Steadfast

Yeah, paper mache on both sides sorted the main surface out near enough, shrinking both sides together I guess. A replacement piece will be cut from the sheet, and paper mache'd on both sides before mounting on the main board, hopefully preventing the warping this time! If that fails, I don't know what's next... cheers jo

Indeed there really is only one way to find out...that foamboard and paper mache can warp horribly I've ripped off the recessed part that was to facilitate the pits, currently thinking of a way around the problem. Nay worry though, progress is still occurring with the rolling stock, with a mk3 in pieces and additional holes made in it, and a nice bag of Microtrains couplers awaiting fitting. More on that soon cheers jo

Very kind of you! It was some lucky timing how everything came together Here's one from last Thursday (14/10/10) with the 6th Tug of the year to work 6B33 Theale - Robeston. 2010 has seen 60074, 60013, 60049, 60010, 60084 and now 60096 work this train. What chance 60099 eventually making it down to south Wales? cheers jo

Another tug to work off Westbury today - 60048. Making a welcome sight in place of the more usual 66, 60048 passes Claverton with 6C41 Newport ADJ to Westbury engineers working. The ballast boxes behind the tug were a bit more varied that the often seen set of yellow 'Falcons', today formed of a pair JNAs, a large set of MCA/MDAs and a trio of MOAs on the rear Weather wasn't great today, but the sound of the 60 certainly went well on the way of compensating! There are some alternative views here too: http://joalder.fotop...t/c1906340.html cheers jo

It's a weird one, sat with mine in front of me now, I reckon the fact that the coupler gap in the middle is too wide makes the rest of the plough look too wide. The dodgy cab front will be hidden against the 150 on mine, even with a respray I don't think it's easily correctable. Again, now the model is in my hand, I think the rain strip is fixable,I'd assumed the rivets should continue further down, and that the rain strip was a work of fiction, but a bit of file worrk will improve things. I'm popping the Scharfenberg off the big cab end onto the 150, and using the Farish detailing kit (including plough probably) in it's place with a set of TPM horns. This way the Dapol ploughs are hidden inside, like the dodgy cab front I'm not sure whether to work on the underframe or not at the moment jo

Hi Justin, Great project - I've got a dummy to semi-permanently couple with a Farish 150, and as part of this I've been looking at a similar detailing job as well as a respray, so I'm watching yours with interest! It's good to see that the ploughs clean up so well with a quick blast of a file. One thing I'd suggest is to narrow them down aswell while the files are out. Comparing them to the 150, and prototype pics, they seem to be 1mm or so too wide either side. I'll be interested to see how you get the glazing out, as this, and separating the body and chassis have me stumped at the mo... The more I look, the more there seems to be to do, I'd like to remove the rain strip and flush the cab front at the small cab end for starters, but I think these are too much work to do without wrecking the model Good luck! jo

Small world eh Dan? Seems like 074 was your pet for a couple of days. It was good to hear the 60 thunder past, here's hoping to it perhaps happening a little more often...yeah right! I don't suppose you can shed any light on Shaun the Sheep hitching a lift on the front? 60074 wasn't missing Margam that much was it? cheers jo

I believe it was on the Acton - Theale sand circuit today Phil, with the VTG MRL sand hoppers As I type this we've had a day of torrential rain, virtually horizontal at times. Definitely the best weather of the week was yesterday! Still, it's given the car a wash cheers jo

Very interesting - thanks for sharing that Dave! I'm sorry to do it again to you all guys, here's another tug on the Mendip stone, captured earlier today Making it a pair of 60s to work a Mendip stone in the last fortnight, 60074 'Teenage Spirit' powers past Great Cheverell sounding excellent hauling 6M20 from Whatley to St Pancras. The orange RMC hoppers do go well with the blue loco. cheers jo

Some interesting work there. I'm not at all keen on liveries without yellow ends, foreign stuff looks strange enough to me, let alone seeing British stuff without it! I do like the CN inspired 66 though! Here's a few I've done lately Yet another on the theme of the US freight companies, what if CSX had bought the ex BR freight sectors? I'm still not sure whether this works well or not at all! Here's the vision that was going through my mind when it first came out that a silver 60 was being done for Tata, yep, it's just the Corus livery with Tata logos:P 60015 is rumoured to soon be appearing in red, with more to follow if the whispers are to be believed. A preview? What with Corus/Tata/BSC, Stobart, Bardon and several others getting customer liveried locos, what if EWS did one for long term customer Murco? cheers jo

Thanks for the kind words guys - it helps get the va va voom back when you're struggling to make progress! Jon - it's always interesting to see how techniques transfer between different applications, be it military, cars, railways or even non modelling all together! Sometimes, something that isn't the prescribed way to do it may seem alien, but works as well, if not better than other techniques. And if you didn't realise it's N, then I'm wowed! Martin, some of the washes and streaks you've achieved with gouache in the past have really helped to get my head around the stuff, though there's no substitute to trying it yourself I wasn't that impressed when I played a couple of years ago, but I seem to have stumbled across a technique that works for me now. They do seem good for creating a dusty look, like a light spray of poop track dirt on loco sides Not sure about Taunton yet though, will be in touch;)

Thanks for the comments guys - I'm still experimenting with gouache myself, sometimes it works, others it doesn't, but it is nice and forgiving James, what I've found with the gouache is because of the streaking effect, you can get a line thinner than a brush stroke, so in N it's actually easier than enamels. I used to be a 100% enamel person, but I've diversified, though I still swear by Railmatch enamel for spraying. Dad said to me earlier about dirt varying with scale and the 67 looking right - the subtle shade and tone variation is unachievable in other media, at least for me, so it's well worth having a play

I've managed to get a bit of modelling in today, with both my dummy 67 and my autoballasters hitting the kitchen table today for a dunk in the gouache. Anyone who's not come across this stuff before - it's ace, give it ago! Gouache is a type of paint that's similar to Artist's acrylic, but able to be re-wetted and re-worked once they are dry. This makes them great for rust streaking and subtle dirt streaks for example. It was Martin (Pugsley) who first introduced these to me via a workbench thread on a previous RMweb, and they really are good once you get used to them! The 67 has had its base weathering applied for some time (airbrushed Tamiya and Railmatch), but today I finally got round to adding to it with some gouache. Some of the colour changes are so subtle, they look great to the eye, but the camera doesn't pick them up well. I might have a go tomorrow if it's sunny and I can find time between F1 and my birthday Oh, by the way, clicking the pics will make them nice and big These first two are a general overview which shows the overall state of the loco. It looks suitably grubby and unwashed, but not filthy There are several bits I want to add to or alter now I've seen the photos, but that's the joy of Gouache! Both ends of the skip highlighting the variation in shade, at the exhaust end the dirt tends to wash down the cab front, especially if the loco spends weeks coupled to a mk2 without a clean. The cabside shot tries to hightlight the streaking and dirt, but as I've already said, a lot of it is hard to see in a photo. Side on shot of 67026. When this is varnished to seal the gouache, I'm going to try masking the wiper arcs Here's another 67 on the FGW working I'm modelling, I've based the weathering on this one amongst others 3 of my 5 Autoballasters. The weathering on these is mostly Games Workshop acrylics, though I'll be airbrushing a light coat of Railmatch sleeper grime on the lower bits and bogies, and some Tamiya Hull Red (rust!) to blend the slightly brush-marky weathering together. Bleached bone has been stippled on top of the rust in places to tone it back, and give a different effect to the raw paint applied. Please excuse the peeling transfer on the generator! The rust spots on the canopy and exhaust are both good examples of why I love working with gouache - once you start playing you don't want to stop! I haven't payed too much attention to the interior as it'll be getting a load of ballast. The prototype photo is one of several I've been working from purely for the canopy and shows the effect I'm aiming for, albeit mine's a little more rusty That's it for now, not sure when I'll get chance to do more to these and update - soon hopefully, as the JJAs have been on the go for nearly 2 years! jo

Cheers Trev, word on the street is that 099 is going (in fact may be already) silver at Toton. Apparently heading to Scunthorpe Monday, so silver and Scunthorpe...Corus? Pretty please cheers jo

Yesterday 60071 made its way up to Westbury from Eastleigh on the evening engineers train. A nice surprise was to hear that it today worked to Exeter from Westbury with stone from the Mendips. Here's the returning empties earlier this afternoon, passing over Fairwood Junction on the way into Westbury with 7C28 from Exeter Riverside. This is a shot I've wanted to do for ages, a 60 at Fairwood on the Mendip stone, and with the sun today it was worth waiting for! Despite looking good on the oil tanks, it is nice to photograph a 60 on something different! Here's to it lasting... cheers jo

That looks really nice Jim! It looks squarer than mine On mine I admit I cheated and just painted the retaining hooks onto the side, though I suspect a piece of etched something or other may your friend here...

Here's today's tug action. 60054 arrived at Westbury on Tuesday, and was booked to work a Merehead to Acton stone last night/early this morning, but spent the night stabled at Westbury, with fitters reportedly fiddling with it yesterday and today whilst shunting the yard. A trip to Westbury last night after work didn't produce the hoped for stone working, but at least it was visible! Here's hoping we might see some 60 action on the Mendip stone this year yet And this afternoon saw the 5th 60 of the year to make its way onto 6B33 Theale - Robeston - Triple Grey 60084. There are more photos of these and other stuff today at http://joalder.fotop...t/c1897123.html cheers jo

Thanks Graham - next modelling session should see some progress! That was certainly my expression Pete - and for you to only need half of it! The way I see it, I've got the Farish stuff I can detail up as the basic shape is fine (unlike the old 47, 37 etc). If it doesn't work, I can fall back to the Dapol

60013 Robert Boyle on 6B33 Theale - Robeston empties. Railfreight grey with yellow EWS sticker. This train is long, but not as long as the Westerleigh - Robeston Murco circuit that regularly loads to 28 tanks (even 29 last week), or some of the runs further north out of Lindsey. 36 tanks has been mentioned in the past IIRC cheers jo

Hi Pete, The hardest part is because the nose is curved in both directions, and there is no moulding line to follow, unlike doors etc. I estimated the size from photos, and drew this on a piece of masking tape which was cut out and stuck on the model. When this looked right, I chain drilled roughly to size, then cleaned up with a knife and file. I overdid the filing a bit, but some plastic strip soon put it right! The coupling is a piece of brass tube (just over 1mm diameter IIRC, I think the prototype is about 6 inches dia) with a loop of 0.2mm wire soldered into the end. The mounting inside the nose allows it full movement up, down, left and right. I'll take a picture when it comes back out, as it's only test fitted to see if it works at the moment. Basically a piece of scrap etch was folded up, with various bits of wire to act as pivots Go for it - a bit of enhancement work really shows that the Farish HST is the right shape, just lacking in detail, and does scrub up well. I was even more pleased with taking this route when I heard the Dapol HST is likely to be in the region of £170!