. There are several things I would do differently (covered earlier) when I get around to printing another one to get a better result now.

Duplicated post - oops!

It's been over a month since I last posted anything on this thread! I've been busy with commission work, which in the main I don't have permission from the customers to share here. However, one that I can share is a BR V3 67656 which made its way into its new owners hands a couple of weekends back. Here it is when it was nearing completion having been weathered but not yet glazed. I used some of the methods and techniques described in Martyn Welch's book 'The Art of Weathering'. The model, still in its glossy state, got a light misting of an enamel weathering mix using an airbrush which consisted of 'roof dirt' (Railmatch), gunmetal (Humbrol Metalcote), matt black and matt leather - sorry I can't remember the exact mix but it was mainly 'roof dirt'. I let the paint go touch dry before creating subtle streaking using a flat brush moistened with white spirit (almost dry). Once this was dry, I applied a second, even lighter misting of the weathering mix and left it to dry. Once dry, I took the weathering mix and some Humbrol smoke and dark earth weathering powders and stippled this onto the smokebox, top of the boiler and cab roof. After this had dried, I used some gloss tan and gunmetal to represent subtle oily deposits around the lubricators and grease on the buffer heads. Finally, some gloss varnish was applied to the tank sides, water fillers and safety valves to represent water. I think that the overall effect came off very nicely and I'm happy to report that its new owner feels the same way. Unfortunately, the photographs do not do the loco justice but here is another picture of the finished V3 on the owners layout. The signal box has also been completed and went to the same home. I have been tinkering with the C1 as well during periods where I've been waiting for paint/glue to dry on other things. Still a way to go yet but here is a picture of it in its current condition.

I think that there is often potential in older models of wagons for upgrading and improvements. Above are three old Farish vans of c. 1960's-1970's vintage (picked up for c. £5 each) for which the body moulding is surprisingly good. The one on the right is as it was produced by Farish with the horrible generic 10' chassis that they fitted many of their wagons with. The other two have been repainted and fitted with 2mm Association etched chassis kits (with N Gauge wheels on adapter axles) to obtain the correct fitted 10' wheelbase (designed to work with the Parkside kits). Even factoring in the cost of the etches and other bits and pieces, these vans are much cheaper to make than purchasing the newer, more accurate, Farish vans (which still represent the war time builds and therefore technically out of period for me). Unfortunately, these chassis have just been withdrawn and the standard 152 scale chassis is too short for using with these N gauge bodies. I've still got three chassis kits left but another half a dozen vans to convert - hopefully the 2mm Association will reintroduce them at a later date. Tony, your bogie brick wagon looks wonderful! I offer my own N Gauge efforts of the same design of wagon which were 3D printed. These will eventually receive a load and end up providing additional braking power for my representation of the New England to Kings Cross coal trains. All the above wagons will receive vacuum pipes one day!

Thank for the information Jonathan and lovely K3! I was under the impression that, following the raising of the windows (and loss of the upper handrails), the NER style cab was still thought of as such due to the window style and difference in the radius rear upper corner of the cab compared to 'Doncaster' types.

Interesting to see your K3 with NER style cab as, having recently been given another Farish N class locomotive (in exchange for some modelling work) by a friend, I'm in the process of starting one of these varients myself. Another 3D print which, other than the removal of the supports, has had no other fettling done to it. This one will be LNER No. 91 in c. 1935 condition without buffer beam cutouts, right hand drive and will be paired with an ex GNR tender as I have a picture of the locomotive on a down express goods at Sandy (so must have passed through Hadley Wood). To prove that I'm not completely reliant on 3D printing, below are some pictures of an N gauge signal box, soldered together from an etched kit and I'm building for our mutual friend, Roy. In addition to the interior (another etch kit), I've add down pipes and have scratch built the outer walkway but haven't added these, or the gutters, yet (there is a roof too!).

Not yet at my end I'm afraid Chris. I would love to be able to play around with a laser cutter but that is something for the future. To date, all of my glazing has been of small windows where Krystal Klear has been sufficient.

Hi Jon, Many thanks regarding my coach test print - it is a very old file, was never finished and needs completely redoing to correct some errors that I've discovered. 20mm is too far apart for the cross bracing as it still allows the part cured resin to warp before it reaches the next brace. Regarding supports, I use my old B9Creator software to generate the supports and then export the file as an STL. It doesn't have an auto support function but does have an x-ray function which allows you to see inside the model to add the supports. I find this much more useful and ChiTu Box offers something similar, although I don't find it as easy to use (but I do do my slicing in ChiTu). I believe that both programmes are available for free (ChiTu certain is). Just out of question, what exposure times are you using?

For my own wagon, I did not bother supporting modest overhangs (up to c. 0.75mm). By turning the model c. 10 degrees on the Z-axis, you should be able to reduce the stepping on the tumblehome so that is is barely visible (or not at all) under a coat of primer - see below. Your coach so some signs of warping, this is typical with an open box structure (especially with a roof at the top!). To help combat this, try putting in cross bracing in the CAD. I use 1mm wide by 0.6mm high at with a spacing of 1.5mm between each one and cut these out (carefully) with a knife after curing and sand smooth if required. The coach above was done using a 0.02mm slice.

Thank you Tim, PM sent. I've had a go at printing the chassis. Surprisingly, I managed to calculate the compensation for the slightly over thick walls correctly and the wheels are very free running! However, the are a couple of niggles with the print. The worst is that, from some unknown reason, one end of the chassis ended up much thicker than the other requiring me to carefully rub down the tops of the solebars to end everything to the same thickness and square. I'll play around with the orientation and settings to get a better result but I'm pretty pleased with this as a first attempt at printing it. I need to modify the brake levers and put the crank in that clears the axle boxes and see if I add brake shoes!

Thank you guys. Tom, I think (but might be wrong) that the NGS has managed to get the tooling for the Palvan kit working again - mounted on a suitable chassis etch I'm sure it would look the part. Might it be worth checking with them? Edit: I've just had a look on the NGS shop and kit 63 is indeed back in stock.

Thanks Tom, the roof is 0.5mm thick at the edges but goes to 1mm inside the body. Here is a photo of one of the vans in primer. This is particularly cruel close up shot and I'd like to stress that I've done no clean up other than remove all traces of the supports. This is the result of three light coats of Halfords red primer and there are visible print lines if you care in inspect the model closely under a very strong light. For a layout model, I think it'll pass inspection.

In addition to Tom's comments, angling the print can also help disguise the pixels that will be highly visible if you printed a model parallel to the build plate. Back to some prints and I did the fish van again today. As an experiment I added to roof to the STL file and tried printing multiple models. I actually printed seven of these vans (filling the build plate) but, unfortunately, I placed the models too close to the build plate and shattered one when cutting off the supports due to a lack of give. I've modified the file so that the model is sitting 2mm higher which should remove this problem.

I'm afraid I don't have any direct experience using a filament extrusion printer. However, the speed of production on an DLP is dependent on the slicing thickness, exposure settings and the orientation of the part. The coach I posted above took around 13 hours to print but was angled up at 30 degrees, sliced to 20um and had an exposure of 11 seconds to ensure warping was eliminated. This may (or may not) be longer than an extrusion machine but I think the quality of the surface finish is far superior to any prints from an extrusion machine that I've seen to date. Hope this helps.

Good idea with the new thread Tom! My contribution is a test print of one of my N gauge LNER Dia 23 fish vans that I designed last year. This is my first attempt using Anycubic's grey resin and it was also printed on a new FEP sheet - the transparent barrier between the LCD projection unit and the resin. I've cut the supports off and tidied up the supported faces; it is currently undergoing post curing in a UV light box.

Hi Tom, nice boilers! Have you thought about adding the rivets? I'm interested in what exposure times you are using on the Photon, I've been doing some experimenting and got to this reasonably happy state of affairs at an 11 second exposure using a 0.02mm layer thickness. Many thanks

Hello Tony, Sorry in advance for the lengthy post! I would like to thank you and Mo for your wonderful hospitality yesterday. Once again, a great day was had by all and we are very much looking forward to our next visit to Little Bytham. Thank you for taking the photographs of both Mark's and my models - please can we use these elsewhere (credited to you, of course)? Regarding my own models, these are as follows: The brake vans: the rearmost van is built from the 2mm Association etches for their LNER Toad E van. I assembled this while on holiday in Pickering and it is probably the most complex kit I have assembled to date. That said, it went together well with the exception of the end brackets that hold the chassis and body together (my fault for not reading the instructions properly and I still need to fabricate these). Despite being of a slightly smaller scale, the finished van is longer than the Peco 'hybrid' representation of this van so I'll be looking to replace my Peco vans as funds and time allow. The GNR van at the front is another etched body kit but this time from BH Enterprise. This is quite an old kit and not up to the standard of the 2mm Association one but is reasonably straight forward to build. It is designed to fit a modified Peco brake van chassis so it may be slightly compromised in its dimensions. I see that I haven't fitted the horizontal handrail for some reason so this will need to be sorted before I paint it and fit it to the chassis. This will be the second of these kits I have completed. The unfitted cattle truck is another set of etches and components from the 2mm Association and the design is excellent. The hopper is an NER/LNER 21T(?) type, again from 2mm Association components. This one was a little trickier than I expected as I made the mistake of assuming than the chassis would go together as per the other chassis kits I have built - it doesn't, but it will go together well if you actually read and follow the instructions! The body is a plastic moulding which I assume is of some vintage as it isn't quite as easy to put together as some of their other plastic offerings. Modelling the southernmost GNR region of the LNER, I didn't think I'd have any reason/need for this type of wagon. However, Yeadon's shows an O2 on a New England-London coal train with several of these in the rake (in fact there isn't a PO wagon that I can see!). I've got two more of these to build at some point. The 'super scissor' is one of a pair needed for the fiddle yard for Hadley Wood. It is built out of 2mm Association components but to N Gauge standards using the gauges now sold by N-Brass. I ended up simplifying the slips by omitting the innermost blades and relying on check rails to ensure stock runs through them reliably. Time consuming to build but much much cheaper than trying to fashion these from Peco components! The signal box is a Severn Models kit and is being built to commission. It is currently three sub-components (hence the roof not being primed) and these will be glued together once painting and detailing has been completed. It is currently waiting for an interior kit which I understand will be acquired at Warley. The V3 is one of the three 3D prints of this loco that you took photographs of for the article I submitted to BRM earlier this year (thanks again for doing this and pushing me to put pen to paper). The lining is all bow pen and brush work, including the home made boiler band decals (made using Tim Watson's technique). This will also be going to a new home once finished. I know you'll be pleased to know that all the etched kits have (to date) been soldered together. Aren't Mark's weathering efforts wonderful? He has started to turn his hand at many new things since joining Risborough and I think I'll be joining too in the new year. With regard to the running on Little Bytham: I've now seen/operated the layout three times and the running has been almost flawless. However, errors do occasionally happen and in this case were sorted out quickly and efficiently. I think that it needs to be remembered than the real railways occasionally suffer from this too (all too often with much more devastating results) and they have far more sophisticated preventative measures in place. As with everything in life, we can do our best to reduce the likelihood of unfortunate events but, being human, we cannot prevent them entirely. I think Little Bytham's batting average for these things is still very much inside the top 0.5% of layouts I have seen and operated and hasn't impacted at all on my desire to come and operate the layout again as soon as possible.

Having driven myself balmy over the last few days with painting, lining and decaling locomotives, I thought I could do with a bit of a change. Therefore I dug out my Severn Models signal box kit. I built one a few years ago for a layout project that never happened but this one is being built for a client. While my first attempt was glued together, this one is being soldered. I need the interior detail kit (hopefully at Warley) before I can finish it but I can get things like the steps on in the meantime. Progress after a couple of hours below.

Awesome work, well done!

Indeed, this would be best practice. The Atlantic has a few more problems than usual as one of the driving wheels is fitted with a traction tyre (being an N gauge bodger rather than a true 2mm finescale modeller) and the bogie wheels are somewhat tight in clearances as so I've not fitted any pickups at the front. The only other pickup from the locomotive will be the rear radial wheel set so the tender becomes essential in getting reliable pickup. Overall, a challenging locomotive that has forced me to consider things I wouldn't normally have done. Jerry, I would be very interested in seeing John's and your method. I'll be at Warley on the Saturday so will come and find you. Many thanks