TALES FROM MY WORKBENCH OF DOOM

[paulprice]

Well I have a layout called Foster Street, which has found its way on to the exhibition circuit, I'm still not sure how it happened, but its been unleashed on the world and honestly its not my fault.

 

Anyway heading back from our appearance and the York show, I was thinking about all the little jobs that we listed at the exhibition that needed doing and made a resolution to get them all finished off before our next outing.

 

The problem was by the time I got home, I had been thinking, our next outing is months away and none of the jobs seem to be big ones so I thought what would be the harm in me leaving them for a while and concentrating on some of the many projects that I have on the go at the moment. I mean what could possibly go wrong?

[paulprice]

My layout is based in the Northwest and is firmly in LMS territory, and therefore all the stock is LMS based, well most of it anyway. Now I like to think that I am prudent, though people say I'm as tight as two coats of paint, and as such I never throw things away.

 

Like most N gauge modellers we tend to keep some of our older models, I mean if they still run where is the harm, the problem is though as standards improve we tend to keep older , models hid away especially those older Black 5 models. In the past I have used a couple of these to produce an un-rebuilt Patriot and a couple of Scots, well one of the Scots needs to be finished.

 

Anyway sitting on the work bench occasionally being worked on, are a couple of old Black 5's one had suffered the indignity of loosing most of its valve gear, and the other had suffered broken cylinders. The question was what could I do with them?

Edited April 23, 2017 by paulprice

[paulprice]

SO before I go any further those of you of a delicate modelling disposition be warned, you may find the following very disturbing, and if you have nightmares its not my fault.

 

So on the go at the moment I have 3 victims......

Victim 1

I always fancied having a go at producing a Black 5 with a self weighing tender, so I thought is I can reattach the cylinders and do a little work on the body (actually a lot of work on the body) I could turn it into a useful loco to add to the fleet. I cant believe how much abuse this loco must have received in the past, I know I did not do it, honest.

There is a lot of metal to be removed, and eventually she will be repainted in a more respectable black coat rather than the terrible Farish Maroon, as a child I thought it was great, but as you get older.....Now the cylinders have been reattached I need to see if the chassis will work?

 

Victim 2

This locomotive lost all its valve gear in a catastrophic accident, it was so bad that I have blocked it totally from my mind, but I'm thinking something can still be salvaged from the wreck. So I got to thinking maybe I could turn this into a Caprotti  Black 5. Now before you say it, I know I model LMS only but I am stretching history a little so that the first ones were built a few weeks before the end of the LMS that's good enough for me.

As you can see there is not a lot else I can remove from the body so, now like Steve Austen, its time for the rebuild to begin, well eventually when I get round to it.

 

Victim 3

Well just break away from Black 5's though not entirely, I was looking at an old body and thinking to myself what can I do with that. After a bit of serious armchair modelling I thought if I took parts of a Crab body I could maybe produce a Stanier mogul? So far I have done a lot of work on the body, and managed to sort of mate it to a Std 4 chassis, I mean its the only good thing you can do with a BR locomotive.

Mated to a white metal fowler tender from the stock box and I may get away with it?

 

 

Edited April 23, 2017 by paulprice

[paulprice]

Well I'm not sure how it happened but I managed to get a bit of modelling time on Sunday, so being the diligent hardworking modeller that I am, I should have spent it on the on-going locomotive project (see previous posts).

 

However being the modeller that I am, wasted, sorry used the time on a couple of other little projects I sort of have on an off and on basis. Now like some modellers I have a bit of a thing for large tank engines, and I have a couple of examples in the fleet. What tends to happen with my locomotives is that the moment I complete building one, lo and behold one of the manufactures release one.

 

So with this in mind I thought if I get a move on and complete a couple, one of the manufacturers will release one, then I can scrap my version and replace it with a nice new one. Now I have had the following in the fleet for a while, in a very useful black livery, I know they should have been in lined black, but I never quite got round to it.

 

Anyway I plucked up the courage and thought that if I made a total hash of it, repainting would not be such a big thing, so here are the results so far, excuse the horrific close ups.

 

Fowler 4P

The lining on this locomotive is more advanced of the two locomotives I'm working on, you can see the effects of my shaking hands and dodgy work but from a distance and if you turn your back, it looks a lot better. Still the front of the tank lining to finish, err start but I shouldn't be saying this is it worth it as in theory I will be the only one who notices. I really need to do something about the terrible trailing truck, so I think I will add it to the job list, oh hang on a minute its already on there

 

Stanier 4P

This one is not in such and advanced state as the Fowler, still progressing through the works, which is all that matters, again the trailing bogie needs to be replaced. Like the Fowler it looks better from a distance, still when the lining is complete a good coat of grime wont hurt will it?

 

So there you are another two part finished projects on the go, so really although it could be said that progress has been made at all, am I the only one who just seems to generate part-completes?

 

 

 

[Atso]

Great work Paul! But why the update here and not the 'other place' as well!?   

Edited April 26, 2017 by Atso

[paulprice]

Great work Paul! But why the update here and not the 'other place' as well!?   

 

 

Atso, the other place will not escape my madness......trust me

[Kylestrome]

Just a thought, if this is the Workbench Of Doom shouldn't your name be Vincent Price?

[paulprice]

Just a thought, if this is the Workbench Of Doom shouldn't your name be Vincent Price?

 

Funny you should say that, my Mother wanted to call me that when I was born, until my Father after an extreme effort finally got my Mother to realise the implications, pity it did not work for my sister FISHER

[paulprice]

Well not much progress has been made on the Black 5 hybrids, but I have managed to get the repaired chassis that are under the Caprotti and self weighing tender versions are now working, and despite their age are running really well.

 

That's what worries me this is almost progress, which means the projects have not come to a standstill, so I guess I will have to do get a move on and make some real progress

[paulprice]

In a break from operating at the York show the other week I actually re-joined the N gauge society, I must admit I had an ulterior motive for this...it was to get my hands on this little lot.

I have been after the Stove R's for a few years but added them to the "will get round to one day" list, I had seen a few for sale at Exhibitions and on Evil bay, but I always backed off at the prices wanted. It amazes me how we modellers will willingly pay more sometimes than the actual cost of going to the source of supply?

 

Anyway it thought the stock needed a little weathering so its place on the workbench was bumped up several places and they all got a spot of weathering. I still have the under floors to apply a little grime too but at least its a start, and the continuation of more part finished modelling.

Well I suppose I better get some modelling done......well at some point

 

 

 

[paulprice]

Well a little progress has been made on the tank locomotives, well at least to the lining but there are a few areas of the lining that still need working on, or even completing.

 

The problem is there is always too much to do and far too little time to do it in, my problem is that when I get a little time to work on the projects I seem to find new projects to spend time on.

I really must get round to doing something about those training wheels, hey another project created, or is it just the original one half completed?

Still two more useful engines are getting closer to completion, which means they may get a little more running, that's if I get round to working on the trailing bogies.

[paulprice]

Well like most sensible modellers, I had a little spare time this week, so I managed to get the layout back up so I could do some serious modelling (well playing trains).

 

I also took a little time to review the situation, and focus my upcoming modelling time over the next few days so I can make the best use of it.

 

So what was the result of this review....... well I think the Caprotti black 5 will be parked up for a while (I have another idea for the chassis), the Stanier Mogul, will still progress as will the Black 5 with the self-weighing tender. The Fowler and Stanier tanks just need a little bit of work on the final lining, maybe a spot of weathering and lamps fitting and they will join the fleet.

 

So in theory I have created more time to spend on projects so I may get some to completion, proud of myself I decided to reward my ingenious thinking, and started another little project, involving an relatively recent Evil bay purchase................

[paulprice]

Well I had a little time today, so as the Domestic Overlord was not around, I thought I would spend this time doing a little modelling.

 

I set out to make a little more progress on the Stanier Mogul I have been working on for what seems like an age, but as usual I got waylaid. Surely I can be the only one this happens to, but I just happened to look at a couple of my Jubilee's.

 

I had never been overly happy with the weathering on a couple of them, so I thought I would give them a bit of a touch up, reasoning that this would only take about a hour.

 

The problem was this little lot ended up passing through the paint shop, and some even received some headlamps, I think I have a thing for expresses (I might fit more with parcel head codes). The problem was a few Scots got in on the action, and what was a quick job turned into a longer one, I really need to silver the buffers on a few of them, and apply some real coal.

The problem is lurking in the background is another Jube, and Scot that have suddenly appeared in the works........idle hands and all that

[Will J]

Watching the Stanier Mogul with interest... I'd got as far as getting a spare Crab body and tender with similar thoughts in mind. (Yet to do anything about it though!)

[paulprice]

Watching the Stanier Mogul with interest... I'd got as far as getting a spare Crab body and tender with similar thoughts in mind. (Yet to do anything about it though!)

Will

 

Not a problem, as soon as I make some more progress I will post an update. The latest Jube and Scot have sort of taken my attention lately

[paulprice]

Well I managed to find a little free time this weekend to spend on my modelling projects.

 

So the Rebuilt-Scot has now been allocated the number 6132 and is in the process of being lined,

 

More importantly the Jube has now got her number allocated, I was looking for inspiration, and just happened to glance across at the Domestic Overlord and the perfect name hit me "OLD NAG" but a bit of research proved this name was not allocated to a jubilee.

 

Then I looked across and the Domestic Overlord and the true name hit me 5710 "IRRESITABLE"

 

Now chaps let that be a lesson to you all in how to earn Brownie points with the other half

[paulprice]

Well I managed to sneak a little modelling in over the last couple of days, and as usual spent it on new projects instead of trying to finish off existing projects.

 

So what did I spend my time on I hear you ask, well seeing as you asked nicely I we ill tell you. A few weeks ago I found a crimson Jubilee at a really great price which I could just not walk away from, and then I found a bargain on Evilbay of a "spares or repair" Royal Scott, which took less than 5 minutes to get running.

 

The only problem with the Scott was that it was in a terrible BR Green livery, so it needed a repaint into something more suitable.

For the Jubilee a simple renumbering job was all that was really needed, plus crew and headlamps, then I applied a little light weathering, which is a little unusual for my Jubilees.

I'm not sure if the subtle approach is for me, she may get a little more weathering in the future, I think she looks a little too clean. For the Scot my aim was to produce a locomotive in war time un lined black. The problem was during my research I found a couple of pictures of ones lined in what appears as simple red lining. So one thing led to another and she was soon lined, a little weathering was applied to try and improve my shaky lining, though I think a lot more would improve the lining.

Though I kind of like the effect of a well kept hard working locomotive.........the weathering brushes are calling

 

[paulprice]

Well back from a week away in Cornwall, and a few minutes spent in the spare room, did not result in the completion of a job, but probably the creation of a new one........4F's

 

 

AAARRGGHHHHHH

[paulprice]

Well I came back from Cornwall with one of these, all I will say is that it was a total bargain, honest.

The problem is I now have a total of 8, 4F's now including 2 of the new model with the Deeley tenders, and a number of little outstanding jobs on most of them, the problem is I should be finishing jobs off rather than creating new ones.

Oh well it keeps me off the strreets

[paulprice]

I should be completing jobs, but now I seem to add more and more.

 

Today I picked up another Jubilee from the Post Office, this was a bargain, so its not that bad lol.

 

All I need to do is as ever repaint it into an LMS livery now where have I heard that before??

[paulprice]

I need to find a way of reducing the number of jobs on the workbench instead of increasing them, HELP

[HornbyMadMan]

A friend of mine told me to track down your blogs and updates they said some of your work was brilliant and matched by your humour, they were right I think I will keep an eye on updates 

[HornbyMadMan]

Have you ever considered taking on a few commissions? I have a couple of projects you could do for me?

[paulprice]

Have you ever considered taking on a few commissions? I have a couple of projects you could do for me?

Thanks but my skills would have to improve first

[paulprice]

Well a little time spent on my trains today, has meant that a pair of 4F's are now a step closer to entering the fleet.

 

Just to add a little interest one has a tender cab, and just needs its weathering touching up a bit, I added a bit of extra detailing to this loco, but as is often the curse with N gauge lots of this is lost when viewed from normal distance.

 

The other 4F is the one I had from the "Landship" pack, but she now wears LMS branding and a suitable number. I still have to apply a little weathering but rather unusually for me she may remain relatively clean.