Steadfast

Indeed Martyn, I was thinking about having a go at cutting a door window or two out. Will see if I can bring myself to take the drill and file to the coaches! Passengers in the seating will be relatively sparse - as per the real thing

Over the last couple of days I've got some decent progress in the class 67 project. First up is the work I've done to the mk2s. The BSO is the most involved, as work is needed to modify the roof vent and interior layout. The standard roof vents were cut off and filed/filled at the guard's end of the BSO. The replacements are cut from plastic strip, 2mm wide cut into 3mm lengths, not sure on the thickness though. The interior is a cut down TSO moulding, with a piece of 20thou plastic sheet cut to form the partition. It's a T-shape, being mounted on top of the seats, and dropping to floor level between them With this work done, attention could turn to more cosmetic elements - out with the paint! This photo shows the effect I'm aiming for with the roof Here the roof has had several washes of orangey brown, before drybrushing a similar shade on. It looks quite brash at the moment, but once I've airbrushed a darker tone over the top, it should give a nice variety in shade. Here's the end details mentioned last time (etched corridor, RCH cables, lamp iron and handrails). I'm not worried about the crude white painting, as the ends of the coaches are very grubby! Last shot of the BSO is over exposed to help show how effective the interior is, with it's simple 3 colour paint job in white, grey and blue. Needs some people adding though! On to the work on the 67 - this first picture shows the modified baffle plate. It was removed from the bogie, and the mounting prongs cut off. The cut out for the coupler was filled with a piece of plastic and filled to make good. A 0.8mm hole was drilled for the ETH cable (0.3mm wire) with a piece of plastic glued behind it to secure the cable. A couple of shots of the 67 with the baffle plate fitted. As well as this, I've added the knuckle coupler (off a Farish 66) and cut lever (0.3mm wire), painted the wiper blades, multiple socket and paint chips on the light cluster, with just the air pipes needing adding once I've finished touching in the black paint on the lower front end. I also need to make a tail lamp to stick on the lamp bracket. The underframe has had a light dry brushing on the underframe, but more will come from the airbrush, along with roof dirt The exhaust was painted a dark metallic grey, then drybrushed with a rusty colour and black and grey washes, to try and create something a little more realistic looking than the Dapol finish of silver with orange speckles

Hi Chris, I've got to admit I don't know the Rugeley area very well, but I've not seen any mention on timing lists or gen reports of anywhere on the WCML, but yesterday came across a photo of one working through Stafford with an FLHH coal train, which really threw me! I'm trying to work out what actually goes on with these workings. cheers jo

Same area, but the working doesn't touch the WCML, it comes up through Rugeley town station and runs round in the power station cheers jo

Sounds like it was number 6's turn to break today, working 6Z70 to Rugeley Here's 003 on 9/3/10 with the 4Z70 return to Portbury cheers jo

Ok, so some shots of the starting points of this project. Overview and proof of the concept The detailing bits as supplied by Dapol. On what's a 95 quid model, I'm disappointed that details don't particularly match a 67 - there's no knuckle coupler or cut lever, and the air pipes don't match the prototype. I know it sounds like a tiny niggle, but surely on a model this expensive it should be right? So on the dummy on the rear, the knuckle coupler will be nicked from a Farish 66 and the cut lever and pipes made up by hand 67026 before any work has been done on adding details Farish Mk2 BSO fitted with wire handrails and lamp irons, together with TPM etched gangway and RCH jumpers, together with BHE brass buffers. All corridor doors have been repainted from rail red to black - on the inner coaches this stops a bright red patch appearing each time the train corners, and at the outer ends an etched brass door (part of the TPM set) will be fitted, painted cream. Time to carry on, more later Righto, quick sit-rep. CDL lights have been painted onto the mk2s in a dark orangey brown, baffle plate mods and ETH fitment are done, along with the knuckle cut lever. They just need fixing onto the loco. I have a 66 ready, unaware it's going to donate it's knuckle coupler during the next session. I'm undecided as to whether to model the GPS mount on the cab at the cooler group end. I may see if I can, given this is the end of the loco I'm fully detailing. Targets for next time (which more than likely won't be done!) are to mod the vents on the BSO roof, start painting the coach roofs and get the details stuck onto the skip.

On Thursday I took a trip to East Somerset Models to collect my dummy 67026. I also picked up four blue-grey mk2s and some seating strips too, allowing me to throw together a representation of the Cardiff - Taunton (or Paignton) service operated by FGW. The 67s that I have (006 and 026) haven't worked together on this working (indeed 026 hasn't at all IIRC) and the mk2s aren't the right variant of aircon, but it's as near a representation as I'll get with RTR stock, and I wanted it to be a quickie project. Having not had a chance to get out to the garage and spray the crane due to it being full of the old kitchen, work started today on detailing up the mk2s and 67. The loco end of the BSO and one of the TSOs have/will have wire handrails and lampirons, TPM gangway and BHE brass buffers fitted to improve their appearance. I'm not bothering with the inner connections, as it's less noticable without the gap by the loco. BR Lines seating inserts have been painted up (blue seats) and look good inside the coach. The real thing still has Virgin XC seats, but through the tinted windows, and in the darkness of an N gauge carriage, the colour looks fine. The BSO has had a bulkead added at the midpoint of the coach. Now need to dig out the plastic people! The next stage is to get the roofs looking a bit like these mk1s and add the cantrail stripe I'm trying to got to town with the end of 67026 - it'll be getting a tail lamp, full body mounted baffle plate, swing head coupler and cut lever and full ETH gubbins on the baffle plate. Basically, the ETH recepticle is a small piece of plastic strip, and the cable is the Dapol head, fitted with a piece of wire going through a hole in the baffle plate, just like the real ones! All these details can be seen in this shot of Royal 67006 at Pilning I'll stick some photos of the models up once we have daylight so I can take them, hopefully tomorrow

I certainly hope it will look the part James! Yeah I'm going to do the transfers, I need to get in touch with the guy who's printed some ALPS stuff for me in the past to check the details of artwork to print white and black. I've got a sheet of artwork that keeps growing (Yeoman logos for the 59 etc) so I can add these to that hopefully

Well, yet again, I start by realising how long ago it was I last updated the blog. Come to think of it, how long ago it was I last did some proper modelling! At Warley I picked up a Kibri kit for a rail crane. Although not a design in use in the UK, it's similar to the large Kirow cranes in use on engineering work over here. It is an expensive kit (the £29.95 I paid was a knock down price, some websites list it at up to US$130!!!) but does go together well. I plan to paint it up in Grant Rail orange and blue - was in Hobbycraft the other day comparing a photo on the internet on my phone with the Tamiya colour rack! Here is the support wagon - these size cranes seem to run with anywhere between one and four support wagons, depending on the individual crane. This is a Farish Freightliner flat, modified with some Evergreen I-beam to create the side rails and buffer beams. The over hang is meant to be some kind of step over the buffers - may fit a TPM etched ferry walkway on here if I can find them in my boxes of bits. The I-beam has had the inside projection removed on the lower edge because otherwise it clashed with the angled bars on the underframe. The small ladder was soldered up from wire, and the one up the side of the mess and stores container is N Brass signal ladder soldered to a piece of wire to mount it. I mounted the hadbrake wheels by cutting a length of wire the width of the wagon, soldering a hand wheel to each end and after it's glued into a groove under the wagon, bent to shape to the right height. Can you tell I've been practising with the soldering iron recently? The spreader beam sat on the wagon is simply a piece of I-beam, with the ends cut to 45 degrees and several holes drilled through. It should look a bit more separaate from the deck once it's painted This isn't strictly an update from the kitchen table either, since the table is currently in the living room while the new kitchen is fitted! Once it is, and the garage is clear of cupboards and white goods, I'll whack a coat of primer on the whole setup, and the 59 underframe 'til the next time jo

Sounds like No.2 failed today with low power, needing a shed (585 IIRC) to be sent from Stoke Gifford to rescue it from the Cheltenham area. Hopefully the diagnostics fitted to the first 6 will help GE to nail down the causes of these faults, to help make the follow on locos have a smoother introduction cheers jo

A couple I did whilst RMweb was down And don't ask what inspired the Colas Desiro - besides a tamper, I don't know! cheers jo

Now I'm getting used to them, I do quite like them. Certainly looks ok with a bit of decent sun. Rather like the livery, the new Freightliner logo looks limp in comparison with the older style cheers jo

Another factor that seems to make a bit of a difference, is that with the 59 and 66, EMD re-bodied and shrank existing products, so reliability of the mechanicals was proven. The class 70 has got a lot more new kit and developement in it, it's not just US GE inside a smaller shell cheers jo

It looks to me that the wagon in the photo is a recoded KFA of the TIPH numbered type, as due from Hornby, unless I'm very much mistaken... cheers jo

My name is huh? My name is what?... Lovely work, such a shame you're not going to pose one down, and they'll be largely hidden. Such are the joys of "every detail" modelling!

Damn, this thread had sort of passed me by, assuming it was about the old GWR propeller wagons. Now I've got another engineers wagon I'd like to model cheers jo

Replacements for the class 310 EMUs in use with Regional Railways, ok so they'd probably have got Centro instead, which gives me another idea... Early Network South East, based on the application to CEPs, VEPs and CIGs Network South East similar to that applied to 321s and the Networkers Time for a browse for inspiration and some pie me thinks jo

Athletes, it's the naming policy The problem with moving the logo further back is that you have to start the dark grey dotted line in mid-air, instead of at a natural break (ie a door), though I think the 158 would need this anyway. Wherever it went, the logo couldn't really be any bigger on the Desiro Basically, it's a greyscale version, with all the different colours equalised, to give a flat base to any colour application. With most of mine, this includes the grill detail etc, but for the Desiro I created a flat grey body area from scratch, then added all the shadows and reflections by hand. It takes absolutely ages to make the template, but once done, various liveries can be done in a flash. Colour can be applied either by playing with colour balance and hue and saturation of the grey template, or by overlaying a colour layer. Both have pros and cons, and will need additional work on top to help create convincing shadows and depth. To be honest I find the lasso and wand are more hassle than they're worth, I much prefer to use the Pen Tool that allows you to trace a course or route. You'd need to get the permission of the copyright owner, though it does depend on the original copyright terms. The simple way round it is to use your own photos, though one of mine is on someone else's picture, though I ask for permission and he sent me the full resolution to work with. Each time that image is used, I credit him in the caption, and I know when Paul does his, he uses images that are available for re-use, and still credits the source HTH jo

To be honest the hard work is already done with a 60 - it's a nice looking loco. Add in the fact the red base is quite to go lighter or darker from and it's ok all told. Anyway, I've now created a Desiro template, and here are the first two out of Photoshop. So what if Virgin got a blanket WCML franchise, with both the slow and fast services? Ok, so if electrification ever comes down this way, how about some Desiros for Bristol area commuting? I've tried a new technique creating the template for these - how does the lighting on the bodies work? The method I've used means it should be more adjustable to make the reflections look right for light or dark colours. Next up should hopefully be NSE and Regional Railways Desiros cheers jo

Nice work on the 395 Paul, it's inspired me to crack out the Aquafresh paint! So, what if instead of splitting the freight sectors by flow, it was split by region, and in the south east it was taken under the wing of NSE. Or, on shadow privatisation, TLF-SE became part of the NSE empire (60011 was a mainline tug) in some kind of twisted management buyout when Network SouthEast was privatised. I dunno, any excuse, it doesn't look bad in toothpaste express colours Privatisation never happened, and in efforts to provide a faster service, Network SouthEast invested in 5 car Pendolino derived 125mph commuter units. A new corporate image was introduced by BR in the early 21st century, with NSE getting a new typeface to match, giving a more modern image The longer distance Pendolino type EMUs obtained by Network SouthEast were painted in a colour scheme similar to that carried by the locos and hauled stock to show their longer distance use cheers jo

Very nice Mr York, certianly shows off Keyhaven at its best! Just waiting for the sea mist to roll in now

Mmm, for some reason it does seem to sit on the 70 well. The shanks green was perfected by accident, I had real trouble getting that shade! cheers jo

Been having a play in Photoshop tonight - DRS is one of the more complex, but didn't take as long as I feared it would So what if Freightliner paint another loco up for a contract renewal? Love the Merseyrail 378 btw Paul, nice one cheers jo

Tbh I haven't got any wire fine enough to add all the bits I wanted to. Some bits of the chassis look very bland at the mo - I may have to see what treats Hobbycraft can offer, I think some of the jewellery wire is very fine

Thanks James - like I said, paint could go either way! Mind you, the wire battery isolator switch I fitted will be worth it once painted red