ChrisB

Mine seems determined to shrug off various bits of undergubbins too. Don't know if anyone else has noticed but the couplings on mine seem nearly a millimetre too low.

Judging by the finish of various liveries on the 4mm class 73, I think it might be better if they didn't try and paint them and left them like that !

There isn't actually much hacking involved. The Dapol cabs fit in the Lima/Hornby body without a problem or, their original cabs will fit on the Dapol chassis without fouling. The bottom of the bodies under the cabs just need a couple of swipes with an emery board to sit down properly. The biggest part of the job is removing most of the vast Limby glazing unit and putting the side windows back in individually so they sit in the recesses in the chassis casting. The Limby body even fits with a speaker fitted in the supplied recess. Beyond that, it's just a question of how much you want to detail the Limby body. Guess how I know all this ?

Although these look rather tasty, they're way outside my time frame. Nevertheless, I hope you get enough interest to make it worthwhile and they are a success for you because I might be much more interested in the next model!

I do wonder what's been going on behind the scenes at Dapol in the light of all of the problems. In many ways it is an excellent model but some of the errors are fundamental and inexcusable. This had....and still has the potential to be a "good earner" for Dapol for a long time with all the potential for different liveries and with the prototype looking like being around for some time to come. I sincerely hope they can get it all sorted out.

On present form, just wait until they announce they're doing weathered NSE livery and order one of those. It shouldn't be too far off the mark !!!

Couple of hasty pics. 'scuse the masking tape. Another project that was started way back when and never got finished! It appears that the body sits about 1mm or so too high because the corners of the cab are sat on the buffer beam. One or the other would need trimming a smidge. Edit to remove out of focus photo that was no use to anyone..........I did say they were hasty !

Just happened to have lying around a Hornby body in NSE Livery without any glazing in it. And the body of my new Dapol one is being weathered at the moment so the chassis is bare. When I wasn't looking, the Hornby body and Dapol chassis got together and, I must say, they look quite cosy together. The Hornby/Lima body slides smoothly over the Dapol chassis and sits pretty much as it should..............sorting out the lights is another matter though!

To me, a gloss finish just looks totally wrong on models in this scale. Perhaps if something is destined to spend its life in a display case but, on a layout, I think that you need to be larger than O Gauge before a gloss finish looks anything but odd. I also feel the same about black and white. They may be the colour of the real thing when new but don't stay that way for long. Most things are a shade of grey or brown. Just look at the colour of a car tyre. I never paint anything on a model black or white.......or gloss!

Has anyone weathered one yet ?

Believe me, you will be glad that you put the effort in. It just might take a while .....

I wonder if any of the undergubbins will be available as spares to go on my Limby 73s !

WAY TO GO ! I'm not a particular fan of the class 24 but I love the whole concept behind it and think I might be buying one anyway. The cost difference compared to "normal" models is about right and I for one am happy to pay the difference for this kind of fidelity. It's also great that it has been designed with sound in mind from the start. More power to your elbows guys.

Nice work as always Kevin but....... ......we really. really. really need a new kit, rtp etc dockyard crane. Not the easiest thing to scratch build.

Love the pond in the garden. Superb modelling.

REALLY like that one.

Yet another van from the fleet but a better quality photo this time. Not sure if it was worth the effort of trying to reproduce the remnants of the Hazmat stickers though. Sharpened cocktail stick and seriously cross eyes !!!

Some very nice work there. Looking forward to more progress.

A Barnstaple bound 108 approaches Eggesford

I take it you're referring to the brown one. It's just humbrol enamels. The exposed bits were painted a pale grey onto the original roof colour. The dark colour is a mix of tan and black and is added afterwards leaving the light bits exposed. I did it this way so that it didn't look like the lighter colour, which is supposed to represent what's underneath, doesn't look like it's on top.. Finally. after letting all that harden for a good 5 days or so, the whole roof gets a thinned down wash of a dark grey/brown mix. This also tones down the black rain strips which, like a car tyre, wouldn't have stayed black for very long. Hope that helps.

And another

In fact, I've been on a bit of a weathering binge with my air braked van fleet.

Bachmann VBA weathered from a photo

I've had mine about a fortnight but I ordered it about 4 years ago !!!!!

I was pretty chuffed with this one too.