In my previous review of the Hornby Railroad Tornado, I was impressed with the overall quality of the mechanism, and the accuracy of the model. I made a mistake in my review, where I incorrectly stated that there was no detail pack included in the box. It was in fact, stuck into a recess on the back of the polysterene packing.
The Special Edition model of Tornado has now been released, and with it comes the opportunity to compare it with the Bachmann model of Tornado. The Hornby model is an
There's something rather magical about Graeme King's modelling. The ability to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse - such as a commission he took on for me, making a Hornby Railroad A4 into a Gresley W1 last year.
This time around, it really is just amazing. I suggested to Graeme quite a while back that an A2/3 could be made from the latest Bachmann A2, and he agreed; he had been thinking on similar lines. We came to an agreement, whereby I would supply a Bachmann A2 for him to use
I was all set to start a new project, completely unrelated to Thompson's Pacifics, when a timely email from an old friend reminded me I had yet to finish the most controversial one of all...
This is a project I first had a go at in 2007, on the old RMweb. The project's premise was clear: to build a model of the Thompson A1/1, Great Northern, from a Gresley A1. Much as Thompson did, in a way, by adapting the standard components of the A1 and converting them into the larger Thompson 6ft 8in Pa
Welcome to the New Copley Hill Works!
I much enjoyed my time updating the old Copley Hill Works blog on the old RMweb (and for those interested, it can be found as a link in my signature for the time being), and in my time updating the blog, I had a stab at making quite a few locomotives. Some went well, some didn't quite make the grade, but nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed working on my projects and was delighted to share them with so many knowledgeable people willing to help
It seems rather fitting that my first actual modelling update on the new forum should involve a locomotive very, very close to my heart. It's numbered one, but its not Thomas!!!
In 1994 I saw Flying Scotsman for the first time, at Llangollen in Wales. I was awe-struck by this machine: I remember with incredible clarity looking up at the black & gold nameplate and just studying its polished finish for several minutes.
It very quickly became my favourite locomotive (and in my heart of
You may remember my Graeme King 60700 model from an earlier blog post - apparently from as far back as 2010! This model was based on a modification of the Railroad Mallard 60022 model. The model originally sported the clunky Railroad valve gear - but no more, in preparation for a complete repaint to its 1949 era livery.
The model has had a change of valve gear, and cylinders. Both sets of valve gear are available on eBay from Peter's Spares from time to time. In this case, the supe
Last week I wrote a blog which showed how I modified an old Hornby B12 to look a little more like a B12. I wasn't satisfied with it over the weekend, so stripped it down today, and started again this morning:
I totally stripped the front bufferbeam after discovering a set of brass LNER buffers in the spare parts drawer. Finally, the moulded (and inherently bad) Hornby ones could be dispensed with, along with my plasticard guard irons (which I was not overly happy with). I drilled an ext
While Andy's been fixing the image display problem (thank you Andy! :icon_thumbsup2: ), I've had the flu and have had little energy to do any modelling. However the last few days I have felt a little better, so cracked on with modifying the tender for my Stirling Single No.1 bash.
First up, I have two plans - and am going to do both and fit whichever one fits the "look" better. First up then, is removing the coal rails from the Bachmann Emily tender.
This is how the tender looked a mont
Today I made a little breakthrough. I modified the cab of the Emily loco to better represent the shape of the preserved single. Note, in the above picture I've removed the horizontal handrails but not the vertical ones - I am using the moulded handrails to measure up my plasticard tender body (seen later in this post):
Now I've been experimenting with plasticard this week. I wasn't happy with modifying the original bodyshell as its proportions are too large for the tender I am modelling
Whilst I wait for the transfers for 62678 The Morpeth to arrive, I have been working on another conversion, this time using a set of Graeme King's superb A2/3 resin castings - you can inquire about their availability here - to create a Thompson A2/2 using the Bachmann Peppercorn A2 as a basis.
So the current progress is as follows, after a day's work:
The original Bachmann valve gear has been carefully remove, and the chassis filed down in the necessary locations to fit the conve
It all started with this review video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEfXm6AS7Sk
I'd finished filming the review, and found that the right hand set of buffers - which are all plastic, moulded as part of the bodyshell - had been damaged in transit.
I was not very impressed with this aspect of the model. Whatever your thoughts may be of the moulded handrails, the model is clearly designed to be a cheap and cheerful representation of the new build A1. I could forgive the moulded p
The deed is done! 60034 Lord Faringdon (the mistake of the last blog entry) has been swiftly changed back to single chimney form, and renamed and renumbered as 60028 Walter K. Whigham, thus filling another gap in my stocklist, and correcting the embarrassing mistake of last time!
All in an evening's work, and I can breathe a sigh of relief. Spare Hornby A4 chimney fitted, Gamesworkshop "green putty" and Humbrol Plastic Filler used to fix the smokebox, Archer's Rivets to reline any areas affe
If you'd like a recap on this particular project, click here for part 508 of the madness!
Why 508? The locomotive number 508 was A2/1 Duke of Rothsey, which is my intended locomotive when completed.
Having received the cheap donor Bachmann V2 (Green Arrow in apple green), I proceeded to dismantle the other donor Bachmann A2 as well. The bodyshell and tender of the A2 have been put to one side, as I have a new chassis incoming from a friend who bought an A2 to convert to P4 and didn't wan
Copley Hill is a shed I am fascinated by, and indeed is the subject of my external blog, found here:
COPLEY HILL
Over the years I've tried modelling Copley Hill in an extremely small space, as part of a film project I have been working on, known as The British Railway Series. The series is set around Leeds in the 1950s, and the focal point for the locomotive characters to meet is, typically, the shed.
The idea was to make the set as believeable as possible while making the most com
It's been a while between blog entries this month, mostly because I've spent an inordinate amount of time sleeping when at home. The traveling is finally starting to get to me! But I cannot complain because I like my job and it pays well for the time I put in. However with the tiredness, comes mistakes, and for anyone who has a copy of RCTS volume 2A, you'll spot the mistake which creeped into my modelling this month in about three paragraphs time.
I choose to relate it here, because in a no
What's this?! A first look at a new Hornby product?!
A brand new, DCC fitted, Gresley W1 4-6-4. Simply stunning.
Okay, hands in the air - it's not technically a new product, direct from Hornby.
What it is, is a commission build by Graeme King for me, to produce a W1 by extending the Hornby Railroad Mallard as a base.
The great advantage of using 60022 was its DCC fitted chassis - which, straight out of the box, runs perfectly.
Taking this model out of the box and pl
It was about mid-August 2009 before I could do any more work on the baseboards. Part of the problem was funding. Being a student, I don't have much money! However after three weeks working as a fencing Instructor for a Kids Camp (thats the sword fighting variety and not the white picket fencing variety) I was ready to start work once more!
Scenic matts were ordered from Noch, and stuck own with diluted PVA glue after being cut to size and shape. I tightened the matts at the edges with a nail
The Clerestory project continues apace, with the painting and finishing of one more coach, and a third into the carmine livery. I still have the roof to do on the third one, whilst the second has had its roof (with seven, not eight vents!) fitted, and I am awaiting the necessary transfers to finish the first two off before weathering.
A little change I made to the second coach (but not the third), was the implementation of a light coloured undercoat - in this case, a standard Games
A bit of finishing off prior to weathering. Firstly, the front steps on the running plate have been removed. 60508 didn't have these steps, and it was a timely post from one Tony Wright on another thread which spurred me into removing them (particularly as 60508 is photographed in this livery quite clearly without them). Lining out was also added to the bufferbeam, along with gluing down the buffers, hook and coupling and vacuum pipe.
EDIT: I should point out that 60508 is the only A2/1 whic
An alternative title for this blog suggested was "Simon is mental Part 508".
So, what do we have here?
I have a boatload of older Bachmann V2 bodyshells. I bought up a job lot some years back to nab spare parts from. This particular one has sat on one of my shelves for about six years now. I decided to have a go at cutting the smokebox off, with the original intention of adding a Hornby A3 smokebox and boiler later on. However, curiosity got the better of me.
The resin components you
Photograph is copyright of Simon Gott and replicated here for educational purposes only.
Lone Wolf
Oh dear. What have I done. I've taken on yet another project! (I have in fact taken on about five projects, one of which was the Ivatt Atlantic, but more on that later).
The above model will soon be in my possession and will be the subject of an excercise to see if I can produce a more reasonable P2 model for my personal collection and use in my future stocklist for my KX-Leed
How else to describe this particular conversion, but "emotional". There's a lot of emotion behind this one.
It all began on a family holiday to Canada. We had met up with my Uncle Edwin and Aunty Grace in Toronto, and taken a variety of transport to arrive in Quebec. Saint-Constant, specifically. Uncle Edwin, or "Uncle Ed", wasn't actually relative by blood, he had married my maternal grandmother's younger sister, but he had always been a close member of the family, and such a wonderfully in
I bought this wonderful model for a small sum at the Loughborough Model Centre recently. It's the latest Hornby Railroad Black Five, in an LMS livery. The model itself is forty pounds cheaper than the super detailed model, but I don't think the detail is that much worse, in all honesty.
I intend to modify this model into 45249 - one of the Black Fives seen in and around the Leeds area in the 60s. There's a photo on Flikr - found here. A fabulous photograph, and I hope to make the black five
Okay, we can all admit it. There is at least one, or two, locomotives that we all want to see on our layouts. There's no doubting that everyone strives for authenticity when building their locomotive stud, but there's always one particular engine which people want "just because". Mallard is one of these for me, though happily as a regular performer on the King's Cross to Leeds expresses in the 1940s and 50s, I have no problem with justifying putting 60022 amidst the A4s in my planned stocklist f
We will start with the latter. I am planning a new layout, on which I can start to actually run my collection of locomotives and rolling stock, so Copley Hill's demise was assured really. I needed the space for a workbench on which to build my models, paint and weather them, and whilst the Copley Hill set was a poor trainset, it works very well as storage and a workbench (see above).
I've retained the shed for the purposes of photographing my collection and modelling, but all of the points,
