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With a substantially complete locomotive now on the workbench we now reach the point where I usually stall on the build and Linda has been no exception. I have several excuses (and excuses they are), but the main two being demands on my time from elsewhere and a pause whilst I evaluated some Microtrains couplers for their suitability. For ‘evaluated’ read ‘tried to get the infernal bloody things to work’ as the two bogies that I bought didn’t seem to want to uncouple with any of the magnets that I tried. Ah well, I’ve got a little more time available now and some of the actual Microtrains magnets rather than random others, so I might continue the experiments. Possibly with a hammer, if the frustration continues… As I mentioned in Linda’s previous instalment, the replacement backhead arrived promptly and was thinned out to fit over the flywheel and soldered in place – I really can’t fault Parkside Dundas’ service one bit! With this fitted my attention turned to adding the detail – which, in my opinion, can mean the difference between a good model that’s got all of the right bits in the right places, and one that actually looks like a miniature version of the real thing – to date, I’ve not managed the latter on anything that I’ve built so far, but I live in hope. I reckon that the parts provided for the cab fittings would be perfectly adequate to represent the loco in as-built condition (i.e. coal fired and not vacuum fitted) and would probably do for Blanche with her smaller cab opening from 1970 onwards, but I seem to have become something of a perfectionist – even though I probably don’t have the skills to be – so I decided to try to make the best representation that I could from bits of scrap plasticard and brass (I might be in a southern exile, but I’ve still got northern blood!) The backhead, made up as per the instructions, can be seen below: With a few photos discovered on Flickr that showed a good amount of the cab detail from a couple of angles, I made a start – not on the cab though, because the sheer volume of pipework and valves is rather daunting, especially compared with what’s provided in the kit. Simpler things were in order first; so the handrails and vac pipe that runs along the tank from cab to smokebox were araldited in place with the pipe requiring a chunk to be taken out of the sandbox. True to form I, of course, took a chunk out in the wrong place to start with which necessitated the judicious use of a spot of filler to hide… hopefully it’ll look okay once it’s painted! A fine piece of rod was also used to replace the rather chunky whitemetal protrusions atop the sandboxes and the linkage that runs between them – part of the operating gear for them, I presume. Eventually, I couldn’t put it off any longer (God only knows I tried) and had to make a start on the cab fittings. Despite the multitude of photos, I still couldn’t quite work out in my head where everything went or, indeed, what connected to what! A couple of sketches were in order, and I managed to produce a passable representation of a vacuum ejector and the mass of pipework on the opposite side of the cab. Passable if you’re moving past it at about 40mph, anyway. The safety valve assembly on the firebox was drilled to take some of the remaining assemblies, and some very rough valve wheels were made up by cutting some squares from 10thou plasticard and rounding them off. The results (along with the cabsides and steps fixed in place and a little excess araldite) can be seen below: Subsequent to this photo, I also got around to adding the small table to the left of the firebox – I’ll have to get around to making a 4mm scale oil can and mug of tea to go with it! The next step was the injector pipework and the mere thought of attempting this put me off for some time once again – I’d apply for membership of the Procrastinator’s Society but I never seem to get around to doing it – so instead, I soldered up some cylinder drains – I’ve not got around to fitting these yet as I found them so insanely fiddly that the injector pipework seemed like it would be a breeze in comparison. How wrong could I be! Close-up photos of the pipework were singularly lacking and many of the available shots showed the pipework wreathed in steam. Very atmospheric but not, unfortunately, much cop for using as a template. After a trip to the FR on the ‘Back to Blaenau’ weekend, I found Blanche sat in the spare platform at Blaenau Ffestiniog, having recreated the buffer stop delivery that came into the station alongside BR’s inaugural train back in 1982. Clearly not an opportunity to be missed, I started snapping away like the tourist that I was and despite the funny looks, came back with some decent photos of the injector pipework. A comparison with the available photos of Linda in her current form showed that the pipework seemed near enough identical, and so I had a working diagram at last – or at least the next best thing. I never got a chance to take similar photos of Linda herself as the only time that I saw her was taking on water at Porthmadog… some decent photos of the backhead, lubricator, cylinder drains and whistle mounts were forthcoming though! The first port of call was to add the tankside steps on both sides, as this would give me a datum point to work to as well as a sneaky place to which I could attach the pipes if necessary. Bit-by-bit, the pipes were built up and test fitted individually and tailored to fit the location, and a thinner bit of brass rod added to represent the control lever. It’s not perfect, but I reckon that a bit of paint (and possibly a coat of superglue to thicken the central part) will hide a multitude of sins. The current state of affairs is shown below, including the new table on the firebox. In an ideal world, I'd have made the pipework removable to make painting that much easier, but it's too late now. Also, having seen the regulator handle in the Brian Madge Alice-class Hunslet kit, I may have to replace the rod with something more accurate: Next steps are to attach the cylinder drains and sort the whistle mount… and try to get the lubricator made. I’ve attempted the latter twice so far, and if it’s sturdy enough to survive it looks nothing like the real thing, and if it looks like the real thing it disintegrates if I look at it askance. Ah well, time to stop procrastinating and get on with it (yeah, right!). Lesson for today? Plan ahead, as I reckon that that pipework is going to be a sod to paint...

Things have moved quite quickly in the last couple of weeks. This tends to be the way it goes, I find - slow progress from baseboards, track laying, wiring, backscene construction, and so on, then basic landforms go in and everything speeds up (before slowing down again with the slow process of fine detailing, which can take months or years as required). Maybe it's because scenic work is very much my comfort zone as a modeller, but I tend to just dive in and get on with it, coupled with having a big cardboard box full of scenic materials which means I don't need to keep nipping down to the model shop every few minutes. Unlike messing around with rolling stock, there's very little damage you can do in scenery that can't be reversed or undone, so there's no fear factor there for me, just sheer creative enjoyment. I've continued adding landforms, with card, foam, plaster and hanging basket liner, followed this week by an application of static grass of various shades, hoping to give the necessary texture and summery look. Once again I'm thinking back to the brilliant work by John (Re6/6) visible on the member's day in Taunton, as well as the fine scenic work on Ray Norwood's yard shunter. Yes, I know we shouldn't "model models", but if we can't take inspiration from such things, the hobby would be sadder for it, I feel. Anyway, as per the summer theme, I'm going for stronger greens than in the spring module, where muted tones were the order of the day. I really want this module to scream "summer" - blue skies, strong colours ... shading gradually into a more autumnal palette on the right side. Pretentious, moi? Going back to the railway infrastructure I've begun surfacing the first of the removable platforms using Wills sheets. Easy to work with, stable, rigid, and they can be cut neatly and joined fairly cleanly using plastic filler. Mindful of a comment by Captain Kernow about the possibility of warping, I've cut a hatch in the end of the platform which would allow it to be screwed to a sub-base if necessary. There'll be a similar hatch at the other end. This isn't too conspicuous in reality but if it shows up too much after the platform has been painted and weathered, it could always be disguised with a lamp hut or a collection of milk churns or some such. I think the tendency will be for the ends to bow up, rather than the middle, but if that's not the case a similar dodge can always be contrived in the station building area. Incidentally about 15 years ago my wife scavenged a huge number of surplus office calendars from our place of work. These huge sheets of quality card are glossy on both sides and have served me well through many, many modelled projects. Being calendars they are even "gridded" on one side which makes cutting out even simpler since there are ready-made parallels to follow. Sadly, I am now down to my last few sheets of this brilliant medium. Meanwhile, Abbotsbury station (we're going GWR with this set of removable platforms, but the S&D ones will follow) has been fitted into an aperture in the Wills paving so that it beds down nicely. This approach means that each set of platforms will be tied to a specific building but I prefer it to having a dark line around the base of the building. Spear fencing will follow. For a change from the usual light stone, I'm thinking of going black, which was by no means unusual at GWR stations during the company's reign. Finally, I've added detachable scenery beyond the limit of the module itself, so that there's a view through the underbridge. I made it detachable because there are some nice possibilities for photographic angles shooting through into the module, which I didn't want to lose. It's all very rudimentary but it does the job. This all sounds like a lot of work but it's surprisingly how few hours have been involved - just steady work and not too many setbacks, the way I like it. Cheers again...

OK, I have reached the point where I wished I'd gone down the etched chassis route. So I'm going to stop and have a think about whether I should. Have spent the evening b*ggering about with the drawbar. All ok after several attempts to solder 2 wires the correct way round. Body put back on. Binds have reappeared on the cylinders again, where previously there were none. Hmm. I have a sneaking suspicion that something's moving around which shouldn't be. I've also decided that there are quite a few things I'm going to have to do to the Hornby body. Smoke deflectors for one. Filling the holes left by the removal of the crest another. Respray, relining, renumbering and a shed load of pipework are going to be required, which is ok but I suspect the chassis is going to be the weak link. I have an awful feeling that I could spend a lot of time fettling the chassis for it to a) not work or B) cause an awful lot of grief. Options: 1. Wait until Scaleforum and buy an escapement file. Have one last go at the cylinders. 2. Acquire etched chassis, spring all axles and do it properly. Will keep you posted.

Good Evening, I haven't done a Blog Post for some time however I felt like this was a good time to do one. Welcome to my mini-review of the Ixion O Gauge 16" Hudswell Clarke model. I decided to keep things very simple and limit it to three pictures. Now I have followed the Ixion Website for quite some time now and the photos on there were absolutely fantastic; however opening the box and seeing the product in the flesh was truly amazing. The packaging from Ixion is exquisite - both functional in terms of how it performs its function and has an adequate level of information on the box to be able to see at a glance what the product is - plus the overall red colour scheme is different to other manufacturers. The box lid is red and has a technical drawing of the locomotive on the outside plus all the information labelled on it. The box is in two pieces so sliding the red lid off reveals a white tray containing the locomotive securely packaged between a sandwich of moulded polystyrene - which is easy to extract the locomotive from and very sufficient to hold it in place during transit. I noted no movements whilst picking the box up, turning it upside down etc so top marks for well thought out, and not overly excessive packaging. The Locomotive itself; as I said before I have done research on the prototype and been an ardent follower of the progress on the Ixion website - however none of this prepared me for opening the box and seeing the real locomotive inside - its a stunner! Weighing in at nearly 600g its much heavier then my other O Gauge Locomotive I have however I think from what I have seen of its performance the weight is an asset most certainly. Please ignore the odd pinky buffer beams - that was my camera not processing the red in the direct light properly. The model is straight out of the box; as shown on the Ixion Website it comes with etched brass Makers Plates, Number Plates & Nameplates I haven't fitted any of those yet this is the virgin out-of-the-box RTR engine and in all honesty I think its a beauty. Originally I had planned to get the green version, being a devotee of the Southern however after seeing the Livery photos the Maroon stood out as the 'must have' colour scheme. Also included in the box is a nice set of fire irons, coal shovels a bucket etc for personalising your locomotive. there is also some very nice cab detail including representations of the pressure gauges, regulator & reverser as well as a handbrake handle etc. As can be seen the locomotive is set up for Right-Hand Drive and the cab feels very light & airy and just crying out for a crew to be fitted. There is no moulded coal in the bunker however the bunker is about half an inch deep and a quarter of an inch wide so there is plenty of room for adding such a detail. There has been some complaints over the running characteristics of the locomotive - however my example was tested prior to dispatch and although I was quite hesitant I was exceedingly pleased and relieved to see that it ran perfectly, first time out of the box with no issues. Especially important considering the only controller I had to hand was a Graham Farish N Gauge Power Box which produced some lovely slow speed running. The engine is wired for all-wheel pickup, between that and the flywheel I was unable to make the locomotive stall on my Peco Points at all, furthermore on its slowest speed the engine took just over 15 minutes to traverse a yard of track - such performance I have only seen before on 00 Gauge DCC Locomotives. All in all I believe this is a fantastic locomotive; Ixion has ticked all the boxes I feel for this release. And although considered 'pricey' for a ready-to-run locomotive I feel its justified. For example a DCC Sound Locomotive in 00 Gauge would be a similar price - and generally speaking although an O Gauge Kit could be obtained & completed for a marginally more modest sum - it would be highly unlikely for that to happen in my book. Over all a fantastic engine, great price-point, seems reliable from my testing and I feel I would recommend anyone thinking of looking into O Gauge to look at this locomotive as a great little shunter. Now if you'll excuse me - I am off to finish planning that Branch-Line Terminus in O Gauge.

I couldn't help myself - I had to upload a few photos of my latest ebay purchase. This is a model of GWr railcars 35 and 36 made from three Hornby railcars. Not my work I have to admit. Very well made and needs only a little bit of fillering and sanding to complete the bodies. I intend to replace the plastic handrails and install flushglazing and other details. I can now sell the Westward kit I bought of this train many years ago. So now my Brackhampton has a suitable train for its express service to Cardiff.

I can get some this week if the H. Wycombe club doesn't mind.

Very nice Kev but whats the bar for on the end as I've never seen that on fruit d's before.

Superb vehicles, all of them Kev.

During a bit of tidying up of my storage cupboard, I found a box containing a Parkside 7mm scale box van. Going back not-so-long ago, I was involved with the Happisburgh group in the MRC and this one must have been one taken in for repair to the underframe (wheels etc were loose and the brake gear was all-to-cock). Anyway, before it gets its long-overdue handing back in time for the MRC's/Warners Alexandra Palace show, I thought I'd finish the job I thought I'd done ages back and give it a bit of a weathering job too. it being Happisburgh's last exhibition appearance and all that . I'm probably going to change the number on the side as it's evidently off the set of numbers Parkside supply in one of their kits - need to gen up on the right number for this diagram (D1828 all steel) and pick one accordingly. As per the minerals in the previous blog posting of mine, I've used a combination of Humbrol 186 and gouache. Four shades of the stuff in total - Raw+Burnt Sienna and Raw+Burnt Umber. The big rust patch really works with all fours shades together in a lovely mixture. For the little areas where the paint has puckered up, a drop of Butanone soon saw to those and then a tiny dab of gouache to finish off. Rather pleased with this one as it's a bit bigger than my usual 4mm scale comfort zone. Might spur me on to finish the pair of minerals also found with this box.....