The main driver was a set of window frames for Ilkley engine shed. Bill Bedford does Midland Engine shed windows, but the two types are larger and smaller than these - as one would expect! I have covered these in my layout topic, but include a photo here for info:
While I was at it, I got round to drawing a few other things. Here we have some concepts for Stones ventilators, aimed at LMS period 2 (and older) stock:
On the left is with vertical bars to represent the lines/gaps/joins between the sections. This will be easy to fit, and to my eye looks pretty convincing and would probably paint those bars black.
On the right is just a frame - this would need to work either with laser cut glazing, or potentially going back to the cable tie concept. When I was looking at those before, I was looking from the basis of using the edges of the tie as the border of the glasing unit. This mean it was fixed from the outside of the coach, so would need an awful lot of thinning down - very time consuming for a one off coach, let alone a rake or two. However with this frame fixed to the outside, the cable tie could be used mounted on the inside of the coach, which would remove the need for this thinning down.
I think the latter concept needs an actual test so I'll aim to get this done in the next day or two - but does anyone have any thoughts on either route in the interim?
Lastly, I am rather sold on the CSB concept, but also on the Brassmasters/Comet hornblocks. I did modify some with a handrail knob for my LMS 2P 0-4-4 tank (build covered on RMWeb) but thought an etched hanger would be a good idea, so that it could be designed to line up with a Markits WD handrail knob used in the frames.
This design has partially worked, though I neglected to notice that the two rings on each side of the block are actually different sizes! This is actually a good thing (if I had noticed it) as it means that rather than doing 1 design which leaves the springy beam marginally offset for hornblocks in the second orientation (the slot for the frames is not down the middle of the block, so that it can be turned around to allow for different amounts of side play) two different dimensions could be easily distinguished. The one I have done fits perfectly!
All in all a pleasing set of etches for a first set
