exet1095

Thanks; that’s helpful. I shall have to replenish my Humbrol; a lunchtime walk to Hobbycraft. The cream is Halfords Ford Ivory. Very pale, but that’s the effect I want. There are lots of Minis and FIAT 500s running around with about the right colour too. Paul

The D1904 has been lined, numbered (just a made up number as it was handy on a sheet, and who’ll ever know..?), given handles and varnished. Not entirely sure about the Halfords lacquer; it’s a bit orange-peels. My wife tells me it’s fine… Maybe a coat of Ronseal might sort it out? Three more coaches to line from this batch, then the roofs and ends to paint, glazing and assembly. Any recommendations on a good matt grey for the roofs greatly appreciated. There is a Games Workshop nearby. Any of their colours any good? Thanks, Paul

Impressive speed, @Darius43. Faster and neater than my work, by a mile. I do really fancy one of these. I have strong memories of getting the train to do our Saturday shopping in Reading when I was very small, and the sudden change to 4-CIGs over Easter 1972. (I still think of those units as ‘Easter Specials’ 52 years on! Paul

Four interiors painted; three Replica TSO cut to size and one Replica D1904 TO. Next job will be tidying the bodysdes before lining with some elderly Modelmaster lining transfers, then varnishing with Halfords lacquer. Again, how long it is until I am able to do it is a moot point. Paul

Three and four: D1904 Six bay BTO

Painting complete. Fairly pleased; only a couple of bleeds and one door vent and a gangway came off with the tape. Two in this post. First up: the Replica D1915. Comet five bay BTO.

Spraying in the shed.

Oh yes, there is a sneaky Replica D1915 bodyshell in there, fitted with more appropriately sized vents. I will flush glaze with SE Finecast windows and swap the body with another one which is inbound from eBay. This way, I get a matching (dodgy!) paint finish in my excursion rake.

It took until yesterday to find the time to finish the priming and paint the cream. Cream now masked off in advance of the crimson coat. It will be Halfords Tornado Red unless someone can advise a better colour before the morning. It has got too dark and cold to spray in the shed now. Hoping the Tamiya masking tape will be ok overnight… Paul

Good heavens! You seem to have more unbuilt MTK kits than the rest of the world has ever completed!

It was just a picture on their North American newsletter number 180. Simply a visual joke. Paul

Well done to the Club for putting on such a great show for so long. I shall miss it hugely, and am very glad I was able to get back from exercise in time to attend the last one. Thank you, Warley MRC. Paul

Very sad news. They have always been very helpful and a real pleasure to order from. Richard and your team; good luck and thank you. You will be much missed.

Despite the worst rain that I can remember, I did go for a solid 14.5 mile tab with an old friend yesterday. This morning, during breaks in the ironing, I primed the trio with Halford’s etch primer. When that has gone off, I will give it a couple of coats of white primer before adding the cream and crimson layers. That will probably be next week now.

This part of Oxfordshire is almost as damp today as the corner of Lincolnshire described in chapter 2 of ‘Bleak House’, so a family walk was deemed unviable. This being so, I sloped off to the railway room to crack on with my LMS vestibule threesome… Roofs marked and drilled, and ventilators fitted (a mix of Dapol, 247 and Comet). Garden wire grab handles at the ends and vents fitted above the doors. Roof tape added (there’s a tricky job…) and then the two Comet roofs were glued with Evostick. Corridor connections from Hornby (for the brake ends) and some Roxey ones from a rummage box at a show some time ago to finish off the shells. Now to let it all go off, then clean it up and get the etch primer on later in the week.

Using bits from old Mainline coaches leaves a lot of spare parts. This is a D1695 TK made from a composite with a chunk of break third side added in and the blank panel on the corridor side opened up. It is not perfect; the joins are not great and the positioning of the lavatory windows is out as neither donor coach has them in the same place as each other, or the TK, but again, it is fun. Wish I had carved the ventilators off and drilled new holes before cutting the body! Paul

The first bit of free time since September… The dining triplet coaches looked odd with very bright Replica Railways interiors so I painted them today, as well as cut interiors to shape for the next four coaches. It takes longer than one expects…Handles and grab rails still need to be added. And some tidying of the paint too… The wood colour was some old Humbrol 70 brown from the 1980s. Tamiya grey acrylic for the floor and seat and table sides. First class seats in a grey-blue (Humbrol 104) and third in Phoenix dull BR Maroon. First class tables covered with Avery labels and Tippex pen for the antimacassars. It is not quality modelling, but great fun. Paul

Does “pendant mode” mean you will hang your head in shame when you discover you cannot spell?

Good work! All I have managed to do this weekend is think about my stash of coach kits whilst acting as Daddy’s Taxi Services…

Thumbnail and side of the finger. Works for me…

I am not sure what value this list will add when you are so uncertain about the subject. For instance, current Hornby production includes two varieties of Hawksworth 4,000 gallon tenders, and two different Collett ones too. As for 3,500 gallon ones… they offer different models on the Hall, 28xx, and Churchward County. This is unlikely to be an exhaustive list. Heljan also produced a Collett 4,000 gallon model for its 47xx. Very (top) heavy.

As some may have seen from my coach building thread, I am currently building an excursion rake; largely made up of brass LMS Stanier period III open coaches, with seven in various states of completion. Annoyingly, I have bought a set of D1964 non-gangwayed BT sides (Comet M58s) in error for the next part of the project. Does anyone have either Comet M51s (57’ D1903 CO) or Comet M53s (60’ D1903 BCK) sides that they would like to swap or sell? Any other period 3 vestibuled sides would be helpful. (Can one ever have too many open thirds?) Please drop me a pm. Many thanks, Paul

Mileage is a lot more than just fuel. Add servicing and tyres too; it adds up to a lot more than 25p per mile.

I enjoy both the layouts and the trade; I tend to do some shopping first, then mooch around and see what’s what. As others have said, it’s good to meet acquaintances and chat to people too. I had lunch with three very decent gentleman who model the Underground. It was also good to meet the manufacturers; I wanted to thank Richard at Dapol for the forthcoming early large prairie that we discussed long ago, and also to meet some of the other people on their stands. A big shout out both to Corbs on the Rapido stand and to Paul at Accurascale. A thoroughly good day, enhanced by a very decent GWR conductor insisting on selling me a very cheap split ticket, and not ruined by the crush-loaded XC Vomiter heading south rather later than 17:13. Finally, thank to all of the Warley MRC Members who make this fantastic show possible. Paul

The estimates for some of the beautiful O gauge stuff are pretty low, I should say. Almost worth a trip to the States… GWR Dreadnaughts etc… and a cornucopia of unbuilt 4mm kits too. Paul