Leaderboard

Over the last few months work has been progressing on a 4mm North British Railway Wheatley 2-4-0. 4mm is not my chosen scale but this particular locomotive is being built for the East of Scotland 4mm Group's layout Burntisland 1883. Eight 2-4-0's with 6' driving wheels were built in 1873 by Thomas Wheatley. During the course of their life they underwent many changes and this particular model represents #428 which, during Dugald Drummonds time in office, was given a Drummond/Stirling rounded top cab and the addition of wingplates to it's original smokebox. The model has been built from an etch produced by two group members. This particular etch being designed not as a kit but more as an aid to scratchbuilding. Provided on the etch is the original Wheatley style cab so for this particular model, with its rounded top cab, a new cab had to be scratchbuilt.

The last building is William Fish & Son. The building is based on the T024a Industrial A – Warehouse from Scalescenes. For the roof I used the zinc roof texture from the Scalescenes Garage and for the slated part TX184 = Mixed grey roof slates from Modelrailwayscenery. When I designed this diorama I wanted to use a large advertising board on this building. To create tis one I used a layered approach. And as I promised I would show you how I did it. You need two advertising boards to realise it. Cut out the poster inside the frame. Next step: Put the frame on top of the second poster. And the end result: a layered advertising board. Although almost invisible on the pictures. Then you can glue the advertising board on the building. The picture shows the final result after weathering. The building is built in the same way as the goods receiving office and also weathered, using the same materials. The doors are from the internet. The sign is made myself using Publisher. Although the roof texture is designed to glue it in one part on the roof, I decided to using the method I also used for the roof for the Goods Receiving Office. A layered approach gives you the opportunity to create an individual roof. As you can see I used the roof Scalescenes created for the ware house as a guidance. For me the mixed slates are going very well with the colours of the bricks. I also wanted to give the side wall of the building some more character. So I gave it a window and u bricked up door. And because a picture says more than a thousand words some pictures op the final building. The alley between the two buildings. A birds-eye view of the building Now I can give the diorama a final finishing touch. Looking critical to the pictures I have made an adding a final detail or some final details. As always comments and suggestions are welcome. Kind regards, Job

A bit more progress on the Hall over the past week. Managed to airbrush the Precision post-war GWR green last weekend which went on nicely. I then hand painted the cab roof, smoke box and tender coal space etc with Valejo black acrylic which covered nicely as ever: The copper cap to the chimney, safety valve cover and splasher beading were painted in using Games Workshop colours: I plan to add cylinder draincocks using handrail knobs and use staples for the lamp irons. Also the lining was deliberately left on so as to act as a guide for applying the Fox lining transfers. One of the Airfix/Bachmann Toad marriages is almost complete but representing an AA3 rather than the AA13/AA15 the model portrays. The transfers are the recent releases from Cambridge Custom Transfers and are really good to work with. A drop of Microsol setting agent helps them bed down nicely. Glazing and couplings and it will be finished soon.... Cheers, Mark

Well this is part 6 of this little saga, where I am attempting to make some simple improvements to the Locomotive fleet to add a little variety, of at least hopefully improve them a little. The problem I have (some people say I have many problems the cheek of it) is that lately with the demands of work and domestic bliss, I have had very little modelling time to spend on my various on-going projects. So I made a determined effort to find some modelling time and get to grips with getting some of the current projects clogging up my workbench. So just to re-cap the projects passing "through works" included, 1. Conversion of a Duchess to a "Semi" in post war black. 2. The repainting of a Crimson BR Duchess to LMS crimson. 3. The continuing creation of my attempts at two Parallel Scots. 4. The completion of an LNER B1. Simple, easy, not a problem all I needed was some time to make some progress, and that's when disaster struck, my phone received a text message from the proprietor of my local model shop on Widnes (other model shops do exist apparently). The result of this message of doom, was that I became the owner of yet another Duchess and a Compound at a totally bargain price. Before I knew it the new Duchess was stripped down and undercoat applied, while I decided what livery to apply, that's when I thought I would be clever. I have a bit of a thing for the post war black livery, so decision made, a coat of black was soon. I had reasoned that it would be a simple task line the two Duchess's and one of the Scots in this black livery at the same time, but it seems to be taking a lot longer than I thought. Shaking hands, dodgy brush work, and distractions have just eaten up my modelling time. Still only really the tenders to complete now, the fowler one is testing my patience, but one this is done I can apply the glorious LMS on their tenders and then apply their numbers. Then I think a bit of weathering will the applied to each to produce typical working engines (definitely not to cover up my dodgy lining), and they may be ready for service. It still amazes me when you look at prototypical photo's how filthy some of these loco's actually got, and they were supposed to be express engines. I think once I finally get these locomotives completed, if I ever do anymore loco's they will definitely be in PLAIN BLACK. Until the next time as ever, Happy Modelling

Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on the first of the buildings that will be required for Ripe, with the signal box (a small, platform mounted type) and the station building. After a couple of false starts, I'm happy enough with the Station building to post a few photos in it's incompleted state - incomplete as it is missing a roof, guttering, bargeboards, glazing and one window frame, as well as painting of the two exterior doors and windowsills (I don't have a suitable colour in my paint stash at present). Platform Side; It is a simple building, with a ticket office, waiting room, separate ladies waiting room (this was the 1920's ) and an office. I had been looking around for a while, and couldn't find any kits which appealed, so in the end, I bought the Staverton station building kit from Scalescenes to use as a template, took an inch or so out of the length and scratchbuilt from Wills Sheets (English Bond Bricks). Windows are from various sources, Mostly Ratio and Wills kits which I found in the bits box. I seem to remember buying a Wills Craftsman Pub kit once and using all the sheets for entirely different projects, so it is quite possible there are some of these too. Lintels are simply thin cardboard, cut in a strip and measured to a consistent (two brick) distance over the top of the window. With a large opening at 'front of stage', I have bashed together an interior using the original Scalescenes parts and some posters/timetables printed off from Google Images on LBSCR poster Boards, found on StationColours.Info , scaled down by the totally unscientific method of reducing the image in Microsoft Word to the same size as the GWR Boards in the kit ( http://www.stationcolours.info/index.php?p=1_3_SR ) . The boards were then simply printed out, Pritt-sticked to thin card, and attached using the same glue onto the 'woodwork' from the Scalescenes kit. I can also see that I have got one of the poster boards slightly lower than the other, which is frustrating but not too jarring on the eye. Hopefully once the building is bedded into the platform etc it won't be too noticeable. Side Elevation I decided to add a 'Gents' as well, which is more Wills walling, with a simple roof made up from Balsa and covered with a dried (unused!) baby wipe, painted grey to represent a felted roof. It's the second time I've used this, and I like the effect it gives. The window/skylight is cut down from a larger window, and the door is from the Peco Modern Office Buildings kit - this is simply a flat, brown door with a raised doorhandle, so in order to 'age' it, I scribed panel lines using a craft knife and steel rule, and then scratched in some wood grain. This picture doesn't show it off especially well, but it looks surprisingly good. Road Elevation Finally, the road elevation, which will be hidden from normal viewing, but still needed to be completed to a decent standard in order to allow for photos across the station yard. Another door here in the same style, more cut down windows for the 'high level' windows in the station office, and a whacking great hole for another window which I will need to source. Windowsills throughout are a bit of a bodge - Wills tongue and groove boarding, cut down to one 'strip', with a chunk carved out of either end to allow the sill to sit in the window opening. It's something I've done before, and has the added benefit of being easy to run a blade across the width to produce a slight taper. The whole thing is mounted on a piece of Daler Board, which will be cut into the surface of the platform (I knew there was a good reason I hadn't yet stuck it down!) Brickwork is painted with Tamiya and Humbrol acrylics, semi-dry brushed on to the brickwork after the mortar was painted with Tamiya Tan acrylic - the age-old method of painting on, then wiping away (another baby wipe!). The bottom edges, and the shady corner where the gents meets the wall has had some olive drab to give a bit of mossy/dank colouring. The actual colouring is a little better than it appears here, as these pictures were taken on my mobile in rapidly fading light this afternoon! I should be able to finish the building off this coming long weekend, after a trip to Uckfield for some more supplies, which will hopefully also allow me to get the few bits (paint, guttering and a window) I also need to finish off the signal box too. In the meantime, I may make a start on the half-relief goods shed/store.