southern42

Well, he she who dares... A sliver of plasticard Not quite in the right position That's better! Back later with the painted goods, says she with a grin.

' morning all. Another look at the photo in above post (zoomed in) and I am wondering if the young gentleman, left of the two wearing grease tops, is the fourth loco crew member (assuming there were four!) wearing a cap. Comparing it with the colour photo, below, it seems he is wearing a navy blue cap (a pork pie cap?). This is also a good image for showing off the two headlamps. The one on the side I hope to tackle, today. That means I get to display the back of one, although the Modelu ones do not have the horizontal bar across the back. Do I dare try getting the tiniest of plasticard slivers glued in place? I came across a load of paintbrushes at an exhibition last year and could not resist buying some. It is a good time to put them to use, I think! Keep well, stay safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

holding a large

The hills are alive - Julie Andrews

' morning all from red dragon land. Sunny and no wind. hope it is warmer than yesterday when I cut my bike ride on the spot down to 15 mins! One mugadecaftea and one mugadecafcoffee coming up! Back later. _____ Polly

Dandelion cordial, perhaps? Recipe, anyone?

Ah, but Dandelion flowers, bless 'em, turn into and shed 100s and 1000s of seeds and we don't want them competing with the grass seed, now, do we? Haha. Toot on the flute not so cute. Bike ride on the spot - not: loud hedge cutters and lawnmower in neighbour's garden disturbing the peace not mention dust and pollen. M*d*ll*ng job done and dusted for now. Yes, indeedy, Mike (SM), more rhubarb crumble and custard to tonight...and tomorrow! Hope HWMBO does not expect pudding every night! Time to get the rest of the recycling ready for tomorrow's collection and see if I can put in that bike ride on the spot before the sun goes down. Keep safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

' afternoon all. Well, that was a surprise! Yesterday, I got round to finishing the ICSR Headboard Test. I say, a surprise, because I certainly did not feel up to tackling it earlier in the day. Stage freight fright? Well, firstly, I reckoned the box was not tall enough and also felt it needed capping so it could sit on the staple (lamp iron). So, I found a way of doing it step by step using a 1cm offcut, superglue, and a scalpel. It also added that little bit of extra height. On completion, and I am being picky, the slot box could really do with being narrower but it is well and truly stuck now so no getting it off safely to trim the left had end. The slot box is also off centre - it obviously slid on the superglue while still in my hands without me noticing. You may also see the remnants of a black mark below the 'S'. The trials of the modeller, eh! BUT The headboard will need re-doing, anyway, to fit the brass brackets when they come. In the meantime, I shall paint up another headlamp for 9642 and a tail lamp for the rear of three brake vans used on the ICRS Special. To complete the job, apart from acquiring some 81C shed plates, I will need some pobl bach, little people, in the form of Loco crew and a suggestion of 20 Imperial College students and their group leader(?) (the gentleman in hat and coat?). There are 25 people in the photo (on Flickr), including loco crew (3 identified wearing BR grease tops). The named photographer, Peter Brumby, is far left and nearest the camera suggesting a timer was used to take the photo. There is certainly a diversity of fashion wear to choose from including at least one anorak! The several online colour photos will help with colours for the outfits. That is enough excitement for one weekend. Thanks for following my little journeys. Keep safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

' evening all from red dragon land. Toot on the flute and bike ride on the spot. More dandelion heads removed and plants watered. Began tidying a raised bed in need of some TLC and discovered the dead roots I removed from the struggling tree fern had jumped back into life in the form of some new roots, and several small fronds. Saw to the rescue (remove dead roots) and a new small tree fern is sitting in a pot to be nurtured into tree fern no.2. Amazingly, I even got some m*d*ll*ng finished which I did not expect. Followed by Sunday roast and well co-ordinated rhubarb crumble and custard for pudding with no fuss, no mess up! But for now, it is ' night all and nos da. __________ Best wishes Polly

' morning all and a very Happy Easter to you. Working from photos, I attempted to make the headlamp off-white using Winsor & Newton acrylic Mixing White mixed with Citadel (Washes) Sepia and Model Colour Flat Yellow. Where metal shows through the worn off paintwork I used Citadel Base Lead. I was surprised it worked as I had hoped - not all my ventures have happy endings! The pictures are much enlarged, of course! Now for the lens. A superglue job using the point of a pin. And, finally, at least until the lamp brackets arrive, standing on the loco. That shed plate (from its former ID of 4680, allocated Worcester) has got to go! 81C please! Thanks for Poop! Pooping in. _______ Best wishes Polly

Nearly there! Happy Easter All. Have a good weekend. _________ Best wishes Polly

' afternoon all. Bike ride-on-the-spot accomplished with the intention of completing some m*d*ll*ing. But, oh, it was so nice out there I did some G word stuff instead - I shall post something on the thread, anyway! Essentially, some watering of plants in pots and transferring two into the garden. One was an orange diy store reject from last year. It was doing amazingly well with all the rain we have had but it is was in one of those light as a feather pots and dried out in the last few days despite watering. I don't even know what it is! Yet, anyway. It came with no label. Wishing you all a Happy Easter. Best wishes Polly

' afternoon all. It was back to the slot box, yesterday, starting with a new design. The idea of making it at the end of a long strip which is easily held while you shape, glue, cut out the tiny object was my starting point. But, instead of folding to form a box, I wondered if a layered approach might be better. Step one: Cut a 12cm strip and cut into 2cm long strips. Step two: Assemble the strips as in the diagram above to check thickness and size of hole. Two strips in the centre made the slot wider for easier fitting over a staple and the whole thing stronger. Step three: Glue the centre strips together and insert between the outer strips. Step five: Glue and insert centre strip in the other end. Step four: Make sure the strips are aligned, place between two A4 cutting boards with heavy plate on top. Leave to dry. No. 822 is "Maid Marian", by the way! Step five: It came apart! Re-glue with superglue. Painting next... _________ Best wishes Polly

Cancellation of events relevant to us:. Concert in March - Welsh folk band, Calan - Booking cancelled and refunded. They will be back. No worries. April. Severn Valley Railway Gala. B&B booking forwarded to later in the year. Hoping the SVR can stay alive, as well as all the others. May. Flying Scotsman on the East Lancs Railway - options have been offered. As it was a family gift to me, it will be sorted by one of them. June. Overnight sleepers to and from Cornwall and/or Scotland - we'll think about that one again next year - 3rd time lucky, maybe? Illness prevented it last year! That's how it goes! Not despondent. Hey, the sun is shining - not a lot of that at the beginning of the year when we were playing trains volunteering out in all weathers! Life has all sorts of twists and turns. Adaptability is the game. ______________ Best wishes Polly

' morning all from red dragon land. Sunny and, they say, warm, maybe hot, hot for here, anyway! Bike ride and some m*d*ll*ing planned after various jobs around the house have been done. Put the Good in Good Friday, be Good and keep safe. _____________ Best wishes to all, especially to the sick, ailing and bereaved among you. Polly

Taking precautions this end... Bike ride-on-the-spot on the terrace: Wear helmet. It is a long drop to the slate terrace floor if I fall off. I have a record of trips to A&E for sporting accidents and falling incidents, though not on a bike, and I would not like to see what brains I have spew out like a broken egg. Tuck bottom of jeans into socks so they do not catch on the pedal arrangement. Easily done if you are not careful. Do up zip on jacket so the jacket does not catch in the wheels, handle bars or anywhere else, especially as you dismount or adjust some aspect of the bike/trainer. Keep warm/cool as the weather demands it. DON'T over do it! Use bike gadget to check time spent pedalling. Would I have worried about all these things 10 years ago? Possibly not. But I have an extra 10 years under my belt of my own experiences and those of others. It seems to have made a big difference! Take care, be safe Polly

That, maybe, sounds a bit flippant. It was not meant to. In the past few weeks, modelling has kept me motivated, moving, my mind active, and me in good spirits. All in all, helping me to keep healthy in this difficult time. ____________ Best wishes Polly

And can I add all those still keeping the modelling businesses going...so that we can play trains and boats and planes... Thank you all so much.

Sh! Keep it QUIET or Everyone will turn up on a Thursday morning... Hat, coat...we're coming.... ' morning all from red dragon land. Sunny through thin cloud. No wind although it will probably pick up this afternoon when I go out for my bike ride-on-the-spot. Daughter WhatsApped asking about the cycle trainer. She WhatsApped again 5 mins later - unavailable! Just like the item I wanted to get my sister for her small kitchen! Headlamp weathering today and recreating a slotted box for a headboard. That should be interesting if a bit fiddly. Oh, I do like fiddly. The fiddlier the better it might seem! Fitt and Elfie still hard at it. Take care and keep safe. ____________ Best wishes Polly

' afternoon all. Sunny and warm. 15 min stationary bike ride undertaken in garden. Pot plants and plants recently re-planted are watered, dandelions deadheaded and a bit of weeding done. M*d*ll*ing project tests carried out and posted on GWRd. I really appreciate having the time, though the reason for it is not good but we have to try and make the best of things when we can and take the opportunities as they come along. Fitt and Elfie doing their best. Take care, everyone, and keep safe. _________ Best wishes Polly

This is the strip (sticky side up) of lenses that came with the lamps. The lenses, which are easily removed with the point of a pin/needle are transparent domes with a solid backing so painting the lamp itself will not work. The lens took a coat of paint - Citadel Foundation Mechrite Red and Model Colour Chocolate Brown mix. I managed (tricky!) to get the lens onto the lamp and it looked OK but it fell off before I could take a photo and a second attempt wiped the paint off. What you see above is a second repaint job - not exactly precision work! I will attempt to fit it again when the lamp is finished. Off, now, for a stationary bike ride in the garden... ___________ Best wishes Polly

That sound reasonable, Chris. Thanks. Paint is easily added to PVA if the lens will stick with PVA glue. I aways find PVA glue sticks to things you don't want it to! Not sure about superglue. It might be worth a try. I generally pour a small amount into a milk bottle top for easy use so it would be easy to add colour. I expect the paint might cancel out its adhesive properties though. I will put a lens in front of its dark red packaging card, first, to see how/if the colour comes through. Back later Polly

' morning all. Lamp brackets should be here by the end of April so, in the meantime, I will concentrate on finishing the headboard and making a start on the headlamps. Replacement for the headboard slot box. The plasticard version was not good enough... er...hum...in other words...FAILED! So, I am redesigning it, although I guessed I might have to and am not too disappointed. Just another challenge!...or another day at the workbench kitchen table! Lamp 1: This is different from the other 4 in the pack in that the chimney has vertical bars down it, rather than being smooth around the front. Possibly a 3D misprint(?), I decided to use it as the test piece for painting and weathering: the two headlamps used on 9642 show bare metal through the paintwork, one lamp whiter than the other. Any comments about the chimney detail, mentioned above, would be much appreciated as I have not come across/recollect seeing a lamp like this in my searches so far. Cut from sprue and placed on staple. First coat: Winsor & Newton Titanium White acrylic paint mixed with water & Fairy Liquid dry brushed on. Second coat: thinly applied wet paint to get into the crevices. Insert for the lens is left unpainted to take the glue. The base has since been sanded down to remove remnants of supporting feet. More work on the lamp is earmarked for today. Another point of interest. The lens supplied is diamond like whereas it seems the GWR/BR(W) lens on 9642 looks dark browny red - see top of the page. I am more than surprised and delighted that I have managed to keep this going - What self-isolation allows, eh! - and for your company. Thanks for popping in. Your comments are greatly appreciated. _______ Best wishes Polly

Just checkin' in to say ' night all and nos da. _____________ Best wishes Polly

' afternoon all. Recycling done for tomorrow's bin day collection. Today's toot on the flute went better than expected - those top B's are coming along nicely and new tunes taking shape. A bit of progress. Shopping sorted. No Terrace Bike Ride today but, yesterday, I achieved a single 15 min session, progressing from 2x 5 min sessions (separated by an hour so!) to 1x 10 min sessions last week. Keeping up the posts on GWRd even if progress is slow. At least, I feel as if I am getting something done, albeit just a bit of detailing. Keep well. Keep safe. Fitt & Elfie on standby. ________ Best wishes Polly