Johnson044

The Aire Valley series by D A Naylor in Railway Modeller in the sixties was also excellent. All of these are exemplars of creativity adapting the limited range products and using the basic raw materials that were around to create fictional / semi fictional worlds that were more than the sum of their parts.

Narrow Gauge Adventure by PDH is a ripping read and should be in every sensible railway modeller's library, along with Buckingham Great Central. It's good - very good.

I think this is concise and shrewd and I completely agree. In the end the cruellest critic of one's workmanship is oneself.

Thanks Garry - much appreciated. I've ordered some Railmatch pre-1928 GWR green enamel. John

Having had a go at making some small crankpin bushes for one side and ended up with indifferent work that I have mixed feelings about I've taken a step back from the mechanical niceties and started painting. God it's all tiny! Not happy with the green - I tried Humbrol Nr 3 Brunswick Green and it doesn't look right to me- being decidedly polarised towards a freelance 7mm scale company for such along time I'd never realised just how different BR green and GWR green is! Silverfox - what paint do you use for your GWR locos?

Yes- I saw those on your photo and l need to try to replicate them somehow. The wheels run reasonably truly, the quartering isn't far out and they are quite firm on the axles - unfortunately the 14ba's are threaded in from behind, with a dab of Loctite so trying to remove them and retro-fit some Romford ones would be too destructive so I'll have to see what I can make do with what I have. So used to what is available in the larger scale- TT's been quite a steep learning curve.

I've been a lousy engineer. The coupling rods just turn on lengths of 14BA at the mo. I'll see if I can bore the eyes out a little and make some tiny sleeves of tube to go over the bolt thread and act as some sort of bearing. The half-finished 7mm scale 0-4-0 saddle tank that awaits seems absolutely huge! Must do something about that curly handrail too...

It's 12mm Silverfox- not really intended to be a running model, just a bit of fun - the wheels have quite fine flanges and are, after all, plastic - but just in case a motorized dynamometer car or Ocean Mails van or something ever gets hung on behind I'd like it to be in with a fighting chance of at least one circuit before something melts.

A little more progress on La France. I made a simple keeper plate from black plastikard, incorporating the dummy spring outlines and brake shoes from the Atlas model. The bogie now more or less done and I've (rather messily - but in mitigation I am used to 7mm scale) increased the centres of the coupling rods by soldering on some small brass washers which I filed up from some spare 0 gauge brake etchings. The coupling rod holes were about 1.5mm diameter and the holes in the "washers" just big enough to fit over the 14ba bolts which I'm using for crank pins, so the big original holes allowed for the centres to be adjusted to suit the frames. It does bind slightly (what a surprise!) but nothing that a bit of fettling won't put right. Not going to be powered but just in case one day a motorized inspection saloon gets coupled behind I do want it to be fairly free running. Cylinders and valve gear (probably very simplified) next.

A rather handsome machine! Proportions are nice and it convinces. Pig to oil the link motion though. Wheels less in diameter by 6" would be a big improvement, I think.

I do like the railbus. I see that on Shapeways there is a 3mm scale version of the 00 Airfix one, which I'm tempted by. As a matter of interest how did you do the windows? Are they Kitmaster ones?

Absolutely! Why else would there be a non-running, front bogie and tender-less Dublo Silver King on my desk in front of me?! Ok- I had one as a nipper but did I really need to buy another one?

A tender drive is still a possibility Silverfox - but for now I'd just be happy if the wheels went round. I've had a go at a very simple set of frames from various thicknesses of black plastikard, shortened the axles and modified some Slaters 0 gauge wagon bearings to suit. I bought some N Brass 21mm wheelbase coupling rods because that was the dimension I scaled off the cosmetic plastic rods that were glued directly to the faces of the wheels.However, when I set the axles 21mm apart (and 7' seems to be the correct wheelbase) the flanges clashed - I think in real life you could barely get a finger between the real flanges - much as the Bluebell Railway new build Beachy Head - so I'm not surprised I've hit a problem here. I've altered the frames to give about 0.5mm between the flanges and I'll have to see what I can do with the rods. Oh yes - I needed to remove some of the firebox behind the splashers too - but it does start to feel like there is some progress.

However, N Brass are a really helpful establishment and they do some 21mm coupling rods and a useful etch of valve gear bits, plus some possible slide bars - and they sold me some Farish compound crossheads- I've cut the big ends off the Farish rods and soldered the remains to the N Brass rods so I have some of the correct length. I need some 14BA nuts and bolts for crankpins now - and I'll try cutting out some plastikard frames.

The bit below the footplate troubles me. Firstly, it's all pretty tiny. The eyesight isn't what it used to be and sometimes I struggle with 7mm. I've heard the full-size GWR Atlantic valve gear described as "Watchmaking" so that doesn't bode well for a start. The first time reality hit was when I realised that the ambitious motorization plan just wasn't going to happen. The tiny Fauhaber I'd earmarked for La France was much to big to fit in the tightly corseted French firebox and has since found its way into an 0 gauge saddle tank (or parts thereof). The failure to hit the Christmas deadline was the next stumbling block. Ok - so - La France will just sit in a siding (or more likely on a little hardwood base - but a bit nicer than the Chinese one). The next stage is to see what can be done to make the wheels at least go around. This is the fall-back position. Both sides are a mirror image - so the valve gear is in the same position on each side and not quartered. I'm keeping these bits in case it all goes butternut squash shaped. The wheels themselves aren't too bad. I did have a grandiose scheme for pressing on some Ultrascale EM gauge tyres but it's not going to happen. The bogie sides are rather good.

...and so it sat for a while until Boxing day, when I had a bit of a spurt of activity. First thing was to sort out a tender - I'd luckily found one of about the right size as a part-finished white metal kit on ebay. Some handrails, a replacement rear step (from the discarded Nord tender) and some brake standards that I'd bought online and it's more or less there. The loco has gained a chimney and better front buffers, which I turned up from bits of 0 gauge frame spacer (chimney), Slaters axle (buffer heads) and wagon bearings (buffer housings), a re-profiled cab roof from Plastikard and some rather over-scale 4mm handrail knobs.

Ok - the idea was to make a model of La France as a Christmas present. Well - even though it's still Christmas that deadline has bitten the dust.However, I've made a start. The first issue is that it's a bit broad in the gauge, at around 15mm and the frames are very robustly integral with the footplate. Having stripped the model down and ditched the chimney (vile), buffers (huge and unseemly) and tender (quite good but inappropriate, although does provide some spare bogie sides) I took a mini drill and stack of carborundum discs to the casting, put on some Floyd and ground away. Took a scalpel and emery paper to the main body casting and removed the plumbing that the GW didn't want either.

...with the intention of ending up with something that looks a bit like this:

So, just to refresh, I'm starting with this:

Hi folks- I'm normally very much of the 7mm persuasion but have noticed that items from a range of approximately 3mm / 1:100 or thereabouts range are sometimes to be found in charity shops and I've often wondered if they have any potential. I've a relative who's a TT modeller so have an excuse to dabble in a different scale and thought I'd have a go. The subject is "La France"- so not only a change of scale but a dabbling in the world of all things Great Western - about which I know very little. I replied to a post on this very subject a while back but as it's all about a 3mm loco it's really in the wrong place - it's here, and the background to this model is towards the end:

Yeah - I quite agree about Christmas Sir Douglas - adverts for huge amounts of food and perfume whilst there are so many who are homeless, cold and frightened and hungry. Then it all stops on Christmas Day, the ads turn to holidays and gym membership - it's so transparent and everyone falls for it EVERY TIME!!! Still - the Solstice has passed and, infinitesimally slowly, the days get longer and Spring will be here. And, best of all, work's stopped for a week and when the kits start to fight and the dog craps everywhere I can escape to the shed, scrape the sawdust and bits of broken motorcycle off the work bench and get the piercing saw and bits of brass out. I can blot out Johnson (the odious, mendacious toad, not the magnificent SW), and the world is suddenly more bearable for a bit. Here's some proper snow: Stay cool folks!

Just want to say thank you for your thread- I've been really inspired by all your hard work (where do you find the time to be just so productive!) and the skill that you've put in. Especially enjoyed the geared overtype build. Thank you - your thread (and many others on RMweb) has done a great deal to help to keep the black dog at bay this year, to encourage me to keep trying, to pick up the soldering iron and have another go at a project when all the day-to-day drudgery seems completely overpowering. Keep up the good work! And the merriest of Christmases to you. Best wishes John

Maybe not the optimum thread to mention this but it's populated by like-minded souls so hopefully appropriate. So - YAYYYYYYYY! The latest LBSCR Modellers' Digest is out!!! http://www.lbscr.org/Models/Digest/LBSCR-Modellers-Digest-14.pdf

Absolutely beautiful.

That's truly amazing! - I don't think I've ever seen one un-warped. In fact it's quite a good model - I've never noticed the balance pipe behind the cab step and the rivets are good. The tank fillers are a bit 2D and the Westo pump has become embedded in the boiler, but even so... I seem to remember years ago someone doing an article in one of the magazines - Practical Model Railways maybe? about converting one of these to a slightly more British outline and putting it in Hull & Barnsley livery. Maybe a cancelled colonial order from Glasgow or Tyneside?