Squirrel Rail

I’ve just looked on Rails and the only 90 they have is 037 at £149, the intercity model sold out last year- have you got a different link because if they have 005 I’ll have some!!!

Good to meet up with Matt from @Richmond Park today to collect some of his locos including 50008 more work on the cravens today, window frames on the cabs Then painting the glazing frames from blue to green Then I need green speed whiskers so hand painted the decals before applying- if this doesn’t work I’ll apply the outline decal then paint in situ Last up roof on the 153 and then the roof on a Freightliner 90 Hopefully a more interesting update later in the week!

Hi Owen, thanks for posting the pics, nice to see them back at work! Cheers Jerry

More DMU variety with the TFW pair getting the black window surrounds and with the masking off, needs a few tidy ups but getting there and from up to date to a bit of retro on the celebrity Cravens

Well a very long running project has finally been completed, the LM 150/1. I had had the whole unit drawn so we could apply all the black and green round the windows but in the end masked and sprayed the lot. This one is going to be a one offand the other side

There was another one just after!

Hi Barclay, not the easiest of problems to solve but I would use ( some people will recoil in horror) Johnson’s Klear (Future) to seal the decals and I would use a really good quality brush to hand paint this round and over the decals only. Any other satin or gloss acrylic should do the same job just keep brush marks to a minimum. The object here is to protect the decals. Once all that is dry I’m using AK satin varnish which can be thinned with enamel or my choice cellulose ( again more people recoil in horror!) it’s sprays beautifully and leaves a lovely finish. If you can’t get hold of that the Revell tinlets are IMHO much more reliable than the humbrol which can be inconsistent. Hopefully that makes sense, cheers Jerry

A quick trip to Manningtree yesterday produced 014 and 48 in the orange, it is starting to grow on me...

47114 “early” & “late@ versions now completed. It’s such a nice loco I couldn’t resist a few pics Different buffers and windows, clean... and tatty staying with green D1, a renumber and rename from D3 and a set of etched discs Finally the long lost London Midland 150/1 has been decaled and a coat of satin varnish to seal it all in

I v BBC er it’s the next livery Bachmann put on their 90 ( if they ever release some more!)

Busy day today with the pair of 47114s starting their weathering. In its early guise with round buffers and silver windows it’s staying quite clean and shiny However in its later days with the oval buffers, green windows and modern OHLE flashes it’s in a bit more of a state The Colas 86 from a few days ago has had the black added and staying with the Colas theme 67023 and 027 are now finished Other completions today are the 57s and 66426 I’ve also managed to get the interior done on another TFW 153

Following on from Friday yesterday and today has seen the weathering going onto the 57s, 313 first up and a view of the roof followed by 602 The 67s had the exhausts refinished in assorted shades of steel and rust before the weathering likewise with the 66 on the subject of exhausts a Bachmann 150/2 with a before and after last up decals have started on the pair of Freightliner 47114s

Renumbering, naming and detail packs today. easy job first 66434 renumbering to 426 Not so easy is the Colas 67s where Hornby’s insistence of printing every name plate miles bigger than the etch is a real pain. Even 027 had to have the printed plates removed so here they are renamed with 023 awaiting its numbers and with the numbers on, I’ll post some better pics when I’ve done the exhaust and weathered Next up a pair of 57s. Both these needed the ETH boxes painting and detail packs fitted, much easier without the buffers! 57602 also needed snow ploughs with detail packs each end which always foul the Bachmann ploughs. To get round this I’ve used a set of Heljan ploughs mounted to the buffer beam which allows the bogie to swing without the ploughs moving

Few odds and ends from yesterday and today. The SF green craven has had its green sprayed and the orange bands above the cab windows, The other project is a Hornby 86 going Colas so over the last few days it has had yellow ends colas Yellow and Colas Orange Everything else has been rubbing down filling and priming so not the most exciting to put in an update!

Thanks to everyone for the feedback it’s really appreciated and the trust you have in me with your locos and stock. I hope after Jack’s generous review I don’t make a balls of 90047 Todays up date is the start of two more TFW units with the 153 having the window blanks test fitted before gluing them in; The 158 has had the roof primed as it is going from black to grey The pair of 47114s in Freightliner TT green have had the bands added, colours look a bit vivid under my spraying light but I’m pretty happy with them. Masking on and the green, Then with the masks off, couple of tidy ups to do around the nose ends but looking how I wanted.

They’ll be home with you this week!!!

Many thanks for the kind words. I get things wrong and as you say sometimes there’s nothing for it but to go back to square one, frustrating but nothing else for it but start again and let the customer know. My bottom line is when I look at something I’ve done I ask would I have it in my fleet and if the answer is no then it sure isn’t going to a customer!!

We all make mistakes and sometimes things that look fine to the naked eye look abysmal in pictures, but some things aren’t really acceptable. When mistakes happen and genuinely something I haven’t noticed isn’t right I will always try and resolve it at my expense but a bit of time and effort and quality control sorts things before they get out of hand. As for not answering messages or calls that’s just out of order.....

153 Rescue project. I seem to be getting more and more rescue jobs and this pair of Scuds have featured in my workbench thread for a good few weeks. They arrived in a bit of a sorry state, poor paint finish and decals being the obvious and the bodies in Rail Grey which is miles off the TFW grey The pair have been completely refinished with modified windows and interior and are ready to return to their owner, here they are The finished pair are 312 and 369. Slight livery variation with 369 having a grey stripe between the roof and the red whereas 312 just has a small grey strip either end. John at Precision decals did the NHS rainbows for 369, lastly here’s the pair again Old decals... New decals

Working on the logic locos today with the challenge of the lines from the 3D print. The detail on these is great so don’t want to clog it up so using two different approaches. On the left hand loco I’m just using a primer coat but the right one I have used an additional coat of Mig one shot dark primer to help highlight the lines, think either way this is going to be a long job, but worth Another background task is stripping a 158 for its respray. Oh for the days when you could just look at a Bachmann product and the windows would just fall out! Here they are with a pit of cocktail stick persuasion and carefully applied IPA to break the bond otherwise both 47114 has gone into green and 60050 is now finished

Primer this afternoon with a new batch of Squirrel Projects, a couple with East Anglian connections: This Cravens will become the green celebrity set as it was in 87-88 before withdrawal another East Anglian visitor was 47114 in its two tone green, doing two one for a customer and one which will be surplus! last up definitely not East Anglian, a pair of SA logic locomotives, 3D prints which are going to be nice challenge!

60007 now finished as is another 66113, this time with a bit of in service weathering and GBRF 66773 in Pride livery

90028 has had the rework of its previous paint job and weathering In the paint shop 60007 has now had the roof and exhaust finished along with the bodysides, four different shades of dirt in there and always a challenge to weather a black roof! and from above..

Lots of things in progress over the weekend so a bit of a long winded update here goes... first up Dapol N gauge 50 renumber and name from 037 to 017 Next up a pair of 90s - 039 for a renumber and 028 for a bit of tidying up and details including handrails, door handles, lamp brackets, cab steps before a rework of the weathering Weathering has now started on the 66s - nothing to heavy so the underframes being started dirtier will be 60007, it’s stablemate 050 is waiting for Thornaby plaques The other 66 was the respray of the buffer beam from EWS v shape to freightliner spec and matching the weathering on the cab front - I also kept the original weathering on the buffers so haven’t touched the body shell finally nearing completion are the TFW 153s which are now varnished and will be reunited with their chassis and glass over the next few days last job of the day was the executive dark grey onto this 87... that’s it for today!

Update from the earlier post with the Freightliner 66 getting the yellow . A couple of washes to start toning it down before I can try and match the weathering that has already been done. The GBRF and DB 66s have their new identities with all the decals on and 60070 is now 050. All these will be weathered over the next few days lastly the pair of TFW 153s have had all the paintwork completed and the decals are starting to go on