Time for an update with a couple of projects that have appeared in various threads, but in very brief form..

Merchant Navy (Rebuilt) 35002 Union Castle

Using a bargain 'United States Lines' as a donor along with a heavily modified Wrenn/Dublo 5,250gl tender top, the renaming side is the usual way... with the usual suspect - Fox Transfers & Jackson Evans. However I'll go through the reworking of the tender.

First off is to make the tender top fit the donor loco's tender chassis, nothing to difficult here, just remove most of the central post of the tender top and trim back the 4 small lugs (used for to locate the tender top) on the tender chassis so that the top will fit. Then I remove the moulded handrails - not completely to begin with to enable the holes to be drilled in the right places for the wire replacements. Also I removed the fallplate moulding completely and trim back the roof by 50 thou.

Next is rub the whole tender top down with wet and dry and fill the holes for the original ladder (they are in the wrong place), Once done it's time to fit the new handrails, fall-plate and ladder. I primarily used a ladder off a defunct 5,500gl WC tender and made the hoop up out of a piece of a scrap set of brake rigging.

Then the whole thing was sprayed and any imperfections filled and then painted again with Nato Black. I discovered at this point the ladder was out of square and had to reposition it and reworked the hoop side with a part from another WC tender - as I wasn't happy with the original. I then masked up the parts of the tender that would remain black and airbrushed it as I thought Railmatch Brunswick Green - it wasn't it was more a Malachite Green (acrylics for you). So I ended up going old school and used a trusty Aerosol Can of the right colour - different shade from the loco, but the whole loco is going to be weathered so it doesn't matter too much!

Once the paint was dry I removed all the masking (for once no bleed through) and gave the whole tender a couple of coats of gloss varnish before lining out could be done. I used Fox Transfers general lining to do this (FRH 4050), I also renumbered the loco at this point as well.

Once the transfers had been given 24 hours to dry out, the whole loco was weathered in my usual way and the finished result is below:

Beyer-Garratt 47994

I finally gave in to temptation and brought one of these beasts and decide from the outset that it would be keeping it's original identity..

I found however that removing the numbers and crests required an awful lot more elbow grease than other loco's!!

After carefully taking the loco apart for ease of renumbering, first order of play was to apply the correct size Lion & Wheel Crests (Fox Transfers - FRH4001/3) to the cab.

Before applying the numbers to the water tanks, I added the missing top lamp Iron Bracket to the rotating bunker end.

After carefully marking a center line on the tanks, I applied the the new number (x4) using Fox Transfer 10 inch numerals.

While these were drying off, I set to work replacing the couplings, removing the pony truck brakes and adding the sanding pipes to both ends. I used Hornby dummy couplings for the replacements.

Before I reassembled the loco I sprayed the boiler and both the bunker and water tank with a coat of varnish to seal the transfers and followed this with a coat of Nato black to tone it down. Once reassembled I made sure she ran, before weathering could commence.

The assembled loco just fitted in my spray booth and after various coats of paint were added - I used Vallejo Model Air Acrylics, she ended up looking like this..

Then it was time for the hand weathering, a fairly time consuming operation, but satisfying none the less..

Finished you may think, then while studying the Book of LM Garratts by Irwell Press, I noticed the coal spill below the rotating bunker, so I had to add it.

That's all for now, although it will soon be time for tales of the final two West Countrys....

James