Bluemonkey presents....

Beautiful, must be very hard to let it go! Wish I was living in Brizzle at the moment.

Thanks again for posting. got my set Saturday lovely job.

Ordered my set to. Hi Phil, thanks again for pointing me in the direction of Narrow Planet for my GWR Hercules build. Spikey please can you tell me the item number for those bottles. I have been looking for some for a while but can not find anything suitable. Thanks in advance..

Dave, Sorry to hear about your troubles. Your shop had been a project saver many a time for me and of course you have a good supply of (then) Parkside Dundas kits. Hadn't realised you were closed and popped over Friday to find your closure notice. Hope the new show went well, most likely see you in Calne for some bits and bobs. All the best, Matt.

Awesome. Thank you for the updates, fantastic.

Castle, sorry I don't know the answer to your question but I do know those are two lovely built wagons you have. You have made an excellent job on them both. Always a pleasure to view your work Sir.

Happy Christmas to everyone watching and looking in on this thread. All the advice and encouragement has been greatly appreciated, thank you.

Castle, what a fantastic finish build to a great years modelling. Thank you for all your posts and model supplies help throughout the year, as well as organising and conducting a superb Didcot RM day. Personally I can not thank you enough for your help and assistance. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Sir.

Hi Mikkel, Thank you really appreciate your offer. I am still very much in the embryotic stages as I have a layout base but not completely happy with it so may dismantle and start again. I am still very much balancing time for researching and building. I, probably like a lot of people, tend to get submerged in building stock and various projects and forget to get the basics completed first. I have rediscovered my love from modelling recently but need to find more time to properly indulge but also need a layout, at least at running stage first. Your picture of Chippenham from the air is excellent an one I have over looked for the surrounding station buildings. Thank you. I have a collection of old photographs from various view points around the station but nothing really of it's actual surrounding. I follow all your builds and topics with great interest. Fantastic work. I am still in two minds about a silhouette cutter but seem to have less time to spend on the computer so may not be able to fully use it's capabilities. Thank you again.

Hi, I am looking for a decent empty 14T tank wagon box with the plastic inner, please. Thank you for any responses.

Mikkel, this is fabulous work and very interesting on various levels. I am planning a layout of Chippenham station and was worried about the stable block (plus many other things) and how it would have looked. I could not find anything of reference for this other than a footprint plan. Additionally I have been researching the possible use for a silhouette cutter for my buildings. Thank you for your inspirational modelling and blogs they are always a source of great interest.

Thank you. I am very please with the outcome although I have to sort the slight stutter on the chassis. I am thinking of removing the coupling rods and replacing them with the fluted ones but reversed to give the flat appearance as seen. Next project, well I have an O gauge pannier kit I am really tempted to start, (no layout just a yard of track and a display case, lol) or a 4mm Simplex loco kit I have found stashed in a box. Still struggling to complete those transfers though and I seem to have built a few more sleeper wagon kits, now have three fully loaded without transfers! Edit: Oh and of course I have a planned layout to start!

Dear All, I am having some really difficulty finding a thread I am sure I read on RMweb. Please can someone help me. I am looking for the Great Western text type and sizing scale equivalent for MS word. The text I am most interested in is the 'return to ....' on ventilated wagons and locations names on brake vans, please. I am sure I once read a thread on here about a particular site that can be used to create the exact text style and apprropriate scale sizing for 'OO'/4mm and thought I had bookmarked it but as Sod would have it does appear I did. Thank you for any help and guidance in advance. (I am unable to log in daily at the moment but do as much as possible so please excuse any delayed gratitude.

Morning, Well it truly has been a struggle to get motivated to get those transfers on noted wagons! I have managed a couple. The mink G had a disaster as the 'G' and 'W' transfers started to break up on the wagon and I just could not salvage them at all. It could be that my transfers are old as I have experienced some cracking before but they are HMRS so should be alright. In the meantime I diverted my attention with some pre-printed open wagons that I found in one of my collected 'to do' boxes. One each of Cambrian (Sully, Bridgwater), Mike's Models (Marlborough College, Wiltshire) and Slaters in association with Pendon (Woodley, Oxford). All plastic kits and had very little flash to remove. There are some significant size difference between the finished kits (shown my ignorance again) but this does allow for interesting changes throughout a rake. Each kit went together well. All three had differences regarding the initial construction of the solebar. I preferred the Slaters kit for this and found the Mike's Models kit required a certain amount of refining to allow the wheels to actually move in the bearings as the axle boxes seems too close and pinched, this is more apparent in the Slaters wagon. The Cambrian kit had the best fit of the planked sides with the Slaters a very close second but the Mike's Models kit had one side fixed with doubles-sided tape to a piece of paper as part of the packaging/advertising and this remained on the wagon side due to age of kit most likely. Rather unfortunate as I was hoping to have these as empties. I expect there is a lot of weathering and dirtying that can be applied to hide once I set to it rather than a load. I would have tried 'sticky stuff remover' but had concerns that I may end up destroying the pre-printed side. I used a pin flow type device to make invisible liquid cement joins for the interior of the open wagons. With a short practice this worked really well and genuinely the joins made are near invisible unless you get real close. A little tricky to load and use but well worth the investment and practice time to create good strong cement joints especially for empty open wagons. Edit for pictures; First shows the slow progress with transfers. Second of those wagons, as mentioned showing the 'sticky stuff' on the inside of the Marlborough College wagon. Further edit; I should have put pictures of the inside of the wagons to help show what I was trying to explain i.e. the sticky stuff. The Slaters one has the best fit regarding planked sides to base the other two both have slightly wider bodies than the flooring. The pictures also demonstrate how effective the pin flow application has been as each wagon has been glued from the visible interior side. I started with the Marlborough College wagon which shows a little but I figured I would be grubbing or loading it up anyway.

I would say definitely Slaters. I have been working on a wagon kit by this manufacturer and the associated transfers look exactly the same style as what I have been using. My transfers also seem to have lost the 'stickiness' I continued with the pressfix method and plenty of Micro-sol after application. Everything seemed to work OK although the transfers actual did seem quite delicate when having to re-position them.

Allan, I have followed your previous thread "Anything you can do....". Fantastic work. I have been completely inspired by your incredible model and wish one day to be able to create such beautiful buildings half as well. Thank you Sir for sharing such a wonderful skill with us. I look forward to seeing more. Wishing you all the best. Matt

Well sat down to make a start on a transfer session and fell at the first hurdle! My starting point was the two steam banana wagons from the Parkside range and using HMRS transfers but the set does not include the 'Avonmouth' lettering of "Return Empty to Avonmouth" which would be representative for my planned layout i.e. http://ukrailways1970tilltoday.me.uk/severn_valley_wagons.htm (third picture down). I have trawled the internet this morning but currently I have no results. Even 'craftypapers' websire is a dead duck although I think it would be somewhat overkill going down the route of creating my own for now. Any ideas? (Other than leaving the destination out). So I used my demotivated time wisely to finish of a little treat I purchased whilst ordering my wooden sleepers; Edit:

81C and bgman, thank you appreciate your comments. Well, the next thing will to tidy the workbench (so I'm told!) but more seriously I now have a large number of kit built wagons that I put together during this project as 'distractions'. They are all painted but a serious transfer and coupling session(s) will be required to complete them. I have a layout in the planning stages (about 6 years now) in desperate need of building as well. I intend to try and capture Chippenham Station (Wiltshire) in the late 20's, early 30's, including the Calne branchline. I will be running a wide variety of stock* and motive power as I am not as disciplined as Castle is with his. Although, where I can, I will have locomotive and stock numbers accurate to those either used or passing through the station/branchline. I'll post the 'distractions' when I get them picture and as they get finished. Not sure about blogging the layout build as that could run decades if this project is anything to measure it by but I may. Edit: * I also have a thing 6 wheeled tankers. This will become obvious if the blog takes off! Update: Here are the distractions I mention;

OK this is it. Finally I have Hercules completed, well I say that........................... ........................After all the testing and re-testing the chassis now soldered has a slight stick! Of course the rods are now soldered etc etc so some time in the future I am going to try and fix this. Any suggestions please?! I have added a few details to the complete the over all finish and glazed the cab windows. Currently in a 'just out of the workshop' livery and over time as I develop my weathering skills I will add a very slight weathering to the locomotive. This is something that can come in time as it would on the prototype. Happy with the overall finish and appearance though. I have put one of my reference pictures in the background to make a direct comparison. I have really enjoyed this little project along with the 'happy accidents' and new modelling skills developed. I have also very much enjoyed the comments from everyone along the way. Thank you to all for your patience in watching this build, it has been a little time in coming. Now all I need to do is build my planned layout for it to run on, (after the chassis tweak). Hope you enjoyed the journey. Here are the pictures; Thank you to everyone for their comments and continued support. Everything is always appreciated.

I would like to join in with the thanks you's. It was a fabulous day held by Castle and team. I learnt so much and enjoyed everyone's company a perfect way to spend a Sunday. Anyone umming and arring about going, if you can do so. You will not regret spending the day at Didcot and whats more if you are able to join the next RMweb tour you will see and learn a lot more than if just visiting. Thank you again for a great day.

Thank you 81C that conifrms it, I will use the flat coupling rods. Thank you for the link as well. I think for layout purposes I will depict the single lamp option as it would be working/moving to a job for my planned layout rather than moving from shed to shed.

Thanks bgman, thought as much but just checking. I think I have the head lamp answer. Found a picture in Steam Picture Library.com, seemingly in service although posed with a single lamp on the left hand side (looking forward (Fireman's side?)); Edit: although I have also found a description of a single lamp positioned in the bottom centre and the one describing a 36T crane has a lamp on top of the smoke box and one left looking forward.

Thank you 57xx, appreciate your thoughts. I am leaning towards the flat coupling rods as well. I think further down the line I will regret not working to the prototype, especially something so easy, obvious and the fact I have them available. P.S. I don't mean to look stupid but what is rule one please? I have an idea but, well, just making sure, Does anyone know or have an idea of where I can start looking for; the head codes for such a locomotive please? My reference pictures don't show the front when in service, and a small leaflet I have about head codes only mentions train running with crane stock. As always thank you in advance, I appreciate any input.

Due to the usual 'everyday life' I was unable to do any modelling so hopefully some time later this week or at the weekend I will be able to finish. Please feel free to forward suggestions. Edit: Looks like my planned trip is off as well as the weather report shows Didcot under water for most of the day Wednesday, oh well!

**update** Problem sorted many thanks for all the suggestions. Dear All, I am having great trouble in finding some appropriate Great Western design sleeper chairs in 4mm/OO gauge. I have the sleepers prepared. I had some cosmetic white metal chairs that I have used for a sleeper wagon load and have another two wagons to complete. Does anyone have or know where to get hold of such an item please? I am looking for 208 chairs in total. Does anyone do 3D printed versions? Example; Thank you in advance.