Steadfast

66006 passing Pig Lane near Hullavington on the Swindon - Bristol Parkway line with 6D13 Avonmouth - Didcot

59103 on 7C54 Oxford Banbury Road - Whatley passing Bowd's Lane descending Dauntsey bank

A trio of piccies here, perhaps relatively 'standard' shots, but not you're 3/4 angle platform ender. I'm posting them individually to allow each to be 'Liked' (or not as the case may be) indiviually... 43148 at Little Somerford on the Swindon - Bristol Parkway line

So here's progress so far on example one of what can be done with a Farish TEA to make something a little bit different. The subject of the model - TEA VTG85939. The wagons ride on Gloucester GPS bogies, which reminds me I must get some ordered. A piece of plastic strip (1x0.5mm I think) to bulk up the piece joining the barrel to the chassis. The bogie mounts are from the original Farish chassis The new chassis. 2mm I-beam sides, with 1.5mm square strip glued in the rear for strength. The buffer beam / override plates are made from 0.25mm plastic sheet. Here's the two joined together, with the wagon posing on Y25 bogies to check clearances, heights etc. The end blanking plates are TPM handrake wheels, but I think they're a little large. I'm tempted to replace with something smaller, maybe the marker lights from the class 47 detail set The roof walkway is 6mm wide plastic strip, with 180 grit sand paper superglued on, holes made with a holepunch. I messed up one of the roof hatches, so have copied a photo on Martyn Read's site showing one with one of the manlids blanked over. I might rework this now I've found the photo posted further up showing the roof a bit, though it'll mean butchering another donor wagon. The walkway needs a little reworking anyway, so maybe it'd be better to do this? The various attachments to the underside; black bits are Farish, white bits various plastic strip, metal bits from the TPM TEA detail set. Wire has been glued to represent the brake mechanism from the acuators (?) - the part circled in green on the photo below. Finally here's a quick comparison between one of my Farish donor wagons bought cheaply and my modified wagon Next step is a coat of primer, and I expect much filling and filing! Edit - removed duplicated image - d'oh! jo

Hi Grahame, Other than painting the bogies, no, sadly. Work's been busy the last couple of weeks, and I'm in the process of a certain amount of redrawing of the transfer artwork. All being well it should be sent off soon. I'm aiming to have mine transferred up by TINGS. I've also been working on a TEA today, more of which later jo

I thought that when I found it while looking for something else. Here's some wet HSTs, both taken 21 July 09 - the British summer haha jo

Taken as a detail shot while 6E41 was waiting to depart Westerleigh for Lindsey jo

60040's gone back north after its stint based in South Wales. Here it is the day before it went away 60040 passes Brinkworth working 6B33 Theale - Robeston jo

Hi Grahame, With the Halfords paints its worth dusting on a light layer of primer before each top coat on top of the red. Also, there is a bit of a ridge built up along the masking tape, but left to dry, and then rubbed down gently with Halfords 1500 grit wet and dry leaves a perfect join. They certainly do provide some variety. It gets a bit boring watching the tired old Farish tanks on just about every N gauge layout. I'm planning to do the Murco TEAs based on the Farish barrel with 3D printed add ons. Here's hoping one of the manufacturers uses their TF25 bogie moulding and does the modern '21st century' TEA with its multitude of liveries. I'd snap up a load in VTG red Not yet Ian, but I plan to throw some liquid lead into each end of the barrel to sit over the bogies. I've also got some strip lead if that turns out to be easier Hi Ben, sorry for the confusion, the ladders do come as part of the 3D print. However, I chose to replace mine with etched ladders, from a pack by N Brass Locos, as they are finer and sturdier. I managed to brake most of the printed ladders during cleaning the model up Thanks for the interest guys jo

So the main body colours are done now. The Ford Olympic Blue came out a fair bit lighter that the label on the lid, to my advantage. Modelling the tanks in present condition, the paint is over 20 years old, so has faded a fair bit over time. I have some blue and red touching up to do, but overall it's getting there. I shouldn't have fitted the ladders until the painting was done, masking under them was a nightmare! The ends need the blue lowering to thin the white stripe a bit, too. jo

A quick update here. Not the most interesting of things, but progress none the less, and hopefully useful to anyone else making one. It's masking time! The tape is 10mm wide Tamiya stuff. Conveniently the width looks about right for the depth of the bottom of the white band. So a piece of tape was applied as shown, and a pencil mark drawn on each of the ribs to mark where it came to. These 4 marks were then joined up, giving me a continuous pencil line along both sides. Tape was then applied to mask over the bits that will stay red. I didn't put any masking fluid on, but should've really as the paint crept a bit. In addition to the masking here, the whole lower wagon was covered in paper and tape. Paints used so far are Ford Carnival Red, then after masking up, white primer, then appliance white. The blue will be masked using the same technique, but slightly higher up the barrel, and painted using Ford Olympic Blue. The Grey TDA is Ford Polar Grey, and these are all Halfords colours. I'll get a pic of the red and white tank when I can jo

No problem Jack, I'll sort something out once they're finished! jo

Another coat of paint or two later, here's how they currently stand. These are quick phone snaps, so apologies for the quality! The bogies are TPM cast Y25s, assembled with the longer coupling option I realise I've painted the red solebar too high on the grey one, not having an ex works photo to work from yesterday afternoon, then stumbled across one whilst reading in bed last night. However, as per the photo further up the page, there's so much brown on the real things, it shouldn't show through the grime. The Murco red is a Halfords VW shade, the grey is Halfords too, in fact I think I'm going to use it on the IIA too as it looks about right, with the red solebar handpainted in Ralimatch enamel DB Schenker red. I'm not looking forward to masking up for the Murco livery's blue and white! jo

A little bit of a diversion from the IIA here, I need a break from the paint troubles, so will return to it in future, more than likely at the same time as I do the Cemex livery HOA. A long term project of mine is to do a model of the Murco tank trains that run from South Wales. Despite not having a layout suitable for running it, the varied mix of tanks and class 60 haulage make it a nice one to do! Other long term projects include the Bristol and Bath binliner, the Bristol Freightliner and Mendip stone traffic. Anyway, after much talking and the usual "I'd like to model that conversations" with Jack (Rods_of_Revolution) whilst out pohotgraphing, when he produced a 3D printed TDA tank, available via his Shapeways shop, that proved to be the kick start this project needed. Here's a couple of pictures of 6B33 Theale - Robeston which show the diversity of the tanks in the train, regularly counting to 5 or 6 varieties. 60071 at Chipping Sodbury with 6B33 Theale - Margam 1/10/11 - At least 5 different types of tank here, 4 TEAs and the TDAs 60007 passes Ram Hill on 6B33 Theale - Robeston 6/10/11 - again 4 types of TEA and the TDAs Here's a few pictures of the real things for those not familiar with the subject, the TDA is a 90 ton bogie tank wagon, built in France with a depressed centre and distinctive ribs round the barrel. They are numbered in the TIPH78xxx range, showing their previous owner of Tiphook, who were bought by GE Rail Services as far as I'm aware. Many carry plain grey with red sole bars 'as built' livery, but the majority of the ones in use on Murco trains are in the red white and blue livery. The grey ones also show up in trains from Lindsey with conventional straight barrel tank types. Anyway on to the models, I thought I had some pictures of the models as they arrived, showing the stepping effect of the 3D printed body, but can I find them, can I heck! If they turn up, I'll pop them on here. The model comes as one piece in Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD) with ladders, buffers etc. included on the one piece model. I've chosen to replace them with etched ladders to provide a bit more strength and resilience to knocks. The second photo shows a Farish TEA bought second hand for comparison The handwheels are TPM 8 spoke (as per the packet) but conveniently for me are actually 6 spoke, with 3 spokes chopped out with a scalpel. They are superglued to a scrap of brass bent into a U shape (1cm width, if anyone else does a TDA) then glued under the wagon. The ferry tie downs come from the TPM Ferry Wagon etch set Still to add are the open/close levers for the discharge piping, I'll probably solder this up from some fine wire, and add it once most of the paintwork is done, pre final weathering. Finally for now, a quick sample of the transfer artwork Hopefully more tomorrow! jo

Every other previous experience of it agrees with you Guy! Plenty if you want a NATO variation on rail liveries though... The paint issues have given me time to do some more bits that should have been sorted before painting. Today I soldered up three parallel wires to make the air pipes running along the side of the wagon, and swapped the door actuator gear round. It's different on both sides, and I only noticed when drawing up the transfer artworks yesterday... jo

That'd make sense! 15.13 HST if my memory serves me right 6B33 doesn't look likely tomorrow, according to 60gen 60074 worked 0B33 Robeston - Margam, so I expect it to work a steel to Dee Marsh or Round Oak, or stay in South Wales tomorrow jo

Guy - thank you so much! The thought of it drying due to the heat didn't even occur to me! I was just thinking Tamiya products are used all over the world so must be ok in the heat. To be honest there's no rush on it, so I can afford to wait a bit. It also reassures my faith in Tamiya paint, handy since I have a Humvee on the go, and a lot of Tamiya desert sand... Thanks again! jo

Wasn't too bad the time I did it. Constant flow of traffic, but provided its just you (or maybe one other) there's room tucked in against the bridge. I've taken photos in worse traffic The lineside shrubbery has grown up a lot though recently Ooooh air con....lucky guy! I missed the coal and everything else, but here's 6B33 passing Shrivenham today Out of interest, do you know if the time on your camera's correct? If so it did Shrivenham to Callow Hill in 15 minutes - impressive for a weekday! jo

So today I managed another coat of grey on the IIA...good news is the colour's better, in fact the colour I'm very happy with. The bad news...its got the texture of concrete rendering on an N scale 1950s suburan semi... I don't understand. I'm using the same methods as I have in the past, and have never had this problem before. The amount of time I spent cleaning the airbrush after last weekend's problems, there shouldn't be any bits left inside to pepper the surface of the wagon. So it's going to be rub down and try again. Not sure what to do about trying again though. I'm sure I'm not meant to need celulose thinners to clean up acrylic, but its the only thing I've got that seems to cut through the stuff. Maybe I should just go back to enamels. Though if there's gunk stuck inside the airbrush, that'll come out in that too. Hmmmmmm jo

Southernman - I got it at the concrete bridge at Shrivenham today - oh so close I was to stopping at Callow Hill to attempt a second shot, but stayed on the motorway. You don't drive a red car by any chance? jo

Hi Ben, It's funny how the prototype follows the model sometimes! I've got 5 HHAs left, having chopped one to make the IIA, all picked up cheap so I'm happy to repaint, fit buckeyes etc. This little half rake should look good with some RMC JGAs or HOA/IIAs to bulk it up. As for the boxes - yes they're really widespread, and there's so many variations that can be found in a single rake. I've seen scrap boxes in use on both Peak District and Mendip stone and VTG aggregate boxes on scrap to Cardiff, so pretty much anything goes! jo

Hi Guy, Today i've brush painted a different grey in the areas that airbrush misses. I'm happier with the colour (Tamiya sky grey) so this'll get airbrushed all over soon. As for wagons, well, I'm not so sure about JMAs. Even talking nicely to Jack, the bogies could be tough in N. However I've wanted to do the HKAs ever since I saw them at Westbury. They didn't last long on the Mendip flows, but moving my modelling scope north gives a good excuse to do them I won't say much more until the package arrives, but here's a taste of what's to come. I saw plenty of these at Peak Forest, and ATM do the bogies.... jo

Thanks Ben, progress haas crawled to a halt after the weekend. The underframe piece is now DB Schenker grey, looking like the nearest match in my collection. The bodywork got a coat of Tamiya acrylic grey. Two problems arose. Number 1, it was the wrong shade, far too stoney in colour. Nice and simple to recoat it though, and it has blended everything together into a uniform layer. Problem number 2...the previous paint I'd used was acrylic, too. And here comes my bugbear with the stuff. Despite the airbrush looking clean, having thoroughly stripped and cleaned it after the last painting session, there was dried paint inside it somewhere. It came spitting out and made the model look all dusty, with lumps in the finish. At least with enamel the thinners dissolve the dried on paint. I *think* I've cleaned the airbrush fully this time. Who knows until I get the chance to paint the IIA again...combine that with some varnish drying misty on a Tamiya Humvee I'm building, and Sunday really wasn't the day to paint in Chippenham... The IIA is rubbed down ready for a better coat of grey, hopefully this weekend jo

Cheers, not sure why they put them on all 4 corners. Easy job with a pair of sidecutters though! Rob, yes I am, but have been off this week, and had half a week off for Showcase. Regular hours haven't been a feature the last few weeks! I'm looking forward to Chippenham, should be a good show, and it doesn't clash with my birthday this year jo

Thanks Martyn, you're site's had a few extra hits the last few days.... It's certainly flexible technique Bernard, one I'd never thought of but one to bear in mind for future stuff A few photos showing some progress today. I managed a coat of primer, and unusually for me it looks pretty good already! There's a lot less filling and filing to do than I imagined there'd be so that was a good start. I mentioned yesterday that there was an area between the recess and the angled top panel that wasn't flush. I've now clad the top panel with a 10 thou layer, which has brought this panel flush with the triangular fillet filling the gap between it and the vertical side, if that makes sense. This leaves a slight lip under the triangular fillet, which looks like the weld along the wagon. The white top panel is this extra layer of plastic. The ends have a piece of metal that isn't on the HHAs. On the real thing it's sheet metal, but I've used 1mm x 1mm strip for ease of modelling it. Lazy I know, but should look ok once painted. The photo also shows how I've got away using thick plastic strip for the top angle, the fold down (painted yellow) in the metal makes it appear thicker than it is. If I haven't lost everyone with that description, here's the pictures of it Filler has been applied to tidy up some rough joints, more primer and photos once its rubbed down jo