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About this blog

A blog of the various locomotive and rolling stock projects that will be seen running on my South Brent layout, covering the Great Western in 1947

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Dean Goods pt4 - paint

A break in the rain this evening allowed me to get the Dean Goods painted, Halfords etch primer at lunchtime  followed by a coat of their satin black.  This was followed by a first pass at weathering, adding a dirty black/brown mix to the frames and footplate and a start to dirtying up the boiler top.  It needs transfers (for which I’ve ran out of GWR transfers for the tender) before it can be mat varnished so I can get on with the weathering powders.  For the moment it looks a bit odd with dirt

The Fatadder

The Fatadder in Locos

Restoring an Oxford Dean Goods pt3

A delivery from Brassmasters today with the remaining parts for the Dean Goods, I have replaced the oil pipe cover with the Finney part (which has a little more meat to it than the Oxford one).  A pair of Finney lamp irons were added to the footplate (I think these were missing on the base model), I am debating replacing the end lamp irons as well.  Finally on the engine the Finney smokebox door dart was glued in place.   Moving onto the tender, a pair of Springside break / water

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The Fatadder in Locos

Restoring an Oxford Rail Dean Goods pt2

The first job for this project was to completely strip the existing awful paint finish from the model, it was stripped down to its component parts.  This included the removal of the chimney, splashers, smokebox door, fall plate, whistles, handrails and buffers.   The removed parts were stuck to a length of masking tape to keep safe, somehow it has disappeared in the garage.  Thankfully this only contains the whistles, pipes along the footplate and buffers, so nothing irreplaceable.   W

The Fatadder

The Fatadder in Locos

Restoring an Oxford Rail Dean Goods

Another new restoration project sourced from eBay for the bargain price of just under £30 will add an Oxford Rail Dean Goods to the loco fleet. The source model is the later release (with single flywheel and coreless motor), has had a very bad respray (along with some damaged detail parts) and was sold as a non runner because the seller was confused about the loco - tender coupling and DCC.  In fact it is just a standard DCC ready release and once loco and tender are connected runs nicely.

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The Fatadder in Locos

Improved Hornby green

One job that I have been putting off for some time is improving the awful tepid green that Hornby use to spray their GWR locos, last year I had a first attempt using Simon's clear lacquer on a Hornby grange.  The lacquer had been recomended elsewhere (I think @checkrail first mentioned it), but I have had mixed results.  When it works it is a great product, however a couple of times (the aforementioned Grange and on the tender for my 43xx) the varnish has reacted badly and resulted in a crazy pa

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The Fatadder

Improving the Oxford Rail Toad

Taking a break from my 1990s resprays, I have been cracking on with a long overdue project for a couple of brake vans. For Brent I have currently got 5 toads at various stages of completeness, 2 of the Hornby AA15 model which have been repainted along with new location branding & a weathered roof. A Bachmann AA19 which has had all of the bodyside handrails removed pending replacement with wire (using the MRD brackets), this one is approaching the top of the to do pile. Finally a pair from Ox

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Mitchell 7316 pt2

Just a very small update as long days at work finishing year end reporting are not leaving a great deal of time in the evening for myself….   However over the past few evenings the chassis for 7316 has started to come together.  I started off chopping the original P4 spacers in half, this was done to assist in getting enough heat onto the old spacers one at a time (whilst ensuring that solder did not fill the slots).  With that done the chassis was rebuilt in OO, although I didn’t find

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The Fatadder

Weathering 5108

Another project from the past few days was finishing off 5108.   The model was previously resprayed to correct Hornby’s tepid interpretation of GWR green, with transfers from HMRS and Narrow Planet number plates.   Weathering has been added using Vallejo paints, using the paint on / wipe off method.      In the end I’ve decided that I dont really need a 51xx right now, and would rather replace it with a current generation model either building a kit or if one appears in the ba

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The Fatadder

Stock for Brent: 2019 in Review

As we approach the end of 2019, its time for the annual recap of the years modelling (and a look forward to 2020), annoyingly the tags don’t seem to work any more which limits the ability to link to the respective pages.   First up was the completion (hopefully….) of a very long term project, building a decent model of a Manor.  It took a fair bit of research to find a record of a Manor through Brent in ’47 but eventually settled on 7804.  The Mitchell body and Comet chassis took some

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Into the paintshop pt2

Part two of the loco painting.....   As with 37403, I had some issues with the paint not getting into corners.  The solution has been a lot more touch up work with a fine brush, I think the weather paid a part, as did the mix of paint, along with my experimentation with a different airbrush needle (using the medium rather than my usual fine).    Once that was complete it was time to add the other colours, starting with the footplate / steps using a dirty black / brown mix of

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Into the paintshop

While I wasn't expecting to be starting any painting this year, inspired by the desire to crack on with a model of a Class 37 on my other blog coupled with a very mild day, tonight I was out in the garage getting started on some painting.  With the garage heated up in advance (and the paint warmed in a bath of hot water before heading outside), I got on with spraying some GWR green.  Between each coat the models were treated to a quick blast with a hairdryer to dry the paint in order to get the

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The Fatadder

Finney 2251 pt5

The body for 2213 is now complete!   The fine detailing took a long time, in some cases the Finney kit takes it a little too far in my opinion, however most parts were used on the final loco (there were just a few tiny brackets which were just to much for my ability with a soldering iron).  I think the end result looks an improvement over the Bachmann model, but it will be interesting to see once it is complete.   The buffer housings, steam heat and vacuum pipes, screw revers

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The Fatadder

Finney 2251 part 4

Another evening’s work and 2213 takes another step closer to the paintshop.   White metal castings have been added for the superheater oil cover and two plates at the bottom of the firebox, the top feed pipework was formed and soldered into place and the mud door covers have been soldered into position.  Finally the smokebox door dart was glued into place, and a start was made on boring out the chimney.   I also formed the etching for the whistle shield, although I have not quite worke

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The Fatadder

Finney 2251 part 3

Likely to be the final session of work on 2212 for the weekend, taking advantage of my wife being out for the evening. First on the list was the handrails, as mentioned in my 73xx blog I hate forming handrails.  It is a job that I have forgotten to add on two previous builds (the Manor and Saint) and now have to do post paint!   I started by threading one side’s handrails knobs onto a length of 0.45 nickel silver wire, locating onto the body and soldering into place.  The front

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Finney 2251 pt2

A little more work on the 2251    the smokebox was rolled and fitted to the boiler, before soldering to the firebox and footplate.     Next up was the cab, adding the beading to the cutouts, followed by the handrails before soldering the sides into position on the footplate.  I much prefer Malcolm Mitchell’s design than Finneys in this area, the sub etch for the cab.     finally the roof was added along with its formers.     With that the core of the loco body is c

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The Fatadder

Mitchell 73xx

Another long term unfinished project is this Mitchell 73xx, with the Dapol model imminent I really want to get on and finish it.  The model was built in a complete state (less wheels) from eBay years ago, and the paint finish was never quite up to standard. The chassis is built to P4 standards, it will be rebuilt back to OO thanks to Andrew @ullypug who sent me some left over OO spacers from his own P4 mogul build.   the loco will be finished as 7313 based on an interesting photo

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The Fatadder

Finney 2251

Time to finish off another couple of long term residents of the work in progress shelf.  This Finney 2251 was picked up as a body only kit via ebay a few years ago, I also picked up a set of P4 ultrascales (with inside motion) and was hopefully the seller would find the chassis (he didn't).   With a return to P4 steam a long way off, and no evidence of a 2251 through Brent there was nothing to motivate me to get it built.   However now a combination of finding a 2251 at Newton Abbot in September

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The Fatadder

Manor Chassis / Grange Weathering

Another evenings work on the Manor chassis and it is finally complete and ready for painting.  The first job was adding soldering up the brake shoes and installing them onto the chassis frames.  With that complete, the wheels could be removed (marking the right hand side (looking towards the chimney) with black pen so that they could be returned to the same positions.  A slight error was soldering the cylinder assembly into position, as it makes removing the lead driver rather difficult.  I have

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The Fatadder

Mitchell Manor Build pt5

As ever the first week of the month is crazy busy at work, leaving not a lot of time for any modelling once I get home.   However over the past few nights I have managed to do a little work, progress on the Bird is now fully on hold pending Spring and warmer weather to allow for painting.  (it will be green, but I have yet to confirm the tender branding, with a fair few photos showing Bulldogs/Birds with G W R that is looking the likely choice.   This lead to a revisit of the

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The Fatadder

A Bird for Brent pt 8 ready for paint

Not a lot more to report.   first up the bogie has been almost finished, the frame needed to be lowered by about a mm vs the sub frame.  It does still need a tidy up of the inner end of the frames which are not square at the joint between the front frames and the deep part.     I have now given it a final coat of etch primer to seal in the rivets (as an aside I am very impressed with the Archers product   So the model has gone from this   to th

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The Fatadder

A Bird for Brent Pt7 - The bogie & a problem

Hopefully this is the penultimate blog before the Bird enters the paint shop, (so I really need to confirm its colour!)   The first job was a couple of minor repairs after cleaning and priming the model, a handrail had come unsoldered and somewhere along the line a lower step had broken off.  These were quickly soldered back into position before the real work could start.  This was followed by gluing the reverser cover into place (which should have been fitted the night before…)   Ther

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The Fatadder

A Bird for Brent Pt7 - ready for paint

Another evenings work and the body is ready for paint.   the remaining washout plugs and mud doors were fitted, along with the mud doors and handrails.  The chimney was glued back into position (adding a plastic cap to the leading edge)     the next area in need of attention is the front bogie.  The existing part has a core from thick brass, with frames attached to it with what looks like brass strip.  There are no rivets present, not are the strengthening plates.  To to

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The Fatadder

A Bird for Brent Pt6

I spent Sunday demonstrating some modern image modelling on the DEMU stand at Warley building some EMUs, I did manage to purchase the majority of what was required to enable me to finish the Bulldog.   So last night it was time to make a start. The first area was the firebox, I didn’t have the right brass tube thickness to scratch build the washout plugs for the other side of the loco (wall thickness was too thick).  Given it was cheaper than buying more tube, I ended up sourcing

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The Fatadder

A Bird for Brent pt5

A little more progress today.   first up the smoke box step and lamp iron have been soldered into place.     The next job was one that I’ve been dreading.  For some reason the cab windows were misshapen, with more of an L shape than the rectangular prototype.  The solution was to solder a backing piece into the from scrap etch and then flood the front with solder before filing to shape.   Much happier with the shape of the windows now.   Moving on to the tender, the

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A Bird for Brent pt4

Another nights work and Nightingale is starting to come together.       The first task was to build a batch of 6 boiler washout plugs.   I ended up making 8 as two were lost to the carpet at the final stage.  (I suppose given my dyspraxia I should be happy that I have the coordination to make these things, but it does result in the loss of a lot of small parts!)    The next job was to mark out the positions of the plugs (Using the drawing inspiration Russell and a photo as

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