blueeighties

A couple of final shots of the 40 and 08.

Lol. The joys of forgetting you have 2 locos on address 3!

Another video, of the completed 40.

Hi. That thought did occur to me as I was taking the pictures! Tempting to leave it, but alas, a green and pleasant land will shortly arrive :-)

Getting messy with plaster bandage today.....

Hi. I think I know which one you mean, passed it many a time. I should have really visited with a camera, I shall do at some point! Many thanks.

A break from locos today, and a bit more work on the diorama. Today I made a hardboard facia and backscene....and tried my hand at airbrushing a sky. I used some strangely shaded Humbrol blue picked up cheap at Modelzone, and played about with mixing some random white in too. I think it's came out quite effectively. Inspired by that progress, I started putting some scenery formers in. Scrap card, a pencil and a gluegun were my weapons. It's quite an interesting process, working out the 'lie of the land'. I have said in previous postings that scenery is not my strongpoint...I think this next picture proves that point! I am just making this up as I go along, and seeing what happens. It's all very enjoyable. I SO wish I had gone through this process before commencing construction of Annitsford. It would have resulted in a very different layout.

Cheers for all of that!

:-)

My attempt.

Got the bones of the bridge done today. A basic colouring has been applied, mortar to follow next. After doing that, I had a very enjoyable hour with the camera photographing current projects, and trying different angles. I think it looks pretty decent even without scenery!

Hi Gareth. Not at all. The windscreen surrounds are Shawplan etches, fitted with laserglaze etching. Don't be fooled by the windscreens colour, they have liquid masking applied to protect them during weathering.

Cheers mate. I forgot to mention I use a daylight 'ring lamp' for the illumination.

Hi Bob. I use a Nikon slr, and just use a piece of white paper as a background, supported with whatever is lying around on the bench!

Hi mate. I made the bridge sides from a Wills 'vario girder' kit. It just comes as a number of individual bits, and you make up any length you require. With regards to your 03, I would remove the number with t cut and a cocktail stick, taking care not to remove the blue body colour, but at the same time polishing it so as you get a nice glossy finish to hide the carrier film of the transfers. Ii would remove the complete number...it always looks not quite right when only a couple of digits are replaced. I can't remember if your shunter had them, but Precision labels to the Gateshead coat of arms transfers which will finish it off nicely.

Evening all. I made a mess of some transfers on a parcels van I am renumbering and weathering, so cleaned a panel up ready to start again. I was quite surprised at the contrast between an untouched panel and the weathered one, so thought I would include the picture for interests sake. The RTC coach is coming along nicely. These Bachmann jobbies don't look too bad dirtied up. And at long last, the 40 is at the weathering stage Got to dirty the windscreens, add new wipers, matt varnish the lot, and she's finished.

A video of the 40. Apologies for the incorrect directional lights, to be swiftly fixed with the soldering iron

Superb layout Phil....just noticed it after watching one of your videos. Has that wonderful sense of 'rightness' that is so hard to create.

I have started rebuilding the bridge 'bits' today, using the old ones as a template. All going to be built out of Slaters brick sheet. Today I added some finer jumper sockets and wires to the bogies on the 40. Just found some in the spares box, and used some thin metal wire to make the cables up. I'm really pleased with the way the RTC 31 is coming along.

Etched headcode discs added today. Renumbered and weathered a mk1 And weathered a Bachmann 08. This one is not finished, I need to add oil and grease build up to areas of the chassis.

After pulling my hair out, I finally got one of the new window etches painted, glazed and fitted to the big 40. These are really tricky to do look good though. I managed to get a slightly better paint match to Bachmann's blue....as compared to my effort with the new etched roof fan you can just see. At least the roof is not an issue as it will be under a good layer of grime when weathered. Original Bacchy left, new one on right. You can see the proper sized br arrow compared to the strangely sized Bachmann one. What a trio of beasts! Another couple of repaints under way, this is a Scottish Railfreight 08. And this is my 1st stab at RTC livery. Coaches next.....

Progress on this is slow due to other projects. A couple of hours looking after my Daughter this afternoon, let to an 'accidental' visit to the garage I have built another pair of Scalescenes bridge abutments up, after the last ones faded in the sun, and generally had a bit of a hard life. These latest ones were built properly, and even sprayed with matt varnish to seal the inks in and prevent fading. Alas, all in vain, as when I sized them up, nothing would fit :-surrender So, after carving things up (a lot), trimming some sections off the girder sides, the result is as you see in the pictures. I have decided that rather than re cover them in the admittedly excellent Scalescenes brickpaper, I'm going to have a go at using Slaters brick embossed plasticard. I really like the way this is starting to come together, bearing in mind it's just a plank for photographing finished stock. Beast in the sunshine

Fantastic Colin. The Cambrian kits have always seemed a bit 'heavier' than Parkside and suchlike with their mouldings, but they still produce a decent end result. You are obviously a man of many talents.

This is the little beastie.

Hi Colin. Precision works wonderfully for me, covered perfectly in 3. The Mermaid is indeed a Cambrian kit. Got loads more engineers wagons to build, just no time to build them!