Nonneminstre Models Hibberd 'Planet'

Another old build, this time from sometime in the early nineties.

It's a whitemetal kit of a Hibberd Planet, and is designed to sit on a Tenshodo 'spud' motor bogie.

It was quite a nice kit to build, but the body castings did need to be filed down as they were a tad oversize. I used 5 minute epoxy to hold it all together. I converted the chassis to EM using Romford 12mm 3 hole disc wheels.

Handrails were included, as were the three link couplings, and the brake gear was cleverly cast in one piece which simplified the build somewhat.

There is some interior detail, a brake stand and fuel tank. I thinned down the castings around the open part of the doorframes, to give the appearance of sheet metal. Windows were cut from thin clear material, from a sheet which I think I'm still using. Front and rear windows were made in two pieces as the prototype had sliding windows.

This model once fell from a layout onto the floor at an exhibition, damaging the cab and body sides. The club that I belonged to and organised the show offered to pay for a replacement kit, so I contacted Peter at Nonneminstre to order it and told him the reason why and he sent me some replacement parts as well as a new kit. I managed to fix the body without any sign that it had been dropped and the second kit is still unbuilt. I'd like to build it one day, on a scratchbuilt chassis.

The finish is Humbrol black enamel, hand painted, with a dusting of Carrs powders.

Not bad for an early effort.

Paul.

Back to the Steeple Grange Light Railway

 Today I did something that I should have done a long time ago, that is I paid another visit to the delightful Steeple Grange Light Railway, located near Wirkswirth in Derbyshire. The last time I visited was back in 2017, so I was long overdue a return visit!

There are two lines, mainline and branch, and my £6 ticket allowed me to ride both. First of all I rode the branch. This is a short line into a quarry, and at the end we were treated to a talk about the limestone quarrying. Here's the train at the end of the branch, two rude trolleys topped and tailed by battery locos;

On returning to the main station I had time to talk to one of the volunteers and photograph their Ruston and some of their ex-mining stock;

I was the only passenger on the main line, accompanied by a few volunteers. I have to say that this is a very pretty and well kept line.

At the end I was given a little history lesson, and then it was time to return to the station;

On return to the station I snapped this little battery loco;

And this pointwork;

I then, after buying a cup of tea and a KitKat Chunky, took a walk down the branch to study the track;

Sleepers are on average 32" long, at between 16" to 22" spacing.

I make no apologies for this photo-heavy post, it's a very pretty line and part of the reason I went was to study the track.

Paul.

Another A1 Models diesel - part 7 interior detailing.

 With such a large cab and big windows there's really no choice but to add some interior detail. Firstly a floor was constructed from styrene sheet, raised to match the door bottom by glueing blocks underneath. At the same time lead was also glued under the floor, making use of the available space. A control panel was also knocked up from styrene, with an angled panel for gauges. The two gauges are made from slivers of round styrene bar. As this is quite a sizeable loco I decided to have two driving positions on either side of the desk, so there are two mirrored throttles, made from Markits N gauge handrail knobs and .33mm brass wire. In the middle of the control desk there's a forward/reverse lever, also from brass wire, and on the front a brake wheel from Cambrian's C42 set acts as a handbrake. Seats are made from L shaped styrene strip and round section, suitably filed to shape. The interior is my interpretation of a loco cab, and although this is a freelance loco I hope that it's reasonably realistic in its layout. 

Here are the parts laid out;

The floor is upside down, note the notch to clear the layshaft pulley and the lead weight.

This is how the interior will look;

I could have just used bent wire for the throttles, but making them from handrail knobs looks so much better. The two dials can just be made out on the triangular portion of the desk;

And temporarily fitted;

Those large windows give a good view, both in and out;

I enjoy this type of detailing even though it can be frustrating, not only from trying to work out what should be there but also from handling (and dropping!) tiny parts. But, the results can be worthwhile, not only because the extra detailing looks good but also because it's a chance to practice some fine modelmaking.

I'll paint these parts later when I paint the rest of the cab interior. The next job will be to get the body ready for undercoating. 

My apologies for the quality of the images, white plastic is a pig to photograph. To see older posts on this build click on the 'A1 Models' tag below.

Paul.

Meridian Models/Mosskito Narrow Gauge Billard T75D - part 6 finishing off.

Once the red paint had dried (I gave it several years) I could then brush paint the footplate and cab interior and fit the exhaust. Then the window frames were masked off and painted black by hand;

I used Vallejo 862 black grey for the exhaust, which is subtlely different to the Tamiya Nato black used on the frames. A nice job for my Aerograph. To hold it for spraying I drilled a small hole where it can't be seen and held it on a cocktail stick;

Once the exhaust was glued in place and the window frames painted the body was treated to a couple of coats of Testors Dullcoat.

And finally, I can show the finished result;

I had to paint the motor and those parts of the chassis black where they protrude into the cab. Couplings are my type 2 design;

Windows were glazed with thin clear plastic sheet. This took several days to be honest, and plenty were scrapped along the way. They're glued in with Johnson's Kleer floor polish.

I was going to paint the grill black, but I've decided to leave the loco as it is instead.

I'm quite pleased with this build. There have been problems for sure, mainly with the paintwork, but nothing that I couldn't put right. For previous posts in this build click on 'Meridian Models' in the tags below.

Paul.

Meridian Models/Mosskito Narrow Gauge Billard T75D - part 5 basic paintwork.

I started with the bufferbeams, and for those I chose Humbrol 174 Signal Red diluted with ready mixed screenwash. Which I wasn't impressed with, I really don't get on with Humbrol acrylics which is a shame as Humbrol is pretty much a household name and the brand which I reckon most modellers start out with, I certainly did back in the day. So I let the paint dry, did a bit of tidying up and went over again with Vallejo 70.909 Vermillion which my paint charts tell me is a match. I then masked off the bufferbeams and footplate sides and sprayed the upper bodywork in Revel Aqua Color Ferrari Red, thinned with de-ionised water. Again I wasn't happy with the result, the red wasn't quite as dark as I would have liked and the coverage poor, possibly due to using paint that was quite a few years old. So the upper body was rubbed down ready for re-coating;

With everything below the footplate masked off I re-sprayed the body with Vallejo 70.926 Red, a nice rich colour;

After a few days I masked off the body 'beams and footplate sides and sprayed the frame sides using Tamiya's finest, Nato Black;

And here's how the loco stands now;

I now need to paint, by hand, the footplate top and cab interior, then I can think about glazing and fitting the exhaust.

Paul.

Meridian Models/Mosskito Narrow Gauge Billard T75D - part 4 primer and undercoat.

With the body now in one piece (apart from a few details to be added later) I can start thinking about paint. First though comes primer. After a good scrub with Cif and an old toothbrush I started with a very light coat of Hycote grey acrylic from a rattlecan. This gave me an idea of how much work the body would need to make it ready for the top coat, highlighting any gaps and blemishes that need sorting out. I find grey to be the best colour for showing up imperfections. After that first coat I could see a few areas which needed work, and set to with a little filler and rubbing sticks, as well as replacing a handrail that got dislodged during cleaning;

Note that the handrails have been blackened, with Birchwood Casey Brass Black, so that if the paint does rub off at any time it doesn't expose shiny brass.

Once I was happy with the finish I decanted some white Hycote primer into a bottle and, using my airbrush, gave the model a coat of white primer;

Now the loco was ready for undercoating, as I the loco will carry a red livery I used Tamiya X6 orange as red paint is translucent;

The next job will be to apply the main livery.

Paul.

Parkside Dundas Linda/Blanche rebuild - part 2 stripping it down.

I wanted to strip the loco back down to a kit of parts, not only because the paintwork needed re-doing but also because there wasn't a straight joint anywhere to be found, in fact the loco was banana shaped in plan. I started by trying to remove the chassis, using a screwdriver as a lever to break the glued joints (it was supposed to be screwed together). The loco is built up in two parts, the main body and the front end, including the cylinder assembly, held together by a screw. Or glue in this case;

I levered the cylinder assembly from the chassis, noting that the cylinders were spaced further out with plastic strip and filler to suit the outside frames. Here's the Ibertren chassis stripped out of the loco;

The outside cranks were pulled off the axles. They were made from plastic, and were larger in diameter than the wheels...

I dunked the body and smokebox/cylinder unit in Ever Build Paint Away, which is their equivalent of Nitromors, for 24 hours, which not only removed the paint but also all of the plastic parts and filler and undone all of the glued joints. The cab and saddletank and the front footplate and bufferbeam were soldered together;

So the soldered parts were first placed in an empty baked bean can and covered with boiling water to melt the solder (in the hope that 70 degree whitemetal solder was used). This worked for some of the parts, the front end assembly and the joint between the saddletank and cab front, but the cab itself needed more work. I ended up putting the can, filled with boiling water, in a pan which was also filled with water and put on the boil. It took quite a long time and a lot of wiggling to release the joints, the cab roof and backsheet came away without issue but the cab sides and frontsheet did not want to part easily. This was because a lot of solder was used, and a lot of heat judging by damage around the lower cab front where it meets the floor. It wasn't going to part without damage to the front sheet, so I will either be cutting off the lower half of the cab front and replacing it with a new panel made from styrene sheet or replacing the entire panel. The last joint, where the cab front and left side meet, required the use of a soldering iron which made quite a mess of the already damaged cab front. The top of the left hand cab sheet also shows some damage where the rearmost part has been melted (not by me!). Here's the results;

I might replace the cab floor as well. I've only photographed the castings, there's lots of bits of wire and etched parts (including a pair of nicely etched plates with the number 1 on them) as well that I don't want to lose!

Now that I have a kit of parts I can start planning the rebuild. Which may take some time...

Paul.