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About this blog

Tales from my workbench and progress on my layouts.

Entries in this blog

YMR BR MK1 SK. A quick project.

Yesterday I managed to pick up two of these Your Model Railway £3.99 MK1 SK coaches from ASDA in Rushden for a friend of mine. He asked if I'd put numbers on them and weather them for him too.   Thanks to David I was able to source a suitable number for an Eastern Region example. Here's the link to David's in depth posting on the SK number series:   http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/75546-br-mk-1-sk-coach-number-series/&do=findComment&comment=1143408   If you've got
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What a Wonderfull Wagon! First build of an O Gauge Kit

Whilst in Devon recently I popped into Express Way Models at the South Devon Railway. Being a member of the SDR you get a discount in the shop. Pauline the shop manager is very helpful too. Having a browse around the shop I saw one of the PECO O Gauge 16T Mineral wagon kits for sale and treated myself.   On getting home and opening the kit up I was impressed. Everything you need bar glue and paint is included. In this instance some PC Transfers so I've a feeling this is an old kit-though I may
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Western National-Tavy style. EFE Bristol LS detailing.

Lurking on the work bench have been two EFE Western National, Bristol LS' which I have been detailing. Both were picked up for less than £10 each secondhand.   Inspired by the Lincolnshire Road Car Bristol LS on Tony Wright's Little Bytham I asked Ian Wilson at Pacific Models to make me up some printed destination screens for this pair.    I supplied Ian with the dimensions of the screens, destination and route numbers. In this instance services which would have originated fr
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Western National Plaxton Beaver

And now for something completely different....   When I went to Plymouth in the early 1990's to study believe it or not one of the things I can always remember are the Western National and Plymouth Citybus buses. Coming from the land of United Counties the mix of colours and different designs always stood out. Even after a night on the Barbican down at a club called the Salling School which was affectionately known as the 'GX'.*   At the time I was in my early 20's and owned a white 2CV # wh
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Wally's Trolley...A detailed Wallace Arnold Bedford OB Coach

A good friend gave me this OOC Bedford OB in Wallace Arnold livery for Christmas. I believe it was part of the Great British Bus Collection from Atlas Editions.   It's a lovely model and with the West Yorkshire connections and the destination screen set to Scarborough it is very appropriate and will be used on a future layout. Because of this I thought I would detail the model and it would make a quick festive project.   I managed to separate the bodyshell from the chassis by gently prisin
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Wagons Roll. Dapol and Parkside builds with a few extras

With 009 goings on with Wadenhoe Road my OO builds have been put on the back burner. Hopefully this year will see a new OO gauge layout once more set in Northamptonshire with an iron stone theme.    Some of this stock I've had waiting around for getting the air brush fired up will no doubt make an appearance on the new layout.    Like many before the Dapol unfinished wagon body shells can be bought for less than £3. Mated with a suitable Parkside or Ratio chassis is a means o
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Wagon Miscellany. GWR ballast wagons x 3 and a Ratio Huntsman Ales kit.

Tonight's blog entry is an eclitic mix of wagons I am working on that are currently on the workbench.   The kit below I am working on is an excellent Chivers GWR P17 permanent way wagon. As with all Chivers kits the quality is superb.    It's just waiting for some of Mr. Frank's finest buffers from Lanarkshire Model Supplies (LMS).     The Cambrian GWR P18 is enhanced with Lanarkshire Model Supply buffers and Chivers door bangs.    
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Vehicles for Diddington

Recently I was asked by Alex (Wiggoforgold) of Diddington fame to finish off the a number of vehicle projects he had in his to do list.   This lovely Bedford CA van is by a company called CMC (?Cheltenham Model Centre) and moulded by a company in Bodmin.     I sprayed this with Halfords white primer before preshading the body panels with Valejo German grey. Then a couple of coats of Valejo biege and a couple of coats of Humbrol Clear to finish. Detail paintwork and additional washes.
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Van Tastic! Dapol Van builds continued...

Bit more progression on my Dapol van body builds over the past few days.      Transfers have been sourced from the excellent range by John Isherwood at Cambridge Custom Transfers. They were sealed with Johnson's Kleer floor polish.      The tie bars are 1mm 'L' shaped brass strip from Eileen's Emporium.      Weathering so far as consisted of a wash of Valejo acrylics left to dry then wiped off with a damp cotton bud. Some d
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Two out of three ain't bad. And the one about the soup can!

In the 1980's as an impressionable teenager Ratio produced a number of special pre-printed kits based on their venerable GWR 12T box van.    As far as I an aware the three kits available came in Badger Beer, Huntsman Ales/Elderidge Pope and BOCM liveries *.    When they were available in the 1980's I never built them. I remember they were advertised in black and white images in the Railway Modeller from Ratio when they were based in Sturminster Newton.    However a
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Time for a short brake or three!

Evening,   Here's a few bits I've been up of late-namely a brake van marathon!   Here's the first one-a Parkside LMS brake finished with Valejo acrylics. I tried the pre-shading effect on this model as well as the Stanier Reverse Brake and the Cambrian SR Brake shown below following on techniques aquired from my aircraft modelling days. This technique has recently appeared in the latest version of Model Rail. Next to it is a Cooper Craft GWR cattle wagon finished in BR colours that app
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Time for a brake... New Hornby LMS brake van.

My new Hornby LMS brake van in BR guise appeared in a previous blog entry.     As I mentioned then I felt the curved moulded rain strips were reminiscent of the old Airfix BR brake van kit. Prototype photos showed angled batons. Microstrip was used to make these.      The lower handrails were bowed so replaced with brass wire painted with Halfords white primer.    I painted the buffer beams bauxite to match the body. The veranda foot boards w
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The Ultimate Driving Machine. Brighton's BMW...

Some of you will know I do like the 1950's/1960's micro cars and courtesy of Oxford a Messerschmitt three wheeler often appears on my layouts.   Recently I was researching Southern Railway push-pull coaches and came across the excellent Blood & Custard Southern/BR Southern Region reference site.    This article was of some interest:   https://www.bloodandcustard.net/BMWIsetta.html   It appears BMW built their Isetta micro-car in the old LBSC/SR/BR rail
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The Tailor of Gloucester. Part Two. Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 46526 of Gloucester 85B Barnwood Shed. Detailing a Bachmann Model.

Eventually I've completed my take on Gloucester 85B resident 46526 using the excellent Bachmann model as a starting point.      The DMR chimney has bedded in nicely on the smokebox. Pacific Models provided the source of the  smokebox door number plate. A Fox Transfers 85B shed code plate transfer was applied as well.      Usual weathering techniques using Tamiya NATO Black/Brown airbrushed for frame dirt. A dusting of NATO black was used on the boiler
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The Tailor of Gloucester. Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 46526 of Gloucester 85B Barnwood Shed. Detailing a Bachmann Model. .

My workbench has a number of ongoing projects involving  Bachmann Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0's which will appear in various future blog entries. Watch this space....   Reading and perusing the photographs of the excellent Volume 4B: Gloucester Midland Lines Part 3: South * by Neil Parkhouse the Dursley Branch has always held a fascination since I read Ben Ashworth's Last Days of Steam in Gloucestershire.         Now to me an Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 looks best in lined BR b
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Strict (Low) Machine (Wagon)-An Airfix Lowmac gets a make over.

With apologies to Alison Goldfrapp for the title of this entry   Been sorting quite a lot of bits on the workbench of late and making space for other bits and pieces. I've been off for just over a week and have fired up the airbrush for the first time in ages. Next week I need to get on with completing the fiddle yard for Juniper Hill.   Here's a few photographs and descriptions of some of the stock that will be seen running on Juniper Hill.   First up is the ready to run Airfix/GMR Low M
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Stanier Fox. 42446 of Leicester 15C. Another rebuild.

Whilst searching for an Hornby Fowler 2-6-4 on eBay for a good friend I came across this Hornby Stanier 2-6-4. It was a reasonable price so I thought it would make a nice project. There were a few areas on the model I could see needed repairing.    When it arrived and I examined it it became clear the motion bracket was broken on one side. This resulted in some rather lumpy running.    The other area of note was on the fireman's side the cabside steps and the injector pipewor
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Some Iron Ore wagons and other bits.

It's been ages since I last posted and truth be known my modelling motivation isn't brilliant at the moment.   Before I go into full on Leonard Cohen mode I'll write about a few positive bits that have sprung from the work bench of late.   One of my modelling interests is the Kettering-Cambridge line which is fascinating. Although a very rural line and one which closed to passenger traffic in 1958 the western end of the line was deep in Northamptonshire iron stone quarrying country. Pits aro
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Silver Machine (Once upon a time!) The story of a resurrected Airfix Brake Van

Well fans of Ozzy and Hawkwind will be familiar with the title. Once more this has nothing to do this 1970's rock outfit. (He says listening to this song )   Recently a mate of mine was given a box of old Hornby/Lima locos and rolling stock (Tat )including a Hornby Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 and a Lima GWR Railcar which had seen better days. More of these in future instalments . Some of the tat was kit built including few Cooper Craft GWR wagons and a rare SILVER and BLACK Airfix BR Brake van. It looked
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Sentinel Resurrection...

I'm a bit of a Sentinel fan and possess a couple of the excellent Model Rail/Dapol examples.   However I was given a Sentinel in a rough state by a good friend who asked if I could breath some life back into it. He had previously acquired it in a box of old model railway stuff given to him.    With a bit of research I discovered it was an early Nu-cast example with a plastic body kit moulded by Ian Kirk. The chassis and buffer beams were cast white metal. It was attached to a
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Sentinel resting at Juniper Hill and Corby's finest.

Afternoon.   A few photos taken this afternoon of bits I've been working on.   Here's the Model Rail Sentinel weathered and completed on my photo plank. Nameplates by the excellent 'Narrow Planet'     The wagon behind is a Cambrian kit and builds up very nicely as an internal user.     I've all most finished the Hunslet/J94. Needs final weathering and the Hunslet works plate from NP. I'll post some photos when I've finished it.   Here's something totally different. I couldn't re
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Revisiting a Nu-Cast J15

As some of you may know my main interest in railway modelling is the Kettering-Cambridge line. This interesting line ran for 32 miles and was known as the Varsity Line. In later years the main motive power from the Midland/Eastern Regions was the Ivatt 2MT Mogul and its BR Standard version from Kettering and Cambridge sheds respectively. Nevertheless old timers did make an appearance with Kettering providing Midland 2F's and Cambridge the GER J15.   If you want to model a J15 in 4mm scale ther
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Resurection of Lima BR brake van completed.

Here's a couple of shots of the completed Lima BR brake van from my previous blog entry seen at the buffer stops on Juniper Hill.   The brake was finished and weathered with Tamiya acrylics. Again the pre-shading technique was used. Decals are Fox or HMRS and the bodywork was given a coat of Kleer. As you can see I've replaced the huge Lima tension lock coupling with a Parkside NEM coupling pocket and Bachmann coupling.   The veranda glazing is made from microscope slide glass. The door and
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Preshading using Tamiya Acrylics

Recently on my blog entries and also on my layout thread for Juniper Hill a number of folk have asked about a technique I use call preshading which has its origins in military/aircraft modelling. I used to model aircraft so was familiar the process. The idea is that preshading gives a faded effect to the centre of panels whilst the panel lines appear to have collected dirt etc.   Below is a photograph of the Tamiya acrylic paints I've used thinned with car windscreen washer fluid     I've
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Plastic surgery or how to renovate a Lima BR Brake Van

It's been a weird week on the modelling front. From the excitement and adrenaline rush of getting Juniper Hill ready for the Rushden show and then exhibiting come Monday I felt like some modelling . There are bits to do on Juniper Hill and repairs required on the layout and some of the rolling stock but I wanted something quick and easy to do which in my case always turns into a major project.   Here's the link to Juniper Hill:   http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/70516-junipe
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