Hi Jeff.  Thank you for your reply. Do I have to paint the Loco Crew myself, or are they already painted? Because I haven’t got a clue about painting figures to any standard let alone a good one. Best wishes Kevin 

If they were the Bachmann ones, they were ready painted. However, I do tend to run a matt varnish over such figures, and often a little weathering in the form of a black or dark grey wash, or some weathering powder.

I also have painted white metal figures from P & D Marsh, painted plastic ones from one of the German firms (Noch or Preiser, I think), and quite a few more unpainted ones from Hornby, Hatton's, Preiser, Monty's/Dart Castings, and some from local model casters here in Oz. It is good to have a variety of characters and positions.

Hi Jeff. Thank you again. I will have to do some serious investigating, but whichever ones are already painted are probably my best option. I don’t know if you have heard of the TV Programme “ Great British Railway journeys,with that prat Michael Portillo? But I was tempted to buy a model of him to stick somewhere, but I thought that it would lower the tone.  Best wishes Kevin 

We like the show, although it caters for the non-rail enthusiast public. Adding a Michael Portillo figure would add a splash of colour … it would brighten up the scene! 

Hi Jeff.   Thank you for your reply. I have only seen one advertised at a local model Railway show , With a copy of his “Bradshaw is guide” wearing his pink jacket. It was “ Over the top “.   Best wishes Kevin 

[user=1801]Passed Driver[/user] wrote:

Hi Jeff. Thank you again. I will have to do some serious investigating, but whichever ones are already painted are probably my best option. I don’t know if you have heard of the TV Programme “ Great British Railway journeys,with that prat Michael Portillo? But I was tempted to buy a model of him to stick somewhere, but I thought that it would lower the tone.  Best wishes Kevin 

 I think "prat" (noun, a foolish, stupid or incompetent person) should be reserved for  those who genuinely fit the description. Pastel summer linen jackets are de rigueur here in the south for gentlemen, as are pastel shorts for the well dressed office worker in Bermuda. 

Sorry for the interruption. 


Nigel

Hi Nigel.  Thank you for your interest. But I was being polite about the man who would be  King.
Best wishes Kevin 

Hi Jeff.  I like the 3H DEMU, and then I saw the Tin HAL, marvellous, blooming marvel. The HAL or something similar took me back fifty years, when I sold a previous model Railway. Of course it was Hornby and DC, but it did look good, I also had a Triang two car EMU that was made of plastic, the advert for that one had five of them and the headcodes spelled out “HOVIS” , the front of the cab looked more like a bay window. Please tell me that both units are kits? Because as you most likely know I never get a kit finished. But, then again I thought that I had read about either Bachmann or Hornby doing a RTR 2 Hal, which I would like.  Best wishes Kevin 

Hi Kevin.
The 'Tin' HAL is a resin kit mounted on Hornby 2 BIL chassis (with the SR 2 BIL bought at a bargain price). Any other 2 BILs and 2 HALs are the Hornby models, some straight out of the box, others with livery tweaks (like full yellow ends) or weathering, or even renumbered.

I remember the Triang 'H O V I S' advert. Those units basically had a 2 BIL front end grafted onto a short BR Standard suburban coach body, so were anything but accurate. Notwithstanding that, they looked good, and I still have a couple floating around in the stock boxes somewhere.

Hi Jeff.  Thank you for your reply. But you didn’t mention the 3H DEMU . Because I had been thinking about adding a third coach to my 2nd DEMU and you gave me advice about changing the number. I don’t know the configuration of seating and Lav  compartments either . As I don’t want to go hacking about at coaching stock wearing a blindfold. Railway Replicas do some good stuff, but, even that idea would go down like a lead balloon if I don’t get it correct.   Best wishes Kevin 

I have described my efforts with the 2H to 3H conversion before: briefly, it has an adapted spare 4 CEP centre coach chassis with a Replica Railways suburban coach and seat unit fitted loosely to it. The lighting unit is hard-wired to the pickups directly from the track, but at present buzzes a bit. I will fit a diode bridge to it to smooth the current.

The colour of the centre coach is not quite right yet. Also, the couplings are wired through to the driving trailer to allow its lights and headcodes to work. The real units had semi-open layouts, so the seating unit is not entirely correct but I can live with this.

Hi Jeff.  Thank you again. Having just read about your work bench effort, it does sound familiar .although I would have thought that a direct electrical could have been made with the Bachmann 4cep Coach. I can never find bargains.Best wishes Kevin 

The CEP coaches were set up differently, electrically, so it wasn't quite that simple, Kevin. They had lighting on function 1, and permanently lit headcodes on F0. The 2H units have directionally changing headcodes, and the internal lights also come on at the same time, all on F0.

Hi Jeff.  Thanks again, at present I am well behind on everything, I took the body off the chassis of my 2EPB fitted the Decoder and tested it, Okay, but I haven’t put it back together because I am undecided which customers/ passengers to put in. But I don’t know why Bachmann didn’t standardise the electrical connections for lighting between  coaches. Best wishes Kevin 

Remember that raw laser-cut wood sleeper-built lineside hut from post 778 that I put together at the exhibition recently? Well, I have been painting and weathering it, although I am still not happy with the result as it stands. There needs to be more variation between individual sleepers, and perhaps a bit more dirty black in there too; the colour is far too even at present. The chimney brickwork also requires a bit more variation.

Here it is, posed on the layout but definitely nowhere near its final position. That has yet to be decided.

P_20190904_211757_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


P_20190904_211724_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Hi Jeff.  I purchased two concrete type way huts  And Surprisingly enough I even built one. But I am thinking how can I make it look more like concrete ? And should I add glazing . Have you got any ideas about the finish? Best wishes Kevin 

Concrete is difficult to simulate. I paint a base coat pf grey, and speckle brown earth colour using a dry brush, but an airbrush may give better results. I'm not entirely convinced by the ones I have done so far.


N Class on Unigate Creameries Milk Tanks - 1 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


I used Krystal Klear to glaze the windows; you could just as easily use a little PVA glue, or have broken or boarded up windows.


IMG_20171129_191610 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


The Ratio provender store is painted but not yet weathered. You can see the base grey colour I have chosen, which doesn't look too bad as it has dried dead flat.


Dapol Working Semaphore Signals Wired Up - 1 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Hi Jeff.  Thank you I forgot those scenes, I don’t have an air brush nor do I want one, but I was considering a rattle can and a sprinkle of some sort of powder and then another coat of paint. Best wishes Kevin 

Some items that have been languishing on my workbench for some time:

I have been doing a little more work on two resin LSWR brake vans from Smallbrook Studios. I have fitted the roofs, although one needed a complete replacement as I wasn't happy with the job I did on the earlier example. The D.1541 road van still has a little too much overhang on the new roof, but that is easily fixed. Aside from fixing up the paintwork, most of what's left to do is fitting handrails and adding transfers. Both vans are quite capable of running on the layout as they stand now.


P_20190926_110437_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


P_20190926_110510_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


An even longer term project has been the detailing and upgrading of an old Triang L1 4-4-0 locomotive. I added separate handrails and pipework many years ago, and put full-sized scale diameter (27mm) wheels on it. However, as Triang locos already tended to sit rather high, this put the buffers a full 2mm too high compared to "normal" stock. So, discouraged by this, I have left it sitting in a corner of the workbench for some time. Anyway, inspired by a couple of other BRMA modellers' efforts using 24mm diameter wheels, I ordered the replacement driving wheels a week or two ago from Scale Link's website, and they turned up today. The appearance suffers a bit from the too-small driving wheels, but it seems a bit more practical as a usable model. Work still needed includes adding numbers, crests and BR mixed traffic lining, a 5-pole motor and DCC decoder once all that works properly.


P_20190926_110616_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Earlier, I bought a green Heljan Western, D1002, and started reshaping the cab roofs as I had done before with a maroon example (D1007). My  initial efforts left it a little too domed, although the overhanging peaks over the windscreens were pretty close to the final profile. I have now hit it with the file again and flattened the profile back towards the hatch, and I think this is much closer to how it should look.

Aside from this error in the Heljan Westerns, I do rather like them. They are less delicate than the Dapol ones (a little less detailed too), but they run more quietly and seem a lot more robust.


​​​​​​​P_20190928_182554_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr