eldavo

Whoa, brave man. Attacking an expensive kit with a burr!! I'm guessing you won't really know whether you have the right effect until a coat of gloss goes on. It'll make a heck of a difference if you can pull it off.

Cheers

Dave

The hardstanding looks very neat and tidy Will. I have no doubt the ballast will weather nicely.

Cheers

Dave

Love the bramble effects on the cutting sides. It's all beautifully crafted. Hope to get up to Expo to see it.

Cheers

Dave

I all else fails there is water-based flux available that does not need washing off/neutralising. Can't find the link for the supplier at the moment but it's here on RMWeb somewhere in a couple of threads. Does seem odd that the motor is fixed to the body.

Cheers

Dave

That looks interesting and a perfectly logical starting point really, just not traditional (for the model). How will you access the siding behind the signal box?

Cheers

Dave

Aha. the 7mm bug has bitten. You're doomed, doomed I say.

Cheers

Dave

Crackin'. Really like the build up of different green textures. Works for me.

Cheers

Dave

Great stuff, works a treat. Might have to take a trip to B&Q for some of that foam I think.

Cheers

Dave

Neat bounce. If you can slow down the the initial pull off then that would look the absolute business.

Cheers

Dave

Definitely giving the right feel. Would have been a great shame if nobody else could see all that detail. Looks really nice and grubby.

Cheers

Dave

Now that is a cracking way of doing tiles. Gotta be a market for that.

Cheers

Dave

Clearly the size of your toys really does matter. Great fun but I think you'll have to build a banker for deep bits on the far curve.

Cheers

Dave

Now that is very nice. Certainly adding real depth to the scene even with things incomplete. I see absolutely no problem calling in an expert on occasions especially if it adds to the layout as much as that.

Cheers

Dave

Another alternative to tape is to use a little PVA, latex solution (Copydex) or contact adhesive. You only need enough to hold the track until it is ballasted so very little really. With these and the tape solution you can carefully lift and try again if things aren't quite right.

Definitely wouldn't recommend Araldite as there will be no going back once that has cured!

Cheers

Dave

Look forward to seeing it at the weekend as I didn't get to the members day this year.

Cheers

Dave

You've got a tremendous eye for detail Martin. It may be attempt number 4 for the arrows but they certainly look convincing now.

Cheers

Dave

That really looks the business. Great work.

Cheers

Dave

Aha, got there in the end then matey. Good stuff.

Cheers

Dave

30th August 2009

Pretty much finished weathering the M7 but not without a degree of hassle. After attention with the weathering powders the loco was given a light spraying of Humbrol Matt Coat to seal everything using an air brush. Unfortunately this dried with a white bloom in several places which seriously messed things up! This is the 2nd time this has happened so I think that pot of matt varnish is going in the bin.

Rather than try and strip everything off and start again I thought I would attempt a rescue. A light wash of acrylic grime (brown and black mixture) was applied over the whole of the loco with the roof given a rough coat of matt black. This seems to have recovered the situation reasonably and disguised the bloom in the varnish. I may stick with this at least for now. The loco is due to be ambling up and down the Winchester club layout at an exhibition in a couple of weeks so I'm not keen to start stripping off the paintwork at the moment.

Apologies for the poor image quality but I forgot to take my camera to the clubroom when I was doing some testing and so had to use my cameraphone!

Cheers

Dave

23rd August 2009

A little more work done on the M7 this week. A missing step has been replaced with a bit of appropriately bent brass, couplings and buffers have been sorted out and weathering has started. The loco has had some rust spots added followed by coats of general grime. Today I started work with the weathering powders. More work to be done but it's coming along. The rust colour is rather accentuated by the evening sun and may need toning down a touch.

Cheers

Dave

19th September 2009

Well it's taken around 4 months to sort it out but I think I have done everything I plan to do to my bent and battered Jinty. I had a touch of hassle with getting the gearbox sorted out, even after replacing, it due to the state of the coupling rods and other chassis parts I had decided not to strip completely back to basic parts. In hindsight I should have done the same to the chassis as I did with the body, blow torched it back to the raw parts.

The loco has now had some running-in and has been weathered. Amazingly this loco spent pretty much all day last Sunday being used as the yard pilot/shunter on Abbotstone at the Woking show! If anybody had suggested to me that this loco would be usable in front of the public at an exhibition when I was staring at a box full of charred brass bits some months ago I would have said they were mad. I think it's a testament to the Connoisseur kit and the durability of brass that it's possible to recover after such a disaster. It's been a heck of a challenge and a lot of fun to rebuild but I'm not sure I will be looking for too many more similar projects. A nice shiny new kit somehow sounds quite appealing.

Here's a couple of shots of the completed(?) loco in the September sunshine.

It doesn't pay to look too closely otherwise it's origins start to show!

Now what's next on the list...

Cheers

Dave

9th August 2009

Quite a lot of progress on the blowtorch Jinty this week. It's now largely painted apart from odd small details. Transfers added this evening. Having stripped down the chassis for painting I also took the opportunity to replace the centre axle bearings. For some reason the previous owner had reamed out these to provide slop. OK on the unpowered centre axle of a diesel bogey perhaps but having slop on the bearing of the axle taking power from the motor worm was causing all sorts of nasties. Hopefully that should sort one or two things. The cab interior has now been sorted, weathered, glazed, crew added and the roof fixed. The roof is actually clipped with a tiny spot of cyno to stop it popping off.

The numbers I've used aren't quite correct but I'm hoping that by the time the thing has been heavily weathered this won't be obvious. You can see some of the weathering work has slopped out of the cab onto the sides already! Needs a spary with Klear to seal the transfers tomorrow and then some more detail pain ting before weathering up.

Oh dear I appear to have just "won" another O gauge loco on ebay! :?

Cheers

Dave

5th August 2009

The battered old Jinty has just emerged from its first visit to the paintshop. Here's the body sporty a ghostly livery of Halfords white primer accentuated by fetching yellow/green Milliput accesories.

The Jinty is actually sat on the box containing the next loco build project, another ebay purchase but somewhat bigger. It's a PR MRP Class 66 which I acquired at a modest fraction of it's listed retail price. There's a lot of it but the instructions are... Well let's just be generous and say this will present a few challenges.

Cheers

Dave

20th July 2009

Progress on the Jinty, oh yes. Here she is as of this evening after a bit of tinkering with the chassis. Spent several hours over the last few days building up the brake gear and other chassis details which hugely improves the look of the model. She is just about complete and close to ready for the first squirt of primer. Still one or two places that need the attention of the file but all the pieces left in the box are spares now or bits I have elected not to use. The only bits yet to be fitted are the balance weights on the wheels.

Quite chuffed with the outcome I have to say. I suspect this kit would be a real doddle to build if you start with a nice new clean set of parts but that's not quite how this little adventure started. :oops:

Cheers

Dave

26th May 2009

For the past week or so I've been splashing paint on the 02. Intially it was primed with Halfords white primer then given shots of various Halfords car paints along with some Games Workshop Chaos Black which I happened to have around. I've hand painted wasp stripes on the front and rear and these still need some work to smooth out one or two dust bits that have managed to find their way into the paint. :mutter

She has also been glazed with the provided glazing strip. Individual panes were cut and fixed fairly flush with the surface using Johnsons Klear.

Here she is so far.

Close-ups are cruel and expose the problems with the stripes. Probably can't get the stripes too much sharper so I will eventually add a little light weathering to disguise any imperfections (I hope).

Cheers

Dave