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After spending the day looking after the wife and children who have been knocked over by Australian Flu, unsurprisingly I havent managed to get much of anything done. That said, during their naps I have managed to get a few small jobs sorted out. The first major job was refitting an Airfix centenary with its second replacement (Comet) side, unfortunately as mentioned in my previous post the tumblehome wasn't properly formed on this pair of etches (but I only found out after cutting the gutter off both and after gluing the first in position.) On the second side I had a go at re-profiling the tumblehome before gluing in place. Unfortunately I got the worst fit at the top of any Centenary converted so far, so lots of touch up work with superglue was required. That said the model is now up to the same stage as the rest of the rake. The remaining jobs are to update the roof detail on the restaurant pair and thirds, sort out the underframe on the restaurant pair, replacing the wheels with metal ones, and finally to add a length of 10 by 60 thou strip to beef up the gutters. Once all of that is done they will be ready for painting in the spring. I did manage to make some headway on the roofs and adding filler to doors, but there a long way to go (and no doubt given FGW number of vents on the restaurant pair I will need to order some more The other job of the day has been a little work on DCC fitting 4547. Over the Christmas brake while visiting my parents I went through my stored model bits looking for anything useful. Soldered up to the chassis of a HO SW1001 shunted ​(re-sprayed into Foster Yeoman livery a long time ago)​ I found a very small ZTC decoder. In another box was another old decoder (I think a Bachmann 3 function that came with a job lot from the DEMU Showcase in the mid 2000s). I have put together a basic decoder tester using components from an old school project, which is now soldered up to the test track on Brent's fiddleyard. After testing the decoder worked, it was hard wired into 4576. A very straight forward job cutting the function wires to an inch in length, then soldering wires to the motor and pickups. The decoder is then stuffed into the boiler and the model reassembled. The other decoder (the old Bachmann/ESU job) only supports short addressing, so unless I get a model of A1 Lloyds it is of no use what so ever. Instead it has been fitted to my Great Western Trains class 47 which is used as an initial track tester.

Onwards, now, to a new project, and I've chosen to model a Class 18 converted. Photograph from the RCTS LNER locos books. These are quite interesting engines which started life as 0-6-0 tender locos in the 1880s and were converted to tank engines in the early 1900s. My starting point for this project is a Triang 0-6-0 dock shunter, which looks vaguely similar but the similarities stop there. I started then by cutting the bodywork up into separate components. The saddle tank, cab and bunker form one, the smokebox a second and the running plate a third. There was a fourth part- the skirt running around the loco below the saddle tank. I decided that as the bodywork needs to be lowered it would make sense to tank material out of that skirt, and as I'm not confident I could take a neat 3mm slot out of it I decided to remove it entirely and replace with new material.

Since last time, I have added the transfers, I have finished the paintwork, I have added footboards. This one, then, is now finished. Would I build any more? No, probably not like this.

Having decided that life is far too short be be spending it all on converting RTR stock to EM, I’ve reverted to ‘narrow’ gauge and have experienced an immediate mojo surge! This has meant tackling lots of projects waiting in the queue for up to seven years! Anyway, I have a dismembered Hornby Britannia that has been hanging around the workshop in a forlorn state since 2012, having donated its tender to a backdated Duke of Gloucester in earlier times. I’ve spent a couple of days giving the loco some overdue TLC and some replacement parts. The most glaring fault on Hornby’s otherwise superb representation is the absolutely rotten chimney so I’ve replaced this with a 247 Developments casting. Additionally, the model is receiving LMS cast buffers, a new Comet tender body and Jackson Evans smoke deflectors. Ultimately, the model is set to become 70049 Solway Firth as in her latter, Kingmoor-based days. It should make for an interesting weathering project.

Well, apart from the fittings that will go on after painting she's all finished!!

Since last time, I have added the transfers, I have finished the paintwork, I have added footboards. This one, then, is now finished. Would I build any more? No, probably not like this.

Before the announcement in 2015 of the Bachmann 94xx (which still hasn't appeared, nor appears to be anywhere imminent) I'd already gathered a spare pannier chassis and a cheap Lima body to add another of these locomotives to my fleet. Earlier this week it glared at me from the projects drawer and I thought it was time to crack on and finish it. It's the sort of job that really requires only basic modelling implements and skills - a rotary cutting tool, some knives and files, some filler, a few bits of plastic card, some drills and wire and a few patient hours. I've taken the black one to this state after just three evening sessions totalling about an hour each, so it's really not that arduous. Other than using a newer chassis, the work was very similar to the job done on the GWR 94xx seen in this picture. That one used a split-frame chassis, which is still offering good service ten years after the conversion, as is my other split-frame pannier, now pushing twenty years old. The Lima body breaks down into a footplate and a body moulding, and being able to separate them makes it quite easy to saw away the excess plastic needed to get the newer chassis to drop into the available space. It's not difficult, just requiring a bit of trial and error until the necessary space is made. The relation of wheel centres to splasher mouldings is not exact, but if you have to live with one of them being out of alignment, I prefer it to be the one under the cab, which is very unobtrusive to begin with. If it bothers you, it would be relatively easy to correct the cab-end splasher. Then begins the fun work of correcting the body errors on the Lima moulding, and replacing as many of the handrails as you desire. The main fault with the Lima model is the presence of steps on the driver's side of the cab, as well as some spurious handrails which should be absent on that side. Correcting these faults would be easy were it not for the presence of the rivet detail, which it's hard to preserve during cutting and sanding. On approach might be to lose the rivets completely as they are a little on the heavy side anyway. With the green one, I sanded them off then reinstated them with blobs of PVA, the success of which I think is debatable, but something I can live with. With the black 94xx, I'm trying a slightly different tack which is flood the inset steps with Mr Surfacer (as used by military modellers etc) and see how I get on. If it all goes to plan (which I'm sure it won't!) the Mr Surfacer should form a smooth layer which blends in seamlessly with the surrounding cab. In any case, it'll be a learning curve. Although it'll remain in black, I expect the model to need a repaint in any case. Also on the workbench this week has been the venerable 2721 class. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, it's now running with a Comet 57xx chassis in place of the Hornby original. There are lots of things not right with the 2721, and using the 57xx chassis is a bodge in that (among other things) the brake pull rods aren't the right type. The main outstanding issue, though, was that the front splasher was now badly out of alignment with the wheel. Finally summoning up the nerve, I reworked that whole area by sawing away the splasher, relocating it, and then building back the detail under the smokebox. Once I'd done that, I had a huge void under the tanks which needed addressing. The motor angle was adjusted slightly and a false boiler bottom fashioned from plastic tube of roughly the right diameter. I then added a suggestion of inside valve gear using plastic rod, only just visible but I know it's there. After all this, there's just enough daylight under the boiler to look convincing, I hope, albeit tricky to photograph: That's it for now. Happy bodging, one and all.