Gresley 51'1 1/2" SP
The models
This topic has been divided and all the prototype/historical stuff taken and expanded under Prototype & Traffic (see link below)
When I first came across these kits, my first attempts to build them only used the body sides, with Comet underframe and roof, which is the BR Mk.1 type, plus ABS bogies and some fittings from MJT, but the result was visibly a hybrid of sorts and for further models, LNER components via MJT were used extensively with satisfyingly better looking results, as the following pictures show.
The Kemilway etched sides complete with the rebated guard's end. In the etchings, the opening toplights were quite primitive so I fitted ventilator bonnets. The ends were made from brass sheet to marry with the sides and the roof.
For the underframe I used 1.6mm copper-clad as the base and 3x1mm channel for the solebars - that's the trickiest part. An alternative solution is to use Plastikard. The whitemetal trussing was from MJT, which is for Thompson stock and I reduced in height. All the other fittings also came from MJT. Additional details were carrying shelves and support straps under the battery boxes, dynamo belt and brake linkages. I later discovered that battery boxes were only carried on one side with a regulator box on the opposite side.
{Click on the picture for an enlargement}
Simplicty is worth striving for because it makes for easier and more enjoyable modelling, and that always gives a better result. Here is the body unit complete: strengthened Kemilway sides with solid ends and the whole thing literally drops on the underframe/floorpan, as a press fit. Painted and weathered. After glazing and fitting the handles etc., the interior will go in, another snug fit, right against the sides. Last of all, the roof, another press fit, between the sides and the ends. All these modules (is that the right word?) were built and painted separately with no masking. Sorry to be brief here, the articles cover several pages!
The model complete in BR crimson livery. Note how compact the underframe is.
{Click on the picture for an enlargement}
Close-up of the guard's end showing all the fittings.
And finally, a 3rd Brake in a twin. This is an earlier model, before I realised that the guard's handrails were steel and painted black.
Lest anyone doubts the elegance of steel-panelled carriages and articulated twins, here's a broadside view of the complete BT(5)-T twin.
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