Southwich

Thanks Will much appreciated! I’m pretty chuffed with the end result to be honest. Practice does make perfect! Kind regards, Will

A quick update on 37698 - roof had been weathered with a passing of roof dirt and a Matt black mix during the week. This evening I’ve also added the exhaust dirt: A superb idea from my dad meant I could test on the 2D drawing of the 37 roof, so I’ve been practicing all weekend before doing 698: Thanks for looking! Will

Thanks for the comment Peter - hope you and the family are well in Oz! The 60 took a lot of tweaking but we get there in the end. The extra pick ups on the 37 made an insane difference, I think I’ll start fitting additional ones as standard. The 90 was originally for Barham, but since a house move that project was sold off, so not sure on the fate of 024, I’m really pleased with it however I haven’t got any wires planned for Motts Lane so we’ll see! Could always be dragged in by 47818? Hoping to have 37698 finished by the end of the week all being well. Kind regards, Will

37698 stands at Motts Lane this evening. The EWS door has been painted per the prototype. Kind regards, Will

37698 has had its EWS sprayed. Needs another coat of EWS maroon, a coat of Matt varnish and then onto weathering. Kind regards, Will

A bit of an update tonight - first up 90024 has had the roof weathered, really chuffed with this! Just needs some brush work to finish it off and a coat of Matt varnish: May need some wires on the layout for 024 despite no plans for them! Also on the workbench are Loadhaul heavyweights 56055 and 37698. 56055 has had the top coat of black applied, just needs some small touch ups and then fading to match 2004 condition. 37698 has had the ploughs mounted to the body using superglued brass strip on the back of Bachmann ploughs. I’ve also changed the buffers to the class 60 type, they look much better than the original VItrains ones. I’ve also done the first layer of primer ready to paint the EWS door, which I’m hoping to get completed over the long weekend. More soon! Kind regards, Will

Stunning work as usual Dave, absolutely loving the photos! Looking forward to more - hope you and your family are staying safe and well! Kind regards, Will

Lovely work here Jack - that 222 looks like a 222 to me! Nice to see I’ve given you an idea regarding the Dinghams, they’re a great product all round I think, especially for the price which as you’ve said is more than reasonable! I’ve gone for the exact same configuration as yours (latch on wagons hook on Locos), however I’ve also used the superb Accurascale screw links threaded onto the brass rod that’s soldered into the hook - I think it finishes them off! Regarding the latch on the locos, none of mine have it as I’ve just used the hook (for some reason I thought this would aid operation), so I think I’m going to switch to your method. The video of the 08 is superb and it works really nicely. I hope you don’t mind my photo of 37710 below: That shows the screw links in place as well. I’ve certainly found they need testing, however I think once you get to grips with them (I certainly haven’t yet!) they’ll be flawless. Loving the progress - keep it coming! Will

Thabks for the kind words Jack! I wouldn’t mind a 90034 actually despite it being well out of era - that would be a good one to do I reckon. Disassembling the model was quite difficult, there were a whole host of parts that sat in a small little box and I made sure I took photos of the internals to get it back together. People I’ve spoken to had a nightmare getting the glazing out, I put the whole thing in IPA which successfully soften the glue on the glazing which made it pop out really easily! Apart from that it wasn’t too difficult at all. Look forward to what you decide to respray mate. Kind regards, Will

Realised I haven’t updated this thread in a long time, so here’s a photo of 90024 as of last night: Needs further weathering but pretty pleased with it so far! Kind regards, Will

Looks absolutely stunning John! Top work Kind regards, Will

A quick update from me, been badgering away at a few different projects, namely the £35 Hornby 08 which hasn’t liked having its wheels regauged so a Gibson set with new cranks and pins has been ordered. I had briefly lost the motivation to do any real work on the layout after completing the hard standing as all of my stock just wouldn’t run properly. I’ve duly added extra pick ups to the VITrains 37s using nickel silver wire, cleaned wheels and the track. Everything runs a lot better! Last night I tackled the misbehaving Class 60 TTS chip, I’m pleased to report playing with the CVs has all but cured the poor running, a quick video below: In terms of other projects I’ve completed 90024, which is now ready for a weathering when the new airbrush arrives: Thanks for looking - hope everyone is staying safe! More soon! Will

Since the weekend I haven’t had too much time on the layout, mainly because I’ve been spending my evenings working on this beast: Formally 56032 in metals it didn’t really fit my era, however was purchased many years ago because I really liked 56s and it was in a superb VHS video of it on coils so when Hornby announced it I had to have it! Instead of it sitting in its box gathering dust I decided it was time to bring it up to date for my era - 56055 in Loadhaul, which from Flickr appears to be one of the latest surging examples in to 2003; perfect for my 2003-2005 modelling period! I had a full complement of bits delivered from Shawplan today - in particular the newer style air intake grilles, which have been fitted this afternoon, alongside new aerials, front end grilles and handrails. I need to finish the handrails and then it’s ready for a coat of primer and painting. Quite tempted to try and fix the recessed fan grilles as well. Thanks for looking, Will

Stunning work Jack! I had no idea you could change the functions like that, I am going to have a play and do that! I’m planning on doing an 08 with lights so that’ll definitely come in handy! Will

The 57 looks superb Jack, that decal is massive! Looking forward to more! Kind regards, Will

And a quick shot of the track this morning, pretty chuffed with how it’s looking now! Need to clean the rails this afternoon! 60036 and EWS 08630 testing the hard standing: Kind regards, Will

A quick update this evening, hard standing arrived from Jason @ Custom layout signs this morning. Sprayed with some of my favourite paint, Plastikote suede to create the concrete colour and texture. Turns out the lawnmower box is a good surface to spray on! And a quick shot of the concrete in place, pretty chuffed with it! Got the first amount of ballast in place and glued with the laser cutting, so hopefully it should dry overnight. Kind regards, Will

Indeed Kat - thanks for the kind words. And a quick few shots of it “post GNER-ing”. Needs some touch ups and finishing when the OHLE stickers arrive. Kind regards, Will

Nice work Chris, the repair depot looks a superb little kit. Looking forward to more. Will

Trackwork looking very good! Been following on Twitter for a while, loving the units as well. Looking forward to seeing more progress! Kind regards, Will

“A step too far” did make me chuckle! I’ve spent a few hours doing the transfers on 90024 this afternoon - pretty happy with the result, especially the Cant rail stripe, which is a massive pain to get over the rain gutter over door. Cant rail stripe needs finishing over the end door and OHLE stickers need adding too. Annoyingly I think I’m going to have to repaint the yellow front, it’s not quite good enough and let’s the model down a bit - should be a good Easter Monday project! A big thanks to precision decals for supplying the custom GNER stripe with the numbers printed on - they look superb! Kind regards, Will

Thanks for the kind words Will! Agreed - I think it’s a really smart looking prototype. RE the steps - did you try using super glue? I find for the really fiddly jobs super glue works an absolute treat if applied with a cocktail stick. Kind regards, Will

Quick progress shots of my 90024 in GNER blue - gloss varnished and ready for transfers. A superb model from Bachmann! kind regards, Will

Thanks 37114 much appreciated! I haven’t got any on order - I believe it was @dj_crisp doing a set! A nice relaxing day of swearing, masking, paint removing and varnishing to get 90024 gloss varnished this evening. Pretty pleased with the result, not 100% perfect but will be good enough once weathered. Transfers on tomorrow hopefully. Kind regards, Will

Very nice work Will! Impressed you got the C&L tiebars working properly - I had a bit of a nightmare with mine! Looking forward to some trains running! Will