Daddyman

The Hornby one is overscale! But the Brassmasters' detailing kit includes a nearer-to-scale replacement. The photo of 2599 is clear: there's no ashpan lever on the driver's side -and never was.

Afraid not! The loco is left-hand drive, so only the reversing rod should be on the LHS. The other smaller rod below the cab (drop grate operating lever?) should be on the RHS. Hornby, having got this right for years, suddenly threw a wobbly on Book Law - in more ways than one...

Some Scottish ones. This is 2006, crossing Rannoch Moor, quite close to Corrour station, with the old shooting lodge visible on the horizon. I'd taken an early morning DMU from FW to Rannoch to see 33207, which had been dumped there on its way north, and then took the sleeper back to FW: Jumping forward to 2010 with 007 FW-bound viewed from the famous clan chapel on the approach to the Monessie Gorge - poor light, but par for the course: Finally, May 2016 and 009 FW-bound on the final approaches to Tulloch station, sun recently disappeared: I suppose 1 day of decent weather over 10 years isn't too bad...

This looks much better - thanks for posting. As noted, the paper by Model Railway Scenery is print-at-home, so I can't see how it would be textured.

I should have said the J25 in no way put me off LRM kits - I've bought a G5 and a K2 since!

You must be referring to my account in the NERA Express magazine, which detailed the considerable work I had to do make the LRM kit capture the look of a J25. I sent the account of the build to John at LRM and he courteously conceded the points I made, so I don't see why "LNWR Modeller" would try to defend the kit. Among the major but essential jobs I did where the kit simply did not capture the character of the J25 were: replacing the tender body with a Bradwell, as the LRM flare was wrong and the tender as a whole lacked detail; replacing the cabsides as the window shape was wrong: scratchbuilding the smokebox to get the correct NER "stepped" back to the smokebox; and creating a new smokebox door. I had to do a lot of other work to create parts not provided in the kit, or to represent variations not catered for (coal rails, dome, etc). Chassis detail is also poor, especially round the ashpan, and the brake gear lacks refinement and is too far from the wheels. So, yes, I'd say a new kit is needed.

Ah, I see. Not a class I'm familiar with, but the square dome should have told me that this was a different tender. It appears from your photos (hard to see) that the flare is part of the bodyside, so there's no lap joint - is that right? As I said, hard to tell from the photos.

Yes, as you say - the coal plate is in the wrong place relative to the coal rails. There's a good side-on view in Yeadon 34, p.12. It may be that your coal rails are slightly too far back, but it's hard to tell without seeing the rear of the tender. The flare on the LRM NE tender is too wide and deep (assuming this tender is the same as the one supplied with their J25). Lain out flat, the flare is (IIRC) over 4mm, whereas on a Bradwell tender it is 3mm when flat. As well as making the tender look wrong, this wreaks all sorts of havoc on alignments on the LRM NE tender - again, always assuming the D17 tender is the same as the J25. In this case, too much flare at the rear could be putting the front of the coal rails in the wrong position. I binned most of the tender from the footplate up on the J25, and replaced it with a Bradwell body. Nowadays I'd just scratchbuild the flares: five thou plate with, for the beading, a piece of 0.6mm wire shaped and then flattened until it matches all dimensions (including thickness) on the Bradwell flare. Shaping has to precede flattening. Another thing is the shape of the coal rails. These should be half-round. Bradwell recommends running a file between them to create that shape. I solder the rear (unplated) section to a piece of scrap brass so that the rails don't splay during the filing.

A bit of a warning would have been nice - there's a Great Western thing on there!

Thanks, Mick. I think you're right about the green, even on the real loco's lighter days: http://flickrhivemind.net/blackmagic.cgi?id=8094733311&url=http%3A%2F%2Fflickrhivemind.net%2FTags%2F66%252Caerolite%2FInteresting%3Fsearch_type%3DTags%3Btextinput%3D66%252Caerolite%3Bphoto_type%3D250%3Bmethod%3DGET%3Bnoform%3Dt%3Bsort%3DInterestingness%23pic8094733311&user=&flickrurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/33928144@N07/8094733311 http://www.nrm.org.uk/OurCollection/LocomotivesAndRollingStock/CollectionItem?objid=1975-7013

Here's an outdoor shot of Aerolite in the PP Urie green, with some of Hornby's recent greens for comparison.

Thanks, Paul. I didn't think it was an issue with the compressor. So your sandblaster works continuously, in the manner of an airbrush? Part of the problem is the instructions are rubbish. What do you do with the screw that goes through the hole in the lid of the "cup"? - as tight as possible? Unscrewed a few threads? Unscrewed completely? I have no idea! I suppose I could have a slightly different model as your original link was to Amazon, whom I refuse to use. I took the model number you gave and sourced it elsewhere. The precision green actually looks quite good this morning. I'll try to post a photo this evening in natural light if I'm back from work in time.

Thanks, but I don't know what to do about that! I have an AS-186 compressor if that's any help....

Here they are: http://www.caleycoaches.co.uk/fitting.php It let me add them to a basket, so appears they're in stock.

Update: before anyone rushes out to buy PP Urie Green, mine arrived this morning and it's a very funny colour! Not sure I would use it....

Thanks, but compressor has a tank and was at 60psi. I don't think the problem is with the air supply, but with the trigger mechanism.

I don't know the prototype, but it looks like what you're looking for are "tallow cups". Caley Coaches do a set of them (part CF26: Loco Cylinder Lubricators). I've just had a look on his ebay shop (where I got mine) and can't see them, but you could perhaps give him a ring if you're interested Thanks re the Proxxon!

Hello, Really enjoying your thread. 1275 is lovely. I've initially followed you in the choice of PP Light Grass Green green for my Aerolite model. However, I was at Missenden last weekend, in Ian Rathbone's class, and he'd just painted a Fletcher 2-4-0 for a customer and he said he'd used PP "Urie" Green. I'm guessing he'd taken his piece of brass with all his greens sprayed on it and held it against the preserved loco, so we can certainly take it to the bank as far as the preserved Fletcher is concerned. You can see the results on his website: http://www.ianrathbonemodelpainting.co.uk/gallery-5---work-in-progress.php Of course, there are all sorts of possible objections to this, but it might be worth a try in future? I'll certainly try it on Aerolite - I hadn't gone so far that I can't switch colours. The other one of your suggestions that I've tried is the sandblaster, but I can't get it to work. Did you have any issues? Don't know if I'm doing something wrong, or if I've been a victim of cowboys selling junk knowing I won't want to pay to send it back to China. The machine only blows out grit when I first depress the operating button, and then stops. By repeatedly pressing the button I just managed to remove some markings from a Sharpie pen - after about two minutes! Am I doing something wrong? Does yours spray constantly? I know you used yours in the clean-up of 1275 - did it remove solder? Thanks in advance for your help - and for the thread. David.

Could you tell us the Proxxon model number, and where you got it? Thanks!

Your conversion is very neat, wonderful work, but the original model at the top of the page was so good I wonder if it was worth it (that's a compliment!). It seems to me that simply removing the solebars under the cab from the Bachmann model has the effect of fooling the eye that the front end is correct. One way of doing this job I considered was simply changing the curve of the gutter over the cab front windows, and then reshaping the windows upwards. After all, you're reshaping one window anyway. You could even use the Hornby windows as a template. And there would be no need to for the nerve-wracking sawing off of cabs, or to replace the marker lights. Just a thought - I don't know if it would work.

Mick, found some photos for you. First one shows the chassis dodge I had to adopt. Penultimate shows my design for removable brake gear on the tender. Last one shows the preserved Q6 at Grosmont (so not completely off topic!), so that you (or anyone else) can see the relationship between the coal rails and the faring.

That's what I thought, but I don't get it in context. Just thought he was quoting the Sparks song and smiled to myself.

Good idea. The one in the old kit was hard! You'll be fine with rollers. I did it with a "small brass assist jig", not ideal, I suppose, but G.W. Models rollers for Crimbo. I annealed the boiler. Sorry, but I'm a serial annealer...

Fame at last! Yes, the J27 in the NE Express, that's right. The second J27 will feature at some stage in 2016, but it's all hands on deck for the D20 for the February Express at the moment. Deadline December 20-something and 43 jobs still to do! Oh, no, 44 - forgot the BR numberplate! You're a member, I take it, Porcy? [Cue secret handshake]

It falls together, Mick. And yes, 00. It's implausibly easy to do as a first kit as the precision of the parts and the care in the design are superb. The standard by which I judge any kit. I'm now building a second. First one, Mr Bradwell rolled the boiler for me, second one I did it myself, just using rmweb knowledge and Rice's and Holt's books. He also twisted my arm into springing the tender on the first, and I sprung everything on the second, and everything else I've built since. The tender was a struggle for a twit like me, but I got it right the second time, and have built another two since. Only change I would make is to consider removing the beading at the front of the faring before rolling, as it makes it hard to shape the flare. Do you have the new 00 chassis or the old one to convert down to 00? If the latter, that's a struggle. Oh, and don't tell Mr B but I replace all of his valences (valances?) with Eileen's part number F01005D, for extra rigidity in the footplate. We're not Hornby, after all! Unfortunately, my first J27 is in Pickering earning its keep on my dad's layout. And the second is not at a stage where a photo would edify anyone - boiler and smokebox only. I've put it to one side trying to get the D20 done for Christmas for my dad.... Re the WD effect, mentioned in another post, yes, the Hornby K1 made me want to buy a Bradwell. Same feeling on seeing this Q6. I always make a point of buying a couple of Parkside wagons every time the big manufacturers swipe one of their designs - or in the case of the blue spots, 6 Parkside when Hornby brought theirs out. I should have mentioned Arthur K in the list of "heroes" as well, along with the Daves.