Jutland is now finished and ready for the (as yet non-existant) layout.
I'm not sure what more I can say about her really that I haven't already mentioned, other than the weathering (as per my usual method, done with chalk pastel). I'm very happy with the completed model; she looks far better than I thought she would when I first opened the kit nearly six months ago!
Now then, what next? I don't really feel like launching into another loco right now.... I do have a couple of
I guess I've reached two fairly major mileposts with 'Jutland'. Firstly I've attached the last of the whitemetal bits of the kit. The eight footsteps were glued in place this morning. Secondly the locomotive has now been given its formal identication and lined out. I used etched brass nameplates from the Modelmaster range (I've been a very happy customer of theirs for most of my named loco projects), applied using a very sparing dab of UHU touched on the back of the 'plate.
When it cam
This week I've managed the grand total of 3 hours' modelling time. Two hours of which was this afternoon....
Nevermind, at least it means my 2013 build programme won't be exhausted by the middle of August
So this is what Jutland looks like as of about 4.30 this afternoon....
I think, last time, I discussed how I added the white lining on the cab using an easi-liner tool. At the time it might have appeared to some somewhat coarse (I know that's how it looked to me after I
The last week or so I've been trying to get my D11 into apple green. It eventually took two base coats of Revell 'Leaf Green'- a horrible bile green colour- and then three coats of Humbrol 'Apple Green' acrylic on top. The result of using these two colours is that the final finish has quite a pleasing depth to it.
I'm also trying a bit of an experiment on the model. When I first started lining out my models I bought an 'easi-liner' tool. It is basically a caligraphy pen with a
Two projects to bring up to speed tonight. Let's start with 'Jutland'. She's been put into primer, and the gaps filled. And then she was given a first coat of green... and some more gaps found....
The green is wrong of course but that's part of the way I go about getting an apple green finish. Two coats of Revell 'Leaf Green' followed by two coats of Humbrol 'Apple Green'.
The other project is very exciting...
A 3D print of a basic bodyshell landed on the doo
When I last mentioned my BEC D11 I spoke about how myself and whitemetal were not exactly getting on, and the various shortcomings of the material. Now not to go back entirely on what I said then, I have come around a little to the view that it does have its uses.
For one thing, weight. The model weighs a ton! For another thing, the flexibility of the material is useful, to a degree, in that if parts don't match they can be 'coerced' into doing so with a bit of gentle pressure.
Anyw
Work has tailed off somewhat dramatically this last week as I started my new job Whilst the job is great it does unfortunately mean a lot of travelling in the mornings and evenings, and an early bedtime. So the time I've got for my models has shrunk from about 4 hours each evening to 2, if I am lucky.
This means I can't do larger jobs in the week (so work on Jutland has slowed right down), but I can do smaller, quicker pieces.
One of which has been to fit three of my locomotives wit
Finished the first of my planned pair of GC brake thirds. It looks... fairly convincing when paired up with my all-first. Certainly enough that the missing windows aren't too noticeable.
The other two vehicles for the rake are going to be a second brake third and a composite.
Progress has slowed somewhat on the D11... I managed to get as far as building the tender and adding Romford bearings, and bulking out the frames around the tender axles to stop the wheelsets falling out. I have a tender now that actually wants to move....
... But then I remembered that even before starting my L1 I had a Mainline LMS 57' brake third on the workbench. I've posted somewhere on the boards about my conversions of ex-Mainline (now Bachmann) LMS stock into something that looks G
Hot on the heels of the L1 comes the next loco project....
.... a BEC whitemetal 'Improved Director'.
This is a kit I bought late last year and for reasons I'm now starting to remember put in the 'I'll get round to it someday' pile.
Well today was that day and I'm starting to regret it, though I must say I do enjoy a challenge.
The first problem was a biggie.... the castings are buckled. The footplate I straightened out by gluing the splashers to it fore and aft and then appl
The eagle-eyed will have noticed there was something odd about the look of the newly-finished L1 in my last post.
Specifically, the curved handrail above the smokebox door, a distinctive feature of Robinson designs, was missing.
There's a reason why that has been the case on all of my models to date- I have never been able to get a curved rail I'm happy with. Either the curve I get is wrong, or the material breaks, or it just stubbornly refuses to bend. Usually leaving them off doesn
When I last spoke about my L1 there were really only one or two bits left to work up on it.
Well I'm very pleased to say that it is now finished!- another loco out of the shops and ready for the planned layout.
I began by firmly attaching the front footplate footsteps. Previously these had been glued into position, but they kept coming adrift. Something a bit more permanent was required. I drilled 0.8mm holes very carefully into the underside of the running plate
Because the snow is finally beginning to melt the Royal Mail have managed to make their way up to my house today. Bringing with them *another* book about the Metropolitan Railway and a Hornby Patriot bodyshell (£3.99 from ebay- bargain!).
No sooner had I got the package open then down comes my copy of 'The Harmonious Blacksmith' by A C Hancox and I quickly turn to page 25...
... and lay the Hornby bodyshell on the 4mm drawing on that page of Great Central Railway #1097 'Immingham'.
....black, as the saying goes....
If there is one thing that can make or break a model it is undoubtedly the paint job and finishing. I always brush paint my models using enamels or a mix of enamels and acrylics, generally from the Humbrol range though I will happily buy and use Revell paints if that is what the local model shop has in stock.
One thing I have found is that it always pays to thin down the paint at least a little before brushing it on. Firstly this lessens th
I've been working a little, here and there, on my Dean Sidings L1 (progress has slowed somewhat because the kitchen table I usually work on is buried under shelves at the moment).
Last time I wrote that I was considering replacing the cast resin coal rails, which I considered the weakest point of the kit. I was planning to use brass wire for this and solder throughout, but when I was looking at prototype photos it became apparent that although the rails are circular in section, the bars th
I confess, a slightly embarressing situation is coming up. I should say that I studied Architecture at University, and then spent something over a year working in an Architect's practice.
So you can perhaps see why it's a little embarressing for me to find it a struggle to design using AutoCAD in 3D. I've got hold of a 30-day trial of AutoCAD 2013, and it looks like I'll need all thirty of those days just to get the easier bits done!
Nothing ventured nothing gained however and a slig
Whilst the L1 build comes along nicely (I've built up some coal rails, of which more later), I've begun to consider exactly how I'm going to do my future planned projects.
In the first post of this blog I mentioned I plan to build both a B4 'Immingham' and a B5 'Fish' this year. So far what I have a pair of B12s and 7mm scale drawings for both locos, plus a few whitemetal and brass castings for boiler fittings.
Well you see yesterday I took delivery of a book published by the SLS titl
When I started off today I had a set of things I wanted to do:
1. Add the external steampipe from cab to smokebox
2. Remove the moulded coal rails
3. Add the handrails
Happily I can say I achieved all three....
The steampipe was the easiest bit to do. I had to drill 1.6mm holes into the cab front and the smokebox to get it to fit, and then gently file down the tank filler cap it runs past to get a smooth fit.
Moving on to the coal rails the first step was to cut down through
With the chassis completed I've been able to at least start the bodywork. The body comes as a single cast resin block, with a myriad of whitemetal castings tgo complete the model.
With the L1 you get a choice of no fewer than three different chimneys, two domes, two safety valves and a top feed. This is where drawings and photographs really come into their own....
I already knew that the L1's originally carried tall domes which were swapped in the 1930s for shorter, squatter examples
Yesterday I mentioned how I got started on my L1, and promptly got myself stuck.
Well, as it turns out sometimes it's good to just go away for a few hours... and then it all becomes crystal clear.
The main problems I had encountered yesterday were of the order of trying to shoe-horn a chassis under the L1 for which the kit hadn't been designed... well happily I can say I've succeeded.
These two images show how far I managed to get yesterday.... basically building up the e
There are two projects I've started pretty much simultaneously.... usually I only have one on the boil but I wanted to have a bit of a choice. The other explanation of course is that I got itchy fingers.
The first project is a conversion of an ex-Mainline LMS 57' brake third into something that resembles GCR matchboard rolling stock of the period 1911-20. I've described this sort of conversion before (there's a thread on it somewhere in the 'kitbuilding and scratchbuilding' forum), and I'm
Well, as I have a fair few projects on the go and at planning stage, I thought I'd start a blog to detail them rather than clog up the boards with thread after thread.
What can we expect from reading this? As the blog name suggests, my primary area of interest is the Great Central Mainline and the Metropolitan Line, with the eventual goal of building a model based upon the joint route (at the moment I'm toying with a model of Marylebone, albeit a 'might have been' variant with Metropolitan
