James Makin

Closer to the time I shall have to post some of my pictures - our old office used to overlook the aggregates unloading area at Chichester station, giving uninterrupted chances to photograph these wagons high above from a 3-storey building, giving weathering inspiration of the wagons both inside and out! Some were really battered and you could see through the metalwork holes in the sides of the wagons..! 

In the period 2021-to-date the traction variety was comparatively good, loads of Freightliner 66/5s and 66/6s, together with ex-DBS faded red 59/2s and 59/2s in Freightliner Orange livery. Also you'd regularly see the other 59/0s and 59/1s turning up in their random liveries from Yeoman to Hanson and Aggregates Industries, really interesting! 

Cheers

James

Great work Tom, love it! 😎

Shawplan do the radio antennae and wipers if that helps! www.shawplan.com. I don't know about the etched kickplate but in this scale I've never gone wrong by just handpainting silver and weathering - looks the part!

For the underframe tank, the old Lima moulding can be carved away and replaced by a twin-tank spare part from Bachmann, either sourced via their Spares department or just on eBay, normally only a few pounds but it'll make a big difference and easier than hacking the flexible old Italian plastic into shape.

Finally my top tip for the roof radio aerial itself, my preference is to use an old toothbrush hair, superglued into a small hole and painted dark grey, the flexibility means it can never be knocked off!

Cheers

James

Hi all, we have an update on the next Worthing MRC show from the WMRC Committee:

WORTHING MODEL RAILWAY CLUB SHOW

Important Announcement

Worthing MRC has taken the decision to postpone this year’s Annual Exhibition until 2024. The new date of the next show will be September 28th & 29th, 2024 at Durrington High School, Worthing.

The decision to postpone the event was not taken lightly. This follows a naturally challenging few years whereby we have decided that as a club, we would not wish to compromise on offering a high quality and exciting show for our loyal visitors, hence the decision to focus all efforts on putting on  a fantastic exhibition next September, 2024.

We know that this may come as a major disappointment to our regular visitors, however we would encourage you to put the new date in the diaries, and we look forward to inviting you along to our next show which we are confident will be our best ever!

Worthing MRC Annual Exhibition 2024

28th & 29th September 2024

Durrington High School, Worthing, West Sussex, BN13 1LA

Keep posted on the latest updates at www.worthingmrc.co.uk or search for Worthing Model Railway Club on Facebook.

17 minutes ago, Phil Bullock said:

Certainly does Mike …. Individual locos seem to be a front end lottery and then there’s another mine field …. Body side access hatches and steps.

 

All on pre TOPs locos of course….

 

 

Plus with some locos, the tumblehome steps were plated on one side only (37057 I've tackled like this!) so it goes to show there's a lot of modelling fun ahead for us all, with these high fidelity models raising the bar, you can't just slap a random number on a loco these days! 😄

Cheers

James

My favourite reference point for Class 37 renumberings is at the classic go-to page - https://class37.co.uk/. It's interesting to see that someone's now put this info onto Wikipedia, but the useful thing about the Class 37 page is the ability to search on the 'Fleet History' tab under each different running number depending on whether you knew the loco in it's early days, the first TOPS number or subsequent refurbs, it's all easy to navigate. 

For the roof detail variations, Flickr can be your friend - type in a loco running number and year and you'll usually be greeted with many shots uploaded, with a degree of luck and searching around the different years you can start to see the key details needed. It's a little more DIY research than just having everything there on a plate but makes for some great fun itself I always think!  

I've been in the same situation many a time and from experience it's always easier to take the opposite mindset of "I'd like to model 37XXX, which donor model shall I use?" rather than "I've just bought a model, which 37s can I make from it?" - it helps you open the mind a bit consider conversion parts from different places and some modelling fun! The interesting thing about the Accurascale model is the removable roof sections - in a few years time with more variations modelled we could soon all be swapping roof mouldings around on our models in the same way I'd used to be swapping over the different nose ends on the old-school Bachmann 37s, so I am sure there will be some more swapsies fun to come!

Cheers

James

I'd second the suggestion for spares, in particular, bogie sideframe mouldings for the 37s!

In the 'old world' I would brutally hack about the bogie frame to produce a crude but effective-ish representation of a Class 37 cast bogie (or add on bits if doing a fabricated one!) - but on a model as detailed & finessed it almost seems a tad criminal to do too much bodging! I'd happily cross the palms with silver for spares like that to make renumbering projects that bit more straightforward! 

Cheers

James

Exciting update, and very insightful the amount of fettling that has to take place on the journey to a perfect 31! 

I'm especially looking forward to the Dutch and creaky old 'Banger Blue' examples which will make for great projects to be modelled in circa 1998 condition and just about clinging onto life by a fine thread 😂

19 minutes ago, Tony Walker said:

I'm probably the only person on here who isn't happy about the delivery of their 37. Mine's been delivered and thrown over a 7 foot fence and I'm 270 miles away. I did hold the delivery and had confirmation that it would be held, but it's still been sent. Just hope it's not been damaged! 

The loco's fine but there's now a small crater in your garden 😄

Great to see the project moving forward, I've filled in my EOI for a pair of 'Barbie' 180 Adelante's, so fingers crossed they come to fruition!

I was very excited for the 180's project based on an assumption that it would of course be available in Barbie, you just assume it would be the most popular livery for modellers as it was the default launch livery somehow, funny how the world works and what some modellers are like! Let's hope for the best as we all know that 'Barbie' is not a scheme that's easily repainted and there's no proprietary decals out there yet either! 🤞

I guess one day similarly there will be a time when those who see Voyagers, don't remember that they were Virgin Voyagers! 🤣

Cheers,

James

Absolutely incredible work! 😎

I found your thread in a section of the forum I don't tend to get to visit often and it's firmly being followed now! 

Looking very nice indeed! 😎

2 hours ago, sb67 said:

@James Makin Not sure if this has been mentioned before as you put various layers of paint on, do you have any trouble with the weathering sticking to the factory finish? I'm trying some weathering with oil paints and whilst the effects are great and they are easy to work with, even after a week if \i try and put another layer of weathering on the original one wipes off. I think factory finishes seem so smooth now I wonder if even a coat of Matt varnish would hold.

 

Steve.

Hi Steve!

Absolutely, the key to all these finishes for me is to add a layer of matt varnish to start. I'll spray either Railmatch or Humbrol matt varnish from the aerosols across the model that is to be weathered, and then wait at least 1 month for this to harden fully before doing the paint-on/wipe-off weathering stages. I've alluded to it in the writing but essentially the matt finish helps the subsequent weathering paints stick to the body otherwise they wipe straight off as you say! 

The only downside is the 1-month time taken to wait for the matt varnish to dry and harden, but it's based on my experience of working on a recently-applied varnish, only to have that peel off if it's not hardened enough! There are other weathering techniques out there that people do with the acrylics or powders that can be done instantly but I'm a bit old fashioned in loving the enamel paints!

Cheers,

James

Barbie all the way without a doubt! 

Nice, shame about the Rfd 47s, that is definitely one of the challenges of modelling the extremities of the network being the reduced diversity there!
 

Mind you I’d love to do a mini Lostwithiel station & sidings-type plank layout one day, something cute with a level crossing, the old semaphores and oodles of CDAs! I visited in 2002 and it was great fun watching a ‘66’ shunting around!

If you ever have any Bachmann 47s you are looking to shift then my fleet roster is always hungry for more..! 

Looking good Rich! Lovely selection of green 47s coming together as well! 😎

Well I must say I've been very naughty this morning! The prices are ever so reasonable considering the amount of vehicle for your money.

When these arrive my Didcot Parkway layout will be suitably well populated with the right level of automotive traffic! Keep up the great work lads! 👍

1 minute ago, NaN said:

Quick bit of help please…I’ve got one of the little silver door kick-plates (?) loose in the box. What’s best to reattach it? A tiny bit of superglue? TIA

I’d go for a little touch of PVA glue (or similar), there’s a big risk in using super glue that it could overspill and damage the paint, at least with a non-solvent glue it’ll just wipe away and no issues! 

Thanks guys for the advice on the non-sound decoders earlier, I think I better bide my time for an Accurascale decoder in due course! 🤞

The snowplough attachments look great, you wouldn’t believe how much of the back of the ‘plough (and bogie front) I had to grind down to get ploughs fitted and bogies to swing freely on my old Bachmann 37s 😂

Cheers,

James

On the topic of decoders for the 37s, does anyone have a recommendations for the best value (cheapest!) non-sound decoders for the DCC Ready locos please?

I've got a stash of Hattons 21-Pin 'Direct' chips but I was wondering if these may fit or if they need to be those 'MTC' ones (Dapol Imperium?), what would you guys all recommend? I'm not looking to use many functions beyond having the headlight & headcode box marker lights in the direction of travel if that helps reduce functions needed!

Many thanks in advance!

James

35 minutes ago, rob D2 said:

I reckon you'll be waiting a bit .

James has another 100 cheap Bachmann ones he brought " off a mate at the club " to go yet ;)

That's too close to the truth! 😄 I actually had 8 cheapo old Bachmann 37s lined up as part of my current loco reworking batch, but seeing all the painted up samples come to life here in recent months I've decided to park them all and wait for the Accurascale ones to land instead, I'm hooked on how they've captured the 'heavy' look as it sits low on the bogies and oh so ultra meaty! 

2 hours ago, thetrains said:

I would have liked a shinier paintwork, somewhere between matt and satin like Bachmann, will be interesting to see what my BR Blue look like when it arrives June 'ish.

The main lesson is you can't please everyone, I will be matt varnishing mine (like all my stock) to give it a dead-flat look, I don't like satin finish locos at all, even when modelling an ex-works one, I don't think it scales that well in 4mm! 100% of the fun in RTR these days is customising it to make it your own and Accurascale are giving us a superb base on which to start that journey 😎

Cheers

James