Aha - good question!

Plastic cocktail stick - sourced from my kitchen (via Tesco). Couldn't find anything else that was the right diameter - and being plastic I could heat them up to put the top kink in them. The pipe at the bottom is just wire, cut cleanly with a knife and superglued on to the bottom. The little securing brackets are plastic strip superglued to the pipe. Fiddly but finish it off nicely

Looking good!

James,

I'm following your blog with interest, although the period is not rally my scene. The Pacer mods look good, but could I just suggest you extend the bottom end og the exhaust pipe(s) so it disappears up into the underframe? Depending on the viewing angle of your layout, this would make a difference, even if it doesn't quite follow the prototype routing. You'll have to bear in mind that it doesn't prevent chassis removal. If so, attach the extension to the chassis.

Regards,

Dave.

I like what you have done with the underframes. Now where's my knife!!

Are you going to remotor the beast? I have been thinking about doing mine.

Cheers Peter,

Dave - the 'wire' attached to the exhaust pipes will be superglued to the chassis when the bodies are finally fitted so yes will loop up out of the way

Peter - no, I don't think it's worth it for the length of run on Rose Hill! I'll wire the motors together though

By the way, when you say you ordered paint did you manage to find a suitable shade of purple? What are you using for the blue? I matched the Northern colour to one of those from Revell's range but it looks a little dark on the model to my eye, especially when compared to Hornby and Bachmann's efforts.

I've plumped for Regional Railways blue - I think the First blue looks too dark. Ordered all the Railmatch colours yesterday from Howes - I've gone for DB Schenker grey for the roof - maybe a touch light but I can add a spot of black if it is...

To make the purple I'm going to use a gloss light blue and mix in some gloss red - as recommended by John at Precision Labels. I'll document it all on here so keep your eyes peeled - she's coming together now

Great, the recent arrival of custom parts means I'm clearing some space on my workbench and might actually be able to start my pacer soon. Is yours one of the newer ones with 1 powered car, or the older twin-powered ones?

Using your article in Model Rail, I'm having stab at weathering an old Hornby 37 I have in Mainline livery - hopefully the faded paint will come out OK.

It's an original original one. I'll be wiring the motors in parallel. Glad the 09 article provided some inspiration - when I did my 37 I used just a faded varnish coat - but patch painting with some different shades of blue first would have given a better finish.