Afternoon one and all and complements of the season to you. Hope Santa brought you lots of lovely modelling stuff.
Now the mince pies have been eaten and the turkey mostly digested, I've turned my attention to the next modelling project. Let's face it, there's not much on the telly to be distracted by. Not that I watch much of it anyway...
So, having acquired a second hand pannier body off eBay for a fiver, I've had the perfect opportunity to build one of the rather splendid High Level
Pretty much finished for now. Needs some grills adding behind the guards compartment. I've got some somewhere but do you think I can find them?
May have to add handrail to the guards door yet and it needs a driver hence the tail lamp for now but otherwise done.
Toned down the paintwork with lifecolor acrylic washes removed immediately with moistened cotton bud.
Coupled with 1454 (though I see I've chipped a bit of paint off some of the pipe work) I have to say I'm pleased with how
Evening all
I've taken advantage of the rotten weather to have a very relaxing weekend indoors making progress with the auto trailer.
When I last posted back in January, it had been stripped of all paint and had the detailing added from the Dart kit.
Roll forward some 10 months (yikes) and things have moved on a bit. The body finally got sprayed all over carmine and I've fitted the Lazerglaze windows from Shawplan. Funny thing was one side needed virtually every piece of glass fil
Having had some time off, I've been trying to get finished a number of projects that have stalled at various states of completion.
With Wheal Elizabeth's forthcoming appearance at Warley, I've made a bit of an effort to detail the pair of Hawksworth coaches that form the WR set.
These use the Masokits etches for the sprung bogies, corridor connections and miscellaneous brake gear. I got to the point of wondering whether all the faff was worth the effort, but then I remembered it was P4
Fuelled with post Scaleforum modelling mojo boosters, I've been having a play with the Heljan AC Railbus. Conversion is straight as per the EMGS manual sheet using Branchlines 12mm wheels. No real problems though I should have taken a photo of all the gubbins underneath before I took it all apart.
Once I'd worked out why I needed to put insulated wheels on both sides (ahem), it ran really well...
Also fitted with a driver and a couple of passengers. It'll look very nice on Wheal Elizab
Just a quickie. Have been experimenting with Artex, PVA glue, paint, fixative and coloured foam.
The results are shown below. Not quite to the standards of Gordon Gravett ( in fact nowhere near them), but happy with my first attempts. I shall have these, along with one of Clevedon's boards at Expo EM this weekend. Come and say hello. I'll be the one covered in flock.
Evening all
One of the nice things about our hobby is we can decide to do something completely different if the mood takes us, so in a break from layout building I decided I needed to build some whitemetal wagons.
A fruit C/D and Southern Open from David Geen and a diag AA16 (I think) brake van) from D&S I've had lurking in the cupboard for a while.
As they're all P4 I decided they needed some form of compensation or springing. In the end the brake van is compensated using the
With 1454 finished (don't panic, we have 2 independent witnesses confirming it was indeed in unlined green with the early emblem), I'm now working on the Autotrailer.
I reckon I bought this when I was about 13, which is a long, long time ago. I know there's a new RTR model in the pipeline but that's not the point. I really enjoy updating all the old models in my collection. In some cases it's quite poignant to see what I managed to achieve as a teenager (or not as was frequently the case) a
Just a quickie. Happy to report Minion has been successfully delivered to Wheal Elizabeth and will be on shed this coming Saturday at the Sodbury Vale show In Yate. It will get toned down a bit when I can bear to get the airbrush out but at the moment it's too cold to stay in the garage for long. Excuse the lack of backscene. I've only put the layout up to track test everything.
Am also playing with a couple of Hawksworth coaches. I've done nothing other than re wheel at the moment bu
Have had a bit of a modelling spurt and finished off 1454. Should be released to the operating department for Wheal Elizabeth's forthcoming appearance at the Sodbury Vale show on 31 January (though what the engine is doing in that part of Cornwall is anyone's guess...). Minion will be making it debut too. Hmm note to self, must build a new stock box.
Anyhoo, the numberplates and smokebox plates were attached with Johnsons Klear and the final details (buffers, couplings, balance weigh
Just a brief update, though it doesn't quite convey the journey since the last update.
Over the festive period I made progress with the engine. I had decided for ease to finish the loco in unlined black so duly primed it no bother using sprayed enamel. However when I applied my usual satin black from a Halfords aerosol disaster struck. The paint blistered and peeled almost immediately. I worried that I'd somehow damaged the body underneath so there was an anxious 24 hours until I was able t
Things have progressed a bit to the point where I'm getting ready for painting the loco and chassis.
I've spent a while detailing the body with an assortment of bits and pieces, wire and rod. I think we have a presentable representation. All I need now is a bit of good weather over the Christmas holiday period and we should be in business.
Obviously the auto tank has to pull something so I've made a start on my old Mainline auto trailer. It must be at least 32 years old... I've got a D
Don't know if I was inspired by Dave at Scaleforum, but next on the workbench is a long planned conversion of an Airfix 14xx/48xx I've had for about 30 years.
I'm not going to describe every last detail or provide lots of updates because there are other more worthy examples on this forum elsewhere.
Needless to say all the usual components are there: High Level chassis kit, Mainly Trains body detailing kit and a few other bits and pieces.
So far I've built the chassis as per the in
In the end, we decided Minion was a better name than Munchkin and the loco has emerged from the finishing shop for running in. I daresay it will get grubbier after such exertions.
Happy that it seemes to work ok. The pickups are going to give a bit of grief but I wanted to avoid using top bearing wipers as recommended in the kit. Time will tell if I have to revert to this system.
Saddle tank is full of lead which helps. Nameplates are from Narrow Planet and the works plates something I
Two new engines were released to traffic at last week's Scaleforum show so I took a few pics.
We had a bit of a blast. I must spend less time preparing it for shows in the future as it ran better than normal. Hey ho...
30719 and Geof's Sentinel which was sporting some temporary nameplates.
We're still debating what colour might suit it best. Yellow?
Speaking of which, must go and see how Munchkin is doing.
After a very brief update the other day, I thought I'd post some progress photos of 'Munchkin'. I haven't quite decided how to work blue into the colour scheme. I like the idea of a blue background to the nameplate though.
I decided that I should at least try to stay vaguely in the land of semi-plausible, so decided to line out some of the panels using the rather excellent Fox lining transfers. I gave the initial coat of yellow a few coats of Klear first which has darkened the yellow down q
Just a quick update. Crew fitted to the T9 and smoke box plate fitted from Fox. I also found the screw coupling and am quite happy with the end results as per the photos. It hauls 2 coaches just... I'll need to make sure layout is absolutely level though!
Have put Wheal Elizabeth up and tested it ready for Scaleforum next weekend. There were a couple of running repairs but these have been fixed. Do come and say hello if you're at the show.
Now, I can start to think about
As Wheal Elizabeth is about to make an previously unplanned exhibition appearance at Scaleforum, I thought I'd better try and get the T9 ready for service. Have given it a light touch of weathering with the airbrush, applied smoke box number and route disks and given it a couple of coats of Dullcote. Just needs the crew, the front coupling (I had it here somewhere) and the shed code plate. I am rather pleased with how this has turned out. Oh and it runs too, though it hasn't pulled a train in an
Having a break from modelling this week and walking the Two Moors Way long distance footpath instead!
I've a non railway blog here:
http://twomoorswayadventure.wordpress.com
As my son has had a friend over for a sleepover (curious expression that, very little sleep seemed to occur) I've spent the best part of the day in the modelling room listening to the mayhem downstairs and intervening as and when critical mass approached.
The outcome is some significant progress on the Peckett. I had done quite a bit since the last post, but things are moving along very nicely.
The wheels have been fitted and quartered. All works so happy days.
The t
Evening all
With the T9 virtually complete, at least for now until I can buy some number plates, I've turned my attention to the next project. This is a Peckett 0-4-0ST E class, a couple of which were acquired by the GWR via the Swansea Harbour Trust. MIne's going to be an industrial version for use as the works shunter on Wheal Elizabeth (at least for now anyhow). Haven't decided on a name yet. Might be Munchkin, might be Minion.
The kit itself is from CSP Marketing and is going
Wow. Just worked out this is post no 100.
It's been a while since the last one but that's just because it's taken so long to finish off the painting and lining. I've used Fox transfers again which I have to say are absolutely excellent just time consuming. Looking at the photos I've realised that the bottom of the splashers have a single red line to be added.
I really struggled to get the numbers straight for some reason. They're still not right and I'm probably going to have to take t
Wheal Elizabeth is up at ally Pally this weekend.
Unusually we ran air brake stuff first thing, then gradually worked towards steam by the end of the day. Might do the opposite tomorrow. Do pop by and say hello if you're passing.
Finally got round to fitting a route disk to the 02 too.
Afternoon all
It's been a while since my last instalment, partly due to exhibiting requirements and prep taking up the limited amount of modelling time I have.
Clevedon will be out and about at the EM skills day next Saturday albeit in a slightly stripped down form to show the 'naked' foam baseboards.
In the meantime, I have been making slow progress with the T9 watercart tender. I'm discovering that you can't really rush a Finney kit. There are quite a large number of parts that have to b
It's been quite a successful week all in all. The Weston show went well and I've made steady progress with the T9.
The body has been united with the chassis for the first time. A tiny amount of fettling was required but all fitted where it was supposed to. The frames sit inside the cab and have to fit on the inside of the splashers which are obviously between the frames and the wheels. I must admit to slight trepidation when I looked at some of the clearances involved but it all fits and credit
