Class 08

[hornbeam]

Well managed to pick a mostly completed GRS 08 shunter off E bay for £300. It says it's 45mm gauge but hoping the wheels are held on by grub screws so I can regauge it. I have a feeling the GRS transferes are a bit basic so may get some made for all the various white lettering on them. I'm after tips on painting wasp stripes but don't have an airbrush. I have a feeling this will be beyond me so may opt for all over green. Looking at the web some looked like they had black bonnet roofs and radiators which could also look good. I've always liked the prototypes. Hopefully the kit has the right look to it.

[John Candy]

Wasp strips : My suggestion would be (and this is the way I would do it) firstly to spray the ends black with "Plastikote" aerosol (available from DIY stores / Wilkinsons, etc). I used this paint on my LNER N5, Midland Johnson 2F and LMS Fowler 4F. It is easy to get a good smooth finish, is very quick drying (five minutes per coat when sprayed in light coats) and, most importantly, when dry and thoroughly hardened (leave at least a day to harden)  is unaffected by enamel thinners/white spirit, etc. (but it can be removed with cellulose thinners if necessary).

Next apply strips of masking tape and apply the stripes with yellow enamel (e.g. Humbrol).
If there are any problems with "bleeding" you can wipe away the yellow using enamel thinners (but not cellulose thinners) and try again without any harm to the black base coat.

You could use acrylic yellow instead of enamel, which can be wiped away (while still wet) with a water-soaked cloth but it dries extremely quickly (a few minutes...after which it is very difficult to remove). Enamel usually takes much longer to dry, leaving more time to make adjustments.

I use "Plastikote" on wagons for the roofs (white or grey) and underframes (black)  before spraying the sides/ends with the body colour, then any spray which creeps under the edges of the masking tape is easily removed from the white, grey, black parts.

Alternative would be to spray end black, get a sheet of waterslide decal paper, paint it yellow, cut into strips and apply as you would any other transfer. Whether it would prove successful will largely depend upon how flat/detail free is the surface to which the strips are applied.

Regards,
John.

[AllWight]

Paint the area with a white primer first(cream/custard colour) and then use the Railmatch acrylic paint warning panel yellow. When fully dried use some low tac tape which you can get from any good model shop to mask off the alternating colour lines and paint the black over the areas required. Also be carefull to do the correct alternation of yellow black or black yellow as the class 09 had one type and the 08 was the reverse sequence. It is worth checking it out in old photographs before committing the black to the model.

Mark

[midnight miller]

Hello All

In responce to the question , My own solution would be do the yellow or light colour first as the black will be a sod to cover particularly with a thin colour like yellow . If you are unsure do a couple of test pieces first and see which you think works best .


                                                             John

[hornbeam]

Many thanks for the advise guys. Well I've just unpacked it and it may not be such a bargain. Few things easily solvable- no body hand rails and no air tanks at the front end other the chassis. I plan to get a decent book on the class and solve all of this. Second issue. It has a 45mm LGB chassis. This has LGB wheels and these have axles extended to the outside rods. Now I'm hoping the slaters wheels are fixed with grub screws as the axles go past the end of the wheels on these models and I can remove the lgb ones and fit slaters (in other words early batches of the 08 used lgb motor blocks) failing that I'm hoping I can use the skaters axle units and wheels and find a way of press fitting lgb gears on them. Otherwise I'll have to have a new expensive complete chassis. Live and learn!

[Richard T]

Hi Hornbeam
The Slaters wheels are a taper fit on the 1/4" axles, which are then reduced in dia, extend outward and have square ends to fit the fly cranks.
The wheels need to be pressed on and would be quite difficult to then remove.
Not quite sure how you could integrate with an LGB chassis ?

Rgds
Richard

[Richard T]

[hornbeam]

Thanks Richard that's all most helpfull. Will have a chat with them but looks like I need a complete new chassis then. Could be costly.

[Richard T]

The chassis you see is a GRS 08 chassis, currently supplied in the kit, I used it as a basis for my semi scratch built version.
I used Slaters wheels, but modified the bearing holes so I could remove the wheelsets from the chassis, otherwise they are locked in.

Rgds
Richard

[hornbeam]

Sounds an interesting project. Did you just buy the chassis from them then? What did you use for coupling rods? Thinking of getting some cut as the ones I have are only in brass. I'd also like to sell the LGB chassis on.

[Richard T]

I bought the laser cut steel chassis, the etchings for the dummy outer chassis, footplate and brake gear and the steel laser cut rods. I got the bearings which I modified as described before.
The reason I did it this way is that I am interested in building the bodywork out of nickel silver but avoiding making yet another tedious chassis. So as someone else has done the hard work it was an instant answer.

Rgds
Richard

[hornbeam]

Thanks again Richard. We're you at last years AGM operating black gang? Have a feeling we may have chatted. Really do appreciate your help thank you. One last question can you remember how much it all cost? I'm quite impressed with the body. Does need some work one being the marker lamps are not modelled. Bits of the most need sharpening up and I need to model the air tanks as well. But overallim impressed. Hows your metal version coming along?

Simon

[Richard T]

Hi
I was at the GM last year but I was doing a soldering/ building demo - well talking mostly.

The etchings I think were about £90, the bearings, laser cut chassis and rods and frame spacers about £45
and the wheels as on GRS website £40 per axle

I think I was lucky with the parts from GRS, Michael Adamson was just about to order some sets of parts to put a new batch of 08 kits together, so he very kindly ordered some extra sets for me. Unless he has any spare parts he would probably not be able to order one-off items from his suppliers.

Rgds

Richard

[keith Bristol]

It was me with the 08 operating Blackgang at the agm

[hornbeam]

Well GRS are sending me a complete chassis ( frames, wheels, cranks, coupling rods, bearings motor and gear box and pick ups) for £285. so still managed to get it all for £585 quite happy.

will be in touch keith.