Neil

Well, I'm going to call it done or at least I will once I fix the couplings back on. Again here it is in the company of an unmolested version of the Bachmann 'junior' loco. Here's its more likely companion, my attempt at taking away some of the toy from Hornby's ever popular Smokey Joe. Though pictured on my Belgian layout this pair are destined for the light railway section of Northern Town.

This thing started off as one of those Bachmann Junior locos which in turn were spawned from their Thomas. I managed to take 2.5mm out of the height of the body which (I think) has improved the proportions of the loco. There's a separate thread here about how it was done.

I've done a little more finessing and faffing particularly around the bunker top so thought it maybe time to post a before and after picture. More filling and sanding has happened, the rear cab spectacles now have bars protecting the glass (a Mainly Trains etch) and an Airfix pug coupling pivot now forms the base for safety valves which will now line up along instead of across the boiler. Left to do, fabricate a mount for the front coupling and apply some paint.

Well the the t*rd progresses. Actually t*rd is more than a little unfair when you consider that for twenty quid you end up with a nice running loco albeit one with slightly bizarre proportions. So why have I spent money and time on this when I could be making more structures for Northern Town or fashioning further rolling stock with greater scale pretensions? Well there's something rather satisfying in taking an item that on the face of it has little going for it and by effort, ingenuity and sharp knives turning it into something moderately presentable. While it will always score zero for authenticity, freelance creations can have charm and whimsey and I think the world is a better place for such stuff. So what have I done since the last update? I've concentrated the plastic surgery to the outer ends, nose and booty if you will. At the front I've shortened the smokebox back to the saddle and at the rear the coal rails have been cut off and the cab rear spectacle plate extended down. Still a way to go but I think all the big stuff is done.

I don't think it should do; the rail section will be smaller and you'll need to put less heat into the joint and there'll be less heat to dissipate after the joint is made.

I do something similar in OO for things like diamond crossings or sharp radius (set track) points where there is no live frog alternative. I can't say I'm a fan of unifrogs, I haven't used any but the appearance of the insulated sections leading away from the frog grates quite a bit.

Good grief, what's happening here? Some time ago I bought a pair of Bachmann junior locos the demobbed Thomas ones, one green, one red. Why? Well I was rather taken with George Dent's model of Bess, based on one of these critters and I rather fancied having a go myself. This weekend I introduced the green one to a variety of sharp and abrasive implements with the results seen above. Though I liked George's model I felt it still looked a bit like it was on tip toes so I wondered if it would be possible to reduce the height of the thing. There's also a low bridge on the light railway section of Northern Town where this little blighter is destined for. To do this the motor has to be fixed to the chassis rather than to the body, as Bachmann designed it. In the end this turned out to be fairly easy to do by building up mounting blocks on the running plate and fixing the motor and gear casing to them. Quite a bit of the motor casing had to be chopped and ground away to clear a lowered body. The dropped section of footplate was cut away and the buffer beam solvent welded to the remains; there are splice plates underneath. The body was set out on a plate glass slab and a line 2.5mm (ish) scribed around the base which was then cut and filed away. The tank cut outs and splashers were cut out and replaced with sections of 40thou plasticard. You will notice that I've opened out the cab sides and filled in the strange slot between cab opening and spectacle plate. The cab front spectacles have been opened out too. Inside the body moulding the motor fixing lugs have been ground away as has the mounting under the smokebox. Finally for now, here's the result of all this butchery next to the full height red one.

A word of caution re. Halfords lacquer. I use it (satin and matt) I like it but it does seem to react with some early Bachmann lining and lettering where I suspect transfers have been used. It doesn't seem to cause problems with Pressfix, Modelmaster or my own home made waterslide efforts.

OOooo, a wishlist, how unexpected. Can I have a Furness Railway 2-2-2 well tank, Aerolite, a standard gauge Motor Rail Simplex and a Scenecraft DVLR small station building please.

Splendid.

That's an interesting take, to my eyes it would be the first S I'd want to tweak a bit to get closer to the unusual rather squared off look of the originals. However I worry that further tweaking runs the risk of making things worse rather than better and there's part of me that's happy with some imperfections in a model; I feel that they make a model less sterile and in some way more believable providing it's not overdone. I would need a considerably larger garage. :)

Today I completed the final part of the signwriting, filling in the missing bits of letters with a fine brush and steady(ish) hand. It's not perfect but it captures some of the idiosyncratic style of the original. Feeling pleased with myself I took the structure out to the layout and while there is another structure to go to its right I felt there was still something missing. Turning round ninety degrees it's easy to see what; just the outline of other stuff on the backscene is enough to suggest other habitation. On its own the building looks bleak and incomplete. I must press on with its neighbour so I can complete the backscene here.

That's good to know, must have been a duff batch or some dubious stuff entering the market place passed off as being a reputable brand.

You're most welcome Martyn. It's the ability to ask questions and get timely answers that's one of the advantages of internet forums.

Another day and another stencil, this time for the smaller, lower lettering. It's usually the S that's troublesome but today both Es on the left gave me grief. You can see the repairs with tiny slivers of masking tape. However all came good in the end. The secret with stippling is to use a brush with stubby bristles, to be sparing with the paint, building up in layers and to use a vertical motion so you don't cause the stencil to drift off target.

If we're not careful this will degenerate into the mess that the initial one did which is why I chose my words carefully. There's no implied criticism or perjorative language but there are a couple of positive suggestions that shouldn't be too far from what we usually do to be threatening.

You join me with the white border having been masked off and the black background painted in and dried. The first stencil used was that with the 'ironmonger' lettering and the two horizontal lines. This came first because it was easier to register the 'FR Stubbs' to the 'ironmonger' rather than the other way around. After stippling through the stencil with white paint. Usually the centres of letters like O and R will be tagged to the outside. I did this for the first few painted signs I tackled but I find I get a better result touching in the centres with background coloured paint. The shape of the letters flows better and it seems easier to paint a shape in the centre than touch up the letter itself. The stencil used for the 'FR Stubbs' and the sweeping tail of the R has little registration holes cut into it (indicated with the arrows) which are used to line up this stencil with the horizontal lines and the first and last letter of 'ironmonger' Here's the result; just need to cut and stencil 'fireplace specialist' and then I'll restore the centres of the O B and Rs.

SE Finecast for me. In the past I've been happy with Slaters but my last batch (described as Slaters) was so brittle it was all but impossible to use. It had a shinier finish than usual which is a bit suspicious but it came from a reputable seller. Here are a couple of my recent buildings clad in SE Finecast sheets.

OK, I've made a start on the stencilling. It's been a bit two forward one back but progress has been made. After a false start using the image directly from the internet (thought I might get away with it but a bit too skewed) I found some fonts on the internet which were a reasonable match and set off cutting out. I printed out three on one sheet of A4 just as the ink was running out. The top one, I'm happy with 'ironmonger' but not 'FR Stubbs' so I've tackled that again on the lower example where I've tweaked the lettering to better match the real thing. The remaining image was used to set out the background, masking out for the white border. Humbrol matt white was brushed and stippled on the inside of the tape. I wasn't bothered about an even coverage, in fact the patchier the better. The next stage when the white is dry will be to mask off the border and paint in the black background.

I've applied a bit more colour to Stubbs, these bits don't need the underlying paint to thoroughly harden. Stencil lettering often needs to be corrected by drawing bits of with a fine brush and thinners so once the black background goes in I can set a start date for the fiddly bit. To the left is the proof of concept card cut out and to the right the prepared window units ready to be glued in place from the rear of the structure.

When I was a lad most if not all large shows that I could visit were in city centre locations. York was in the Museum and Assembly Rooms, Leeds the Corn Exchange, Hull, Bristol and Blackburn in city centres too. They all had little in the way of parking, certainly no public car parking spaces though if I remember correctly there was some exhibitor and trade parking at Blackburn. These days it's rare to find city centre exhibitions, most being in sports halls, schools or community venues in the suburbs where parking for punters is available. I'm sure that this mainly reflects the growth of private motoring rather than a decline in public transport. I suppose this reflects societal trends towards the individual rather than the collective with a high value being placed on convenience. I think that Q4 solo vs group travel reflects this. I think that the thread which spawned this survey and discussion degenerated into ill temper because to do something different, to reprioritise requires a bit of a change of mindset and change can be threatening and advocacy for it easily taken as criticism. The environmental impact of driving to an exhibition might seem piddling, particularly when compared to major polluters but if no one tries to do a bit better or we all wait for someone else to start then what hope is there? Maybe we start by car sharing or using the bus or train where we can?

Rick Astley, yes it's him, with an utterly joyous performance.

No problem, I'll try to remember to take snaps as I go along. It'll be a little while as the base coats need to go on and harden off before I can start.

I have made transfers for various items but for painted signs nothing beats painting. Actually I quite like faffing about with stencils.

Absolutely, it'll be another fiddly paper stencil job I think. Thank you but they're nothing fancy just a touch of paint and weathering to the old Airfix examples. Alas not a book I have but there is a photo of Manna by York's south shed in Roger Hill's 'York - The Transition Years' . It's in splendid condition, LNER pattern tender, no smoke deflectors and I've based my model on this image.