Conwy Castle is now complete from the kit (except horn and exhaust), but needs a recess building for the doors as the FR had altered the loco from that depicted in the kit, so I've sawn off the doors ready...
A Mercian 2 ton coal wagon - nightmare kit to construct as there is just too much detail for its own good and half etch lines are etched the wrong side etc etc - back in its bag until I can be bothered to sort the rest of the details out - not fun.
Much more fun is a plastic parkside quarryman's - easy.
Really pleased with this - FR iron sided bogie No 15
2 more WHR saloons - the solder needs tidying up, but they are materially complete.
and finally the curly roofed van, complete with parkside plastic FR bogies (which need the spring detail adding yet)
Colin
7 comments:
Be interested to see how you get on with the Mercian wagon kit, i've had one to build for a while now but can't summon up the effort to start!!!
The kit is just a nightmare, the sides are way too thin and came out bent when I opened the packet. Then you have to solder the top lip on at a 90 degree angle. That lip has to be surgically extracted from the fret as it is so thin and narrow and has tabs both sides - these are practically impossible to file off without bending the piece. Then there's the half etch lines on the wrong side (!) and strappings you have to solder on that could clearly have been etched as part of the kit. It's evil - and for a simple wagon it's totally over the top. I'd prefer to scratchbuild it from plastic to be honest.
and I was thinking about getting a Prince kit from mercian - oh no! Colin
Hi Colin,
Just seen your comments on my ILW site, will try and keep it up to date with the progress of Karen and the NG15.
Hopefully i can make them easier to construct than the mercian kit ;-) I have to admit i've not even taken mine out of the bag, so i'm a little more reluctant to do so after your description of it! Think i'll find something easier to warm up on first...
Hi Tom,
Stumbled across your site last night, can't believe I hadn't found it before!
yes I'd love a NG15 (first choice)and Karen too in time. What order are the kits likely to come out in? Have you a chassis in mind for the NG15?
Cheers,
Colin
I've not publicised it massively until i've got something to show. At the moment it's more of a research tool for myself to see what people will like, and a blog of my progress towards production.
I'd like all 3 to come out at the same time, though i've done the most work on the PL class so far. I'm probably going to design them with no specific chassis in mind. The idea is to provide a blank footplate with some suggested chassis templates and allow the customer to use these to cut an aperture in the footplate to fit their chosen chassis. In the future i might consider producing 100% prototypical etched chassis kits for each loco, but want to get the range started first.
The footplate blanks should hopefully future proof the kits too so that they don't fall out of use when chassis come and go. It will be much easier to produce new templates than revamp the kit. Possibly have new templates downloadable from my site when things get going.
I had considered the Bachmann or Kato Mikado chassis for the NG15 and the N drive productions 4 coupled chassis for Karen as suggestions for now.
Great, what's your time frame? Any chance this year, or would it take longer?
Colin
I'm planning (rather loosely) on during 2009. I'd like to get Karen and the NG15 out (or at least pre-orderable) at a similar sort of time to when the whr is due to reopen fully.
The website will be updated as and when things progress. Hoping to crack on with it more seriously after summer.
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