blueeighties

Back from a lovely weeks break in Sunny Cornwall. Missed my airbrush! Back to it today. Weathered a rake of 12 POA wagons. Underframes, interiors, and sides. The previously primed pair of 09's now have their blue livery on :mrgreen:

Good evening. The 47 and 87 are now proudly wearing their coat of colours. The 87 is getting a light kit added next. 2 09's have been stripped of Departmental grey, and are getting redone in good old blue

Thanks Colin, it will be a work in progress between other projects, I don't expect quick progress with this one!

As you all know, I am a bit of a 56 fan. I have a nice pile of the very nice looking Hornby beasties. There are however a couple of areas that have always niggled me, and I fancied doing a bit of a makeover detailing wise on one. Well, I have been staring at acouple of stripped bodies for months now, so dug one out. The main problem is the roof fans. Hornby have done them quite nicely, but they are strangely recessed...the prototype are flush with the roofline. Shawplan to the rescue. These aren't fitted, just getting them shaped right. It makes a hell of a difference to the roof profile, especially viewed from the side of the loco. The other things are the bodyside grilles. Again quite well done, but the mesh is a bit crude compared with the prototype. So, being brave, it's out with the old. New Shawplan etches on the left. I am going to have to try and have a word with Brian at Shaw as these aren't the easiest of things to fit. I also have some nice etched front horn grilles, and covers for the bodyside holes where the lifting eyes sit.

That's very tempting Mr Sprinter!

It's been a rather long day Mick, 074 it is

This is an interesting one. A friend asked me about the possibility of adding ESU powerpacks to a class 03, and an 08, to improve on the poor running. I had previously thought about doing this to mine, but space was so tight 'under the bonnet' I couldn't fit the units in. (Mine had sound and lights fitted.) So, I thought with these ones just having sound, they would be a doddle to fit. Until, I opened them up and discovered they were also fitted with lights And for a further laugh, the 08 chip was a v3.5, incompatible with the powerpack. So, this needed to be changed to a V4, which also meant a very tricky speaker change. So much for a quick wire in...... Everything stripped down, after a major struggle getting the speaker out of the cab. The V4 needed an additional lead attaching for the lights, and also the 3 for the powerpack. Careful soldering required! Everything wired in and ready for installation. The bulk of it installed. Because the powerpack will not fit inside due to lack of space, the plan is to wire through a match truck, and then into a brake van where there is space to hide it. That's the plan anyways..... Back to what I know best. Those wires are damn fiddly! Hornby 87, stripped and primed ready for an old style executive repaint. Same with a Heljan 47, this is getting done as 47430, red stripe with Highland stag Plain blue Hornby 56 to be redone as 075, 'Kellingley Colliery'. Another Heljan 47, I have done this one in faded colours, I'm not sure what number yet. I just fancied doing a run down large logo one. Any suggestions? I think that's enough to be getting on with for a bit

Well, I did have a break from posting yesterday

No problem my friend. I must admit, I prefer Zimo's these days, but this particular one sounds very good.

Hi mate. Yes, I was thinking the same thing as it was drying. Will brush it over with satin to finish Hi Brian, its a South West Digital v4 chip, with a bass reflex speaker.

The HST has had its transfers and weathering applied, just namepates and detailing to add to finish when the varnish dries. I revisited my repainted 47340, and have done a bit more work with the weathering. I have been doing some fading of the paintwork on the yellow cab ends, I'm not sure if it shows up very well on the picture.

Lol, I try to matey, but it is increasingly difficult. Watch this space!

Another short video of a couple of trains thrashing around the layout.

And a short vid of the Western.

Another busy day today. Cracking on with a lot of stuff. The bass reflex speaker finally arrived for the Western, it was an absolute doddle to fit as Dapol have thought this one out properly. One bass reflex speaker... Fitted! After the speaker fitting, I toned down the headcodes a little to match the dirty cab fronts. She's now finished. Something a little bit different. I think this is a Hornby crane, repainted terribly in Freightliner green. I decided to attack it with a wire brush in my drill, to try and get the worst of the paint off. I think whoever painted this has had some sort of reaction with their paint? After the attack.... I have delibaretly left some of the poor finish around the panel edges, a because its so difficult to remove, and b as I think it will make an interesting effect painted a rust colour. A Heljan green duff I purchased very cheaply has been stripped and primed, I am going to attempt to do faded blue one. Identity not decided yet. Yet another Western and duff arrive on the bench for sound fitting and weathering. And finally, I have at long last got around to making some display stand or locomotives...I am doing a demonstration at the Blyth exhibition in August.

Lovely that Dave.

Personally, I think they look ok.

Looks good to me matey, I wouldn't like to be doing one in 2mm, 4mm is hard enough!

Not at all Sean, I never even noticed it myself! Constructive comment is always welcome and beneficial.

That's interesting, I wonder if that's because you are working in a smaller scale? I matt coated the last 2 I weathered, and I think they look right. I may well be tempted to try satin on this one as they always had quite shiny bodysides.

Hi Mr Penguin. I think you could be right....when masking for these colours I did them separately, not actually realising I could have done then with one strip of tape correctly lined up, if you know what I mean. Thanks for that, airbrush back at the ready!

Cheers Jon. Some of the lining is not as sharp as I would like, but overall I'm happy with it. A bit of weathering will finish it off nicely. After varnish and transfers of course!

Thanks guys. The stripes were really tricky to do on this one, but it's turned out ok. A bit of weathering will hide the errors

More work on the HST today. Needs a little bit of touching up here and there, but not bad

The HST power car gets its first stripes. White is already on, tonight its been yellow and red. A nice hours relaxation after spending all afternoon demolishing an old building in the back garden