7mm Scale Ian Kirk LNER Coach builds

When I posted my reply to the warm welcome I was asked to share in particular my coach building activities. Recently they have centred around the offerings by Ian Kirk.
Initially I built a pair of non corridor full brakes, one that will be finished in LNER teak for myself and one in BR Carmine to sell. The gent that bought the Carmine example then asked if I would build a 52' BG which I completed just before Telford - Some of you may have seen it on the competition stand.
I hadn't even started it before Don (the client) asked me If I would build his All 3rd as well. Although some work was carried out in tandem while the glue was drying on one I worked on the other. The BG was delivered last week and this is where I have got to with the All 3rd.
A weekend in, spent modelling has seen the All 3rd well on it's way to completion. I even managed to do a bit more on my own non corridor parcels van. Progress on the latter included ripping off the dynamo to make up more prototypical hanging frame similar to Don's BG and All 3rd

All that's left to do (unless I find something else) is fit the turnbuckles and trussing and the vacuum and steam heat pipes before it hit's the paint shop in anger
I will post some shots of the first two in my next posting.

 

I forgot to add that the underframe fittings are a mixture of JLRT, (Queen posts and turnbuckles) M&M models (vacuum cylinders) and scratch built (vacuum tanks and Dynamo, tensioner and pipework).

 

First I will share a few shots of the bits that I scratch built for the BG and All 3rd


These are the basic Kirk dynamos when starting to add details to them.


Next are the battery boxes, I used my Silhouette cutter to cut out some of the smaller details


The Guards ducket was also cut out using the Silhouette cutter.




Then the finished article. Don was so pleased with it he commissioned me to build him a J6 to pull them which will be the next loco build.

 

Thanks Gents,
Each time I do a Kirk coach I learn something new and we all have to start somewhere.
Just get up to date with this, this was the first finished Kirk full brake







As you can see it hasn't got the same level of detail as the last couple of builds







Grab handles and Vacuum/steam heat pipes scratch build from brass rod and scrap etch - I tend to use as much scrap etch on my builds as I do kit parts

 

Toto wrote:

I noted that when glancing through the various threads. I too have a significant stash of Jim kit's, one of which is the 6 wheeled brake coach. Mine will be in LNER coaching stock brown

 

ianvolvo46 wrote:

I have to confess that I tried to add similar detail to my 4mm kit's after building my first 7mm item which was an LMS Period One BG. I very quickly decided to sell all my 4mm and make the move upwards
I don't have many photos of my 4mm stuff but I will start a thread and share with you what I have

 

Keith M wrote:

Hi Keith,
Sorry but I am not quite sure what you mean by "of much use unless making scratch build parts"?

Regarding the cutter I have a Silhouette Cameo II and it can operate ether from a USB stick (I have never tried it though ) or via a USb cable from your PC/Laptop. It comes with some software to create drawings/patterns but I use a free program called Inkscape because I find it easy to use - I have tried and failed miserably with several CAD packages.
For Info I would liken INkscape to Corel Draw if you have ever seen it, as in it's a vector graphics package rather than CAD but you can do most of the 2D CAD functions in it.

 

Having got Don's All 3rd well on it's way and despite spending quite a bit of Saturday stripping off the roof canvas and filling in the holes for the wrongly placed roof vents with stubbs of styrene rod. I also managed to do a bit more at my stalled Kirk parcels van. my last job the previous weekend was to break off the dynamo which in my earlier builds I had stuck onto a fabricated I beam. Now that I have done a more realistic job for Don's coaches it seemed only fair to do the same for me so I knocked up the mounting brackets and stuck them on.

This is Don's roof awaiting the roof vents mounting in the right place, just perched on my parcels van for the moment. I managed to rescue the destination board brackets and reinstate them on the new re-canvassed roof.

It's also now sporting hinges and door handles etc.

 

One of the jobs that I did over the last week was to knock up some partition details for the All 3rd.
The carriage prints are Chris's paintings shrunk to fit and the mirrors are also one of Chris's ideas.
I had tried to print them using a grey but they didn't come out that well. The next thought was to use baking foil cut on the Silhouette but my concern was that they would damage easily while removing them from the cutting mat. Chris suggested that I try the foil lined plastic sachets that family sized pack of nuts come in.
She duly cut one up and gave it a wash (this is from a bag of Cashew Nuts, other nuts are available of course).
I quick visit to Inkscape drew me some circles and ovals (I need ovals for my D114 when I get to it).
It almost took more time sticking the two small sheets of plastic to the cutting mat than it did to cut them out - a single cut with the blade set at 1 was enough.



Not the best photo in the word but you get the idea

A better idea when they were removed from the mat


They look the part when attached to the partition - the printed efforts gave a location point if nothing else


A couple more for the carriage ends.

 

Ron wrote:

It is, the eyes aren't up to this level of detail in 4mm any more...