James Hilton

Great to see Whitemarsh again and just how well observed the ballast colouring is with it's gentle dies added. Lovely modelling Will - and the galvanised finish looks great to me - how did you do it?

Nice spoof and good news on the fresh progress on the Cornish N

You know what Martin - it looks grand! The windscreen looks great and the bodyside conversion looks faultless - very very good job.

If you've gone to that much trouble can I suggest a few other bits and pieces? How about really slimming down the MU blue star plug (front right outside edge of buffer) - with a knife and file you can get them to look much finer. Then replacing the plastic perfect U shape 'wire' with a piece of fine wire or elastic looks more realistic. Have you fitted a blue star receptor on the buffer beam? I used to use Heljan Class 47 one for the later MU fitted Freightliner 47s that came on the sprue). Then you could also add the sanding pipes to the front and rear of the bogie side frames using fine elastic - that's quite easy too and makes a big difference. I think I got mine from 43179, but I think Jon020 got his hands on some as well.

However whatever you do I know the weathering is going to be spot on! I look forward to that

Jon this is shaping up to be another well crafted conversion, something to put my 'general impression' modelling into perspective and help me drive forwards. I always enjoy reading your less frequent but well written, and somewhat rambling blog entries! Definitely always entertaining.

The 47 is looking lovely - I hope you can finish and weather her to the same standard as Nimbus! At some point you're going to have to start on the depot to house them all these lovely re-works too...

I used to see these all the time in my early teens at Crewe - in fact I think I saw every one of them between 1992 and 1994. Great little project - will be most interested in the re-motoring

Thanks Will - I shall look forward to trying it when I have a layout. I don't plan to have long trains so if it improves running I'll give it a try

Hi Jon - it's Carrs 145 degree I think. It flow nicely with my Antex 25W iron, but is not low enough for existing joints to flow and melt apart when adding the detailing bits - which is good - so I find it a good balance one stop shop combination rather than a temperature controlled iron and different solders. Just shows what you can do with some quite simple tools.

I've just noticed that I've not drilled all the handrail holes out yet either, so will probably drill them out before I go any further with the detailing - but will save adding the wire until I've finished handling the body.

Adam - very effective, and definitely worth the effort Who supplies your clear styrene and what thickness is it?

Will - not sure how I missed this first time around. Lovely modelling

Will if you're interested in the LGB stuff and pictures then check out my garden blog... http://ejklr.blogspot.com

Interesting point on graphite on the track, does that make much difference? How do you apply it?

That hydraulic crane does look nice I look forward to seeing you progress that

Hi Will - thanks, yes I've just bought a big LGB Schoema as well! Quite distinctive design aren't they, I'd seen their 'tunnelloks' too in the past, they're on their website IIRC?

I'm glad to hear from you that the Kato chassis is a good one - did you add much weight to get consistent running?

Which article was it in CM? The one about the LGB bash? I've just submitted another one so look forward to that in 2012. In the UK you can now get a e-mag version which I've subscribed too - I guess that might mean you'd get instant copies down under as well?

Just glad to be modelling with a subject I can share on here

I'd not spotted this video on NGRM - lovely to see the trains running from end to end

Martin, I've just lost all interest in standard gauge modelling, I'm not going to sell anything, yet, but it's all boxed up collecting dust. The large scale stuff is where my heart is really, but I have been tinkering in 009 as a way to improve my plastic detailing skills, as these Worsley kits need quite a lot scratchbuilding to finish them off. Thanks for commenting, good to see some familiar names about still.

Thanks Paul! In terms of the doors, I thought it would be easier to line them up when they're flat. They didn't move at all. I know there are different temp solders but as yet I've not felt the need for them. These kits are quite straight forward though

Thanks Jon - yes Kato chassis in general are superb - although in American outline stuff, the Athearn Genesis stuff also gets a good writeup and Atlas were always lovely runners.

Oooh SD40s - yum yum, and the Southern Pacific 'Rio Grande' style lettering used on the later units is very eye catching. Have you picked up a copy of Model Railroader? They're doing an online subscription for the e-mag for $29.99 a year - I think it's on a Kindle app.

I've got a ton of Canadian HO stuff (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=14061&p=222460) still in Chester at Mum's house. Mainly Athearn units with a light re-working and detailing. I'm currently resisting getting back into the scale, because to do it justice you need a LOT of space. Oh for North American home style basement railroad!

Jon an interesting project. I just ended up finding the Duffs a little dull and mundane and sold my Freightliner body snatcher (57) and Heljan 47 on in the end (when I was still in OO). On that subject, I finally skipped Paxton Road last week. A sad day but it had decayed too much through not being looked after...

Seeing you working on this though - wow - usual attention to detail and incredibly fine work. I'm finding my small scale wings again with 009 stuff, but it's your work in plasticard that has been quite an inspiration on this front so I hope to be able to emulate some of the finesse of your Deltic (and I'm sure ultimate efforts with the Duff) on my latest work.

Enjoyable read and great to see you back

Thanks Will - a subtlety I had not picked upon, thanks for the reflection - yes the combination of brass and plastic is a natural one when working on something like this... it is to me anyway.

The second Kato tram chassis arrived today so now I've got the bits for the diesel shunter. I am going to finish this one first though, at least through to 'ready for painting' (I might wait to do them together then).

I am lucky with the line - it's at my parents home so the garden is big with lots of trees - most of it far enough away to just about be passable as 'in scale' (being blurred helps).

Would you believe it's only 12 months old!

The 'Rugen' tank pictured in 5 does have a lot of presence (it weights nearly 4kg too!), just a shame it's slightly out of focus, not something I spotted at the time. This was the best composition from this angle, the others either had the rear coach in focus and foreground very blurred or the numberplate in focus and the rest blurred. I haven't tried experimenting with photo stacking software - not sure there is a 'freeby' one available for the Mac?

Nick - sizes, 55mm long, 35mm wide (over handrails - about 32 over body alone), 35mm tall from rail to middle of roof at cab end, 27mm from bottom of body to middle of roof at cab end.

Jon - yes, I've been keeping my other blogs up to date, but with the relative flurry of small scale modelling thought it worth sharing on here...

Mind - I've got a few LGB projects on the go too, and ideas for a second garden railway at my own home... possibly inspired by the German metre gauge lines on Wangerooge island as LGB are doing a starter set with relevant items in later this year

Paul - good, strong solution that

Nick - I'll measure all over this weekend. You might be able to reduce the height, yes - if you do it all round. You'd loose the bar across the bottom of the doors, so you'd probably need to solder the doors on to replace this strength.

Thank you all - it's good to be back.

Missy - it was great to see your work in Model Railway Journal at Christmas - still an aspiration for me, and your work in 2mm is an inspiration. I'm sure you could get Allan to do you one of these on 2mm, you could build it in Nn3 using Z-gauge track!

Jon - it's only complete because I've been writing it up on my blog (http://paxton-road.blogspot.com) and NGRM (http://www.ngrm-online.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=5268 - registration required) and thought it would make a good story for my re-entry into RMWeb. I was going to just do a Workbench topic but can't seem to find that part of the forum anymore. Probably a good thing, as I always though that the groups and individual blogs would be better homes for that sort of content. I presume you mean 'sweet' rather than 'sweat' - If you've not heard of the prototype, read on here: http://www.wllr.org.uk/archivenews.htm#Welshpool%20buys%20The%20Wasp

Jay... (James?) - thanks, it goes together nicely apart from the trouble with each end. I'm looking forward to the Shoema next, it arrived today.

That's looking GREAT Adam - lovely to see it painted.

I remember fondly a visit to Hattons in my primary school days to pick up a birthday present. A wonderful shop and long may it prosper.