mattingleycustom

btw, it's Combe Martin, not 'Coombe Martin' and this one is without AWS ... no, no, no, stop it! ... where's me knitting needles ...

Just seen Muz's list, that's it. I'm definitely retiring ... knit one, perl(?) one ... (drop one, curl one - no, let's not go there!) ... Vindaloo! Glenn

Ah, the Bulleids!, not a safe environment for the uninitiated to venture into ... the cab widths, the tender capacities. Dear old TMC are way out of their depth. Damn things have been doing my head in for years, so it's nice to see the 'professionals (?!)' making a hash of it too. I'm taking up knitting. Glenn

'and the green's much darker too' - green?, what green? BR Standard grey and grime looks fine to me, although I think you've gone to town on this one; end of steam and really filthy look perhaps? Under-funded and nationalised BR = dirty, Sir Herbert Walker's well managed SR = clean, simple really! Glenn

Now that is so much better !!! Glenn

Would that be King Uther?, my (only) claim to fame (I don't get out much!) is that I pointed out to that nice Mr Kohler that the original selection: The Red Knight had the Lemaitre exhaust with wide diameter chimney plus straight deflectors and maybe Hornby ought to change their choice to one of the other N15s with standard deflectors. Anyway young man, BR green is hardly 1930s! ... I'll get my anorak ... Glenn

... go on, do it!, do it!, do it! ... sorry. Just imagine a pristine N15/King Arthur on the Atlantic Coast Express in the late 1930s slogging up to Honiton summit pulling ten Maunsell's full of passengers bound for their holidays in the West Country. Glenn

'The last air smoothed one' - Mr Bulleid would be proud of you for conforming to his description of the Spam Can shape. Love the doctored photo, it could almost be the real thing and shows just how convincing the Hornby model (and your weathering) is. Glenn

I've had a lot of Hornby steam outline pass through my hands over the last ten year's or so, but as a Southerner I do have some bias towards the sunnier end of the country. The N15, Castle and the Stanier 2-6-4T are just about the best I've seen, they all capture the look of the originals well and run well to boot. I thought about the Britannia too, it too runs like a dream, but there is a balance to strike between the amount of seperate details fitted and their tendency to come off and on that basis the BR7 basically needed stronger glue to put it nearer the top of the pile. The original WC/BB, Gresley A1/3/4 and Stanier Black 5 are fine, but Hornby have done better. Oddly the rebuilt Merchant Navy that started Hornby on the 'super-detailed' range of today, looks a bit lacking in detail nowadays. Other than the Gresley corridor stock (too boxlike, see Coach for more details) Hornby have produced some cracking coaching stock in recent years. The best thing about modelling the SR nowadays is having the excellent Maunsell stock to run with the locos, thirty years ago it was Sir Dinadan and some pseudo-GWR stock in SR lined green. Glenn

I've just taken delivery of three of the beasts, 9017 and 2x 9003 and have been running them in. 9017 is noticeably noisier than its DCC cousins despite over an hour of running in. Does anyone know if the Bachmann GWR green is the correct shade and is it the same as the pre war green (I always assumed GWR green was the same shade from 1928 to 1948)? As an aside: Hornby's Star is a different shade, but then it seems that Hornby use a different shade of nearly every colour to that supplied by Phoenix, Railmatch or Bachmann. I am contemplating taking 9003 back to Shirtbutton livery with a 32XX number. Glenn

Another GWR prototype that I'm going to find very hard to resist! The plug in connector is the same as the Hornby version, Bachmann have used it on the Wainwright C, Midland 3F and 4F that I know of and a few other types no doubt. Fiddly I know, but once you've invested in the insertion/extraction tool easy to use. I thought all Bachmann motors are 3-pole jobs, I stand to be corrected. Glenn

My Glasto-Abbey arrived this morning too. I just love the way the moulded handrail causes the Tampo machine to slightly skew the lining on the cabside, so much better than those pesky separately fitted handrails. Design Clever! ... ... seriously though, it's a great model for the price even with the few niggles. Glenn

Very nice job Coach, but blacken those driving wheel treads as well.

Having read some of this thread (not all 46 pages), I ordered some 10-spoke wheels from Alan Gibson and fitted them to my Hornby Star yesterday. A vast improvement on the Hornby originals, I painted the axle ends black, plus the wheel rims on all wheels, the buffer heads and a few other bright items to produce a more sombre Knight of the Grand Cross. If I can obtain some 'Vauxhall' inside cylinder covers, I feel a rename or two coming on! Glenn

I took delivery of Knight of the Grand Cross a few weeks back and was quite impressed by its appearance, crucially Hornby have got the orange lining colour correct at last. The latest Castles (GWR and BR versions) all had a blatantly red shade that just didn't work as 'orange', but the Star shines in this respect at least - pardon the pun. A bit disapointed in the moulded cabside handrail - why?, especially when you contrast that with the copper coloured drain cock adjacent to the smokebox door, black and moulded would have been fine! Long tender fenders and 12-spoke bogie wheels excepted its a fine model and I want more (and a Saint or two). 4018 has been hauling three Bachmann Colletts around the test track; too light a load for a Star, but at least they compliment eachother in their GWR shirtbutton finery. Glenn

You need a copy of Yeadon's Locomotives of the LNER Part 2: A4 and W1 Classes, which is the undoubted bible on the classes. Lord Faringdon was renamed in March 1948 and ran in Garter Blue without valences with a modified 1928 Corridor tender for the interchange trials where it ran on the LMR. As already intimated A4s are a proverbial minefield of detail, especially with three (later four) different types of tender to contend with. Personally I'd go and buy a second hand R2535 Woodcock and rename it as 60034 as it ran in the early 1960s. If you need a single chimney for an A4 let me know as I may well have a spare Hornby version here somewhere. Glenn

I always use enamels as there is no need to seal them - enamel goes off after 7 - 10 days. What do you seal the acrylic paint with? Cleaning the airbrush after each use is essential, even more so after using varnish. In five years I'm only on my second airbrush, if you keep them clean they last for ages. Glenn

So you've taken the plunge and bought the airbrush at last - well done! I've done three rebuilt Yeovils and they are very popular (just a hint) and one Hurricane, examples of both are in my Bulleid Pacific gallery on my website - http://www.mattingleycustom.com/GalleryBulleid.html I confess that I've been leaning towards the dark side (GWR) of late, help me! Glenn

James, You're absolutely right about etched nameplates, they really do make all the difference. In addition I would blacken the wheel rims and the buffer heads and do something about the bright reversing lever and motion too, a little dark brown mixed with a satin varnish applied thinly usually does the trick. I do love an A4, but much prefer them in LNER blue with skirts. BR green is tolerable, but the electrification warning flashes are another excrescence I can live without. Glenn

Don't you go messing up one of Mr Gresley's wonder-machines!, Just a light blow over of rail dirt below the skirts and a light fall of soot from above is all that is required for a streak. Glenn