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I made up an axle box for the tender from plasticard, brass rod and Archer rivet transfers. The extra length of plasticard was useful as a handle whilst I worked on the box. The box is then used to make a rubber mould so I don't have to make six of the blighters. Mustard spoons from the fleamarket, cut down plastic cups and coffee spills are used for mixing the two part rubber ingredients, all of the bubbles seem to be able to make their way quite happily to the surface. The mould takes about 24 hours to cure properly. The resin is mixed in the same way and is much quicker to set, about 40 minutes although I give it a good day to harden out of the mould before finishing and spraying with a black plastic primer.

More and more bits and bobs; Steps from angle, rivetted strip and tiny pipe outlets from an invaluable Meridian fret. Brake rigging from wire and square rod on graph paper. And coal rails from similar sources. Nearly done.

Here are some more details for the tender using bits and pieces from assorted sources. The rear water filler was soldered together using tubing, wire and a 7mm diesel detail fret. Cheers Simon

Thankyou folks, and you're quite right Adam, it's from Mainly Trains, along with a multitude of similar detail etches, which I will be stocking up on soon, I think they're brilliant and can be used for many different gauges and not just for their intended uses! I'll edit the post to put things right. Cheers Simon

The MSWJR tender has a couple of shapely curved brackets holding the front grab-rails on. I used one of my invaluable "Mainly Trains" frets to make them. The lamp bracket fret is incredibly useful for tricky little items and the various brackets can be variously adapted. I find it useful to do as much fiddling as possible with everything still attached to the fret, surplus solder can also be wiped onto waste etch areas. I used the resistance soldering iron to attach the brackets and rail as one piece. The sand boxes and handles were built up from milled channel, handrail knobs and washers. The brake standard is an adapted Gibson casting. By the way, I asked Dave of Roxey Mouldings if he would mind sending me some photos of his 7mm kit version of this tender and he very kindly sent me just the information I needed, in minutes. A true gentleman! Thanks Dave! Cheers Simon

Here's another photo of the Ford...

More progress on the tender... I soldered the springs onto the frames. The body slides gently between them and everything bolts together, hopefully to aid painting, (and I like bolting things together). The beading along the tender top is from fine D-shaped wire sold by NBrass.

That's a lovely build Kevin, they are really characterful, hefty tank engines and I fully intend to build a number of the different varieties, when I get around to it! I might produce a set etches to speed things up a bit. Looking forward to seeing it painted. Cheers Simon

I've had some time to make a bit of progress with my MSWJR tender and the rivet press has been red hot... I folded an insert for the front end (coal hole?)... And soldered it in with the help of an ever-trusty clothes peg. The curved corners at the rear were formed by soldering in shaped inserts of nickel sheet. Which were then carefully trimmed... And filed smoothed. Cheers Simon

What paint do you use for the Indian red Warren, that looks just right! Cheers Simon

In the spirit of New Year's "getting things done" and having a delivery deadline (which helps a lot)... here's my 7mm Ford Bo-Bo shunting diesel on its maiden run on "Willowbrook Marsh", a beautiful layout, presented by members of the Luton 0 Gauge Group at the Bristol GOG exhibition on Sunday. Cheers Simon

It's my screen-saver now! Cheers Simon

This is what happens when you send something to Warren Haywood to paint. It's the P4 LSWR G6 that I was commissioned to build for a friend and painted for him by Warren. It's quite stunning! And I must say that that is my favourite LSWR livery. Absolutely beautiful. You can find Warren at www.modelrailwaypainting.co.uk should you wish to see more! Cheers Simon

Hi Garry, on second thoughts, if you've got a few spare sheets I'd be very pleased to buy one off you just in case! I'm soon starting on a scratch-built P4 MSWJR 4-4-4t in original condition and have always wanted to build one of their delightful 0-4-4 tanks too, so the transfers may well be needed. (Personally I prefer the GWR re-builds of both the 4-4-4t and the 0-4-4t so when I eventually get round to building some for myself they'll be in GW green!) I'll PM you for the transfers. Cheers Simon

Thanks very much Garry, a very kind offer. Stephen usually has his models beautifully painted by Warren Haywood so I'll not be needing your transfers thankyou. Just in case though and out of interest, where did you get the transfers from? Cheers Simon

Thanks Peter, dabbling in 2mm has introduced me to quite a few new methods that are equally at home in other scales! Cheers Simon

Here's a small side project; I've been asked to scratch-build a tender for an MSWJR 2-6-0 as originally running on that railway. It's in P4, with Gibson sprung horn-blocks and split axle pick-up. I started by building an inside frame chassis to take the horn-blocks. To chassis sides are joined by gapped PCB spacers. I made up some temporary spacers from threaded rod. The PCB was soldered in with the frames resting on thin card to slightly raise them. The tender floor will rest on these spacers and so be insulated from the sides. The wheels have split axles held in paxolin muffs turned for me by Stephen. The Gibson wheels are shorted to the axle halves using etched collars. The inside frames are just hidden by the cosmetic outside frames which were cut and rivetted from nickel silver.

Some up-dates! Here's the N-Gauge Tilbury tank in her new home. And the 7mm Ford Bo-Bo shunter ready for painting... Cheers Simon

Some up-dates! After Pete's suggestion of the need for a rolling road, I eventually bought a do-it-yourself RR kit from NBrass locos. And very nice it is too. It has the great advantage of being adjustable for lots of different gauges around the 2mm to 4mm scales. Here it is helping the N gauge Tilbury tank run in its new scratch-built single slide bars. Later on it will come in handy for running in this ScaleFour G6 tank loco. Once I've finished fiddling with the chassis. Cheers Simon

Another modification to the Hobby Holidays chassis jig... And another little painting project...

Cheers Pete, afraid my only rolling road at the moment is for 7mm scale so a wee bit too big. I might have a look at Railwells tomorrow... Here's the paint job so far...

Here's the Tilbury cleaned up (Shiny Sinks and lashings of hot water). THe paint studio. Halfords red (orangy red) primer. Some attention to the chassis.

Hi Rich, the steps are fantastic little castings from NBrass, I adapted them slightly for the Tilbury. I've never thought about filing steps from solid, it's a really good idea, they can be very fiddly to solder up. Cheers Simon

Ok, nearly there. A clean up, paint, final details and some further fiddling with the chassis and she's done...hurrah!

Some while back, EKR mentioned 2mm lamp irons and here they are! Tiny. The other thing is a Westinghouse brake pump built up from wire and tube. That'll go on after painting and lining. I filed up some brackets for the destination board and managed to solder them in place along with the first lamp-iron, which will do for now. This sort if thing doesn't improve hang-overs...