Jamiel

Hi Adam Thank you for the inspiration and for introducing us to different suppliers, especially Ambis Engineering. I hope the images come back as it is a very informative thread, but I do understand that a thread can come to a natural end. I hope you have a lot of fun with your future modelling and I will keep an eye out for future post by you on the forum. Jamie

At the risk of being repetitive, more photos of the wagon, in sunlight. I ran a scalpel over the transfers, I was worried a cotton but would also just lift the sections they are cut from. A tiny bit of dry brushing and a little more sanding. You cannot see it but, I took out the bearing that was making the wheels uneven, drilled the hole wider, then replaced the bearing with a sliver of plasticard to level it out, which has worked fine. I’m not sure it needs a pass with the airbrush, and my nozzle has not arrived yet. The one thing still needed is to add a weight to the underside when I dig out my stock of metal bits. Looking in the drawers there are a lot pf Parkside, and a few Dapol/Airfix wagon kits waiting to be done, but I think another chassis for a Transpennine is the best thing to tackle next. MOT for the car tomorrow, so I will have an idea of how much money I have or otherwise after that for projects this month.

Not quite enough light to get decent photos, but here are some anyway. A couple more layers of paint, washes of black, brown and white, and also some dry-brushing. I have sanded and painted the inside a bit more. The sanding helps it a lot. Transfers have been added and then painted back. I did try sanding those, but the one I tried just came straight off, so more Pledge to set them. One of the bearings for the wheels is a little off centre, so I will prise it out and reset it so the wheel is straight. When the airbrush nozzle arrives, may also give it a very slight dusting with a black and brown mix. Nearly done, but it will also need some weight underneath which I think I will try and find some steel strip to go there.

First couple of passes of paint. I am missing the airbrush, hopefully the nozzle will arrive tomorrow, I would like to give it an all over light pass with a mix of black and dark brown both the pull the colours together and also to take the slight gloss off painting so far. I might also give it a pass with matt varnish. Still need a few more passes. I may sand the interior, it is too messy now, and will also add some ballast to make it grainy. It will also need a dry brushing, and obviously a few transfers. I had to drill through one of the buffer ends and thread some brass wire in to hold it as it kept falling off when white spirit got near it. Jamie

Many thanks to 41516, who sent me some details on the wagon. It is still a bit of a mishmash, but is now a bit closer to something that might fit the layout. Top edge built back up and steel strips added, cross braces underframe removed. It still looks a bit rough in closeup, but just a little more sanding and I think it will be ready for painting. Jamie

Hi 41516 Thanks for that information, and really lovely builds. It looks like the wagon is going to be for those who don’t look too closely. It has been bashed about at bit, and a few details added, door bangers made from brass offcuts. I have straightened the buffers after seeing the photos with a bit of Mek, I knocked one off when roughing it up. I don’t like the Cambrian buffers, but this wagon is definitely not worth metal buffers. It will need sanding and a bit more work before painting. I may have taken the edge of the top planks too far back, so may need to add back a little strip. It looks pretty rough at the moment. I did find when I had finished the kit as intended that it just didn’t look right for a wagon in the period, a new 5 plank wouldn’t be at the back of a ballast train in the 60s I suspect. I was looking at Rumney models wagon kits and parts and I think if I make wagons that are more than just making up numbers on the layout, I may use their kits. I have found making a plastic kit much less satisfying that working with brass as a much of my recent work has mostly been. I am also far better at making DMUs and Buildings than other things. Jamie

Hi 41516 I did a search for LMS 5 plank wagons, and found a couple of references, but it is more than likely that they do not match the kit. This is my principal reference, but I do not know which diagram it is. http://www.srpsmuseum.org.uk/10068.htm The Bluebell also has a couple of similar wagons for reference. https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pics/dm411245.html I do want the wagon to look like it is in its last days, so the neatness of the sides doesn’t really fit for my period. I may have to carve in a bit more plank damage as well as painting different planks. I also realise that I haven’t fitted door bangers, the above examples have two each side, and also a cross bar across the wheel W’s on some wagons. I have just had a look at Paul Bartlett’s page for LMS wagons, and although a later time, and wear, I see what you mean about diag 1666. I suspect I am looking more at lot 1371 or 1345 judging by those images. I am presuming that these wagons went through a bit of rebuilding over the years, as well as wear and tear. https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lmsopen DM417638 ZGO may be a good one to emulate. I am presuming that these wagons went through a bit of rebuilding over the years, as well as wear and tear. Any thoughts? Jamie

I’ve bashed out a Cambrian Five Plank LMS wagon for the ballast train. Not my finest bit of modelling, but at least it was relaxing to do. Bottom planks on the doors added as bowed out as they usually were, I will also saw down the join to the doors t make them look a bit less moulded. Files 0.20mm plasticard has worked OK, 0.10mm has bowed with the Mek, but will probably be OK when painted. Cross bars and hangers added underneath, other than that pretty much as it came. I think when it is painted it will look OK provided there isn’t too much scrutiny to it. It can site behind the Grampus wagons. I will also need to add weight, different options, seems a pity to waste liquid lead when there is space for a bar of metal to be glued underneath. It would be nice to have some rubbish inside by still see the planks. I’ll also have to hide the inside where the bowed planks should be. I have also ordered anew nozzle for my airbrush so I hope to be able to resume the Transpennine shortly. I also want to return to the arcade of shop which has been untouched since the move 18 months ago. I also have a brass kit of a Siphon to do, and sometime I will have to go and visit someone with experience of building locos to finish and fettle my Comet Black 5 and test tun the Aspinall Class 23 0-6-0. Lots to do and feeling a bit more like modelling again now teaching is over for the year, just the mass of marking ahead in the next two months, but marking and then breaks will work well I hope. Jamie

Hi John Hot-linked images from my own website on my layout thread are working, as are image links to Flickr on the 16-ton Minerals thread. Other image hosts may not be linking though. Andy has said the site is going through an update so things may take a little while to settle down. Hope that helps. Jamie

From Dad Joke man on Twitter, sent to me by my girlfriend who said ‘You should put this on RMWeb’, she knows me well. To the person who stole my trainer and high-viz jacket…. You can run, but you can’t hide.

Yes the joke is a fine vintage, but very flexible and can be used for most companies and many political parties too.

I’ll dedicate this one to our moderator Andy, like many of the recent posts here, and hope it hasn’t been posted before. A Texas billionaire gathers his three children together at Christmas time and asks them what presents they would like. He turns to his eldest son as asks what he would like. He replies, ‘Daddy, I would like a nice toy train please.’ The father replies ‘I can do better than that, I’ll buy you the Grand Union Railroad’ He turns to his daughter. His daughter says ‘Please Daddy, could I have some nice perfume for Christmas’ He replies ‘Hell, I can do better than that, I’ll buy you Este Lauder of Paris for you.’ He then turns to his youngest son. His youngest son says ‘Please Daddy, could I have a cowboy outfit?’ The father replies ‘Hell son, I can do better than that, I will buy you Dediserve’.

Great to have RMweb back, also glad I hotlinked all my photos to my website/server. The downside is if my website goes down, then all my photos go too. Not likely to happen unless it gets too expensive to continue. No modelling during the RMweb downtime, ordering a new nozzle for the airbrush and too much marking to do for my students. Might get a wagon kit out if I get desperate though. Jamie

Well done Andy and all who were involved in the recovery and migration to a new host. It must have been hard and very stressful. Thank you keeping us updated on the Facebook account as well. Personally, everything I have looked at is there. Knowing how much I have posted on my own layout thread, much of which I refer back to see how I did some things, I think the quantity of data preserved is incredible. Losing some images is not surprising considering how much bigger file sizes are, hopefully people will have backups of images uploaded. Hotlinked images are working fine, but then they are on outside servers, so that is not surprising. The site is also working far faster than in recent months. Well done and thank you bringing some normality back to an increasingly worrying world. Jamie

Starting to paint the unts, first undercoat, Phoenix self-etch grey primer. I masked off the cabs which are already painted. A first light coat of Phoenix DMY Green (Dull). The ends where I have removed a lot of details from the Replica bodies are not looking good. A bit late to go back and use the metal ends from Worsley works on these now, and also hard to get in there to sand it flat, which is why they look as they do. I may see if I can patch over with 0.10mm plasticard, maybe some filler, or maybe weathering around the exhausts might help cover this up. Not the most visible place on the units so I may have to just try and disguise it as best I can. Underframes with a first pass of Humbrol Matt 32, dark grey, nest a light black. Very pleased how the underframes are looking. I had just started my second pass of green on the bodies, but I was getting bubble back in the airbrush, so I took off the nozzle to clean it, and dropped it. Outdoors by the garage, it lost, finding a 1mm nozzle in gritty driveway is not going to happen. The be fair the nozzle is likely to be the cause of the bubble back, so a new one was needed, but further painting will have to waiting until I can buy one. I miss my shed, an indoor workbench is far better than outside, you can find things you drop, and also dust cannot blow onto your primer. I did have to sand down the promer for tiny specs. Lots of marking to do at work as well, so progress is note expected to move much in the next couple of weeks anyway. Jamie

Superb work on the signal box. I don't think it is over weathered at all, it looks like it belongs somewhere surrounded by smoke and oil. Very inspiring work.

More of the same, the other driving unit has reached the same stage. Both looking a little dusty as I have been filing and sanding the cab to the side joins. Next to do the non drive ends with the exhausts, grab rails and steps. I also need to do a little detailing to the front bogies, cab steps and speedometer with cable. A bit of tidy to the rain gutter at the front end. I will probably add the interior doors with the ends to the compartments, as that will strengthen it all. LEDs in the roofs. Then masking the fronts, LEDs and cab interior details before painting, undercoat and green. I will then add the windscreen wipers and cab windows, before fitting the cab roofs and doing whatever filling is needed. I will leave the roof detailing and final painting until after fitting the cab roofs as I suspect some filling and filling will be needed. I need to find my heavy bar that I cut the weighting sections from as well. After that the windows, curtains, seating, driver and passengers and finally transfers and weathering. I am also going to ty and cut a brass outer for the headcode boxes. I can’t find one suitable, I thought Extreme Etchings might have one (Class 47?), but I can’t see one on the website. The surrounds for the wipers can be cut/filed down as an experiment. If that doesn’t work fine plastic, but that would tend to warp when stuck in place. I will experiment, but am also up for suggestions. I am fairly happy how it is going. Getting plastic moulded cab ends to sit flush to brass sides and stay stuck isn’t the easiest thing, but with a little filling it seems OK. The just the 4 more cars, and working out how it will be powered, especially if Replica have sold out of their powered chassis. Jamie

Photo shared by Roger Gregory on Facebook, shared with permission. Original photographer not known. ‘At Stirling with an E.E. Type 4 No D260 on the up 'Saint Mungo' is greeted by E.E. Bo-Bo Type 1 Class 20 No D8104 on an unfitted freight; 8-6-65.’

D260 a livery difference rather than detail, but an interesting one for modellers. Were all the Scottish based Class 40s with centre headcodes given this style of yellow warning panel in later green livery days? Reminiscent of the Class 29s, which were based in Scotland at this time. Square headcode boxes as with other Scottish Class 40s. I have seen D261 as a model on Google image search. Images shared by Roger Gregory on Facebook, shared with permission. Original photographer not known. Original captions. ‘English Electric Type 4 No D260 replenishers its train heating boiler at Stirling, June 8th 1965 at the head of a down express. photographer not known’ ‘At Stirling with an E.E. Type 4 No D260 on the up 'Saint Mungo' is greeted by E.E. Bo-Bo Type 1 Class 20 No D8104 on an unfitted freight; 8-6-65. photographer not known’ Jamie EDIT. Looking closely at the two photos, the marks on the far side of the yellow panel are weathering, and not dirt on the photos as they match in both images. Not sure if it is an optical illusion, but it also looks like the bottom edge of the panel is not parallel to the bottom of the nose cone.

Are you ready for some football?

I do it for making wiring on the outside of buildings, telephone wires, cabling and also fine details on rolling stock. I think that all my buildings have a bit of that. I first encountered it in the instructions for making a WW2 vehicle, maybe a US army lorry, to make the radio antenna. Like others have said that would make it a technique from military modelling. Hold the sprue above the flame and bend back and forwards to see how soft it is. Pull slowly for a thick wire and steadily for a thin one. Don't put the sprue in the flame, that doesn't work. On a different point, it is really good to see someone else using a thin ply base covered with plastic brick cards for buildings, it makes for a very strong laminate. Lovely work on the signal box. Jamie

Hi Geoff Thanks for the feedback. The jumper cables are from Craftsman DMU detailing kits, sadly no longer available. They are a little oversize, but as they can be soldered, I prefer to use them. If you can work with plastic, Heljan DMU spares, which I think you can get from PetersSpares are good, if anything maybe a little small. They are plastic though, which is the main reason I prefer they Craftsman ones. I am on to bodysides for the other driving unit. I have posted elsewhere, but I don’t know where I got this etch from, it has been suggested that it is PC Models ‘BR door handles’. I can use the MJT ones as well, but I like this etch a lot. I am not able to find grab handles to fit the DMU size, but I also find the bent over etched a bit fragile. I have tried a new method, bending wire on a Bill Bedford ‘Handrail Bending Jig’ (something I would suggest every modeller should buy), seen at the top of the first photo. The wire has been filed flat to give a better feel, might need a bit more. They are a little thick, but close up look a little clumsy, maybe a bit more filing and also only colouring the flat surface and let the base fit with the green of the body. They are much less fragile though and are the right size. I’ll how they look from a distance when the body is finshed. As it is only wire, I am happy to discard attempts that don’t quite bend in the right place, or at least store them for other uses. I drilled through holes for wire for the door bumpers, filed flat as well. I like the Worsley etches and am thankful that I am not ‘cutting and shutting’ every coach body. Jamie

Next chassis and underframe mostly done. Second one at the bottom in the first photo. Not 100% identical, a few slight differences, some slight improvement, some not quite as good as the first, but both are within my tolerances for accuracy (too tolerant some might say). Buffer beams, now with two horns on each. On the work bench. The coach body for the second driving unit next. I am out of resin for casting and have realised the one full cast I use most is the Smith Heater, which I only have one mould of, so for the other units I will need two for each (I think they are on all the units, including the Buffet car). Still not sure of how this will be powered, I have the motor bogie, but that will need a new drive shaft to take it to scale 8’6” wheelbase, but for a six car mostly metal bodied set I feel that the power of a Replica power chassis would be the best option. Unfortunately, the 64ft versions re sold out, so I will have to email them as see if another run is planned. Failing that I think I will have to have a good look at some of Michael Edge’s work, his power for bogie locomotives is amazing, but he is an amazing modeller. Still a bit of time before I have to sort that out. More soon. Jamie

What an excellent layout. I am a big fan of urban layouts, especially those that have a bit of dirt and weeds around the edges, and Saltport fits that perfectly. A really nice selection of rolling stock, and lots of photos to show the details. I found this through your post on the ‘Scratch built buildings’ thread. Thank you posting your work. Jamie

Tony Kornheiser said 'Sooner or later someone is going to call them the 'Commies', where is Senator McCarthy when you need him?'.