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About this blog

Modelling Diesels in P4: Stock for Wheal Imogen (China Clay in the late 80s and 90s) along with builds preparing for my next modern layout (set in either South Devon or Cornwall in 1998)


 

Entries in this blog

37403 pt1

After talking about my class 37 plans for the past few days, its time to crack on with modelling them.  First up is 37403, a respray from what was a Large Logo Blue 37412 (its Extreme Etchings nameplates will be finding their way onto the classifieds at the weekend)    The project started with the preparation of the bodyshell, the Bachmann roof grill was removed (an Extreme Etchings replacement has been ordered).  The Large Logo, number transfer and scotty dog were removed (using a com

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

Plans for my Class 37 fleet

I am in the process of re-evaluating the make up of my 1980s loco fleet,  as part of this it has identified 3 class 37 models which are surplus to requirements.  37412 in Large Logo, 37673 in RFD and 37235 in BR Blue.  Along with 37667 in EWS.  On the other hand looking at future projects there are a couple of areas in which I am light on Class 37s, so it makes sense to see what can be repurposed.   The 1998 class 37 fleet currently consists of 37521, 37670 Both EWS, 37612 DRS Blue and

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

Class 67 Detailing at Scaleforum

After a summer without any real modelling achieved, Sunday saw a return to Scaleforum on the DEMU stand for the day.  The run up to the show was a little chaotic, with a lack of time resulting in my grabbing the first available project boxes that I could find.   This resulted in two projects to work on: First was 20302, The main things holding up the completion of this loco are the glazing, bogies, window frames and adding a cantrail stripe. There was nothing that could

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

The Great Western TPO In 1998 - painting

The TPO rake has finally entered the paint shop.  The plan is to use transfers for the stripes, though I guess priming and spraying yellow is an option if that doesn’t work. So far I have sprayed the bodies into Royal Mail red, just need to source some transfers now to test it out. The Bachmann conversion has proved more difficult, the red has really poor coverage and you can still see the outline of the filler.  I was trying to go without primer (the filler was previously hand painted

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

GWT HSTs

he arrival of parts to make another GWT Merlin liveried HST left an easy decision as to what to work on last night.   Most of the work requires paint work finishing off a couple of resprayed Lima mk3s once the weather warms up, along with adding Kaydees.   Last nights work focused on the powercars. I have a pair of Lima Powercars in GWT that are intended for this project, along with a new Hornby chassis.   I started with a few paint modifications to t

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

Great Western Trains Sleeper 1998

In order to get on with the finishing touches on the layout I either need PVA (awaiting delivery) or to do woodwork (not exactly possible at 10 at night with two small children in the house.) So I am having a play at another long term project that I would like to finish this year, my intention being that by Easter when I can realistically start spraying again I will have this and the TPO ready for painting.   The aim is to model the Paddington to Penzance sleeper circa 1998, as with

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

DC Kits NUA Part 2

Time for the final coach to be converted, I started the NUA a while back but stopped work after completing the first side due to lost parts. Given replacement parts arrived in the post with the NSA sides, it was time to finish it off.   As previously mentioned, this conversion differs from my standard approach in that I have used a Mainline mk1 restaurant as a basis rather than a Bachmann mk1. Purely because I had the model sat in my scrap box as a left over from my 2006 Blue Pullman t

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

DC Kits NSA VHF radio pod

An update on the large door NSA Now fitted with roof and VHF radio pod, along with window grills.   Annoyingly I seem to have lost the roof for the second NSA (I am worried it’s lost behind the workbench (which means emptying most of the room to pull the desk out). I really need to get on with adding a back plate to it...   After year end reporting is done at work, the plan is to convert the other side of the NUA and start thinking about the 2nd NTA.   Happy New Year

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

Small door NSA tpo

Another coach shell constructed for the TPO formation, this time a small door NSA from DC Kits bits along with a Bachmann mk1   Construction followed the same approach as the previous large door NSA with one small difference. I have started adding the window grills, these are being fabricated from a Pikestuff door cut into strips and then chopped to length. To assist fitting the inter corners of the window are squared off before flying the new grill in place. It’s not as fine as the prototy

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

DC KitsTPO NSA pt2

On to part two of my TPO build, with the girls up very early again this morning (and distracted by their new toys). I snuck off to the railway room for half an hour before heading out for the day.   The first task was fitting the final section of side, cutting to length and then flying into place.   Once this dried the roof was temporarily fitted and attention moved on to the right hand panel. One side on my chosen prototype has a different window location. (A word of warning, it seem

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

DC Kits / Bachmann mk1 TPO NSA

Awaiting me when I arrived back home yesterday was a packet form Charlie at DC Kits containing parts to build 2 NSA and the missing bits to complete the other side of the NUA.   Once presents were wrapped and children were asleep, I was on child watch making sure no one went downstairs and discovered presents before midnight. (It wouldn’t do well to see presents from Father Christmas before he is supposed to have arrived)   This gave an unexpected couple of hours modelling, with the NSAs th

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

2018 in Review

The key stock projects for 2018 were: Ø Paint the Cargowaggon pair > done Ø Fit the bogies and ends to the TDA and paint > done Ø Build 4 ex Caustic Soda TTAs > done Ø Commission etched walkways for the ex Bowaters tanks > no progress Ø Fit couplings to all completed clay wagons > no progress Ø Weather the CDAs / build the other 6 > no progress Ø Paint GWT sleeper rake into Intercity > one more GWT sleeper part sprayed. Ø I have also started putting together a Virgin Trains

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

Cargowaggon complete

The final job on the Cargowaggon twin set was to add the transfers, these came from Railtec and are to their usual high standard (although there were some issues). I can’t tell if you are supposed to buy 2 packs to do one twin or if mine was missing a sheet, br there are not enough of some parts to do the pair (it is short by 4 of each door warning message, plus the OHLE flashes for the ends only had the left hand flash not the right hand)   My soloution was to model 2 different wagons, one s

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

Cargowaggon Twin: Painted

As the end of the year approaches, I think there is time for me to finish off a couple more projects. The first of which will by my Jon Hall Cargowaggon Twin kit, chosen mostly because I want to ensure that I have it running for the layout’s debut in February.   So after painting the sides silver earlier in the week, the next job was to mask up for the yellow box around the Cargowaggon logo. The transfers from Railtec are just for the letters (presumably to enable them to be reused on other

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

GWT mk3 TGS finishes (sort of)

After another evenings work the GWT mk3 TGS is now finished, sort of, when refitting the roof the plastic was very brittle and shattered. Trying to glue it together didn’t get a satisfactory result, so I will remove the Hornby glazing and fit a new roof from a Lima mk3   I need to take some dimensions to see if it’s viable, but an alternative approach would be to use a Hornby mk3 roof chopped off its sides and glued in place, which would get a better match with the rest of the reje

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

More Painting: GWT Mk3 window frames / Cargowaggon Twin

Now that the TPO coach is as finished as it can be for the moment, I have turned attention back to a couple of other projects.   First up the Mk3 TGS shown earlier this week, the final job to complete prior to varnishing and reassembly was to paint the window frames. I am not going the whole hog on these (without fitting the Shawplan etch it would be very difficult to match the part green part stainless finish of the real thing). Instead I have picked out the frames in silver to match the

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

GWT Mk3 TGS

This has been sat on my workbench for an age, a resprayed Limby TGS into Great Western Trains livery.   This should have been a RTR job from Hornby, they went through a phase releasing the tatted up ex Lima TGS in all the liveries they had previously sold mk3s in. For some reason when they got to GWT they released it in First GW Fag Packet instead (a livery they never did on the mk3s or the powercars). Feels like a cock up... At any rate I have one to respray (as I did with a sleeper previous

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

Modernising the Bachmann TPO part 5

More work this evening on the tpo brings it almost to completion   I started by finishing off the remaining windows, first adding the 8mm lengths of 40thou Evergreen strip to the upper and lower edge of the window hole before covering in filler. This was followed by tidying up the new door window plates and gluing into position in the holes where the old door windows once were. At this point I realised that I had not removed the old door handles, so these were carefully carved off before add

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

Modernising the Bachmann TPO pt4: more winodow filling

Another evening's work on the TPO, and it is finally starting to be transformed into its new more modern identity.   First up a little more plastic removal, after changing between diagrams in order to be able to work from a photo of an actual coach, I needed to move the post box from the left panel onto the right. The plastic tooling was carefully carved off with a scalple, then the lettering removed with microsol. While I was at it I also removed the yellow numbers of its old identity / NSX w

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

Modernising the Bachmann TPO pt3

The project has slowed down somewhat while attention turns to a few other WIP projects, however a key task was completed last night with the production of the new window frames.   The 10thou frames were cut using single pass, while the 20thou was set to double pass   I am very happy with the results, just need to get them fitted to the model now (although I won’t get a chance until tomorrow I suspect.) It once again highlights the benefits of the Silhouette cutter, cutting 7 identical 1mm t

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

TPO NSA: Modernising a Bachmann POS Pt2

Day two of the TPO conversion,   Continuing where I left off on Sunday, the first job was to finish off removing the remaining window frames. Once removed the area was all sanded back ready for fitting the new windows. Another removal task was on the doors, as it stood I had carved off half a mm from the top of the door (there was a recess above the top of the windows). In order to assist in fitting the replacement doors I have carved off a further mm of plastic so that the hole where the wind

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

TPO NSA: Modernising a Bachmann POS

Thanks to a lazy postman not bothering to leave a card saying my parcel had been left in the children’s playhouse, I didn’t realise that my latest ebay purchase had been delivered on Friday. This in turn has restricted how far I could get on this project over the weekend. The aim, conversion of a Bachmann Mk1 TPO NSX into a refurbished NSA.<p>This will encompass: Conversion of the chassis to air breaks (and the associated removal of the vac break parts) Remove the end steps Repaint t

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

20302 paining almost done

After reapraying the roof into light grey this evening, the work on 20302 is now nearly complete.   Tomorrow I need to tidy up the seepage through the masking around the curve on the top of the ends, replace the front wipacs and add transfers. After which it can return to its box with 37612 awaiting a layout to run on.   I am now debating buying another cheap Bachmann 20 (ideally a non runner) to convert as 20301 to run with it....

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

TPO NUA Pt1

Continuing my slow attempts to model a Penzance TPO circa 1998 (still a lot quicker than my attempts at the same train circa 1947 though...)   The next coach is a NUA, basically a break version of the NTA POT vans (rather a redundant concept in the 90s given that the service was top and tailed with super BG full brakes.   The process is as follows: Assemble the new side from DC Kits components, 1mm had to be removed to get it to fit in the replica mk1 I am using as a donor Cut out one side,

The Fatadder

The Fatadder

37612 - the cock ups continue

This model is driving me insane! I just can’t seem to stop making mistakes, all the more annoying when plan a had been to finish it off in 2000s condition and flog on eBay.   So having filled the surplus windows and repainted today I set about adding transfers. The ends were a little problematic as my black tops numbers are either too big or too small. So that has been put aside for now. The first side is now complete, once varnished there will be minimal trace of the old window. This sid

The Fatadder

The Fatadder


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