Hi everyone,
Is there anyone on this forum who could provide feedback on kits from the GRS range, please? I have seen a few adverse comments about their products. I am specifically interested in those comments regarding their diesel loco and railcar range.
Thank you,
Ben
Ben,
I have completed (and am currently building) several of the GRS loco. kits but mainly steam.
The only diesel kit I have (and have so far only assembled the bogies and fixed the batteries/R-c/control gear to the underside of the floor) is the GWR "Flying Banana" AEC railcar.
If you go to www.g3madesimple.org.uk (another of my websites) you will find reviews and construction notes for the LNER N5, LMS 4F and GWR 2021 kits.
My experience with the GWR Dean Goods (currently part-constructed) can be found in this forum if you look back a year+ (must get back to working on it before too long)!!
John.
Ben,
I have built several GRS G3 kits including three wagons, a GWR autocoach (which I converted to a live steam railmotor) and a Pannier tank (which I converted to battery radio control with sound). In all cases the instructions were poor and a fair bit of fettling was needed but the end result was worth the effort.
I have not built a GRS diesel in G3 but have built one of their G Scale freelance diesels for battery radio control and sound. You can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO8UdMh3ypQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO8UdMh3ypQ)
Regards
Peter Lucas
MyLocoSound
The kit for the 121 bubblecar is not that difficult. I have a few tips for getting the best results though.
1. Before you do anything to the body shell clean it this will aid the painting process later.
2. After you have removed all the moulding flash lightly rub it all over with some fine crocus paper
3. Decide which windows you are going to have open and using microstrip as the metal plate at the top of the door drop light windows. Hinges, grab handles all need to be done.
4. Interior; to get the seats looking nice on the 121 and 117 I glued some artist quality card (blue) to represent the upholstery.
5. You only need one of the two power units mechanically driven as they will fight. The motors are not matched so they will have different charactoristics. You only need one power bogie for the 121/117/flying banana.
6. Painting I used Halfords plastic grey primer and for the top coat I brush painted. Once completed I varnish with a matt or satin. Do not use gloss as the resin moulding is not as smooth as you think and it will look awful.
Mark
Thank you :) everyone for all the information. John, how difficult did you find assembling the chassis?
Ben
Ben,
The power unit comes as a ready-to-run item and the only parts you have to assemble are the bogie frames and detailing (the frames form a "cage" around the power unit.
My only concerns were/are:-
1) The cosmetic parts are all white metal and therefore not particularly robust.... for assembly I used low-melt solder and cyano for the parts which do not screw together.
Before I finally assemble the vehicle, I shall very probably replace some (or all) of the whitemetal mounting brackets with brass bar.
2) On my kit (which is from an early batch...it may be different with latest kits) the bogie instructions are to screw through the floor into the power units (with self-tappers) to provide a pivot.
The floor is softish resin and the motor housing hard plastic.... I drilled and tapped the motor housings to take 2BA studs (superglued) and sleeved the holes in the floor with brass tube (the bogies will now be attached with nuts/washers on the inside of the car floor).
The floor itself (now laden with cell packs, speed control, sound card and radio receiver, switches, etc.) is rather "bendy" and I shall reinforce it along its length with metal angle along both edges on the inside of the car.
John
Ben,
I have made 2 x GRS locomotives - Austerity live steam & GWR Manor - and 5 x goods wagons. I finished the Manor yesterday - it took me 19 months. I am pleased with all my GRS products. Nevertheless, the instructions could have been better illustrated. Consequently, I have made minor mistakes with every one of my models - so I won't let a rivet counter see them. The Manor needed more fettling than I had imagined and I had a few problems with it. However, GRS were only a phone call away and they were extremely helpful.
I started my garden railway with a ready to run GWR Prairie and 2 x B-Set Coaches. This enabled me to get up and running quickly - very important for keeping the motivation going. However, soldering skills were essential because the coach soldering was so poor - several stressed parts came adrift.
My biggest headache is my track. It is at ground level and moves a lot - resulting in annoying derailments. Is there an easy track construction method out there?
Joe, you state that you don't let rivet counters see your stock.
Be not afraid. Every item of my rolling stock & Locos has an inaccuracy.
The challenge out there is to spot them. Nobody after several years has challenged any model.
Perhaps they are too polite.
It is amazing, but often you find the "know it alls" are the most likely never to have made a model similar or otherwise. Be proud of your output and flaunt it warts and all!
Identify the as I call them "tyre kickers".
Go on live dangerously & post us a pic of your Manor.
Dave
454
Joewatt - referring to your comment about 'rivet counters' seeing your models; If you are lke me, you will be be the biggest critic of YOUR models, as only you know what you think is wrong.
Ian the Gauge '3' Pirate.
Quote from: AllWight on Dec 31 2012 01:13
The kit for the 121 bubblecar is not that difficult. I have a few tips for getting the best results though.
1. Before you do anything to the body shell clean it this will aid the painting process later.
2. After you have removed all the moulding flash lightly rub it all over with some fine crocus paper
3. Decide which windows you are going to have open and using microstrip as the metal plate at the top of the door drop light windows. Hinges, grab handles all need to be done.
4. Interior; to get the seats looking nice on the 121 and 117 I glued some artist quality card (blue) to represent the upholstery.
5. You only need one of the two power units mechanically driven as they will fight. The motors are not matched so they will have different charactoristics. You only need one power bogie for the 121/117/flying banana.
6. Painting I used Halfords plastic grey primer and for the top coat I brush painted. Once completed I varnish with a matt or satin. Do not use gloss as the resin moulding is not as smooth as you think and it will look awful.
Mark
Great. Thanks :D Mike. GRS' website is not up to date regarding such details. How much did the kit cost you?
Thanks must also go to John for that information about the GWR railcar.
Ben
These photographs of my Manor will give a good idea of what is involved with constructing a top-of-the-range GRS kit locomotive. It took me ages because my spare time has been at a premium and I need regular re-motivation. There were also delays whilst I waited for warm weather so I could spray paint it in my garage. I also needed to make several trips to the National Railway Museum to get detail information that was not in the instructions - not a problem for me - I live in York.
It is battery powered - using a Mac 5 and Mylocosound. A stroke of genius was to invest in GRS nameplates and naming it after my wife.
It runs perfectly. However, it requires an absolute minimum of 8 foot radius curves. Unfortunately, it has revealed that several of my tracks bends are too tight, so I can't run it right round my layout. My project for this year will need to be major track surgery - a particular challenge in my narrow garden.
Joe
Hi Ben
You keep calling me Mike, I am Mark.
The kit cost me nothing as I was asked to build it for one of the G3S members. I am also working on the 117 2 car unit for the same person. To date I have built for myself and other friends within the G3S a total of 13 GRS loco kits and 4 coach kits. Two of these were the GWR autocoach. The locos are all built in a similar manner when it comes to chassis construction. The Auto trailer kits were probably the most challenging of all the kits to be honest. The SR bogie coaches were an absolute dream to build as was the 14xx 0-4-2T kit. The 02's of which I have built 3 are a pig to balance but that comes from the nature of the 0-4-4T wheel arrangement. I have the same problem with my 00 scale 02's. The can sit like a speed boat or a plough. Either way you are not getting maximum adhesion and to balance them right takes a lot of fettling, trial and error. The Terriers of which I have built 5 are to me easy as I have got used to the kits. The 8750PT is constructed in a similar way to the terrier with equalising beams on the front and centre axle boxes for each side. The peckett kit was an easy build kit with an LGB motor block as the main power drive. The crosshead/slidebar assembly was lacking in this kit and a lot of work was done to get it right. I turned my Peckett into a Hawthorn Leslie with a slight amount of kit bashing to the bodywork but that was my choice to alter its appearance. The 121 Bubble car was not too difficult and the most time consuming thing was the interior detail and body work detail. Hinges, grab handles etc. As they are all so visible it has to be done.
The saga on the 117 unit can be seen in the forum section called double bubble.
I have also worked on several of the GRS prairies. I have painted and wired one from brass condition as a RC model and re wired three others to RC and done a variety of remidial repair work to these models for friends. These are not GRS's best model it is fair to say. However, they do have one very good thing about them and that is you can be up and running trains quickly which is a morale booster for any new modeller in to the scale.
Mark
Joe, my Missis, an active G'3' Soc member, has asked me to find out the name of your 'Manor'.
Ian the Gauge '3' Pirate
Quote from: AllWight on Jan 01 2013 16:51
Hi Ben
You keep calling me Mike, I am Mark.
The kit cost me nothing as I was asked to build it for one of the G3S members. I am also working on the 117 2 car unit for the same person. To date I have built for myself and other friends within the G3S a total of 13 GRS loco kits and 4 coach kits. Two of these were the GWR autocoach. The locos are all built in a similar manner when it comes to chassis construction. The Auto trailer kits were probably the most challenging of all the kits to be honest. The SR bogie coaches were an absolute dream to build as was the 14xx 0-4-2T kit. The 02's of which I have built 3 are a pig to balance but that comes from the nature of the 0-4-4T wheel arrangement. I have the same problem with my 00 scale 02's. The can sit like a speed boat or a plough. Either way you are not getting maximum adhesion and to balance them right takes a lot of fettling, trial and error. The Terriers of which I have built 5 are to me easy as I have got used to the kits. The 8750PT is constructed in a similar way to the terrier with equalising beams on the front and centre axle boxes for each side. The peckett kit was an easy build kit with an LGB motor block as the main power drive. The crosshead/slidebar assembly was lacking in this kit and a lot of work was done to get it right. I turned my Peckett into a Hawthorn Leslie with a slight amount of kit bashing to the bodywork but that was my choice to alter its appearance. The 121 Bubble car was not too difficult and the most time consuming thing was the interior detail and body work detail. Hinges, grab handles etc. As they are all so visible it has to be done.
The saga on the 117 unit can be seen in the forum section called double bubble.
I have also worked on several of the GRS prairies. I have painted and wired one from brass condition as a RC model and re wired three others to RC and done a variety of remidial repair work to these models for friends. These are not GRS's best model it is fair to say. However, they do have one very good thing about them and that is you can be up and running trains quickly which is a morale booster for any new modeller in to the scale.
Mark
Oops, so I do :-[. Thanks Mark for correcting me and for the above information. I have read with interest your series of posts detailing your work on Keith's 121 to 117 conversion. It has certainly given me a few ideas concerning liveries. Conversion to a 117 will happen at a later date, when I have more kit building experience.
Regards,
Ben
Hi Mark,
Regarding the 'Prairie' kit, how easy was it to construct if you please?
Cheers,
Ben
Hi
It is not a kit, its an off the shelf unpainted model. But buyer beware as they are not the best engine out there. The build quality has been mentioned many times on these forums. I personally would not have one for me, although I have worked on several. The biggest bug bear has been the chinese soldering which is not very good with bits falling off such as bufferbeams. If you do get one I would reccommend you pull it apart and solder along the length of the given part and not spot solder as the model is, reassemble and check it for running issues before painting.
Mark
Dear Blagdon,
You can order the bespoke nameplates from GRS. If one's wife's name is too long, I guess you have to find another.
Joe
Another wife Joe? Sounds a bit drastic, though maybe tempting for some.
Mike
Ben,
When you need the bits for the 117 conversion, let me know..
Keith
Will do, Keith. Thanks :).
Ben
Hi Ben,
To give some background I started in gauge 3 in a serious way last year and am still planning my layout.
As a fellow new kid on the block, i'd thought id share a few thoughts.
Ive got an unfinished GRS DMU that I need to strip the paint off as im unhappy with the finish but otherwise its a good kit with good instructions.
I've got a part built class 08 on the bench that i'm working on and again its pretty good. However the wheel bearings had to be drilled out and the homes in the frames as well as the bearings didnt fit the wheels or the frames!
Id say straight away stick to Cliff barker track its cheaper and a lot better. Ive had some point kits for Christmas and will let you know how they go.
I'm not sure of your era but as far as rolling stock ive got a B set coach ( currenly with a buffer beam that needs re fixing) a semi scratch build baggage van using GRS modules as a cheap start, and various GRS wagons some with scratch built bodies and some bachman opens using Mike williams parts for chassis.
GRS is ok, quailty and instructions can be lacking.
i'm mid way converting an LGB diesel shunter to G3 with RS as I want a cheap rugged loco to test with and take to meets ( Hopefully Mark will let me run it on his layout at the AGM if I get him a tea! ;) ) and will be doing a write up on it soon.
Hi Hornbeam
I will not be at the AGM as I am exhibiting Blackgang at Brightoin Model World Show the same weekend. Friday 22nd-Sunday 24th February. But you are welcome to come and run your models on the layout any time.
Mark