cravensdmufan

Further to my previous posts, here is another example of using weathering powders to lighten colour. I have a Hornby Class 50 045 in "revised" ie. later NSE livery. The loco is factory weathered (with the strange exception of the roof which was pristine gloss black!). I always felt that the blue was way too dark, compared with the Bachmann Mk2 coaches that I have which seem about right. I really didn't fancy a re-paint. So I used my favourite Tamiya powders again and applied a light dusting of "snow" from set B onto the blue. Then used a mix of colours from Set A plus "soot" from Set B for the roof. The loco has toned down beautifully - of course it's now showing up the Bachmann coaches as too pristine! The trouble with weathering is that once you do a few items it obviously makes everything else look too new! So I'll crack on and do all my stuff eventually. I must say I do find it therapeutic though and it really doesn't take long at all. I forgot to mention before that I found a good "huff" of warm breath seems to help fix the powders to a certain extent, but careful handling of the models is still required. I have no connection with the Tamiya company (I believe they are Japanese) just delighted with their products. Now all I have to do with the loco is to re-paint the grey band at the bottom of the body which looks completely wrong - no powder can cure that!

BR Civil Engineers yard in 1990's - an excellent choice Looking forward to seeing your progress - will follow with interest..

Many thanks for your comments JohnH. Here are a few more photos of items I weathered just with Tamiya powders plus a few touches of neat artists Windsor & Newton acrylics. I'm a great believer in "less says more" and find these products are ideal for my purposes. Although they were quite expensive, I'm still using the three Tamiya sets I purchased some four years ago, and I've done lots of items. I find the lighter shades (all three in Set A) and Snow (in Set B) the most useful Also Soot in Set B is great for loco and carriage roofs. I find that Snow is also good for overall paint fading - the Rail Blue locos here were so treated. I don't own an airbrush and feel the more random application and texture of the powders looks just as good (and reversible too).

May I introduce Benjy? Senior Carriage & Wagon Supervisor - length of service 7 years. Sometimes falls asleep while on duty!

I use Tamiya - they come in a palette set of three colours. About £8 per set. Packs A and B are particularly useful. The pigments seem less "powdery" than Humbrol and Carrs and go on nicely. With careful handling of the models the pigment stays on. I don't seal them as varnish spoils the finish and texture. Here's a photo of an old Lima Seacow - one of my first attempts using just Tamiya and a bit of brown neat acrylic "borrowed" from my wife's artist's box! Really pleased with Tamiya products.

An excellent fix, very many thanks. Even I completed it easily!

eBay listing has now been ended by the seller. "Item is no longer available".

Went to Mablethorpe about two years ago - I thought it the best O gauge layout I'd ever seen. Very upset to read of Mike's ill health. He made us very welcome and we spent about two hours chatting (and trainspotting!) A phenomenal layout which actually I think deserves to be in the National Collection. I reckoned it was a lot better than the O Gauge behind the glass at the NRM.

Really like your OAA - I'm doing one myself right now. Even simple weathering with Tamiya powders brings out the detail on the body. I hadn't even noticed the moulded chains until I started the job. Very good detail considering it's a 30 year old model. And the sides are nice and thin too. OK, the underframe is not up to "modern" standards but fair play to Hornby all those years ago. When weathered and detailed I'm more than happy to include it in a rake with more modern Bachmann offerings. Thanks for the inspiration!

Tony, the DMU is a Class 119 built in 1958 by Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon.. 28 3-car units built for cross country services. Interestingly the centre car had a buffet area. Units remained in service until the early 1990''s (albeit with buffet area removed by then) and I believe their final workings were Reading - Gatwick airport. Perhaps WR DM&EE experts can confirm?

Edit. Please see my post #7010 below.

Purchased "The Green-Blue Transition" at the Spalding Exhibition last weekend, and thoroughly enjoyed it. A fascinating collection of photos from an era I remember well, even though I was a Great Eastern man at the time! An excellent reference work for modellers of that period - it is particularly useful for weathering as there aren't too many books of good quality colour photos of the 60's - early 70's Eastern Region diesels around. Well done Tony, and I look forward to the next volume!

I believe they did. I must check that out. Also, Birkenhead North and Hornsey had a number of ex Class 501 emu cars converted into shunters by BREL Doncaster and Wolverton between 1973 and 1980. They worked in pairs being battery locos. Class 97/7. 97 701 - 97 710. (Info per 1988 Platform 5.)

Can understand the editor's stance to a certain extent though. With most RTR locos costing over £100 and coaches and even some wagons approaching £50, magazines publishers would be worried about being "blamed" if when something goes badly wrong! Even if the "Difficulty grading" (as per Model Rail system) is 5 - actually now I come to think of it I can't recall ever seeing a project with that score! Unfortunately we now live in a rather spoon fed (and compensation culture) society. Edit - while I was typing, two members said the same - I must get faster with my keyboard skills!

"Whenever I take close-up pictures of my work I'm often unimpressed with how it turns out (not the picture, the model). Every crinkle and crease, every blob and blemish is highlighted in extremis, especially on a cast-metal kit like this. I suppose it's the down side of taking a picture using a powerful camera with an unforgiving lens." Very much agree - the digital lens can be cruel. I've often though that railway modelling magazines do models an injustice by enlarging photos too much. Every speck of dust shows. I have seen almost full page enlargements of N gauge locos many, many times bigger than they really are, and even some of the modern RTR stuff can look dodgy. Arms length viewing (and I have fairly long arms!) for me every time. Well that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!

Ha! Just speaking from my own, quite extensive, travels up and down the ECML. Never had one failure! Sounds like maybe I've been lucky!

Oh, all these complicated arrangements - franchises, leasing, contractors, sub-contractors..... Keeps the lawyers and accountants busy I suppose, but doesn't help the passenger or taxpayer at the end of the day. Bring back British Rail.

Ken. Congratualations on your length of service - you look too young to have done all those years! Hope those HST's and 91's keep going well for you - let us know what you think about the new units when they arrive. Will keep an eye open for you on my frequent travels on the ECML. Best wishes.

"There's a very tatty set of 125 stock that often appears on such occasions". Would that be the East Midlands set that keeps appearing on the KX - Leeds service? Kenw - I expect you know it well! I wonder why that set has never been refurbished as it seems to have been on for a while now even back in East Coast days? (Edited for spelling)

That's excellent. You probably won't want to answer this question publicly on the forum and we'll understand if you don't comment. Briefly, how does the job now compare with that in BR days overall?

Jimikelly, I don't think that's the problem because some of my hills are papier mache (about 6 strip layers of newspaper each stuck down with PVA to make a nice hard shell) and my applicator and grass has worked well on it. I was advised by the very helpful man from DoubleO Scenics that it is important to get good conductivity through the glue. I brush on approx.70/30 mix of Copydex/water and apply it quite thickly. You need to make sure the nail that the crocodile clip goes on to is touching the glue. For doing small areas he advised to make a probe instead of using the nail. His words: "If you have a length of 1mm (approx.) brass rod 4"-6" ish. (or similar) you attach the crocodile clip to one end then insulate the rod (i.e. electrical tape) leaving about 4mm exposed at the end. Making sure you only hold the insulated part you can then just touch each area of adhesive as you move along applying the grass." I did that but insulated the rod with heat shrink tube instead of tape as I was afraid of the tape slipping and me touching it and getting a shock! It has worked very well for me doing small areas of grass.

That's interesting - I'm glad to hear the situation is not as I had perceived. My apologies again. My comments were based on information from my brother-in-law who was a HST driver at OOC on the WR. He took redundancy after 40 years at the very end of BR as he didn't fancy a few more years with a private operator. He told me many of his colleagues (even younger ones) got out as well.

Purchased a budget applicator and some grass from a small supplier (DoubleO Scenics) who was at the Peterborough exhibition last weekend. I only have a small layout and do not need to do swathes of grass. I couldn't justify the cost of the larger applicators. It therefore suits my needs perfectly, and I'm already getting some quite good results. No connection to the firm, just very pleased with the product.

Yes, just 20 years. Gone are the days of 40 years dedicated service by professional railway staff! Long Service Awards for how many years nowadays? - five?! Edit: Thinking about it that last sentence was a bit cutting and unfair. My apologies. Make that ten.

Talking railways with a Virgin Trains East Coast guard (20+ years service - unusual in these days of non career railway personnel) the other day and I asked him "what the new company were like to work for?" "Not great, it's just a different animal but with the same smell" was the answer! Which reminded me, I was on a Voyager to Chester on the same company's West Coast route two weeks ago. And those toilets really do still smell!