w124bob

My 14xx has finally got it's 1420 plates and a matching auto coach, I tried to get the roof off but couldn't so at the moment tge interior is untouched.

I would love to see 56036, it's personal for me as this loco and I started our railway career together. Indeed I remember sitting in the mess room at Coalville waiting to be interviewed as the newly out shopped engine rolled past the window!

I know 47313 should have a screw reverse as an ex S&D jinty, but I only found this out after I'd finished the loco!

I've been busy, just not able to take photographs. Anyway first up is a Dapol jinty, renumbered as 47313 as it appeared around the mid 60's whilst based at Burton on Trent. The loco was delivered as S&D #22. A few minor details have been added including the bracket on the bunker above the vac pipe, the coal rail extension board, a twist of wire to represent the chain for the steam pipes and the usual set of fire irons. One detail I am wavering over is the bracket fitted to S&D locos for the Whitacker tablet catcher. 47313 definitely retained the firemans side until the end but I've yet to find a decent picture (on any S&D loco) to copy the bracket.

My old boss(now deceased) went to work for them after retiring as a train crew manager(ex driver) he certainly was someone who went from rule book stickler to "lets play trains", the Wootton Bassett incident was in his era as WCRC driver manager(or what ever he called himself) . In fact I know several colleagues who did or still do work for them and I always get the impression it's just one big trainset. One ex boss was a regular at driving for WCRC whilst at the sametime being the on call manager for the TOC I worked for.

Another second hand Ebay purchase. It came part weathered and with a different number. I've redone the roof and added the staining to the sides, as well as change the number to D7659 as it appeared in 1968 around the time it was transfered to Longsight after the closure of Trafford Park. I found a several good images of it, so the head codes were changed . 6H42 was a tunstead working and at the other end •T43 was the Manchester Victoria station pilot/bank engine code. Loco was an early dual brake conversion whilst retaining this livery almost to TOPS.

I usually keep a couple of Parkside underframe kits on hand to rob for missing wagon bits, I've bought supposedly new Dapol wagons that had one hand brake missing!

Found on Ebay as a built up white metal kit(ABS?). It came nicely painted but unweathered so a few hours work was all that was needed.

I don't regard weathering as a skill, in fact I've come to regard the creation of the scene in a similar way to an artist. The minute the weathered locomotive is placed in the scene you have to strife to replicate that weathering across the whole picture. Our layouts are dioramas no matter what the size, even a simple figure can be enhanced by just a few simple brush strokes. My attitude comes from watching this guy Don't be put off by the fact it's US ho, it's as much about the thought process he has, there's a couple of years of postings to watch!

Buffer stop finished, it's final location is the end of a loco shed exit/headshunt hence the addition of a tail lamp(Modelu3d).

All done with mainly Vallejo acrylics and powders to add the texture, Tamilya acrylics were used on some of the stock. The only two enamels I now use are Humbrol silver (for the shanks on Oleo buffers) and gunmetal for tiny amounts of wear on footsteps etc. I don't own an airbrush, my three main rules are, thin, often and lots of water. I add a small amount of "wetting agent" to breakdown the surface tension in the water, expensive but you only use one drop. https://www.artsupplies.co.uk/p/golden-wetting-agent The two main Vallejo colours for the rail sections are black and burnt umber, with white and a tiny amount of black for the sleepers. A gray car primer from a rattle can was the base coat.

Sometimes even the smallest of projects can lead to an absorbing afternoon. A Ragstone models LNER/BR buffer stop. It will finish up on the MMRS O gauge layout and was built by our club president and O gauge group leader, then handed to me for weathering. White metal kit on plastic sleepers, a rattle can gray primer was applied first. Then the rail sections were given several washes of brown and black whilst the sleepers got shades of gray, followed by various powders to bring out the rust texture. I'm currently distressing the sleepers including the ends, see the first two.

Any chance of reposting these pictures, I'm about to start the interior on mine.

Plenty of new stock to show off, so I'll start with a Dapol milk tank. The random fade was done by liberal washes of ispropyl alcohol over a dirty wash of black/brown. Then touched up with brushes of white powder.

Anyone got a copy they are prepared to part with? Just ordered one from a UK Ebay seller.