Nick Mitchell

I'm thousands of miles away from my workbench at the moment, but sitting amid the clutter and waiting patiently for my return is my embryonic Diamond Jubilee Layout Challenge entry. Recently I made a tentative start laying track, so i thought now would be a good time to introduce my project to the world. The foundation of the layout is one of Tim Horn's laser-cut baseboard kits. I have a second kit, with a cunning plan to build it as two half-width boards to use as fiddle yards. They may end up as platforms for cassettes. I will be using Easitrac throughout, and I have been having fun over the last couple of weeks playing with some of the pegged turnout kits. This is the first time I've used these. The idea behind my entry is to suggest one part of a larger steam shed complex somewhere in the North West of England. I have taken design cues from several locations, to end up with something fictitious (to fit within the space allowed) but hopefully believable. After the competition, it will make a nice scenic backdrop for photographing all the locos desperate to get out of my gloat box and onto my workbench! (If only a Fowler 2-6-4T were among their number...) At the right hand end will be a retaining wall which contains the shed yard, and at the left, a road over-bridge will divide this part of the yard from the non-modelled area. One end of a larger shed is tucked away at the rear left, and the central feature will be a tank-over coaling stage - typical of L&Y and LNWR sheds, and known as a "Coal Hole". Across the front of the layout will be a running line providing access to the shed yard. I've tried to add some interest to the track plan by varying the track levels. The running line is slightly below the level of the yard, and falls away to the right to enter a tunnel. Also, the track in the centre rises at about 1-in-30 (which I believe is prototypical) to deliver wagons into the coal hole. The track plan was designed using Templot and stuck onto 3mm ply. This has been cut between the tracks as appropriate and stuck to risers of varying thicknesses to achieve smooth vertical transition curves where the track level changes. This has also allowed me to cut slots in the upper layers for inspection pits outside the shed. I have made a start on the shed itself using a ScaleScenes downloadable kit. I plan to use components from this and other ScaleScenes downloads to make a vaguely matching coal hole. I'll probably use papers form the same source for the retaining walls, bridge abutments and tunnel mouths to achieve some visual harmony. Below are a few photos showing the overall scheme. Actually, I'm a little further on with track laying, but didn't take any more pictures before I left. The first picture shows clearly the track plan, which features 5 turnouts. 8 tracks will cross onto the fiddle yards, including the shed roads. The incomplete shed and a few vehicles are scattered around for effect. Next, an end-on shot showing the rise and fall of the track levels. Through the crossover from the yard to the running line, the track level drops 3mm. The running line (which is level at the end of the baseboard nearest the camera) then drops a further 3 mm towards the far end. The raised track through the coal hole is 12mm above the siding next to it. I have made a crude attempt to draw in some of the major scenic features, to give an impression of what I have in mind for the scene... Finally, I couldn't resist showing off the buffers at the end of the raised coal siding. These are the LMS version available from the Association shop, and make up really nicely. I have separated the buffer plank from the supports with pads of thin double-sided PCB, in order to have an all-soldered construction and at the same time not introduce a short circuit. I still need to add some cosmetic outside half-chairs to the 3 sleepers where there is a double thickness rail. The mineral wagon is from Stephen Harris' kit.

Sounds like you have done exactly the same as me... which makes me worry how long mine will last. I have tested it quite extensively, but it hasn't had long term sustained running. I'm lucky in that I have the wherewithal to make my own brass versions of these, but I suspect for many people the 3D printed parts are so much neater and easier than the available alternatives. If you're going back to the wire loop, one improvement I stole from Jerry (after seeing it on his demo stand at York in 2018) is to make the loop captive at one end - like in the picture below. That the 3D printed balls click into the sockets and don't fall out is another desirable feature.

Hi Valentin, Out of curiosity, may I ask about the hole you drilled in the ball part? Did you drill into the wider part of the shaft only, or did you drill through the bit where the shaft narrows and into the ball as well? Also, what was the diameter of your hole? The one and only one of these I have used (on the Jubilee, installed about 10 months ago) is still intact. I drilled just into the thicker part of the shaft. I have had it "fail" twice in that time, with the cyano glue "letting go" of the steel shaft where is is glued into the printed part. I wonder if it would be feasible to 3D print these parts in brass or steel? Nick.

I think out-of-line crank-pin holes has been an occasional issue down the years. The driving wheels on my 9F are not perfect, and they were bought over a decade ago. As long as all the wheels are the same, once the rods are on, it will probably be quite difficult to notice. You can still quarter the wheels by eye using the spokes, as an exact 45 degrees is not necessary. When I buy wheels to feed my gloat box, I keep them as "sets" for specific locos. My hope is that those bought together will be from the same batch and therefore have the same angular alignment. I have no idea how the hole drilling operation is set up, so my practice could of course be completely invalid. As for the hole being at an angle, I would just tweak the crankpin with pliers. People may run screaming at the suggestion, but crankpins on most of the chassis I have built have been tweaked at some point. (I have accidentally knocked a few...) I use Simpson springs, which means the axles (and therfore crankpins) can twist slightly anyway. Over the thickness of the coupling rods, a very slightly wonky crankpin won't make any difference once you have opened out the holes in the rods to a running fit. I think it is possible build a good running chassis with those wheels - it is up to you whether they are cosmetically acceptable. If the shop does get lots of returns and decides to sell them off cheap as seconds, I would be happy to acquire some...

Do you think turning off the flanges/treads and fitting Association tyres to the Farish wheels like I did with the WD would work? Do the pickups bear on the backs of the wheels or the treads? Nick.

So, you've guessed my cunning plan, Simon! I've been struggling to settle the precise shade of green, though. I ordered an old tin of the long discontinued "BR Pea Green" from Phoenix Precision's clearance section of their website. Now it has been delivered, I honestly can't tell the difference between that and their "LNER Green (Doncaster Shade)", which I bought many years ago on the advice that it was perfect for painting grass on a layout. (Still haven't got anywhere near the stage of planting grass on a layout...). One written description says the experimental shade was "not dissimilar to Doncaster green", but the Precision paints look very dark when compared to most of the limited range of published photographs I have access to. I feel something a bit brighter and a bit yellower is called for. My current thinking is to use Humbrol 38 - "Lime". It has the advantage of being gloss, to help with the application of the transfers (which arrived from Fox yesterday). Suitably weathered, it might not look so lurid. I still have some work to do on the body before it is ready for painting, however, and I've been distracted by some Easitrac pegged turnouts recently... If I can get my act together, I might have it painted in time for the AGM. Bring your sunglasses just in case!

They look fab, Jerry. Co-incidentally, before seeing this I'd just commissioned a set of plates from 247 for my Jubilee for the Jubilee. Really glad that I did now, having seen the quality. Alas there was no Jubilee called Mitchell! (I'm going to finish it off as 45604 Ceylon).

I've finally finished construction work on my Gannet ballast hopper. The final bits to do were to add the triangular brackets, and then solder the body to the chassis. The tiny brackets are each in two pieces soldered back to back. They were then soldered over the vertical strapping on the hopper sides, having first scribed a line to get them all level. The bottom edge of these brackets are just resting on the top of the sole bars, and set the level of the hopper The chassis was soldered to the four corners of the hopper from underneath, and then the end stanchions soldered to the buffer beams. I have added tubes ready to accept Electra couplings once it is painted. Considering the difficulty level, I'm really pleased with the way this kit has turned out. Let's hope I can maintain my enthusiasm for it when David brings the two he has promised me to our next area group meeting! I must be getting a reputation for being a glutton for punishment, as out of the blue Andy Hanson generously presented me with a kit for a prize cattle van from the same source last night. I thought it had some little sections of picket fence as part of the kit - maybe to model cattle boarding the van from a platform? Then Andy pointed out it wasn't a fence, but a row of dozens of individual bits of ironwork to be cut out and fixed in various places. I think I'll wait a while before plucking up the courage to tackle that one!

I can echo those sentiments about kits helping to teach the art of scratch-building, Izzy. Mind you, Brian Hume once accused me of scratch-building every kit I ever put together... a thought which leads me nicely on to introduce another specimen to my Wagonologie. I won't say too much about this one yet, as I've prepared a piece for the 2mm Magazine. Actually, I prepared it about 6 years ago, but I still haven't got round to painting the wagon so I can take a photo to accompany the article. Perhaps I ought to have a wagon painting session soon! Anyway, the subject is another unusual LMS wagon - Diagram 1680. It is built from a kit that to my knowledge has never been released, again on 8 thou material, but this time Nickel Silver. The designer will recognise it when he sees it... and probably weep over what I have done to it! I decided to re-engineer the W-Irons, and add a few extra details to the solebars, to make the underframe represent an ex-WW1 design. A few different types of LMS wagon bodies were built on top of these during the 1920s. Here's a snap of it on my bench in its underwear:

I can't quite believe it has been a month since my last post, and I still haven't quite finished this wretched wagon. OK, I've been "on tour" with a talk to the North Mercia Area Group and a stand at the 2mm Supermeet, and work has been insanely busy too... so more a case of not spending much time with it. I did some work on the hopper doors about 3 weeks ago, and managed to grab a couple of hours this evening to finish off the chassis, so here is a photo update. The doors have a surround which folds up as an L section (one leg half-etched with rivets, the other full thickness). This then wraps up into a rectangular shape to solder onto the flat door pieces. Unfortunately, the rectangle was the wrong size for the doors, so the first one had to be unsoldered, cut into four, and each piece soldered on separately after filing to a fit. Quite a faff, for something that may hardly be visible under the wagon! Then there were the vertical bits of strapping to divide the doors into three panels. I toyed with the idea of leaving these off, then thought better of it. When the 5th (out of 8) got crumpled up as I was adjusting its position, I regretted that decision even more. On the photo, the door on the left has replacement strapping made from pits of scrap etch. They're too thick, and don't have the rivets... but I can live with them. Anyway, on to the chassis, and more horrors. On the fret, the brakes are etched as separate push rods and crank. Not a chance of me putting these together - especially as there is nothing to hold the brake shoes in line. In the end I opted to cannibalise some from a Fence Houses wagon chassis that was designed to fit Parkside long wheelbase wagons (Shop item 2-351). To fix the bits to the chassis, I employed some 0.5mm square section brass to space the top of the brake etch from the backs of the solebars. You can see this in the next photo. Ideally, the brakes should be further inboard so the shoes line up with the wheel treads, but that would mean the top edge of the brake etches getting in the way of the hopper sitting down. I have had to bend the brakes inwards slightly to avoid it looking like the worst sort of N gauge chassis. Curiously there are no brake levers in the kit. The ones I have used came from an ancient Association brass etch of brake components long out of production. I assume these were to go with the Waite underframes? I bought them second hand a few years ago as one of those "ooh, that looks like a rare thing that I have no use for, but might come in handy one day" purchases. Well, today was the day, and my collecting and hoarding policy fully justified! The slots the levers move up and down in are adapted from a couple of spares from random association under frame kits, with the levers and handles trimmed off (I never throw the spare bits away). They were designed to bend over at the top and poke through a hole in the solebar. By not bending over the inner layer and trimming back the outer layer just after the bend, I could solder them across the solebar channel to look more like the prototype. The handwheel backing pieces were interesting - not least for having to drill out all 48 half-etched holes! Like the V hangers, they had a half-etched bit with bolt-heads to go vertically inside the solebar channel. These also did not fit (too long, and made the disk stand too far off the solebar) so were simply removed. I soldered 0.45mm brass rod across the bottoms of the solebars to mount the wheels on, and cut out the middle sections afterwards. That way I could see that they were square to the chassis. Coupling hooks were also absent from the kit. I have used ones from the Association fret (2-345). You can hardly see the hopper doors at all in this next photo, where the body is again just placed on the chassis. It is starting to look the business. In the next picture you can see the end stanchions. More "fun" folding full/half thickness L sections, and soldering them back-to-back to make the T-section of the stanchions. The rivets on the half-etched parts do have a top and a bottom, indicated on the fret, but I'm not able to tell now whether I've got them the right way up! At least the body and underframe have turned out to be the same length. They're just about the only aspect of the kit that has fitted together nicely! There are some more fold-up and solder back-to-back little triangle things to join the hopper to the underframe along the tops of the solebars, and then it'll be ready for the paint shop. I'm still trying to decide if the extreme hassle at every step of the way with this kit is worth it. Of course it is, but I keep imagining how many I'd have been able to build by now and how much better they would be if Stephen Harris had designed this kit...

If I were going to scratch-build one, I would make it just like the ones in Nigel Hunt's kits. They comprise 2 square-ish side-pieces with bearings. Thin double-sided PCB in an inverted L shape over the tops of the bearings, and a folded centre-spacer incorporating the pivot arm. Here are a couple of "under construction" pictures of one such "Hunt pony" on one of his Ivatt chassis kits I built some time ago. They are certainly successful. As to whether they look the part, you'll have to decide for yourself. (I like them!) You can see I added springing in the form of an un-coiled Farish coupling spring which passes through an eyelet on top of the pony. Since I took the photo, this has been replaced with 2 springs - there was a tendency for the pony to try and rotate around the spring and consequently ride up on the inside of curves. You can also see how I have added some wires from inside the bogie side frames (at the bottom, where the PCB isn't) to the main frames for pickup. Lastly, there is a thin piece of lead stuck to the underside of the centre spacer. (The wire protruding at the front is an Electra coupling, which dips under the buffer beam.) Assembly is straightforward using the Association frame assembly jig. You could make the side frames over-large, and then file them back to the outline of the center spacer to make life even easier. Nigel's replacement chassis fret for the Dapol Ivatt is only £12. Your friend might consider it worth the money just for the 2 lots of pony truck parts that come with it. (Or even better, they could be tempted to build the lovely outside valve gear and give their loco an upgrade... you try oiling the inside motion of a GWR loco!) The only different style of pony truck (as opposed to radial trucks) I have experience of is on Bob Jones' 9F kit. That is a slightly more complex design, which I wouldn't want to emulate without recourse to etching. I didn't spring that one (on Bob's advice) and it works fine. I also omitted pickup wires, but on a 9F there are so many other wheels it wasn't worth bothering about.

Seeing as I'm being talked about I thought I might offer some context to the extreme length of time some of my my locos have taken to emerge. I seriously got into building rather than buying models about 15 years ago. Back then I started several loco kits, getting stuck at various places with each of them, and moving onto something else until I found the confidence to go back and tackle the job. It is only in the last 5 years or so that I have discovered it is possible to finish things off, and I have been able to return to the likes of the 9F and Princess and complete them. In the Princess, for example, you see my first attempt to turn a chimney. There were several other turned parts required for that model, and I had to learn how to use a watchmakers' lathe in order to make them. While that stretched out the time to make the Princess, I was able to use that skill for subsequent projects - for example the dome for the Radial Tank which I happened to video. (The video is sped up to take 11 minutes, but in reality it took about an hour to make.) There were other aspects to that kit, such as forming the taper boiler and firebox from flat etchings which added considerably to the challenge (and time) that a kit with a cast boiler such as the 9F neatly side-steps... although the 9F made up for it in many other ways! There are lots of skills to be acquired over a modelling life time, and for me, that is part of the enjoyment. I would fully expect a similar loco now to take significantly less time overall - though how much actual modelling time I have spent on just these two models, I could not begin to quantify. I'm happy for it to take as long as it takes, so long as I end up with something I'm really happy with. Jerry has kindly plugged my Jubilee videos. They constitute "slow television", and I deliberately set out to show the whole construction in as near real time as I could - warts and all. The entire series is a mind-numbing 30 hours long. Some of the repetitive tasks are missing from the video, but that is compensated for by the fact that filming slowed some other aspects down quite a bit. I reckon 35 hours is fair measure of the fastest I could currently build that kind of replacement chassis with valve gear. Those 30 hours were spread over 6 months, however. Editing the video and recording narration accounted for very many more hours. Though the PECO body still stands up well, there is still some detailing work I would like to do to it. Then there's the painting - another skill to be mastered, and something I still find stressful as the previous decade's work has the potential to be hideously ruined! I found out just how quickly I could paint and simply weather a model when I was getting the 9F ready to appear on the magnificent Fence Houses at York this Easter... the paint wasn't quite dry, and I can see from Ian Smeeton's photo that a fair bit of it is now rubbing off round the extremities. I've attached below a few cruel close-ups of the Princess to prove that it does own a smokebox door (it got left at home when I took the loco to the meeting yesterday!). It will be finished as 46210 Lady Patricia, as running circa 1950 in blue. Just a couple more details to add (including the injectors and associated pipework under the cab) before painting. This one is set permanently in forward gear. Finally, here is a "train in the landscape" shot of the 9F crossing Victoria Viaduct just before closing time on Easter Monday, pulling a rake of coal hoppers built by Chris Mills. Believe it or not, York was the first time one of my locos has run on a layout and pulled a train successfully... Seeing it still going strong at the end of 3 days was worth every minute of the extended gestation period.

I enjoyed reading your editorial, Jerry. While I agree entirely with the overall sentiment, I must confess that I've been wondering whether 3 printing parts for a drive mechanism might actually be the answer to a conundrum I've been pondering on and off for a number of years. The scenario I'm thinking of would require 2 different sized spur gears joined together as one, but free to rotate around an axle. Moulded acetal gears can't realistically be glued, and I don't see how I could successfully solder brass gears together like that. Such gear pairs as I have seen in the past have always been plastic and moulded as one unit. I remember Ian Morgan reporting on his successes with 3D printed gears for a Dapol Terrier in the 2mm Magazine about 5 years ago. I wonder how they have stood up over time. I suppose different plastics for printing will have different properties. Some of the materials Shapeways have claim to be suitable for mechanical parts and have "good" chemical resistance. I don't think there is anything wrong with plastic parts per-se. We all use plastic muffs in our drive mechanisms after all. I still think the bit of the hobby I enjoy most is soldering things together, however.

Yes! It may just have been beginner's luck, but the one and only one I have used worked a treat. There are bits in episodes 20 and 21 of my Jubilee videos which show in excruciating detail what I did with it. If I hadn't been making the video, I'd have almost certainly made a brass version in my lathe from a pair of 7mm handrail knobs, however, I would have no qualms about using the printed ones again. They have the distinct advantage that the shaft doesn't fall out of the housing. Nick.

I've done a bit more work on the chassis of my Gannet, and every little thing has been difficult and taken ages. I marked out where the centres of the W-irons ought to be, and soldered on the first one. The second one was lined up using the etched spacer I mentioned earlier. Then I realised that having rested the top of the W-iron etch up against the underside of the "floor" of the wagon there would be no room for any springs. If I was adding fold-up W-irons to a chassis, I'd expect them to fix to the floor, but not here. Not only do the W-irons need to be applied individually, they also need to "float" at the correct height - whatever that ought to be! In hindsight, I should have used Association W-irons, soldered them in place, then cut out the middle sections... but I only had the later style plate irons in my bits box anyway. In the end, turning the spacer upside-down and resting it edge-on to the bottom of the solebars helped to line the irons up pretty close to where they need to be. The first picture below shows the underside of the chassis, with the fold-up spacer tool: I decided to use etched LMS axle-box/spring units rather than cast ones. Even though the springs are a bit skinnier than ones in photos, I figured that soldering everything together this way would add some much-needed rigidity to the W-irons. This has proved to be the case, as the 8-thou brass was quite flimsy when I tried some wheels in the chassis before adding the axle-boxes. I've also added the V hangers on one side. They revealed another problem with the kit. The outside one has half-etched fold lines (hurrah!) on the outside of the fold (boo!) and a half-etched length with rivet detail for the vertical part within the solebar channel. Unfortunately, the wagon builders plate etched into the solebar is in the same place as the left of these vertical pieces would need to go. I know I haven't got the sole-bar in the wrong place, so the kit must have the oval plate too close to the centre. My solution has been to cut off the vertical bits of the V hanger. Any other solution would have looked more wrong than having a bit missing. Inside the solebar will be dark and shadowy anyway, so hopefully it won't look too bad. In the next photo, you can see the chassis standing on its wheels. This lets you appreciate the delicate nature of things at this stage, with the chassis free to twist along its length. Once the hopper is soldered on, it will become rigid - but I will have to be careful not to assemble it permanently twisted! You can also see I've put one buffer beam on, and Association cast buffers. The buffers themselves were a bit lop-sided - I've attempted to straighten them up a bit. In the final photo, I've balanced the hopper in place to give an impression of what the wagon will finally look like. This was useful in that it has revealed the wheel flanges just rub against the bottom doors of the hopper, which will need a bit filing away. It is lined up next to one of my Stephen Harris Grampus wagons (which is waiting to be weathered) to compare the ride height. I think it looks near enough.

I have decided to start a topic for some of the 2mm Finescale wagons I am building. There are dozens in various states of completion, and "going public" with a few might nudge me towards finishing them off. The title Wagonologie is inspired by King James I's Dæmonologie of 1597 which, amongst other things, discusses the methods various demons use to torment mankind. I am not in any way suggesting that the progenitors of some of the kits I've attempted are actual demons... but the kit I'm currently working on is certainly tormenting me more than most. As I add further entries to the Wagonologie, I will update the table of contents below with links to the first post concerning each wagon. Contents LMS "Gannet" D.1804 25T Ballast Hopper (Kestrel Brass kit) LMS D.1680 Long Low (Plate) ex.WW1 underframe (Nigel Hunt kit) LMS D.2069 Plate wagon (Chivers body kit, Chris Higgs chassis) LMS D.2083 Plate Wagon (Stephen Harris kit) LNER/BR All Steel High variations (Stephen Harris kits) LMS D.2115 6-wheel fish van (2mm Assoc. / Bob Jones kit) BR "Catfish" diag. 1/586 19T ballast hopper (Stephen Harris Kit) L&Y built ex-MOD Rectank (shot-down Connoiseur kit) MR D.326 Deep Case Wagon (Bruce Cook kit) This particular wagon saga started at our area group meeting last week, when a friend arrived staggering under the weight of a vast collection of gloat boxes which had belonged to a deceased Association member. The contents are being sold on behalf of his widow. As the boxes were examined, my eye was caught by an unusual brass wagon kit. The only documentation was a post-it note, proclaiming it to be a Kestrel Brass kit for an LMS D.1804 25T ballast hopper. The kit had been started, but not much more that cutting out a few pieces had been achieved... a state of play with which I am all too familiar. Intrigued, I bought it, thinking it would make a nice addition to my engineers' train... when the other wagons are finished, of course! I'd never heard of Kestrel Brass, but turning to another ancient tome - Geoff Balfour's Wagons from Kits in Two Millimetre Scale (slightly less ancient than Dæmonologie, but something else I'd never heard of until recently) I discovered this was a proposed range of 2mm versions of the Falcon Brass 4mm kits. I say proposed, as apparently on first production of photographically reduced etches, it was deemed necessary to re-draw the kits. Geoff's advice was to wait for the promised bonanza - which although well before my time - evidence suggests never materialised. A bit more digging (I know little about 4mm kit history) revealed that the Falcon Brass range had its origins in Jidenco. Now this was a name I had heard of - but only as a by-word for extremely difficult to put together kits from the dawn of etching. Being somebody who likes to make life difficult for himself, so far this kit has not disappointed! There are none of the refinements of "modern" kits. It is etched (with half-etching on one side only) onto 8 thou brass. There is not a tab, slot or even alignment marking in sight, let alone clever fold-over frames to aid construction... merely a plethora of tiny half-etched riveted overlays to be folded, bent, cut and layered by eye. Even the main body of the hopper was in four separate pieces, with no way of holding them in registration while they were soldered together. These bits did at least have fold lines, and I was able to fold them to the correct angles by holding them up to the drawing in Bob Essery's Illustrated history of LMS wagons. (Incidentally, Volume 1 has a nice picture of one of these posing with a ballast plough on the dust jacket.) I've made some progress with the hopper body. Most of the strapping is there (although the rivetting is almost etched away completely in places) and I have started on detailing the doors. The end stanchions, when I get to them, look like being fun. The chassis, such as it is, has fold-up channel solebars which I have soldered to the "floor". These were spaced apart by some Association fold-up W-irons. The kit has its own fold-up W-Irons to take top-hat bearings. They fold up too narrow to accept a 2FS wheelset, but this is of no consequence as the W irons themselves must be separated and soldered individually to the reverse of the solebars - there has to be a gap between them for the bottom of the hopper. Having thus arranged the spacing of the solebars, the W irons (which can at least be aligned with the jig integral to the Association W iron etch) should accept a 12.25mm pinpoint axle. The photo below shows how far I have got. Hopefully it won't be too long before this Gannet can go and play with some Grampuses... which have been built from Stephen Harris kits and are at the opposite end of the spectrum as far as etch design goes.

Hi Rich, Thanks for your kind comments. Skills are out there for anyone to acquire if you have time, patience and someone to show you. I wasn't born being able to build 2mm locos (though some people I know seem like they were). I got a good grounding in how to build etched kits by attending the Darkest Essex Area Group of the 2mm Scale Association, and I'll be forever grateful for the advice and encouragement I received there. After that it is a case of practice and developing your techniques. It has taken many years to reach this point... and so yes, I did feel very proud seeing my "baby" take its first steps in the big wide world this weekend! Regarding availability of the kits, you'll have to contact Bob Jones to find out. The last price list I am aware of Bob publishing was nearly 10 years ago, and can be found on the Fence Houses blog (I don't know if the email address on the price list still works). The additional parts required to complete it (inc. special sized wheels) are still available in the 2mm shop - though you may need to substitute equivalent metric gears. Nick.

I've just got home from a highly enjoyable day visiting York Show. The whole show was great as usual, but obviously the highlight for me was seeing 92008 strutting its stuff on the magnificent Fence Houses. I'm very grateful to the Fence Houses team for looking after her over the weekend, and for allowing her to stretch her legs in such a lovely setting. Here are a few snaps of her on Victoria Viaduct taken in the final few minutes of the exhibition...

92008 has survived the journey to York and happily run 10 scale miles on Fence Houses. She romped away with a rake of Chris Mills' metal bodied hoppers. I believe this is the first time a loco of mine has pulled a train all the way round a layout successfully! She should be nicely run in by the time I pick her up on Monday evening. Sorry, no photos this time - you'll have to come to York and take your own... Please post any nice ones here

I really thought time was going to win this race, but Cinderella (a.k.a. 92008) is finally dressed and ready to go to the ball. The weathering is rather basic due to the time constraints, but even simple weathering brings a loco to life. I didn't want to go too over the top with it anyway. If the paint is dry, I'll hand her over to Bob this afternoon to run on Fence Houses over the weekend. Hopefully she won't have dropped to bits or blown up by the time I get to visit the show on Monday.

Things are moving along - not quickly, and not as smoothly as I would have liked. The photos below show where I'm currently at, with the loco and tender bodies painted, numbered, and lacquered. The basic black livery was applied, this time with a dual action airbrush (Iwata neo). I put on a single coat of gloss black Humbrol, thinned with white spirit. I think I might have got the mix a bit on the thin side in the end. The spray was initially a bit speckly, which I understand can be a result of too thick paint or too low air pressure. I thinned the paint a bit more and dialled the pressure up a bit. Neither of these things seemed to make much difference, but I'm just stabbing around in the dark really. Anyway, I avoided getting runs and gritty bits, so I'm not too upset. The end result was OK, but if I wanted a pristine finish to the model, I would need to have put another coat on. Weathering will hopefully cover up some of the deficiencies. Already the black is wearing through to the primer on corners and raised detail where I've been handling it to put the transfers on - and believe me, that job has required plenty of handling! Transfers are Fox for the 8" cabside numerals and tender emblems. The numbers had to be individually applied, which was a nightmare getting them spaced evenly and lined up. I've been using Micro Sol to bed them down and disguise the varnish film, which was working really well until the very last number on the second side. Disaster struck and the paint plus primer underneath broke and a bit peeled away, leaving a shiny space where the '9' should have been. For the '9F' above the number, I was initially stumped until I discovered two sheets of ancient Woodhead transfers. These had a single F and a 6 which became the 9. The colour and size are right, but they were almost impossible to see to cut out of the sheet, and the varnish is really thick. Still, at this size, it is just the impression of a marking being there that is required. If anyone knows where to get currently produced lettering this size, I would love to know. Once the hole in the paint had been carefully touched in, the '9' was finally installed and the whole lot given a coat of Testor's Dullcote lacquer from an aerosol. It has left a slightly mottled finish, but I'm quite happy with it as a base for weathering. I don't think Ian Rathbone will be worrying about the competition from me any time soon! The right hand side of the loco is not as good as the left. There's some wrinkling of the paint surface still to the left of the 9, and the thick varnish under the 9F has visible edges still. The Dullcote has made it look an awful lot better that it did, however. I'm pleased with how the transfers have gone on the tender on both sides. While the paint has been drying, I haven't been idle. A few more pipes have sprouted round the rear end of the chassis. i hope this is the full complement now! I also rebuilt the valve spindle cross-head guides, as I haven't really been happy with them for years. The new left-hand one is in the centre of this picture: And here's a before and after shot of the right hand one (before is on the left). The cast brass outer ones were lost from the valve chest castings to make room for the combination lever. This may have been necessary even if the valve gear hadn't been made to work. Fortunately there are etched parts on the fret (presumably from which Bob made the master for the casting) which I used for the rectangular part. The difference is not profound, but the unsightly gap is filled in and the fixing is more secure (the wire at the bottom of the part now fits into a hole drilled in the end of the valve chest, rather than just bending round underneath it). More importantly, it won't be bugging me for the next 11 years! I have also got round to making the brakes at last, and added the sand delivery pipes to these. These are another cunning design, and will fit onto studs underneath the chassis. The curved section is to fit round the gear on the right hand end of the 4th axle. The smokebox numberplate is one which Bob supplied (as an after-sales service) with the running number of my choice. Evidently somewhere over the last 11 years my brain had mis-remembered which loco I had decided to build. Imagine my delight after finishing numbering the cabside 92008 turning to horror as I realised that I had asked Bob for 92009 way back when! Fortunately, my second 9F (assuming this one doesn't finish me off) is to be 92058, and I was able to take the 8 from one of those plates (they came as a set of 4, each with slightly different font size) and do a "cut and shut" job. I don't know how much further I'll be able to get before York... I just hope it still runs when I connect everything back together!

I've attacked the loco and tender bodies with etching primer. I think the result is as good as I could have hoped for, given my lack of experience / competence with an airbrush. It is a case of reading the book (Ian Rathbone's in this instance) and hoping for the best. The paint used is 2-pack precision, thinned as per Ian's advice: 1part paint; 2 parts activated thinners; 1 part cellulose thinners, and sprayed on with an old Badger 200. My grandfather bought me that airbrush 35 years ago... I've used it in anger 4 times now! I must admit that I find spray painting incredibly stressful - hence the number of unpainted models in my collection. Maybe it is the thought of painting things that compels me to leave things at the almost finished stage for years? Anyway, the results (including all the newly revealed glue strings and blobs) are pictured below for you to judge. You can see I've already managed to catch a bit of the ATC conduit and also the top edge of the cab and removed some paint, just putting it in a dust-proof box to dry. I sprayed the paint as thickly as I dared on the top of the boiler to try and fill in some of the blemishes in the casting. In places it looks like it has been cast in pumice stone when you zoom right in on it. I'm reluctant to try rubbing it back, because the dimples in the surface are so deep. I am aware of the rule that the top surface can never be better than the primer, and certainly when I apply the initial gloss black livery I am prepared for it to look horrid. I am hoping that a combination of matt varnish after the transfers are on, followed by weathering, will disguise the rough surface when observed from the proverbial "normal viewing distance". The tender seems to have fared OK - following a sequence of emergency repairs prior to painting. There are an awful lot of nooks and crannies to aim paint at on the front of the tender...

I just came across these pictures of some of the valve gear under construction. The files have a date stamp of June 2010. The first picture shows how I made the valve spindles from 0.45mm dia. brass wire. It is swashed flat in the vice at one end, with a washer soldered on and then drilled through 0.3mm. The next picture shows how the valve spindle and radius rod are pivoted at the top of the combination lever. Two 0.3mm over-long nickel silver wires were soldered through the holes in the combination lever, from the front. The wires weer held upright in the vice, with the combination lever resting on the vice jaws, to make sure everything was square and the wires parallel. The piece was then turned over in the vice (to hold the other end of the wires) and a sandwich of cigarette paper, the two rods, more cigarette paper, and finally a pair of washers was assembled. The washers were soldered in place, and then the excess wire trimmed and filed flush both front and back. Next is the view from the front. You can see here how I have chopped off the lifting link that was etched as part of the radius rod, and drilled a hole for a pivot. The kit had 2 sets of these, so I was subsequently able to use the lifting link (with the radius rod chopped off it) from the other set. The valve rod slides in a length of tube which was set into the brass valve casting. The tube and rod are the stuff Model Signal Engineering sell as "bearing tube" for 2 and 3mm scale. At the other end of the radius rod, you can see how I have made a brass pivot/holder for the expansion link. This was turned on my lathe, first as a solid disc 1.5mm thick, with protrusions front and back. The rear protrusion is more substantial as it is not visible on the model. The outline shape was filed from the central disc, and then a 1mm wide slot filed up the middle. The etched expansion link was filed flat at the back, and the bit in the centre with the pivot hole in it removed by cutting and filing/sanding. The inside edges of the slot needed to be really smooth. To solder the expansion link into the brass pivot, I made a special tool from aluminium with two thin little tongues. The front of the expansion link was gripped between the tongues, and the tongues fitted into the slot in the brass pivot. Solder could then be applied from the rear edge of the expansion link - carefully so as not to fill up the slots. A brass crankpin passes through the slot, and allows the position of the radius rod to be adjusted. Finally, here is an attempt at an end on view. The other pivot joints were made using the late lamented Association 0.3mm steel motion pins. After this, the arms of the motion bracket from the kit were assembled around the pivot to hold it captive, as can be seen in photos on my previous postings.

Happy to oblige. Unless disaster strikes it will be painted by then - Black, not flesh coloured! I will also have it with me at the Tutbury Supermeet. Your Baldwin is entirely scratchbuilt, and on another level altogether. Credit for my 9F must go to Bob Jones and his exquisite design work - I just tweaked a few of the bits and assembled it. To be fair, the model has spent most of those 11 years sitting on the shelf while I learned how to complete it by working on other projects. Like many people I seem to be better at starting locos than finishing them. It has still been a significant time investment though. I feel that if I'm going to spend a lot of time on a modelling project, I want to get it as good as I possibly can. I'd rather spend twice as long, and be really pleased with it in the end. Some people seem to be able to churn out award winning models at a frenetic pace, but not me. There is a lot of pleasure to be gained from having taken ages over something but having got there in the end. When I started building the 9F I never imagined I would be able to finish it even to this standard.

I've been doing some work on the tender, adding all the fiddly details which seem to take forever. The main part of the tender body was one of the first things I worked on all those years ago, and I had forgotten most of what I did. Although I bought 2 9F kits (I think I'll save the other until I'm retired!) I bought 3 tenders. The idea was that I'd use the BR1G as a practice piece, as I anticipated messing it up - I was still quite new to soldering kits together at the time and hadn't attempted anything approaching this level of complexity. My original plan was to build a BR1F tender to replace it (as happened in real life to the loco I had in mind). Anyway, as time has passed, my period of modelling interest has edged ever earlier. Really, a 9F is too modern for me now, but I've always liked them, so I still must have one (well, two actually)... so to keep things as early as possible, my model is of the first one delivered to the Midland region - albeit to a completely different area to that which I'm modelling, but I really really like 9Fs! Although a Midland loco, 92008 needs a Western region tender, and my test piece has evolved into the final model and I now have a spare BR1F tender kit. There are one or two historic rough bits, but overall it will do. I thought I just needed to fill in a couple of gaps with Milliput before a final clean and paint, but I've just noticed that the front handrail stanchion by the rear of the coal bunker is leaning backwards... Typical that the BR1G is bristling with so many handrails to get straight and level. My engine's younger sibling, 92009, was diverted to the Midland too. Fairly early on, that one lost its BR1G tender to the 9F that replaced Big Bertha as the Lickey Banker (92079 ?). Fortunately, some people took photos from behind as it helped shove trains up the bank, so there are good views of the double lamp brackets it still carried. These are made from the WR brackets in the kit, with extra uprights soldered on. In the kit, the half-etched lines for the bends are on the wrong side (unless I've misunderstood how they're supposed to attach) so I've had to add extra stregthening fillets of solder to the bends after assembling them "inside out". I don't think these look as delicate as the ones for the front of the loco somehow. Bob's kit gives 3 options for the cab doors. I've used one of the "open" variety for the drivers' side, and the closed "scale" variety for the fireman's side. I had a surreptitious play with one of Evening Star's cab doors in York the other week, to make sure I got the bends going the right way. The kit was originally designed to use a fairly chunky open frame motor, but I have substituted one of the Association can motors which frees up a lot of space. I could have easily fitted in a slightly larger N20 without difficulty. Looking down from on top, you can see that there is potential to model the tender half empty. For those interested in what lies beneath, here is the electrickery lurking in the water space. The decoder is a CT-Elektronik DCX74zD - positively ancient now, but I had it in the box, and it fit in the space nicely. Despite its vintage, the DCX74 has the capacity (pun intended) to have stay-alive fitted... the capacitors for which are contained within the Kapton-wrapped parcel behind the motor - 6 x 220uF tantalum chip capacitors. The horseshoe shape of the capacitor block fits around the bracket with the fixing bolt that belongs to the tender top. Along side the motor sits a diode and dropper resistor for the reversing gear motor housed in the boiler. Finally, a self indulgent picture of the loco and tender placed together... hopefully worth the 11 year wait to get it to this stage. I really love this livery... I hope the black paint suits it as well!