Andrew F

It's the first pictures of 37418 that does it for me; the light refecting on the side is the icing on the cake for realism.

Cheers Lee. I take it you use just water whilst soaking and applying. I've been messing around with Revell "Decal soft" during these soaks and am coming round to thinking that it's working against me at this stage; it's good stuff like but probably at the right stage; it makes old Replica transfers actually bed down and other heavy film decals cover raised detail. I'll nip it in the bud I think at the early slide-off stage.

You take a good photo and can manipulate the images so they actually look like photo's taken in the 80's. I've noticed this in the "how realistic" thread. Folk tend to throw up an HD image of something from 1950 something and it dosn't look right even though it may be B/W and great modelling. It's all about evoking memories and what the actual photographs looked like after you got them back from the developers. My old pictures taken with a 35mm Praktica in Scotland in the 80's look a lot like your models.

Yep, the Replica stripes need cutting to get around the 37 nose....nasty! also difficult above the cantrail grilles where you end up with that carrier film hanging over. Is there a sure fire way of getting the long runs straight? I take the strip out of the water with the backing on and tease the strip off the backing at one end of the loco and hold in place with a cotton bud whilst pulling the backing paper away at the other end and hoping the transfer strip stays straight the whole length.....has this happened for me yet?

Beautiful stuff as usual Dave. I never lower myself to submit to envy when I look in here; just pure jealousy.

All the Treansfesa vans have been painted now and await transfers to magically appear on them The last of the '51 Festival of Britain Pullmans is 310 Pegasus (Trianon bar) in the guise of "Nightcap bar". It left the Golden Arrow around 1965 and I don't know what happened to it until '70 when it became part of an overnight Anglo-Scottish express in ble/grey standard livery. This model will be in reverse blue/grey Pullman livery which it may not have carried but could have easily. The bar area has been finished. Pegasus these days has a different bar but I've modelled the original 50's one. The mural on the back wall shows south England, the Thames and north France and the Seine with Pegasus (looks like Cupid to me) shooting an arrow across the channel. Some of the strangest (and crappest) modelling I've done is painting the Eifell tower and Pegasus/Cupid (should be a horse). the spirits are the optic fibres from the removed seating area and the cabinet has SE Finecast bubble glaze Mk1 toplights glued on top, I may change the colour of the carpet; can't find a colour photo of this area in this period.

.....folk may want your ovals to replace the ones that fell off theirs.

The grilles transform the old peak Neil. The 44's always seemed ancient and special somehow. Pete's etches are great; just been working on a blue Tinsley 37 with etched steps and headcode; makes a big difference over standard Bachmann.

The easiest orange cantrail lines I've found to apply are the Replica ones....but!....whilst they sit well and can be easily straightened on the loco, the don't want to go around corners or curves and they have so little adhesive I've actually blown some off with the varnish coat.

I'm astounded how well the masked cantrails have turned out on the 20's. I can't do with Fox lining either' impossible to work with but then I've not found any lining that either sits right or is easy to apply. The dry transfers from Woodlands scenics are a real bind too; sometimes they'll rub on but usually won't leave the backing paper. Glad you got a few minutes to do some work for yourself. I've been the opposite; all work for myself and no punters.

The whole cabs light up. Class 375 torches!........The leds need to be completely isolated from the resin as it acts as an optic; paint on the inside of the cabs make no difference as the light travels within the resin. Martin's built a couple of black lighting boxes that will hopefully fit behind the noses.

This link shows the colour of a VSOE coach in 1991(second picture down). Looks to be in evening sunlight/high contrast but suggests the Hornby colour is ok for the earlier VSOE livery and the Dapol 73 the later lighter brown http://kentrail.org.uk/class_33_4.htm

That photo has the compsosition and diffusion that may sell in the cultural quarter:coffee coasters/mouse mats and fuzzy prints for the wall.

My Digidrive 26 revs up too much for shunting (moves to second notch whilst moving off). Is there a fix for this?

I believe some of the Bachmann 170's(maybe the 2 car) have the air conditioning unit for over the cab. Definitlely worth considering if your chosen Electro proto has this. I had to cobble this together and it's a blinkin' nightmare.

What, the Yanks or David?

Ah, The project pre-dates the Bachmann type 2 I take it. Nice. I'm not sure what a 29 sounded like. I looked throught the Paxman history to see if any engines survived overseas and found some loco's in Sri-Lanka with 12 cylinder Paxman units but they turned out to be Valentas not Venturas. Still they sounded the part ....low thunder with a HST turbo scream. So 12 cylinders and a Paxman turbo scream?...II confess, I just stuck a Bachmann 47 sound chip in mine and it sounds like a 47.....on a bad day.

Thanks TJ. James' noses need a fair bit of filing like most resin stuff but they fit the Bachmann body really well. I had difficulty removing one of the Bachy noses as the glue they've used was strong in places. I spliced the centre car together with thick plastic rather than a metal plate like James used and it's certainly adequate as it's survived a full on drop...oops. The underframe of the single power Electro is not as complicated as one with a pan and I've used thick plastic sheet to create the boxes......quite easy as there's already a ridge on the chassis to fit them on once the Turbo one piece moldings are pulled away. I've also used some of the Turbo's bits in there...not 100% accurate but it matches the vids and pics on this thread good enough. Have a go I say. One good thing is the Bachmann Turbo is straightforward to work with and all the plastic is very workable and glueable... Good luck I

It's been some time since an NBL build thread was started. Will you be using the Hornby motor? ;this one looks like the later 'extra pick-ups' loco. Also I guess you are not bothering with the old A1 etches.

.You can brush on (or soak) Mekpak/Liquid Poly/Plastic weld or nail varnish remover(pink bottle from pound shop) and work the paint off with a stiff bristle brush. Brush or spray the brown onto the nameplate and when that's totally dry (at least 24 hrs) rub some finishing paper (1200 or similar) over the top of the plate until the raised bits are silver again. Do it all on a flat solid surface.

Oh no!

Thanks Matt. I got a friend to do the transfers; similar thing printed off with the computer on an inkjet printer. So big progress but still a way to go. I moved the nem pockets back into the bogies and tried Roco 40270 close couplers and get a standard gap now; I'd prefer a closer coupling and will maybe go with Kaydees. This unit will have to navigate the inner loop of the Dover Priory layout which is quite tight and we'll mess with couplings when it gets on the layout. A big thanks to Maritn Levin for the transfers and lighting that will be the next instalment.

Yes, do you work for Dapol? Just kidding:)

That link works fine for me.

Someone questioned this earlier in the thread. Having a mess on someones layout with Hornby/Lima 73's; they seemed tiny, almost HO scale compared to the stock. Just how low are 73's?