Shirebrook - N Gauge 1980's era layout.

[87023Velocity]

Nice work on the 58's Duncan, think this was the best livery worn by them.

 

The Warwells look smart too, think I may pick a few up.

 

Cheers

 

Simon

[Ted-ish]

Incredible pace of modelling here Duncan, and maintaining a high standard too!

 

Awesome.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Ted-ish

[TomE]

Great work on the 58s Duncan. Regularly used to see these as a kid around Beighton Junction / Woodhouse and remember thinking how odd they looked!

 

Tom. 

 

[Duncan.]

58040 and 58005

Evening All,

I have shaded in the bodyside and cab front grilles, apart from the nameplate for 58040 the locos are now complete-phew. I have enjoyed this respray, the process hasn't been without problems but I am pleased with the result. I really hope Scarborough and Wigan Shows go ahead so I can enjoy running them and hopefully some of you, dear readers, can come along and enjoy watching them.

Cheers

Duncan

[Duncan.]

20 hours ago, Ted-ish said:

Incredible pace of modelling here Duncan, and maintaining a high standard too!

 

Awesome.

Thanks Ed,

Is it churlish to say I had hoped to do more? I was expecting to be 'furloughed', however, although working from home I am busier than ever!

At one point in my murky past I was working in London as a professional model maker- we made sets for commercials and films, so when a studio was booked at maybe £75K per day, you  had to have everything ready! I worked on several of the sets on the card attached.

Cheers

Duncan

[Ted-ish]

4 hours ago, Duncan. said:

At one point in my murky past I was working in London as a professional model maker...

 

Oh now I see, an actual pro at this!

 

I don't feel so bad now at my lack of pace.

 

Another thing I lack is courage, I will put something off in fear of doing it wrong. I guess you just have to practice and be prepared to bin a few failures.

[Duncan.]

2 minutes ago, Ted-ish said:

 

Oh now I see, an actual pro at this!

 

I don't feel so bad now at my lack of pace.

 

Another thing I lack is courage, I will put something off in fear of doing it wrong. I guess you just have to practice and be prepared to bin a few failures.

Hi Ed,

No not a pro really, I learned a few tricks in those days... over 20 years ago now. When I weather for example I try to use an unintentional occurrence... 

but I was not railway modelling.... It was very pressured, paid well, but was dependant upon chasing contracts... so not 'full time' so I opted for a steadier life! It's a life for a single  and/or young person.

Cheers

Duncan

[DavidMcKenzie]

6 hours ago, Ted-ish said:

 

Oh now I see, an actual pro at this!

 

I don't feel so bad now at my lack of pace.

 

Another thing I lack is courage, I will put something off in fear of doing it wrong. I guess you just have to practice and be prepared to bin a few failures.

Hi Ed,

 

With plenty of experience of 'doing it wrong' I can suggest buying some very cheap second hand wagons to practice on. I am nowhere near the level of Duncan, but I was amazed how much playing on old cheap models helped me improve to the level that I gain enough confidence to try on a 'real' model. Even people as good as Duncan had to start somewhere. 

 

All the best,

Dave

[Duncan.]

38 minutes ago, DavidMcKenzie said:

Hi Ed,

 

With plenty of experience of 'doing it wrong' I can suggest buying some very cheap second hand wagons to practice on. I am nowhere near the level of Duncan, but I was amazed how much playing on old cheap models helped me improve to the level that I gain enough confidence to try on a 'real' model. Even people as good as Duncan had to start somewhere. 

 

All the best,

Dave

Yes Dave,

You're very kind and I'm certainly still learning. I've learned much from RMweb.

I've had many projects that have ground to halt , to be either hidden away at the back of a layout or thrown directly in the bin. I still read instructions through as many times as I need, (always more than once), even then I sometimes have to question the instructions part way through the build, and then even go my own way. I think you get to spot dodgy instructions  as well as you get more experienced...

Cheers

Duncan

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, DavidMcKenzie said:

Hi Ed,

 

With plenty of experience of 'doing it wrong' I can suggest buying some very cheap second hand wagons to practice on. I am nowhere near the level of Duncan, but I was amazed how much playing on old cheap models helped me improve to the level that I gain enough confidence to try on a 'real' model. Even people as good as Duncan had to start somewhere. 

 

All the best,

Dave

I can't agree more with these statements. 

It is easy to be put off weathering a £100 loco or a £30 wagon - I know I would be - but it's not difficult to buy a £10 loco or a £3 wagon to practice on.  In fact buy a job lot of cheap old wagons on EBay and the unit price each usually comes down even further.  Likewise it is easier to gain confidence adding details in place of moulded ones on an old model than wondering what fine detail you're only going to make worse on a new one.

It is perhaps surprising how often you see on this forum, some astonishing locos or rolling stock, operating on layouts built by modellers of exceptional ability, which are unrecognisable from their very modest origins.

[Duncan.]

4 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

I can't agree more with these statements. 

It is easy to be put off weathering a £100 loco or a £30 wagon - I know I would be - but it's not difficult to buy a £10 loco or a £3 wagon to practice on.  In fact buy a job lot of cheap old wagons on EBay and the unit price each usually comes down even further.  Likewise it is easier to gain confidence adding details in place of moulded ones on an old model than wondering what fine detail you're only going to make worse on a new one.

It is perhaps surprising how often you see on this forum, some astonishing locos or rolling stock, operating on layouts built by modellers of exceptional ability, which are unrecognisable from their very modest origins.

Hi,

Can I add that whatever you are practicing on you work to a reference photograph and record what you do to achieve the effect good or otherwise...

Cheers 

[Northmoor]

36 minutes ago, Duncan. said:

Hi,

Can I add that whatever you are practicing on you work to a reference photograph and record what you do to achieve the effect good or otherwise...

Cheers 

YES YES YES.

Always copy reality, not other people's models.  

[Ted-ish]

50 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

YES YES YES.

Always copy reality, not other people's models.  

 

My part-time job is collecting photos on Flickr of the prototypes from different angles.

 

My first weathering attempt on a CL25. It was all brush work, I didn't own an airbrush at this point.

 

 

*sorry Duncan, feel like I'm hijacking your thread now!

Edited April 28, 2020 by Ted-ish

[Duncan.]

3 minutes ago, Ted-ish said:

 

My part-time job is collecting photos on Flickr of the prototypes from different angles.

 

My first weathering attempt on a CL25. It was all brush work, I didn't own an airbrush at this point.

 

 

*sorry Duncan, feel like I'm hijacking your thread now!

I really like your 25, why, because you observed the prototype closely, you faded it. I have seen many weathering jobs on the web and many are not faded and the 'dirt' is applied to the pristine body-result  a very dark and heavy look and a lack of 'highlights' and the subject just looks dark.

Cheers

Duncan

[Ted-ish]

1 minute ago, Duncan. said:

I really like your 25, why, because you observed the prototype closely, you faded it. I have seen many weathering jobs on the web and many are not faded and the 'dirt' is applied to the pristine body-result  a very dark and heavy look and a lack of 'highlights' and the subject just looks dark.

Cheers

Duncan

 

Totally agree. There seems to be a standard approach of smothering in dark grime, which is fine for MGRs but not all locos were caked in soot!

 

Now that I've an airbrush, it does mean I can apply a nice light dirt weathering to the boggies and lower third to complete the model.

 

I have a soft spot for the 25, the way it looks and the fact in reality it had decent power (the model performs well too). Oh and this was the first (and probably last) loco where I de-soldered the DCC socket and direct soldered the sound chip to the Farish PCB. It was a horrendous job, I'm not even sure how I managed it - but it runs great!

[03060]

The van behind the 25 would be an interesting project in weathering ! 

[Duncan.]

9 hours ago, Ted-ish said:

 

Totally agree. There seems to be a standard approach of smothering in dark grime, which is fine for MGRs but not all locos were caked in soot!

 

Now that I've an airbrush, it does mean I can apply a nice light dirt weathering to the boggies and lower third to complete the model.

 

I have a soft spot for the 25, the way it looks and the fact in reality it had decent power (the model performs well too). Oh and this was the first (and probably last) loco where I de-soldered the DCC socket and direct soldered the sound chip to the Farish PCB. It was a horrendous job, I'm not even sure how I managed it - but it runs great!

 

8 hours ago, 03060 said:

The van behind the 25 would be an interesting project in weathering ! 

Hey Ed,

I think 03060 is offering to weather that van in the background of the class 25 photograph!!

[03060]

Got to start somewhere !!      

[Ted-ish]

One careful owner!

[Duncan.]

My new favourite Locomotive.

Now with name plates... and my second favourite.

[Northmoor]

I've said it before and will say it again - that is RIDICULOUSLY good.  I would be pleased with that standard in O, and massively impressed in OO.  To achieve that level of realism in N, well I run out of vocabulary.

[Duncan.]

23 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

I've said it before and will say it again - that is RIDICULOUSLY good.  I would be pleased with that standard in O, and massively impressed in OO.  To achieve that level of realism in N, well I run out of vocabulary.

Well thank you for your very kind words. I do believe that great results can be achieved in all scales, each presents it's own set of problems and limitations. I strive to make my layout an good advertisement for N scale modelling, there are others I particularly like such as Dallam Sidings, Blueball Summit, Ropley and Speke East and many others. I do feel saddened that N is sometimes referred to as a 'toy' scale but I have seen some N layouts at shows that don't measure up to larger scale layouts and could be likened to toys. Now nothing wrong with a toy, nothing at all, but it is nice to have N 'model' layouts too. I hope I can encourage more modellers to try N Scale modelling. 

Cheers

Duncan

 

[RBE]

Nice work on 040. That was the first 58 I modelled back in the 80s!

 

I could do with more N gauge 58s on Burton on Trent however they are as rare as unicorn poop these days!

[Duncan.]

6 hours ago, RBE said:

Nice work on 040. That was the first 58 I modelled back in the 80s!

 

I could do with more N gauge 58s on Burton on Trent however they are as rare as unicorn poop these days!

Hi Cav, 

I hope you are well. There were a couple 2nd hand on Hattons yesterday @ £70, I had one for a full repaint.  I've got  back to back and track gauge for you set to N2. PM me please.

[RBE]

PM sent!

 

I'll take a look on Hattons.