Wright writes.....

[micklner]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Of possible interest.............

 

On Sunday, with friends over to run LB, the discussion of the too-red lining on Hornby's latest BR Thompson Pacifics came to the fore. I agree, it is too-red.

 

However, under certain lighting conditions on the real thing....................................

 

 

 

 

With later, evening light, it can appear 'warmer'.

 

Granted, there are the vagaries of emulsions (these are scanned from the original transparencies) and scanning, but.........................

 

If nothing else, they show that the cab roofs were all-over black and (at least in the case of 60052; the last-surviving A3 in BR service) that valances could be part-black, not all-along green. They also show that the correct 'orange-green-black-green-orange' division of the lining is extremely difficult to distinguish. 

 

Who'd be a professional model painter? 

 

Please observe copyright restrictions on these images. 

 

 

Just look at the "Pink"  Bufferbeam colour on Humorist , and the strange "Orange Star Dust " effects on the ground below Prince Palantine , horrendously over exposed /badly over coloured /manipulated photos.

Edited August 5, 2021 by micklner

[Headstock]

1 hour ago, micklner said:

Just look at the "Pink"  Bufferbeam colour on Humorist , and the strange "Orange Star Dust " effects on the ground below Prince Palantine , horrendously over exposed /badly over coloured /manipulated photos.

 

Evening Mick,

 

Apparently Hornby are already experimenting with strange orange stardust, on their up coming water colour boiled No £10000, the "Hush slush puppy fund". I think Tony is their secret colour consultant.

[grahame]

1 hour ago, micklner said:

Just look at the "Pink"  Bufferbeam colour on Humorist , and the strange "Orange Star Dust " effects on the ground below Prince Palantine , 

 

Yep, I noticed that. But it's caused by the rose tinted glasses many are wearing.

;-) 

[Tony Wright]

42 minutes ago, Headstock said:

 

Evening Mick,

 

Apparently Hornby are already experimenting with strange orange stardust, on their up coming water colour boiled No £10000, the "Hush slush puppy fund". I think Tony is their secret colour consultant.

I've been rumbled!

 

However, I've never boiled watercolours..................

[Craigw]

9 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes, but how fast did it go?????

 

I think you should be asking if it could haul the same number of coaches as the kit built one Tony has?

[Headstock]

6 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

I've been rumbled!

 

However, I've never boiled watercolours..................

 

Good evening Tony,

 

I suspect that water colours do not make a great brew, so you are probably very wise.

 

60084 is rather a nice colour, a very pleasing finish for a GWR thing. I applaud your disposal of the 'banjo dome' I bet that had a few non modelers quaking in their boots. I think that I may have had the smoke box door off as well, I'm not a fan of the SEF face but the boiler is a thing of beauty.

[Ian Rathbone]

5 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Of possible interest.............

 

On Sunday, with friends over to run LB, the discussion of the too-red lining on Hornby's latest BR Thompson Pacifics came to the fore. I agree, it is too-red.

 

However, under certain lighting conditions on the real thing....................................

 

 

 

 

With later, evening light, it can appear 'warmer'.

 

Granted, there are the vagaries of emulsions (these are scanned from the original transparencies) and scanning, but.........................

 

If nothing else, they show that the cab roofs were all-over black and (at least in the case of 60052; the last-surviving A3 in BR service) that valances could be part-black, not all-along green. They also show that the correct 'orange-green-black-green-orange' division of the lining is extremely difficult to distinguish. 

 

Who'd be a professional model painter? 

 

Please observe copyright restrictions on these images. 

 

 

Who’d be a painter indeed. Never use a photo to match a colour, only to assess the distribution of colour. It appears to me that the valances started out as green but a narrow valance with pipes attached will never be cleaned properly so will appear to be blackish. At the front end where it deepens it is definitely green. The valances were originally lined black and orange but at some point in the 50s, on the Eastern Region, the black edge was omitted.

 

More interesting to me, as a painter, is the colour of the splasher tops. On a Doncaster engine they were green, as seen on Humorist, but it very difficult to tell from most photos what the colour was. 
 

Ian R

 

 

[Tony Wright]

12 hours ago, Headstock said:

 

Good evening Tony,

 

I suspect that water colours do not make a great brew, so you are probably very wise.

 

60084 is rather a nice colour, a very pleasing finish for a GWR thing. I applaud your disposal of the 'banjo dome' I bet that had a few non modelers quaking in their boots. I think that I may have had the smoke box door off as well, I'm not a fan of the SEF face but the boiler is a thing of beauty.

Good morning Andrew,

 

The SE Finecast A3 boiler (ex-Wills) is exactly the right shape, especially at the firebox end (where the rearward slope is perfect; unlike, at source, the DJH equivalent).

 

Despite certain limitations with regard to them, I've still built far more Wills/SEF A3s than DJH ones (though the ratio is getting closer). 

 

 

Here's one of my 40+ years old Wills A3s. I scratch-built a brass chassis for it (rejecting the suggested white metal one) and made a Jamieson GNR-style tender to go behind it. It was built long before I knew Ian Rathbone or Geoff Haynes, so the painting is all my work. Its smokebox door is from Jamieson (a better rendition that the Wills/SEF one), but I should have carved off the cast-on dart).

 

One item of note is the front numberplate's font. Both it and the nameplates were commissioned by me from Kings Cross Models (their going henceforth into the general range). I assumed it was correct (especially at the price), with a 'curly-tailed' '6'. I should have been more specific as to a date (I was ignorant of such subtle differences at the time). 

 

It is correct for DONCASTER in earlier BR days....................

 

 

Note the 'curly-tailed' '6'. 

 

But not for 60048 in the period I depicted her...............

 

 

Complete with the correct, Gill Sans '6'.

 

Ah, those joys of model-making. I wonder how many others are 'bothered' about 'mistakes' such as this? 

 

A visitor this week showed me pictures of (Hornby) A3s which he owns. He didn't seemed to be bothered when I mentioned such minutiae of detail differences with regard to his models. Perhaps that's the best attitude to take.........................

 

A3s are always high on the list of 'favourite' locos. It's amazing to think that their progenitors (the Gresley A1s) were first being built almost 100 years ago! 

 

Has anyone else out there got some nice A3 models to show us, please? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by Tony Wright
to add something

[St Enodoc]

50 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

I wonder how many others are 'bothered' about 'mistakes' such as this? 

I'm not. For the past 40+ years, I've made my smokebox number plates using Slater's 1.5mm numbers. The shape's all wrong but when I started it was the easiest (and cheapest) way of getting raised relief on the plates and I've never bothered changing.

 

[Michael Edge]

I've built a few A3s, this is the only one I can find in my digital photos though.

I built this about 20 years ago from a Proscale kit, not sure who painted it though and they didn't paint the bogie wheel tyres and axle ends. Incidentally my records say this took 27 hours to build.

[Michael Edge]

3 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I'm not. For the past 40+ years, I've made my smokebox number plates using Slater's 1.5mm numbers. The shape's all wrong but when I started it was the easiest (and cheapest) way of getting raised relief on the plates and I've never bothered changing.

 

They were good enough for me too but sadly unavailable for many years now, I think the moulds were completely worn out.

[Headstock]

47 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Andrew,

 

The SE Finecast A3 boiler (ex-Wills) is exactly the right shape, especially at the firebox end (where the rearward slope is perfect; unlike, at source, the DJH equivalent).

 

Despite certain limitations with regard to them, I've still built far more Wills/SEF A3s than DJH ones (though the ratio is getting closer). 

 

 

Here's one of my 40+ years old Wills A3s. I scratch-built a brass chassis for it (rejecting the suggested white metal one) and made a Jamieson GNR-style tender to go behind it. It was built long before I knew Ian Rathbone or Geoff Haynes, so the painting is all my work. Its smokebox door is from Jamieson (a better rendition that the Wills/SEF one), but I should have carved off the cast-on dart).

 

One item of note is the front numberplate's font. Both it and the nameplates were commissioned by me from Kings Cross Models (their going henceforth into the general range). I assumed it was correct (especially at the price), with a 'curly-tailed' '6'. I should have been more specific as to a date (I was ignorant of such subtle differences at the time). 

 

It is correct for DONCASTER in earlier BR days....................

 

 

Note the 'curly-tailed' '6'. 

 

But not for 60048 in the period I depicted her...............

 

 

Complete with the correct, Gill Sans '6'.

 

Ah, those joys of model-making. I wonder how many others are 'bothered' about 'mistakes' such as this? 

 

A visitor this week showed me pictures of (Hornby) A3s which he owns. He didn't seemed to be bothered when I mentioned such minutiae of detail differences with regard to his models. Perhaps that's the best attitude to take.........................

 

A3s are always high on the list of 'favourite' locos. It's amazing to think that their progenitors (the Gresley A1s) were first being built almost 100 years ago! 

 

Has anyone else out there got some nice A3 models to show us, please? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

 

 

Good morning Tony,

 

your friend is an owner, you are a maker. At every stage in the process of making things, there are choices to be made, that's part of the fun. The day that I can't be bothered to make those choices anymore, is the day that railway modelling will no longer have any value. If your friend had only the choice of one A3, with one name and number and a bunch of identical A3's with the same name and number, circa 1975, would that matter? Would he be even happier?

[St Enodoc]

25 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

They were good enough for me too but sadly unavailable for many years now, I think the moulds were completely worn out.

Yes, the quality definitely deteriorated over the years. The material changed too. Older sets had a very nice opaque plastic but later ones were almost translucent and a different colour (a whiter shade of pale or a paler shade of white?).

 

I bought a set in my local model shop two or three years ago - possibly the last one anywhere in the world (prove me wrong!).

[30368]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Has anyone else out there got some nice A3 models to show us, please? 

 

 

Good day Tony,

 

Some really useful images of A3's many thanks.

 

I have not built an A3 yet but when I complete the Pro-scale kit I shall post a few pictures which will be up to my usual standard i.e. "poor", the pictures I mean. I strive for each loco model to be an improvement on the last...

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

[landscapes]

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Andrew,

 

The SE Finecast A3 boiler (ex-Wills) is exactly the right shape, especially at the firebox end (where the rearward slope is perfect; unlike, at source, the DJH equivalent).

 

Despite certain limitations with regard to them, I've still built far more Wills/SEF A3s than DJH ones (though the ratio is getting closer). 

 

 

Here's one of my 40+ years old Wills A3s. I scratch-built a brass chassis for it (rejecting the suggested white metal one) and made a Jamieson GNR-style tender to go behind it. It was built long before I knew Ian Rathbone or Geoff Haynes, so the painting is all my work. Its smokebox door is from Jamieson (a better rendition that the Wills/SEF one), but I should have carved off the cast-on dart).

 

One item of note is the front numberplate's font. Both it and the nameplates were commissioned by me from Kings Cross Models (their going henceforth into the general range). I assumed it was correct (especially at the price), with a 'curly-tailed' '6'. I should have been more specific as to a date (I was ignorant of such subtle differences at the time). 

 

It is correct for DONCASTER in earlier BR days....................

 

 

Note the 'curly-tailed' '6'. 

 

But not for 60048 in the period I depicted her...............

 

 

Complete with the correct, Gill Sans '6'.

 

Ah, those joys of model-making. I wonder how many others are 'bothered' about 'mistakes' such as this? 

 

A visitor this week showed me pictures of (Hornby) A3s which he owns. He didn't seemed to be bothered when I mentioned such minutiae of detail differences with regard to his models. Perhaps that's the best attitude to take.........................

 

A3s are always high on the list of 'favourite' locos. It's amazing to think that their progenitors (the Gresley A1s) were first being built almost 100 years ago! 

 

Has anyone else out there got some nice A3 models to show us, please? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

 

Hi Tony

 

Some very nice photos, I do have lots of photos of my Haymarket A3’s but the are all Hornby RTR I am afraid.

 

Regards

 

David

[Northmoor]

4 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

They were good enough for me too but sadly unavailable for many years now, I think the moulds were completely worn out.

Wow - then I'm even more glad that I picked up a sheet on a stall for a quid only last week.

[andytrains]

Hi All.

Has anybody got a set of instructions for the Nu-Cast K2, 2-6-0, that they could pm to me.

I have what appears to be most of the body for the loco, no tender and a LRM chassis kit.

(I have a suitable GN tender kit).

Thanks in anticipation.

Andy.

[60027Merlin]

Has anyone else out there got some nice A3 models to show us, please?

 

Tony,

 

Not sure about nice but certainly old, A Wills kit with jamieson frames and a jamieson tender built around about 1970 with Humbrol paint and Kingsprint lining. I cannot recall anything else as it is a bit too long ago to recollect some detail. It was originally a 64B loco (cannot recall which) but when I came across it several years ago when going through some boxes I decided to change the identity to a regular visitor from Gateshead and have it out and about running on the layout now and again.

 

I prefer not to dwell on the age of it as I am accompanying it on the same track!

 

Eric

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by 60027Merlin

[Woodcock29]

6 hours ago, andytrains said:

Hi All.

Has anybody got a set of instructions for the Nu-Cast K2, 2-6-0, that they could pm to me.

I have what appears to be most of the body for the loco, no tender and a LRM chassis kit.

(I have a suitable GN tender kit).

Thanks in anticipation.

Andy.

Please pm me your email and I'll scan and email a set.

Andrew

[andytrains]

Andrew.

Message sent.

Andy.

[t-b-g]

Morning all.

 

I have just had a chat on the telephone with "sir" and he has asked me to let you all know that he has suffered a computer malfunction this morning. He has somebody coming to look at it for him this afternoon but until it is fixed or replaced, he isn't able to post on here, or to reply to emails and messages.

 

So if you don't receive an instant response, please be patient. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

 

Tony Gee

 

 

[gr.king]

Not a simple fix with a soldering iron then?

[robertcwp]

1 hour ago, t-b-g said:

Morning all.

 

I have just had a chat on the telephone with "sir" and he has asked me to let you all know that he has suffered a computer malfunction this morning. He has somebody coming to look at it for him this afternoon but until it is fixed or replaced, he isn't able to post on here, or to reply to emails and messages.

 

So if you don't receive an instant response, please be patient. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

 

Tony Gee

 

 

Perhaps it's time Tony had an iPhone. 

[CF MRC]

A random question, for the knowledgeable, would a ballast brake - for a PW train - have been painted blue in the LNER period? Also what colour in GN days?

 

Thanks in anticipation. 

Tim

[robertcwp]

Having now collected the unsold kits from Tony, I have been checking on what is left of the collection I have been disposing of. So far, kit and RTR sales have totalled over £12,000 for the family. I listed out 960 items - there were others such as miscellaneous bits and road vehicles I didn't list individually - of these only about 250 items remain and a bulk sale has been lined up for about 200 of those. Not bad going.

 

Thanks to Tony and the various purchasers on this thread. The family really appreciates the money raised which has gone to pay for essential renovations prior to the necessary house sale taking place.

 

I have about 40-50 kits left plus miscellaneous bits, including the pile of brass carriage sides I have not yet tackled.