SNCF stephen

Today I spent the morning masking and spraying up the DU65 Draisine that has been sitting in my UFO pile for months. The spraying went well and this afternoon I touched up the parts that needed that extra fine detail. As with all things like this the camera makes it look awful but from normal viewing distance I am extremely pleased. Here are a few snaps: I need to tidy up some of the painting and add the glazing. After that there are a few details I want to add like the battery box for the crane and the number plates etc. Next on the list is to finish the X3900 for which I ordered some fox transfers. That will be good to get 2 UFO's off my long list. Progress would have also been made on the X2400 had I managed to find some buffers of the correct size. Unfortunately they are quite difficult to find. Thanks for reading Stephen

Wow, what a great set of pictures. I am not hugely interested in Narrow Gauge but I think the Welsh Highland line will get a visit in the near future. Thanks for sharing these.

There is nothing like a nice blog after a weekend of modelling! I have to say that I have not been able to get as much done as I had hoped but I have pushed on and got a few UFO's nearer to completion. Here are the results: X3900 Inspection Car I had not realised until about 2 weeks ago that the roof was painted a different colour to the rest of the body. This was due to the fact that there are not many images of this unit on the internet and those that are on the internet are usually of the lower body. Therefore I have worked on the roof in the last week. First of all I moved the roof vents around so that they are nearer to the look of the prototype. Then this morning I painted the roof grey. There was a little bleeding of the colour around the bulkhead lines but with a bit of touching up it is quite satisfactory. And the first post of the driving end of the vehicle (it had been masked off for over a year!!!): I have found some transfers for the white lines on the side of the vehicle and I might have a go at hand painting the whiskers at both ends. DU65 Draisine No work this week but a picture of the cream colour it has had applied to it. It will be masked properly and painted red when I can find the time to get all the airbrush gubbins out again! X2400 & X2800 These have now both received a coat of primer. I have also ordered some buffers for these units as the ones I have are not the right shape and I need to find some oval ones. Luckily I have sourced some! Here is an picture of X2400 which will be painted once the buffers are sorted: Thanks for reading Stephen

Wow, this is very impressive David. I have just sold my two Modemo trams so unfortunately I cannot assist you there but they are available on ebay (either directly from Japan or imported through UK distributors). They do them in different colours and there are limited runs on them so each colour is limited edition. I have never seen a chassis available on its own but I know that there are more and more chassis' becoming available from Tomix and Greenmax etc that might suit your requirements. Keep up the good work!

I like the DLR vehicles you have made up behind the 86's. Are you scratchbuilding tram bodies now as well?

Today I have created a test plank where I can try and perfect new techniques and elements of the colour etc before ruining the modules that I have built. The following techniques and elements needed testing to get right: Colouring Kato Track with a spray can, Ballast over Kato Track (I wanted to see how easy or hard this is with Jonsons Klear), Foamboard platforms (both height and colouring needed to be checked), DAS Clay and a wire brush to try and give areas of compacted ballast, Water features, A road system. So far I have had a go at the first three elements of testing. I am unhappy with the ballast colour so might try Javis Fine beige. Essentially I am trying to achieve the look as per the prototype picture below, although I am conscious that I need to compromise in certain areas: The next few things on my list are the DAS clay and the road system. I am thinking of printing my own road background onto card because I need a very light grey. I am also going to use some of the textured spray cans to give the platforms a gravel looking surface (as per the prototype). Unfortunately I doubt this will look amazing in N gauge but I am struggling to find alternatives. Thanks for looking.

I have only just gotten around to reading this thread. Thanks for everyone's insights into this new product (and DapolDave's excellent input to the thread). Since I am at the design stage of my layout I think I will be putting in a few of these in key locations. Are there any plans to work with Peco to create a piece of track that could disguise the magnets a little better? Cheers

Hi Missy, that is a lovelly simple design. I really enjoy watching your work (it is immaculate). Keep up the good work!

I hadn't! I shall look into that! Thanks for the information!

It is snowing outside and very cold so I have stayed in the house and got to work on one of my UFO's. This particular UFO is the X3900 which is the Executive railcar for the SNCF management. These were taken by me in 2010. It is now looking a little sorry for itself and is not available for service! Due to some overenthusiastic filing last year I had to fill some of the front windows and work on them a little this morning. Following this I sprayed another coat of primer onto the shell and the buffers. While I waited for it to dry I got out an airbrush kit I have been lent. I thought it would be better to borrow the kit first before making the big financial plunge. It is a Draper Airbrush with a large tank of air. I could have obtained a compressor but I do not have the space right now and I thought I would give this a whirl first. I then mixed my AMF87 AGP Vert paint with some thinners to get the right consistancy. I started with 2 parts thinner with 1 part paint. However when I applied this first coat the consistancy did not seem right. I then added a small amount more paint before test spraying the buffers. I was quite happy with how they turned out so I proceeded to airbrush the body. I need to paint two stripes over the length of the vehicle but I might wait to do that. I am thinking of doing this by hand and masking off the areas I want to paint.

That tram looks really smooth. It is coming along very nicely. I would love to see more videos when you have time.

Thanks to you both for the feedback. The advice I was given was to keep the windows in because at this scale it might cause a warping due to the narrowness of the roof supports. I am tempted to give it a go though.

This morning I had a go at taking out the windows of my DU65 Draisine. I was using a drill and unfortunately the plastic was too brittle on this batch and this happened: It was a reminder that 3D printing is a very fragile art. Luckily the frosted option was chosen so that the windows could be left in situ should this type of thing occur. So I put together one of the other DU65's I had to hand. It only required the bonnet and the sides at the back to be added. I need to add the exhaust manifold but this will be done as soon as I get some styrene. I then want to paint up a few examples. With leaving the windows in situ I think it will be tricky. Here is the original prototype: And a line up of the three:

Hi David, I really like the construction site idea and the crane is superb. Have you put any thought into what it is that is being constructed (or demolished) in that area? The reason I say that is because if it is a construction site then I would suggest that there would be some sort of foundation that would be below the surface, but still visable. The current development adjacent to Snow Hill station in Birmingham would be a good example of what goes on beneath the ground level (which is still able to be seen due to the fact that the development is incomplete). I am sure that whatever you do with this part of the layout it will turn out fantastic. Stephen

This layout looks fantastic. I look forward to seeing how it develops. I have a big soft spot for the Wrexham and Shropshire services and I really like your 4 carriage rake. Did you purchase another set so you could make it up to protoctypical length?

So my old layout has gone to the train room in the sky (actually it went to the tip!). My new layout will be modular and I will dedicate a thread in the main forum to the development of the layout itself. However this blog will remain as my workbench blog. So with this in mind I thought I would do a post about the various projects I aim to progress this year. These are all UFO's from the past few years and regular blog readers will no doubt recognise some of the models. 1 - X3900. This model is of the SNCF Executive Inspection Salloon. Two examples were converted from standard "Picasso" railcars. The conversion is from an old Del Prado X3800. It requires the windows at the front to be made slightly smaller (I went too far, whoops) and then painting. Luckily I have sourced paint for all of my models now. 2 - X5800. This never turned out as well as I had hoped. I am thinking of designing and 3D printing some of the components that I made using plasticard as well as the cab. However this requires me to gain some knowledge of Sketchup. It has a band of tape around it as I was going to paint it. Also the chassis requires work.... lol 3 - X5600. The replacement cab I manufactured was not that great so another 3D printing project may be in the pipeline. Aside from that it just needs painting and glazing. 4 - X2800. This is an unrefurbished example of one of these units. It requires painting, detailing and then glazing. 5 - X2400. This model will be used regularly on the new layout. It requires painting, detailing and then glazing. 6 - ADX. This model was a Christmas present. The detail is fantastic and features many smaller details. The construction of this model will be pushing my skills quite hard. 7 - Eymoutiers Station. I have made progress in the second attempt at making this model. However since I do not have a layout at the moment it is in pieces in a box. This construction technique makes use of printed card in the same way as bmth trains Ring Road and Cross Street layouts utilise. 8 - The new layout. This will be detailed in a layout thread when I get going. I expect it will be early February before I get going with the modules. Still, it makes my railway room look tidy.

That new office building really looks the part. I can almost imagine having a meeting in one of the rooms and looking out of the window whenever a train rolls by. Have you considered modelling a multi-story car park?