Jerry Irwin Kit build for FWLR

[FWLR]

Hi all,

After my recent 70th birthday I was asked what I would like for it. I did say joking that I would like a few of Jerry Irwin's kits, but after looking on his site I thought that it may be too much for them to buy for me, the do take some time for Jerry to make his kits and because I asked for about 8 kits cheekily, I had second thought son it

So after I was given some money from my grandson's I decided to get a kit off Jerry. And so I ordered a Victoria 2 compartment coach.

It came about 3 weeks later, Jerry was in the progress of moving, so I wasn't bothered too much how long it was in arriving. After Peter Butler's build's with Jerry kits, it is a problem for me how long it takes.

This is what arrived.

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Don't worry about how many parts there are, after watching the excellent video on how to build the kit, it fairly straight forward. Point: ( There are no build instructions ) and I could see why. Jerry kits are very well made and the parts are easy enough to put together, they are all numbered.


The centre bulkhead of the kit, with the underneath seat's supports fitted.

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Has you can see, I have painted them first.

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It is important to get the supports at 90deg's, so I used these modellers 90deg thingey-bobs, I have forgotten what they are called memory lapsed.

Then it was the two ends next.

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The part that say's 'Do not glue' is used to keep the two ends at 90deg's and is important for when you put the sides on.

The coach with both sides.

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Has you can see I have painted the inside and put the seats in. I forgot to take a photo of just the seats fitted, sorry. Also the elastic band is helping to hold the top lugs in place. There is a number of lugs, (10) and one in the middle centre. You only glue the bottom 6 first and then wait a few minutes for the superglue to harden a bit more before doing the other 5. There is some more glueing, but you will see that on Jerry's video.

More to come, but first I am going to paint the outside of the coach with FWLR colours before putting the overlays on.

[Peter Butler]

Happy Belated Birthday Rod and great news you have begun your Jerry Irwin collection.... just a few more to follow!
The build description is more detailed than mine and looks tidy. You are correct in saying how well the kits are cut and easy to assemble by following the video instructions.

[Andrew]

Yes, Happy Birthday Rod!

That does look to be a very well-designed kit...

Let me know if you remember what the right angle thingies are called, they look useful! Might go on my Christmas list...

[philipy]

Let me know if you remember what the right angle thingies are called, they look useful! Might go on my Christmas list...

They look like 3d printed versions of an engineers square?

[Andrew]

Let me know if you remember what the right angle thingies are called, they look useful! Might go on my Christmas list...

They look like 3d printed versions of an engineers square?

But small enough to fit in a carriage, rather neat, I thought...

I think I've seen some with powerful magnets too, presumably to clamp things squarely while glue dries? I need all the help I can get making things square/straight/parallel...

[philipy]

I think I've seen some with powerful magnets too, presumably to clamp things squarely while glue dries?

It would be easy enough to print recesses to glue a neodym magnet in.

[FWLR]

Yes, Happy Birthday Rod!

Let me know if you remember what the right angle thingies are called, they look useful! Might go on my Christmas list...

They are actually ceramic Andrew. I remembered late last night. They are really great because they don’t get stuck if any super glue get on them, I tend not to put too much glue on kits now, mainly because I was always getting my fingers stuck

I have 3D printed some myself, but they are no were near has good as the ceramic ones. So I generally only use them if I am PVA’ing something.
I bought them from a show we went to many years ago.

[FWLR]

Happy Belated Birthday Rod and great news you have begun your Jerry Irwin collection.... just a few more to follow!
The build description is more detailed than mine and looks tidy. You are correct in saying how well the kits are cut and easy to assemble by following the video instructions.

Thanks Peter, it’s your builds for them that got me very interested in them. I have used other people’s kits, though they are good, they don’t compare to Jerry’s kits.

[ge_rik]

Looking great, Rod.
And a belated happy birthday

Rik

[FWLR]

Thanks guys for your kind comments. I have an hospital appointment this morning, nothing to worry about, just a check up.

I will then be doing some Christmas shopping with Anne... so nothing will be done on the kit today, but tomorrow well that's a different story...

[FWLR]

More building of the kit took place after our shopping expedition. Not as much as I would have liked though mainly because I had run out of both ova and superglue. How does one run out of both types of glue The strikes that have not been helpful either with delays in what people are buying, hoping for their items to be delivered in time for whatever reason they bought the products for.

Anyway I managed to get the FWLR colours painted on the body and the overlays, which after some mixing of the brown and I mean mixing, I had forgotten what colours I used for the first time I used the colour combination for the line. It wasn't an off the shelf brown, don't ask way I didn't

I only took a photo of the brown sorry,

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Next was the end overlays. I decided to paint these a slightly different shade of brown than the body of the coach as I wanted it to stand out a bit more and Anne liked it, so that was ok.

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Then the side of the coach overlays. These are put on similar to the coach sides, with just the bottom lugs and the three centre ones for which you hold, for a about 10 seconds, then the top of the overlay. I did run some glue along the underside of the piece to help with the strength which will keep it in place. I did put some elastic bands around to also help and kept them there for an hour for the glue to harden off.

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I did paint the inners of the side overlays with gold paint. It helps to highlight them a bit more. But I have to say that was such a long process. I have used those gel pens before and I did like them, but seeing has I had some of the gold paint I went with that. Don't be put off with this though, Jerry's kits are really well made and they do fit really well, without all the hassle of cutting them off bits of board.

More to follow.

[Andrew]

That's a really attractive livery - posh too, with the gold lining...

Cheers,

Andrew.

[Peter Butler]

Smart livery Rod, well done with the separate paintwork on the overlays, it does make a tidy job with far less fiddling to keep straight lines.

[ge_rik]

That does look smart, Rod

Rik

[FWLR]

Thanks guys, coming from more experienced members like you means a lot.

Anyway here is some more on Jerry's Victorian Coach. I miss taking some photo's of me building the kit and I have to apologise for not doing so, I just completely forgot

Next I started with the undercarriage. It's not that hard to follow jerry's video instructions, but somehow he jumps forward or even back in the edited video, I suppose it's really easy to do that, with so much for him to remember on the best way of building the kit.

The first thing to put together is the part with the bearings, it doesn't really matter when you do this, but it does leave the glue to soak in and set hard for when you come to fit all the 9 pieces of undercarriage x 2.
I did put all the pieces of the undercarriage in order ie: 1 to 9 on my bench, that's what Jerry ask's you to do and it makes sense, because you can easily get them mixed up. I took the part number 8a for both sides and the four axle boxes and glued the boxes to the side of 8a. Just a spot of PVA glue is needed.

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Then get parts numbered 4 and 5, with the 4 bearings. Put the bearings behind number 4 with the writing has Jerry ask's you to do, then put part number 5 to part No 4, you will hear them click together, then put some superglue around the bearings, be very careful here, you can easily put the glue inside the bearing I also put a drop go oil inside the bearings, it makes a little bit easier and you don't end up with oil on the part, which if you are going to paint will look rubbish. I know it's underneath....

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Then I started to assemble the undercarriage starting with No 3 and then 2 and finally 1. You put the parts with the numbers facing outwards, in the inside slots if you are doing 32mm gauge and the outside if you are doing 45mm, you will see why later. You do that for the other side also. You will have most of the undercarriage together. Don't glue them yet though, you need to put the stretcher in and it's a lot easier with one side loose. I did run a little bit of superglue along the top of one side, it's a bit of a dear, sorry for that word, to hold them together while you locate the stretcher. Put both stretchers in and then put the wheels in, make sure that they run smoothly, then you can glue all the parts. Jerry ask's you to not glue yet, but I found it easier to glue the first lot of parts. Then you carry on with the rest of the parts for the undercarriage starting with number 6 then the rest until you get to number 8a, that's the part if you remember that has the axle boxes on, put part No 9 on with the little cutout facing up, it's up because you are working underneath the coach, when you turn it over it will be facing down. Then put the part with no number with the rivet detail facing out, just like all of the parts which are all placed facing out. Then you can glue those parts also.
One side done,

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I have run out of space for the other photo's, so I will carry on with the build tomorrow. I am getting a little bit tired anyway, it's took me a little bit longer then I wanted to do this post.

[FWLR]

Both sides done with the stretcher plates fitted.

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Fitted,

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With the wheels and brake assembly. You need to leave one side of the undercarriage unglued while you fit the wheels, if you don't you won't be able to fit them, so don't do it..

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The next job was fitting the roof supports. This is an easy job, but you do need to put some tape on the two end and centre support. I tried the brown parcel tape Jerry uses, but I found it far too much hassle. I put sellotape on the support and the seat backs, then put the 4 cross beams in the slots, you can only put them in one way, because there is a slight difference in the positions of the cutouts on the beams. I also put some elastic bands around the coach to help to bring it tight to the supports, you need to do them this way if you want to put lights in and take the roof off if you need to change the batteries.

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The first photo with the end and centre supports are painted because I was using them to get my paint mix right, they are snapped off when you have completed the assembly of the roof support. When the 4 cross beams are put in place you need to put some super glue in all of the corners of the supports and left them for about an hour to set properly after which you can snap the unwanted bits of the end and centre supports off.

[FWLR]

The next job is to fit the roof its self. This is another bit of an awkward job, luckily Jerry has thought about this and at the two end roof supports there are little scribed centre lines for which I forgot to tell you need to be facing outwards when you do the roof supports, because on the roof its self there is also two scribed lines on the inside of the roof to help aline the supports and the roof. You need to put one side on the roof, there are some slightly scribed lines to help with the bend of the roof, then holding the support firmly on the roof, roll it to about half way and put some super glue along the inside edge, this is where the fiddly awkward bit comes into play. Hold it there for about 5 minutes, then turn it around and do the same again. I did put it back into the coach and held it down with some more elastic bands so that it would hold the roof against the supports without leaving any gaps. I also before doing that ran some glue all along the inside of the roof and the supports, I did only put a little dab of the glue on, but you know what capillary action will do

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By the way, in my previous post I said I had snapped off the unwanted bits of the end and centre supports, I did after I fitted the roof has you can see in the last photo here. Sorry

With the unwanted supports removed after leaving overnight to set. If you did this in the morning of course it you can carry on then if you want to.

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With the lights fitted, this is an easy job if you have fitted lights before, you just need to be careful if you haven't because the glue that is on the strip is very strong and if you put too much pressure on while trying to get in-between the supports, you may find it's stuck.

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The roof fitted and stained with a grey wash. I find this shows the grain up and because the grain on the bit of ply Jerry supplied looked nice I decided to keep it with the grain. Painting it would look ok, but boring...

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More to follow later.

[ge_rik]

That does look good, Rod. Nearly done!

Rik

[FWLR]

I wish Rik It’s always ongoing isn’t it, we always forget something or other. I do anyway

[Andrew]

Looking good Rod!

The lighting's interesting - does it come with the kit? Sorry if I missed that earlier in the thread!