Spodgrim

I've wondered in the past about cladding the whole side in thin plasticard which can the heated and moulded into a flute. Problems are 1) your tender has just got wider. 2) you'll have to lose any rivets on the tender side. 3) The fluting rises from the outside edge of the top not from the whole of the top.

Ian - Reminds me of Woolston from when we were kids. Or Micheldever (which is possibly a William Tite station) which I suppose is the same era as you're modelling, 1840's

Ian - Encouragement is my middle name

Ian, I tried buying you a 7mm coach from Parliamentary Trains for Christmas (just, because...) but it didn't work out unfortunately. If Chris can do them as kits I'll buy you a couple. And if you live long enough I might even build them for your birthday :-)

I think I've said before I have problems finishing anything. I have half built locos in O Gauge (x2), O-16.5, OO, 3mmFS, and 2mmFS. The 2mm one, a "scratchbuilders aid" for a LSWR Class 700 from Worsley Works has been sitting around for at least 15 years, still all on it's fret with 2mm Society wheels, a worm and three gears (if only I could remember which one was supposed to go where), bits of PCB and, somewhere I hope, a motor. I've also got a plan of the loco. I know this because I've found a photo copy I did at 2mm to the foot, but no sign of the original 4mm one despite looking in "all the usual places" (absolutely everywhere I can think of!). So, yesterday having waited only a decade and a half I rushed in and started with the tender. I've decided I just need to get something built, if it looks right, great! If it runs well, amazing! If it looks right and runs well... let's not get carried away. What a place to start! Bending 4 round corners, bending 3 flares, doing something clever with solder and files at the bit where round corners and flares combine. maybe I need another 5 years to think about it. Helped by the kit design I bent the corners round a brass rod and got something I'm happy with. There were no major issues with bending the flares, slow and steady seemed to work. I'm going to have to check the angle on the plans as currently they're just by eye. I've decided to solder the sides to the footplate before doing the magic bit with the corners as that seems to involve a lot of filing that will possibly benefit from a secure base and happily tacked them together, badly as I now see on the photo. But, I had fun doing it and if it doesn't turn out to be a masterpiece so what, at least I tried. Tune in for the next thrilling instalment... sometime around 2027 at my glacial pace.

I'll see your 3 Terriers and a shunting layout you're building because you've got bored and raise you 3 Midland Railway vans! I don't even model the Midland! Good luck with the layout and hope it gives you pleasure.

But, were the corner plates painted black on both liveries? If not the ends are going to look odd.

So did I get it wrong on the LBSC van? That would have saved me time and angst

The Great Lock-down wagon project is proceeding at my usual glacial pace (if glacial, in today's climate, means retreating, cracking up and liable to cause a global disaster!). I've added a, nearly finished, LBSCR open wagon, but I still can't get straight lines on the the painting which frustrates me. I'm still part way through a Midland van, but I can't decide whether to build the chassis solid or fit suspension which will involve carving half the under-frame away first. What this space!... but not too frequently. So my butterfly modelling brain has skipped to weathering and I've bought some weathering powders (hereto and forthwith referred to in this household as "model railway make-up"). Never having used them before I didn't want to practice on the new wagons and I remembered my brother (who from time to time sends me his model railway cast-offs (To be fair, three of the four kits I've built this summer have come from him)), had sent me some RTR wagons once. So here is my first attempt at weathering. I've gone for toning down the colours and a general dustiness, rather than overdoing it and I'm quite happy it won't stand out on a layout as too clean or too dirty.

Hi Ian, the first one did, but I'm also going to make up a couple of S&W couplings and see which one's look best and work well. It's taken 50 plus years not to build a layout, a few more weeks messing about surely can't hurt... can it?

Of course I've just realised, with reversible wagons, if I decide to standardise on Sprat & Winkle couplings I'll have to put hooks on both ends if I only put loops on the loco... Every silver lining has a cloud

Now that's what I call a hard audience :-)

I've had to take a few days annual leave from work and I've utilised it to finish off a couple of vans. Working on the basis you can't see both sides of the van at the same time I've played with timeframes and put different liveries on each side. The white patch on the LSWR van is the light reflecting, it looks fine in real life. I can also see the camera cruelly brings out the worst in my painting (and transfer setting) some of which I need to touch up and some of which will need the willing suspension of disbelief,or I'll just drive it round the layout (which I haven't built yet) at a scale 200 MPH so no-one can see it!.

I now see what the problem is... I've run the calipers inside the solebars and it's 23.7mm so the Bill Bedford unit was never going to fit. I think I'll build it rigid and use the w-irons on another kit... except I used my last 4 bearings (I soldered them in to the carrier) and they're on back order Grrrr!