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

[The Fatadder]

Good reading back on the RFD 47 build. I have just acquired a Bachmann RFD shell to model 47338 from, and the rust marks from the old plate is an effect I need to replicate

[Revolution Mike B]

And you tell me my modelling is good?????!!!!!

 

That rust effect is unbelievably real!

[James Makin]

I've been playing around with Mk2E coaches lately!

 

Mk2E by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

One of the oldest rakes of stock that I've got still in current usage is a Virgin Cross Country Mk2 set, formed of various old Hornby and Dapol/Airfix Mk2D coaches in Virgin and Intercity colours, together with a Mk2F RFB lovingly converted almost 15 years ago. 

 

Hornby's newer Mk2E coaches were very interesting - ideal to replace the incorrect Mk2D's, but spoiled mainly by a dodgy solebar appearing from nowhere! The plus side was that if you knew where to look - they could be picked up for some very keen prices! 

 

So throughout this year at a variety of shows from Ally Pally to Warley, I've collected a couple of rakes's worth of bargains in both Intercity and Virgin colours, to firstly replace my original Mk2D set, and create a second rake to give something extra for all my Virgin '47's to haul. 

 

Mk2E by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

Here's the offending solebar...I have seen a couple of modeller's solutions to fix these, including chopping up the entire underframe and re-joining, but from my years of proud bodging experience, I just knew there would be a simpler, dodgier way!

 

So, armed very appropriately with the teenage angst of second-album Avril, I grabbed the scalpel and set about mutilating the corners of the underframe, gouging out the extra plastic until it was all but gone...

 

Mk2E by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

The next step was then to tackle the interior - paint up like a real Mk2E of the period, and add some passengers.

 

Mk2E by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

I used my regular supply of the cheap plastic unpainted people bought from China via eBay & Amazon as passengers, all being hugely amputated to basically chest level to fit in the seating! 

 

Once reassembled, it started to look reasonable -

 

Mk2E by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

The prominent solebar has now disappeared, and the underframe and roof given a treatment of various browns & greys as a very light weathering for circa 2001 period on my forthcoming layout project. 

 

Mk2E by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

Mk2E by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

Overall, a quick, fun project - it only took a few evenings to do - the fiddliest part actually being painting up the seating inside rather than any other modifications! I'm no Mk2 coach specialist yet so doubtless there's more changes to be made, but it's been great fun to hoover up the bargain coaches that no one else wants, and turn them into semi-reasonable working layout vehicles!

 

Now I've just got to work out what to do with the surplus of old Mk2D's!!

 

Cheers,

James

 

 

[jamessolomon]

Nice work there James on the coach it does pay to tackle the interior of these things to bring them alive. Iv noticed people don't bother as the train is moving around the layout but they forget stick it in a siding on the scenic part people can see inside or stationary at a station

[The Fatadder]

Very nice job

So much so I could even be tempted by a set if I can find some at the right price.

May look a little ott going through a 4ft layout, but if the extension plans come to fruition a set of virgin mk2s on their way to Newquay would look rather good

[cal.n]

Great job, do you have a link for the cheap unpainted figures?

[chriswright03]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=1%3A45+unpainted+figures&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.X1%3A75+unpainted+figures.TRS0&_nkw=1%3A75+unpainted+figures&_sacat=0

[SouthernMafia]

Great stuff James, funnily enough I've also just bought 3 in Virgin to complement my existing Intercity rake. Annoying Hornby never did the 1st Class coach in Virgin though!

 

Could you elaborate on exactly what plastic you had to remove to get rid of the solebar please? It's also on my list of things to do.

[The Fatadder]

Great stuff James, funnily enough I've also just bought 3 in Virgin to complement my existing Intercity rake. Annoying Hornby never did the 1st Class coach in Virgin though!

Could you elaborate on exactly what plastic you had to remove to get rid of the solebar please? It's also on my list of things to do.

Hopefully Bachmann wil do theirs in Virgin given they are doing the correct converted buffet. The fact they are doing a Virgin 47 in 2018 bodes well for Virgin mk2Fs from them.

 

I’m still researching mine. I need to get 4 TSO ordered in a mix of IC and Virgin, eventually adding the BSO (given I have one of the few 2d BSO Virgin used already)

[James Makin]

Great stuff James, funnily enough I've also just bought 3 in Virgin to complement my existing Intercity rake. Annoying Hornby never did the 1st Class coach in Virgin though!

Could you elaborate on exactly what plastic you had to remove to get rid of the solebar please? It's also on my list of things to do.

Thanks very much Rich!

 

As Rich P mentioned, for the First Class coaches, as it happens it’d be the converted Mk2F RFB you’d be looking for to run with these Cross Country sets so the best route there is filling in the windows on a Mk2D or waiting for the Bachmann version, whichever’s your preferred option! The formation was normally 1xRFB, 5xTSO, 1xBSO, sometimes you’d see the RFB positioned wrongly with the First Class section of the carriage on the inner part of the train too, for a bit of variety!

 

My own RFB conversion will stay in service until the Bachmann Mk2F RFB version arrives as the underframe will be so much better than the old Dapol/Airfix conversion that it’ll replace!

 

For the Hornby plastic in the underframe, it’s a really low-tech solution here, basically take your coach apart and scalpel away approx 2mm or so of plastic - the bit that would stick out previously - the bit above the bogies comes away easy peasy, the fiddly part is grinding back the plastic between the various boxes etc hanging off the underframe, just patience and a sharp knife will help you here! Just keep cutting away and test refit the coach body back onto your chassis until you can’t see any of the solebar basically!

[SouthernMafia]

Thanks James, now I look more closely at your photograph I can see what you've done more clearly. It is a pain that solebar, but with a rake of 10 to do (and counting!) I'm living with it for now.

 

I've done an RFB for my Intercity rake, however I was able to retain most of the original livery and thought the same could be done if they had made the Virgin 1st. It just seemed odd they never did it in Virgin but did in Intercity and Blue Grey.

 

 

Looking forward to the Bachmann mk2s but these are still good models especially for the money you can get them for.

[James Makin]

That looks superb Rich, really tidy conversion job there!!

[James Makin]

Following on from the discussion regarding sourcing the miniature people from the Chinese suppliers on eBay - I though I’d share the below, for less than the price of a couple of pints, I’ve just got another 600 to play with!

 

 

£1.06 per pack of 100 from eBay, just search “1:75 model people” and you get options for both painted and unpainted at varying prices, perfect for coach interiors, detailing these little guys should keep me off the streets during the cold evenings in January!

 

Cheers,

James

[Revolution Mike B]

I've left the solebars on the DRS set James because I couldn't be bothered to hack them up. Rather foolishly, I repainted some normal blue grey ones because they had metal wheels......and then discovered there's a blue grey set running around at present.....so I should've repainted the railroad ones I had instead!! 

 

Have you got any ideas on how to recreate the Pullman variant? They only have 6 windows!!

[jamessolomon]

Hows the great container weathering project going and also hope you win an award

[James Makin]

Hows the great container weathering project going and also hope you win an award

 

Thanks James! Haha awards, our club's Loftus Road can't win any of those as it's (psst) not a steam era layout!

 

Containers are going good, having fun with those - I've not posted many details as replicating a newish container with minimal weathering isn't worth the column inches on RMWeb but I've done a few grubby ones of late!

 

Containers by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

All of these are based on real life examples found on Flickr.

 

I started with the K-Line 40' drybox, a dirty but otherwise good condition container, the C-Rail model was matt varnished before given coats of white, grey and light earth colour, before the corner scrape damage was added -

 

Containers by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

It's in pretty good nick!

 

Next up was this little MSC cutie, again good overall condition but had received a fair bit of paint scratching revealing the bare metal, which soon rusted and resulting in a lot of streaky patches -

 

Containers by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

The rusting effects are made using a variety of 5-6 different browns, applied from light to dark. Normally using Humbrol 62 as a basis, then adding 186, 113, 133, 251 in that order from bottom to top coat, plus anything else that looks about right!

 

Containers by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

This GESeaco (so that's what happened to Sea Containers!) example was given a basic fade, with a strong rusty brown tinge at one end, as per the prototype. A lot of grey was exposed, this presumably being the undercoat of the dark blue livery on the real thing  -

 

Containers by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

I do like the tanktainers and spider tanks a lot, the first one I tackled looked like this, adding a slight streaking on the tank barrel, and then attention to the top walkway and the usual damage and scrapes around the locking points and extremities of the metal framework.

 

Containers by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

My most recent job was on this Hamburg Sud 20' box, again based on a Flickr example with significant patch painting over a basic faded box. The Bachmann container was varnished and faded with matt white and grey using the paint-on/wipe-off technique before the patches were added, along with significant scraping damage and the livery generally falling apart!

 

Containers by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

Finally, here's a shot showing the fallout of my recent Warley show splurge on containers - in my eagerness to buy up the entire C-Rail stock from a couple of stands, I've realised I now have more boxes than wagons! Seeing as the maximum siding length on Worthing MRC's Loftus Road is not quite long enough, I'll likely buy a few more wagons, few more boxes and create two separate trains, up and down lines - double the fun! 

 

Containers by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

Cheers,

James

[Boco_D1]

Those containers look fantastic particularly the GESeaco, if it wasn't for the surface it sits on I'd struggle to tell it was a model.

[1722]

Wow, that’s a lot of containers! You don’t do things by halves, do you James?

 

Excellent work.

[24grange]

Is there a standard length for a container train in the UK? Do they run as the equivalent of a "trip" working or similar, which would cut down on the overall length?  You could have one full length and a "trip" working on the other line maybe?

 

Good work ! Love the weathering

[The Fatadder]

Following on from the discussion regarding sourcing the miniature people from the Chinese suppliers on eBay - I though I’d share the below, for less than the price of a couple of pints, I’ve just got another 600 to play with!

13BC8C7D-BD9B-4A09-A1A3-66A14B4456AC.jpeg

£1.06 per pack of 100 from eBay, just search “1:75 model people” and you get options for both painted and unpainted at varying prices, perfect for coach interiors, detailing these little guys should keep me off the streets during the cold evenings in January!

Cheers,

James

Thanks again for sharing this

I did my first solbar removal last night, it’s not too time consuming and makes a hell of a difference

Now just need to do the other 3 TSOs and buy an Intercity TSO plus the RFB

[James Makin]

I found this great set of New Years resolutions from a 1997 Rail Express magazine, made me smile, a lot has changed in the hobby since, but this is still just as relevant today!

 

 

Cheers,

James

[The Fatadder]

Wish I still had my Rail Express issues from 97 and 98...

[Harry Lime]

Thank goodness for better quality spell- and grammar checking these days.

 

BTW, what is an odd kit?

Edited February 1, 2018 by Harry Lime

[rob D2]

I found this great set of New Years resolutions from a 1997 Rail Express magazine, made me smile, a lot has changed in the hobby since, but this is still just as relevant today!

00D1711B-24A7-46D1-BF06-B5CA407BF9ED.jpeg

Cheers,

James

Spooky it’s like a time machine. It was “ maroon and gold “that got my interest back in 1996, having not looked at a chuffers since 1985, I saw a Class 60 in pristine colours and thought “ what the heck is that ! “

[The Fatadder]

Hi guys,

 

As mention in the last posts...I always airbrush locos in batches - here's the next creation!

 

Hot on the heels of the '47's comes something I've wanted to model for a long, long time - the humble class 58!

 

58017 by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

58017 Eastleigh Depot was the identity of the first candidate to join the fleet - mainly chosen as of all the '58's I've logged at up at Didcot, it's the one with a vaguely local name! There's some great industrial names amongst the list, and absolutely no prizes for guessing what the next one will be...

 

Next was the weathering stage - initially, a coat of matt varnish was applied following the renumbering process, and this left a really good 'key' on the bodyside for coats of dark greys to be applied to the side and wiped off with cotton buds, leaving a very workstained appearance.

 

58017 by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

The whole body was treated to this, including the cab ends with a more watered-down mixture. Other details such as the roof exhaust started to be picked out and weathered differently to the roof, while the solebar was dry brushed with a patchy mixture of red and grey shades - I think the old black Trainload Coal paint job was peeling to reveal the primer and classic Railfreight Red underneath - how cool!

by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr

 

Further weathering details were added to represent 58017 at a late stage in its career - rust marks on the handrails and patches just starting to break through on the cabsides where once the old BR arrows were attached.

 

 

Cheers,

James

 

Have you done an EWS 58 to go with '017? 

Having been inspired to finish off my Mainline Grey loco, I am now in need of inspiration for my EWS one!