Sorting out my stocklist, I looked over my two valance conversions and spotted that something was amiss compared to my Walter K. Whigham A4 Pacific. The problem lies directly with the use of either Kingfisher or Mallard models as the donor locomotives for these conversions.
The short access hatches at the front end under the nameplates, are wrong - they should be the double length ones as seen on the Walter K. Whigham model, and any of the BR green liveried A4s that Hornby produce.
In a change from the wonderfully satisfying A4 conversions - which can be done in a few hours, spread over a week, my current long term project, 60503 Lord President, has had a few changes this morning and test fitting of components. The vacuum pipe and new coupling have been test fitted to the bufferbeam along with the buffers. Nothing has been stuck down or painted, and all will in all likelihood, be fitted after final painting and lining.
The one thing which eludes me at present is a firm
How else to describe this particular conversion, but "emotional". There's a lot of emotion behind this one.
It all began on a family holiday to Canada. We had met up with my Uncle Edwin and Aunty Grace in Toronto, and taken a variety of transport to arrive in Quebec. Saint-Constant, specifically. Uncle Edwin, or "Uncle Ed", wasn't actually relative by blood, he had married my maternal grandmother's younger sister, but he had always been a close member of the family, and such a wonderfully in
The deed is done! 60034 Lord Faringdon (the mistake of the last blog entry) has been swiftly changed back to single chimney form, and renamed and renumbered as 60028 Walter K. Whigham, thus filling another gap in my stocklist, and correcting the embarrassing mistake of last time!
All in an evening's work, and I can breathe a sigh of relief. Spare Hornby A4 chimney fitted, Gamesworkshop "green putty" and Humbrol Plastic Filler used to fix the smokebox, Archer's Rivets to reline any areas affe
It's been a while between blog entries this month, mostly because I've spent an inordinate amount of time sleeping when at home. The traveling is finally starting to get to me! But I cannot complain because I like my job and it pays well for the time I put in. However with the tiredness, comes mistakes, and for anyone who has a copy of RCTS volume 2A, you'll spot the mistake which creeped into my modelling this month in about three paragraphs time.
I choose to relate it here, because in a no
It's been a very busy start to 2012, and the time I've had for modelling has been at an absolute premium. Between travelling around the country for my work (I was in Arundel yesterday - a beautiful, magical place), sorting out the plethora of paperwork for my forthcoming children's book, and various other family related odds and ends, any time to dedicated to modelling has been solely confined to snatched moments in the dead of night!
That has not stopped me from pressing on with the 60503 b
Okay, we can all admit it. There is at least one, or two, locomotives that we all want to see on our layouts. There's no doubting that everyone strives for authenticity when building their locomotive stud, but there's always one particular engine which people want "just because". Mallard is one of these for me, though happily as a regular performer on the King's Cross to Leeds expresses in the 1940s and 50s, I have no problem with justifying putting 60022 amidst the A4s in my planned stocklist f
Last time I was getting to grips with the major bodyshell conversions. This time, I've finished the valve gear.
Yes, it's very crude. It uses components from the donor A2 model, and a spare set of Bachmann V2 valve gear I had squirreled away. Does it work? Surprisingly, yes. It works quite well. I have managed second radius curves with the model in its current state quite happily.
I've been making modifications to the boiler - removal of certain boiler bands, and a co
Whilst I wait for the transfers for 62678 The Morpeth to arrive, I have been working on another conversion, this time using a set of Graeme King's superb A2/3 resin castings - you can inquire about their availability here - to create a Thompson A2/2 using the Bachmann Peppercorn A2 as a basis.
So the current progress is as follows, after a day's work:
The original Bachmann valve gear has been carefully remove, and the chassis filed down in the necessary locations to fit the conve
We're getting there with 62768! I've put it into a black matt coat, and will varnish the areas where there are to be transfers applied. The camera does show up a few areas to sand down again - the steps, for example, so we're not quite ready to shout "finished!" by any means.
This is where we were a day ago, with the model unpainted and with the steps, new buffers and bufferbeam detail newly added. In hindsight I should have sanded it down more, but that can be done when the
Not much of an update, but I've had a go at modifying the original smokebox door by using pastic strip for the straps. It doesn't look too bad but the numberplate (modelmasters) is probably going to go - the brass colour looks odd. I may try and paint it over in white, perhaps, but it'll have to wait for another evening.
The smokebox door dart is a new addition - a 4mm brass one from the Markits range. Literally just removed the moulded one and fitted the new one. Gunmetal silver used on the
Well, the Hornby Railroad D49 model I had ordered arrived, but the first of January was the first day I had to get a look at it. The model was taken out of its box, and promptly taken apart for the first stage of its transformation into a Thompson D Class 4-4-0, The Morpeth.
The driving wheels were removed by carefully taking off the chassis plate, and uncoupling the tender from the chassis by removing a screw. The front driving wheels had their crank pins removed in favour of a different s
I can't believe it's been yet another year on RMweb. Unfortunately, modelling wise, I've been unable to do much since late September since I managed to procure my first full time job! Which has allowed me some money to budget on certain portions of my hobby.
The one thing which has stood out for me this year is how many of the projects from last year I have failed to update on - but have in fact finished, physically if not in livery.
The Stirling Single needs to be removed from storage t
To make this abundantly clear, the Bachmann Peppercorn A1 model is fantastic. None of the nine member strong fleet I own have been anything but exceptional runners, and have always looked very much like the prototype whilst maintaining a rugged, purposeful look as a model.
That is, in all but one area: the chimney. Bachmann decided, for reasons as yet unknown, to make the chimney a two piece moulding, where the top half is either the stovepipe or the rimmed chimney, and the lower portion is
There's something rather magical about Graeme King's modelling. The ability to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse - such as a commission he took on for me, making a Hornby Railroad A4 into a Gresley W1 last year.
This time around, it really is just amazing. I suggested to Graeme quite a while back that an A2/3 could be made from the latest Bachmann A2, and he agreed; he had been thinking on similar lines. We came to an agreement, whereby I would supply a Bachmann A2 for him to use
In my previous review of the Hornby Railroad Tornado, I was impressed with the overall quality of the mechanism, and the accuracy of the model. I made a mistake in my review, where I incorrectly stated that there was no detail pack included in the box. It was in fact, stuck into a recess on the back of the polysterene packing.
The Special Edition model of Tornado has now been released, and with it comes the opportunity to compare it with the Bachmann model of Tornado. The Hornby model is an
It all started with this review video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEfXm6AS7Sk
I'd finished filming the review, and found that the right hand set of buffers - which are all plastic, moulded as part of the bodyshell - had been damaged in transit.
I was not very impressed with this aspect of the model. Whatever your thoughts may be of the moulded handrails, the model is clearly designed to be a cheap and cheerful representation of the new build A1. I could forgive the moulded p
So many projects on the go, it simply isn't funny. However, thankfully life is returning to normality shortly, so some updates on my plethora of coaching stock to be finished, and a few locomotives (one in particular) will be forthcoming.
That, and I have to think of a 2011 entry. Surely I can start and finish one this time around...!!!
From this, a very dark liveried London Midland & Scottish Railway suburban...
...to this, a British Railways Carmine liveried example:
The coach was disassembled into its constituent parts: roof, glazing, seating, coach body and frames.
The lining and lettering on the coach body was removed using careful application of nail varnish remover, on a cotton bud. Wet'n'dry paper was used to clear up the residue.
The coach was undercoated with a layer of white acrylic (Skull
The Clerestory project continues apace, with the painting and finishing of one more coach, and a third into the carmine livery. I still have the roof to do on the third one, whilst the second has had its roof (with seven, not eight vents!) fitted, and I am awaiting the necessary transfers to finish the first two off before weathering.
A little change I made to the second coach (but not the third), was the implementation of a light coloured undercoat - in this case, a standard Games
I've recently had a spate of budget-purchases in terms of coaching stock, and a few surprise gifts from the missus in the same vein!
Charlie forgot Valentine's Day this year - not really a crime, she is starting her PGCE and is at the highest of stress levels. However, she found the time to shop around, and while attending Ally Pally on Sunday, bought me the three coaches seen below:
They are a set of three Airfix LMS Suburban coaches, and they have a terrific finish on them
Whilst working on my pseudo-GCR Clerestories, I've finally got around to finishing the updates to the overall look and style of this blog, by adding the profile pictures for each section in the column to the right of this blog entry (the Copley Hill Index).
All critiques welcomed - I'm leaning on the side of the pictures actually doing a good job of showing the stage each project is at. It certainly makes reading through the realms of writing easier!
Until next time.
The first of the Hornby Clerestory conversions is nearing completion.
The roof has had very little done to it, apart from removing the beading and other related pieces, and carefully reworking the clerestory ends to look squarer and more GCR looking.
The torpedo vents were then added, and the roof finished off in Railmatch's Roof Grey. The result is as follows:
The next job will be adding glazing - I may, for ease of build, just refit the older plastic panels, bu
It has been a while since I've refreshed the look of this blog. Originally it used icons and subtitles such as this:
However the look of it is a bit off. So I decided to go for a more uniform, smarter look, and that involved using what must rank as one of the all time best looking liveries in British History: mixed traffic black:
Gill Sans type font, size 24, bold, was used for the lettering. Both the subtitles and the main header of my Copley Hill Blog Index - seen t
The next stage in the Clerestory build was trialing various shades of British Railways Carmine paint. I've settled on this shade, which is my own mix, making it up as I go along with various acrylics. I did try Railmatch's enamel paint, but didn't like the finish particularly.
I have, under advice from a few chaps at the Gamesworkshop in Bluewater (where I get all my acrylic paints for mixing up), undercoated the coach in Scorched Brown, on top of a base coat of Chaos Black. The result is th
