Chuffnell Regis

[MrWolf]

Oh, and crew figures!

[Graham T]

Of course, when you put her on the layout, they're all but invisible!  I think I may take a leaf out of your book Jonathan, and not try to fit the rear pair.

 

[Graham T]

4 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Oh, and crew figures!

 

Don't think mine has a lamp, now you mention it...

 

[MrWolf]

Fire irons? 🤔

[Tortuga]

Don’t forget the tea caddy and bacon sandwiches!

[Graham T]

The unsuspecting van has now had some weathering inflicted on it.  A mix of dark acrylic washes and various powders.  I might just add a touch of oiliness around the upper door runners, and then that should do it I think.

 

[Tortuga]

Looks good to my eye. Doubt it would be massively rusty during your time period.

[MrWolf]

It's got me back to the bench of bodge anyway!

[Graham T]

Well I'm afraid that the black dog continues to stalk Chuffnell Regis.  Really haven't felt like doing very much at all.  I did paint the brakes on 635, and added a lamp and fire iron on top of the tender.  Also re-fixed the fireman, who had gone awol during the work on the tender.

 

 

The only other thing I've got done is to finally fit some Markits buffers to the Siphon G.

 

[Rowsley17D]

I'd call that a good session, Graham.

[Graham T]

11 minutes ago, Rowsley17D said:

I'd call that a good session, Graham.

Thanks Jonathan.

[BroadLeaves]

On 26/10/2023 at 20:02, Graham T said:

That's really good. You've definitely got the knack for producing a very realistic "a bit run down but still able to be used" look.

[Graham T]

Well the dark clouds are still lingering over Chuffnell R, but I did manage to make a little bit of progress today.  With thanks to Accurascale, I now have the replacement sound decoder for Cookham Manor.  It's taken a long time to get here, as DHL got their grubby paws on it once it arrived in Austria, and made all sorts of trouble about actually delivering it.  And whacked a sizeable fee onto it as well, despite the package being clearly identified as a warranty replacement.  Once again, kudos to Accurascale who were very patient in sorting out DHL for me, and also rather graciously offered to cover the fees.  Good service I'd say.

 

Anyway, I also managed to get hold of a few of the last crew figures from Hardy's (a shame they will no longer be available), so painted a couple and fitted to them to the footplate whilst I had the loco and tender separated to replace the decoder.  I was a bit wary of doing some damage whilst separating the loco and tender, but thankfully all went well and the loco now runs with sound again.  I even managed to get a snap with the firebox glow running.  She still needs some real coal and fire irons adding to the tender, and then perhaps just a very light touch of weathering.

 

[Neal Ball]

1 minute ago, Graham T said:

Well the dark clouds are still lingering over Chuffnell R, but I did manage to make a little bit of progress today.  With thanks to Accurascale, I now have the replacement sound decoder for Cookham Manor.  It's taken a long time to get here, as DHL got their grubby paws on it once it arrived in Austria, and made all sorts of trouble about actually delivering it.  And whacked a sizeable fee onto it as well, despite the package being clearly identified as a warranty replacement.  Once again, kudos to Accurascale who were very patient in sorting out DHL for me, and also rather graciously offered to cover the fees.  Good service I'd say.

 

Anyway, I also managed to get hold of a few of the last crew figures from Hardy's (a shame they will no longer be available), so painted a couple and fitted to them to the footplate whilst I had the loco and tender separated to replace the decoder.  I was a bit wary of doing some damage whilst separating the loco and tender, but thankfully all went well and the loco now runs with sound again.  I even managed to get a snap with the firebox glow running.  She still needs some real coal and fire irons adding to the tender, and then perhaps just a very light touch of weathering.

 

Good to see your MoJo is returning Graham.

 

Is the sound any better? I’ve still got a month before I collect my replacement decoder… I also have a larger speaker to fit… hopefully I’ll get more Oomph from it!

[Graham T]

17 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

Good to see your MoJo is returning Graham.

 

Is the sound any better? I’ve still got a month before I collect my replacement decoder… I also have a larger speaker to fit… hopefully I’ll get more Oomph from it!

 

The sound seems to be fine, thanks Neal.  Far from deafening, but loud enough for my tastes.  I may try to get a video of it tomorrow.

[Graham T]

Just a few little odds and ends of rather unenthusiastic pottering done today.  A few more wagons got magnetic coupling links added, and one of the Toads gained a guard, giving me an excuse to run a mixed goods train.

 

 

 

 

I also got the old diesel railcar out for a run, as she hasn't been on the layout for ages.  Could do with some flush glazing, but otherwise looks quite nice to my inexpert eye, and runs well.

 

[MrWolf]

It's doing better than my diesel railcar, which is still in the middle of an axle swap!

[Fishplate]

12 hours ago, MrWolf said:

It's doing better than my diesel railcar, which is still in the middle of an axle swap!

 

You could use your Pacer as a bus replacement service . . . .🤔

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, Fishplate said:

 

You could use your Pacer as a bus replacement service . . . .🤔

 

I've got some of the large Dinky tyres that would probably fit. 

 

It can't possibly look any more ridiculous...

[Barclay]

The Mojo is a funny thing - I did little modelling all summer - I'm building a loco kit that's fighting me a bit and it stopped being enjoyable. Recently I've worked on a couple of other things instead and feel much better. That loco will get finished when I'm up to it!

 

Perhaps it is thoughts of Mk. 2 that are dampening your ardour? You speak of it quite a lot so perhaps it is where your heart is now? (!). 

 

The layout looks lovely though and it would be a shame to scrap it so quickly. 

 

[Andy Keane]

5 minutes ago, Barclay said:

The layout looks lovely though and it would be a shame to scrap it so quickly.

I could not agree more - CR1 is a thing of rare beauty. I often look at your pictures and strive after the same results. 

[Graham T]

1 hour ago, Barclay said:

The Mojo is a funny thing - I did little modelling all summer - I'm building a loco kit that's fighting me a bit and it stopped being enjoyable. Recently I've worked on a couple of other things instead and feel much better. That loco will get finished when I'm up to it!

 

Perhaps it is thoughts of Mk. 2 that are dampening your ardour? You speak of it quite a lot so perhaps it is where your heart is now? (!). 

 

The layout looks lovely though and it would be a shame to scrap it so quickly. 

 

 

Thanks Stuart.  No immediate plans to scrap the layout, I think I'll keep it at least until CR Mk II gets to the stage where I can run some trains on it.  And I'd like to recycle as many of the buildings as I can.  

 

But the hammering of the mojo has more been caused by real life events, which I won't bore you with here.  Suffice to say, I need to find something to snap myself out of my current mood, but it's proving to be elusive.

 

1 hour ago, Andy Keane said:

I could not agree more - CR1 is a thing of rare beauty. I often look at your pictures and strive after the same results. 

 

That's very kind of you Andy, thanks.  I think your model of Helston will be a cracker!  The buildings look great.

[Graham T]

I forgot to mention that one of the main problems with the current Chuffnell Regis is that I made such a hash of the track-laying, which takes much of the joy out of it of course.  It's the first layout I've built and I was nowhere near patient enough with the track, just bashed on with it as quickly as I could, and also made a number of errors with the wiring.  The upshot is that I don't think it will ever really run satisfactorily without pretty much all of the track being lifted, re-laid, and re-wired.  And if I'm going to do that I might as well start over from scratch, rather than trying to make the best of a bad job.

[Graham T]

I added some coal to Cookham Manor last night, and am going to make a start on the weathering now.  Must try not to overdo it.

 

 

[Graham T]

Slightly nerve-wracking to start dirtying up such a nice model, but here we go.  First stage has been a liberal application of Mig dark enamel wash.  This was left on the loco for 5-10 minutes, and then most of it wiped away with cotton buds.  I used a soft brush to tease the excess out from behind the handrails.  Then a very light brushing of smoke powder along the top of the boiler and firebox.

 

I really don't want this loco to look very dirty at all, but equally I do want her to look as if she's actually working for a living.

 

Here's a before and after shot to begin with.

 

 

 

There's still a bit of a sheen from the wash.  That may dry somewhat duller, but if not I think it probably looks more or less ok as it is?

 

A closer look at the effect of the smoke powder on top of the dark wash, and on the cab roof...

 

 

And an overall view - I could do with better lights on the layout I think.  You can see here how the enamel wash darkens some of the paint on the smokebox; I'll probably go over that with a black/leather brown acrylic mix once it's dried, and will use the same colours for the footplate and everything below.