ANOTHER KITMASTER TT MK.1 CONVERSION

Another conversion purchased from the 3mm Society secondhand sales stall some time ago.

It appears that two BSK kits have been cobbled together to form a BG. Roof, floor and Underframe trussing are shortened accordingly as the real BG was built on the shorter 57' underframe.

Ex BR MK1 BG running as part of the Cromwell Pullman dining rake at the GCR,Loughborough

As can be seen, this conversion has been painted in an almost Malachite colour, too light to represent BR SR coaching stock/EMU green. Nevertheless quite convincing with only a slight discepancy in the spacing of the various windows and doors.

Notice a couple of roof vents have been replaced by 3mm Society cast white metal ones, to try them out.

JOINING KITMASTER Mk.1 COACH SIDE SECTIONS

I soon realized when making the sides up for the 4CEP DMBSO, I couldn't file something straight to save my life, no matter how hard I tried. Getting the mating faces perfect of the pieces to be joined  to get a strong glued join was proving difficult.  I needed some sort of jig that would keep the bodyside still and square with some way of controlling a sanding action. After a lot of thought, and seeing what I'd got lying around to save buying anything, I found an offcut of 19mm MDF with a perfect square corner. I cut it down so it was square in size and slightly longer each way than the length of a Kitmaster coach side.

Next I glued onto the top edge a piece of aluminium angle (overlapping underneath the board), which would act as a 'fence'. Another piece of angle was glued on the right hand side for the sliding sander to move along. The sliding sander itself was another piece of angle, but with the face of it covered in wet and dry paper fixed to it with double sided tape, with the bottom edge of the w-n-d level or very slightly above with the top edge of the MDF board, to stop it sanding away. The pics will show whats what.

BIG ENOUGH TO ACCEPT THE LONGEST COACH SIDE IN 3MM

ONLY GENTLE PRESSURE NEEDED ON THE PIECE BEING SANDED

NO LIMIT TO HOW MANY SLIDING SANDERS YOU COULD MAKE FOR DIFFERENT JOBS

FIXED WITH DOUBLE SIDED TAPE. REGULARLY CLEAN PAPER FACE USING A TOOTHBRUSH TO STOP CLOGGING

 The only thing to keep in mind is to make sure when using the sliding sander that you keep it pressed against the angle on the edge of the board. With hindsight,this would probably have been better 'U' shaped, sliding in a 'U' shaped channel, but you might need some sort of handle then to hold onto.Also you need to keep the slider and the channel free from sanding swarf. 

Obviously there's no limit to how many sliding sander you can have, you could have a longer one, or others with different grades of sandpaper fitted.

Now it's by no means a perfect job, but it works and I can join together coach side pieces quickly and strongly, though I still add a thin strengthening piece of card behind each join for extra rigidity. The beauty of the perfect join only becomes apparent when you come to the painting!

It will also  come in useful for making items which need to have perfect 90 degree angles.

And needless to say some weeks after making it I by chance found out that NorthWest Short Lines in America make a similar  contraption, though as far as I can see none of their UK distributors stock it. Click this link below to see it

 NWSL True Sander

KITMASTER TT MK.1 COACH WINDOWS & THE 4CEP

The four TT MK.1 coach kits produced by Kitmaster were for the SK, CK, BSK and RFO. Disregarding door windows, they all use only two of the sizes of window that could be found on a Mk1, namely the full height 4'0" wide and 2'3" wide ones.

On other coach variants, including those used as a basis for various EMU's, there were other sizes.

From my researches it appears there were full height 1'3" (nominally) windows to be found on Boat Second, some FO, many Catering cars and quite a few EMU's; (there may be an even narrower size used on some Griddle cars- I cant confirm as yet).

Full height 2'0" wide windows were used on many Catering cars; Half height 3'0" wide and also 4'0" wide were utilized on Catering cars also.

The 4CEP has a door in the middle seating bay of the DMBSO, making the use of a 1'3" wide window either side necessary. The problem was overcome by Alan Williams in his MRC article, by cutting bits of bodyside so that you got the edge of one side of the window, but it seems the other edge was just a straight cut, not the side of window, so it looked a bit odd. He filed down larger windows to make the narrow width ones required. No doubt he had to do it like that or he may have had to cut up even more coaches than was really necessary to get the exact bits that were right.

In 3mm I'd got lots of battered or broken Mk1s, so I had the luxury of being able to use two proper 'halfs' of a window which when joined looked ok, with radii on all corners. Whilst I could file a window down to the right width, other than extremely accurate cutting how could I get the window aperture the exact width so the window was a good fit?

I decided to glue down the filed down window to a piece of plastic card, then keep filing either side of the two pieces of coach side until the two joined together nicely. How to file the sides accurately and squarely was another problem, see this post:
http://twotonegreen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/joining-kitmaster-mk1-coach-side.html

Odd sized window creation, first glue the filed down template to a piece of card

You need to make a diagram beforehand with all your dimensions and window positions to get things right before starting; really this is to get the spacings between windows, doors etc correct.

keep filing the two sides down by the same amount until they meet the edges of the window template

Once happy with the fit, glue with MekPak and leave to set hard. Then glue say 15 though strengthener strip on the inside above and below the aperture, leaving enough room for the window to be glued in.

Below are the templates for all the different sizes. I found that when using half height windows, I had to glue several 'plain' bodyside pieces together and drill out the apertures to take the windows. I have in mind casting a plain section of bodyside for situations like this (a lot of Catering cars have big areas of blank bodyside with occasional half height windows) rather than cutting up too many coaches to get 'plain' pieces.

different sizes found on Mk1 coaches

I went to the trouble of making all the different sized templates even though theyre not all used on the 4CEP;
thinking ahead, my Mk.1 Catering car fetish will ensure they will be made use of!

STRANGE SOUTHERN EMU

About a decade ago at a 3mm Society meeting, my curiosity got the better of me and I picked up a model of a BR Southern Region green liveried EMU driving car (from the secondhand sales stall), which had been cobbled together from various bits of Kitmaster TT Mk.1 coaches. There was no motor bogie (you could see where it had been though) and it came with no interior.

Looking a bit long, and sitting on temporary bogies.

I never really looked at it properly back then, and it got stuffed in a box and forgotten about until recently, when my interest in 3mm modelling returned after quite a while.

Studying this model I was a bit confused. It seemed overly long, a quick offering up against a Kitmaster Mk1 revealed it was about 20mm (3/4") longer. The roof had been extended, and I wondered where the extra length came from.

4CEP

4CEP

I didn't really recognize what it was supposed to be other than it was one of the BR Mk.1 based designs. Noting the car number (S 61369) and the set number on the end (7155) I consulted my refs and books and came up with the model was apparently meant to be a '4CEP' (Class 411 in later years). Whilst the car number is right for a 4CEP, the correct set would have been 7143.

I think whoever made the model appears to have been doing it from memory, as comparison with pics of the real thing reveals the extra length of the model comes from the fact it has a rather large guards/luggage area. Quite apart from that the whole layout - windows, doors etc is wrong anyway. On the other hand the cab end is quite well done, especially the route indicator box, making use of Kitmaster parts.

4CEP DMBSO

 

It's quite possible this model conversion could date back to the 1960's, and given the fact you were unlikely to ever get any sort of Southern EMU ready to run back then, hacking up Kitmaster Mk1's was probably an easier option than scratchbuilding, especially with a little planning. 

I've been using this model as a guinea pig trying out various green paints: note also the removal of the moulded on lines on the bodyside in the pic below which makes a big difference.

Green green or green

I'd decided to keep the model in my 3mm Museum as a historical curiosity...but that wasnt the end of the story.

A visit to the Craven Arms (Salop) Model Railway Exhibition last year saw me returning home via the Severn Valley Railway at Bridgnorth. The waiting room on the platform was full of boxes of old railway mags with a sign saying 'take what you want, put a donation in the box'. So I grabbed as many Model Railway Constructors and Railway Modellers as I could carry and put a tenner in the box. Then I wished I hadnt parked the car so far away.....

Again the mags got put to one side until early this year when a major change in my circumstances saw me left with just my five cats and more time than I know what to do with.

Rifling through boxes of magazines, I came across MRC for January 1961, which had an article on converting 'OO' gauge Kitmaster Mk1 coaches into a ...... 4CEP, by Alan Williams.

January 1961 Model Railway Constructor, includes an article on 4CEP's

This got me wondering whether you could apply the principles employed in the conversion to TT scale Kitmasters.

Unearthing my box of battered secondhand Kitmasters (I've amassed about 150 over the years) I picked four donors out with a view to creating a 3mm 4CEP. Well those lucky blighters have now got 4CEP's r-t-r in 'OO' and 'N' so now it's time to perhaps create one in 'The Premier Scale'.

I am aware that a 4CEP is possible from Worsley Works parts, and I do like the crisp look of brass kits, but I've always had a great fondness for Kitmaster kits, and I prefer to work with plastic than metal wherever possible.

Original formation of the 4CEPs was DMBSO-TCK-TSK-DMBSO. As in 'OO' the trailer cars are straightforward enough, being basically the same a loco hauled CK and SK's, so it's just a case of minor alterations here and there. The biggest job is creating the Driving cars, which involves cutting up and rejoining lots of pieces of bodyside to get the correct layout.

I hope in future instalments to show how I get on, but I am sure, like everything in 3mm, it wont be particularly easy, or quick.....

I've made a start on the DMBSO's, and am currently considering how best to make all the roof detail. Of course I had to be awkward and pick one of the Prototype units (7101-4) which had all the lighting conduit/wiring fitted externally on the roof!

Here is a shot of the two DMBSO's during assembly showing all the different bits from other kits that go together to make them up, and the oddball '4CEP' above.

4CEP DMBSO sides and a Kitmaster original floor. Not finished at this point- still door and some cab windows to cut out, and some raised detail to file off.

When I decide how to motorize one of these cars, I'll probably end up making a new floor to incorporate the motor bogie.

A later shot , still door hinges, handles handrails etc to make and fit.

almost complete sides of DMBSO

 I found a rare picture of 7104 in a Bradford Barton book, painted in early allover blue with small yellow warning panel- taken in the late 60's. I'd love to have one in green and one in blue, but when I think of the amount of work involved just making one.... and then there's the 4 BEP!