3D Printed Chesham Coaches, + Metropolitan Loco's OO / 4mm

I did consider buying the kit, I am guessing it's the SE Finecast / Wills version? Only one I know of, off the top of my head. Do fancy having a go at an A-Class if I don't find a kit I guess I will have to do that from scratch to.

I shall post something soon, at the moment it's looking quite good.

Yes indeed... I have seen them and someone at my club has one but I wasn't that impressed with a number if areas on the model, so ruled it out of my choices.

So it was either Keyser or idk / ibk kits can't remember off the top my head.... Could always scratch build one lol, depends if I can get a drawing or not.

Thank's Arun I will look in to that tomorrow. Many thanks

Thanks for the link but no problem I managed to get a copy of some plans as the 4-4-0 was built prior to the Met A class with some changes, it's actually worked out ok and saved me a lot of money by the looks of it, as I won't pay any more than £15 - 20 for a book.

Hello Metroland, it's a good question, I picked up some LT maroon from Phoenix paints in March with this in mind, but it was way too dark, so I assume that was for an earlier livery like it was running before the last overhaul with the chrome dome, luckily I had LT Rail red which is from their Cherry paints range, but again that was way too bright, so only way was to modify it a bit. After seeing Met 1 after it had it's wheels done, the red did seem very red I took some my paints a long to compare, and the colour was in the middle really of the 2, so I gradually made it darker till it matched what I saw, as the light can be also confusing I have seen images where it looks a very dark maroon, and others like the image at the top of the page where it's quite red. So c163 LT Rail red I used then made it a bit darker is the best way I can describe it..

Once you are happy with the surfaces, then a bit more detailing can be done. My original plan was to place brass sheet along the sides of the water tanks, then adding rivet detail using a centre punch, but I wasn’t happy with the test results so I changed my approach. I have used some transfers before which have resin drops to represent rivets, I have used them before on other builds and found them very good. They come in various sizes, and spacings and are produced by Archers in the USA, and available from DCC supplies.
The work in exactly the same way as water slides which is nice and simple, the transfer sheets are not cheap but they are good and do get you what you want and that's simple and effective rivet detail.
The rivet transfers were applied to the water tanks, top of the bunker plate, and the smoke-box.





After the transfers have been applied it was back to the paint shop and some more light coats of primer, just to seal in the rivets so they won’t be disappearing or pealing off when the model is handled at this moment in time.




Now on to some colour!
I originally brought some London Underground Maroon, but found this too dark, more like Met 1’s paint / livery prior to its overhaul, with it’s polished brass dome. I was more after a bit more red as it appears on the picture above, I had alread in my paints, LT red which was from Pheonix cherry paint range (C163) which I got for L150 when I was changing bits and pieces on that model... when testing the paint it was in my view too red, so i managed to add some black to darken the red and to tone it down a bit. In photos of Met 1 the colour does vary a lot depending the light, as you can see from the image at the start of the topic the red is very red in bright sun light. When its undercover or underground it does look deeper...
So it’s quite a challenge to try and replicate that on a model. I got to a point where I was reasonably happy, it is quite a bit darker than it was but to me it looks ok.




The LT red coats had around 3 – 4 coats as well as a buffer beam red. Then the black got added which was Humbrols Satin black (85) any brass or shiny bits mainly around the splashers were picked out with Humbrol acrylic (16). All the hand rails and pipe work were removed prior to paint being applied.



More on Wednesday.

Thanks Metroland, suppose I better finish it off

Now for the expensive part, the transfers, as I think we all know London Underground is a bit of a specialist interest in modelling, which generally means if you are going model it, it’s generally going to cost quite a bit. Transfers are difficult to get hold of, and I only know of one supplier which I have used in the past for the Metropolitan Coaches, and thats Radley models.
For Metropolitan one I ordered 2 sheets, one for the lining which was mainly for a Pannier, and the second for Numbers, logos, and lettering, which cost about £35.
The transfers are water slides, so easy to apply, and straight forward. I started with the lining first, for the running plate, steps, cab, and splashers I used HMRS yellow lining sheet, which matched the yellow on the Radley transfers, and luckily I had to hand!




Before more finishing off, a little bit more building, although some parts are present on the above pictures, on the chassis the guard irons were missing on the front, and took me a little while to sort out how to attach them, I would use some more brass off cuts, cut and filed to shape, on the chassis there is a plastic keeper plate which for me is lucky and runs to the front of the chassis and comes up around the sides.
The guard irons I managed to bend the tops over to hook over the plastic keep plate, when I was happy, i primed them and then glued them in place.




Some may of noticed that so far through out this, there's been no mention of a roof for the cab, don’t worry it’s not going to be a convertible, or is it?
I think most of you know I like detail, and sometimes I go a little to far, on Metropolitan 1, there are 2 sliding vents in the roof, some of you may remember some RTR manufactures had these on their locos... well I’m bringing it back.The roof made from the same brass sheet as before, cut to size, and the sides bent up and then a strip soldered along the side to create the gutters for water run off, and then marked out where the sliding vents should go, this done, the same method for making the windows was used to make the holes for the vents.



The roof was genitally curved to create the profile of the roof, on the actual roof there is a main beam of metal going down the center, which I will also add to keep the profile or curve of the roof. Again using the same brass sheet i scored the curve in to the brass and filed it to match. This was then solded on to the center of the roof, which you can see had been marked on the above image.
The roof was then test fitted to make sure the profile was still correct after soldering.




Next was to put in a locator on the underside so the roof would locate in to the right place, using some 1mm plasticard, I cut out the shape of the cab, and then cut a 3mm in from the outside edge to allow an opening for the vents, this was then glued to the underside of the cab roof, this worked pretty well, and fitted very well.




Next was the tricky bit, to create sliding vents for the roof, which would be fun.
on the roof I found in some off cuts in my spares box of some chemically blackened brass, 0.5mm wide and just long enough to make 4 runner strips on the top of the roof. These were glued to the roof just in case i needed to move them later.
The vent slides were made up of 2 brass pieces cut from a brass sheets, with plasticard in the center which was about 1mm thick and some brass sheet underneath so it there was some play for it to move. The roof was primed with Halfords Grey primer, and was partially assembled to check the vents moved and it was still OK.
The roof was then sprayed with Halfords Matt black to finish.




Back to the transfers and all of them had now been applied and were sealed in with a couple of coats of acrylic varnish by Vellejo, which also lifts the colour of the paint making it brighter.




Back to the chassis at this point I wanted to test everything to make sure everything worked, the chassis tested fine, as I mentioned way back in the topic I always planned to add pickups to the bogie, so that’s where this is where it happens.
Using some copper clad electrical board, I mounted this to the underside of the bogie, I scored through the foil on the top of the board to isolate each side, so they do not create a short. A small hole was drilled in the bogie to guide the wires through for the 2 pin micro plug brought from DCC Supplies.
The pickups are made from Phosphor Bronze strip, and soldered to the copper clad board, The 2 pin plug and its wires run up through the bogie housing to the side of the motor, where the other connector is located.




The bogie is attached by a machine screw, with a spring, the nut that holds it all together is insulated from the bronze pick up strips.
I went back to detailing the underside of the model, as it looks a bit bare around the steps, and some pipe work needs adding. I use some copper wire (0.6mm) for the pipe work, which is bent to shape with some pliers. Met 1 is a little unusual when its comes to pipe work as some of the pipes are insulated or have what i think are rubber pipe joiners.
To try and replicate this, I wrapped the pipes in very small strips of masking tape, which i wrapped around the brass, and then soaked it in super glue. This seems to work quite well and look pretty good to my eye



All the back head and cab parts have now been installed,


As some will know, Met 1 has some brass window frames on the cab, which I also wanted to replicate, it took a little time to find a provider, lucky the Narrow Planet who are extremely kind and helpful managed to etch me 4 window frames to my specification for this model... and I am very pleased with them.
The rear 2 frames, need protective bars over the windows as they face the bunker, i did this by soldering some 0.45m wire over the windows.
The pipe work in front of the cab has been made using a hand rail holder, and using some 0.1mm copper wire bent to shape. The whistle some may recognize, I used an old casting of a whistle from a kit and drilled a 1mm hole in the center, I have some spare turned brass whistles believe this one is off an A4 it was shortened, and the base turned and then glued in position.




Anyway with everything on including the glazing in the windows, it was now time to glue the roof on and give it a run.





Anyway thanks for following and viewing, hope some of you may find it useful, and give you some new ideas, and inspire you to do bigger and better things.

Wow, that is some great work there, Bluebell.

wow. Great to see it from start to finish.

Thank you for your comments guys, I apologize for the delay in reply, sadly someone decided pruning a forum was an excellent idea and deleted my account for the second time in 6 months.... maybe best not to touch the forum.

I heard about this Twihlet in regard to the vacuum forming of also some of these Chesham coaches were made the same way, could be by the same guy? It came up last year on RMweb, that the forms still exist and some do have some of the formed models, so possibly did go ahead but doesn't look as though it got very far.