Daddyman

I have all three and have never run them... think I might have voided the warranty too!

Happy New Year to you both! And yes, I echo Chas' get well soon. Solder fumes should help the recovery.

Mine are on primer, not brass!

It's true that they'll be painted over, yes, but before that, I always wash models, and that's where I find rivets going astray, so I use the belt of PVA and the braces of D-Limonene. Nice wagon!

I can't see that working. Trying to picture it - isn't it four-point suspension?

Another week, another 37.... I succumbed to TMC's offer of a bit more off so it came to £150. This was 37194 and is destined to be come 37184 in 1984 condition. Bogies have gone to 37406 (last week's loco) and have received the first coat of muck today. 37184 is about the most boring WHL 37 you could find, to be honest - no dog, no ploughs - but personal significance, so it has to be done. It had RSH cantrail grilles, making 37194 and a full repaint the only choice. It arrived yesterday and last night I got all the printing off and sanding where the two greys meet, just in case the line shows through; also got all the glazing out. Yes, basically, I wrecked it... Today has been first coat of blue on the body and this evening I've been doing the fuel tanks, front ends and bufferbeams. The b.beam steps (very bent on 184) might need to wait for inspiration/motivation, and Bachmann's white outermost brake pipes are too flimsy to use any part of; I also need to do new sanding pipes - 37/0s seem to have have had thicker pipes. For the headlight bracket, I used a few millimetres of Railtec's industrial chevron stripes (product code 1209). Another view of the front end - looks like I've finally learnt to airbrush topcoat! (No, I don't know why I didn't fit the Shawplan grille before painting either...) Took a shot this evening midway through the fuel tank mods, just to show the difference between modified and unmodified:

Think so. Recommended by Railtec.

4 should be: briefly dip transfers in watered-down PVA - you're using that liquid as the releasing liquid. For me, 5 is seal with D-Limonene, no need to seal with gloss. (I just do this extra seal as belt and braces as I've found it necessary in the past, but for the last ones I applied a couple of days ago the PVA mix was enough. Up to you.) Allow D-L to dry (24 hours?) then wash carefully, and dry, then start top coats.

I would definitely say apply after primer - for two reasons: one is that the transfers are designed to be used on paint; the second is that the primer coat may reveal where work still needs to be done to fill cracks or correct an imperfection in your modelling; once that's done, you'll have to make repairs and re-prime (easier to do locally with airbrush primer). If you need to do this, then you don't want to be removing and redoing rivets in the area to be repaired. My formula is Precision Paints' two-part primer applied by airbrush (no chance of flooding as there is with an aerosol, and more durable than Halford's). On top of that the model gets gloss varnish locally on the areas to be riveted, so as to aid adhesion, then rivets. It's a difficult question how you wash the model between rivets and topcoat; I suspect most people don't bother, but I think you should - there'll be all sorts of fluff and muck on the model. So I apply the rivets with a water-and-PVA mix (as suggested by Railtec), and then once that's dry, I paint D-Limonene over the riveted area. When that's dry the model can be washed, and then topcoat applied. (Don't wash in Cif after any paint has gone on - use that for bare brass only; use soap and water for cleaning a model with any paint on.) I must say, though, even with this recipe I still lose some rivets - literally a question of rinse and repeat - so will be interested to see what others say. I think the key is not getting the rivets too wet when applying them, but that's hard when you have to move them around around a lot to get them positioned correctly.

Triplicate, wow, sounds fun! Yes, the Fox 406 were certainly wrong as side-on photos of the real thing showed. Fox tried to argue the plates changed size on the real thing (all our nameplates carefully researched, blah blah blah), but I had photos from LL days and EWS days and the plates were the same size - and not Fox-sized. I know what you mean about the VT nameplates - you end up scraping a lot of body paint off.

Thanks, Matt - glad it's useful. Yes, there isn't much choice with renumbering unless you change things like lamp irons. By the way, the Saltire Society nameplate is longer than MQS. Not sure if Strathclyde Region will be. However, I did once have a Saltire nameplate from Fox which was too short (quite common, apparently) - these are Shawplan. You're right about the cab handrails - you caught me napping. On the large-logo locos I've painted the extension blue, but just forgot on this one, so thanks for pointing it out - I knew something was bothering me in that area. I seem to remember people correcting them on the old model, but you'd have to drill into the door surrounds at an angle, which I don't fancy. A thing to be aware of if you're doing another Mainline-liveried locos is the painting of the large bodyside grille - sometimes it's all just painted black, but 401 and 406 at least had stripes on (some of) the framework and/or fins and/or surround.

Well, it's getting there... But the weathering still looks a bit like someone's pointed an airbrush at it. Needs a bit more life, but it will have to wait till I get back. Snowploughs and noses not attached properly, and I forgot to fit the handbrake chains before weathering.

Thank you, Will!

Well, the yellow didn't fight, so things are on schedule - yellow this morning and u/f weathering, then white filter coat done tonight (especially on the ends). A model always looks awful at this filter stage, but the muck coats tomorrow will bring it back to life. Windows and markers still covered in Copydex. I've also been working on backdating some OTAs for my 1980s and 1990s 37s - they'll have to be freight locos as the available passenger stock (Bachmann Mk1s and Hornby Mk3s) are dire. But there are some good-quality WHL freight wagons available now - the PRA, the OAA, the PCA and ones like the VGA and OTA that can be rescued with Will's parts. Hornby's OTA has 9 stanchion sockets, but in the 1980s on the WHL there were only the flat-top OTAs with 11 pockets or the later ones with shaped tops and 13 stanchions. I've picked up a few cheap ones on ebay recently, including one for £8, which was cheap enough to sacrifice and surrender its stanchion pockets. This is the only way I could see to do it: So this is the flat-top one with most of the work done - needs the top to the ends dressing and it will receive Stenson spring units. Note that I've scrubbed away Hornby's ToyTown (TM) wood-grain effect on the deck - the plastic is very soft so it's easily done. All that work to add 4 stanchions and the b. things weren't even used on the real thing - which is why they were later removed (from about 2000 I think). The £8 wagon is looking a bit worse for wear, but it took a bit of experimentation to get the pockets off in one piece without damaging the fins. Still enough pockets left intact for the 13-stanchion one, making two wagons from 3 for about £48, when single wagons are going for £37.50 on ebay.

My plan was always to do it in brass, perhaps using some of the steps available from Wizard models; a stem filed into the rear of the step, or a piece of .45 wire soldered underneath the step, would be inserted into a hold drilled in the footplate front.

Not a local thing, no - though all the Hawick ones (46-49) had them. Seem to remember it's been discussed on RMWeb before. Do none of the Hornby versions have them?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen

All the detailing finished today - at least I think so. Washing the bogies and wheels in thinners to prevent "gloss bogie syndrome" when all your carefully applied weathering turns shiny after a few weeks' running due to the excess grease: Excess grease - not too much but not taking any chances: First coat of weathering on the bogies. Actually looks a bit dull here, but more exciting in real life: Railmatch orange and frame dirt plus Humbrol flesh; once dry this will get a mix of frame dirt plus Humbrol matt black sprayed on, washed off, then sprayed on more selectively: All underframe detailing done and ready for weathering - these are the new handbrake chains: Bufferbeam detail all finished (except for the MW socket at one end, which pinged away!) - wire hoses, snowploughs at both ends, ETS fitted and painted both ends; also visible is the gloss white - applied a little too thick so rubbed down with 1500 paper, hence the patchy look, which will all disappear under the yellow topcoat; rivets in place where lamp irons have been removed; rad fan grille fitted. Might get it done before I go away on Saturday - depends how much the yellow on the ends fights me... Ideally will be yellow tomorrow morning plus underframe, bufferbeam and plough first weathering coat, then all-over filter/fade coat of white tomorrow evening; that would leave Friday for weathering. Pigs might fly...

Won't you get a ghost of the stripes when you strip the paint? I stripped a stripey 47 down to bare plastic some years ago, but you could still see the mark of the stripes through the repaint. I may do 417 myself one day if Bachmann do EWS on general release. I used to see it a lot on the WHL in the mid-2000s with big scabs of primer and missing fins in the radiator grille.

Ah, Monday, yes I see - took me a while to cotton on there. What livery are you going to do it in? On the fuel tanks, the whole job is so much easier with a brand new file, though I couldn't get Will's magic trick to work - the tops wouldn't separate from the bodies.

Been a while. Quite a punishing schedule with NER carriages and not much time for 37s. Anyway, I'm beginning to feel I've bitten off more than I can chew with the nose conversion on 37022, but I'll keep chipping away at it and hopefully get it right soon. In the meantime, I got one of MRD's £122 offers in a livery I have no need for! This will become 37406, which stayed on the WHL through much of the 1990s while other ex-WHL members of the class were sullying their wheels in the south. 406 had cast bogies while in this livery, and I'm banking on 37194 coming down in price in January; it will then become my donor for 37184 and will supply cast bogies for 406. This evening work has focused on: closing the gap between the upper edge of the fuel tanks and the lower edge of the bodysides (see upthread) the buffer beams (corners filed away to take my own resin ETS castings), and hoses cut off the taps ready for wire replacements modified H@#jan 47 ploughs removal of the handbrake chains ready for homemade replacements (see upthread) fitting of supplied bogie and underframe detail work to fit the w@#tern region "cow horn" lamp irons and removal of two of Bachmann's lamp irons Still to do is the Shawplan fan grille. This is what I started with - one broken lamp iron on arrival, but even if I'd stayed with 401 Bachmann's lamp iron is the wrong pattern for a top one. Next job was marking out the position of the cow horns. These seem to be vertically in line with the centre of the marker lights, so I cut a piece of masking tape 3.5mm wide, which was positioned hard up against the h/c box for marking out. The bottom of the elongated slot which will take the lamp iron is 11.25 from the lower edge of the nose [EDIT: I think this positions them very slightly too low - try 11.75 or 12m?]. The hole is then drilled 0.4mm. I'm using Vitrains lamp irons (that is to say, on the same loco, the only thing Vitrains ever got right and the only thing H@#jan ever got right) and these need the 0.4mm hole making in to a slot by "sawing" with the drill bit - 3 slots (two at No.1 end; 1 at No.2) and I didn't break a drill bit... I've taken the finish around the removed lamp irons down to bare plastic/undercoat as these areas needs to be smooth. They'll then get some gloss white tomorrow to give Railtec rivet transfers the best chance of adhesion; I'll then respray the whole nose - the shot below shows the various light lenses Copydex-ed up (it's the best masking fluid). End of play today (oh, and I have a couple of toothbrush bristles waiting to form the nose-top aerial):

One I don't think we've had:

Info here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/86020500@N06/7991379008

I agree that there's something manual going on. Someone is clearly pressing a button saying "collected". I know that when they do come to me, they tend to come at 10am-ish - I actually often see the van in nearby streets, including yesterday when they didn't show up. Yesterday the fake "collected" email came at 2pm-ish, still within the window they'd offered. But when the email came I knew what was going to happen, and made the 15-mile round trip to the PO. While I was out my neighbour texted to say the normal postman, who doesn't do the collections, had arrived to collect it! The time was a bout 20 mins outside the agreed window, and 50 mins after the "collected" email. Last time I got the fake "collected" email I waited in case they came; this time I didn't wait and ... sod's law!

Agree. I got 401 from MRD while the going was good, but didn't go for 194 at £160 in the TMC offer as I suspect there'll be better after Christmas. By the way, if anyone wants a real bargain, Hattons have 37034 second hand for - wait for it - £196!