Steadfast

It also looked darker in the centre of the bodyside. I'm assuming this is down to the very shiny finish, with the angled back cab reflecting the sky, and the bodyside reflecting the trees. I remember the 59 did funny things when it was first repainted in certain lights. Here's hoping 011 lasts down here until we get some sun! cheers jo

Cheers Dave! Tata is worth the wait - hopefully it'll be around for a while and we won't be saying Ta-taa too soon It looks nice with the EWS hoppers in the pics I have seen cheers jo

Interesting mate. Not very British at all, but it does look alright. Not sure why, but it reminds me of a 218 cheers jo

Bachmann stuff is a lot easier dismantle, let me tell you that! I know what you mean, whilst most Dapol stuff is great, Farish stuff usually seems to have a slight edge, particularly in terms of decoration. At the end of the day though, it's all a great leap on from the Poole era stuff. Now I've removed my DB red proof shades, after tea I'll be doing some more decal artworks for the FGW projects

So, I managed to catch the red 60 today - it's a very nice paintjob, very neat. Looks good nice and clean, too, won't last long though I like how it looks with the red tanks too. Bring on some more red 60s! 60011 glows in the gloom as it passes Hall End, near Wickwar, with 6B13 Robeston - Westerleigh 60011 in DB red stabled at Westerleigh after working 6B13 from Robeston Looking rather grubbier than Tug 11, Army livery 60040 passes Hall End with 6E41 from Westerleigh to Lindsey, apparing seconds after 6B13 There are a load more from Westerleigh here http://joalder.fotopic.net/c1932474.html and the rest of today's snaps including a Colas 66 and DRS 57s cheers jo

Ha ha, I spend half the time spotting the places I've been to! I remember ticking them off that night we were waiting for 60054 at Westbury keeping warm by the exhaust of that 150 <BR>The original underframe is a bit basic, isn't it!

Hi James, Thanks, I know what you mean about them blending in now. As for the paint.... I'll be spraying the blue fade and pink doors, then adding some transfers for the text. I must get around to finishing the artwork for these

Work continues with the Sprinters, both of which have gained new exhaust pipes to improve appearances. The first photo shows the work done to the 150, 1.2mm brass rod bent to shape, with the finest wire in my toolbox wrapped round and soldered to make the supports. The plastic underframes have needed to have a little bit of material removed to allow the exhaust to wrap round and pass into the bodyshell. They will be painted silver and heat stain colour and glued on once the model is painted. I'm not sure whether to remake them or not, as this photo on Martyn Read's site shows, mine don't hang low enough below the bodywork: http://ukrailwaypics.fotopic.net/p37857083.html The 153 has had the tubing connected to the turbo made up from some smaller brass rod (0.8mm I think) along with some tube for the canister. I think this is the air intake for the engine. This rebuild work has given several benefits. It removes the boxy underframe (needed on the motorised versions to hold the motor), looks more like the prototype and also matches the Farish model a lot more closely This piccy on Hattons shows how blocky it was to start with http://www.ehattons.com/StockDetail.aspx?SID=31842 Next, a little more progress on the coupling setup - the plough is mounted on the 150 using Plastruct strip. It'll be coming off again to paint, but this was a quick test mount to check clearances. The final picture shows the extent of the modifications of the Dapol plough to make it look closer to the Farish offering. A top lip has been added to the low section using 10thou plasticard, and they have ended up looking quite similar, I'm pretty happy with the overall effect, especially given the size compromise due to using the Scharfenberg coupler. I've also drilled out the the air horns like James suggested as per his 37s - dead easy and a real improvement! I've also been stripping more mk3s, but I'll save an update on that until the mods I have planned are underway

This one's just a repaint from what I gather. 60007 was earmarked to be the first in red, which is currently undergoing a pretty major overhaul. I understand 054 and 091 are the next to be put through overhaul at Toton It'd look nice with the red Murco tanks, wouldn't it cheers jo

Found this on Fotopic earlier on. Looks tidy B) http://www.eastmidsfotos.fotopic.net/p68669755.html cheers jo

Thanks guys, I was a little apprehensive about starting to modify the existing weathering (thoughts of what if I make it worse, not better) but having done one, I'm ready to blitz the others. I have some shiny ones too Brian, though they will need toning down a bit, indeed it's a shame they're not kept in that state more often!

Victor and Margaret (08948 and 08947) were Old Oak shunters, and were named as far as I'm aware after Victor Meldrew and his wife from the tv. Howie was applied to one side of 08947, though I'm not sure the background to this. I assume it was applied after leaving Old Oak Common, the earliest I have seen it is January '98 at Didcot http://gareth-higgins.fotopic.net/p23815495.html Hope that explains things a bit

Hope everyone's had a nice Christmas, having worked loads in the run up and over Boxing Day, yesterday and today have provided a much needed break, and put me in the mood to do some modelling. So, after being inspired by Pugsley's silver bullet work here on the 4mm version, today I sat down and did the first of my fleet. It started out as a standard weathered model, and the techniques I played with will be used not only to customise my other three weathered wagons, but also to dirty up my shiny ones. The first thing I did was to adjust the base shade of the wagon, as to my eyes the Dapol brown is a bit too orange and rusty looking. Once Games Workshop acrylic Graveyard Earth (a muddy brown) was applied roughly to "brown up" the underframe, a wash of this shade mixed with Vermin Brown and Chaos Black was applied all over the barrel and chassis to bring the two together. This has given the tank a much duller brown shade, and removed the almost satin finish of the factory weathering. The photo above compares the shades This shows both sides of the wagon, the prototype of which can be seen here on Martyn Read's Fotopic site. The wagon appears to have had a bit of an overfill, and I think my model is best described as based on, rather than a copy of, but I'm happy with it. Once the brown mix was removed where needed from the ECC logo with a cocktail stick soaked in screenwash, various white GW acrylic washes were applied around the barrel. Various drybrushing and stippling effects followed, with several thicknesses of wash applied in between. Once I was happy with the overall look, and a couple of big streaks added, I moved onto the smaller streaks. These were applied with gouache, which I first tried properly here. Small dots were applied with a cocktail stick where I wanted the streak to start. Then, with a barely damp brush - I lick my finger, then gently run a brush through it, so very little moisture makes it to the brush - downward movements were made over the spot to drag it into a streak. The effect is variable, so can have a denser start point (like a rust spot) or be blended into the streak or surrounding area, like with spills. Here's another photo, I tried to take it from a similar angle to the one of Martyn's linked above I was also in the mood to do some more to 08947, in this case adding the transfers and starting painting the underframe with a wash or two of Graveyard Earth. There's still a long way to go with this 'un, but it's getting there bit by bit. The variation in shade on the blue is where I have used Klear to give a nice shiny base for the transfers. So far work done includes: - Remove unwanted marker lights and trunking - Renumber and name using custom transfers - Fitted new post 98 OHL flashes, rusted old ones where needed - Replace whistle with air horn - Fit detailing air pipes - Detail painting (rusty silencer, cantrail stripe for example) - Replace cab end buffers with Oleos Still to be done - Fit driver and refit glazing - Fit new handrails - Fade, weather and varnish the body - Weather underframe Although I've modelled it beacause of the time it spent at Westbury, I'll be using it on Baby Laira until I get round to doing an FGW 08 or two More in the new year! jo

Nice one Martin, I have 4 weathered and 4 unweathered to do make into a single rake. I was thinking of using gouache for this - thanks for the inspiration!

Weren't some of those STS tanks in that pic in Rail Express of that 60 with the Bullets and TCA? It's good to see some better shots of the TTA now they're finished, look top mate, I'm aiming for a similar shade when I pimp my bullets What are you doing for the discharge doors on the Tiger?

Here's one from last Thursday at Hullavington. Just beyond the bridge it was tipping with rain, and the sun was shining through it as it set cheers jo

I hadn't considered doing the horns, but its a good suggestion, and it looked so simple on your 37. That's added to my to do list now...

Thanks James, took a little longer that I intended, but I have now added better photos to illustrate this in the entry linked to here

Here are the photos I promised in the original entry here, hopefully they illustrate my ramblings a little better A comparison shot between a fully detailed Farish 150 with BSI and the Tomix Scharfenberg, hopefully showing why I am using the Farish BSI to detail the outer end of the class 153 Scharfenbergs together. The height discrepancy is nowhere near as bad as the photo looks, it's due to the 150's bogie pointing up slightly Nice and close coupling. Although not illustrated here, the corridor connectors are pretty close, and whilst not as close as new Mk1s, the close coupling mechanism on the Dapol 153 allows them to negotiate corners ok. It really does show the difference between the Dapol and Farish attempts at the bogies though... Work on making the front fairing a more realistic shape, including the electrical jumper cut out. This is the end that will be detailed with the scale dummy coupling Various angles, hopefully explaining the coupling mounting to the sprinter bogie as per the previous blog entry A trimmed down Dapol 153 plough against that of a Farish 150, showing how although it's still a bit thick, with a lot of cutting and filing it can be made a reasonable shape - this image shows how huge it was before: Between snapping the photos and getting the chance to get them online, I have done some work on the underframe, will pop that in the next update in detail, but basically this afternoon consisted of soldering up the underframe pipework