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  1. 43179
    Well , this little project has gone a bit quicker than I expected - so much so - that I got stuck in forgot to take any photos -
    I wasnt expecting to have it almost finished tonight
    But heres the loco as it stands now - quite a transformation


    cranks have been fitted closer in , new crank pins fitted and the rods popped on for a photo - Im rather pleased with it - I'll have to take it all apart again one more time to put the pickups in - so i can test it properly - so Ill take some close ups of the various modifications then. Most of the work is on the cranks- modified in order to fit them further along the extended axles, so they sit closer to the chassis frames . The crank pins are .75 Nickel silver wire - a thin slice of insulation from some fine wire will be pushed onto the pins to retain the rods. In the second photo you can see the Extended axles - on the outer two axles need a trim now - as they stick out - which shows how far in the cranks have been moved in
    Ill post more comprehensive details next time
     
    tfn
     
    Jon
  2. 43179
    Goodevening -
    Ive recently dusted off a long term project - the last of my class 37 fleet - 37403 Ben Cruachan.

    This started life as a Bachmann collectors club loco - 'Caerphilly castle' which has been renumbered, renamed, and had the orance cantrail lines repainted further up the body where they should be for '403. The warning flashes have also been replaed for earlier pre 1998 style. I just need to find suitable white numbers for ther '403' on the noses - so far I've drawn a blank.
     
    Elsewhere I've done a fair bit of detailing work on the model - starting from the top down - the roof grille has been replaced with a Shawplan etch - the mesh is glued on first with Devcon epoxy - the brass frame is then lashed to the mesh using tiny strands of wire wrapped round the frame and through the mesh , then twisted round and round to 'tighten'.

    The Air horns have been replaced with brass versions from markits , these are cross drilled and can be soldered onto a short piece of wire to mount them with.
     
    On the noses , the aerial has been replaced with a fine piece of black nylon from a brush , so they're nice and fine , and indestructable the nylon is fixed with devon -
    and just to prove it , look - no stabbed fingers

     
    more soon
     
    tfn
     
    jon
  3. 43179
    Goodevening -
    I've been working on a model of 47580 'County of Essex' in large logo - I've started with a vitrains 47401 - (vitrains are my preferred 47s)
    a quick look on fotopic showed there was only a couple of major differences between 401 and 580 , which id have to cover:
    47401 had white lenses at the no1 end and sealed beam headlights at no2 end. 580 had sealed beam lights at both ends.
    Looking at the headcode boxes again , 47401 had a black headcode box at no2 end , 580 had both headcode boxes painted black.
    Rather than trying to carve off the white lenses and try and rebuild the box with sealed beam headlights - i chopped the entire cab off - and grafted on a new cab from the no2 end of
    a spare (damaged) 47401 shell I had. So the result - is both ends have the correct style headlights, and the right color headcode boxes - and i didnt even have to get the black paint out
     
    Next I had to remove the numbers and the printed names - unlike Bachmann and Hornby stuff , a cotton bud and thinners wont work with vitrains printing- but all is not lost -
    Make a sanding strip - a strip thick of plasticard about 5mm wide - and using double sided carpet tape fix a bit of very very very fine wet n dry to it.
    smear the bodyside of the loco with neat washing up liqid - and add a drop - literally one drop or water , just to thin it down a tiny bit -
    then rub away wth the sanding strip - the numbers will come off leaving the paint intact and polished perfectly for new transfers to be applied.
    And heres the result - renumbered , and with the printed nameplates removed . The 'new' cab i grafted on is closest to the camera

     
    tfn
     
    jon
  4. 43179

    Bachmann 47706 part 2

    By 43179,

    Hi everyone -
    I've been off work with the man flu , but managed to do something useful with my time - namely , finishing off 47706 (nearly finishing , anyway)
    The state of the paintwork on such a battered loco seems to change in every photo I look at , and finding shots of each side from the same date is difficult - but then again , you never see both sides at once. I've finished off all the paint damage using enamels and old brushes - I've also now added the large patch on the bodysides where the Scotrail branding was painted out - to make sure this stands out I've used a mix of falcon grey and executive dark grey. All the damage to the stripes was done with drybrushing , and working some weathering powers into the enamels while its still wet
     
    The TDM cables have now been painted and look a bit better - I've also snapped off the little steps from the top of the bufferbeam and fitted them to the bottom edge of the cabfronts insteas - I still don't like the poor fit between the cabs and bufferbeams on the Bachmann 47
    Still to add the cab aerials and some final bufferbeam detail but im glad that this loco hasn't sat half finished for months on end.



     
     
    back to my lemsip!
     
    tfn
     
    Jon
  5. 43179

    Bachmann 47706

    By 43179,

    Goodevening -
    A quick post from me as ebay doesnt want to upload my pictures this evening so i've given up on that ....
     
    As much as I love my vitrains 47s, I've decided to give a Bachmann version a try, as the livery on their latest release looked ideal for a quick identity change. As soon as I clapped eyes on the new 47/7 'shove' model in Scotrail livery , I thought of 47706 , in its flakey NSE branded Scotrail livery.
    The original Bachmann numbers, printed names and Scotrail branding are easily removed with Modelstrip, left on for about an hour, then washed off . The NSE flashes are from Replica , who also do the transfers for the scottie dogs that were added to both sides . I've made a start on weathering , attacking the body with a fibreglass brush , then some washes of rail white, the black much on the roof is enamel put on with the smallest oldest paintbrush I could find - I used satin black , as the photos of 706 showed its roof grime was really thick , with its own texture - so its no wonder the washing plant didn't shift it all.

     
    Bachmanns TDM cables are a bit chunky!
     
    and a bit later on with some more work on the cab roofs:


     
    Before I go any further I need to prep the chassis for weathering - and remove all the ectoplasm (Bachmanns pink factory grease) from the bogies so they can be painted/weathered along with part of the body.
     
    Thats all for tonight!
  6. 43179

    Vitrains 47787 West Coast

    By 43179,

    Hellow -
    Another vitrains 47 this evening - I do like them.

    Unlike 'Brunel' in my previous entry there's less so do on 787. Out of the box The model has the correct tanks, aerial brackets , plus 'Flush' headcodes both ends - and the more modern style 'Crewe' LED cluster tail lights, so some nice attention to detail differences by vitrains. There's printed representations of the plates left over when the TDM fittings were removed from the cab fronts. On the real thing these little plates barely stand that proud from the bodywork - so the printed versions seem acceptable - its nice that vitrains spotted them.
    There's still lots of little jobs to make 787 a nice little project - mainly detail painting
     
    The cabside handrails - I cant remember what colour they were supplied but I had to spray them maroon (for the loco in pre named condition).
    The little vertical handrails on the cabfronts were supplied yellow and needed the lower half sprayed maroon, also the little steps that slot into the bottom edge of the cabfront were also sprayed maroon, as they were supplied black. While I was painting I sprayed one of the radiator slats red , as spotted on the real loco. Finally the roof panels above the engine room were painted with a mix of executive light grey and NSE white.
     
    I have fitted shawplans super fine new roof fans and grilles , and added the extra cross feed pipework that this particular loco carries .

     
    For this loco I tried out some etched windscreen frames - the originals were carefully sanded off , and the new frames secured with varnish - the maroon was touched up using a mix of EWS maroon and a spot of red oxide to match the Vitrains colour. The etched windscreen frames are something else , with some teeny tiny detail - but really need to be used with shawplans laser cut glazing for full effect . Its not a quick job but well worth it - fr this loco I've fixed the new glazing with Kleer - but used PVA on other locos too - it works just as well.

    You need to make your own quaterlight bars for the side windows - I cut up some fine plastic strip using my NWSL 'Chopper' - that made a fiddly little job dead simple . The bars were painted then fixed to the glazing with a spot of PVA: They locate in a little half etched line on the glazing.

     
    And thats pretty much it - as usual I've lowered the loco , fitted nylon aerials and A1 wipers. Bufferbeam bits are a mix of Horbny , with Heljan ETH bits, and some extra associated pipework made from wire. The underframe has some light weathering - though I need to finish this off and weather the bufferbeams. I don't think ill put any weathering on the nice maroon body though - I think It will look better without.
     
    Happy Halloween!

    ( I don't like pumpkin , so drew a face on a Tangerine)
     
    Jon
  7. 43179
    Good evening,
    I'm amazed how long its been since I last posted, and since I last done any modelling, mainly 'cos I've been busy with my other hobby, my 1976 Alfa spider:

     
    but now for something else made in Italy that will go rusty, is poorly assembled, unreliable, wired badly but looks great
    yesI have another Vitrains 47
    Its the lovely 47484.

     
    I already had a set of brass plates for this loco and I was a little disappointed to find they didn't cover the printed versions. I expected this would mean a whole load of work to get rid of the printed ones , as Vitrains paintwork is very 'thin', but it turns out they just came off with a little tcut on a cotton bud. Just be careful not to rub too hard. This leave the paintwork a little glossy so I feathered in some satin varnish with the airbrush.
    Hopefully you cant see this in the closeup:

    The nameplates are all fixed with varnish - the BR arrows and number plates needed a gentle curve rolled into them so they sit on the cab sides properly.
     
    The vitrains model has a couple of detail differences that need fixing to make an accurate '484'
    The model has V shaped aerial brackets - the real loco has 'T' shaped brackets , so I carefully sanded them off and replaced some Shawplan etches. The cab roof was then repainted with Precision GWR green. It is a perfect match for the vitrains paintwork. The Aerial itself if a bristle from a small nylon brush - secured with PVA.
     
    Vitrains 47 come with nice little etched steps that slot in the the bottom of the cab front, however the one on the drivers side had to be moved over nearer the headlight in order to fit the ETH jumper on the cab front.
     
    Finally the underframe moulding on the Vitrains model is incorrect for 'Brunel' I'm not an expert in 47 underframe terminology , but the model comes with (what I call) "One big one and one little one".
    It should have "Two big ones" luckily Shedmaster had a set of Heljan moulding in his spares that look to be the correct type.
     
     
    The loco has been lowered onto its bogies and the wheels sprayed black with white tyres. Lowering the model makes a big difference and I really like how the Vitrains 47 'sits' on its bogies when the job is done. I lower the loco by removing the bogies completely and milling out the curved sections when the bogies pivot/bear on the chassis . Once the chassis is in bits this takes no more than about 5 minutes. While I had the loco in bits doing this I also sprayed the translucent panels on the roof , as Vitrains forgot to do them , and give the bufferbeams a coat of red, instead of red colored plastic.

    Detail parts are all those supplied with the loco except the windscreen wipers that are replaced with A1 models etches, fixed with PVA glue , the ETH fitting and Vac Pipe are Heljan, and the screwlink is Hornby.

     
     
     
    tfn
     
    Jon
  8. 43179
    Hellow! Its been ages since ive posted on here -
     
    I've been doing a 'quickie' project using one of Vitrains latest 47 releases - 47773 The Queen Mother
    This being reworked into 47790 - a nice distinctive EWS machine with its eliptical buffers and snowploughs 8)

    The printed names have been slowly and carefully removed with tcut - this left a little bit of a mark on the maroon paintwork but ive patch painted/feathered this in with some precision EWS maroon

    Ive lightly rubbed down the numbers and EWS brandings on the gold stripe , then resprayed this with Precision EWS gold . New Numbers and EWS lettering hs been added with Modelmaster decals - these are a superb match for the vitrains paint finish.
     
    Shawplans new roof fans and grilles have been added - I found it was easier to solder all the layers of the fans together first - then twist the blades to shape.

     
    Im not sure about other EWS 47s , but '790 only had the straight bit of its handrails painted white - the top and bottom being maroon - so I sprayed the vitrains handrails to match this while they were still on the fret. I also added a little transfer for the bufferbeam saying when the trye markings were added

     
    a cruel close up of the bufferbeam -

    Ive chopped the vitrains buffers to leave just the mounting/backing plates- then put a shawplan etch over the top to restore the fixing bolt detail. Then Hornby 60 buffers are added. The snowploughs and ETH bits I'm sure you recognise - Heljan bits with some wiring added - I've the jumper cable with some fine elastic cord as its a bit more durable. I've also Heljan bits for the lower sections of the TDM cables as the vitrains parts are a bit undersize. The bufferbeam is Finished off with a Hornby screw coupling and pipes.
    As you can see ive made a start fitting new Shawplan Laser cut glazing - not a 5 minute job - but well worth it - I've done the windscreens so far - fixed with PVA so if it ll goes wrong I can dunk it in water and start again. The Winscreen wipers (A1) are also just held on with a tiny spot of PVA so there shouldnt be any damage if they get knocked.
     
    Nearly finished - although I havent got any microstrip to do the bars on the cabside quaterlight glazing - of course i forgot to buy any at Ally Pally .
     
    tfn
     
    Jon
  9. 43179

    Jons class 50 factory

    By 43179,

    Hello -
    Its been a while since ive done one of these - thanks to my day job
    Ive been working through my class 50s (still) another batch are shown here with thier windscreens being remodelled - these have taken quite a while do - i started them a good few months back

     
    bringing my class 50 fleet up to -er, i dont know how many - but when i get to 50 ill stop
    Heres a close up of new shawplan window frames fitted - and the very slight reprofiling on to top of the nose. I prefer to use white milliput for this - when all the locos are at this stage Ill then drill holes for the little handrails on top and the windscreen washers.
     

     
    finally - for my model of Laira I had to include 'scrapper' 50010 Monarch, complete with
    a big hole in the roof :

    I had a nice trip to warley , and was really pleased to see 47484 on the Vitrains stand - and have now snapped one up for my collection -

    it looks nice with 50007. Ive put a few of the 'bits' on and its looking nice though the underframe tanks need changing, and the aerial brakcets too - '484 had straight ones rather than the 'V' shaped ones modelled by vitrains. Still , its a very pretty model I think.
    The 50s im working on in this batch incluce Dreadnaught Victorious, Hood and Illustrious - Im blurring history a little bit , as Victorious was an Oxford loco - but I cant resist a 50 with ploughs B)
     
    TFN
     
    Jon
  10. 43179

    CDAs and Scenery

    By 43179,

    Hello
    At the DEMU exhibition a few weeks back I joined the 2mm society and have now received my membership goodies plus an order of Easitrac. As I've not done much scenery I decided to make a small 'sampler' board to try everything out- doing water , buildings , landscaping etc - I've looked at a fairly topical location for inspiration, so I have somewhere to pose my Peco CDAs - which are my favorite models Im pretty sure you can guess the place in question!
     
    The little layout is built on a single sheet of pink insulation board - which is light , stable and can still be glued painted etc easily. The bridge is a modified Peco girder bridge - with its 'odd' supports based from a Ratio viaduct kit - based loosely on the bridge at G****t. I plan to use a handfull of Hornby buldings - all modified - they do a little garage that will be turned into a small boathouse, plus a loco shed that will become a rowing club and a few other - I have some "lyddle end" drystone walling which I think when painted up properly , should look very good. The Hornby redymade 'N' scale buildings are perfect for a numpty like me whos never scratchbuilt structures - I'm happy to kitbash etc - and I think for the money the Hornby stuff has potential with a few mods here and there.
    At the moment ive just finsihed the landscaping - this is all polystyrene - covered in a mis of shredded paper(put through an old blender) and patching plaster. The fibres in the paper stop everything cracking - so you dont need to add pva to the mix- This makes it much easier to sand to shape when its set.
    Once the plaster/paper mix was on and just still wet - I use the leftover plaser/paper mix add some water and acrylic paint to make a thick colored slurry , then work this into the surface - 'fresco' style to get a base color down.
    Here's some quick pics so far - the white building shown will be used elsewhere -
    I have to try and include it somewhere on the layout , as its Hornbys 'Lock Keepers Cottage' and I work as a lock keeper It'll need need a major repaint first though! Also in the background is some bits of card showing the intended boathouse and slipway. There will also be 2 slipways next to the bridge for the 'Rowing Club'



     
    back to plaster and painting
  11. 43179
    Goodmorning
    I had a nie day out to DEMU showcase Yesterday - and got 37403 done just in time - It spent the day on the DEMU class 37 display - and the fuel tanks didnt fall off once! - theyre just a push fit at the moment - they fell off once it got back home
     
    I found some numbers for the '403' on the noses , after carefully cheking all my transfers I used some RES numbers - the font isn't quite right but they look a far match for the size. The last jobs were to paint the handrails white , and paint the kick silver kick plates below the cab doors .
     
    Just before boxing the loco up for the show , I noticed it was sitting slightly higher at one end - (One of the first jobs I done on the model was to lower it - but modifying the bogie towers) I took the loco to bits to see what was cuaing it - It turns out one of the cab interier mouldings- which are glued into the chassis casting, was push down further than the other - the underside of this was touching part of the bogie tower. 30 seconds with a file cured this. and it was job done!
    After all this , I've still not run the loco , ever, so will have to test it at some point
    Heres some quick piccies taken yesterday before we set off on the 330mile round trip to Showcase



     
    a close up of the working hand-brake 'on' - stops it rolling off my desk

     
    This year was my second visit to Showcase - 'Diesels In the Dutchy' would have to be my all time favorite - Castle Cary was interesting too - Its somewhere I've always thought would make a nice model.
     
    The sum total of my shopping at the show :

    any book with a '50 on the front - ill buy it
     
    tfn
     
    Jon
  12. 43179
    Goodevening
    working from top to bottom , the next bit to describe on 37403 I guess - will be the noses and bufferbeams.
    On the noses ive replaced the Bachmann lamp brackets with vitrains versions - a little work with a new scalpel blade tidies up the vitrains brackets nicely (they sometimes have a little 'flash' on them' , and they're a bit finer than bachmanns own - plus being moulded in bendy plastic - theyre harder to break Like most small fittings I secure them to the body using PVA. The brackets either side of the headcode box are again vitrains parts , thinned down using wet n dry - again chosen these for the same reasons, theyre robust and look good . These are also fixed with PVA.

    The ETH fitting on the nose is the original Bachmann part - but the multiple working jumper is Vitrains - this is the only bit im not happy with , it doesnt look like the real thing , so i'll change it for a modified Bachmann part - when I can source some. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The cables for both the ETH and multiple working jumpers are strands from knicker elastic - simply glued into the fittings (at one end only , so the body can still come off) with a drop of Devcon epoxy. Ive found that superglue makes the elastic brittle over time and it breaks off - Epoxy or PVA is much kinder.
     
    The ETH fitting mounted on the bufferbeam is scratchbuilt from plastic rod. Obscured by the buffer - at the other end of the Multiple working jumper , i've used a vitrains class 47 multiple working socket - known as the 'elephants trunk' this vitrains part is a little underscale for what its intended to represent - but is just ideal for the fitting on the bufferbeam end of the cable. For the actual multiple working sockets , I've replaced bachmanns moulding with Heljan class 47 parts. The easiest way to remove the moulded-on version is with a very narrow chisel - which avoils damaging the vac pipe.
    The pastic used on Heljan detailing parts is hard to glue - so to stick the sockets on the bufferbeam I always drill and glue in a small piece of wire - then glue into a small hole drilled in the bufferbeam . Vacuum pipes are also Heljans- the narrow air control pipes are Hornbys - the other pipes are vitrains , as i had them in stock - theyre not quite as detailed as Hornby pipes - but they do have a representation of the taps on them.

    The shot above shows the ETH socket - another vitrains part - that does the job quite well - also Hornby class 31 buffers have been added - and , easy to spot - Heljan snowploughs. I'll have to get the camera out again later , as the ploughs have been modified quite a bit to improve thier look , and to fit them easily. Its hard to explain whats been done on them - much easier to take a pic of them
    One last note about modelling ETH fitted 37s - to mount the ETH fittings on the bufferbeams correctly you need to file , or cut away the lower half of the outer extrememties of the bufferbeams - ie , the sections outside of the buffer mounting plates. The ETH fittings then sit in these cut outs. On the real locos, they were retro-fitted quite crudely - part of the bufferbeam was cut into , then bent up through 90 degrees , and the fittings were 'hung' off it.
     
    I still have the paintwork around the noses/bufferbeams to tidy up a bit - paint the bufferheads and fit some screw couplings - but the hard work is mostly complete. Ill most likely fit Hornbys screw couplings , as they dont need to work - the loco will just be sitting in a box on in my little cabinet.
     
    phew , that was tiring !
     
    tomorrow - the bogies and all the underframe - and some better photos hopefully
     
    tfn
     
    Jon
  13. 43179
    Hello - This afternoon I done a little bit more to the second of the pair of Rail Express Colas class 47s '727 "Rebecca"

     
    Ive finished adding all the standard vitrains 'bits' - the handrails , bogie guard irons and bufferbeam steps , areals and lamp irons. Vitrains have also noted the little steps at the bottom of the cabfront are painted yellow on these particular locos - and so have supplied the separate metal steps painted yellow - on other models they come painted black - nice little attention to detail.
    If you follow the vitrains instructions to the letter, they tell you to fit a rather strange looking lamp iron above the cab handrail (its a leftover cl37 part) like this -

    I dont like to waste bits that come with the locos - so instead take one of the brackets from the right hand side of the sprue , shown below

    one cut with a sharp knife - to reduce it to this:

    and fit - (I use pva) - it'll be a little loose in the mounting hole - the pva will sort that out. I think it looks much better than the original

     
    As per the other Colas model - Ive changed a few of the detailing bits - the MU on the cabfront socket is again from Heljan, windscreen wipers are A1 etches - ETH parts are Bachmann - Unlike the other loco, 47727 has its ETH fittings mounted under the bufferbeam - with the jumper on the cabfront - Noted by Vitrains who have provied a hole in the cabfront to fit the jumper - plus moutning points on the lower edge of the bufferbeam - handy!
    The orange pipes running down the side of the bufferbem should connect up with the ETH fittings - but the way the vitrains body/chassis/bufferbeam separates doesn't allow this to be modelled fully - the compromise doesnt look too bad.

     
    more soon
     
    tfn
     
    Jon
  14. 43179
    Goodevening -
    At Alexandra Palace Brian Hanson gave me some new class 50 bits to try - first up , a set of etchings for the exhausts - this corrects the panel on the Hornby model which is too long - theres also a pair of surrounds for the other two exhaust ports.
     

     
    heres the panel rolled to shape and fitted with Devcon - theres two small etches to add which I've attached with gloss varnish.

     
    The replacement exhauts ports , fitted again with varnish. To remove the moulded ports i use a small block of plasticard , with wet n dry stuck one side with double side tape

     


    very nice!
     
    Next ill be fitting the new roof fan and grille -
     
    tfn
     
    Jon
  15. 43179
    Hello
    thanks for all the kind comments so far -
    So , I'm now up to the underframe and bogies.
    The Bachmann bogie sideframes have been cut off with a hacksaw and glued back on - the thickness of the saw cut narrows the bogies when they are glued back together. I use slo-zap and accellerator to re attack the sideframes.
    The bogies have the missing speedo details added , from brass wire - the fittings on the actual axleboxes are turned from brass rod. The path that the cable takes along the bogie varies between locos - as always check the prototype.


     
    On the bogie sideframes I have replaced the separate brake cylinder mouldings with Hornby class 50 parts - Bachmann have beefed up the brake cylinders , after initially fitting some very odd 'skinny' versions to thier retooled 37s - I still think the Hornby 50 parts are the best looking. Interestingly , the vitrains class 37 bogies dont have the brake cylinders as separate parts - they're all moulded on , but they look just the right size. As mentioned earlier I have added Shawplan brake chain brackets - with A-Line brass chain . By far the easiest way to attach the chain to the bracket is to tie it using a very fine stand of wire. One the bogie , I make a little 'hook' from brass wire, drill a little hole and glue this into the bogie sideframe just ahead of the steps then the other end of the chain hangs from this - so the bogies/chassis chan still be separated.

     
    now some cruel closeups of the fuel tanks im afraid
     
    - I tried, for about 30 seconds , to try doing this detailing/hacking with them still attached to the main plastic chassis moulding - but of course its just much easier to cut them off.

    Everything such as inspection plates - the triangular mountings on the ends of the tanks is plasticard - all the little taps or small details (im afraid i dont actually know what they are on the real things) on the ends of the tanks are scraps from vitrains sprues - in several cases ive chopped up the vitrains plastic scew coupling , to make little drain taps. The sanding pipes are knicker elastic again , mounted on the end of the brake rigging - I had some nickel silver strip,left over from a fret of O gauge detailing parts , approx 0.75mm wide - carefully drilled at one end , to thread the pipe though - the other end was superglued into a hole drilled into the underside of the brake rigging. You need a good sharp drill for this - as the brake rigging is moulded in quite rubbery plastic. The pipes are a good push fit into the nickel silver mounts , but ive secured then with a tiny smear of PVA just incase..
     

    The 'cut-outs' in the top outer corners of the tanks are for the pipes running from the sandboxes - the filler points being above them in the bodyside. These pipes are quite a distinctive complex shape - hard to model - iave made a rough approximation with some thick brass wire - they dont quite line up with the sandbox fillers as they should in the photo - but the tanks are still loose at the moment.
    (thats what the scrunched up bit of blue paper is there fore )
    Theres quite a lot of pipework between the two tanks - and prototypes vary - the route of the sanding pipes also varies - but some good prototype photos 37 underframes can be found here:
    http://eastmoor.blogspot.com/2010/05/class-37-details.html
    http://www.brianhanson.fotopic.net/c1481786.html

     
    I could not quite fit in all the details in the underframe area - it might not necessarily make the finished result look better -- but the model does - I hope show theres alot of 'stuff' going on below the body of a 37 - alot of which is missing from the Bachmann model . In this area its starting to look a bit crude and dated compared with newer models, particularly from the same manufacturer.
     
    So , I still have to paint the tanks , and the roof grille and finally fit the ploughs and buffers - but the loco is now pretty much complete - On this occasion I didnt add shawplan windscreens as i didnt want to spoil the factory finish - If i made mess of it , it would be expensive to get another one of these locos as its a collectors club models.
    A couple more shots - you can see the top end of one of the sanding pipes has 'escaped' - it tucks in to a hole up in the chassis .


     
    Thats all for now - looking forward to Showcase on Saturday
    Tfn
     
    Jon
     

  16. 43179
    Goodevening -
    and now for something very small , that isnt a class 37 , or a 50.

     
    I really like the Farish 08 - it looks and runs great - but Ive always wanted to do something about the con rods - which are overscale , and the cranks stick out too far - These are the only snags which would make the little 08 model much harder to distinguish from its bigger brother.
    Pete Harvey Kindly produced some new rods for me - shown here sitting on top of the cranks

     
    getting these to work properly has taken a while - the etched rods ae perfect - petes done a great job - a bit too perfect for the Bachmann mechanism , which has a lot of slop in it - so ive had to ease everything - I streached the rods a little buy cutting and resoldering them together (they are layered) which has done the trick. Now I want to move the cranks in towards the frames a little , and chage the crank pins that retain the rods to something more discrete The quatering needs attention too - the slop in the drive probably helps the model to run if the quatering isnt quite spot on - but I want to fix this.
     
    Hopefully my next post should show a class 08 in bits - hopefully with the wheelsets extracted and the fun can begin.
     
    tfn
     
    Jon
  17. 43179

    Colas Class 47s

    By 43179,

    Thanks to the forum I recently aquired the Rail Express/vitrains class 47s in Colas Livery.
    Im really pleased I treated myself to these locos - I've spent a week or so gradually adding all the bits , which is most enjoyable - I've added some extra pipework on the bufferbeam associated with the ETH gear - and changed a few detail parts for Heljan/Bachmann alternatives.
    Vitrains have done a lovely job of these models - Demelza is finished - Rebecca is taking a bit longer - as it has a diffrent ETH arranagement which is a bit trick to model accurately due to the vitrains body/chassis design - but ill get there in the end.
    A couple of quick pics of 749:


     
    tfn
     
    Jon
  18. 43179
    Nothing to do with trains I'm afraid, but a rare little moment I thought I'd share , from early this morning while most folk are asleep.
     
    Most of the time , when I get home from work im not in the mood or too tired to do much modelling - I work in a Marina in london, so my shifts vary with the tides - anything from 04.00 to 21.00 Being out in the fresh air amongst the boats in all weather takes it out of you!
    Locking out onto the Thames early this morning was an RAF Seaplane Tender - which was making its last ever voyage on water , heading up river to be lifted out and displayed at the RAF Museum in Hendon.
     
    The boat has been beautifully restored to museum condition and made a fine sight (and sound) setting off at 0600 thismorning. These things were built for speed and its cuts through the water lovely.
    By huge coincidence , It turns out , my dad had worked on this very craft as he was in the Marine Branch of the RAF
    almost 40 years ago. A nice bit of history there , and some of it quite personal too.
    The pictures are of ST 206 just about to pass through our lock onto the river.


    Cant wait to show my dad
  19. 43179

    Easitrac

    By 43179,

    I had a nice day at Alexandra Palace today - and spend a few quid , but one of the smallest things I bought (for all of £1, thankyou Missy!) is the most interesting - a sample of 2mm association easitrack . As my N guage layout of Bodmin Parkway only has 1 set of points (there are others but they arent required to work) I cottoned on that modern farish and Dapol stock will run on easitrack without having to change wheels - , just in time , as i was about to start laying Peco 55. Now I've tried a bit for myself - im sold - its dead easy to build , and looks very nice , but you knew that already. I have lots of PECO CDAs, which I thought wouldnt run on the easitrac , their plastic wheels always looked quite coarse to me, but they glide along the 2mm track lovely.
    I would like to find some better wheels for these wagons anyway though - the rest of the model is so nice, and now with nice track to run on , I think the CDA would benefit from some proper wheels, with brake discs, and some more discreet couplings.
     
     
    heres the peco model on my new easi-test-trac - I think the Peco cdas and MGRs get a bit forgotton about sometimes - theres some superb fine underframe detail on them, and theyre nice and crisply moulded. So , Roll on easitrac - literally


     
    tfn
     
    jon
  20. 43179
    There was no way I was going to be able to resist these - way out of period , but I've travelled on HSTs down to cornwall for a good few years , so a set for the archive would be nice.
    In the products thread , Magic Monkey and others mentioned/showed how to tint the windows using Tamiya smoke paint - so ive had a bash at that - and it works
    I used the non hairy end of a paintbrush to draw the paint over the glazing , which stops any bubbles.

     
    while the bodyshell is off , theres another little job to do , which Hornby have forgotten - the lower section of the toilet windows should be painted blue - I decided to paint the inside of the glazing rather than the outside, as it would look a bit neater. On the real things this section isnt an exact match for the main body color. I used Precision Mainline blue as its a close match to hornbys FGW blue.

     
    A similar job on the buffet car - the three small windows in the middle of the vehicle need painting white - which Hornby didnt do - and the two windows on the left have been paintd blue - again from the inside - just incase I made a mess of it!

     
    on the buffet , the blue doors , at the 'counter' end of the vehicle, should really have thier handles removed - but I wasnt feeling that brave , so painted them out in blue.
    If you do try and carve these handles off - watch out - as under the blue paint is not blue plastic , but pink paint! Hornby have painted all the doors pink on the buffet, then gone over the doors
    at the counter end in blue paint.
     
    TFN
     
    jon
  21. 43179
    Good evening -
    I have a fleet of 14 Hornby HST power cars for Laira , and need a bit of variety in the fleet -
    so to break things up a bit , I have already modelled a buffer fitted DVT conversion , and have a Mirrlees engined example on the work bench aswell.
    To add to these two I'm modelling 43183, which, thanks to some help from you guys last year, I found out was one of the last Exectuve livery power cars , (on the western region anyway). The paintwing work is done - I've retained as much of the swallow livery as is useable, carefully sanding away the red stripe - The Intercity and swallow logos were removed with modelstrip. Ive had to respray the executive dark grey around the cabs to get red of the black triangles painted by the cabside windows.

    once the transfers are on, itll need to be made tatty so that it looks right among the newer swallow livery power cars.

     
    tfn
     
    jon
  22. 43179

    Extreme class 50s again

    By 43179,

    Goodevening - heres that 50 with the big logo again - and infront of it is the second set of Extreme Etches - Brian really does spoil us!
    A complete new panel is provided for the roof grille, as the panel on the model is not positioned quite correctly, and neither is the big round hole in it!
    Also included is a new roof fan , with a lovely detailed hub

    the mesh - ive never seen anything like it not only does it have the weave etched into it , but also the 'wiggle' on all the strands - just beautiful - but extremely delicate. As a result this will only be fitted after all work on the bodyshell is done , as the body will be handled quite a lot. Poke the mesh by accident and itll tear

     
    The fan panel on the model is raised from the rest of the roof , and this needs to be filed right away back to roof level in order to fit the new etch.
    I have surround the area im working on with masking tape - coverng all the raised detail around it - ie the rain strips , roof vents and other raised panels - that makes iut easier to see where not to go with the file - and if it does slip , the tape should protect these raised details from damage.

    ive not had quite enough time to get the panel fitted tonight , but heres a quick shot of one of my sanding sticks for Mark - mentioned in previous posts.

    I make them different sizes to suit the job , that ones about 5mm wide - I always cut them from 2mm thick plastic - so they have a bit of bend in them.
    Used with water and washing up liquid the wet n dry paper wont clog , and will last for years - the stick shown i think is about 3 years old and had been used to do the cabs on all my 50s
     
    tfn
     
    Jon
  23. 43179

    50007 SIr Edward Elgar

    By 43179,

    Goodevening - ive just finished 50007 this eveing - the final hurdle was glazing the new windscreens which is a job i hate doing - i think i managed to put it off for about a year. Along with the new windscreens this loco also had new bodyside louvres, has been lowered and converted to P4 to join its classmates.
    Hornbys first release of 50007 was finished as preserved but for my collection I need it in early 90s condition - so no snowploughs unfortunately - to backdate the model the red horn grilles have been painted green - black nameplates and number plates have been fitted over the current' red versions and the red stripes have been removed from the axleboxes so they they are just yellow , also the 'LA' markings are removed from the cabsides on the drivers side.
    I havent got the heart to weather 007 - for my period it should be a little more battered and bruised
     
    tfn
     
    jon
     


  24. 43179

    withdrawn class 08s

    By 43179,

    Goodmorning ,
    Today Ive got on and done a bit more to 08839 and 08 . Both locos were withdrawn at laira, and are modelled as i saw them around 1992-3 when theyre were on the scraplines. Both locos have been resprayd into faded BR Blue - ive had to interchange various parts on the Hornby model to give the locos the appropriate style cab doors and strapping either side of the cab windows on '821. 08839 has Oleo buffers fitted to one end , which are by Markits. The job today has been foit add all the bufferbeam pipes, and finllay fit the con rods. Both locos have ultrascale P4 wheels , ive reused the Hornby conrods, but to give them a finer appearance, stripped them back to bare metal and resprayed them. Hornby often put a fairly thick layer of paint on the rods, which makes them look a bit chunkier than they really are.
    Ultrascales sunter wheelsets are supplied with steel nuts for securing the rods - but ive replaced them with brass - as they are a bit easier to file down - Ive reduced the buts in thickness just by rubbing them on a file. Theyre finally secured with a bit of nail varnish.
    Now the rods are properly painted and fixed , i can weather the chassis . As these two locos are scrappers, ive removed the motor and all the gears so they are free rolling. (I must remember to make some chocks for the wheels!)




     
    tfn
     
    '179
     
     
  25. 43179

    50030 for the scrapline

    By 43179,

    Goodevening -
    today ive finished another 'withdrawn' loco which will join my two BR blue class 08s on the Laira scrapline.
    50030 Renown - the loco is in revised NSE light blue - but for some reason got NSE dark blue cabs at one end -- nice! As its a withdrawn loco ive taken out the gears so its just free rolling , incase it needs to be shoved along a siding or something. Ive not gone too far with the weathering - as i saw the real loco when it has just been laid up, and it was still in pretty good nick externally even though a few parts had been robbed for spares.
    Its my standard class 50 'job' - noses rebuilt with shawplan Windscreens body lowered onto its bogies - new bodyside louvres , speedo added to the bogie and converted to P4 using Branchlines conversion pack . Im just waiting for Hornby to release 'Valiant' now as a source of a sound chip as ive decided to add 50037 'Lusty' to my collection, as I need some more West of England branded 50s in dark blue (I have too many light blue ones with BR arrows at the moment)
    tfn
     
    jon


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