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Paddy802

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Blog Entries posted by Paddy802

  1. Paddy802
    So I've not added to my blog recently but have been busy. The major scenic work is complete and I'm just adding little bits here and there. This means I can get on with weathering stock and locomotives. Meanwhile an idea is growing in my mind for my next layout. The wife says this one has to go first which is fair enough as I live in a small house, but this will be some time away, I'm thinking O gauge!!!!
    I've took a few photo's of how it stands at the moment.
     








  2. Paddy802

    Crosti 9F

    By Paddy802,

    I recently had 2 weeks summer holiday to take care of the little Imp's that run riot round my house, and as we weren't going abroad this year, I thought between the day trips and the endless DIY tasks I'd get a lot more scenery done to the layout and thus hopefully have all the ground scenery complete! Instead I did very little. However what I did do is detail and weather my Crosti 9F which I impulsively bought a few months ago, I found an article in a model railway magazine on detailing the Crosti 9F, so armed with this I acquired Alan Gibson pony truck wheels, some fine brass wire and a Britannia detailing pack. I used the article as more of a guide, I re soldered new rungs in to the ladder which was soul destroying, after this I decided to just fit the Britannia cylinder drain cocks as I didn't fancy soldering up some of my own. I was unable to get the brake gear from mainly trains as recommended in the article as the web site has closed ( as the company may have but I'm not really sure??) so had to forgo fitting the fitting of brake gear, which is very annoying as its an obvious feature that is missing. Probably the most hassle was the steam lance pipe work which I just couldn't get to shape and snuggly fit, also there is always the threat of a gluey mess on the boiler, I followed the pictures carefully and noticed that in the article it went into the boiler just before the 3rd boiler ring from the front, so I followed this, then when I looked at a photo of the real thing it seemed to run the full length of the boiler above another small pipe, which meant taking off the old steam lance fitting I'd made, filling in the small hole I'd drilled in the boiler to accommodate this and re shaping and carefully attaching a new pipe the full length of the boiler, I cut it in places so that it looked like it was going behind the other pipe work that is molded to the boiler. There was few more details I added and changed, front steps, 3 shackle coupling etc. It ain't perfect by a long way but its a railroad model and I'm no expert on Crosti's (also I'm far to young to have seen one!!), I still think its a bargain especially with sound and saves me making the choo choo noises!




  3. Paddy802

    Treating Crabs!

    By Paddy802,

    About midweek I decided to do some weathering, so I sat down and decided to tackle my Crab! Firstly I wanted to renumber it, making it a Dumfries engine, I used Fox transfers 10" cab side numbers and smoke box door number and also replaced the shed plate with a 247 Developments shed plate. My layout isn't really based on anywhere so I've decided to renumber some of my locomotives to the local area of Carlisle and south Scotland, as my wife is from Dumfrieshire and I'm a Cumbrian ( I acquired her on a Reiver raid, I only went on it for some sheep!! ).
    Over the next few days I did a bit of airbrushing and brush painting and finally finished it tonight.



    The crew are from Modelu, they are just the ones available from the website and aren't scans of me as I fear I'd make the scanner crack!

    Not the best photo but zooming in show's the shed plate better.

    Apart from that I haven't really done much modelling to the layout, just a few bushes here and there.
  4. Paddy802
    Recently I've been busy, having got the wiring for my layout lighting done as well as quite a lot of ballasting and also creating some model buildings.
    I've been ballasting the conventional way with small fine black cinders, letting it set then covering this ballast with dark grey grout whilst dry and in powder form then spraying with water, lots and lots of water.
    On the wiring front I'm ashamed to say that under my base board is a web of wires, which is fine as in my head it all makes sense, should some other poor soul ever need to do some rewiring then I'm sure it would be the equivalent of a punishment from the pits of hell. Most of my yard lights are from RMLectronics and I was mightily impressed as no other ready to plant lights even compare, unfortunately the main man has gone in to retirement so i decided not to permanently fix them to the board as I may want to use them on another layout in the future ( I have to many new layout plans running round my head ), so with this in mind I fixed pieces of plasticard to the layout with a 6mm hole in it and cut to the size of the lamps base, the lights slot nicely on to these and are removable once the wires are disconnected from the choggy blocks. Not realizing that I'd killed two birds with one stone as removable lights make track cleaning far easier.
    Oh almost forgot I finished the sand house and have also finished my scratch built crew mess. Further more I repainted the Bachmann Diesel refueling point.
    On top of this I made an impulse locomotive purchase, as I haven't bought a loco in a very long time.



    The yard office is a Townstreet structure as is the Sand house, in fact when I started I had a Townstreet engine shed and coal hole but a Godzilla sized cat made short work of these!!!

     
    With all my new lights, oh and water cranes which I also have got done I thought I'd attempt some atmospheric photo's (I hear its all the craze) using nothing more than my Samsung mobile device, although I don't really have the eye for photography, that's more my brothers domain with his big flash camera's.




     
    Finally my impulse buy. I had saved a few pennies and was happily trotting on down to my local model shop with the full intention of buying an Webb coal tank, I haven't bought a new locomotive in some time and was hoping to impress Mike the store owner with a decent sized purchase, instead of the usual balsa, plastistruct and slaters sheets.
    My excited beady little eyes spotted the little Tank Locomotive on the shelf in the display cabinet, I was just about to shout for assistance but my eye wandered to the top shelf...
    and there sat a huge Tender Locomotive further more it had sound (Ooooooh), it was the Railroad Crosti 9F, now I can almost hear the "Doh's" but for a railroad model it is pretty darn good, yes there is a lot of tweaking to be done, the front steps as an example but over all on inspection it impressed me enough to buy it. As it was set a bargain price as well, I bought it and I'm not ashamed to say spent the next few hours at home playing with it and letting the sound decoder make the noises for once instead of me!

     
    Its not the only impulse buy I've made so here is a picture of the beast with my other random purchase I made a few years ago.

    Both a tad out of place in such a small depot, but hey ho.. I see, I like, I buy.
  5. Paddy802

    Coaling up

    By Paddy802,

    I've not been modelling as much as I like to recently probably due to my highly busy 'Rock N Roll' Lifestyle. I recently bought Brass masters ladders and managed to solder them together without them having huge blobs of bad soldering on them. I only really needed one for the coaling stage, but as there is two in the pack I made an impulse purchase of the Ratio Coaling tower and kit bashed it a bit, it was a bit of an impulse buy, but I didn't think my coaling stage would have been sufficient for the coaling of my loco's, I found some where to squeeze it in.


  7. Paddy802

    Coal Hole

    By Paddy802,

    I haven't done an update recently, but I have been busy. I decided to make a new coal hole from scratch, which was a lot more fun than building the engine shed. I have also started ballasting the track to the rear / back of the layout and carry out some scenic work at the bottom of the retaining walls.





     
    Having an issue with the water in the top, decided to use clear Yacht varnish and PVA layers. I started with a thin layer of PVA then a layer of Yacht varnish which I think may have been a bit thick (bit like me!). When I thought this was dry I put another layer of PVA on, turns out the varnish may have set on the surface but wasn't fully dry all the way down. I'm thinking thinner layers of varnish in the future. Also my modelling is restricted to the conservatory which isn't the warmest place this time of year up here in the grim north!
    Any Advice would be helpful??!!

  8. Paddy802
    So I decided to weather some Mineral wagons that I've had sat in my cupboard since Christmas. I should really be doing the roof to my engine shed but I've discovered that tiling the roof is like pulling my own teeth with rusty pliers, although it is actually progressing slowly. Needless to say after the second roof section tiled I pushed it to the side and fired up the air brush and got to grips with my paint brushes to do something more enjoyable.
     
    I included a few shots of my afternoons labours.




  9. Paddy802

    Work in progress

    By Paddy802,

    Just a few pics of my 1st real layout and its progression.




     
    Also A few attempts at weathering, the Jinty was the first Locomotive I ever re-numbered and weathered, the Super D the second.


     
    Also C and M models own Dapol trucks before and after!!

  10. Paddy802

    Engine shed

    By Paddy802,

    Most of my buildings are from the very very good (and easy to make and paint) Townstreet range. I was lucky enough to have them delivered to my door by Mr Lockley, who also showed me the best way to paint them. I am more than happy with them all.
    Unfortunately one of the family cats managed to knock my engine shed flying shattering it beyond repair. Being on a tight budget (Got a hungry family to feed & a wife who wants a holiday!) I'm having to scratch build my own Engine shed to temporarily fill the role of the broken one till a replacement can be bought.


  11. Paddy802

    Pulling teeth.

    By Paddy802,

    So I haven't done much recently, I've been putting off the roof work on the engine shed as its tedious. But I sat down and knuckled down and got on with it, there is a few small finishing touches till its fully finished.


  12. Paddy802

    Ivatt 4MT

    By Paddy802,

    After doing the roof of the engine shed I thought I'd reward myself with something I really enjoy, so I started weathering my 'Mucky Duck.' I do enjoy modelling buildings its just after putting roof tiles on I thought a reward for myself was needed, so I pulled out the Ivatt 4 and made a start, this is what I did on Saturday, there is still some painting to be done but I was doing overtime for the boss today so got nothing important done, I thought I'd include a couple of pictures so far.


  13. Paddy802
    Just a video and a few piccy's whilst out walking the dog. I got an excellent video of a Royal Scot in the siding by the footbridge but I was heard saying how awesome it was whilst using bad words to emphasise my Awe!!!!
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOR61WDgI4E
     

     

     

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