Nile

The transfers are on. Microscale for the letters and numbers, HMRS for the 'goods brake' (from a SR sheet).

I found two schools in ASDA this morning, one of them is now partially dismantled on my bench. Here are some photos for fellow bodgers. The boiler and cab are separate parts glued to the chassis, I'll leave them put for now. The smokebox door has a key-way on its back, but its fit isn't good enough to prevent it being fitted in any of 4 ways.

Hi Corbs, do you mean a name for each different class, such as king,castle etc on the GWR? My limited thinking on this matter was to follow the LTSR (my local line) and use the number of the first loco in its class to identify that class. No. 110 Wye, being the first of its type, would be a member of class 110. But they could also be known as the river class, being the only ones named after rivers. I haven't worked the number series for the locos in any detail, I'm mostly making it up as I go along. That's enough thinking for now, here's some modelling. Last year I bought an assembled brake van kit. As far as I can tell it's a K's kit of a Caledonian 15T brake van. It's fairly solidly built and isn't about to come apart. I thought it would be ideal for the LMWR. The main body colour was ok, the paint only needing touching up in few places. I've painted the ends red oxide, the roof dark grey, and the foot boards dark brown. A coat of Klear next, and then some transfers.

Thanks all. I hope a few are inspired to have a go at 'modding', whatever the model. I'm looking forward to the J15, mainly because I want a J15. But it could be useful as a small 0-6-0, although the tender may need replacing as it is very GER. Today I have been mostly removing malware from this pc, so not much modelling. But I did recently paint the parts for the Minitrains F&C loco conversion. I've since redesigned the pilot beam. I'll do a proper conversion, and repaint, when I get a new set of parts. That should be next month.

I think the T9 could be converted to quite a few types with a bit of work. Would the narrow cab version be a better starting point for the CR Dunalastair? Here is that LMWR line up someone asked for earlier.

Not hard to spot, I suppose, although the white line you are seeing is a trick of the light. I tried to get the lighting the same, but over a day had passed since the first photo. It's all a bit improvised. It's ready for the family photo now.

Tonight's episode is ........ spot the difference. While looking at the locos on a shelf above my workbench I noticed something different about no.34, compared to the others. I'd missed something during the repaint, which I have now corrected. Before. After. Can you spot the difference? Apart from the disappearing coal load which had since been returned.

Thanks chaps, on with the reality bending. Now where was I? Oh yes, while rummaging about for something I found this. It's the inlay card from the original box this loco came in, showing the starting point for this little adventure. So here it is, near the end of the story! Having looked at photos of early T9s I decided the rivets around the smokebox had to go. Using a curved scalpel blade I very carefully carved and scraped off the remaining rivets, with some filing where possible. More black paint to restore the finish, and that's it for now. I've dug out another T9 in Southern green for a before and after comparison type thing.

Putting the loco back together. The handrail had to be shortened, and one knob per side removed, due to the shorter smokebox. The body was then glued to the footplate, being careful not to damage the paintwork. The cab windows are a push fit, the shortened cab roof glued in place and painted matt black. At the back, new shorter handrails were glued in place and painted black, to match those on the tender. The original whistle was removed from the plumbing that was around the firebox and glued on the cab roof. Some pipework at the front added, made from bits of the original. Paint touched up where needed. Put it all together and this is what you get. And now for some photos of it alongside the compound. Finished? Not quite.

Hello 6892, at some point I'd like to start a blog about the LMWR, when I've worked out more of the details, some of which are a bit fuzzy. As for the route, think of it roughly following the A40 from West London, through Uxbridge, Denham, Wycombe, Chinnor, and Thame on its way to Oxford. There it connects with the West Midlands Ry, which didn't merge with the GWR. There is a branch from Thame to Aylesbury (LNWR), and one from Uxbridge to Rickmansworth (LNWR). All this happened during the 1860s. What happened after 1923 is one of those fuzzy areas, my current thinking is that the lines west of Uxbridge became GWR. Hope that helps in some way. A modelling update will follow soon.

Thanks Jack, and it's not even finished yet. I'll try and get a family photo at the weekend, Rhys. Back to the model. It was broken down to its main parts. The loco and tender body were first sprayed with Dullcoat to remove the glossy finish, then with satin varnish to give a slight sheen to the finish. Once dry it was time to put everything back together. I started with the tender, and this is where I found a problem. There is a steel weight inside, at the rear. This longer fit inside the shortened body, the main problem being caused by the strengthening pieces in the corners. The solution was to cut the corners off the weight and file the end down a bit. I also trimmed the ribs on the inside of the rear of the body. On the outside, at the front I added a handbrake column, leftover from the compound conversion. I also painted the front handrails black.

Despite being busy with other projects I've time for a small update. I've applied a number and name to the loco body. You can see in this photo just how glossy the cab side is. Putting the bits back together to see how it looks, before spraying the final coats of varnish on the individual parts.

On with the transfers! I made a border using black lines. I didn't trim the carrier film off this time as they were going onto a flat surface. After they had dried I moved on to the letters. I used the same spacing as on previous tenders, 15mm, marked on masking tape. While placing them I checked they were straight and level using a steel rule. Outer letters first, then work inwards. I leave transfers at least overnight to dry fully. Applying varnish over transfers that haven't can result in them turning cloudy.

After all the fun of narrow gauge south, the story here continues. I've re-joined the guard irons to the tender side frames, using a bit of black styrene on the inside for support. The side frames are made of a plastic that works with Plastic Weld or MEK, whereas the chassis plastic is impervious to these glues. I had to use super-glue gel to attach the side frames to the chassis. As they are cosmetic the joint should be ok. After allowing the glue to set, I applied filler to the joint on the body. I also apply MEK to the filler to help it spread into the gap and bond with the plastic, and smooth it out. After rubbing down, I repeat the process until I'm happy with the finish. And then some new coats of paint and Klear to restore the finish. It's now ready for the transfers. I forgot to mention, but you probably noticed, that I removed the buffers to protect them. They simply pulled out, they seem to be a friction fit. [Note that some fillers are water soluble, read the label.]

The tender. I'm not finished with the loco yet and shall return to it later. Now I want to look at the tender. This is the starting point. The plan is to remove the coal rails and reduce the length by 5mm. I'll start with the chassis side frames. These were slightly loose, this being one of the early models that had them fitted the wrong way round originally. This is the before photo. And this is after. The guard iron will be glued into the cut-out later. After removing the water filler, I attacked the rear of the tender body with a razor saw. This could get messy. I made another cut in the rear piece, removing about 5mm. After cleaning up the edges, I glued the rear piece back on, adding strips of styrene on the inside of the joint for strength.

Thanks Jack. I too have a liking for Southern engines and have a small collection that will be staying SR. One thing I would like to look into is back dating a T9 to LSWR condition. I have lots of potential projects, I just have to find the time.

More lining. I thought the splashers would benefit from some lining, but couldn't find any suitable transfers. I didn't fancy trying to get the straight stripes to bend round the curves, so I came up with another plan. Using a small brush I could paint along the edge of the splashers and cab. The glossy finish made cleaning up any mistakes easy. It adds a bit more interest without being extravagant.

Hello Jack. The glossy finish (for the transfers) may be giving a false impression of the paint, hopefully the appearance will improve later. As for the rivets, you are right. My mods have removed some of them, I should really have removed the rest, and maybe replaced them. The problem is that they show up much more in the photos, I hadn't noticed until now! I may revisit this later, most of my models are never fully finished. Spitfire, that is a Minitrains HOn30 loco, the new Fiddletown & Copperopolis 0-4-0 tender loco.

Lining the loco - boiler bands. As before I'm using Microscale decals for these, with the carrier film trimmed using a scalpel and rule. I cut it to the correct length before applying, by holding it on the model and marking where to cut. Only two bands, but care still has to be taken to get them straight. Meanwhile some of the bits that arrived yesterday were used for this conversion (the white bits). I may post more about this later, if anyone is interested ( or even if they aren't ).

Ever get the feeling you are being watched? Welcome along Jack. In other news, a box of goodies arrived from Shapeways. Which is causing a bit of a distraction. I shall try to post another update tomorrow. Thanks for watching.

I re-connected the smokebox to the boiler, temporarily, before gluing the chimney on, making sure it was straight. Once set, I removed the smokebox and gave it a coat of matt black. I then re-assembled the loco to see what it now looked like. the parts mostly just clipped together. It will be dismantled again for more work. An improvement, me thinks.

Where on earth have you got that from? The kits are made of resin, not the hardest material to work with.

I needed to see if I could dismantle it into its component parts. Unlike Bachmann's models, Hornby's are mostly glued together, like a plastic kit. Fortunately the glue isn't very strong, so with a bit of effort they will come apart. The footplate came off quite easily. The key piece is the handrail, being in one piece. Despite being painted, it came out without difficulty. This allowed the smokebox to be removed from the boiler. I wanted to cut the front off of the smokebox, but also retain the chimney. Now that it was apart I could see that the chimney was a separate part, but it was firmly glued in place. I applied some super glue remover around the joint and eventually worked it loose. This is the result. The smokebox door was also removed. I then cut the front off with a razor saw. This left a hole on top that needed to be filled. I used parts of the now surplus front to make a filler piece and support. The door was glued back on. The base of the chimney had a tube designed to fit into a hole. Rather that make a new hole in the smokebox, I removed the tube and filed the chimney base smooth. When the glue had dried, I filled and filed the unwanted holes in the smokebox.

Onto the next loco. This is another of those projects that I started last year and ended up in a box unfinished. Looking at it again recently I'm glad I didn't finish it back then, as I wasn't happy with the way it looked. The donor model was a Hornby T9 with wide cab and 6 wheel tender. I'd made some mods and repainted it. The main mods were to the cab, dome and safety valves. The cab side cut-out was re-profiled and the roof shortened. The dome has had the safety valves removed and the hole filled in. New Ramsbottom safety valves fitted, probably a Gibson part. The problem is that the smokebox looks wrong (too long). I wasn't happy with the tender either. Here it is with the tender from no.256. It looks better than the original tender, which is a bit longer. So I thought about how I could improve things.....

Well done Mike, it's the GWH 1/144 kit. Until I spotted it at Southern Expo two weeks ago I didn't know there was a 1/144 scale kit. Very nice it is too.