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James Makin

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  • Location
    Worthing, West Sussex
  • Interests
    Music, modelling and fast Fords!

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  1. I remember stinking out DEMU Showcase at Burton in 2006 doing a Limpet plastic bulging demo with a soldering iron, those were the days 😂 I’ve got a Dremel gas powered soldering iron these days and you can get effective results gently applying some heat and teasing out the bottom with various implements, but at the same time there’s a risk if you go too much it’s game over..! Limpets looking lovely so far Steve, great weathering. The leaf suspension can be gently chiselled off and replaced with the Bruninghaus spring mouldings or bodged with a scalpel if you’re feeling adventurous!
  2. My first big show - Warley 1999! Amongst the layouts, the centrepiece was Pete Waterman's BR Blue Class 37 - 37029 - the everlasting memory being just how ridiculously large a locomotive is when viewed from ground level, blew my 13yr old mind at the time!
  3. Haha thank you! I’d certainly love to do a Toton scrapline recreation with the fleet 🤣 I’ve always used the Phoenix post-85 warning panel yellow in all of my projects where yellow respraying is required, with the ones featured here they’ve all had full yellow panels repainted on top of a grey primer base to wipe out any trace of shades below, as annoyingly the old DB livery donors don’t have the yellow extending up the cab pillars, that would indeed be a nightmare to match in anything other than a full respray! Cheers, James
  4. Time for some more Type 5s! 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The irresistible draw of a big T..! 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Joining the fleet today are Brush duo 60021 Pen-y-Ghent in unbranded grey and 60034 Carnedd Llewelyn in classic Transrail colours, modelled in late 1998 condition. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Bulking out the heavy freight contingent in the collection, these two locos will be ideal power for the frequent MGR coal trains and steel services on my Didcot Parkway layout. Based on some cut-price Hornby cast-offs, here is how it went... 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Despite the big jump in prices in recent years, with some digging it's possible to find bargains! This DB Schenker 60 donor came off eBay, the bogie side frames all broken up and details like the handrails, buffers and horns missing - a bit of a wreck, but a good basis for a renovation project! Similar to the last update, the base colours of each model were sanded back and new layers of primer and triple grey paint added on top, having dug out the old Badger airbrush for a few sessions. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr I took extra time to do the masking, which usually helps to pay off in a neater finish when peeling it all off, and any little ragged edges touched in with fine brushes - there's always something that needs doing usually! Once the layers of varnish are added, any little hand brush marks always disappear luckily! 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr One of the most fun parts of any loco project is adding on the decals and plates, and it starts to come to life - having applied a layer of gloss varnish over the paintwork, Railtec's Transrail decals are added, along with numbers and plates from Shawplan, before that all-important final layer of Railmatch matt varnish to lock it all in before the weathering could start. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Many will be familiar with this stage! It's a classic technique but the paint-on/wipe-off stage serves me well, the streaky effect is then up to you on how dirty your chosen prototype was during the era in which you're portraying it in. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Having wiped away the main paint, the residue is then knocked back with some enamel thinners on a cotton bud, to the recommended soundtrack of one of my favourite Ladytron albums, Velocifero - the lashings of synth and ice-cold vocals setting off those triple greys to a tee(!) 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Exhausting work of course - removed from the main body, each moulding is first painted brown before being mottled in a variety of darker browns or lighter greys as appropriate, with a smidgen of talcum powder to add a touch of texture to the finish. Next, the little detail-specific elements can be added using photographs for guidance on positioning and colour, including the ghosting of where the depot plaques used to sit under the secondman's area. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The outline of a spare depot plaque etch was used to mark out the area, and a range of light and medium browns were layered on using fine 5/0 brushes, following Flickr photos to match the effect on each side of the respective prototype loco being modelled. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 60021 Pen-y-Ghent in all its glory! I've got to admit a certain love for the dull ones, as I've said before, these are the ones you'd most often see on a day's trainspotting - just an average loco at the time, and most often glimpsed on a dull or wet grey day at that! The chassis was weathered with a mix of Phoenix paints again - the brake dust and track dirt shades being sprayed on over the black base, before being topped off with some Humbrol Metalcote gun metal to highlight raised detail in certain places, and grey oily marks on key areas around the buffers, bogies and fuel tank spillages too. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 60021 was delivered to BR's Trainload Metals at Thornaby in January 1991, before later allocations at Immingham in 1993 and eventually Toton in 1997, by then already well under EWS ownership. The loco lost its Trainload Metals logos around this time and would go on as one of many to operate for some years in this unbranded state. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Many will of course be familiar with its namesake, the 2,277 ft Yorkshire fell's name having been bestowed on old BR 'Peak' No. D8 from back in the day, before being chosen again as a subject for Railfreight's naming policy on the Class 60s - quite possibly the most attractive set of names allocated to any set of diesel locomotives in modern times. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The classic side-on view shows the giant expanse of plain triple grey - it's amazing how big a difference it makes by taking away the colourful sector logos, the slab sides being relieved only by light traffic weathering. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr One fun element on 60021 was the missing '0' in the running number at the No.1 end around the time of being modelled in 1998. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The nameplates were secured with a splash of matt varnish, and lined up on the bodyshell using the position of the roof panels to dictate the location. Brian's Shawplan Extreme Etchings nameplates are incredibly good - the rendition of the cast BR Rail Alphabet lettering is crisp and beautiful! 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Each cab received a degree of detailing, with a driver and personal items modelled in the leading end, and window blinds put in - just offcuts of card secured with PVA glue, to avoid risk of damaging the plastic glazing. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Time for a splash of the bold! Transrail 'big T' 60034 Carnedd Llewelyn is certainly more of a looker and testament to Railtec for the crisp bright decals doing their work. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Similar to it's lower-numbered classmate, 60034 was also first delivered to BR's Trainload Metals at Thornaby, accepted into traffic just a month before, in December 1990. Having then spent several years as the backbone of the Cardiff Canton 'Metals' fleet, the machine would swap its blue & yellow chevrons for the 'Big T' branding in 1996 just prior to takeover by Wisconsin Central Railroad's new 'EW&S'. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Much as it would've been lovely to have modelled the Cardiff Canton 'goat' depot plaques, these were removed during mid 1998, and wanting to model the loco with the later 1998-onward electrification flashes, this meant however it could be replicated with just the rusty plaque marks instead. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Down at the No.2 end, I opted to fit brass wire loops on each of the locos, to enable the working with tension-lock coupler stock, and still retaining the full-depth front fairing and pipework. This is 0.45mm handrail wire, drilled into the chassis and wire bent round behind the bufferbeam for strength. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr At 3,491ft high, Carnedd Llewelyn is listed as the second highest point by relative height in Wales - and fine name for a locomotive class designed to move mountains! 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Up on the roof, each locomotive received firstly a paint-on/wipe-off treatment to highlight the panel lines, followed by a dusting of dark greys to represent the layers of dirt and exhaust grime built up around the exhaust silencers. 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Since the period modelled, these locomotives have had a real chequered history! As many will know, 60021 has seen a second lease of life after retirement by DB - first moving to Colas and receiving their yellow, black & orange colours as Bustler, before seeing in a new image with GBRf, back as Pen-y-ghent in the now-legendary dark blue & orange. 60034 meanwhile would later lose one of its nameplates, and see its 'Big T' stickers disappear under the colourful EWS 'Zoo' logos, soldiering on in frontline service until 2008, before inevitable long-term storage in Toton Yard, along with the masses of other sidelined Brush Type 5s - who knows what the future could hold? 60021 and 60034 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr I've very much enjoyed putting these together and can't wait to get these two going on some long coal and steel trains! Cheers, James
  5. I can't believe my name comes up on that list, that's crazy, thank you! If only you guys saw the amount of bodging that goes on with each of my messy creations 😂 Big congrats to Accurascale too - reminds me of watching Raye at the Brit Awards 🤣 Cheers James
  6. Ah no worries! The version I’ve always used looks like this - I’ve always just ended up buying it from a Halfords store, in the car paints section, but there seems to be something online, albeit possibly the packaging has changed, so can’t vouch if exactly the same item..! https://www.halfords.com/motoring/paints-and-body-repair/primer/halfords-bodyshop-primer-grey-500ml-709143.html Cheers, James
  7. Well after a night on the Brown Ale I don't think anyone would want to see your samples in the morning 😄
  8. I quite like Halfords grey cellulose primer to be honest! I've experimented with the white for lighter-coloured models but normally go for the grey as it never lets you down! The grey is great also for the sanding/body modification projects judging if you need to add a bit more filler and so on, and it seems to dry pretty quickly too which is a useful bonus !
  9. Thanks very much! It was interesting actually, I wasn't sure what kind of a fight it would put up, but turned out that when agitated with a scalpel that the 3 layers of varnish came off in large sheets, proving very satisfying! This was great for the flat sides on the bodyshell, and the fiddly areas were tackled with some fine emery boards, eventually the entire livery was sanded back to give a complete flat area onto which the new colours could be laid onto. The old filler above exposed again for the first time in 8 years! It's possible to use the chemicals to strip this all right back to bare plastic but I like to keep all the glazing fittings secured to preserve a good fit, otherwise that could've been a good option. Overall, strangely satisfying! It's not the only member of the 'old' fleet that's had a complete overhaul, strip and re-build, another one will be coming in due course in a few loco's time! Cheers, James
  10. Coming to this late but loving the streaming on the 60, looking mighty fine! 😎
  11. The opposition fights back! 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Whilst Didcot was a hub for EWS activities, the location saw numerous Freightliner container services passing through, connecting up places like Felixstowe and Southampton with Crewe Basford Hall and beyond, so it's only right to bolster the core motive power fleet with another couple of examples for good measure. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Joining the fleet today are Class 47s No. 47197 and 47206 The Morris Dancer, modelled in late 1998 condition using the original Bachmann model as donors for a fun repaint project. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr This might be considered a surprising origin! Back at the Ally Pally show last year, East Kent Models (EKM) were selling off the Anglia 47714 bodyshells at just £12 each, and me being me, having a thing for 'Duffs' and unable to walk away from a bargain, pugged away a stack for future projects like this! Here we can see above the printing being scraped away, to form the basis for Freightliner's 47206 The Morris Dancer. Meanwhile, the source of 47197 came from a more unlikely source, a certain RfD 47 body... 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Long-time readers may remember some of my earlier projects, and as the skills and experiences grow over time I start to re-visit earlier things, and my model of 47241 Halewood Silver Jubilee 1988 tackled way back in 2017, that just kept irking me! 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr I wasn't completely happy with the loco - the side shown here was fine, but the other side that never appeared in the photos was a bit of a blunder - it was on this loco I learnt my lesson on leaving varnish for 30 days+ before weathering - a load got stripped off and despite bodging a repair, I was never fully satisfied. So it was with mixed emotions I stripped off the old bodyshell and set to work - a brand new and much-improved 47241 will appear further down the line. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr A complete triple-grey repaint ensued, using Phoenix colours and a custom faded Flint Grey recipe to complete. The yellow and two side greys were sprayed on, whilst the black and roof grey were just brush painted on - a great time saver and you can't tell it wasn't sprayed once a coat of varnish goes on! Next, the bodyshells are coated with gloss varnish, then Railtec decals and a set of etched plates added, before giving a coat of matt varnish - and importantly waiting a month for the varnish to harden - I've learnt my lesson..! 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Now waiting a month between stages can be quite boring, so what I'll tend to do is have a load of other projects going on the background to chop and change between, and then come back to it when the time is right. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Armed with some Avril Lavigne, work could start in applying the usual wash stages, some browns and dark greys to represent a mix of road grime and exhaust dirt, brought vertically down the bodysides by rainfall. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The streaking can be achieved by thinning the paint and gradually removing the paint around the area where the streak is intended to sit, following prototype photographs for guidance. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Freightliner's machines were generally kept in pretty good external condition, so only a very light coat of traffic weathering was applied with the airbrush, a sprinkle of brake dust and track dirt, followed up by some roof dirt and a mix of black & blue on the roof exhaust area to complete. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr There's something delightfully average about the Freightliner locos, at the time I was never that enthused by them - they were normally recently-repainted in uniform triple grey and so for me the EWS locos stole the glory, but as time has passed, just the thought of any '47' now seems a very pleasant concept! 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr My model of 47197 is now set for its new life as a Freightliner machine, having lost its tatty Railfreight Distribution garb and set to take up container train duties on Didcot Parkway when it's all finished. The one thing in common that the machine shares with it's old guise of 47241 is the flush headcode at the No.1 end. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr In real life, Brush Type 4 No. D1847 was delivered new to British Rail's 5A Crewe Diesel Depot in June 1965, and would go on to see spells at Glasgow Eastfield, Crewe and Bescot during the 1970s and 80s, before settling down into the Cardiff petroleum fleet as Sectorisation took hold from the late 80s. The machine would gain the legendary Trainload Petroleum colours, which it would later swap for Distribution diamond stickers upon transfer to the Tinsley fleet in 1993. Eventually, the machine passed to Freightliner and a repaint came to the current colours seen here in 1998. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr One of the interesting things about 47197 was that it was fitted with sandboxes and bogie modifications as part of the improvement trials being developed for the forthcoming Freightliner Class 57s. It was also given the classic 'Crewe cut' cab, with the bufferbeam cowling removed and the front welded up to reduce drafts for the drivers. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Finishing touches to the model included drybrushing Humbrol Metalcote gunmetal on the raised surfaces of the chassis and cantrail grilles. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr I love economies of scale, so why do just one Freightliner '47' when you can do two..! 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The fifth Freightliner 'Duff' to be added to the fleet so far is 47206 The Morris Dancer. There were a few interesting 'namers' back in the day, and this one always caught the eye! 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr One consistent factor between picking these two machines was the full array of underframe tanks - I had a glut of these leftover from previous '47' projects, so it is a big swapsie's recycling exercise here making the most of the assets available. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The Morris Dancer etched nameplates were affixed with matt varnish, my reasoning being that if any squeezes out then it'll disappear under the final coat of varnish, and you have hours of drying time to get the position just right. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr There were little damages and marks on 47206, so these were replicated with a small 5/0 brush, gently touching in the marks following prototype pics - on the sides and yellow ends around the headcode panel recesses. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Much like it's sibling covered here, this loco, D1856 was also delivered to 5A Crewe Diesel Depot, just two months later in August 1965. From here, their respective paths separated however - with transfers to Nottingham, Willesden and Cricklewood on the cards, before forging a long career in Scotland, being based out of Eastfield for much of the 70s and 80s, only really moving South as sectorisation took hold. It would find a new home at Tinsley in 1988 under the auspices of Trainload Distribution, receiving those Morris Dancer plates in 1994, and only two years later it would find itself being newly painted into the now-classic Freightliner triple grey, along with its 'Crewe-cut' cab modifications at the same time. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Having been delivered so close together, to then moving apart and becoming united again under the Freightliner banner, the two machines would go on to have a very different outcome after the period modelled. 47197 soldiered on in service with Freightliner until eventual storage in 2005, finally being broken up by TJ Thomson at Stockton in 2008. 47206 meanwhile, would see its Freightliner service cut short, with storage in December 2001. All was not lost however, as it was selected to be part of the later tranche of the Class 57 programme, being converted into 57605, and is still in service today with Great Western Railway, as Totnes Castle. 47197 and 47206 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Creating these two machines has been especially fun, both giving a new lease of life to a dodgy old model and turning a bargain-basement cast-off bodyshell into something useful going forward, quite rewarding considering the outcome is just a pair of very average mundane working locos that I thought were really quite boring back in the day! 😂 Cheers, James
  12. Haha, very true! In fairness to them this piece would've been around 1997-98 so maybe plans changed, or it was just complete misinformation from the start..! 🤣 I was in my early teens reading the article so my thoughts turned to how many locos I could get with my paper round at the time - could've had a little fleet going in the back garden! Going back to Cavalex Class 60s - may I humbly request Mainline Grey for consideration? As a shock exposé(!) I found that Fox Transfers' Class 60 'Mainline' logos are scaled wrongly for 4mm and so it's currently impossible to produce an accurate Mainline grey class 60 without otherwise resorting to the old Hornby 'Canisp' release (which even then has logos printed in slightly the wrong place on one side) - please be our salvation chaps! Cheers James
  13. I recall reading a feature in RAIL way back when the 66s were new which stated that they could be purchased for a nominal £1 each after the 15-year lease had expired - sounded a bargain to me 😂
  14. Thanks Steve! I've done a few wagon projects on here, I rarely tend to bother with whipping out an airbrush for wagons so it'll normally be a mix of browns, blacks and light greys mottled on the underframe in a semi-random order, all wet and at the same time, so some mixing goes on, whilst on the wagon itself! I'll then often finish off with a drybrushing gunmetal on the hard edges to highlight certain parts and touching in things like the brake levers with off-white paint, so as not to appear too bright! A few can be found here - Dutch OCA Wagons - https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/44066-james-makins-workbench-1990s-dirty-diesels-grotty-wagons/?do=findComment&comment=5054424 Accurascale EWS MHA Wagons - https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/44066-james-makins-workbench-1990s-dirty-diesels-grotty-wagons/?do=findComment&comment=5081008 Scratchbuilt TUA Wagons - https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/44066-james-makins-workbench-1990s-dirty-diesels-grotty-wagons/?do=findComment&comment=4999184 VAA Wagons - https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/44066-james-makins-workbench-1990s-dirty-diesels-grotty-wagons/?do=findComment&comment=4923004 The Contents page on Page 1 of this thread has the full listing of projects but hope that helps get a flavour! Cheers, James
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