It's been a month since I last posted in my blog..... things have been getting done but nothing really worth talking about.
I've built the third of a set of four cardboard kits for Metropolitan Ashbury carriages. This one is the all-first. Truth be told it fought me all the way and I'm not entirely satisfied with it. It looks okay from a distance of about 3', which is the baseline test for my models, so it won't be destined for the Shelf of Appalling Mistakes or the dustbin.
I then
Over the last few years I have accrued a short rake of the Bachmann LNER covered vans.... three of the fish type and two ventilated. When I received Peter Tatlow's GN/ GC/ GE wagons book as a gift last Christmas, it occured to me how much the LNER design takes after the GCR pattern, what with the vertical side panelling and the slide doors. Granted, with the ventilated vans the end panelling is wrong, and there are differences in detail, but it got me wondering whether the Bachmann model would
Suddenly there were three of them!
I have completed an all first and a brake composite.
The all third is structurally complete and just needs final painting, transfers and varnish.
Moving on to the second brake composite...
The underframes and the two sides cut down to length and Hornby Gresley ends fitted.
The original bogies and their connecting rivets were sawn off, then holes frilled through the floor to allow the body to be lowered a few milli
Right, sitrep.
The first of the rake, a six-compartment all-first, is finished. My usual varnishing/ sealing method of diluted PVA seems to have gone on a little blotchy; second coat needed to finish I think- though it shows worse in photographs than it does in the flesh. In any case, I am very happy with how this first carriage has turned out- far, far better than my attempts at 1898 stock, which I think are now destined for the breakers' yard.
The second in the rake is go
Last time I discussed how progress on all three of these carriages was slowing down to almost a snails pace, mostly because of the tedious nature of some of the work and trying to get it over and done with for three carriages in one go really wasn't working out for me. So to see at least a little meaningful progress I decided to take the most advanced of the carriages and just concentrate on it, to get at least one of the models finished and hopefully provide a little encouragement to see the o
Hmmm, trying to turn out a rake of carriages as a batch build really isn't turning out too well. Great, for the early part of the build- I got the basics of three new carriages done in one night!- but now that I'm coming to do more of the detailed and intricate work, well, it means that there's three times as much of it to do. Given that a lot of it now is repetitive and tedious (I defy anyone to build enough seating for three carriages in one go without going round the bend in the process), I
Into teak!
Well, starting to. This is just the undercoat.
Aah, yes, that's better.
Two carriages are now in the latter condition just leaving the one in the state shown in the first picture.
Perhaps the most awkward process so far has been the construction of new underframe trussing. Lots of little bits of 0.5mm plastic strip and one wrong move puts the whole lot askew and having to be rebuilt. It's fragile of course but it has a surprising amount of 'give
I've been crawling along with a couple of carriages. One of the upsides of doing three models in one go is that you you get three models in the time it takes to do one, or so the theory goes. One of the downsides is that every process in fact takes three times as long.... you gain, you lose....
Anyway, the task for the last few days has been to reduce the ride height of the carriages. The act of removing the original couplings pretty much destroyed the original bogies; no real issue becau
Picking up the three ex-Triang Caley coaches again; last time I had cut down the bodies to achieve lookalike versions of GCR 1905 mainline carriages.
I then started to look at the carriage ends; I would have to sand down all of the detail and then rebuild. The ends of the GCR carriages being panelled, and the Caley coaches re-using Mk.I ends.
I then recalled I had six Hornby Gresley carriage ends in a spares box lying idle. These won't be quite right but they are at least panelled, a
A sheet of HMRS LNWR lining transfers arrived a few days ago so Friday evening and yesterday I spent a happy couple of hours lining the bunker, tanks and boiler.
I still have the splashers and the cabsides to do but it is eventually going to be a very neat little engine. Looking at period photographs of these engines in GCR livery the lining really stands out against the black and this effect I think has been caught very well.
Progress with the loco has reached the lining out stage. The easiest way to line it, I reckon, is to start with some LNWR/ BR mixed traffic lining (grey with an inner red line) and then touch in the yellow outer line afterward.
To which end I have ordered some appropriate lining transfers. Whilst waiting for them I succumbed to itchy fingers and began another project.
You may remember last year when I had a few attempts at building some original 1898 GCR carriages. The conclusion
A couple of coats of matt black. I've started switching over to Tamiya acrylics, and although it is early days I'm not yet entirely sold on them. I'm going to smooth down and fill the body, then give it a couple more coats of black. Then the lining can be added.
Lining, according to Carter's liveries book, is going to be
- black boiler bands with red line either side; - single grey line to tanks and bunker (one panel each); - thin chrome yellow line outside of the grey band; - thin re
I'm about at the point where I can start thinking about the paint job. Handrails and coal rails were fitted this evening, which just leaves a little bit of work around the smokebox saddle.
Now then, livery details....
These engines being maintained at Tuxford I'm aware they were kept in LD&EC-style lining up to 1923 (noted in Robinson Locomotive Liveries that engines maintained or repaired at Tuxford came back in LD&EC livery, except of course for the GREAT CENTRAL markings).
Well, things have moved on. Just a little.
Let's start with the most obvious additions.
The chimney and dome are Alan Gibson brass castings intended for the J11 'Pom Pom' kit, I believe the four-pillar safety valves are from the same source however they were lying in the bottom of one of my spare bits boxes so I can't be 100% on that score.
The buffers equally are from a spares box, if I recall correctly they were originally from an Airfix Railways 4F.
Vacuum p
With the side tanks sorted out (except for the front panels), I started working back along the model. The D class was around 9'' longer in the bunker than was the Barry Railway L, so I cut away the moulded rear bufferbeam preparatory to extending the valances. That done, I used some 0.5mm plastic sheet to create new bunker sides.
I then turned to the cab and built new spectacle plates.
Long ago I bought a resin kit for a large Welsh tank engine with intentions of turning into a Metropolitan loco. Well, that hasn't happened but it is being hacked into something else.
An 0-6-4 mineral engine of the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway. Interesting railway, that. In the middle 1890s the Company set out to build somewhere around 170 miles of track, in the process gaining the distinction of being the single largest railway scheme to be approved by Parliamen
Well, that's the last of the PO wagons done at least. For now, that is.
And before bits of it started off on vision quests to dark and unknown corners of the various bookcases my to-do pile lives on, I got on with GCR-ising a Ratio GWR brake third. New roof vents, new wheels, new couplings, new solebars- as this was a second-hand model which arrived already built, I was loathe to try and prise the roof off to fit an interior (that endeavour just had 'ruined model' written all over i
Another of my stash of wagon kits finished.
This time it's a Cambrian Kits pre-grouping wagon, finished as usual with POWsides lettering. This is the last of 7 or 8 Cambrian pre-grouping open wagons I bought a few years ago. Next up are going to be a pair of POWsides/ Slaters opens.
Difficult post to make, this.
Turns out Photobucket have put a lock down on 3rd party hosting- and until rather recently all of my photos were hosted on Photobucket. Basically, if you have a free Photobucket account, you can't link back to any photos you put on it. You can continue to use Photobucket for 3rd party hosting.... for an eyewatering $399 a year fee.
This absolutely flies in the face of everything I happen to think fair, just or right.
Therefore, I have taken the d
I'm taking a break for a little while from my carriage building... and have turned my attention on the (smaller) pile of unbuilt wagons I have to hand.
First up are a pair of unpainted Dapol 9' wheelbase wagons, which were a quick little project. Some paint and transfers- and job done, except for the couplings.
And then onto the next project- an open wagon from Cambrian Models.
The second of the card kits is finished.
Whether because of the heatwave whilst it was being built, complacency on my part or a combination of the two, I had a few issues building this one. The body tried to warp, the roof didn't fit quite so neatly and the carriage sides tried to bow out. It's finished as a nice model but it's not quite so successful as the first one was.
I'm giving the carriages a break for a while and picking up some wagons I have laying around. The f
