Backdating a Bachmann 64xx 0-6-0PT

[David Stannard]

A bit over a year ago I purchased a Bachmann 64xx in Post 1943 GWR livery, whilst it is a beautifully crafted locomotive the one thing that really irked me about the model was the inclusion of the Topfeed and associated plumbing. Sadly every other Pannier tank brought out by Bachmann seems to suffer the same fate, despite the fact that it was only in the last 5 years of GWR service that they were fitted to these locos. Whilst those fittings are prototypical to the type in the Bachmann models livery I am modelling between 1938-1939 so some drastic changes needed to occur, so I set about the tedious task of cutting, filing, puttying and sanding. This was a daunting prospect as I had taken a break from OO Gauge for over 12 years and a whole raft of things tool wise had changed in that time, one particular tool I have found extremely handy is the fibreglass pen, it’s a fantastic tool that can substitute for a file or sandpaper, especially in those hard to get places where a file or sandpaper would damage the surrounding details. I had to make new handrails as well due to the previous ones having the kinks to make room for the pipes that go to the topfeed, I also took the opportunity to fit some etched brass numberplates from Fox Transfers as well as some firemans tools and the headlamp. I am planning on putting crushed coal in the bunker at a later stage to replace the plastic moulding and possibly fitting the grabrails that were between the front and middle splashers, this last detail was not originally fitted to the Bachmann model. Anyway enough of my rambling and onto the pictures, I have given the locomotive a fair cop of weathering as I want to emulate the more grubby and unkempt attire that was typical of locos in the late 1930’s, I will have her working a future layout based somewhere in Mid Wales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2018 by David Stannard

[GWR8700]

Fantastic, I need to build up the confidence to do that to mine too.  Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

[David Stannard]

Fantastic, I need to build up the confidence to do that to mine too. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

Thanks, a great way to start is getting yourself a 2nd hand model on the cheap and using it for practice, that way you can learn a number of techniques using a variety of tools and build up your confidence at the same time, the upside to this approach is that if you stuff something up you are not devestated over losing a model. I had a 12 year break from modelling in OO Gauge as I took on building in a totally different scale and modelling medium, I used to do a lot of kitbashing to wagons and some work on locomotives so it was slightly intimidating getting back into it with this project but it was well worth it in the end.

Edited February 6, 2018 by David Stannard