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I've worked out how to attach the roof - the old tried and tested brass tube in each corner with wire pins soldered to the roof to locate in them. The main problem I have, is that the bunker sits about 1mm lower than the cab sides - how did that happen? So that will have to be built up somehow. Minor hinge and other detail added to the front of the lockers. The hinges were made from Comet 4mm coach door handles. Vents and bunker re-enforcement added, the rear lifting eyes are in different positions ( after studying numerous photos of the preserved locos ). That might not be the case originally, who knows, but I guess it is dependent on the differing washout plug positions. I wanted a lower 'floor' in my bunker than the kit design, so I've added the 'towers' made from brass section below the 'D'shaped castings. That roof still needs some fettling! The side step castings that are inside the sides of the bunker had the horizontal surface to low, so they've been built up with plastic card. Some squadren filler has been slapped around and now needs cleaning up! The supplied white metal tank vents seem a bit short, so I fabricated a pair from some square brass stock, they will be more robust. It's always usefull to have a good varied stock of brass sections to hand! Not too much now until the main work on the body is finished...

Dikitriki and I had a peruse of the kits to decide what needed to be done, and what extra parts we would require... a lot! But at least we know what bits we will change. Principally, the cylinders are too small - more like Ivatt class 2 in size, so they will need to be replaced, so before we acquire all the necessary chassis parts I will press on with the body. I came back from the excellent Bristol show with a bag full of bits from Mr Griffin as well as a set of Premier connecting rods. Some time has been spent detailing the area in front of the tanks, the oil feeds ( SansPareil I think ) and lubricators ( Griffin ) have been fitted. Oil pipes are from B&Q picture wire - it is nice and soft brass. Sheet lead has been put inside the tanks and the inner sides soldered into place and some of the top detail added. The running plate has been thickened by adding brass sheet on the top side. The boiler has had minor detail added, there is a lot of dimples to drill out to add bolt detail. The handrails have distinctive 'stops' on the end. Somewhere on RMWeb I found how to do that, it's done by winding a strand of B&Q picture wire round the end of the handrail - soldering it and snipping off the tails. Then tidying up with a file. The cab door openeing needs addressing in the kit, the step at the bottom was built up with some square brass tube and scraps of etch to replace the edge on thickness of the floor. The handrails had to be shortened, I had already put them on, so off they came and were re-worked. A couple more sessions should see the body done, but I still havn't decided how to attach the cab roof....wires and tubes, springs? mmm .. Oh Yeah - I'm using that flux as recommended by Christian from 'Building O gauge online'. It seems to work very well drawing the solder nicely and no corrosion. So how does it work? The brass stays nice and shiney, now thats magic! Excellent service too, ordered it and it came next day. Ah well, time for bed...

A test assembly of the front end. I'm still not sure about the cylinders/smokebox/frames/front platform relationship. There's something that I can't quite get my finger on that is not right. There's bound to be a compromise somewhere. The front frames and platform etching are a little plain so I've added some rivet detail in accordance with one of the preserved engines. Of course the arrangement might be different to when the engines were first built, but at least there is some extra detail. Lamp iron and hand holes have also been relocated, and there is still a slot to cut in the platform above the step... The running plate ahead of the tanks will need building up with a extra layer of brass sheet on the top side, not the underside as per instructions. Yes a JLTRT 40 would be easier!

As Heyside will be in need of big tanks I decided to dig out my DJH Fairburn tank kit to suppliment the fleet. This is another rather dated DJH kit, which could be built reasonably well straight from the box, but to my eye has numerous omissions, difficulties and a just a few errors. These have been documented in BRM in the past, but the main glaring error that is often missed is that the motion bracket is placed too far back. This make the slidebars look far too long. It should be close to the first vertical line of rivets on the tank side. Correcting this will of course mean changes to the motion geometry. As Dikitriki is also building a 'Super' Fairburn, we'll cross that bridge later. My first task was to clean up the frames and cut out for the FourTrack hornblocks. There were also some extra holes in the frames that needed adding. In the absence of having any drawings I need to have the body constructed, to be able to locate the new position for the motion bracket, so I followed the instructions for a change and began work on the bunker. Scale Hardware rivets were put in for the step mounts, the etching has a tiny dot that facillitates drilling, why were they not on the other side so I could use my rivet press? Griffin LMS lamp irons were added, the Brighton batches have 5 of these, Derby ones have 3 it would appear. That leads to a pretty busy bunker back. In fact the side tank etchings limit the number range to 42107-42146, 42050-42106, due to the rivet pattern. Even with this, the curved join to the cab front has to be changed to a right angle. Mine will be 42092 ( Neasden ) I think. So with still a little tidying to do and a test placing of the side sheets:- What I've noticed on the Ivatt kits and the Fairburn, is that a good number of the half etch fold lines are far too narrow to get a decent right angle fold. So they are widened with a knife edge file, and then scored with the back of a craft knife until you can see the bruise on the outside of the brass. Then they can be folded. So this one has yet to be widened:- So more to follow at some stage, lots of bits to get, Premier coupling rods, plenty of Griffin fittings, new pony and bogies, injectors andmotion from somewhere. Watch this space!

Work has progressed on more wagons, sometime ago I acquired a some Freightman sides and ends for various LMS/SR wagons. In the past these have been married up to ABS underframes, but getting hold of those in quantity seems to be difficult these days. So in looking for alternatives I found Parkside underframes for the fitted GW vans would do. Maybe not entirely 100% accurate from a rivet point of view, but near enough to be ok from normal viewing distance. 1mm has to be taken off the top of the solebars, which is easy enough with a sharp craft knife. The SR roofs are also Parkside - Andrew and Richard can be very helpful in supplying various bits from their kits. These will represent LMS Diagrams D2078 ( for the SR style van ) and D2097 fo the plywood van. The roof for the LMS van was made by curling the 30thou plasticard sheet around the bars of the towel radiator in the bathroom, a good thing to do in this cold weather. D2078 I shall have to deal with that gap on the right! D2097 Still the vac pipes and coupling to add on. When the weather is warm enough - I have a mountain of painting to do!

Happy New Year to all RMweb people. With a good number of projects waiting for decent painting weather I didn't want to start another big project, so elected over Xmas to tackle some of the many unbuilt kits in the cupboard, which after a little tidying turned out to be an embarrassing amount. The Slaters Conflat A will be easy I thought - just a flat wagon. Over 130 bits ( and I stopped counting at that point ) later, perhaps not so quick, but while I was at it I batch built another 3. The great thing about wagons is there are so many detail differences to play with. So I mixed 8 and 4 shoe van and Conflat kits parts for some variety. They will become part of my fitted train, and I toyed with the idea of putting a container in an ABS Ex LMS Medfit, But I think that will go in the engineers train and I'l use a Slaters steel open instead. I managed to get the ends the wrong way round on the red container and noticed after it had been painted, so had to rip it apart and re-assemble! D'oh! MRJ 89 has a great article on 7mm containers and Conflats. Plenty of gubbins underneath the Conflat A, The safety loops have been added using 0.5mm wire. ABS Ex LMS Medfit - a completely different type of kit to the Slaters, but with a little work is fine. I beefed up the floor with the Slaters 8 shoe brass fret after I had finished with it. Soldering it into place to the ends and sides, it sits underneath the plastic floor supplied in the kit. This adds some strength to the model. I used Parkside buffer housings instead of the white metal ones and drawing pins (for buffers!) supplied in the kit.

Very nice! How many will you build over Xmas Ken? !!

Relocated pipe and removed frame spacer

Thanks Dave - I also replaced the coupling rods with Premier milled ones and made bushes for the M2 screws out of brass tube. The crankpin for the lubricator drive appears to be silver steel, I couldnt get it out of the wheel as I guess it is superglued in, so I ground the end off and soldered the new return crank on - which I made a tight fit. It will be weathered - everything I do is! I also changed the pipe that runs under the boiler by attaching it to the frame cross spaces with spilt pins and bending it into the more 'hump back appearance that it has. MRJ 34 has a good broadside shot of a J39 in Iain Rice's 4mm article on them - which interestingly has the fixed platform fall plate. I also removed the running plate and frame spacer behind the lubricator to give the frames a more open appearance. Some of the valve gear is not there of course, but that is not too obvious from normal viewing angles. Regards

Also passing through the works at this time is a Tower J39. An excellent model, but as usual I add my own enhancements. Proncipally, I don't like the exposed cross head screws that feature on the chassis, so the brake hanger ones were replaced with 10BA screws and tapped out 12BA nuts to suit. The frame screws were counterbored, to allow the heads to be filled. I also added 'C' washers to limit the generouse sideplay of the wheels. The lubricator drive was very chunky, I guess it has to be for R-T-R, so I replaced that with a fabrication made up from bits of 4mm 9F valve gear! There was a big spacer across the top of the frames that I cut out to make it more open there. The body is pretty perfect, but features a platform type fall plate, I think ( and I could be wrong ) that that only featured on a few loco's early on and was replaced by a conventional fall plate later. So it was cut off with a slitting disk, and a new fall plate will be made. This also allows the tender to be coupled closer to the loco. Only a few minor jobs to do to finish off, the coupling rode were replaced with premier milled ones and, the crankin bolts will be replaced with CPL crankpin nuts. Early chassis work under way, also the brakes were too far from the wheels, caused by and incorrect orientation of the brake pull arm on the cross shaft being at 180 degrees, it was adjusted with a hot soldering iron to 90, which pulled everything back. The difference can also be seen in the appearance of the brake hanger fixings - left a 12BA nut, right a crosshead screw. Platform removed and screw heads filled:- The tender has roller bearings, so it rolled away from the loco, but it is definately closer! It's a bit nervy taking a disc cutter to a new R-T-R engine, but 64955 ( to be ) is already looking just a bit better ( if possible ) than when she arrived.

Just when I thought I'd done enough lining, it was the Ivatts turn. It takes me at least one panel before I get my eye in with the Fox transfers. This time on the suggestion of a mate ( the reverse to Fox's suggestion ) was to put the red/cream lining on first. Being wider, it keeps it's shape better than the single grey line, especially on the corners. The grey is then added the next day. Now all I have to do is wait for some warmer weather to varnish her! It takes a lot of patience and care, and it's still not perfect. It will do for a weathered engine, as mine all are in any case. It all looks a bit garish before it is weathered.

Lining is a nightmare Alcazar - thats why all my engines are dirty! They all sound like great kits to build. Lucky that I model the era of grime, so my Finney V2 will be dirty too. One more for luck now the dry brushing is done:-

Wheel rims were several goes with the permanent marker and then painted over, time will tell how robust that is....

I think the works plates are Guilplates - I shall have to ask Steve. All this painting and weathering has produced something, a mixture of Freightman and Parkside wagons:- The Black 5 has it's initial blowover of filth! Now to add the detailed weathering by brush/finger/etc to finish off...

The shiny wheel rims really don't help do they!

After a 'mare with this Black 5 Fox lining I've finally cracked it. I cocked up the tender lining completely on one side, so took it all of and started again. What did I do? Got the white line on the wrong side of the grey line, D'oh! I remember now how I did it before: grey line on first, leave overnight to set. Next day, add the white/red part, this butts up to the grey line. If necessary the grey line can be loosened and adjusted to fit next to the red/white if there are any wiggles. Leave to set - then varnish ASAP! I couldn't use Fox on the running plate, it is too wide for starters, and the way the model is made, the vertical flange is slightly curved in where it joins the underside. That means the red line folds in and goes almost invisible. So I had to resort to Pressfix, which although a little cruder goes on well and sticks like the proverbial. So just the tender, and some tidying up to do do today, and a sigh of relief. Weathering will cover up ( I hope ) any untidy bits. I must learn to use a bow pen, though my efforts on the Standard 5 were hopeless, and I used Fox on that. I keep telling myself I will do unlined loco's next! Retail therapy at Reading tomorrow will help. Rubbish photo - but you get the idea!

Excellent - I like the idea of watered down acrylic white, I'll have to try that,.

Work on the wagons is almost finished at last - just some final airbrush work to do. The minerals have been drybrushed and the vans painted an almost black thinned mix and then wiped off.

Thanks for your interest chaps:- Martyn - that might be a good idea, I was considering Micro-sol to try and set it, so I will try a small sample section this morning, varnish might well be required. Thanks very much for the advice! Hello Mike - I shall have to check progress on your 40! The Black 5 is a mates, and I have a David Andrews kit in the cupboard to build. So it is an interesting comparison ( see Charlie Kings DA 5 build in Dec BRM ) . The Chang 5 is very nice, for me ( and I'm picky ) there are a few minor detail compromises such as there is only the outer side of the valve guide and the motion lacks forked joints and other details, also I don't like visible cross head screws - but this is a ready to run model, so you have to be realistic about the commercial viability - it would probably cost twice as much as it does with what I would want on it! Having said that, from normal viewing distance it is a fine model and it would be difficult to resist one at a good price!Steve has already added some extra detailing to it. Rob - the cast door stops I get from Westdale - you have to ask for them and they are a tad pricey! The brake standard comes with the Sidlines LMS inspection coach, it would be worth checking with Malcolm Binns if he would sell one seperately. Regards Tony

Thanks Martyn- yes I use Hallys cellolose filler. I'm struggling with the Fox lining tho' the second layer of white/red is lifting the 1st layer grey... grrr. I'll have to try leaving it a bit longer.

Thanks JB - I too, am hoping that the paint will subdue the rivets! More transfers, it's the first time I've used Cambridge Custom transfers for the container, they seem quite delicate, but go on well and look good. They are wetted on the model rather than soaked in a dish. Some weathering will tone them down. In the background, I'm also lining Steve's San Cheng Black 5 with Fox lining, just the grey is done so far, which is a fiddle, but looks ok when complete. I must learn to use a bow pen! The Ivatt is undercoated, but I'm not happy with the fire iron tunnel and a couple of other gaps, so a little remedial work is required before the top coat.

Hi Ian - possibly camera angle, they are 0.7mm heads, the heads are fully domed. I needed something there after seeing Dikitriki's Chinese RTR one, that has them in place, so they were fitted as an after thought! The fact that the DJH etched rivets are a little flat probably doesn't help. I think they do make smaller ones have a look on their site:- www.scalehardware.com. Regards Tony

Thanks for the pic Martyn - nicely dirty! I seem to have been lining and numbering for days, but I'm getting there. The Pressfix lines are not to bad when viewed side on, I line them up by looking along the coach. Just waiting for the numbers to come from Fox - its pretty well a next day service:- Most of the wagons are done now, I just need to seal the transfers with some clear acrylic before they can be weathered.

They are Maroon Martyn - the lighting makes them look a lot lighter than they actually are. The paint is JLTRT Maroon sprayed over Halfords grey acrylic primer. Cheers

Have a chat with Malcolm Binns when you buy the kits!