James Makin

That would be a fun idea sometime! Right now I feel a bit of a beginner in that area, it all looks a bit daunting presenting the stuff for filming and then working out how people do the post production editing to make it watchable, seems like witchcraft! I guess practice makes perfect, my fear is just running off a load of cheesy Alan Partridge-esque videos 😂 Cheers, James

Cheers Rob! Haha, that feels a lifetime ago now! I miss the MRM mag, it was a decent concept! I remember contributing articles for a few issues in a row and mates down the club started teasing that MRM meant Makin Railway Modelling 🤦‍♂️😂 It’d be fun if something similar came back, with 15yrs or so passed since it seems more people than ever are tackling D&E stuff! Cheers, James

I've been sprucing up some of my older models first tackled many years ago, the latest being this duo of Hornby Class 60s... 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Modelled here is 'Plain Jane' 60028 John Flamsteed and Loadhaul 60038, modelled in circa 1998 condition. This pair are amongst my earliest modelled '60s', first being done for my old Wells Green TMD layout all those years ago. 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr As alluded to on a previous post, 60038 is in fact my favourite Class 60 of them all! New to BR's Trainload Metals sector in 1991, this was formerly named after the Glen Coe mountain Bidean Nam Bian, prior to being stripped of the plates when gaining its attractive Loadhaul colours in 1995. 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The model was one of the original batch of Hornby '60's from 2005, and was given a paint-on/wipe-off weathering finish with a range of browns and dark greys some years back. Later, shades of track dirt and roof dirt were airbrushed on top to build up the traffic grime on top too. 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Extra details included some cab detailing, there isn't a great deal of modelling required on a Class 60 so you can spend time doing the fiddlier bits if desired! A driver was added, together with representations of a kit bag, newspaper and drinks can, all scratchbuilt from offcuts of wire, Blu Tack and card - nowadays you can incredibly buy all this detail from suppliers online. 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr I always liked 60038 from seeing it in glorious Trainload Metals, but even in Loadhaul is it a good looker! It is one of the more forgotten black '60s' - both this and 60025 appear to be rarely modelled compared to Hornby's 60007, and namers 60008 Gypsum Queen II and 60059 Swinden Dalesmen that seem to hog all the limelight! 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr When giving it a spruce up, the main differences were adding on brass wire coupling loops to haul trains, touching in some of the flaws in the old weathering jobs, and then just stripping down and cleaning some 15+ years of accumulated grime from the mechanism. 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr New DCC decoders were fitted too, Hattons 8-pin chips replacing the sometimes skittish Hornby decoders originally fitted the first time around on Wells Green. I don't tend to go in as much for the DCC sound as I used to, as you've probably guessed, I love fleet quantities of locos and in most cases it's simply not economical to spend the extra amount on sound for a loco that may only spend a few days each year actually running on an exhibition layout! 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Next up for attention was another favourite, 60028 John Flamsteed. I had a great day at Didcot in 2001 with this stabled in the sidings adjacent to the station, the 'Tug' clonking and creaking as it cooled down, adding a bit of extra background noise to the HSTs and Thames Turbos zooming on by! 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Similar to the more recent models of 60067 James Clerk-Maxwell and 60069 Humphry Davy added to the fleet this year, 60028 John Flamsteed is another unbranded example, having lost its original Trainload Petroleum decals in 1997, and indeed represented my normal trainspotting experience of just seeing dull and sightly boring locos! 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The model was based on the Hornby 'Canisp' release of 2006, the old Mainline freight logos removed carefully with cotton buds dipped in Humbrol enamel thinners, gently lifting off the printing with no damage to the underlying Hornby colours, which were pretty accurate of the time. More recent Hornby releases use different , more incorrect shades of grey, which is somewhat frustrating! 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The etched nameplates were sourced from Fox Transfers at the time, but if tackling the loco now I'd head straight over to Shawplan/Extreme Etchings where Brian has redrawn all the 'plates in recent times, so they are second to none for etchings. 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr On each model the interior chassis block was painted, to provide extra depth through the etched grilles, here below the air intake grille has been painted a mix of browns and gunmetal greys to match prototype pictures. 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr It was been nice to dig these two examples out and get them ready for truly earning their keep hauling long trains at last! Since their modelling timescale of 1998, the real life locos have had some interesting times, 60038 would swap its funky Loadhaul colours for EWS maroon & gold, and the name AvestaPolarit, whilst both would then see storage at Toton after finishing service with EWS in the 2000s. 60028 would later be revived and see service in Cappagh blue colours from 2019, meanwhile 60038 has just been extracted from Toton by DC Rail and taken to Brush Works, together with seven other '60's purchased from DB. Time will tell whether it just becomes a spares donor or one of the lucky ones to see a second life on the rails! 60028 and 60038 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr A great fun mini-project, and whetting the appetite for the next batch of heavy freight locos to grace the workbench in the coming months ahead! Cheers, James

Just adding to this thread for a bit of fun, it was nice tackling this Intercity example recently - Virgin West Coast's 90010 275 Railway Squadron (Volunteers), modelled in circa 2000 condition. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 87029 87031 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 87029 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr A bit more blurb about it appears below here on my Workbench page, the hardest part was putting the loco back together again and working out which screws went back in which holes 🤣 Great fun model to work on! Cheers, James

Hi Rich! Great to catch up yesterday, our talk about the Eclipse trains prompted me to dig out my RAIL magazines, this was the feature I recalled reading from RAIL 364, including details of all the workings and some juicy Class 66 passenger train action..! This one won’t rotate out of sideways but hopefully of use..! Of the 66s that assisted, 66124 and 66125 were very new at the time, being from the boatload before last at the time (the newest batch in country then being 66128-138). They are listed in RAIL 363 as being the first 66s to visit Penzance interestingly - 66125 on a rake of fuel tanks on Jul 6th and 66124 on Jul 13th. 66106 was recorded on an Evian bottled water train between St Blazey-Truro on Jul 29th too. Enjoy! James

Thank you Will! I am most definitely looking forward to catching up, I’ll keep an eye out for you, in any event you’ll likely find me drooling over your Class 56 samples 😂 Cheers, James

This is perfectly illustrated by the Rails of Sheffield Ltd Edition Bachmann Class 47 just announced in the complex ROG livery, complete with multiple fade outs, colour changes and tiny pinstripes...Hornby saying FGW 'Fag Packet' can't be done as tampo printing...time to up their game and invest in some new technology to keep pace with competitors..!

Here's a slice of retro 'Skoda' action! 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr I did like the look of the Class 90s back in their original Intercity colours; I first encountered these at a very young age in the old Michelin 'I-Spy' books, of all places! In one edition there was quite a few images of one and I was intrigued - they looked a bit like the Class 91 that I was very familiar with, but with more stubby ends! It was to be a few more years until properly getting into the hobby and going on some more distant trainspotting trips further up North until seeing more of these, and by then the famous Intercity colours were on their way out, with not long to go before Richard Branson's red paintbrush had conquered all within its sights. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr I couldn't resist bagging one of the Bachmann Intercity examples upon release, with plans to run it on my Wells Green TMD layout one day, though it remained packed away until the time came to give it a bit of personalisation! 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The aim of the project was to recreate a loco in late 90s/early 2000 condition; 90010 275 Railway Squadron (Volunteers) had been one I'd earmarked, hanging on to its Intercity livery later than other 90s which had already succumbed to Virgin colours early on. All that would be needed was a renumber and refinish, with an application of grime based on Flickr photos of the protoype at the time. Using Humbrol enamel thinners, the nameplate and number printing bubbles up within seconds, and lifts away easily. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Soon enough, with a little polishing with the cotton bud, all of the printing disappears, leaving the backing colours intact, and shiny. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The bodyshell was taken apart from the chassis, using great care to store all of the differently-sized screws and keep them labelled as to where they go. The model comes apart easily enough but on the first time it's not that straightforward knowing which screws just remove the body, compared to the screws that hold the front fairing or the DCC panel on the roof. With the body removed, the window glazing and front light glazing was masked off on the inside and covered in Humbrol Maskol on the outside, and the roof & pantograph masked over, before a coat of Railmatch gloss varnish was sprayed over the bodyshell to give a base for applying the Railtec decals and Shawplan etched nameplates, again using varnish to secure the 'plates. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Next up for attention was the bufferbeam fairing - whilst being far better than the old Hornby model preceding it, there is still a noticeable cut-out seam line for the optional tension-lock coupling. This was removed by applying model filler and sanding down the fairings until smooth. Moving back up to the bodyshell, a layer of Railmatch matt varnish then sealed in the new decals and the model was left to cure for a month for the varnish to harden, before weathering could begin. Bachmann's model is known for having the moveable servo-operated pantograph, which once unconnected, spring downward and can make weathering access difficult. My highly technological method for getting around this is whacking a great lump of Blu-Tack under the hook piece inside the bodyshell to force the pantograph to raise! 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr With the pantograph now raised and fully accessible for weathering, layers of browns and earthy colours were applied to the roof. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Bachmann's factory class 90 has a very stark jet black roof and bright white cabs, both of which were very unlike the real things after just a short period of time, so just working on this area makes a huge different. Base layers of brown paint were added in the roof recess, and then lighter and darker shades mottled on to build up a satisfactory finish, using prototype roof pictures as guidance for each area. The bright white cab roof sections received the customary paint-on & wipe-off finish of paint, and then washed down with cotton buds laced in enamel thinners. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The weathering was also repeated across the bodysides and around the cab ends, this helps leave 'dirt' in the recesses and especially helps to make the front lights and grilles much more lifelike than their bright, almost toy appearance of the original model. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr More and more layers of colour were built up on the roof throughout the project - it's been a while since tackling any AC electrics so I was a little rusty on this area - but it pays to keep looking at the prototype pictures online, and seeing where the darker colours are found compared to the lighter shades. Cotton buds were used to dip into neat paint and then dab on the roof in select areas, whilst elsewhere paint was applied by brush and then removed with cotton buds, it's really a case of having a play and keeping going until being satisfied! 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Finally lighter touches were drybrushed on, and although it looks a little stark in the above photo, the final airbrush grime stages help to bed in the colours and flatten it all out somewhat. The airbrushing stage consisted of spraying browns - track dirt and frame dirt shades from Phoenix, and then across the roof, their 'roof dirt', followed by some more sandy, greeny light earth colours taken from the Humbrol range. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Other finishing touches include adding the driver figure and painting the cab interior, along with small details such as drybrushing on a smidgen of silver to represent wear on the cab footsteps, and a slight sheen of Humbrol Metalcote gunmetal on the bogies and underframe to allow the sharper edges to pop out slightly. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Although the bodysides of the Class 90 are relatively smooth, the weathering process is good for leaving deposits in the areas prone to the buildup of dirt - any of the recesses for equipment on the sides, ends and around the grilles, anywhere the washing plants can't seem to get to! 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Here the roof can be seen a little better - the general wafts of earthy colours contrasting with some of the more general oily/roof dirt shades. Pictures of the loco rooftops on Flickr can be hard to come by, but with enough searches you can often find shots taken from higher angles, and if lucky, direct roof-down images from bridges or very occasionally, during works visits. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr New in 1988, by the late '90s, the Intercity livery on 90010 had started to become tatty in places, notably the red stripe which had a few battle scars on, and these were replicated by drybrushing small amounts of off-white colour to the stripe using a 5/0 paintbrush, along with any other marks spotted from prototype pictures of the time. 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The nameplate was one of the more unpopular Intercity silver reflective plates that spread across a lot of the fleet in that late 80s era, and came from the Shawplan range. Anyone modelling 90010 is strongly urged to avoid the Fox Transfers etched version of this nameplate as it incredibly features a spelling mistake in the word Squadron..! 87029 87031 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 90010 275 Railway Squadron (Volunteers) is posed alongside 87029 Earl Marischal and 87031 Hal o' the Wynd for photos taken for the Simon Bendall's Locomotives of the 1990s book and it was fun to line them all up for a West Coast workhorse theme! 87029 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr One interesting feature to model for 90010 was at the pantograph end, the horn grille was bent and damaged, presumably from a bird strike or similar, whilst one of the adjacent headlight surrounds was black, suggesting a recent replacement, possibly resulting from the same incident. 87029 87031 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 87029 87031 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Overall it was a great fun little project to bring this to life, refresh the identity and give it some traffic weathering of the time. The real locomotive has had an interesting career since the period modelled, with a coat of Virgin red being applied in 2001, before later moving over to see service with ONE Anglia after introduction of the Pendolinos on the West Coast. Going through variations of National Express, the locomotive is now with Freightliner and can be found sporting their gorgeous bright orange livery! 90010 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Cheers, James

Thanks for all the nice comments guys! Haha, that is an interesting thought! I always get too ambitious so I think I'd need a giant barn for the layouts I'd want to create or the income of Pete Waterman to keep up..! 🤣 Mind you with Heljan's models sometimes being discounted I have lusted after the concept of having a model of my favourite Class 60 just sitting on the mantlepiece as a display! A giant 60038 Bidean Nam Bian all bulled up in Trainload Metals would be rather fun! 😎 Thank you so much! I always hope I can inspire others to pick up the paintbrushes and have a go at a bit of bodging! When I was very new at the hobby it always seemed so intimidating so I hope my pics show that anyone can pick up the paints, cotton buds and bits and just get started somewhere, and then just keep practicing and practicing! It's also been a lot of fun bringing the old locos back from the past, when I first started modelling these were 'modern image' and the stuff you saw in the Lima catalogue...where did the time go?! I think the late '90s are a bit like the new steam/diesel transition era with the last remnants of old BR giving way to the new order, bringing so much variety and interesting juxtapositions of stock next to each other! Thanks Steve! It is always odd seeing stuff in print, especially things like the work-in-progress shots, and you look in the magazine and it's like "hey that's my workbench there!" 😂 My first ever article was for Model Rail in 2004 (the infamous Ginsters 158!) but you do still get a bit of a mini buzz each time a new issue drops, and the silly idea of buying two copies, one for reading and 'one to keep nice' !! Cheers, James

Haha you are too kind! I’ve tackled a lot of weathering jobs over the years but I must admit this one was a little daunting at the start of the project thinking that there aren’t many Accurascale 92s in the country so there was no Plan B if it all went pear-shaped 🤣 I must say hats off to the Accurascale gang, the model is incredible, there are even tiny etched brass grilles in some most obscure places across the roof and believe it or not, even the underframe, everything is just so crisp and beautifully modelled. I might be biased but I’d say that the 92 is even better than the awesome Deltic! Cheers, James

Looking good Rich! I don’t envy you with the Intercity respray there, to do that on a 37 is as tricky a paint job as it gets! I chickened out and used a pre-painted Bachmann Intercity 37685 body for my 37510, figuring out it was easier for my bodging hands to change the ends, grille arrangements and do the roof mods on that body rather than try repainting a split-ender and somehow get the stripes all painted with precision! 🤣 Love the new 3D print nose grilles, they’ve come up really nicely! Cheers James

Definitely this Steve! I order from the source where possible to hope for the freshest batch! Humbrol aerosols from the Hornby website and Railmatch’s ‘home’ supplier is Howes of Oxford. Cheers, James

Thanks ever so much guys! I have been through a lot of trauma with various varnishes over the years 😄 For starters I always use aerosols as I just can't be bothered to load up an airbrush for a varnish coat! My current favourite in recent times is Railmatch, their gloss and matt varnish aerosols have been pretty good in recent times, so are my go-to at the moment. I used to use these in the distant past but had issues with aerosol cans blocking prematurely, and matt varnish that dried satin, so steered away from Railmatch, but in the last two-three years they have always been good. I always make a point of buying a fresh batch directly from Howes to be sure you're not lumbered with older stock from a model shop, and I'll always write the date of purchase, source & first use date on each aerosol can to help use the oldest first and help keep track in case any faulty ones need returning! I've also had some success with Humbrol's matt and gloss varnish but recent batches in the last couple of years have been very watery - it's easy to flood a model with just one pass of the aerosol! I still have some stock of these but they have been 'downgraded' to be used on wagon projects only rather than any locos! I did have a very cloudy Humbrol varnish that almost ruined my BR green 47004 from many years ago, fortunately I managed to wipe off the varnish while wet and re-coat with Railmatch subsequently. Finally there are the 'others'! I often read about other people's varnish brands and give them a try. Testors varnish for me is highly volatile, it would crinkle up Railtec decals and cause crazing on certain paint surfaces (like Phoenix paints or certain Humbrols) randomly (remember those BP TEAs I mentioned that got mucked up!), and then I've experimented with some of the brands more popular in military modelling but the matt varnishes here can generally give a bit of a speckled finish or only semi-matt, or the dreaded orange peel, without warning! So all in all, Railmatch gets my current vote, as long as you get fresh versions every few months and praying that the makers HMG don't mess with the recipe! Cheers, James

With Worthing MRC's Loftus Road layout due out soon for it's first show since before the pandemic, I've been digging out some of my older stock for a quick service and once-over. I rediscovered one of my forgotten favourites from many years ago and thought it would be fun to take some fresh snaps using the new camera set up! 47467 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 47467 fascinated me as a kid, a working BR Large Logo 47 that was still going strong in frontline service with EWS until the bitter end in early 1999, pretty much driven to Wigan CRDC and chopped up shortly after, a brutal end to its 35-year service on the rails. 47467 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Making the model was great fun, based upon the Bachmann BR Blue 47436 release, the key to getting the faded finish was overspraying with matt varnish, to give a good key to a series of washes of grey and white paint, almost going as far as neat paint, applied to the bodyshell and wiped away with kitchen roll and cotton buds. More and more layers of whites and greys were built up, as well as shades of pale blue applied to the bodyside, sometimes drybrushed in the specific areas where the real 47467 exhibited such a patchy finish. 47467 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Up on the roof, once the Bachmann moulding lines were removed and overpainted with light grey, layers of darker grey were painted on and wiped away, leaving darker shaded areas in the grille slats, and dirty deposits in the areas less exposed to the elements, wiping downwards to mimic the effect of rainwater washing dirt down the roof. 47467 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Little details were added to complete, using fine 5/0 paintbrushes to pick out the damages, rust pockets and markings, matched up to photos of the real thing in 1998 condition. 47467 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The last bit was to then run a spray of traffic grime over it, a range of lighter browns on the underframe and roof dirt/dirty black on the roof and in the exhaust area. 47467 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr After a decent wheel clean and dust down, 47467 is ready to turn its wheels again on Loftus Road! Loftus Road by Worthing MRC by jamesmakin2002, on Flickr Cheers, James

Time for something juicy! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr With all these diesels flying through the workbench in recent years, it was nice to take a step back and work on some classic AC electrics again! Joining my Wells Green TMD fleet today is 87029 Earl Marischal and 87031 Hal o' the Wynd, both based on the recent new-gen Hornby model. 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Long-time readers may remember my old depot layout Wells Green TMD built in 2005, set in the late 90s/early 2000s with lots of tasty overhead electrics! Back in the day, I was frustrated with the old Hornby 'Ringfield' motored locos of the day and would spend much time and money remotoring to bring things up to scratch. I always dreamed of the day that quality RTR overhead electrics would be released, and although Wells Green has been packed away for many years, I have been steadily buying up the new-gen AC electrics when they were released, for that big session to get the layout out again and have some fun! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The starting point was these two beasties, picked up upon release a few years back and left in their boxes, until recently Simon Bendall gave me a shout that he's doing another Key Publishing book, this time on Locomotives of the 1990s, and would I like to do something on Class 87s? With this challenge in mind, I sprung into action! I knew exactly which class members I would model - having some very warm fuzzy memories of days out platform-ending at the likes of Birmingham New Street, Stafford, Rugby and more back in those great times before the Pendolinos took over. 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr With the locos taken apart, the old numbers and names were removed from the bodysides with a splash of enamel thinners on a cotton bud, making surprisingly light work of the Hornby printing. After this, the window glazing was masked over with Humbrol Maskol fluid before the loco body was sprayed all over with gloss varnish, to give a good surface for decals to be applied over the top. Meanwhile, up on the roof, some changes needed to be made. Hornby delivered their Virgin '87' release with the later Inergen fire extinguishing system on the roof, which was fitted to these locos just after my late 90s modelling period, so the bottles and associated pipework needed careful removing. The roof-mounted aerials needed relocating back to their original positions too. 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr With the roof modes complete, the fun part could happen next - adding the new number decals and some miniature naming ceremonies! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Incredibly the nameplates had actually been in my worn sandwich-bag of etched nameplates for about 20 years! Fired up from seeing the real things and pre-dating Wells Green, I ordered them from Shawplan and planned to fit them to Lima locos of the day, but as is such, life gets in the way! I could probably have ordered better quality etched plates from Fox Transfers but there is something very satisfying and 'completing' about fitting these old plates that needed to be done! Next came a coat of matt varnish, and a month's wait before the weathering fun started! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr First up, the stark light grey roof was painted dark grey, before receiving some mottling and drybrushing with lighter greys and browns, matching all the time to prototype pictures gleaned from Flickr and other websites. It's actually quite an effort finding good roof shots of AC electrics, especially with the death of sites like Fotopic which washed away a lot of good content I used to use back in the days of working on the old Hornby models! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The bodysides were treated too, with my mix of dark browns and dark greys being added, being painted on and then wiped away first with kitchen towel and followed by a cotton bud dipped in enamel thinners. The ideal recommended soundtrack for dirtying an '87' proved to be a meaty poptastic double-header from Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama. Virgin's fleet was generally kept very clean from a distance, but upon closer inspection there would be ingrained dirt gathered in almost any recess that the washing plants couldn't get to. This meant the roof was filthy! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr More and more shades of colour were added to the roof, some were even mixed wet on the roof to really build up the colour, with the initial browns and greys making way to some light grey and earthy colours too, following the prototype photographs which show just how much the roofs are tainted with the copper/carbon dust deposits brought down from the overhead by the pantograph touching the contact wire. Attention also turned to sprucing up the insides too - the interior was given a quick paint on & wipe-off with neat dark grey just to highlight the panelling on the equipment that can be seen through the bodyside windows. 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Finally, the locos were reassembled onto their chassis and ready for some more weathering. 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Overall the traffic weathering applied consisted of Phoenix track dirt and brake dust applied by airbrush on the lower chassis, whilst the roof received a coat of 'roof dirt', 'dirty black' and waftings of light earth & green colours to represent some of the coppery carbon deposits around the pantograph end of each loco. 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 87029 Earl Marischal was up there amongst my favourites, having seen it a good number of times, it captured my imagination as one to-model from the early days, even though the first '87' I had for haulage was actually 87025 County of Cheshire. Maybe one day I'll model that too! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The Hornby interior detail shows up nicely on the new model, and the bogie detailing comes out pretty well after a bit of highlighting through the weathering. Little touches like the footsteps were drybrushed with silver, and raised edges worked on with Humbrol Metalcote gunmetal to really bring out the sharper edges on the underframe. 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The only let down on the model is ironically the pantograph itself! For the meantime I've just weathered up the original Hornby attempt at the Brecknell Willis High Speed pantograph, but it really is far too flimsy to be used on a layout contacting the overhead wiring, the springing is wrong and it looks a little silly! Before it takes to the rails on Wells Green TMD, I will replace these with 'pans sourced elsewhere, whether it's something stolen from a Bachmann 90 or Accurascale 92, whichever proves easier to source! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr The dusty dirty rooftops are shown better in this angle, it's very tricky trying to get a good pic of the roof, and especially annoying as in model form, we see the roof before anything else! Having not modelled any AC electrics for about 15 years, I found it especially challenging to do the roof and certainly it felt odd using shades of colour that I'd not normally use anywhere near the rooftop on a diesel! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr My next 87 had to be Hal o' the Wynd! Loco names have always fascinated me and this one just seemed so 'out there' and mysterious, especially to my younger self who wasn't armed with Wikipedia and the split-second ability to find out it was actually just named after a chap called Henry Gow! Not so mysterious now! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Again the Shawplan 'plates were applied here, using a smearing of matt varnish to attach them prior to the overall matt varnish coat after the weathering was applied, any overspill is hidden and it covers a multitude of sins! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr Over on the side grilles, some slight painting took place too, Hornby's Virgin-liveried model had pure red grilles, but the outer ones actually needed a black surround, so this was delicately painted on prior to the weathering stages. These grilles then were filled with paint during the paint-on/wipe-off stage leaving a grimy but clean finish. 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr And there we have it, two new-generation Class 87s to join the fleet, some fifteen years after the last AC's were tackled! I do miss the days of being able to go on an 'exotic' spotting trip up the West Coast Main Line, ticking off loco after loco in the old Platform 5 books, the Pendolino's just aren't quite the same, but it is sobering to think they themselves are coming up two decades old now. The real class 87s here have had mixed fortunes, 87031 would later swap its 'mysterious' plates for Keith Harper castings before withdrawal from Virgin Trains service in 2005, later seeing an appointment with the scrap man in 2010. In contrast, 87029 would go on to see further service in Bulgaria, of all places! Out there with a number of classmates since 2009, the loco is still believed to be in service to this day, and long may it continue to do so! 87029 and 87031 by James Makin by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr It's been enormous fun doing this little project and getting the hand in with the AC electrics again! The full article on the locos, and several more of my new projects, can be found in the Key Publishing "Modelling British Railways Locomotives of the 1990s" - Simon's put a taster post up with some details of how to get it elsewhere on RMWeb - Key Publishing Modelling British Railways Book by James Makin - Account 3, on Flickr I can't wait to get my paint-covered mitts on a copy, out today apparently! Cheers! James

Have you thought about fitting a wire 'goalpost' coupling instead potentially? I use these as it lets you fit the full pipework at both ends of the loco, and it can still work with your coaches on curves using their original tension lock couplings. I've yet to fit my D9016 with a goalpost but will be doing so, on all my locos I use 0.45mm handrail wire bent into a 'U' shape, drilled in to the bufferbeam and secured with superglue/contact adhesive. I had trouble with Hornby Class 60s and their kinematic couplers centering, a wire goalpost solves two problems in one by going for a DIY coupler for improved running and getting the pipe details fitted, it mainly works well for locos where you're pulling things rather than pushing, just to caveat though. Quick pic on a spare 47, but my 'Deltic' will get the same treatment soon - Cheers, James

I’ve got all of the releases of previous Fag Packet stock, from the Hornby Mk2s, Mk3 TGS, Lima Mk3s, Sleepers and HST, all tampo printed. I must say I thought the previous tampo efforts all tackled before were more than good enough for my eyes so was surprised to see that current-day Hornby feel unable to come close/exceed this in 2022! My main concern upfront is the firstly whether the factory can consistently apply the decals as level as a printing machine can, and then secondly the long term durability, whether as users we’ll need to add a top coat of varnish to protect the decals to stop them getting easily scratched or lifting round the edges (and that’s assuming they have been fully applied over the contours of things like the doors and panel gaps, eek!). Finally it will likely make renumbering challenging as we will have to patch paint over the gold band for a decal as there won’t be any printing to remove as such! I’m hoping that the end products will be amazing and all this is forgotten but it does bring up many concerns over using waterslide decals that you’d think should’ve been left behind 30+ years ago! Cheers, James

Hi guys, Bad news on the FGW Fag Packet HST, Hornby have confirmed to me that the stripes are indeed waterslide decals...! I’ll wait and see what the quality is like in the flesh, I’ve ordered a small fleet of HSTs given we’ve been waiting 23 years for this livery so it’ll either be a very expensive Winter or a very cheap one! The superb Railtec decals are still available so it will literally be a case of whether Hornby’s finish beats the ones I painted some years back, at least here the Mk3s will hopefully be a better standard than the originals. Impressed that Hornby came back to my email in an afternoon though, full marks there, I did not expect them to engage so quickly on technical details with customers directly! Cheers, James

All aboard the Ann Summers Express! Accurascale D9016 - by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr My throbbing purple package arrived today and while I had all my photo gear set up, couldn't resist running it through to show what a beauty D9016 turned out to be! Accurascale D9016 - by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Opening up the giant Purple box you get the now-standard Accurascale feeling that is akin to unwrapping a new iPhone, the soft-touch packaging giving way to a well-wrapped model encased in plastic and foam, together with some reading material and full set of headcode swaps if needed. Everything is intact and perfect, and really pleased with the fit and quality of finish, incredible stuff. The model itself is absolutely gorgeous and I've got to say, it's the first time I've had that truly 'blown-away' feeling of unwrapping an RTR loco since the Hornby Class 60 back in 2005, not one loco release has equalled that feeling in 17 years, until now! Accurascale D9016 - by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr I bought D9016 as a fondly-remembered colour scheme from my favourite modelling era, and having long had plans to do a Bachmann version, the Accurascale announcement came at just the right time to avoid taking on a big makeover challenge! The loco didn't work all that many trains in its famous purple colours, but it did do a few railtours, I couldn't resist posing it in front of an old Hatchett Mk1, squint and it's almost there 🤣 Accurascale D9016 - by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Then a shot with one of my old 37 fleet showing the EE lineage...hopefully it won't be long before both of these locos will be Accurascale ones! Accurascale D9016 - by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Overall it's a truly astounding model that just has so much detail to observe and take in, everywhere you look. My current favourite feature is the beautiful footsteps, nicely moulded with see-through tread, mind blowing! Accurascale D9016 - by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr Huge, huge congratulations to the Accurascale guys for getting this over the line and I can't wait to have a bit of fun taking this from box-fresh to in-service condition, and looking forward to seeing what's around the corner! Cheers, James

Gorgeous stuff Will! I love the Freightliner one as well!

For the benefit of RMWebbers, would there be any way that Warners may be able to press Hornby to give a brief update as to whether the production FGW 'Fag Packet' products use waterslide decals as alleged from the photos? It'd be great for us all to find out one way or another and similar to other product queries that have arisen over the years with the other manufacturers, if Hornby are able to give a definitive answer it could help boost pre-orders further - the allegations of transfer being used are surely pretty damaging if this isn't the case. Like many others here I've placed a significant pre-order for these products already on the good faith of them being tampo-printed in line with 99.9% of all other previous Hornby releases, so to confirm the specification can only be a good thing and would mean that we can place further pre-orders with confidence. At the moment it appears that, as buyers, we're shepherded towards committing to upfront pre-orders (and direct from Hornby.com, at that) to guarantee delivery, but it sounds as if the specification may be different to that advertised. Hopefully this won't be the case and Hornby can put the rumour to bed? Many thanks in advance! James

Today my car has indicated that it’s nearly time for the Purple Throbber to arrive!

Ouch, that sounds painful to watch! I've had similar before when using certain varnishes that are just naughty! My current go-to varnish is Railmatch, their aerosol cans make it nice and easy to apply and the result is generally very smooth and nice. I have had mixed success with Humbrol aerosol varnish too, sometimes it is amazing in every way, the current formulation in recent couple of years seems very 'wet' and it's easy to flood a model with just 1 pass of the spray if not careful, but dries generally very well. Where I've had the real pain is in some of the US brands of varnish, things like Testors, I'd heard great stuff about Dullcote but when trying it, it reacted with some Phoenix paints and certain Humbrol shades, but others it's fine, again the same with a few of the other varnishes that I've tried, and can also be volatile with Railtec decals too, so it's a gamble! Yet to debut on these pages are a couple of weathered Bachmann BP green TEA bogie tankers that I sprayed in March 2019, I'd given them a coat of Testors varnish over a paint-on/wipe-off effect and had such a reaction that the varnish had given the tankers a complete crackle glaze finish, if you imagine looking at something like the dried salt flats in Utah 🤦‍♂️🤣 I keep meaning to get around to giving them a strip down and re-doing sometime, just goes to show that the varnishes can easily catch you out! Cheers, James

Haha thanks Nick, for the paint on wipe off stage I tend to vary the thinness of the paint depending on the end effect. In many cases I'll go for neat Humbrol enamel paint, and the benefit is that it can be useful to heavily tint the underlying paint if desired, or give a good solid build up of colour in the recesses once any extra paint has been wiped away and wiped down further with enamel thinners on a cotton bud. In other cases I'll go for a much more diluted wash, this is useful where I'm looking for a streaky finish, things like the sides of the diesel locos have a wash of almost 80% Humbrol thinners to 20% paint so it's super light and gives a very gradual build up of colour. I'll sometimes also vary how I apply it, sometimes I will pre-mix a wash and other times I'll almost mix it on the side of the model, adding a paintbrush laced with thinners (or paint) if I decide the consistency isn't right whilst actually on the model! It's very much a case of just dabbling and seeing what works well, it doesn't always work well straight away and needs a lot of playing around, so I can't give more precise tips than that! I've been using this method for almost 20 years and am still learning on the shades to use, I just use enamels only and have been familiarising myself with how the different Humbrol shades work, as some definitely thin down better than others! I sometimes use Phoenix Paints also, but they dry extremely quickly so any washes of that need a lot more proportion of thinners to keep it wet before wiping off the excess colour. One thing to watch for where I've tripped myself up in the past is that the washes with high concentrations of enamel thinners will start to strip through layers of dried varnish if left long enough, so nowadays I always leave a model for at least 1 month to fully harden to almost bullet-proof status before 'attacking' as there is nothing worse than wiping off your livery as well as your weathering 🤣 The same goes for any RTR liveries as well, always do a pre-weathering coat of varnish to protect the surface, and then after all the weathering this is followed by a final coating, prior to the final airbrush weathering stage. It flattens the surfaces out slightly and removes some of the accidental sheen you get when doing the paint-on/wipe-off too. Hope this helps! James

Thanks so much for the likes and comments! Cheers Rich! The Eclipse brings back memories! It was fun reading back then about the varied special trains that went down and the use of new 66/0s on several of the charter trains for that! My auntie's family travelled down from Didcot to Cornwall for the event but said that after all that, it was just cloudy! Back down in Worthing we had full sun and my dad had rigged up this mirror arrangement to reflect the sun onto the house so we could watch a mini-eclipse on the back of the garage wall! Somewhere I've still got those cardboard Eclipse glasses that all the newsagents would be trying to flog 🤣 Thanks Geoff, I've long been inspired by the lines of them in the Yard as well as on the MoD trains coming in, I love how they pretty much all ended up in varied shades of pink! Many years ago I did have a bash at adding the A1 Models etched sides to a Hornby VDA to create a VAA, but made the mistake of using solvent glue which over the years has gradually deformed the van outwards with the most banana shaped sides! Haha, thanks very much Steve! The livery was just painted on with brushes, I rarely bother getting the airbrush out for the smaller vehicles, I used a flat wide brush which helped minimise the brush strokes but generally I don't get too many problems just brushing them on, plus it saves so much time and effort cleaning an airbrush too! I also find that the varnish layers do help in hiding a multitude of sins, anything that doesn't look right gets painted over again and by the time the spray varnish is added then it levels out the surface and bonds it all together! Cheers, James