I've finally plucked up the courage to post one of my little project on here. I've spent a while detailing and weathering existing locos but this is the first one involving any degree of reworking. This isn't an accurate model of a class 15xx but more of a working impression, as you can see for starters that the wheel spacing is incorrect.
The main parts for the project were a Lima class 94xx body shell, a Hornby County Class chassis, a Hornby Schools Class cylinder bock and valve gear set, and Hornby 0-6-0 pannier wheels.
The chassis was my starting point which also nearly sent me insane chasing around the floor for dropped screws and other tiny parts! I pulled all the wheels off the axles and bearing, discarding the County class wheels and the 0-6-0 axles and bearings to the spares box. The County axles were slightly loose so needed gluing into the pannier wheels. I did make myself a wheel jig but found that I got better results using the grid printed on my cutting mat to get the wheel quartering. I then set about cutting down the chassis block to roughly the correct length and at this point realised that I'd need to use it back to front to get the larger wheel spacing between the second and third axles. The wheels went back on and the County connecting rods were fitted along with the Schools cylinder block and valve gear. This last step took about a week of very fraught evenings getting eveything alined with a lot of swearing and a bit of wine! After test running it and feeling rather pleased with the results I moved onto the body.
The beauty of the Lima bodyshell is that the smoke box and running plate are separate mouldings which can be removed to allow the tanks to be cut back. From the first two photos it can be seen how much of the body and chassis needed to be built up with plasticard and bits from the spares box (spot the Tamiya 1/35th Sherman idler wheel hub).
Once the main train had taken form I started with the detailing which mainly involved yards of bronze wire, turned handrail knobs, replacement smoke box handle, tool and lamp brackets made from etch detail frets and replacement buffers. I used some Grandt Line bolts and rivets to detail the valve gear and other parts of the body. I also used their lifting eyes to replace the moulded on examples on the four corners of the tanks.
I also used some parts from various Hornby detailing packs to add interest to the buffer beam, their metal couplings are amazing.
I chose BR black as the colour scheme and set about airbrushing the chassis and body separately. Once dry I added etched number and shed plates and a BR logo then sprayed everything with matt varnish. The weathering was carried out with limited washs and heavier coats of weathering powders. Weathering powders are a new discovery for me and I feel I'm still on the beginners slope. Once happy with the finish I again gave the model a mist of matt varnish and left it to dry. The final step was to fit a crew and coal.
I'm rather pleased with my attempt, particularly the movement of the valve gear which I find almost hypnotic. Plus it is DCC ready!
The whole process seems a bit addictive and I have a number of projects in the pipeline. The next one will be a class 97xx, but rather than using the cast metal body (which when I got hold of a second hand one was rather a disapointment) I plan to chop up a couple of Bachmann body shells which are far supperior in detail.
I hope this hasn't been too rambling and I apologise for the poor spelling and grammer.
