James Makin

Beautiful work, inside and out!

Thanks for the likes and kind words guys! Cheers Phil! It's funny how as time has gone by that even the 'dull' ones have become pretty interesting! I do like modelling the bang average ones as normally they are the ones that you do see when out 'spotting, and I can't wait to recreate those times on a bleak day when you'd head up the steps to Didcot's platform 4 & 5, excited to see what feast of stock awaited you in the adjacent stabling sidings, only to find one or two locos, plain vanilla livery with nothing notable about them, chances are you'd already crossed them off the spotting list - complete duds, but great fun now looking back at those days! Some great choices there Rich, 37667 is definitely a tasty one and 37403 is nice in its slightly more tatty form, some good character there! If it were me I wouldn't sacrifice any of your fleet but just buy more! Hopefully once the Accurascale model is out, there may well be a glut of Bachmann examples going on eBay or at shows again! I've been quite lucky as a number of my Loftus Road mates have trimmed their collections in recent times with big surpluses of 'Tractors' and the like but once the exhibitions return properly then there should be much more bargains to be had, eBay prices seem to have gone silly during the pandemic! Thanks very much Rob! The 37669 isn't too far from 37411, it's always those pesky nose side grilles and roof arrangements that generally need looking at, the Shawplan brass end grille parts are pretty good to work with and it's possible to fit those and not need a full repaint if you're careful in removing the old mouldings underneath! Haha, sorry to break the bad news on the 37174 moulding! I had a few of them bought over the years in anticipation of some easy renumbering, until that sinking feeling set in having taken the loco out the box and noticed the side panel lines which would be impossible to remove without a repaint, and very few 37s ever kept those panels late into their lives! The 37242 release is definitely a bit of a nightmare as well, same moulding and certainly my 'easy-renumber' Mainline blue 37 project went out the window there for the same reason with those silly hatches!! Ooh I would love to see your go at the faded 37670! I remember seeing some pics in Rail Express and that loco was properly faded down to an almost unrecognisable state, that would be a beauty of a model to do! Cheers, James

Here's this week's new toys, and with Christmas just around the corner, what could be more festive than the comforting warm red colours of a pair of EWS 37s! 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Joining the fleet this time is red duo 37370 and 37669, ready to be regular performers on my Didcot layout. Interesting/shocking trivia, the original EW&S livery, introduced in 1996 is now 25 years old, and the newer '97 version with Gill Sans font and 'three beasties' logo is going for its quarter-century next year, officially classic livery territory! When I was getting into trains in the 90s, liveries like Rail Blue seemed positively prehistoric, I can't get the head around EWS being just as old now 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr These two machines were picked as fairly representative, average examples of the period, but with a little personal twist! EWS' 37669 was a long-time Cornish china clay loco, and back in the day I used to have a Cornish layout, I was mad into modelling that part of the world! For my 13th birthday, as a surprise, my mother found a photo of a then-current china clay train in a magazine, and carefully handpainted it onto my birthday cake using edible food colourings, it looked pretty awesome! The loco at the head of the train she had picked, was 37669! Meanwhile, it was an easy selection choosing 37370 - going through some of my terrible old Didcot photos the other year unearthed the blurry image below, taken on my old holiday snappy camera was the very beast, snapped while shuttling back and forth in Didcot Yard in early June 2000. Ironically back then, I used to view the loco as a bit boring, no name or anything special about it, just another number to tick off in the spotting book and that was it! How times would change if it happened today. 37370 and 37375 at Didcot Yard June 2000 by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr So the starting point was a pair of red Bachmann 37s, an old 37411 model (of 2007 vintage) and the more recently released 37174 from 2015, which would become 37370. 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr I buy cheapy old models to do up, and this was no different. The 37174 had been weathered by someone else before coming into my possession and over the years it had been stripped of its original cab ends and other parts to go into some of the other models you've seen on the workbench before! The weathering was stubborn to come off, and worse still, Bachmann for some reason modelled this loco incorrectly, with their 'side trench' moulding and full complement of bodyside footsteps and access panels - regardless of which donor loco this would become, it was going to need a big fill and repaint! 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Going into the detail, for 37370, the lower footsteps were filled in alongside the usual upper ones. There is some variation amongst locos so always worth checking. The 'trench' was also filled in at this point, as well as additional strapping added on the cantrail grilles from thin styrene strip. 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Shawplan's gorgeous Extreme Etching roof grilles were added too, really lovely and nice to look at! Little other details such as the roof configuration and nose end grilles were changed where needed too. I don't tend to go much further in my detailing here, you could easily spend time adding the revised brass window parts and much more chassis detailing but it comes down to a question of time - the sheer volume of 37s I have done recently and am putting together in upcoming batches next year, plus the cost of brass parts would just add hugely to it being a massive, massive project. My philosophy is that these are just cheap-as-chips old hardworking 'layout locos' that will ply their time on my Didcot layout, thumping by a good 4ft or so from viewers, and if you want a display case beauty, then nothing's going to get close to an Accurascale one at £180+! 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr After the detail work was completed, the locos were given luscious new coats of EWS red and gold, using shades from Phoenix Paints. Railtec Decals supplied the transfers, and I'm really pleased with the colour match and intensity of the colours compared to the overall EWS red. If you look back through these pages to my previous 37057 project a few years ago, you can compare how much stronger it looks compared to the old Fox decals when it comes to the colours. 37370 was also interesting in that it had a body-colour radiator grille, really cool when it came to weathering a bit later! 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr The customary paint-on/wipe-off phases occurred again, I'm a bit stuck in the ways on it, but it works for me, the old Humbrol enamels getting a right battering! I did washes of browns and dark greys to build up dirt in the recesses, whilst the flat surfaces were entirely wiped back to the original paint finish. With EWS being such a new colour scheme at the time, it was more a case of just putting a good coat of traffic grime on, rather than any battering or damage as with some of the older liveries tackled lately. 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr With the bodies completed, attention turned to the chassis where some detailing was applied around the ends, couplings and the NEM pockets removed, Smiths screw couplings attached and the various pipes recreated either from Bachmann's pack, Replica Railways parts and the rest bodged in from .45mm handrail wire. The fuel tanks on 37669 had the second set of steps removed, so the tank was filed back and a recess filled in for the flush appearance. 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr 37669 was an absolute china clay favourite of mine, but it did stray out of Cornwall and made its way to Didcot on a number of occasions, and well into my remit! 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Moving through to 37370, this was reassembled too, little details like the engine room windows are blanked in from the inside with black electrical tape, to avoid sight of the grey chassis block, and then the locos chipped for DCC using the cheapy Hattons 21 pin own-brand decoders, they run well from experience, and I'm not any good at fancy DCC lighting tricks so they work well for me..! 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr One of the subtle things I liked about the locos is that they each display both versions of the old pre/post '98 electrification warning flashes, the new ones in the easy to reach places and the old ones gathering dirt on the roof! For the final weathering, layers of Phoenix's brake dust, track dirt, roof dirt and dirty black were airbrushed on, before finishing the roofs again with my mix of black & dark blue for the oily sheen finish around the exhaust ports. 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Another great fun project to get over the line! It is nice to celebrate the EWS colours in a time when most of the remaining active Class 37s appear to be decked out in a combination of DRS, Colas or yet another predictable large logo blue repaint! The real machines have had mixed fortunes since their portrayal in my late 1990s guise; 37370 didn't have long left, being withdrawn in late 2000 and finally scrapped in 2005 at Booths of Rotherham. Meanwhile on a happier note, 37669 saw life after EWS, when it was sold to the West Coast Railway Company and can still be found plying the network, ironically still in a rich maroon livery! 37370 and 37669 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Wishing you guys a Merry Christmas, and hope that you get all the train bits you asked for! (or more likely, carefully ordered yourself instead of leaving it to chance..!) Cheers, James

Same here with the EWS 47778 Collectors Club release, I managed to pick up one brand new from a retailer this summer and there were quite a number of different retailers selling so it was possible to do a good price comparison even, happy days! Great fodder for an EWS 47 bashup & renumber! Cheers, James

Wow, stunning shots there, and of course the best location that one could ask for, thanks ever so much! Cheers, James

Thanks for the photo, that is taken at a really useful angle for the underframe and chassis painting detail! At first I was unsure on whether to add red boxes, earlier 1998 pics seem to show the axleboxes either too grimy or unpainted, and most available pics of the Virgin haulage are the classic narrow-angle ones with gricers flailing out the windows! It would be rude to do an ‘019 and not have it rammed on the front of a Virgin rake, so I shall get tinkering with a little paintbrush! Cheers, James

Thanks for the likes and comments guys! Cheers Rich, I agree on the Loadhaul ones, they looked fierce as well! I would like to do one of those so will likely wait and get a Cavalex one for that, and I'm also tempted by their Romanian EWS version as well, for a renumber to 56011. Thanks Wayne! Yeah, 40 locos! It sounds crazy, it was originally going to be a batch of about 20 (like last year's one) but I wanted to get through the stash and thought i'll just do this one and then this one, and it just sort of grew! I like to save up the final airbrush weathering to do in one final batch at the end but it did become a bit of a logistical nightmare moving 40 locos around to each get their turn in front of the spray! Haha, thanks Rhys! The roof peel for this one was a case of painting the light grey top coat first, then dabbing on faded blue with a dry brush, and then drybrushing more roof grey over the top to blend it a little, and finally across the top of the whole roof I stippled on darker and lighter greys with a scabby, splayed old brush , and it all seemed to come together in the end! Cheers, James

Time for some heavy metal! 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr It's been super quiet on the thread lately, but anything but quiet on the modelling workbench! I like to wait and share my updates only once a project has finished, and am excited to say that through this year I have been beavering away and am about to unleash forty (yes 40) brand new diesel locomotives! It was one of those projects that grew and grew...as long-time readers may remember, back in 2018 I made a pledge to start emptying the vault of untouched locos and stock, and actually do something with them instead of them sitting in their boxes gathering dust! Following on from last year's loco batch, I kept finding more squirrelled away and chancing upon bargains picked up from mates, and so the mentality of this batch was very much "oh one more won't hurt"...hence why we are in December and I'm only just unveiling what I started in last January! Since the last updates I also treated myself to a new 'proper camera' and picked up a nifty Amazon Lightbox, so the days of my blurry old iPhone pictures taken in dubious light, are hopefully behind us! 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr So, where do we start? Well, this little dirty stop-out seemed a good place! As a kid, I was fascinated by 56019, holding on to its old BR Railfreight Red Stripe, well into the days of EWS and all things red, shiny and new. In reality, the livery wasn't actually that old at the time, by todays standards (how many red 'Sheds' are still out there in 2021 for example?) but at the time it seemed a right old dinosaur to my young eyes. Then, when it was famously used on Virgin Cross Country services in Summer 1998, that cemented it in 'must model one day' territory ever since! 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr The starting point was Hornby's 56, with a Romanian example picked up from a mate for a good price, many years ago. It was soon gutted and Shawplan roof grilles added, and homemade card offcuts blanking off the lifting lugs on the side. 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr The model was rubbed down and given some shiny coats of yellow, grey and red, before adding some of the superb Railtec decals to finish off, with Lorde's latest album being recommended listening for Railfreight-related locomotive decalling projects. After the bodies are Railmatch matt varnished to protect the transfers, they are left for a month for the varnish to harden, after which the weathering fun could begin! Both 56019 and classmate 56061 were tackled at the same time. 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Similar to my previous loco projects, coats of paint were painted on and rubbed off, leaving residual paint in grilles and tainting the original colours where needed. Both locos had a slight fade to their original colours, so shades of light grey were first painted on and rubbed off, later to be followed by various browns and dark greys for dirt deposits to be added. Vertically streaking enamel thinners on a soft cotton bud was the main order of the day. 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr After the streaking and wipe-off phase was complete, little details could then be picked out with a super fine 00000 brush, highlighting individual rust spots and damages in the liveries. A final coat of varnish is then applied over the top of this weathering to flatten the layers and give a more consistent matt coat. During the time, windows are all masked off with Humbrol Maskol fluid. 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Bufferbeam details are a mixture of what was included in the original Hornby detail packs, some Shawplan 'Grid' parts and other bits just scratchbuilt from fine brass wire, having bought many locos second hand, the detailing packs are often the first thing to have gone walkies! 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr One of my favourite features of 56019 was the roof weathering, all copied from pics of the loco from Summer 1998. At one end, the old Rail Blue can clearly be seen on one cab roof, flaking through the upper coat of Railfreight Grey, itself now long faded to a lighter shade! 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Triple Grey 56061 was picked as companion for '019 due to it's gorgeous livery! I can never quite decide which is my favourite BR Trainload sector, but Metals is often up there as flavour of the month..! 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr One of a small handful of Trainload Metals survivors into 1998, 56061 was picked as it was one from my trainspotting notes and simply matched the bodyshell detailing of the donor model to hand! It had some interesting marks and fade weathering on one side too. 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr The donor model was in a similar livery, but in the end it was completely repainted in triple grey, as Hornby's take on the colours didn't really match real life! Their rail grey was far too yellow, and the flint grey far too dark! Decals again were sourced from Railtec to complete, and especially the numbers which are much easier to lay and manoeuvre on the paintwork than ones from their rivals. 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr At this point, it must be crossing you mind, 'why bother with these Hornby wrecks and not wait for Cavalex?!' - the answer is that I was already well into finishing these by the time Cavalex announced their stunning new model! On the plus side, I have yet to spend more than £50 on my knock-off Hornby '56's so it seemed like a good cheapy project to push on with, but things move so fast in D&E modelling these days. To top it all, they even did a 'direct hit' on 56019, so it'll be gracing everyone's layouts soon, I expect to see one at the top of a Virgin Cross Country set at every show I go to please! 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Brian's Shawplan Extreme Etchings parts came out nicely on the roofs, the amount of time during the build that I have almost put my finger right through those fine etched mesh though, unbelievable! The roof weathering included airbrushing with layers of roof dirt, dirty black and then finishing with neat black mixed with dark blue, for an oily sheen. 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr It's been so much fun modelling this pair, and always good to work on some heavy freight beasts! The real locos are long gone now sadly, while 56019 had a swansong in the late 90s, it was soon sidelined and scrapped, and 56061 went the same way, lingering on in storage until final cutting took place in 2006. 56019 and 56061 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr There's plenty more coming where these were now, so keep an eye out for the next wave of updates! Cheers, James

It depends on the release Rob! The newer releases are generally better but the older 66135s are a right pain! I use Humbrol thinners and gone right through the gold band to the red underneath with minimal effort, eek!

If we know it's a wagon and it's part of the 'powering Britain' theme, my tombola ticket would go for the HBA/HEA domestic coal hopper, as seen in older tooling from Mainline/Dapol/Bachmann across the decades. It'd be useful for modellers of the '70s onwards and slotting in the gap between the MDV and the HAA in the series, plus the derivatives can all come out of it - the CEA, MEA, MFA and be of use to a lot of modellers of many eras. Of course as I've posted here previously, for myself, I'm still dreaming for the 5-car 'WIA' Articulated Arbel Car Carriers, but they didn't exactly 'power Britain' so can't be included here..! Cheers, James

Just adding a little further, I must say I think something's 'off' in the area around the headlights, I can't quite place exactly what, but the position of them makes it tricky to do masking for some of the liveries I've painted, when compared to real life. Maybe the lights are a little large or rest too high up, I can't quite say! Great Western Trains respray, the green bands were very tricky to site exactly - Great Western HST Power Cars by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr My FGW 'Fag Packet' with the stripes, again tricky to align the gold stripe to the lights and especially with the pinstripes then following through to the doors, something is subtly off here somewhere! HST power cars by James Makin by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr What makes the existing model good for me though is the running qualities, better than we've had before, and once whizzing along at 125mph then it'd be tricky to pick fault. I'd just like more of the 'forgotten' liveries like these to be released instead of another modern day celebrity one-off pack...after all, it's not like the above liveries covered the majority of the country's entire HST fleet at any one time is it..! Cheers, James

I do like this method of announcing new products via obscure TV channels, I look forward to the next Bachmann quarterly announcements via QVC and something filthy from Accurascale on late night Channel 5 Hopefully Hornby may one day do Great Western Trains ‘Merlin’ and ‘Fag Packet’ on the new power cars please, at over 20 years old, both liveries are now well into nostalgia territory! Cheers, James

This looks a great initiative, I've made a number of calls to Jenni & team over the years for fairly rare bodyshells and odd bits, they seem to be sitting on an absolute bounty of stuff but I would suspect the wider public have no idea you can even buy spares or just put off with a phone number, a web presence should drive up sales! Very interesting to see some prices of the obscure parts too, I routinely rip out & discard things like cab interior lighting PCBs during my loco makeovers, I had no idea they have a street value of £3 a go! Cheers, James

I was waiting for someone to tug on that line! We had to suffer Connex down here, everyone else got it easy in comparison

Luckily D9016 went purple a touch earlier than that - it was 1999 as it happens - so modellers of the glory days of early-privatisation can justify one if they haven't already opened their wallets! It's funny the whole 'modern image' can of worms - when you think about it, even the colour scheme on our purple monster here dates from 22 years ago - outside of our 'train bubble', look at cars or gadgets from the era for example - something dating from 22 years ago is classed an old banger or an historic relic as opposed to anything near 'modern' Cheers, James

Looking beautiful!

Thanks for this, just seen your post so a little late coming back! It's sometimes a fiddle (and sometimes dangerous!) but I used my trusty curve-bladed scalpel to cut off the lower sections of the leaf springs, a sideways cutting motion into the W-iron to slice off the parts of the unwanted spring moulding, and then just scratching the remainder smooth with the blade tip, the hardest part is keeping the part of the spring you do want to stay intact, and not slipping/slicing into your fingers while gripping the model - I've always been a bit of a bodger but I dare say that others will have a way of doing this professionally and safely..! Cheers, James

Thanks so much for sharing, I can't wait to give it a watch! I do periodically scan the internet for more Didcot/GWML-related content in the late 90s but had not yet seen this one, it looks right up my street! Similarly if there's anything else out there anyone's found then it is always good to see. It's been a little quiet on the thread as I've been ruining a few locos lately, and saving up the pics until the projects are all finished. I'm awaiting the next consignment of Tim Horn baseboards to arrive and then the layout can move a little further on...fun times ahead! Cheers, James

I reckon it'd be tricky to tell before they're in real people's hands, but my base assumption is perfect running, amazing slow speed control and prototypical top speed - I've happily pre-ordered two 92s back from the launch date and have no concerns, I know they will be as good as, if not better than, the best smooth running locos out there from the likes of Bachmann or Hornby, based on how good Accurascale are with their other products and attention to detail, I don't think they'd be dispatched from the warehouse without this minimum standard! Cheers, James

Useful shot Rich! What's interesting from your pics (and it may just be my eyes!) but there's a variance in the angle of divide between the red & grey on each coach, the Bachmann one has a sharper angle and the Hornby a softer angle of transition, without pouring over pics this lunchtime, I wonder which one is right (or maybe it just down to someone at the paintshop masking some up differently in real life!) I've bought a few Bachmann Virgin RFBs to top out my extra CrossCountry sets, I've not lined them up together yet though, the Hornby MK2Es are shoddy build quality and need the underframe solebars ground out but a good model can be made from them! The newer Hornby Virgin Mk2Fs have a poor quality red-printed paint line divider between the red & grey, so it does seem you get what you pay for with Bachmann vs Hornby in the Mk2 stakes! My cost-cutter nature has gone for the downmarket Hornby option every time here though Cheers, James

I'd recommend getting some back issues of the magazines from the period, RAIL, Rail Express and The Railway Magazine, they used to have lots of pics and commentary and news stories from what was going on at the time. GBRf steadily grew their fleet of 66s and had a good set of names on the locos with some press releases here and there featuring in the mags, that's where I'd start looking! I remember commentary in a 'Stop & Examine' section of RAIL early 2000s where someone had popped a 'First' logo onto a 66 and it was unclear back then as to why, possibly a joke, and then a while later they did actually operate under the First banner! There was a stage when they had their low-emission Metronet 66s delivered, new-build wagon fleets coming on stream and from that point on they started to get a real following, more and more locos joining the fleet and celeb liveries popping up all over the place! Nowadays it seems fun following the listings of what's changed each month in Rail Express, they appear a major player now and the numerous new locos and refurbished classes under the blue team and it's hard to believe it was the same company from those small beginnings - it seems like only yesterday opening the contemporary magazines seeing the first pics of the 7 'Bluebirds' lined up being unveiled at Willesden. Cheers, James

Looking very nice and inspirational! The variety to be found on the various surviving air braked ex-engineering wagons is incredible, I often think they are almost like modern-day equivalents to the old Private Owner coal wagons, no two are quite the same and offering endless modelling potential!

I'm still holding out for the promised Bachmann Class 165 Thames Turbo DMU, the 166's older brother, announced what must be about 23 yrs or so ago now..!

The blue painted line looks interesting - I reckon it's their solution to get round a blurry line between the blue & the grey. No one's really mentioned it elsewhere but their recent Mk2F coaches in Virgin colours also have a thin printed line between the divide of the red and the dark grey, much similar to what's been done in the blue/grey Mk3 pic above. Their older releases of the Mk2E in the same Virgin colours don't have this, so one would presume they are using these printed lines as a new feature in key areas of colour changes on the coaching stock, doesn't look great but hoping I can cover this up when I re-finish mine with new numbers, weathering & varnishing etcs. Cheers James

I'd love to see Gregg Wallace going round your factory (just think of the noises he'd make!) - every time I see your factory (and the others') on these various pics and videos it reminds you how intricate it all is - in the mind somehow you just assume it's one big sausage machine production line, starting with liquid plastic and ending up an hour later with a finished printed up wagon! Then you see all this and realise how it's so many different bits and repetitive printing processes, big trays of models everywhere higgledy piggeldy moving slowly round and then real people assembling like a painted up Parkside kit, always mind blowing to see it playing out!