7mm Scale Ian Kirk LNER Coach builds

At the beginning of each session on the B16 recently I have sprayed the All 3rd in either Carmine, matt varnish or lastly masked up and sprayed the black.








The paints were both from the Vallejo Model colour range - Carmine and Black. The varnish used was Ronseal water based let down with Vallejo thinners.
I also made a start on adding the teak varnish to my Kirk Parcels van.






Again the finish is Vallejo Model Colour Orange covered by (so far) 7 coats of Ronseal waterbased Teak varnish applied by brush so not let down.

 

Thanks Gents,

Hi Ian,

As I have just said to Gormo on my B16 thread, participation in forums should be a two way thing, you learn some tips and you share some tips


I have a couple of friends who only ever share their successes, which is fine but in my experience you learn a lot more from mistakes than you do from things that go right.

 

Although I have been concentrating on the B16 I have done a little on the All 3rd by picking out the handles in brass.


I popped all the bits together to see how it looked - it's still just plonked on the bogies with the roof just resting in place.











I hope that I might get the transfers on this weekend.

 

Although I have only one photo, the All 3rd is nearing completion. The transfers are on, it's glazed and the roo vents have been re-fitted - right number in the right place....

I left it on Sunday night with the glue in the glazing drying so unless I discover anything that I have missed I should have it all put together next weekend.

 

A concerted effort this weekend has seen the All 3rd nearing completion. Still to do are fitting the roof and having seen the photos sticking part of one of the rain strips down.
Having chosen to ultimately glue the roof on last I had, had some debate about how windows that became dislodged through handling would be replaced. After a bit of head scratching I cam up with a cunning plan.
Each window is an individual pane which is glued into the rebate inside the coach but I have also added a strip of secondary glazing which rests on the strip that strengthens the sides and runs the full length of the coach. It's is held in place by the edges of the compartments which I filed down to allow the glazing strip to fit. This will prevent the individual panes from being dislodged.










To fit the no smoking transfers I made up a little jig from a piece of 20thou styrene which was the width of the window from the outside. I measured half way up the window and marked the styrene. I then added 1mm and marked it again. After measuring the with of the transfer I subtracted this from the total width and divided the remainder by two. I measured the result from each edge and marked a vertical line from the high line to the middle line at each side and then cut the styrene out leaving me with a rectangle of styrene with a notch cut out that centres the transfer in the middle of the window both vertically and horizontally

 

Hi Gary,

For some reason I am struggling to reply quoting your post but you almost have it.
I use Opticlear lense tissues (used to clean my specs first then dried).
These are glued onto the roof using pva with the joints over lapping
They come folded concertina fashion and these do a great job of representing the seam in roof canvas.




I have also used them to make tarps for wagon loads -eyelets cut on the Silhouette







After being stuck on and being allowed to dry, they take paint and glue really well although they do bubble again while being painted but it usually lays back down once dry again and any ripples look like ripples in the canvas.
As an aside the sheeted load is an old brass ball cock valve that I couldn't bear to throw away - tight Yorkshireman alert!!!

 

I am back on the trail of Kirk coach builds, this time it's an all 3rd/brake 3rd twin set (Diags 105/125).

It's for the gent that I built the last two for and this time he has gone for using the supplied Kirk bogies so I thought that I might upgrade them a little.
First I added some of my Silhouette cut leaf springs and then looked to make some springs for the bolsters.

I am aware that others have used 2ba screws to do represent the bolsters springs but to my mind the coils are a little too sharp in profile so I wound some 3mm styrene rod with 0.8/mm styrene rod to make the springs.

I also added the spring carriers and in hindsight I should have added the springs before sticking the carriers to the bogies because it's going to be interesting getting the springs in position now.





I have also assembled the sides but didn't take photos of them.

 

When Keith and Pete came along to see me when I was demoing at Pontefract show, the parts that I was cutting were some brakes for my Kirk coach bogies

Once glued together (5 layers) they came out looking like this.
Apologies for the poor photo, white on white isn't the best combination


The demo must have been well received because I have also been asked to demo at Telford as well as Doncaster this year.

Not much modelling got done last week due to having a busy week compounded by minor surgery, but over the weekend the Mojo returned and I made progress on the twinset.


The first bogie now has it's bolster springs an I have the parts prepared to fit to the other two. I did end up having to remove the bolster frame to fit the springs so a lesson learned.
I also managed to get three of the ends attached to their respective sides. The fourth one needs cutting down for the narrower brake end.