virginhst539

well, that thing that's been knocking about the last few years finally got me hence the lack of modelling. Another thing that got me was the black Friday sales! The Accurascale MHAs are simply lovely, opted for EWS pack 1 and DB pack one and finally took the plunge and got a short rake of the revolution trains IWAs. First bit of revolution trains stock I have bought and I'm quite impressed. Loads of lovely etched metal bits along the frame and full brake gear which is a surprise. Only fault I can find is there is an extra res tank on the underframe whereas the real thing is only fitted with one (how's that for rivet counting!) As you can see, I have already set about ripping one wagon apart for fitting the supplied stanchions. Not too sure how well these will glue down compared the ones fitted which lock into the side of the wagon frame. Also, these wagons are far too clean and all of them will be receiving a fairly heavy but prototypical weathering as well as losing the blue floor. Could not get hold of 'Pack A' so opted for two 'Pack B' so got two to renumber and one of them will be a bit different compared to the rest of them but you will have to wait for the results hopefully get back to some more structured and more frequent posts soon

Must admit even though these are western region locos warspite is tempting to renumber to 50049. I'm sure it's not as easy and change the number as there will be some differences between them no doubt. wonder what the bookies odd would be on a flood of 50s coming in a certain somebody's 2023 announcements now... The cad renders are stunning and im sure at least one will find its way into the collection at some point!

just when you think your wallet had survived the last announcement BANG! I'm going to guess steam NE region to go with the various NER coal wagons And for the total shot in the dark guess, Accura duffs and body snatchers (47/57) or maybe dipping into the unit market? I can't guess my usual cement-based options here so hopefully these will do!

219 was a regular but it was 37116 which was welded to just about every yellow train north of the border. Complained at the time but late-night trips of chasing 43s just is not the same as TnT 37s. great job with the model as well, really captures the look of a loco which has had a quick bodyside clean before going out on a train well.

Hopefully a 4-wheel cement wagon of the Vee barrel variety 😂

I think we will see a Scotrail livery EMU in OO at some point. think it's safe to rule out the 380 and 385s as the scope is very limited for them but a 320,321,322, 314 and 318 could appear as they cover a much larger range in terms of livery and operators. As for the 170 I could have sworn they were working on a new tooling for them before they moved to the quarterly product drops.

cascaded after the E&G was electrified and the 385s where in service. We just need a 170 in saltire with working BSI for modelling the peak services.... that or it will be another 158 in the new year. Seems a waste to have them and not use them or that's my excuse at least!

really nice to see a proper Scotrail 158 with plough being done which has very quickly been put on pre order. Was expecting a rush of 37 and 47 liveries and the Colas 70 but there is always the Feb/Mar drop

If they do no one will be getting much for xmas off me this year!

thought it was an automatic thing as the 55 shipped off the order with the 37s. noted for next time to make everyone's life easier and request to split postage sent

I have ventured into the loft and found more stuff I forgot I owned! and does not fit in with the era and region I'm modelling first up we have this rather nice Bachmann RES 47/4 which I was convinced was a 47/7. So far I'm thinking of getting replacement fuel tanks off Bachmann to make this WCRC 47786. Item 2 of stuff I forgot I owned; this repainted Bachmann 57/6 into 57601. Think the plan with this is to let it sit in Dettol or if I'm feeling brave after the exploding end Mk3 99% Iso to strip this back to the plastic and re do it as 601 in northern belle livery. unfortunately, it is a Ex FGW donor so the rad grill is wrong. was hoping the correct 47 style ones where under the etch part but no luck. Would like to try get it accurate but depends how hard it would be, few ideas how to do it but will see how it goes. Not had a lot of time to get much done on the 43 but I have started prep work for adding the top marker light, so it is not miles away now. More to follow soon

In the quest to finish off various things 43062 has had some progress made between coats on a 1/72 sea harrier which also really should have been finished a month back. Warning panel is vallejo 71.002 medium yellow and the roof is just model air black. No fancy paints for this part! Not been enjoying this as the curve of the cab front has been a bit awkward and will need masked again. Thankfully i have thought this might be the case so left a bit of room for corrections. Still cant moan too much as this is a lot cheaper than the new tooled Hornby ones will be when they do the yellow ones!

Will go take a look, for some reason im sure i read to use a 50/50 mix of br maroon and GWR freight brown but could never find any refrence to it. It is really hard to tell in prototype pictures as depending on the lighting results vary

well, it's been a min since I managed any railway modelling. joys of the big train set and lodge jobs! Anyway, I have finished off the SGT brake force runner just to notice three of the four doors have had the steps removed. A bit late not as it has all its branding put on. Pictures a bit naff but you get the idea, just need to fit the painted window blanks on the three doors and the end blanking plates to finish it off before final satin varnish coat. Next plan is to try and clear this mini yellow backlog up. NMT needs a tiny touch up on the bodyside yellow before it can progress and the other barrier coach needs more of the usual fill, sand, prime and repeat. In other news an offer that was too good to refuse came up, so I have finally started to get some 'normal' passenger stock to run seen here on test on the club layout. love them or hate them they are essential for modern image modelling for vast areas of the UK and it would be great if they made it back into the range again. really happy with this, just need the XC HST to run alongside it now. Starting to look at what to do next, got a load of Mk2s for various yellow conversions, cement and ballast wagons to weather as well as a few other ideas for stock to rework. All these ideas and not enough free time!

57313 looks fantastic! how did you go about getting the best match for the northern belle brown? seems to be one of those paints that no one has made readily available yet

add on the low cab roof ones, class 11,12, 13 master/slave on top of the literal mountain of livery's these have carried it... basically printing money, both plastic but one has six wheels!

They are just used between barrow docks and sellafeild. They might venture out for maintance? Think the XKV,XKB and FPA would be popular

funnily enough I was just thinking the earlier flasks would be the next logical step seeing we have the FNA by Bachmann, KUA and FNA-D by Accurascale covering modern day operations. The next question is how far down the glowing rabbit hole do you want to go? looking at the train formation handbook by rail express it lists the following TOPs coded Flask wagons and build date XKV - 63 XKB - 70 XKB - 76 XKB - 78 XKB - 82 FPA - 84 FNA - 86 FNA - 88 XJB -72/75 XPW - 59 PXW - 59 KXA - 58 KXA - 77 XIB - 49 KYA - 82 IQB - 81 IQA - 89 KYA - 92 There are also more modern additions missing from this such as the FNA-D and KXA-C, but yeah there a few of them to choose from!

Like the older FNA wagons do the remove the hazzard dimonds when these are running unloaded or are they a constant fixture regardless of load? Either way a great addition and a perfect excuse to vist the site and fire the ballast wagons into the basket as well!

PCA vee wagons.... think i might have mentioned it before ideal time for getting on the real ones for research as that's another set getting ready to move to meet the gas axe! can't be too many left now. my idea here is to basically keep mentioning them in the vague hope a company does them as I'm not paying eBay prices for lima ones! KFA timber wagons been suggested yet?

best i could find was for the MFS 40 wagons. network rail use MFS-D, MFS-SB and MFS+. I'm not too sure on the differences between the 40 and the D variants but hopefully it is a good starting point drawings can be found on the site below in the PDF instructions for the kit Plasser & Theurer MFS 40 (kleinspoor.nl)

im well behind as always! Motorail coaches could do with a tart up, first yellow coach I have seen the paint get darker with age!

one for you mick, pics on facebook of 5995 newly outshopped in network rail yellow with window bars fitted from its DRS loco hauled days. It's almost one of those rare ones you can just paint a MK2 yellow and call it done! if you're willing to overlook the underframe boxes and aircon fan that is. no doubt it will appear in the Hornby 2023 range

think the peacock wins! I got called to 4 sheep that had meet with an Azuma and lost. front of the unit on approach was quite clean and undamaged, but the smell was horrendous! not as bad as being stood at a level crossing and getting showered by pigeon after it attempted to outrun a HST at full tilt mind you. back to the matter in hand in short yes bird Stikes are an issue, have seen a 91 lose brake pipe pressure after a bird managed to get the tap head on shearing it from the mounting bracket and cleaning them off the fronts is not the most enjoyable job!

found the same pic on flickr dated the 10th so that rules out 816 as it was on the north bound leeds cement emptys. this week's Scottish locos were 816/809 Dunbar 803 Carlisle logs 811 Ravenstruther ballast/Dalston 815 silver bullets