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My latest conversion is a Bachmann Patriot which has the same chassis as the Jubilee. Wheels are again Alan Gibson with Markits crankpins which have been spaced using 4 x 1mm washers per axle. Brake shoes have been removed an refixed with additional plasticard spacers. The tender has a Dave Franks Fowler sprung chassis. Below is a link to youtube. Question: - how do you upload videos from youtube these days? https://youtu.be/yib4hZZ-TbI

It's been awhile since I last posted here, but now that the days are getting lighter (and I can see what I'm doing), the modelling juices are beginning to flow again. It's time to stir out of my winter lethargy and get back to the next phase in Tweedale's evolution. First though I thought that a recap and update might be useful for putting everything into context. 　 Tweedale was started in 2014, as a temporary, freelance, low tech bit of fun, with an estimated lifetime of about 2 years. It was intended as a kind of a warm-up exercise (following a period away from the hobby), before embarking on a proper serious mainstream type of layout. However it has proved so successful that 6 years later it still continues to deliver the goods, so to speak. Indeed it has maintained my interest to such an extent that I've now decided to give up all ideas of joining the mainstream in its ongoing quest for ever more detailed photographic realism and prototype fidelity, but instead just eddy around in my own familiar backwater with a completely new and larger version of Tweedale. To that end a good part of the past 6 months has been occupied in idly doodling plans for the new layout. The time has come to start construction. 　 Meanwhile back on the old version (as I now think of it), the story has been one of rationalisation. The most drastic change has been to completely do away with the 'Tweedale Lite' extension. This was dismantled shortly after it's exhibition outing last summer. The modifications that made it workable for the show, such as operating from the rear, made it unsuitable for home use without a lot more work being put back into it. As I was already toying with the idea of a new layout back then, I had no real interest in spending more time on the old. However, on a more positive note, almost everything has been salvaged. The track and scenic items will be reused on the new layout, and the diorama-style box in which it was all contained has been taken off my hands by one of my cronies for a new N gauge layout that he is building. As a consequence the old layout has now reverted to a state it was in about 3 years ago. It does at least still get operated for half an hour most days, and will no doubt continue to do so until the new layout takes over. Apart from maintenance, it is unlikely any more will be done to the old Tweedale, so I'll leave it there to see out the rest of its days in peace, and concentrate in future blogs on the progress of the new layout. 　 Cheers, Alan.

Cor, this building lark goes on a bit doesn't it? So, to bring things up to speed. The roof has had a fair few sheets of double Roman ABS tile sheets added and the glazing added. This was a little tricky as the Rowmark framing wanted to warp all over the place. The glazing is a single layer of 1mm Prespex. Despite being saturated in Spraymount and heavily weighted down, some of the glazing bars wanted to lift up. The solution was to flood each pane with Johnson's Klear and reset. In a couple of places even that didn't work so I resorted to canopy glue. I got there in the end. I've since added a few sections of framing for the very ends and the ridge tiles etc, though I've not taken any photos of that, but it's coming together nicely. The roof itself is now being subject to a bit of fettling, filling and painting. This weekend's task was to paint all of the walls and keep painting, drybrushing and more dry brushing until I'd got the colours to match those of the already completed goods shed. It took ages but I'm really pleased with the result. I keep panicking I've overdone the mortar work but from 3ft it's exactly the result I wanted. Must be the EM modeller in me! The end shed timber work has had a base coat and will have a lighter top coat and I started on the internal footbridge. These have stone stairs and a timber bridge section. All presently demountable but will be fixed in place permanently when painted. I had to carve out some of the plinths internally as I'd forgotten the steps will be flush to the wall. The rather funky balustrades are cut from Rowmark and have had a base coat to start. I've started to paint the footbridge brackets and have also painted the self adhesive quoins I had cut to tidy up the building corners. A bit more filling and fettling but I feel we're on the homeward straight now. A bit of a photo overload, but I can't be ars8d to sort them out!

This project is to try and do as much as possible to finish off an L.S.W.R. class F9 4:2:4T. Brief Prototype History for the Bug. The bug was Dugald Drummonds inspection loco built by L.S.W.R. works at Nine Elms and completed in april of 1899, numbered 733. Original livery for the loco was apple green edged with chocolate with a black line edged either side by white. The saloon was painted dark green / brown with the upper recessed panels in salmon pink, lining for the saloon was venetian and gold. The roof when new was painted white which very soon became grey. In December 1924, the loco was repainted / renumbered by the Southern Railway to 58 S. Wheel splashers for this loco were attached to the main frames. The Bug, besides being Dugald Drummonds own personal inspection locomotive was used by Drummond, to travel to and from work, withdrawn in 1940. This Project. This project is to try and do as much as possible to finish off an L.S.W.R. class F9 4:2:4T , Drummond's Bug. The story sofar : Model was scratchbuilt to EM gauge standards and while the chassis was virtually complete, the main body and attached saloon were missing a few details, interior of the saloon had zero detail and no glazing, why I'd painted the model before some of these details were added is beyond me. The saloon section was cut down from a previously etched southern elec fret and is not quite correct to prototype. These frets were etched in an home made etching tank which was nothing more than a wooden box lined with glass fibre, a horizontal paddle ( also of wood ) and a motor mounted on the outside. Artwork was drawn overscale on a drawing board with ink pens in the old fashioned way. The resulting frets were a little uneven with regards to depth of cut, some edges were undercut and in the case of the bug, an area had not edged at all and needed machining which caused a small hole in one of the lower panels. Chassis was later stripped down, rebuilt to P4, and included Mike Sharmans Flexichas system and split frames on the bogies to improve electrical pickup. This project starts with a dismantling of the chassis into its main components and a study of a 7mm drawing by Ray Chorley in a copy of Model Railway Constructor dated August 1968 which also includes a couple of BR photographs. During the models reconstruction, details are given on how Sharmans Flixichas system were applied to this model and is explained with a simple schematic and a look at the relevant features on the chassis components. I must make a point of thanking members of rmweb for enlightening me with regards to the boiler injection system and its relevant components with a special thankyou to gz3xzf ( Bryan Hardwick ) for annotating a drawing with the information required ( topic can be viewed here ), therefore, a good chunk of this blog is devoted to the machining and building of, these very small components. Once the chassis had been rebuilt, only the rear bogie was wired as an electrical pickup to the motor because wheel splashers on the front bogie looked to be a potential short circuit with the cylinders when negotiating curves. The rear bogie proved to be unreliable and was modified to include additional wires sprung lightly on the axles. A very basic interior for the coach section was modelled, the coach was stripped of its paint and the missing roof lights and water tank filler added. The boiler also needed modifying due to a small error with the steam valve positions and this was also stripped of its paint. Painting and Lining. Painting and lining are skills I've yet to master, I find them difficult, fustrating and the fact that my hands are unsteady dosn't help. After many years of modelling L.S.W.R and Southern, a decision was made that Snitzl Town would be free from such regional limitations and would not belong to any given region at all. Snitzl Town would be a private concern able to purchase rolling stock from any of the regions and repaint them in Snitzl Town liveries. Therefore, in the world of Snitzlshire, we will assume that at great expense, Sir Archibald Snitzl purchased the bug from his best friend, Dugald Drummond and had her repainted in the workshops of Snitzl Town, Dugald Drummond will now have to find other means of transport for his 60 mile journey to work. Snitzl's bug will now be used to run Archibald Snitzl to and from work, as did the original bug for Dugald Drummond. Snitzl.

Wickham trolley arrived after being bought in Derails sale. Runs surprisingly well over dead frog Peco points. "Real" ballast added. HO figures on order, OO one is a bit of a faf, even with his feet Tacky Waxed.....

As you might appreciate, there are other things going on with this project around the same time such as track work painting, platform mods and wiring etc., etc. Too many to write about just yet, so I’ll do my best to keep information coming. While the two station modules are joined I have commenced building the stone walls with a little help from my GWRM club member. Harry was one of our clubs’ founding members and by sheer coincidence built similar dry stone walls numerous years earlier that I was unaware of, to the RM Web Physicsman KL ones . I mentioned his Das system would probably drive me crazy in an earlier blog, but none the less I was impressed. Around Garsdale Station the walls have varying styles of construction so I decided I would need to stay with the flat stone method, but instead of Das clay, Harry had used 1.6mm thick card. To me that was an easier solution than using Das strips or pea gravel. The height of the walls vary with the terrain between 16 - 20 mm and higher, with a base of 9.0 mm that tapers up to the top width of 5.0 mm. The tops mostly consist of broken rock coping stones but being Garsdale there are angled triangular flat shaped stones in some places between as well. OK! So here I decided to use suitable sized pieces of natural zeolite also known as cat litter stacked along the wall tops then once glued in place, acrylic paint everything accordingly when all the dry stone walls are finished. That kept me busy for a while to achieve. Strange as it may seem once under way, one got a quiet satisfaction of achievement as you do with everything when scratch building.

So, this one is a bit detailed and has a few ramblings.... Sorry Some modellers are very clever, they come out with perfectly formed designs, work tirelessly to bring them to fruition and produce superb pieces of work first time. Some practice 'slow modelling', being superbly organized, only getting out the tools and materials needed to for the job in hand and breathing deeply while wielding their scalpels. Much respect it due to these folks, if you feel you fit into these categories then good for you. I'm afraid that I have neither the skill nor the patience. I tend to build things the best I can at the time and have no qualms about 'going back and having another go'. One of the great benefit of the automated tools I have at my disposal is that a lot of the grunt work of redoing something can be done in CAD and on the lasercutter/3D printer. Sometimes I waste a bit of raw material but if can make something better in increments then I'm happy. Perhaps I should coin this 'Agile' modelling after the current trend in software development. I guess I work on the principle that sometimes it is better to build something, even if it turns out to be wrong or could be made better, than not to make anything - 'slow modelling' can risk becoming 'no modelling' if all you ever do is sit in your armchair. Even if all I do is learn how to make a better one then I feel that is a gain. Anyway to the case in hand. I've had a few iterations now of cassette design for my fiddleyard which I thought I'd share. The original design had two low ply sides and a curved handle. The end has a tongue and a slot which aligns the cassette. I realized that these would fit nicely in the 3 larger drawers of my Ikea drawer unit but not the 3 slightly shorter drawers, the handle over the top of the cassette was unnecessarily high and could be cut down a lot without impacting the strength of the unit. I also found that if I flatten out the top of the handle it would be possible to stack one cassette on top of another and they wouldn't slip off which could aid handling and storage. Both these designs though had a common flaw, the sides of the cassette, even though they were only 25mm high, made getting stock onto the rails very difficult if not impossible. As you can see there is no way to get your fingers into the align wheels with the rail particularly with bogie stock. So we come to the third iteration. By extending the sides up to the top of the handle and cutting large holes in the side the unit keeps its strength, still stacks, if anything better than before and you can get the sides of bogies. A pile of cassettes can be made without the risk of them slipping off each other. The other change I made was on the arrangement for current collection on each cassette. On the original version I had made a sort of 'side scraper' design with a phosphor-bronze wiper mounted to engage with the side of the adjacent cassette, this worked from an electrical point of few but I found it could introduce a slight sideways force on the cassette. The original arrangement looked like this. As the cassettes are held in compression by the sliding end clamps I realized that this was unnecessarily complicated and that just a sprung upstand on end of the cassette would press against an identical upstand on the next cassette. These are very much simpler to make and easy to clean and tweak to give a good connection. So in the end I got the cassettes converted to this new arrangement and built another four long and two short cassettes. All this cassette work obviously lead to running a few trains around and it was very satisfying get some stock out of the drawers again. The Class 15 made an appearance with a very mixed bag on a parcels train. There is a Mk1 full brake, a ex-LMS full brake, a GUV, a Gresley full brake and a couple of CCTs on the rear. The station building now has the roof on, I was pleased with the way the various pieces went together, trying to draw up the hipped sections strained the brain a little! I've also had a first short at the toilet block. So I hope you liked this longer than usual entry and please enjoy you modelling, at whatever speed or style works for you. David

Getting close to finished with the Tau box. Second Ethereal-blade is knocked up. I probably mentioned before, but it is a very simple, useful conversion. The parts break-down on these kits was intended to allow for easy modification. This is all normal Ethereal here. And the finished conversion. Different arms, different head, & a backpack. I've thought about changing the legs, but the torso & legs on the ethereal are a single molding. I don't think it is worth the time. I've done quite a bit with the suits, as well. All of the clamps. Waists & what they call 'burst cannons.' Dirty numbers, these. Probability scales heavily in their favor. Love them on the table. Sadly, not enough in the box. Everything gets a magnet, too. I didn't dawdle this time, either. Drill still held a charge, so why not? I am now out of the larger magnet size I use for the suits themselves, though. I shouldn't need more of that size for a while. I should have the suits done next week. I might even be into the next project. Hell, maybe even the project after that!

And finally . . . . Here's a photograph of the two vans together, so that you can see the similarities and differences between them. Very little material has been used on both subjects but, nonetheless, the effects have produced vehicles that have been in use for some time and suffered the ravages of time and weather. Both would probably benefit from some more work on the roof, but that would merely be an additional thin coat or two of Dark Wash, left to dry and then rubbed with a soft cloth to remove excess pigment. Merry Christmas everybody.

That's all I plan to do with this subject, remembering that it was an exercise in weathering for as little cost as possible/practical. I have attempted to clear an area of windscreen where the wiper would have cleaned, but on reflection (!) that was not such a good idea. The wheels were only made muddy on one side. Just for comparison, the topic started here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/2349/entry-21469-a-land-rover-series-1-109-introduction/

Modelling commitments for December are minimal (a bit of planning was involved), so there should be plenty of time to work on another subject. He said, confidently. One suggestion received involved a modern image van, VDA or similar, so I've found one in a box and will now look out for some suitable photographs to work from. There will be hundreds, if not thousands, on the Internet for me to investigate, so I'll just have to knuckle down and get to work on the keyboard. Just to add a little interest to this post, I'll include a photograph: A Hornby M7. Working on models with this level of detail is an absolute joy. Even the smallest amount of weathering 'stuff' can bring visual rewards.

For a while I have been trying to source a Hornby Star to repaint in wartime black as 4025. Today a suitable model finally arrived, all be it the worst experience I have had buying off eBay (taking a long time to arrive, arriving damaged and not DCC fitted). But it was in budget for a DCC ready loco and the damage was easy enough to fix so I haven't bothered sending it back. Instead I have started to strip it down. First the loco and tender were separated from their respective chassis. The tender top was swapped with the one previously used with Spitfire, (seen in the background) The name plates were removed, along with the remaining steam pipe. The replacement numbers for 4025 are on a custom etch from Narrow Planet. The chimney, top feed, buffers and cab seats were all removed. Next the smokebox door, the BR number plate was carefully shaved off and a replacement hinge was added from evergreen strip. Sorting the holes caused by the steam pipes was the next job, I decided the easiest route was to carefully cut the fixing lugs off the steam pipes and glue them into the holes (before finishing off with some filler. Next up was removing the mounded on cab side handrails and toning down the lining. This is where I made the first major mistake, after carefully carving off the hand rail I didn't sufficiently clean up the damaged side. It should be hidden by the new hand rail. I decided the vertical hand rail was much less obiovious so that has been left. The mistake was with the removal of the lining. Rather than using Microsol as usual I decided to take a shortcut and just use a fibreglass pencil. This left some residual damage which is visible under the new paint. The final prep work was with nameplates, the plate had to be carefully removed from the splashier (the opposite way round to usual) chopping away with tin snips. It was then tidied up with a file before gluing back in place Then it was out with the spray booth for a coat of primer followed by Halfords satin black It now just needs a little reassembly, and touching up the black paint around the windows (which were masked insitue