The Fatadder

Strugelling to decide now as to whether or not to go for it. Given the £108 ought to be pretty much equating to a Finney bulldog which would be more useful to me... Need some more photos of different angles I think, along with some dimensions...

Finally picked up a set of LMS and LNER wagon transfers (again HMRS) and a tin of LMS bauxite paint, so finally the remaining wagons could be finished off. (finished ish anyway, they will all still need buffers and 3 link couplings First up an LMS ventilated D1832 ventilated van, and a D1986 LMS 1 plank, both have been painted in the post war brauxite livery and will be lettered up this evening. The 1 plank still needs more work finishing off the paint work inside. Next a parkside Diagram 94 LNER van (wooden ends) carrying the pre war livery, a parkside LNER open carrying the post 38 livery and a Cambrian ex Midland D1664 in the pre 38 livery. Finally a LMS D1666 5 plank (with wooden chassis) in the early livery, a Bachmann LNER van in post 38 livery, a LMS D1663 steel ended van still carrying the old LMS livery and a parkside Lowfit in LNER livery (although it is missing the "do not load with containers" branding as I have yet to source a transfer. So with that lot nearly finished, the next job will be building the next batch. (prior to which I really ought to get some more Bill Bedford wirons...) So far I have another parkside lowfit, along with a parkside LMS open. There are also a couple of Coopercraft kits for a pair of Minks and a loco coal open and a Ratio Mink. Along with some Airfix Conflat bodys and a Cambrain LMS open which need some new solbars, and a handful of Airfix cattle wagon kits awaiting conversion to GW prototypes... Plenty to keep me busy at any rate, not helped by the Yate model shop selling Parkside, Cambrain, Ratio and Coopercraft kits (meaning I normally leave with at least one). While it always takes me a while to get enough listed to make the postage worth while on an Eilieens order...

The cab roof is rectified by the etches, the new front is glued on so just need filing to match the profile. As for the firebox, its been suggested to use a Hornby 8f chopped up, though I'm unsure which version of the model is needed. Unfortunately dont have the shakleton book, unlikely to be able to justify it for a while as its a tad expensive for a single chapter.

Thanks, if you could send them that would be great, Looking forward to getting started. Did you do anything to the chassis on yours, springing etc?

Another one of those random projects which have little use from a layout point of view, other than being an interesting exercise in modelling (which frankly is the most important thing)... As with the Saint, I am pretty undecided if I will build it in OO (using the included Romford wheels) or sell them on and buy a set of P4 Gibsons. In this case I am tending toward the latter as it means the chassis can be built to the correct width! I also will need to decide if I will make a ridged chassis, for simplicity saving time and money, or go for a full CSB job making it better should I ever decide to run it. The project: Dapol Body - fit Jackson parts to correct cab front and roof, - fit wire hand rails to back of cab - detail cab interior - replace mud plugs - etched plates - trying to decide if I leave it as County of Somerset for which plates were included, or change to County of Gloucester - add missing rivet detail - replace the firebox and missing lowerboiler with Hornby 8f parts Perseverance chassis Falcon Brass tender. It is with the latter that I have started looking at today, with the awful instructions not helped by not being able to find the sheet explaining what part is which number, not liking the look of all of those but joints so I have dug out some U section brass which I am going to use to form some brackets supporting the main sections and keeping them square. We are currently expecting, so I wont solder in the house when my fiancée is at home. so hoping to take advantage of her being away for tomorrow afternoon to make a start on the soldering.....

So long as it didn't have moulded hand rails and was a sensible price I'd be interested (I wouldn't want to be paying close to the frogmore brass prices for a plastic kit)

Having failed to buy the set of Saint wheels which were on Ebay, its going to stay in OO for the foreseeable... The big issue at the moment is the poor fit between the firebox and the footplate. I was going to try and tackle it tonight, but after the soldering disaster fitting wires to a motor I think it can wait...

If it stays oo it will go on my shelf in our display cabinate. (And will keep the cast metal chassis without a motor) A lot depends on how much I could sell a set of Romfords for to offset the cost of a set of gibsons A saint is far too big for the layout anyway so not overly worried if it can't be used

A while back I picked up a bargain part built Wills Saint from the second hand stand at a preserved railway, with the intention of rebuilding it as St Dunstan in post war livery (St Dunstan being the name of the junior school I went to as a child). Upon stripping back the components, it was clear that some of the components were in a worse state than others (in particular the boiler which had a large cutout for an X04 motor and a lot of rivet detail missing on the top of the boiler. After soldering together the foot plate, and the boiler as two separate units I added a new lower boiler from plasticard (following the same approach I used on 5813) I have been fitting new rivets by drilling hole and fitting a small length of brass wire filed to size. Time consuming and tedious, but its looked pretty good so far. The boiler has now been fitted to the footplate, although the fit is not great so it will require a bit more work to finish. Now need to decide if it will be finished to P4 or remain with the OO Romfords it came with....

Love the idea of those replacement break blocks, leaves me thinking about experimenting in 4mm scale. Looking forward to seeing the loco come together, I have the 4mm version sat in my to do pile at the moment (yet to decide what tender I am going to need though.)

Really like the effect of the insides, will definitely be trying the approach of painting the insides before building on my next open wagon kit Interesting to see your view on parkside / Cambrian. Given that I use etched w irons, I much prefer cambrians construction style with seperate w irons / axleboxes / solbars makes life a lot eaiser than removing it all and thinning bits down that you get with parkside. Reading this does make me think I need to get the paints out and make a start on painting up my backlog

Interesting to see a black pannier in GW, looking forward to seeing it in the flesh in the summer. I really want to include a GWR black loco on my post war cheddar valley layout, the only problem is working on if something is in black from a photo!

Looking very good, making me want one even more...

For me the handrails are the all important thing, having got half way though removing the moulded ones on a ratio kit and a Bachmann rtr (a complete pig to avoid damaging rivet detail, its certainly a job I'd love to avoid) Lights etc would be a lot easier to retrofit, and I'd prefer without to keep the price a bit more sensible.

So that's one loco in post war GWR livery matching the model, and you'd presume that Bachmann had a photo they have worked from for the loco they've released. Would be interested to hear of any more locos matching the livery. In particular the 3 (9011/18/23) which according to the data on Railuk were shedded in Swindon at nationalisation. Really don't want to have to start removing my preferred logo to add a shirtbutton!

Some fascinating photos, thanks for sharing! Particually like all of those wagons on show in late 40s condition, will be perfect for assisting with the weathering of wagons for my layout!

Been meaning to post an update, brick work is now all painted, and I am quite pleased with the effect Now waiting on dark stone paint before I can do the doors The glazing is done for the big windows, but not yet had the patients to do the small ones. Instead got stuck into balastimg