Buckjumper

Paul was only nagging you because we were nagging him   and like Dave I'm glad he's succeeded!

Trams often seem toy-like rather than models, and I think that's usually down to the painting which can be awkward with their intricate liveries and delicate railings, but these are indeed exquisite - even down to the subtle weathering, and are probably the best models of trams I've seen.

Looking forward to seeing more of the setting and the railway passing through it.

For such a small, utilitarian building it's got bags of character. The SEF brick sheet is quite an improvement over the Slaters sheet, and during my current dead-time have been wondering about how to tackle the brick buildings on Basilica. I'd written off the Slaters and was considering scribed Das - time intensive, but unique. Seeing what a lovely job the SEF sheet can make of things I may now plump for SEF on large expanses and Das for any unique intricate bits.

Lovely colour to the bricks and mortar too.

Looking utterly fragrant Tim. Beautiful modelling and very well conceived.

I had to look up "like the clappers", always nice for us foreigners to learn a new expression :-)

Whoopsie; your written English is much better than a lot of natives, and as such I sometimes forget it's not your first language! 

Glad to be able to expand your repertoire -  I suggest reading PG Wodehouse's Jeeves & Wooster or Blandings for delving deeper into a truly bizarre (and often archaic) potpourri of top-hole English phrases from the roaring 20s and onwards

It's the bally balliness of it all that makes it all so bally bally.

Thanks for your comments chaps!

Yes, in a way I suppose it is similar to the techniqes used by some wargamers, but I also find the results in that genre are usually overdone to the point that it becomes a caricature and I lose interest.

When I say drybrushing, I mean even more dry than is usually meant by the term - only a barely perceptable smudge of colour should be seen when wiped on a kitchen paper towel before use, and the colour should only be a shade or two either side of the base weathering mix. I use light grey instead of white, and find black works ok, but just a dob or two (the ratio is very technical stuff you see), not much.

Brushes - ha! I should have shares in brush emporiums and get through them like the clappers. I do have newish ones for drybrushing bodywork and they soon work down the pecking order as I sort them by degrees of bog-brushiness; the more splayed the bristles, the lower and more inaccessible confines of underframes they're relegated to. I trim the more wayward terrors as I go with nail scissors, but there comes a point (always too soon) where the brush is useless and  binned.

Cheese? You're crackers

I often use Citadel brushes. They're good, for drybrushing, and I find they last a little longer than other more delicate makes, but don't expect too much more mileage from 'em!

The last one by a long shot; it gives the impression of a late-autumn afternoon with a warm, low sun which I find very appealing.

Thanks Julia - you're too kind   Time to grubby up your maroon siphon? It'll look a treat.

Thanks Paul, and I'm delighted to see you've started your own blog on here too.

Thanks for that Pete. Yes, I've seen some pretty garish reds on the ends of brake vans too, and against the brown of the body the Precision red was a bit...yikes! With reds, once weathered down a bit most of these concerns tend to fade away - (a colourfast joke, now there's a thing!) The Southern as an entity, for me, is a bit of an enigma, and compared to other companies I have little written source material, so these sorts of comments I find very useful. Looking forward to seeing yours done too.

Thanks David. 'Normal', we've been told, could be several months away.

In re Basilica Fields; with all the broughaha I've snatched a little time for a bit more writing here and there, and have the bones of several posts which still need a little fleshing out. As I'm not able to model at present I may see those come together quite quickly.

Obviously I've not been able to do any physical work on it, and with the upheaval I'm not going to meet the deadline of the Challenge 33 competition in October, but there has been significant progress and I hope to be able to share that with you all soon.

What a fantastic collection of wagons, I especially like the minks, but all the etched underframes are excellent.

3 links and instanters in 2mm...I love that particular brand of hair shirt

You're too kind; there's a five bob note in the post to the Kingdom

Thanks! I found a photo of a PMV with a chalked window which I thought was fantastic and just had to be replicated. I guess the grot must have been sun-baked on to allow the chalk to take.

With you there Dave - I'm partial a broad range from classic to neo

Thanks Missy.

The secret is simple; don't weather it in one hit. The real thing was weathered by degrees - it accumulated grime, some of which was washed off in the rain, then more was added and so on. So, lots of thin coats of your favourite weathering brew each wiped off with moistened cotton buds before the next is applied until the desired patina is built up - this works for all degrees of weathering from almost ex-Works to wheezing on last legs.

The part which takes the longest, but is one of my favourite modelling tasks as it brings it all to life is applying all the highlights and shadows - the usual brew with an extra dollop of light grey or black respectively, drybrushed onto every raised or angled surface - that can take hours to get right, and is very easy to overdo. Something soothing on iTunes and something soothing in a glass works wonders. For me that's a bit of prog and JD on the rocks. It's a hard life being a modeller...

Thanks Mikkel. I'd wanted to build one of these for ages, so it was nice to have the opportunity to do so.

Incidentally, the marked difference in quality between the construction and finished photos is because the former are happy snaps taken on my phone and the latter by the DSLR.

I'm no professional photographer - I just get lucky from time to time

As well as storing digital photos on my computer I back up onto two seperate hard drives, one of which is kept upstairs, and the other isn't in the house at all.

I do have some stored on a cloud but are not permenant - just a facility for easily accessing from different devices.

I think the main thing to remember is that nothing is infallible. Years ago we all thought various types of storage were the new panacea from floppys to CDs to Zip and Jaz drives, but CDs can degrade after a surprisingly short space of time and both Zip and Jaz were limited and quickly disappeared. Perfectly good, reputable hard drives aren't immune to total failure either.

However you do it, a rolling programme of backups and changing the hardware every so often with an off-site backup is going to significantly reduce the probability of total disaster, but I suppose there's no 100% infalible system.

Just catching up...

Fantastic bit of scratchbuilding and I love the relaxed pose of the 1HP shunter taking on fuel. Once plonked on Farthing don't forget to add the ever-present overflow from the exhaust

Sorry I'm late to the party, but oh wow! That's just gorgeous, and I agree with Tatty; for me there was no finer GW livery than the late Victorian/early Edwardian.

Thanks Dave.  I've found another useable pic so new post coming up shortly.

I'm not really into using matt varnishes as final coats, but clothing is an exception. Over the years I've tried all kinds ranging from Humbrol, Railmatch and Precision enamels, GW, Testors and Microscale, but the most consistent true flat sprayed neat or brushed has been Windsor & Newton Galeria acrylic varnish bought from the local art shop.

It was the before and after photos of the Harrier on this thread which convinced me (external link):

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/46166-winsor-newton-galeria-matt-varnish/

W&N also do a satin and gloss varnish in the Galeria range (useful to make up your own brew) and a varnish remover.

though I could have done with a coracle and paddle to get me back up to the house...

Oh the irony!

Fortunately I don't keep models in the workshop overnight, but the room they were in was also flooded. I did have time to move those in danger, but some suffered moved-in-haste damage which is repairable...when I can replace the solder station, compressor, airbrushes, tins of paint, workshop...ad nausium. Insurance covers it all but it's a lot of gyp, especially making a full inventory of the damage and loss (the water was contaminated so salvage is impossible). The only irreplacable items we've lost appear to be our honeymoon photos which had fused together, and the negs were too far gone too. That and my Marshall valve amp - a model no longer made - which has gone to the great gig in the sky.

Standon, Herts. The tree line in the valley is the remains of the trackbed of the Buntingford branch.

I think the reference both Nick and Ian are scrambling for looking for is also in Goods Wagons (1998) p.43 which says:

"The roofs of some vans with wooden bodies were iron, characterised by bands across the top of the wagon at the joins in the plates."

Question for the knowledgeable bods - might there have been a change in the roof construction between Lots; some canvas-covered planks without bands and others with banded iron plates? Nice van BTW  Mikkel - I like the grey/off-white/cream colouration of the lime which suits the scale. Were screw couplings fitted to avoid brained and pur

I also note the alternative spelling, maybe a regional thing... ;-)

It's the Swedey variant

And to think I've spent all this time thinking wotsits were cheesy!

Cheesy Wotsits or Swedey wotsits...

Moving swiftly on; I'm surprised the GW didn't house the springs within the cab inside boxes over the splashers like other companies. Presumably there wasn't enough movement in them as they compressed for the crew to catch a finger or anything else as they leaned over... *eyes water and toes curl at the thought*

You could certainly argue for black springs with polished mounting whatsits (are they a rubber shock absorbing bush?) and green splashers. The latter do look closer to the boiler tone than that of the frames. The only difference is the monogrammed tender, though that also appears to have black springs with polished whatsits.

The polished wotsits were inverted cast cups which protected the rubber pads of the spring hangers from oil contamination. It was one of the ideas Holden took with him to Stratford from Swindon. Stratford cast them in iron and painted them black, but Swindon's were obviously a bit more bling.