jwealleans

Thanks, Arthur. I think Dan intends to release some more of these kits later in the year so I will try to assemble a rake then. I usually work in sets of 4. I have one of those Roxey kits for an LSWR clerestory which I will put together for Ormesby Hall one day.

In between tracklaying and playing with my newly received BullAnt inside a Sentinel, I have managed to move a couple of things on. Grano is now lettered. Those HMRS BR transfers often drive me to consider the advantages of 7mm. Especially as I seem to have run out of '20T' markings and had to assemble these myself. The black patches aren't by any means perfect but they look much better in the metal than in the photo. I've also started to add details to the larger French vans. Lord, these are fiddly... every time I look at the photos I see more details. I don't know what I'm going to do for axleboxes yet as they seem to have had quite a variety fitted at different times. Most of the work so far has been around the doors, above and below the solebar.

Bit of a change from rolling stock tonight. I started to build a test track out of odd bits of wood I had in the garage about last July and then it went on hold as we decided to do the roof. Now that's all finished I've moved it on a bit further and tonight it went up through the loft hatch while it still fitted. The idea is to have reverse curves through pointwork on the right hand board and then a 3' curve (probably slightly sharper, to be on the safe side) on the left hand board. That was the set up I had in my shed before we moved. I've found the bundle of track I packed away in 2006; now I just need to remember where I put the points. They won't be motorised - at least not straight away - and I'll use Insulfrogs on here to really test running and pickup. This board is quite a bit wider than what I had before so the rest will be storage sidings for works in progress and probably end up as something for the kids to play with as well if they want to. You can never learn to shunt too young.

Given what we've seen on Greyscroft I'd have hoped you've specified an opening billycan in the build at least....

Cheers, Paul - your thread was very useful and as you say it really doesn't take much. Thanks again for sending me those instructions - both times. The first set still haven't turned up, so Lord knows where I put them. Adam - I didn't know Ambis did them (his range is a bit of a closed book for me) otherwise I might have had a go, but if they're very fragile practicality might have had to overrule accuracy. This will live in the shunting stock box when finished so it needs to be able to stand quite a bit of travelling. Edit - I was trawling back through Grano threads looking for early BR livery details and found this. I hope hayfield doesn't mind me using it here, but I think this is the very same vehicle he later passed to me.

Give it a couple of hours and one of these clever DCC kids will have a servo on it and make it control the speed of the loco.

Cheers, Adam. I'm quite pleased with what I've been able to do with it. I'd have been disappointed if after all this time I've wanted one I hadn't been able to get it up to the required standard. Didn't we discuss that Masokits etch before and it's a set of assorted ones? I'll have to check more carefully tomorrow. It ought to have the sawtooth lever guard to be accurate. A few pics of what's been over the bench tonight; feels like it's been a productive evening. First we had to paint the 16 tonner before bedtime. I'll tidy that up tomorrow but he didn't do a bad job in all honesty. This is a job I've had in mind for a while and the mood just took me at lunchtime. It's the Bachmann open, this one I bought at Glasgow. It's been modified as per Paul Worsdell's thread here except that I didn't bother scribing in the planks for fairly obvious reasons. The container came from a Bachmann conflat. It's a very quick and easy set of mods and the buffers make quite a difference. I did use the lugged ones all round and just thinned the backs a touch to allow the body to sit right down. Horsebox is now lettered and has had a first coat of varnish. The coach is also lettered and has had four or five more coats of Games Workshop varnish with no ill effects. I can only conclude that the paint - which was quite thick - hadn't dried thoroughly enough when it was varnished the first time. I'll keep that in mind. I've run out of Coopercraft seats so there may be a hiatus before the interior goes in. I finally made up the last set of Bill Bedford's W irons for the French vans and added brake gear to them so I can crack on with these now. Doing four sets of everything seems to take ages - I must have had some patience when I built 6 Italian ones at once. Grano has also been painted.

Grano with rivets restored and most of the underneath detailing added. The two small stanchions at the end of the body have also been added with 40 thou Evergreen. It's in grey now and may even be lettered tonight. Much of the brake gear was made up using parts of a Masokits etch for SR Monarch gear with some of the very useful 51L etched levers added. If only someone would do an etch for the very distinctive GWR ratcheted lever guides.

Cheers, Ian, I've now done that. That, as you gathered is the Dapol lever and V hanger - if we hadn't used that he'd have had nothing to do to fit the brakes as I wasn't going to let him solder up the lever and hanger on the other side. He has now painted it so it'll probably take a week or so to dry. The Grano came to me as a pile of bits after John had stripped it down so it was me who put it together. As you say, making the roof the same width as the body was an obvious improvement. It's now had primer and a few more gaps filled as well as some extra stanchions which I hadn't noticed before. I'll put back the missing rivets and give it another prime (hopefully tonight) then it can go into the painting queue.

16 tonner reached the paint shop last night: I dug out another stalled project. This was acquired from John (Hayfield) of this parish and has been lurking on the bench for quite some time It was pretty dimensionally challenged (roof different length to sides, for example). I haven't dared try it against a drawing. However with filler and plastic we can hide a multitude of gaps. It's had S & Ws fitted and I started building the brake gear last night. Irritatingly I did build a much better ladder for it from a Wizard Models etch, but it's completely vanished in the workshop renovation. I'm resisting the urge to buy another as it'll undoubtedly turn up as soon as I have no need of it. I was studying Geoff Kent's scratchbuilt version at Ely show and that's given me the kick to get on with it.

Horsebox is now in primer - there are an awful lot of fiddly details on this model which are a nuisance to put on but make for a satisfyingly busy looking model when it's all done. The roof was a bit of a challenge - I ended up gluing it securely to the body then filling the eaves at each end with Milliput and filing/sanding back the shoulders to get the right shape. Now it's in primer I can see some minor tidying up to do on there. This one will be finished in early BR for use on Thurston. The coach has had a few days to harden off before I apply transfers, which I will probably do tonight. I've put a couple more coats of varnish on there and there hasn't been any further reaction. Lamps have been attended to following a thread on the LNER forum earlier in the week about the colour they ought to be painted. Finally I found some more-or-less right size Evergreen square section at Middlesbrough Show, so set to last night and knocked up these for the Toad D. I'll see how they look when painted, but so far I'm pleased. They're about 4mm high.

I expect you approve, though?

Well, a bit of a stumbling week this week as things seemed to take a step forward and then another one back again. I painted the coach in the usual fashion but yesterday noticed that the varnish I use (Games Workshop Satin) was reacting with the paint. Now funnily enough the last time I had this happen was with the GE Clerestory I built which I painted the same colour. The paint is Precision Track Dirt (977, I think) which was Larry's recommendation. It was quite thick when I painted it on - perhaps it needs thinning out a bit the next time I use it. I'm thinking at the moment that it hadn't dried properly as the reaction was sparse and patchy (but definitely there). I'd left it 3 days after painting, but not in a heated environment. Anyway, I wondered a bit about stripping it and finally decided to try gently smoothing the crazed effect with a burnishing pencil and applying more varnish to even out the surface. When I get round to building my layout it will be set around 1930, so this will be a 35 year old coach and you'd expect some deterioration in the panels. If it doesn't come up to scratch then I can always strip it. I've also been making up Bill Bedford's springing units for some ferry vans and adding brakes to them, which is quite dull and I haven't bothered illustrating it. No. 2 son has started his much-requested wagon, though, now No. 1 son's aircraft has left the bench: This has turned into a saga in itself; on laying out the parts, one solebar was broken. One side was bent as well, so after we'd glued one end and left it to dry I was showing him how to clamp the other end to straighten it. The clamp slipped and snapped a W iron clean off. So last night it's had one of Mike Trice's very handy RTR wagon compensation units added and been levelled up before he can resume building. He wants it to run on Thurston so it will be having the full Geoff Kent treatment. I have to say I was again unimpressed with the quality of the Dapol plastic, though. As a reward for not having cut any of his fingers off he was allowed to choose the next build and here it is. I shall be perusing Mick's notes on it later as he did one a couple of years ago.

Cheers, Rob. The coach will be in LNER brown, to match a set I already have.

Well, we're finally back in business. Fully reroofed, insulated, reboarded overhead and almost as before. A few items have vanished into oblivion - for the moment - and I'm still getting rid of the awful fine black dust of almost 80 years which has got into everything, but I have been able to do some modelling at last. I have some plans for summer projects, but initially I thought I'd clear some decks and finish off a few things which have been hanging around for some time. These coal wagons have sat in the drawer for a long time. They make a nice contrast in sizes. The opens are also done. I did end up using the Cambrian brake gear (you get a spare set on the sprue) for the 3H wagon. Not a lot to choose between them otherwise. Toads, of course. LNER one now lettered and has since been glazed. My cunning plan to use the Dapol running lamps detailed in the manner Mikemeg showed back upthread has rather been stymied by their being one of the items which has vanished. I think I can make some more up from Evergreen section and rod, though. Thanks to a contact on the LNER forum I now have the major parts for a Toad E in the kit pile as well. Like Micklner, I couldn't resist this at York. Everyone knows I'm a sucker for a horsebox. It needs metal buffer heads when I next order from Andrew Hartshorne and the door handles have been carved off to be replaced with brass ones. Transfers from Cambridge Custom Transfers. I think Mick mentioned the toilet window is fiddly - one other problem I found with it is that the white paint from the window seeped through any gaps in the frame and I had to repaint round it on the other side. After all the years of wanting Parkside to do an LNER horsebox this may be the only one I buy as I have another two of these from D & S to build. Finally I made a determined effort to complete this NE brake 3rd. The instructions had also vanished but thanks to Mr Worsdell I was able to obtain another copy and complete it on Friday night. It's now entered the paint shop. They're a classy looking vehicle, these NER clerestories. There was a very nice rake on one of the 3mm layouts at York which was probably the best thing I saw there this year.

Brian, Larry's advice and coach are as good as it gets but you should also be aware (if you can set eyes on a copy) that Wild Swan's The 4mm Coach Part 1 by Stephen Williams has a whole chapter on building, detailing and painting one of these kits and includes a number of photographs in LMS and Midland livery.

Lovely, Mike. We seem to be spoiled with top notch bridge builders at the moment.

I thought that rang a bell - pictures in Great Eastern in Town and Country Vol 2, which I assume Andrew has.

Yes indeed, they look lovely. Someone's for the high jump when the yardmaster sees a container on that Lowfit, though!

Thanks, Kenton and sorry for the minor thread hijack. I couldn't quite make out from Clive's photos what was on the back of the wheel. I'd already more or less made my mind up it wasn't feasible within my engineering capacity. One of these gauged to HO would be dead handy and I was a bit surprised not to find one when I browsed about. The Wickham has been on my WB in a corner for four or five years and it would be nice to get it to run.

Clive, I've been watching this thread with my N Brass Wickham in mind... are those wheels on a stub axle and do you think it would be feasible to replace the axles and gauge it out to 16.5mm? Also, how high does it stand above track level? TIA, Jonathan

No prices as yet in the last letter I had, but his GE coaches were £45 each.

Larry - unless you can find one on Ebay I think Chris Parrish has given up on the Perseverance range. I have sent him a couple of orders and after vague promises of 'when I get round to it' or 'next year' have yet to see anything arrive.

Thank you to everyone who responded. I was directed elsewhere to this document which is a Beamish stock list. That LNWR wagon looks a definite candidate for a slight bash - can you get the WD transfers anywhere? To wrap this up here are the last of my photos from the day The transship van usually lives in the goods shed, but (I assume) the Y7's in there at the moment. There was certainly a pile of coal outside as if they'd been coaling it off the goods dock. This flat has seen better days. Mrs. W was very taken with the crane as well.

Quite agree, top stuff, Paul. You've rattled through it very quickly too; I've got scratchbuilt wagons simpler than that which I've been tinkering with for over a year. Look forward to seeing them up close.