RBE

Comparison shot of a before and after. Not much more to do to the 85 now. I dont think. Cav

A Bachmann 87 or/& 90 would be nice!! Cav

Was going to mention it was Jims cotton buds. I did steal his idea for mine though as I was about to cut some brass tube up. The cotton bud was a much easier option. Cav

Thanks for the thumbs up. It is in fact just one loco numbered differently on each side but dont tell anyone shh. At exhibitions only one side of the loco is ever seen so gives me a chance to run two numbers for the price of one. The roof was done in 3 stages. First was a dark brown wash into all of the nooks and crannies to give dirt/false shadow prior to the spray stage. Then the roof was sprayed with a lightish dirt colour using a light coat with a dual action airbrush. Youd struggle to do this with a single action as youd get too much paint on. Then again with the dual action add darker brown around the details. A little whiz around with a thinners soaked paint brush to clean the insulators a bit and youre done. Cav

I thing the delightful light sprung nature is fooling you into thinking it isnt robust. The pan is of all metal contruction and has withstood a fair bit of tugging about while I was setting it up. very nice pan imo. Cav

Cheers Phil, Im liking the roof weathering in particular. The pan is simple to do. I took mine off of the model to do it though as it makes life easier. Just crack the glue with a twist of the screwdriver to pop it free. The mounts with the insulators on are seperate units and will remain on the model. The issue with how it rides is that Bachmann have designed the pan wrong at the head. The little eye for the wire to fit into is above the head pivots which means as the pan goes down it pushes the head away when it should pull it to keep it level. All I did was move the wire to the longer eye to the side which is used as Jim mentioned to hold the pan down. The wire will need to have its length tweaked a little to get tge pivot right but its easy enough once the pan is off. This then shifts the wire to the opposite side of the pivot and reverses the motion. Of course the pan will no longer lock down but I wont ever need it to so its fine by me. Cav

Thanks for the positive! Yes its a trick of the light, the arrows are etched and are reflecting the orange wall opposite in my dining room!! The shot looking the other way doesn't have this so appears normal. I am contemplating painting the etched arrows silver rather than leaving the stainless finish as the prototype ones are not shiny in the slightest, especially towards the end of their lives which is when my layout is set. I don't know yet. I may just leave them. Cav

Hi all, just thought I'd pitch in with where my nice new 85 is at. Don't think I've done anything detail wise that hasn't been covered here by some of the other offerings but I've begun the weathering stage. Still got powders to do yet to bring out bogie and underframe detail but pleased with how its coming along so far. Details that have been added for reference, Air horn covers on bufferbeam, triangle steps to bufferbeams, ETH socket from a Heljan detail pack I had lying around, pipwork in corridor windows, driver painted up with better face proportions and a high vis jacket. The pan has also been tweaked as mentioned earlier to keep the head level at all times. Having seen the pictures I am considering Jims advice on changing the buffers as the heads do look rather thick. Worse on pictures though I think. I'll do my special buffer greasing and see how I feel after that. Anyway heres a few pics. Excuse the quality as they are taken on my phone in poor half 11 light! Cav

That explains it then. Anyway shift the link wire there and the pan head works perfectly Cav

Whoa a little harsh there. The pan is actually very good and see no reason why it shouldnt work well given my mod. The ones one Heljan locos are clearly just rubbish. With the 85 pan it is a little frustrating that whoever designed the pan didnt get the mechanics of the linkages quite right. It also seems odd that the extra linkage near the hinge is even there at all. Almost as if the pan has been designed to work as a static or operational depending on the customer and location of the linkage wire. I should have liked to have just seen a centrally placed linkage to the same design as the outer one then it would have worked correctly and looked prototypical. Defies belief really. Cav

The pan doesnt work correctly out of the box as the mechanics of the linkages have for some reason been reversed by the designers, surely copying the prototype should have been the course of action. I fixed the problem by unhooking the link under the pan head and relocating it to the redundant one beside and below the hinge. This flips the action and makes the head behave correctly. The location of the linkage is now not prototypical but works, the original location was wrong in any case so no major quip. I intend to make an extended linkage centrally as per the prototype eventually but the location to the side suits me for the time being as I need the pan to work correctly for Outon Road. Cav

Mine best be winging its way to me as we speak!! Hattons kind email told me it had been packed and posted this morning!! Hoping a kind postman delivers tomorrow!! The loco looks superb and yes I always found it strange that electric locos didnt receive overhead flashes in the main. Right upto privatisation in the mid 90's there were only a handful of AC loco with them. In fact theres only 87 101 in my fleet that will have them. Cav

I hear this, I fell foul a while back with Outon Road. Someone, I cant remember who, had commented on here after seeing my layout and praised my efforts. I very much appreiciate the comments but he commented incorrectly (tollally unawares) something like 'Great to see the layout in the flesh, and nice to see stock from several eras over the day' or something similar, I could look back but its near enough. My point being that all of the stock I ran was carefully chosen to have been as seen in approx 1991 to 1994. There was no mix of eras at all. Just because I'd carefully chosen examples of br blue, large logo and sector colours that were all present in the early 90's didn't mean it was cross era. It goes to show that whatever stock you run people are not always aware of what actually ran at a given time.As for the OP I would probably say that most people who model steam, model it because they have an interest in steam, to model it as it is being effectively euthanised is probably not appealing to the average steam buff.Cav

Yeah I wouldnt think that Deeping lends itself to well to dual control. Always fun trying though. Cav

The prod has never let me down yet highly recommended. If you get one you have to bring a handset along to help run Outon. Will be awesome under dual control. Cav

I don't have one but certainly would have been useful when I laid my track on Outon Road, I ended up taking off all of the sleepers and gluing them individually to a printed trackplan before sliding the rail back in once the glue had set. Thumbs up from me. Cav

I know mate and they look much much better. The new 37 especially Cav I know mate and they look much much better. The new 37 especially Cav I know mate and they look much much better. The new 37 especially Cav

No no no leave the cake it on wipe of with white spirit method alone. Its not how real trains weather!!! Mason has seen the light dont make me have to convince you too!! haha. Cav

Much much better mate. Well done!! Cav

Much much better mate. Well done!! Cav

Indeed mate. The 37 looks absolutely cracking. Fantastic work well done, it better be visiting Outon in July!!. Cav

Ooh dont start one of those!!! People like what they like. As I said I got the Prodigy as it was too cheap to turn down. works very intuatively though. Mason has used mine last year at RMWeb members day and all was well if I remember. The little badge sounds good!! haha Cav

Itll be your work though mate. Will I get a little badge on it like the pinnin ferrina peugeot 306 cabriolet? haha

The prodigy is cracking. I got one as it was an offer I couldnt refuse. Nice big knob in the old tradition and controllable one handed which makes a load of difference. The powercab is great to I might add. Your modelling has come on leaps and bounds and I fully expect your new project to impress. Cav

Yes yes get a prodigy then I can borrow the cab to do some double controller action on Outon haha