Rowsley17D

With it being an ideal day to spray paint dry, warm and calm, the black Halfords' paint can came out and after a couple or three of light coats we have this: Still with the wrong tender chassis.

Thanks Steve. It's gone together rather well and better than I was anticipating. The only real faff were the tender brakes which I still have to do something about. For the engine I used plastic ones that came with a 4P kit that I will never get round to making given how good I think the Bachmann's ones are. I don't know if anybody does plastic brakes for tenders?

The motor was connected and all was not well and the coupling rods were binding slightly in one place. On checking with the axle spacing, the crank pin holes in the rods were about 0.5mm out being too far apart. The holes were all filled with my highest melting point solder and exact size holes 0.5mm were drilled for the front wheel crank pins. New holes were drilled for the rear set and opened out little by little until all ran free with the motor connected. At this point I turned the motor and gearbox round so they fit into the boiler barrel. This meant I could put lead sheet into the firebox area so most weight is over the driving wheels. The engine comes in at about the weight of a Bachmann Jinty at 183 g. Various bits and bobs were added and a coat or two of etched primer were applied with the following result. This has highlighted where filler is needed as well as the lack of lamp irons on the back of the tender! The tender look strange as it's not on its proper chassis as I didn't want to add its wheels until it's been painted black so it's on an old 2P's tender chassis whose wheel base is shorter than the 3P one.

Some beautiful engineering there, Steve.

With the slight, if confusing, relaxation of the Covid-19 regulations we drove the 12 miles across the fell to our retirement home to see how it had survived with us being away 8 weeks. A neighbour had kept the front lawn mown which was good of him and as it has been so dry the weeds were not too bad. A self-employed kitchen and bathroom fitter had taken advantage of us not being there and had fitted a new shower room ( we don't bathe). The layout is how I left it but I took a a few photos of the shed area of the layout as the station platforms are under refurbishment.

Matt spray with me blooms every time no matter how long I shake the tin, warm it, spray in a warm room, spray light coats. I use the brush on stuff. I always put dry print and waterslide decals on a gloss finish either a gloss paint or gloss varnish then put matt over the top. This hides the backing on waterslide transfers. POWsides. Excellent advice from @Darwinian Model Master waterslide.

Perhaps a small stool would suffice. I doubt he would be in there very long at a time as I assume there would be plenty of time between trains would he would be occupied elsewhere unless it was cold and he just had to be in the box!

That to me Chris looks much better. Sorry to have put you to so much trouble but I hope you think it's been worth it.

Looking good, Chris. If anything I would say that shelf looks very thick edge-on and through the window. Any chance of trying one that's thinner? Sorry.

A long time since I did anything with the 3P but I brought it with me in lockdown. Some bits and bobs added to the smokebox door and I got the coupling rods fettled so they don't bind. I have yet to connect it to its motor to make sure all is well.

The end processes of two of the latest wagons proved a real pain. I'd nicely got the John Kay PO wagon lettered with the bonus transfer when I varnished it with matt after adding some matting agent. Trouble was the agent was for acrylic and I was using "enamel" varnish. It dried with a white bloom. So out came the weathering powders and a heavily weathered vehicle entered the fleet. The next disaster was after putting on the dry print lettering to a Derbyshire Stone wagon which promptly came off one side when covering with different varnish. One side lifted completely but the other side was salvaged with only the letter Y being discarded and replaced with a waterside one. I'll have to make sure this wagon never gets turned until the blank side has been lettered. The last wagon to be built for the time being is a 5-plank fixed ends to RCH 1923 belonging to Geo Lovegrove. A RTR wagon in this livery is/was available and I have one on the home layout but I have discovered a photo of this wagon No 215 at http://www.wirksworth.org.uk/X447.htm which clearly show a wagon with angle iron end supports and three-hole disc wheels while the models have wooden supports and spoked wheels. The first job was to remove the wooden supports with a scalpel. I had no T beams in my plastic collection so I cut an I beam in half. Buffers were replaced with Lanarkshire ones. The dry print livery went on much better than the Derbyshire Stone one. Hopefully mine is a slightly more accurate version than the RTR ones. I don't know what I shall do with my RTR one once lockdown is lifted, probably back-number it.

Is that one of the ModelU figures Chris? I've brought a number over with me for lockup which need painting.

Being right on the edge of the village (last house or first depending) so we were on our own.

Looks fine to me and go with glazing.