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


James Makin
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Thanks Rob!

 

For the underframe I've started by using brush painted Humbrol 32 dark grey, then later airbrushed over Humbrol 62 Matt Leather, followed by a dusting of Phoenix Track Dirt and lastly Frame Dirt, so there's about 4 different shades of paint roughly! I'll sometimes change up the paints/bias of colours I do though otherwise all my locos end up looking the same!

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James that 58 is very impressive. Totally out of my ultra modern era but I so want it. Truly inspirational modelling.

Also you put everything across in a confident (in your skills) but not look at me way! Very refreshing.

Bring on the next update.

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Hi James was tidying up my faves on Flickr and came across these FGW green/gold Motorail from Long Marsh if your considering doing them. The HST looks quite smart in this livery you did that ended up in the magazine

https://flic.kr/p/a5PS3s

https://flic.kr/p/a5PRvQ

https://flic.kr/p/a5PRQb

https://flic.kr/p/a5M11X

https://flic.kr/p/a5LZJT

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Only thing is it needs to run straight to Northam to be cleaned as SWT were always adamant they came straight out of service so it didn't act as promotion for them, so no stopping in the station, full speed to depot ;)

Very good job on the wagon graffiti and weathering too James :)

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Hi James

Can I please ask where you get your driver figures from?

Thanks

Stephen

Hi Stephen,

 

Sure, the drivers tend to be from a mix of sources - mostly if it's Bachmann then I'll keep the factory driver in the cab but modify it, e.g. filing down the old BR drivers cap to make it just look like a head of hair, before painting up in hi-viz etc! Others like the Heljan '58' above had no figure so I'll normally raid my stock of 1:72 unpainted figures from China (99p for 100 from eBay!) and then perform gruesome surgery to get him to fit in his seat. The poor chap in the '58' was amputated up to the mid torso, I then painted up representations of his legs on the cab floor!!

 

Cheers,

James

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What James hasn't told anyone is that in order to keep my non-DCC 450 in place for the photos (post #792), we had to use whatever was available to chock up the rear car. This just happened to be a 1:76 scale figure of Michael Portillo which we are supposed to be installing on Loftus Road.

 

I can't think of a better use of a model figure myself...

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How much was that 450 worth ! Jeepers - looks good, but I just couldn't do it to a model that price! Although saying that I wonder if its now worth more, if you wanted to sell it on, as its now famous, having run over Michael and been customized by James !! - a mini work of art which should appreciate !!! :-)

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Hi James, where abouts do you get your figures? I looked for some on e bay but was couldn't see any, they sound like a good idea for diesel locos .

Steve

Hi Steve!

 

I've just had a look, the scale is slightly different to what I recall - search for "1:75 model people" on eBay and you'll see packs of 100 unpainted people from just £1.52, there's also sellers offering the same people painted for a bit more cash, and £18 gets you 1000 painted people haha!

 

Hope this helps :)

James

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I've been working on a few things lately...a couple of fun loco projects, and inbetween, messing around with a few containers!

 

Spurred on by the recent batch of containers I'd tackled for my mate Mark, I decided to take a look at the collection I'd been building in recent years, to get a Freightliner train of my own ready for Worthing MRC's Loftus Road & my own future Didcot layout.

 

38365958331_2b5eed30a6_b.jpgMaersk container by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

I bought my way into this container game in style at Warley a couple of years back - Dapol were selling on the FEA twins with Maersk 20' and 40' containers for a very reasonable £25 a pair, I went straight in and bought 6 pairs - two feet in there! So I've now got a billion boring grey Maersk containers and have gradually spent the last few months bartering exchanges for other people's containers in more jazzy liveries!

 

But I knew I'd have to do a few Maersk ones, so here goes...!

 

37651927444_1351b9ac09_b.jpgMaersk container by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

I started with two 20' boxes - pretty cute little things! Based on my learnings with Mark's 45ft containers, I decided to mount these on a base of foamboard for the weathering process - save my fingers getting covered in the weathering washes being applied!

 

The containers were given a coating of matt varnish initially, this tones down any shiny appearance, and really gives a great 'key' for any weathering washes to stick to the sides of the container. One of the boxes is in almost-new appearance, with only minor weathering to the locking points, whilst the other has seen some action! Both were based on actual photographs found on Flickr (see if you can find the same ones!).

 

37651904684_4428f12c96_b.jpgMaersk container by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

I focused on the dirtier of the two, whilst the cleaner version is still being finished currently (ironic!). A coating of Humbrol 62 Matt Leather was washed on, followed by a patch-paint in fresh new grey at one end, whilst the beginnings of a container dent were modelled.

 

The majority of the damages to these containers appear at the extremities, around the locking points and the corners, which are frequently heavily scratched, devoid of paint and covered in superficial rusting and water stains. 

 

Fast-forward with the weathering and here we are!

 

38335058382_ba10a76716_b.jpgIMMaersk container by James Makin_0349 by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

The rust effects were built up from light to dark, applied with 00000 brushes.

 

38365871401_8d7ebd5a7c_b.jpgMaersk container by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

One very noticeable thing with this container, and many others, it had a significant dent along the vertical side ribbing. I did a trial with using a soldering iron applied down the side to bend into the vertical ribs, with some potential success. It needed fettling, and can definitely be improved upon, but does give a good effect - now when you look down the side of the container, it's not just a paint effect, it has a scale dent! 

 

24495337528_a89c210b93_b.jpgMaersk container by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

It only took a few evenings to pull together, and marks the first complete container for my own Freightliner set - and I'm already planning out an expensive trip to the C-Rail stand at Warley to stock up on some more exotic containers to replace my Maersk fleet - watch this space!

 

If anyone is desperately looking for Maersk 20' or 40' containers and has some interesting Dapol or C-Rail containers for swapsies, then by all means, drop me a PM and we can chat further!

 

Cheers,

James

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