paulprice

Well while the industrial accident investigators are still to allow the Price locomotive works to re-open, I have been doing some thinking. In the collection I have a total of 6 Duchess locomotives. Four of which I am pretty happy with, they still need a few little tweaks but they represent locomotives in the following conditions. 1 x In original build condition pre-smoke deflectors (crimson). 1 x Smoke deflector fitted (crimson). 2 x Semi-condition (post war lines black) That leaves me with 2 examples that have been pretty much untouched apart from their mechanisms having a good service and clean. So the question is what to do with the remaining two? One is in crimson just needs a little finishing if I can decide on her identity, the other is in the original terrible Farish lined black (the one with the yellow/greenish lining) so really is overdue for a repaint. Without creating a Streamlined example (its on my to-do list but not for a good while yet) how do I add a little interest to the fleet, obviously being an LMS modeller they will never see a drop of that terrible green paint applied to them, but what to do? Should I go down the wartime plain black livery, with a good application of grime? do I paint one in works grey? or do I try and represent an example pulling an ex-stream liner tender? For the stream lined tender option I can remember seeing relevant photo's in some of my reference books, but I cannot remember which ones, but the good news is it gives me an excuse to read my books again, if you have any suggestions I would be grateful to hear them. In the meantime as ever Happy Modelling

I actually got the primer out today and even managed to get some of it on my locomotives, progress is progress

Apparently according to certain individuals that will remain nameless I am mentally regressing, I may have the body of a 43 year old Gorilla, but the mental age of a 7 year old, how rude is that? I have a few items of GWR stock in my collection, but I only have them because I felt a bit of pity when I saw how an inferior railway company had to manage

It looks truly brilliant,

Well despite the reputation of the Work Bench of DOOM, I ignored the many, many warnings issued especially by the Domestic Overlord and ploughed into a production shift. The Princess I'm trying to build is getting to the stage I should start to maybe consider giving her a coat of primer, that is if you ignore all the filler I will have to apply to various places to try and improve some of the more ropey areas (quite a lot of them). Anyway I thought it was a good idea to see if she would fit onto her intended chassis, and how much alteration work I had ahead of me. I'm still not too sure how I feel about the Princess locomotives, but while I decide if I actually like them or not, which could take a while when she is completed (whenever that may be) she will fill a gap in my collection. Now I have to admit, as much as I like LMS express passenger locomotives, so may say I have an obsession with them (Jubilee's) I kind of have a thing for havy freight locomotives, I thought I would do a little bit more on my water heater 7F (does this mean its a kettle with a kettle?). I needs a lot of filler applying to fix a few issues, well a lot of issues, but the major adaptions have been fitted. So the Beast and the Beast saw a fair bit of progress, but the real modelling will have to start on the two of them soon, at least with the 7F I can hide the bad modelling under a lot of weathering, but for the Princess........ The fact that I seemed to make a little progress, rather than acting as a warning spurred me onto to look at the other locomotives in the production queue and the Work Bench of DOOM waited for the ideal moment to strike. While I did a little work on the Prince of Wales tank the Work Bench sat there watching and waiting. Sensing the ideal moment the Work Bench pounced, one of the little effect from my condition is that I often get cramps/spasms/tremors in various parts of my body but more annoyingly in my hands, and today it happened as I was moving a craft knife. It could have been a lot worst, but after applying intentionally this time a large amount of superglue to my fingers to stem the jets of blood, and having picked up my 12 severed fingers, I noticed two things. One is my blood is remarkably similar to LMS crimson, which is handy being an LMS modeller and two it has better coverage than some of the paints I have in stock Still the Flatiron has seen its construction advance a little, pity I already have a fully lined crimson in the collection, and this one is supposed to be in black. So before I reattached my fingers I thought I would tidy up the Work Bench of DOOM, and clean the blood splatters up from the carpet before the DO found out, and because I was a little bored. So before I lose any more body parts I think I will put off any modelling for a while, at least until my fingers grow back, they will grow back won't they? As ever Happy Modelling

Quick call for an Ambulance Major incident at the Work Bench of DOOM

Well a little bit of progress has been made on my 7F today, and I have only managed to super glue my fingers together twice today, so my modelling skills are improving massively

Well you cant keep a bad modeller down Two projects take a little step towards completion, if they ever will be completed ?

I don't know how I managed to do it this weekend but I seemed to have found some modelling time, and managed to make a little progress on some of my list of projects. I have a few GEM Fowler tender kits in stock which I have had for more years than I care to remember, originally I thought that I would use them on my 4F fleet but I have never got round to it. One by one I have been using them on various other projects so now I have more 4Fs than I have tenders in stock. Anyway today I have nearly completed one, which will be towed around by a PRINCESS. Despite them not really being one of my favourite LMS loco's (a little to GWR looking to my eyes) I thought at some point I better add one to my fleet. Being the crafty little ###### that I am, I have been managing to get the odd construction period in without the Domestic Overlord and this is the result so far. Yes I know there is still a hell of a lot of work still to do, but my initial test fit over one of the Std 4 chassis I have in stock is promising. I know the wheelbase and wheels are not exactly right, but I am not trying to build a scale model, more a model than can take up some of the passenger duties on Foster Street if I ever take it to another exhibition, or for use on my next proper layout. Unlike my Duchess collection, she will remain the only member of the class in my collection. As the Domestic Overlord, had no idea of my secret modelling sessions, I thought I would become a true master of secrets and try to make a little more progress on a second project. I have a liking for dirty freight engines, and in the past I have constructed a pair of 7F's which I kind of like to see plodding around the layout pulling various freight trains. A few months ago I managed to source an eight coupled chassis to initially go under a kit for a round firebox G2, but to cut a long story short its no good, so what to do with it? Taking my favourite easy route out I decided to construct another 7F, but to try and add some interest I thought a "water heater" variant would be a good idea. So as with the Princess there is a long way to go but its progress in trying to reduce the number of projects on the workbench of DOOM. So with progress like this its a bit like a fairy tale, with me of course like the poor downtrodden "Buttons" type character, but with locomotives like these, its more like Beauty buggered of and left me with two beasts Anyway until the next time, as ever Happy Modelling

How rude.............

Buying, what buying, apart from the Jubilee they are all from my stocks Maybe I need to make a visit to the SVR not been there in ages, with a Duchess in attendance how can I refuse??

Well the workbench of DOOM is filling up with new projects far quicker than projects are leaving it, not counting the 3 Trams a quick check has revealed the following waiting for completion 1 x Stannier Mogul 1 x Princess 1 x Prince of Wales tank 1x 7F water heater verions 1 x ex L&Y 0-8-0 1 x G2 (round firebox) 1 x Original Royal Scot 2 x Duchess 1 x Flat Iron 1 x 2P 4-4-0 1 x 4P 4-4-0 Im sure I have forgot something, oh yes WHERE WILL I GET THE TIME TO DO ALL THIS BUILDING?

Maybe renumber her as Boris and Oris?

Does it have to be piston rods at dawn, I could do with a lie in I must admit I the black livery is quickly becoming my favourite livery, but I find it easier to paint examples that use to be in horrible BR liveries easier than repainting crimson machines. The problem is not buying loco's the problem is trying to reduce the number of modification/kits and scratch builds on the workbench. At the moment just to give you an idea I have waiting completion the following. 1 x Ex MR Flat Iron 1 x Ex L&Y 0-8-0 1 x Ex LNWR 4-6-2T 1 x Ex LNWR G2 (round firebox) 1 x Original Royal Scot 1 x 2P 4-4-0 1 x 4P 4-4-0 1 x Stannier Mogul 2 x Duchess 1 x 7F 0-8-0 (water heater version) The main problem is where do I get any time to work on them

Well my stock taking continues, and the number of locomotives I forgot I had is slowly increasing, which is good news I think? Before the stock count I thought I had 5 Duchess locomotives, but it turns out that I actually have 6, I had a very vague memory of finding a bargain Duchess in the old Farish lined black livery (you know the one with the yellow/green lining). I honestly thought though that I had converted this into a "Semi" and painted it into Post War lined black but apparently I didn't. So this means I have two original built examples, two "Semi" locomotives, one in the process of being finished in lined crimson and the extra black one, the question is what to do with this one? I could take the easy route and just paint her in overall plain war time black, but where would be the fun in that. So just to even up the fleet a little, despite them not being my favourite LMS locomotive (they look a little too GWRish to me) I can feel a princess build coming on. The problem is for such a small class they had quite a lot of variation in their motion brackets, but I think if I look at maybe using a Std 4 motion the brackets sort of look to my eyes at least like the GW-ish ones one a couple of prototypes. If this idea takes a more physical form I may post some updates on here, now if that is not a treat, sorry I mean THREAT I don't know what is? Oh before I go off to the world of domestic servitude, to keep the Domestic Overlord happy, thanks to the influence of some of the chaps on here, my latest Jubilee has arrived. Despite what lots of people say, its still possible to find a bargain on EvilBay, as this example appears never to have been run, and was in mint boxed condition, until the Girls helped open the parcel for me The big thing not is do I leave here in Crimson, or do I repaint her into Post war LMS black, oh and what example to turn her into? Until next time as ever Happy Modelling