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James Makin's Workbench - 1990s dirty diesels & grotty wagons


James Makin
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Hi James,

Have to agree that TEA looks superb, must admit I liked them better when yhey were grey. I used to see the Holybourne tanks all the time when I worked at Eastleigh and always thought it would be a great train to model. look forwards to seeing the whole train.

 

Cheers Peter.

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James, as has been said above, the TEA is very nice, and I will look further into how you did it. However, I must pas comment on simething you mentioned back in entry no. 22.

I quote: ", I have so many Southern 377/1 and 377/3 favourites from my old trainspotting days which I'd also love to model...decisions decisions!"

Oh, come on... your just making me feel sooooo old now.... 377s from your old trainspotting days..? For me it was Deltics and Brush 4s and 2s... oh eck, I am old aren't I.

Nowt wrong with 377s.... quick clean and comfortable. But, they do lack character that the old Blue diesels had in abundance.

I'll get my coat.

Jon

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Hi there,

 

Your Class 377 looks fantastic! I've never seen the class "face to face" but they look really good! I'm a regular visitor to your website for Wells Green and it's a really good layout, something I want to achieve eventually with my new layout.

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James, as has been said above, the TEA is very nice, and I will look further into how you did it. However, I must pas comment on simething you mentioned back in entry no. 22.

I quote: ", I have so many Southern 377/1 and 377/3 favourites from my old trainspotting days which I'd also love to model...decisions decisions!"

Oh, come on... your just making me feel sooooo old now.... 377s from your old trainspotting days..? For me it was Deltics and Brush 4s and 2s... oh eck, I am old aren't I.

Nowt wrong with 377s.... quick clean and comfortable. But, they do lack character that the old Blue diesels had in abundance.

I'll get my coat.

Jon

Haha! Yeh sorry for making you feel old but yes! I'm 25 so my earliest railway memories were actually 4-CIGs in NSE livery but its scary that once brand new stock like Electrostars are coming up 10yrs old, where has the time gone!

 

What is even scarier is that in years to come I'd put money on my generation chasing the last Class 66s around the country like we do the '37's and '47's of today! :O

 

 

Nice work James, can we have a photo of amongst the others?

 

Cheers

Scott

Scott, I'll try and get a good snap next time Worthing MRC's Loftus Road is set up - for now the best I can do is one of a pre-weathered train!

 

28192625820_47b419b1ee_b.jpgArchive pic of Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

'92'-hauled of course! Couldn't resist redeploying the old Wells Green '92' fleet on Loftus Road, much to the resentment of my fellow operators who seem to hate these dual-voltage beauties!

 

Cheers,

Edited by James Makin
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its scary that once brand new stock like Electrostars are coming up 10yrs old, where has the time gone!

I had my own scary moment the other day when it dawned upon me that the 150 Sprinters are now 25 years old, and I can remember their introduction!

 

I love the TEA, there's nothing quite like a scabby tank wagon! B) B) B)

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I had my own scary moment the other day when it dawned upon me that the 150 Sprinters are now 25 years old, and I can remember their introduction!

 

Yes indeed, also remember when they were first intorduced to South Wales and my only trip on the old order which was a Derby Suburban class 116. :O

 

I love the TEA, there's nothing quite like a scabby tank wagon! B) B) B)

 

Seconded! I have a small rake of TTAs to play with at some point.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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A little bit more progress on the wagon fleet, this time an OCA wagon, TOPS No.112325

28370688422_d3a0c9bb9d_b.jpgOCA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

28192625190_c996352aa1_b.jpgOCA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

28443041866_0d4bc730e2_b.jpgOCA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

Edited by James Makin
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Hi James,

Very nice, that wagon has that well used and faded look, well past it's best.

 

Cheers Peter.

 

Thanks Peter, I wasn't sure how this wagon would turn out, you'd never believe it but I even had it painted bright orange at one part of the fading process!!

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Hi James,

 

I really like your model of the class 377 Electrostar. Is it scratch-built? How did you acheive such a good rendition of the livery? I'm very impressed to see such a nice model of this prototype.

 

Here's one at Newhaven Town in 2009.

 

post-8139-0-38404100-1317757833_thumb.jpg

 

 

They look really sleek and stylish, but hard to model - or so I thought.....

 

All the best,

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Hi James,

 

I really like your model of the class 377 Electrostar. Is it scratch-built? How did you acheive such a good rendition of the livery? I'm very impressed to see such a nice model of this prototype.

 

Here's one at Newhaven Town in 2009.

 

post-8139-0-38404100-1317757833_thumb.jpg

 

 

They look really sleek and stylish, but hard to model - or so I thought.....

 

All the best,

 

Hi Colin!

 

Thanks for sharing the image, nice to see it's not just me that takes photos of these handsome units!

 

My '377' model is a strange hybrid of being both kitbashed and scratchbuilt! The Electrostars use 20m bodyshells so Bachmann Turbostars were extensively cut down, with my scratchbuilt cabs, pantograph wells and underframe components added to create the model you see in the pictures.

 

Ironically it was the 377's beautifully refined Southern livery that made me want to model the units in the first place, turned out to be the trickiest part of the project!!

 

I used Phoenix Precision Southern colours to paint the unit itself, and it took hours to repeatedly mask the malachite green circles on the body! An absolute nightmare, but thankfully all over now. Next time I have vowed to use custom large bodyside transfers to do the job in a fraction of the time, lazy modelling or what haha!!

 

I must admit the final coat of Railmatch Matt varnish hides so many sins, patches of paint and 'flattens' the finish to look a million times more acceptable than before!

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I've got a bit further with the rake of TEA wagon's receiving dirty make overs... here is BPO87887.

I am modelling each one based on the prototype photos I have and suddenly spotted the wagon in the photo was the same number as the Bachmann base model being used... what are the chances of that?! No fiddly renumbering...Result!!!

28192625020_3bd3225d06_b.jpgTEA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

Apologies for the background guys, been meaning to try some outdoor photography but only have the garden bench as a backdrop for the moment! :S

In the meantime I've just bought myself an enormous plastic Boeing 747 kit so as I'm excited as a kid about having a go at modelling aeroplanes instead of trains for once, but I will try and keep the TEAs coming!

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The Electrostar and Loftus road look great! Olympia is my local station and yes, the dual voltage Electrostars are very much in evidence every day. In fact, I'm off there now to go and catch one to work!

 

How about doing a 378 "Caterpillar" to go with it?

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How about doing a 378 "Caterpillar" to go with it?

 

That would be a challenge! I looked at one and while it has the same outline, just about everything they could change from a normal Electrostar, has been, can tell the designers like to keep modellers on their toes!!

 

I'd definitely like to do another Southern '377' soon, but at the moment my thoughts pondering just how good a new Hornby 4-VEP would look in grotty white Connex South Central livery...

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  • 3 months later...
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Hi guys!

I've had another crack at a TEA wagon, this time No. BPO87669, one of the BP fleet in plain grey livery.

27859908523_643e864f2b_b.jpgTEA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

It's been modelled exactly as photographed, and as you can see, I like them filthy!

28192624800_26f527355e_b.jpgTEA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

Although potentially a dull livery, I really like the heavy rust-dirt streaking from the rooftop walkway, and patch-painted BP logo on the left hand end, along with the tank's weld lines rusting through the livery.

27859908153_2e02f746cb_b.jpgTEA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

Modifications included removing the extra roof walkway bits around the centre roof filler, and fabricating new Hazchem panels attached to the chassis rather than the original tank barrel-mounted ones, many coats of varying greys, whites, browns and dark greys and several good theraputic painting sessions!

28192624360_145304c998_b.jpgTEA wagon by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

Quite a fun one to do! :)

Edited by James Makin
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