paulprice

I really need to find some modelling time, at least enough to allow me to number, band and weather this locomotive and hide a lot of the wonky lining, Oh and fit all the details and the buffers and paint the buffer beam, and sort out the chassis and, and, and Once complete I think this will be the one and only 4-6-2T in the fleet.

Well a little progress has been made on the locomotives clogging up the Workbench of DOOM, progress has been slow as three of them need lining, and trying to do this by hand in N gauge is not easy, especially with hands that seem never to stop shaking. Anyway a decent coat of weathering will hide a multitude of my sins, so really when you come to think about it, is it really worth the effort, and boy has it been an effort. The first of the Locomotive slowly progressing towards completion is my attempt to represent a Princess, I have a few more details to add to the body and a little tidying up of her crimson coat and I will have to finally sort her chassis out, especially the leading and trailing wheels. She is missing a bit of lining but I'm not saying where from, I will let you work that out, the problem is which number to apply to her, a hint would be that I have always lined the name Arthur. What I need to do Is order some new numbers and insignias as it appears I have either used the ones I thought I had in stock or they are somewhere in the storage unit of terror? Progress on the Prince of Wales tank has got a little further than the Princess in that all her lining is applied, like the Princess its now down to adding a little detailing to the body and doing the finial work on her chassis (the trailing wheels need fixing) and then I can work on the mounting the loco body onto the chassis. I must admit I have a bit of a thing for big tank engines, though I get the feeling she will be the sole 4-6-2T in the fleet, though you never know.....when I finally order the relevant transfers I will number and letter her just like the Princess. The other locomotive that has required lining was the £40 Jubilee I rescued from Evil Bay, she is now happy in her new coat of crimson, and is slowly being lined out like a decent locomotive should be, I still need to sort out her cylinders and the lining on the lower part of her cab but she is getting there. I'm not sure if she is turning out to be the bargain I thought she originally was, as I dread to think about how many paintbrushes I have destroyed in anger whilst lining her and the other loco's on the bench. Perhaps what I should have done is just model the BR period modelled by buying loco's and stock off the shelf that need no modifications, I mean lots of people seem to do it , but if everything was easy where would be the fun in that? Waiting for space on the Workbench is a locomotive I worked on last year and thought would by now have been a valuable member of the fleet, that is until I took it along to the Wigan exhibition. Everything was going well, I took the loco from my storage box and put her at the head of a local passenger train, setting off on her maiden trip around the layout I drew her to a stop in the station, at which point someone who should have been old enough to know better hoisted the loco off the layout, when I asked what the hell he was doing he slammed it back onto the layout and said "its only a toy %%&)&$*&)" train" the abuse I got from what appeared to be the animals mother was even worse. The net result was that the leading carriage was badly damaged, and the loco chassis mounts where broken, the buffers and couplings are destroyed and one side of the valve gear is badly damaged and bent, but I suppose it could have been far worst, though it has made me very hesitant about future exhibition attendances as its not the first time the layout has been damaged. So there you are an update on the progress made and an indication of all the work that still needs to be completed, at some point I will actually complete some of the projects, but are we modellers supposed to actually complete projects. One thing is for sure, I will not be adding any more Jubilee's to the fleet...... As ever until the next time Happy Modelling

A little bit more work has been done on my Princess, but as you can see there is a hell of a lot of work still left to do

Thanks that makes me feel a lot better

Im getting totally fed up with lining locomotives, I think I may just construct simple black engines from now onwards, easy or what

Keep the updates coming, its looking good

Am I the only one who seems to find new projects to do, quicker than I can complete them?

Thanks that's what I thought after checking my reference books

Did the LMS use yellow-black-yellow lining on any of its locomotives?

Mine is a real rag bag of modelling, a bit of a Frankenstein really, In not giving away all my secrets (not that they are worth keeping) but.... If you start with one of the old farish Black 5 bodies (the early ones with the top of the firebox level with the cab roof - especially because they are dirt cheap to buy) and an old castle body, or a king if you can find them, you can lash something up that resembles a Princess

Before I covered her in paint this was the beast in the bare metal

Trust me when it comes to painting I can walk past B&Q and get covered in paint. I think I much prefer simple black freight engines, they are much easier to make, as for the Princess its a real miss-match of parts, if you accept a few compromises you can sort of cobble together something that looks like the prototype. I have never really been a fan of the Princess's so put off adding one to the fleet for a long time, but after I thought the older farish Std 4, 2-6-4T chassis was a good place to start it all sort of snowballed from there. Oh and an older farish Black 5 body is a good place to start believe it or not. The next job is to fit some parts to mount the chassis, and then work on the leading bogie and the trailing truck.

yes we need LMS modellers

Will anything ever leave the WORKBENCH of DOOM or is it just going to slowly fill up to such an extent I will never get into the spare room again

The problem is with making locomotives is that sooner or later you have to paint them, now even though I have a thing for great lumbering freight engines life should be easy, but when do I ever make things easy for myself? So over the last couple of weeks, there has been a little progress down and the Price paint shops, initially I thought thanks to almost constant hand spasms that I would just concentrate on simple black engines, but when do I ever make things easy for myself? Originally I thought I would add another big passenger loco to the fleet, and had thoughts about an ex LNWR Prince of Wales tank, so one slowly made its way along the production lines on the workbench of DOOM. Once I got to the stage where I could apply undercoat, I thought I would give her final coat a little thought, I had thought a nice simple smart unlined black....definitely no lining as I had seen too much of that in the past. So it would be simple a few passes of black, a little more detailing to add to the locomotive, bang a few numbers of and LMS branding and the locomotive could be added to the fleet. So I had a thought, even though my hand spasms were a bit of a pain (literally and figuratively) I thought if I tried, if it looked a little wonky I could always repaint it into black again? So armed with some severely adapted paintbrushes, I set to work, a centimetre or so at a time. So far I have managed to get one side and the back of the bunker lined, and the results of my shaky hands is more than obvious, but in real life and from a bit of a distance away its not so obvious and a good coat of muck will hide a lot of it. To try and restore a little sanity I set to work numbering the 7F (water heater) that had been hanging around getting in the way, all I need to do is add a few more details under the running plate and then I can get my weathering equipment from the train prison (that is if the Domestic Overlord will let me have the key ) This will definitely be the last Fowler 7F to join the fleet, as there are lots more LMS type I can make a mess off, plus I have to finish off a couple of G2's to add some balance to the fleet. Getting back to messing up other locomotive types, time for a little update on my attempt to produce a Princess, I had got her to the stage of receiving a decent coat of crimson, just like all proper loco's should have. Again working very very slowly and with a nearly bald paintbrush, I have managed to get the majority of the lining done on her, she still needs one cab finishing off, and one side of her tender but she is nearly there, though paining yellow-black-yellow lines on the tender has nearly seen the end of me, and from normal viewing distances I am not sure its worth it but she is slowly getting there (wherever that is?) and I think I am beginning to like the Princess class, but she will be the sole example in the fleet. Well all that leaves is the progress on the poor Jubilee I has to rescue, from Evil Bay, thankfully she is out of her terrible BR livery and I have started to paint her new black bits, but as for lining I'm afraid the poor girl will just have to wait..... So that's pretty much it, I have re-numbered what was supposed to have been my last Jubilee into Agamemnon, I just have to decide if she needs so serious weathering? Hopefully if I get a little more modelling time over the next few days and I use it wisely I may see projects actually leaving the workbench of DOOM, but for the moment it looks a little tidier, and definitely NO MORE JUBILEES As ever Happy Modelling

It looks great to me

I'm doing my bit to get rid of the horrible BR liveries, but its not an easy task, that's the only reason I have collected so many Jubilees honestly

Great minds think a like, I have pans for a layout like that when we move house, somewhere I can let the loco's stretch their legs

This is why I have decided to give up lining for a while

Well a couple of weeks ago, with the full permission of the fantastic Domestic Overlord I managed to add another crimson jubilee to the fleet, by rescuing her from Evil Bay at a very reasonable cost. She sat at the back of the workbench of doom for a couple of weeks while I got on with a few other jobs and decided on which identity to allocate to her, well the waiting is over, her identity has been chosen and her numbers applied. Now this should have been the last Jubilee to enter the fleet, and at this point I should have been thinking about maybe applying a little weathering, a crew etc. Surely nine is enough Jubilee's for anyone, but I have sort of slipped up, to be fair though I was acting on a mission of mercy. I don't know why people keep doing it, as its seems totally wrong to me, but they keep turning up in terrible BR liveries. So purely for humanitarian reasons I found this poor lady on Evil Bay and for a mere £40 I just has to save her, by adding her to my fleet, a couple of minutes work on her chassis saw her running as sweet as a nut, so they just left her terrible Green coat. I good application of grey undercoat, to my eyes was already a vast improvement to the Brunswick green I found her in and provides a good foundation to the final finishing coat. A little work with my trusty rattle can, and this time all the paint actually covered the loco and not my hand, or the wall, or the work bench and she is ready to have her black bits applied, and then lining that is if my hand spasms will stop long enough to let me, this could be a long wait. One thing though this is definitely my last jubilee, and I mean it, no matter how cheap they are I don't need anymore, that would just be silly and greedy, so until the next time as ever Happy Modelling