[pedromorgan]

I totally agree about the Heljan 47. i didnt buy one either for the same reason. even thought they did exaclty the right livery and number i was after. to mee it just looks bloated.

Both Hornby and bachmann do show the CAD work to experts on the subject matter. i think part of the problem is that often they are very excited about being involved with a project or dont have the exxperience to be able to interprite what they are seeing on screen or on printouts.

I am sitting on the wrong computer at the moment but i will post some etching CAD work to give an idea of what we work with. hopefully that will give you an idea of how difficult it is to compare the real thing with what you are seeing on screen.

Peter

 

[pedromorgan]

I was working on standard LMS stock etched sides for myself and i did the drawings for them. I was satisfied with them and the guards end looked like this.

I showed it to 2 people who do this regularly and one geek who is always pointing out things that are wrong (they do come in usefull sometimes!!) and all ok'd it.
So it went off to the etchers and a week later i had a nice piece of brass.
Infortunatly it was only when i came to test fit a ducket that i realised that on lms P1 stock there is no upper panel above the ducket.
So despite the best efforts it was wrong and had to be redone. costing me money.

All is now well and i have my coach. but even as a small cottage industry it was difficult to swallow the cost of this error. its amazing how easy it is to get these things wrong. so i do sympathize with the manyfacturers when they spend huge ammounts on a tool and it gets blasted in rail express.

I have also been working on the southern railway 4DD and the owners of the real thing have been particularly unhelpfull in allowing us to gain access. (infact they have never even spoken to us despite our best attempts using evry form of communication we can think of except carrier pigeon!) as a result of this, a kit that should have taken a few months to develop is running into its second year.

It is a huge risk showing people who understand those drawings to people. there are parts of the above drawings that i have now shown because they have never been seen on a kit before and i want to get mine out first.

Peter

 

[pedromorgan]

Priceless!!
Thanks richard. i'l give it a go!

Peter