The Fatadder

This time last year I sprayed up a detailed Bachmann Class 37 into DRS Blue, unfortunately at the time the masking ripped off some large chunks of paint on one side ruining the finish. While ideally I;d have stripped the model back and started again, the fineness of some of the etched detail would almost certainly be wrecked. Instead I am trying to fix the defects. Having read about a method for fixing stone chips in automotive paint where you basically fill the chip with lacquer before sanding down with fine wet & dry to get a flush finish (before polishing to get the finish back) I figured the same approach should sort the 37's paint. I added a coat of blue quite thick allowing the paint (non thinned) to run off the brush and flood the 'chip' and then left to dry. On two of the 4 defects this appears to have completely filled the chip, while the other 2 will require a further application of paint. Once this is fully dried on Monday, I will then sand back to get a flush finish (careful not to go through to the primer.) My hope is that once this is finished a coat of satin varnish should work the same as the polish on the car, and blend the sanded areas finish in with the rest. At least thats the plan... If that fails, at least the finish will be smooth, so it should be ok to just spray on a fine dusting of DRS blue over the whole side to get a consistent colour. The worry now is that I have to mask the loco again in order to paint the black roof, very worried that its going to cause more damage when I do..... __________________________ Another little bit of modelling for the evening has seen the Intercity livery removed from what will become my GWT Class 47 ready for priming tomorrow and hopefully (if the weather holds...) a coat of GWT Green on Monday...

Unfortunately not a lot really, Most of the modelling I have finished in the last month has just been to prepare stuff I want to sell into a sellable condition... Other than Scaleforum I wont be able to do any modelling until I move to my new place in December as the room I am renting in the mean time just dosnt have space (and I doubt my housemates would be too happy if I took over the kitchen table!). Will try and remember to get some photos sorted of the Gunnel conversions I will be working on at Scaleforum... As for the layout, its sadly had to be placed on hold for the foreseeable, would have fitted the spare room nicely but I will need to rent it out to help with the mortgage... I may look again at some small space ideas in the new year, but tbh I doubt anything would happen with that as small track plans have always failed to keep me interested in the past.

Well I have finally made a decision as to what I will be working on at Scaleforum. Along with a couple more Vi Trains Class 47s which require a simple rewheeling job, the main project I am planning on bringing is the conversion of Lima PGAs into a rake of Gunnels. This morning I have been focusing my efforts on completing the required research, Phil Eames' definitive series on PGA wagons in Demu's Update along with Jon Hall's Gunnel Thread on the DEMU forum have helped work out the work which is required. While Fotopic (principally Martyn Read, Mike Cubberley and Andy Jupe' sites, along with the main search for specific numbers taken from the information on DEMU) This thread on the previous generation Rmweb by Lyneux gives some good ideas for detailing the Lima wagon (the separate pipe runs in particular stands out) and This Gunnel thread gives some very useful photos, particularly showing inside wagons. This also includes a very interesting shot of 390593 which is still showing Yeoman lettering through the yellow paint. ________________________________________________________________ My plan is to build 11 wagons, (looking at photos I think I would need twice that to have a prototypical length rake, however as with most engineers wagons there are photos showing them mixed with other types.) The few photos I have found which are dated from the late 90s (all three of them) show that the yellow on the wagons was in a fairly good condition, while the ends were more of a mess... My plan is to model as many of the different variations as possible (the drawings list 7 different types!) In each case the planned work: Remove body from chassis (easier said than done given the amount of glue, in one case the chassis fractured into 5 parts in the process and even then the 5th part is still glued to the hopper! I also suffered a few wagons breaking off the end supports, which will need to be carefully rebuilt from Evergreen strip. Remove all the Lima details from the body Cut down the body just above the bottom of the flat part of the side. New sides & ends from plasticard Remove all pipe runs from the sides/ends & fill the holes where the walkways clipped in Replace the missing section of end rib from where the walkway clipped New air break detail & pipework for the sides Remove Procor boards (with the exception of a couple of wagons which the prototype retains them, on these the board will be removed from one end only and a plasticard replacement added at the opposite end) Add ribs to side/end/inside as required. The intention is to model the wagons loaded so that I can avoid having to tidy up the fictional divider & worry about the step out between the plastic model and new sides. The top couple of mm of the inside ribs will be visible above the top of the load. Change the side cleats as required by prototype Fix chassis so that it can have scale wheels (may fit Bill Bedford units if needed, but plan A is to remove the narrow inner bits from the Lima chassis and drill out to accept proper wheels. The work on the ex salt version will follow the same plan as above, but will use the parts left from 2 wagons which had their ends damaged when separating body and chassis. The prototype is about 2ft longer than the 'standard' PGAs, so only needs 8mm adding to the length. I haven't yet checked against the drawings, but I am assuming that this extra length will be in the hopper not the ends. The plan is to make a cut towards the damaged end side of the central divider on each wagon (including the extra length that is required.) Chassis will be split in three parts, extending the hopper units to match the new body length and 2 headstocks. (The chassis will have the Procor plates removed at the same time). Once it is all glued back together (with some extra reinforcement over the joint) the process will follow that of the standard wagons.

Not long left until Scaleforum.... I am going to be helping Mike Anson with the D&E Modelling demonstration at the show (I will be covering the post privatisation era). I am rather limited as to what I can bring as for the next 4 months I will be renting a room while I wait for the construction on my new place to be finished. As a result there is no space for any model stuff, all the stuff I will be taking to Scaleforum must fit in a single sports bag out of the way (and small enough to be carried on the train.) I need to take a small number of finished locos to display, along with a couple of projects to work on. At the moment I am planning to bring along a set of Lima Super GUVs which I am rebuilding with new bogies & correct underframes, hopefully a DRS 20 to Shawplan up (if I can find a cheap Bachmann 20 to cut up) and possibly some PGAs to convert into Gunnels. (one of which will probably be left out.) Along with that there will be a couple of locos, but other than my Vi Trains Fraggonset 47 (or the GWT one if I get a chance to finish painting it in time) It's a strugel trying to work out what is interesting enough to bring..... While this will probably be my last bit of modelling until I move into my place in December, it should be a good weekend!

Like the idea with the primer. Will look forward to hearing what you do when your finish the back building. If I can get my brickwork to half that standard I will be very happy!

Very good to see the layout in the flesh at Demu, fantastic stuff! Really impressed with the standard of the buildings, have you written anywhere how the brickwork was painted?

So far I have tried the approach Jim SW described here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/topic/18906-painting-mortar/page__pid__182482__st__0&?do=findComment&comment=182482 which worked well some of the time, but also started removing the red paint. I also tried just painting on a the mortar and then wiping off which was a bit tougher to remove (but avoided the paint stripping properties) I did find that the deeper relief on the bricks compared with Slatters embossed brick made it a bit easier than when I was working on the brick buildings for the last layout. Photos will eventually follow, but for the time being its not particually photogenic (as the back wall of the bridge has a lot of gaps where detail would have gone if I had a bit more patience

Managed a bit more work on a couple of projects yesterday, had a first attempt at adding the mortar to the first bridge on the layout. Need to refine the process but looks like it's working. Also primed the core of the ratio footbridge. This is proving 'interesting' to build with most parts painted before gluing into place. The final bit of work was on my Wales and west 158. This has now had it's new snow ploughs painted ready for fitting tonight.

Finally found a couple of hours today watching the grand prix to do some modelling... (apologies for the naff photos, couldnt find the camera so they are all taken with the phone.) Started off with some finishing work on 50031, this has now been fitted with the final few details and given a quick coat of grey primer. Still need to add the new lifting lugs (only remembered these once I had finished spraying...) The chassis has been fitted with a set of Ultrascales and a decoder to free up OO wheels & a blanking plate to fit to my current model of 50031 which this more detailed version will be replacing. Still aim to paint this loco into large logo late next month... Next was the Virgin HST rake, having removed a large number of 12mm P4 wheels from my Blue Pullman rake (prior to listing it for sale) I have set to work transfering them into the final 2 coaches of my HST. This was followed by rewheeling the non powered powercar. The latter required the removal of the OO break gear, and drilling out the axle boxes to accept 'standard' 26mm axles. Must get on and buy a load more Kaydees to get the rest of the rake fitted with couplings and make it useable (although of course I dont have anything suitable to run it on...) With the interesting stuff out the way, it was onto more work preparing models that fall in my sale plans. Starting with some 37s. the first (37411) was a simple case of needing to revert its chassis back to OO, replacing its wheels with those from 37672. The second loco was my model of 37417, this had its chassis swapped with the OO chassis that was under 37667 (both of which are fitted with the class 60 style buffers). Finally was a set of Lima NKA 'Super GUVs' A while back I had gone way ott buying up enough RES stock to enable a full rake in both RES and EWS (res with no logos). Having decided now that I am going to focus purely on 1998 its time to get rid of the rest. Of course the big problem with this is that I had long since binned all of the lima bogies (for being well under scale and nothing like the prototype.) This has prompted me to get on and finish the conversion to fit Bachmann bogies. this was pretty simple, first a new pivot point needed fitting to support the body the correct hight from the bogie, this was formed from a couple of off cuts of plastic strip glued in line with the lima blocks. A second offcut of plastic was fitted to the underside of the bogie to remove the triangular extension that is used on the Bachmann coach mount (and resulted in too much for aft movement) The body was then removed from the chassis, and a 2.5mm bolt was fitted through the bogie into the chassis (with the head under the body) and secured with a nut. The coach was then reassembled and tested against a Bachmann Super BG to ensure the fit was correct. This was repeated on 2 more coaches (with a 4th unable to be finished due to lack of bogies.) The rather annoying thing here is that I havent actually finished this work on the coaches I am keeping (mostly because of the issue getting P4 wheels into Bachmann commonwealths...)

Not a lot of modelling done over the past few months, the highlight begin the work on 50031. This has seen a little more progress with jon's cast side grills now fitted along with the new windscreens. Just need to drill out the new exhaust ports and it will be ready for painting in august. The main event of the past month has been buying my first house (ok apartment), although it will not be finished being built until December it does mean that I know know how much space I have for a layout (none).... As a result (and partly to fund new stuff for the house) I have decided to clear out everything which does not directly fit my two planned layouts (one of which will continue construction slowly at parents house) As a result all my 2006 stock will be listed on the classifieds next week, and my 2004 fleet is likely to follow later in the year. At the same time I am do going to clear my 80s passenger fleet Going to be helping with a demo at scaleforum in September so I suspect after that I will be back wanting to get on with the layout again

Yes they are, along with many other parts. I was planning to do a pair of locos, however now I look at how much one will cost I suspect I will just do the one and sell off the loco for the 2nd, still debating whether or not to go all out and do the cant rail grills as well...

Picked up the etches from Shawplan at Showcase, they are now on general sale. I know Brian is now coming through the busy season of shows so that may explain the slow response, worth giving him a call on the number on the Shawplan website (though I know it may take a couple of attempts as the workshop is separate from the house (where the phone is)

Likewise very happy that the talk around the range launch of there being a refurb has been proved true. Definitely an NSE one (or 2) on the cards to get SWT branding! Just need them (or an LTD) to do SWT proper next year!

The next step on my class 50 detailing project was to correct the exhaust ports at the no2 end, working from this photo by Keith Wright http://newimages.fotopic.net/?iid=y11i0f&noresize=1&nostamp=1&quality=70 which shows that the exhausts should be offset to the side of where Hornby put them. So thats the roof pretty much finished.... Again I removed the original detail using course wet & dry taped to some plasticard offcuts and glued the new etch into place, before drilling out the holes afterwards. Next up was the fan, a 10 part etch which needed to be glued together. Once finished its a direct fit on the Hornby mechanism, while I havent decided if I will keep the fan working yet (given how the fan drive can be a cause of poor running) I am quite tempted to replace the mech with a small motor and have it driven off the decoder. With the ultra fine scale mesh the fan is a lot easier to see than with the clunky moulding Hornby used. Now it needs painting red (with yellow tips), while I also plan to paint the white base of the fan unit black to disguise it a bit better. Here's a before and after photo showing the comparison between the scale fan and the Hornby one. Next job is going to be modifying the ends, The plan is to fit Shawplan windscreens, windscreen wipers and scratch built washer jets. After reading through some of Jim SW's posts on the subject of the nose radius, I think I will be leaving that as it is. Unfortunatly before I can do any of this I need to get hold of some nail polish remover and strip the remains of the dodgy weathering and the NSE stripes so that they dont show through once its been resprayed into Large Logo Now that I am part way through the project I have turned my attention to what I will do with the rest of the fleet. The roof fan and grill makes such a massive change that this will have to be done to all future locos, however I think on the next one I am going to try and keep the Hornby baseplate with the hole diameter expanded to match the new grill rather than messing around with the brass base. Windscreens are another definite given how bad the originals were. Exhaust ports are a bit more tricky, while the model is very wrong in that area it is not so noticeable.... Next up for work is probably going to be either my NSE Dauntless or GW150 Elgar. The latter is the likley candidate given that its currently without a chassis while it waits for Hornby to sort out the replacements... I have set about starting to modify it to better match its mid 80s condition for the old layout, removing the NRN roof pods (very useful addition to the scrap box) although it does look like it will need the tops of the head code boxes repsrayed to get rid of the step down where they used to be...

Finally made a start on detailing up my first Class 50, something of a test bed to decide what exactly I am going to do to the rest of them in the future. So far: Roof grill, replaced the Hornby grill with the Shawplan etch. Didnt get on too well with the etched baseplate and ended up scratch building my own. followed by fitting the etched fan. Moving to the exhaust, I removed the Hornby detail first carving off the worst of it with a scalpel then tidying up with wet and dry glued onto a plasticard offcut Still need to add the no2 end etch... On the sides, I removed the the lifting eyes and break linkages to replace with plasticard and shawplan etches respectively Finally for now are the cab windows, again another shawplan etch (which will be followed with some laser cut glazing I also have a set of Jon's cast 50 grills which will probably get fitted. Other than the above, I am debating repowering the loco with modified Vi Trains bogies (given the improved running qualities they offer) but first will be testing to see how much running improves with Ultrascales over the Gibson / Branchlines conversions I am currently running. As for what the loco will be finished as, current thinking is to go for Hood or Defiant in preserved Large Logo given that they would be of use for my current layout plan, Hood is already in my fleet so would be a sensible choice given my intention to go through the lot gradually replacing each loco with a more detailed equivalent. This is about it for now, need to strip the sides before I do much more there. Will be ordering a set of Shawplans deltic etches later in the week, so that should be my next project...

Do the new No2 end exhaust ports go in the same location as the old ones? Seem to have found a good number of photos showing the roof grill area, but very little showing the exhaust ports. Currently in the process of removing the existing detail ready to fit the etches...

Having spent yesterday demonstrating with DEMU at Expo EM I have got on with a few projects: Firstly I picked up some more South East Finecast embossed brick, so I can now get on with with designing and building the next bridge for the layout. The intention here is two fold, firstly to break down the brick bridge which is currently on Blackcombe, from this I will remove the main girder spans for reuse. This bridge will then be replaced with a new version which is more typical in design to its South West setting. Having spotting a rather nice embossed stone plasticard on SE Finecast's stand (sadly didnt have the cash left to buy any), it looks spot on for the style of the local stone work. The Wills girder spans from the Blackcombe bridge will be cleaned up and then rebuilt into a new brick structure for use on the new project. Once the girders are sorted out, will then be able to start calculating the size of the span required and mocking up the walls. ____________________________________________ Moving on, my only other purchase at the weekend was an S Kits ex VDA Sea Urchin kit. Looks like it requires a hell of a lot of cleaning up on the castings, particularly on the top of the < on the sides, however most important (and unlike the forthcoming plastic kit from Chilvers) it has the proper T profile to the side ribs (and its very crisply done.) Will get on and finish building this over the next week, then it will get added to the growing pile of engineers wagons which require painting in dutch. ____________________________________________ The final area I have been working on was rewheeling a Vi Trains 47 with a set of Maygibs. This hasnt been without its problems, mostly as a result of wheels not perfectly parallel with the axles (a problem I will come to in a sec). The process used a set of maygibs removed from one of my surplus Heljan 47s using the usual method reusing the Vi Trains gears. Unfortunately most axles were running slightly off true when tested (one of which very badly which turned out to be missing half the plastic bush) I think the main cause of this variance in the angle between wheel and axle has to be a direct result of the removal and refitting of the wheel (and it not being pushed on completely square with the axle. More research is needed here to find a better method I think, but this does seem to give a good reason as to why my Ultrascale fitted locos significantly outperform my non Ultrascale locos.

Very recent, definitely post 2000

Finally got round to making a start on re-wheeling my second pair of HST powercars. The first step was the removal of the OO wheels, break gear and cutting off the huge lump which is the NEM coupling pocket, the break gear was all put away to be re attached once the powercars have been fully tested, however further modification will be required to reduce the width to something better matching the wheels.... Once that was out the way the next job was to bore out the axle boxes to accept a 26mm axle, this uses a little tool from Ultrascale which has a drill on one side and clips into the space for the axle. Annoyingly after sorting the first axle out, the brass centre separated from the axle so I cant do any more until I've given the Locktight repair enough time to dry. Still, it was possible to fit one axle. So the wheelset was put on the back to back gauge and tweaked until it stopped in the safe zone And finally was clipped into the model. As I have said before, I am using Branchlines 14mm wheels. I know that these are larger than the prototype, But: They are the nearest solid metal wheel to the prototype (and I wont touch plastic centred wheels) Because of inaccuracy's somewhere in the coaches, 14mm wheels in the powercars mean that the powercars and coaches are a perfect hight match. If the correct size were fitted the powercar would be too low relative to the coaches!

Once again useless camera work is making it look awful..... Rather annoying that I never think to photograph models when the sun is still out!

A while back I had a play at weathering a BR Blue Class 37, mostly in order to cover up the difference in colour between the Bachmann blue and the Phoenix blue I had sprayed the new components with. The end effect just wasnt good enough, looking more like a thick coat of powder/hairspray mix than weathering! So I've had another go. I have started off by using a flat brush and lots of water to remove most of the powder mix, leaving sooty deposits around the exhaust and dirt build up in panel gaps and against raised detail. Once that was dry I then attacked the roof with Tamiya powders to blend it all together. Moving to the sides which were not touched last time I added a coat of the Tamiya browns to the whole side then gradually removed it, the aim being to build up dirt around the grills and the tumblehome. Again I think the colour may be a tad on the light side here, will need a going over with a darker brown at some point I think. That said, the loco is intended to be modelled working on China Clay, so to some extent light coloured weathering is rather fitting. Once this is properly dry, I plan to dig out some gouache to add a few darker patches were there is run off from roof detail. One area I am really not happy with is the yellow end, just cant seem to get the right effect there. Gussing that its probably a case of needing to use a different method. The bogies have just had a light going over with the powders so far and again dont really look the part (it was more a case of just wanting to get them away from being shiny and black). Again not too sure what I will do here.

Cheers John, The first two photos are the other type of 'Bullet, however the third (http://jdsrailway-photos.fotopic.net/p64580146.html) was absolutely what I needed! Clearly shows that in 1998 they had already started to get the new OHLE flashes, also shows that all the lettering needs to be a lot cleaner on the boards.

Does anyone have some good photos of the bullets from arount 1998? everything I've found so far is dated post 2006. Just trying to work out when the European style triangular OHLE flashes were fitted, along with a bunch of other modern H&S signs. Also, has anyone managed to find photos of either of the wagons Dapol/Kernow modelled? Again the best I've found so far is a shot showing the next one up in the number series.

Mine arrived today, Gwiwer, looks like the pipes are weathered to some extent, though a bit cleaner than the rest of the wagon. Weathering really is fantastic, as are the hand rails. but that ladder and roof walkway are truely awful, and looks like its come off something from the 60s. I've just ran a micrometer over the mesh, which is 1.3mm gaps (i.e. a scale mesh with 4 inch gaps) This is even more a shame considering the standard of the very fine handrails which will no doubt be lost when you replace the naff mesh with something scale. Still, that aside, I am very happy. going to add a few more white streaks to further personalise it (it needs some smaller white streaks elsewhere on the side) Need to change the OHLE flashes (and add a bit of brown over the top to blend them in) Finally, does anyone know if there is silver under the brown? I have found a photo showing the 4 hatches along the lower side of the tank in clean silver while the rest is filthy. looks an interesting variation to model...