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Projects on and off the workbench

Entries in this blog

Caprotti 'Black Five' 44687, part 1

Love them or hate them, the Ivatt-built Caprotti 'Black Fives' aren't exactly the most attractive of machines. Nonetheless, I cannot get away without modelling a few of them for my chosen line, thanks to nine of them being allocated to Llandudno Junction (6G) and being used on a lot of the main passenger work for that shed. They were especially common on the 'Club Trains' to and from Liverpool/Manchester.   I've had this model on the "ongoing" list for a while now, but it's never got very fa

Timara

Timara

Smoke deflectors fit for a Duchess

I felt it worthwhile to "break cover", as it were, with one of my current projects. Seeing as the forthcoming article on repainting a Hornby 'Duchess' doesn't require me to go into much detail on the deflectors, I thought I might as well make mention of it here.   I'm not a fan of the plastic ones as supplied by any means. The only options open to the modeller these days are either from Comet or Jackson Evans. I've chosen to use the former here, but with a bit of a modification to produce t

Timara

Timara

Royal Sovereign

It's been a while since anything of the D&E persuasion got worked on here, so it makes a change to pop up a rather long-term resident of my workbench. Rather intended to assist NickL2008, I've decided that an entry covering the remechanising of one of my Lima 87s was worth doing.   Some years ago, I obtained a Swallow liveried 87 at a reasonable cost. Having grown up with all liveries from banger blue right through to the current day, my favourite was always IC Swallow. There is a match

Timara

Timara

Great Northern: part 2

By way of a follow-on from http://www.rmweb.co....great-northern/, here's the finished article, ready for delivery next week.   Very little to say about this one really, so I'll let the pair of images below do the talking.       EDIT: so that's how the "Blog it" button deals with things..... Experiment kinda worked....   Cheers,     Source: Tim's weathering workbench (mostly steam)

Timara

Timara

Thompson O4/8

The many uses of a Bachmann O4 2-8-0...... In this instance, a Thompson rebuild to class O4/8     Going back to when Bachmann announced their O4, I wondered how long it would be before we would either see an offering made by Bachmann themselves or indeed an enterprising modeller in the form of one or other of the rebuilt versions. The latter appeared in the form of Graeme King over on LNER forum, both http://www.lner.info...t2443s375.html and http://www.lner.info...-t2141s45.html. Scroll

Timara

Timara

Great Northern

It's been a while since the last entry, so by way of showing what's been keeping me occupied lately, here's a taster of the current incumbent of my paintshop.   A recent commission has been a repaint of 60113 'Great Northern' into British Railways express passenger blue livery. Now, whilst I'm not a fan at all of Thompson's essays in Pacifics (no, I'm not going to open the debate here), I must admit that blue certainly suits this machine better than green. Suffice to say, it's just "differen

Timara

Timara

Porthole Stanier SK

Prevarication - something I appear to be good at..... I need a fair number of porthole Stanier period IIIs, but actually managing to complete one has been a bit of an uphill struggle. Suffice it to say, it's not a job I hugely enjoy!   Anyway, the first one to emanate from the works (minus glazing until I've varnished the sides) is below. I think I bought the sides for it about 7 or 8 years back. The donor base model is a scrap Replica open second and the interior comes from a Hornby mode

Timara

Timara

Time for a Beer

During a bit of tidying up of my storage cupboard, I found a box containing a Parkside 7mm scale box van. Going back not-so-long ago, I was involved with the Happisburgh group in the MRC and this one must have been one taken in for repair to the underframe (wheels etc were loose and the brake gear was all-to-cock).   Anyway, before it gets its long-overdue handing back in time for the MRC's/Warners Alexandra Palace show, I thought I'd finish the job I thought I'd done ages back and give it a

Timara

Timara

Minerals

Something I need quite a goodly number of - the humble 16 ton mineral. Having recently bought a large batch of these, that oh-so-clean finish wasn't going to last very long in my hands!   I've been trying to get to grips with using gouache (as prescribed by Pugsley and co on here) and here are the first two specimens.   The one on the left is a 1959 build, so is undoubtedly much cleaner (and less bashed about) than its 1955/6 built cousin next to it. This is where the gouache has been used

Timara

Timara

A Fruit cocktail

The recent Christmas and New Year break has enabled me to get my finger out and finish off a few outstanding projects, most notably some 12t van kits.   Roof issues aside (I've left these alone as I'm game for an easy life!), the Parkside Dundas PC42 BR fruit van kit is a most useful one indeed and can produce 3 main variants of ordinary 12t van aside from the kit as intended.   Below are sides in various states of modification.   Starting with the raw bodyside - note the shelf brackets an

Timara

Timara

Arise, Sir Bill!

Another project almost done and dusted.... With the exception of the lining etc on the driver's side, it's complete. As expected, the red shade DID tone down with a bit of weathering. Certainly matches all my colour books, not to mention my own photographs of 46229.   Decided to take advantage of the sunlight this afternoon, so here are a trio of photos of the completed side! I'm rather pleased with it, if I dare say so myself.                   The use of BR coach Crimson

Timara

Timara

Almost there........ (46256)

Well, I'm getting there, slowly.....   Next job to do is undercoat + paint the tender underframe, followed by the soul-destroying task of lining it. I'm not looking forward to it, especially as the lining I bought to do this task is a pile of dodgy doodah. Word from the wise: NEVER use the Fox stuff if you want an accurate looking model. It's far too thick and evidently been sized from something a lot bigger and not so true-to-scale - it was quite a bit longer+taller than the tender body.

Timara

Timara

Lady in Red

My current workbench incumbent: A much modified Hornby Duchess as one of the Ivatt pair, in this instance, 46256 Sir William A Stanier FRS.   Now, I've long disliked the shade of BR Loco Red used by Hornby on any of their pacifics. It's darker than the BR coach maroon used by Bachmann on their darkest issues and has a horrible purple tint to it. In short, it's wrong!   I've been yet to come across anyone who does the right shade (ie: badged as such) and I have a nasty feeling that most pe

Timara

Timara

Much duffage

Had to start somewhere I guess, so here goes. The humble 47, maid of all work. I'm not a massive fan of these locos, but in my modelling period, they're a necessity.   For the 4mm modeller, there isn't really a "definitive duff" out there. Close, yes, but not "bang on". I think we can discount the rather heavy and wide Heljan 47, much as people seem to like it. It's wrong in more ways than just the width!       As far as the body is concerned, the ViTrains body is just about spot on

Timara

Timara

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