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I haven't really gotten round to printing any freight in 7mm so thought I would have a go at this 4 wheel GE goods brake, a few issues with it, but im quite happy with how the print turned out. It isn't finished needs transfers and some weathering, im looking into how im going to weather these wagons, im thinking a mixture of airbrush and weathering powders it will be a bit of experiment. I will knock up some other GE goods wagons to go with it. Any ideas on where the best place to get 7mm spoked wagon wheels at a reasonable price? Cheers

I hope to see you there Ray are you folks exhibiting Crystal Palace?

A quick shot of the current scenic progress we have been tackling at the club, on the new extension to Oakbourne which is exhibiting this saturday at the Beckenham & West Wickham Model railway exhibition so please do come along and say hello, be great to see a few faces from here :)

Looking forward to it Andy and here are some shots of the recently finished scenic extension with the new resin river that was quite a palaver to get right in the end!!!

Apologies I mean't to post these a few weeks back just got super busy all of a sudden, I still have the last 5 compartment composite to finish, and add the couplings, but for the meantime I have had to turn my attentions to another project for a wee while! Massive thanks to @ianmaccormac for all his help and the fantastic decals you see on these coaches without which wouldn't look half as good so cheers Ian they really are fantastic mate Also thanks to @thegreenhowards and @MikeTrice just for their help with drawings and advice building these, im sure they aren't spot on, but thanks to these folks they are certainly better for it. As follows Full brake Third 5 compartment Lav comp Lav First Third 6 compartment Third Brake Cheers Rob

Back on the 3d modelling for my next 7mm project on the clubs layout I'm hoping to print up this set of LBSC Billinton's, but not sure whether to go for the Umber White earlier livery or the later Umber finish for these coaches!

Sounds good to me Gary, and I have some other bits potentially if you fancy printing those too :)

Thanks Andy that is super kind, but seeing what a cracking job you made on building and painting that 7mm GNR C12 I had to pull my finger out chap and create something for it to pull :) looking forward to seeing all this stuff running at the next O gauge club running night all being well.

That would look the business James! And good point I know Gary's doing some excellent stuff with Linny, the SECR ex LCDR coach set looks fantastic, I will ping him and see what he says. Cheers

Haha I have to say I am becoming a bit of a coach Nerd too James I think once you start looking into all these beautifully crafted coaches of these by gone eras it is hard not to be impressed by the scale of detail and finish. I am looking into knocking up some 4mil versions to chuck behind my dads Stirling, hopefully for chrimbo! I probably won't make all of the variations above in 4mil but a third, first, comp and full, and third brake perhaps. So once I have them scaled down and adjusted for 4mil I will post and let you know sir. Ideally it be fantastic to find someone who'd be keen on printing all these coaches out for any potential folks who might want some, as I have to admit the printing aspect is my least favourite part of the production :) Cheers Rob

Thanks Linny and James very kind words indeed, still a way off being finished yet, but a huge thanks has to go to @ianmaccormac for all his help and support with the amazing transfers, and work he put into those, along with @thegreenhowards and @MikeTrice who have helped out massively with reference material, and advice on the build of these coaches. I have to admit they have been super fun to build, and im quite keen to have a go at a full length Bogie coach soon, maybe one of those beautiful 12 wheeler GNR/ECJS Clerestories in 7mm, not suitable for our club layout, but would be amazing to build, especially with all the seating inside, and lighting!!! Diagrams as follows Full Brake: Diagram 301 First Class: Diagram 84 Lav Comp: Diagram 147 6 compartment third: Diagram 243 5 compartment third: Diagram 245 Third class Brake: Diagram 283 And the last one currently on the bench half way printed is the 5 compartment Comp Diagram 155

Slowly been chipping away at these babies, and putting the transfers on that the talented Mr Ian MacCormac has kindly provided. I still have the crests and door transfers to whack on and one more coach to print and build to complete the rake, which is a Five compartment Comp. This will mean the rake will consist of 3 compartment third, 6 compartment third, 5 compartment comp, 4 compartment lav first, 4 compartment Luggage/lav Comp, 5 compartment comp, and a full brake third . Also I would like to re do the Full brake as im not quite happy with the glazing on one side! So will rebuild this and potentially sell this off once its finished! Just a few pics showing the progress will do some better ones when I have finished and apologies for the spotty table covering it is all i had to hand will get some on the club layout soon hopefully :)

Not been doing much 3d modelling on the computer lately but a lot more printing with the GNR Howldens, which I will be posting some updates soon, but always loved this 7mm GER/LNER/BR fruit/Parcels Van so knocked this up and hope to print it soon.

Great pictures Andy, looking fantastic but missing Peter's excellent woody section with his lovely tree work, but i need to pull my finger out and get the river cast :) You didn't do a close up of the gigantic fish then! 😆

Chap can't thank you enough for posting this, I couldn't get to see the show as I was with the dreaded Covid, and I really wanted to see Norwich Central, it has to be one of my all time favourite layouts, and a huge inspiration, so thank you so much for sharing and doing it justice, awesome video :)

Monday night at the club gave us a photo opportunity, to photograph Andy's cracking kit built GNR C12 on the layout and four of the Howldens I have 3d printed up for the layout, only another three to build!! Thanks kevin some great shots of the layout, still lots to do, but nice to see a bit of progress.

Looks like a cracking line up Mark, Sadly it is a little too far for me :( , as I especially wanted to see Norwich Central, I don't suppose you know if they are exhibiting this layout anywhere else in the future? Many thanks Rob

Some pre Teaked photos capturing the process used to teak these coaches. Halfords matt yellow primer 1 to 1 mix of Vallejo Orange Brown and Bright Orange for the base coat thinly applied over the Matt primer yellow Some panels picked out in a slightly darker shades and lighter shades for that varied panelled finish, and with a coat of pledge clear floor polish sploshed over the top ready for the oil paint. After this I will use a medium flat brush and lightly wash some Vandyke Brown oil over the top of this to create the graining effect. I keep working the grain until I am happy with the effect, the beauty of oil paints are you have a long working time, and should you not be happy you can remove it with thinners or turps and it will not destroy your acrylic base layers below. For the full explanation see Mikes excellent thread below detailing the process he uses, and the one of which I have adopted for painting these coaches so thanks Mike for sharing :)

Cheers James, and yes I have been some what slack on the ole 4mm stuff lately, as soon as i do I will ping you sir, I still want to have a crack at those LCDR coaches as well at some point, as they look lovely! But as soon as i finish these im going to get cracking on the LBSC 6 wheeler Billinton's all being well.

So another coach to add to the mix, not quite half way yet, but have added a 6 compartment third to the mix. I have also thanks to Mike's keen eyes fixed the teaking on the beading that runs along the roof channel. Next up is the 6 wheel full brake, followed by a 5 compartment third, 5 compartment comp, and a first class lavatory coach to complete the rake. The lovely Mr Ian MacCormac has sent me some fantastic transfers for these coaches I can't wait to apply they are absolutely fantastic so thanks buddy I owe you big time! Im wondering also whether I should run a gloss varnish over these Howldens, out shopped they would have been very shiny indeed, they will need weathering down a bit, once the transfers are on.

Mike apologies only just noticed you had posted these fantastic pictures of those lovely LNWR 6 wheelers, they are indeed a thing of beauty, absolutely stunning work. I can't thank you enough for sharing, and very inspirational! I will never be able to achieve this standard of finish in my life time, but is so good to have something to aspire to, and strive to work towards. I plan to make some LNWR 6 wheelers at some point in my lifetime, but I suspect they will be the very last thing I attempt as that livery amazingly intricate and involved to paint, but is one of my all time favourites. Cracking stuff thanks for sharing Cheers Rob

Cheers Mike, so a bit more Teaking to do then :)

Finished the lav comp yesterday for the time being, besides transfers and coupling hooks that is, plus a bit of subtle weathering once the transfers are on. I took these two coaches down the club last night to test on the track curves and points, and was kindly informed we now need a rake of 7 instead of the 5 coaches I had initially planned for the club layout!!!! Good job im enjoying painting all this teaking! Hoping to document Mikes fantastic Teaking process with the Third im putting together next.

hello folks I thought I would post some shots of the wall mold we have made at the club, and the corresponding cast sections for the layout above. It took us a wee while to completely get to grips with casting if completely honest. None of us had done any casting before so good old Youtube is where we turned to gain knowledge! The first few attempts weren't bad, but not marvellous either if I am totally honest, and we found we had a lot of trapped air bubbles in the resin resulting in quite a pitted final effect once the wall section had set. But literally by accident and more for economic reasons as the first lot of resin we acquired for the job was quite expensive, so we trialled a more cost effective solution and invested in a 5kilo tin of water clear cast resin from CFS as we have near 30 of these wall sections we need to cast off for the layout! This resin takes a lot longer to cure, I would say on average over night and the section sets solid, as opposed to 15mins beforehand for the more expensive quick setting resin we used previously. This slower setting resin allowed us to chase out the air bubbles once we have poured into the resulting mold, it doesn't take long around 5 - 10mins of chasing them out with a small wooden stirrer run across the bottom of the mold to release all the bubbles, and the result gives us a pretty faithful cast from the original section we made as the master. Here is the silicone mold we made Resulting casts from the above mold An earlier test section I painted up.

Next up im hoping to work on this Lav comp, which is slightly longer than the other coaches I have planned in the rake