Hi Gary.

Roofs are difficult. For the LNER CCT, my failed attempt at a patchy effect used a lighter grey and some of the Revell brown #84 brushed and stippled on, followed by a wash of dark grey. In the end, I used Humbrol #66, a very good all round weathering and roof colour - good for tyres on road vehicles too.

For the SR Van C I used the same grey #66 at full strength, then a very thin wash of the Revell brown #84.

The next two have variations on the overall weathering, with the roofs using thin washes of Humbrol #66. The Fruit D (a Parkside kit I bought second-hand already built) had an all over wash of Humbrol #66 followed by a thin wash of Humbrol dark earth #29, then a little of the Revell #84 brown partly washed and partly dry-brushed around the door edges and lower sides, plus the underframes. The SR Bogie B had a similar but lighter treatment on its sides, plus a little dark steel around the axleboxes, springs and brake linkages.

All of the vehicles had their wheels and brake blocks painted with the Revell brown.

The Fruit D and Hornby bogie B are shown below, together with a pristine bogie B, untouched by my paint brush … so far!

They look great Jeff. :thumbs Thanks for the tips on colours, much appreciated.

Cheers, Gary.

Your rolling stock and railway is coming along a treat Jeff.
You sure have progressed a lot. My regards to Toby and thanks for the pics.

Derek.

Thanks for the compliments and wishes, Derek. Toby always smooches around my feet while I am at the workbench. he's fascinated with everything I do to the models.

Another new project started: a 2 HAP unit of the 5601 - 5636 batch built to the Bulleid style.

This is based on the Ayjay Models resin kit, bought through Radley Models. As I intended to use Hornby 2 BIL running units and chassis, I asked Phil Radley if he could sell me just the body shells and seat units. He very kindly did this and threw in the floor/chassis as well as he wanted only the bogies for other uses.

Having adapted the same manufacturer's 2 HAL unit to the 2 BIL chassis recently, I had a fair idea of what to look for this time. Modifications involve cutting some notches out of the sides of the seating units, removing part of the seating unit on the motorised coach, and removing the buffer beams and fittings from the body shells. I also drill and ream out various holes in the floor or under the seats to clear some of the projections from the Hornby chassis and also the Lenz decoder. These holes can be covered over with a bit of thin plasticard later, before painting occurs.











The 2 BIL buffers will be replaced with non-sprung white metal castings for BR retracted buffers - this will be consistent with BR practice and also with the Bachmann 4 CEP or 2 EPB units with which this one will be able to run.

At this stage, I am planning to finish the unit in plain BR blue with full yellow ends, but I could change my mind before getting to that stage of the construction.

I have now adapted the DTC seats to fit the Hornby underframe, so have a matching set which can now run, even in this raw state!








​p.s. I have also been adapting the Southern Liveried 2 BIL body shells to sit on the erstwhile Ayjay 2 HAL underframes. This means I'll have a Black Beetle powered unit in SR livery - it won't run smoothly in multiple with the BR liveried units but I am not likely to want to do that anyway!

That looks a good model build Jeff.
Those resin kits look very well molded.
Oh whats resin like to paint,Any special preperation?.
Glad Toby is keeping tabs on things.My boss Meow has taken a liking to the railway build.Or it could be the heater taking the chill out of the room.
All the best,
Derek.

Hi Derek.
The resin used for these kits allows quite a bit of nice sharp detail, although I find some of Ayjay's detailing a little on the heavy side (roofs and ends mainly). Even so, each kit I buy seems to get better and finer. The 2 HAP end details look slightly finer than the very similar 'Tin' HAL kit I did before.

As for taking paint, I find it varies from kit to kit, even from the same manufacturer (I have done quite a few resin bus kits as well as railway ones).

Generally, a quick scrub with water and Jif (or toothpaste if desperate) followed by a thorough rinse in water and proper drying time will then allow the surfaces to accept a spray of automotive undercoat. After that it's plain sailing!

Tony Asquith of Little Bus Company reckons his kits should not be cleaned with the Jif, but I still find it slightly better to do this as greasy finger prints accumulate with handling of the parts. It also washes off any of the releasing agent used to stop the parts sticking to their moulds.

As for cats and heaters: they do seem to be able to absorb unlimited amounts of heat, sometimes at the expense of everyone else in the room! If you have central heating vents in the floor, the cats do seem to like blocking those off. 

  

:)Many thanks Jeff,For explaining Resin and painting prep.

While I am concentrating on steam.I have been looking at a guy at Mousa Models who is producing resin kits for pregrouping rolling stock and your reply will come in very handy.

I can see an order for some nice LNWR wagons going in soon.

Cheers, Derek.

Last weekend I bought a cheap Hornby N15 at our local swap meeting. It was missing its dome but it ran sweetly and all other bits were present, including the Hornby bag of bits. It was the NRM model of 30777 Sir Lamiel, in BR late crest livery. I have memories of a ride behind Sir Lamiel on the Scarborough Spa Express back in 1984, when it was in SR green as 777.

After scouring eBay and the spares suppliers like Peters Spares (and others) and not finding any spare domes or even spare or damaged bodies, then the various component suppliers (247 Developments, Craftsman and so on) , I have to build my own dome.

I have made a start using Milliput. It is slightly undersized and a little crude at the moment but I will add a bit of filler and file it back to shape once set. It's a start





What I should do is separate the dome from another N15, like 30737 in the front of those photos, then use it to mould resin replacements. Maybe later. 

:roll:

Edit: Another photo added, this time with 30799 for comparison. It occurred to me that I should compare the domes of two Maunsell locomotives rather than using the Urie Arthur. I'm not sure if there was a difference; if there was, I can't see it in the photos.

Adding a couple more pics of progress. I have tidied up the dome shape a little, although it is still a bit crude at the moment.



A wash of green paint to highlight any dips or high spots.

The diameter is a little small, the top is too rounded, it's a little lopsided, and the base is still a little rough and crude, but it is starting to look like an N15 dome … sort of. It is only roughly painted to show up any faults more easily than the stark white of the Milliput.



I will be calling South Eastern Finecast to see if they can supply a cast N15 dome, but in the meantime, this is still better than not having a dome at all.

Edit: addendum: I phoned SEF and they were extremely helpful. A cast white metal dome from one of their N15 kits will be winging its way to me very shortly. That also means I won't do anything further on Sir Lamiel until that arrives.

Thats good news about the dome Jeff.
Although full marks for having a bash at making one.Domes are tricky jobs to get those curves right and one can end up with a bin of rejects before getting one you are happy with.
Thanks for the photo,s.
Derek.

Thanks Derek. :)

Now for something different again: when visiting Peter Mantle's (PCM on RMweb) Llanbourne layout for the monthly BRMA meeting yesterday (gratuitous photos included below), I took along two locomotives that were recently reblown with legomanbiffo sounds. One, 37 698, behaved perfectly (although I noted that I have at some stage lost the horns at one end, probably when transporting it to an exhibition). The other, class 40 D211, disgraced itself by dropping the bogie frame at one end. I was still able to run it and show off the sounds but it looked rather odd - like one end was floating on air!






The cause of the class 40 bogie frame falling off was the inner end transome actually breaking off. Unfortunately, the centre part of that transome is what clips over a lug on the end of the bogie's metal chassis.

I worked into the early hours of this morning fixing it, after thinking about how to repair it so that it would regain some strength.

The answer was to use a 2mm wide strip of 60 thou plasticard, reinforced with handrail wire drilled into the ends through the bogie side frames (just visible in the first photo, beside of the sandbox, plus more wire drilled and bent around the attachment points for the bottom part. This was then superglued thoroughly as well to retain all the wire bits and strengthen the joints.





It works perfectly on test and seems to be very strong. All that remains is to apply a coat of black paint, to be followed eventually by a bit of weathering on the whole underframe/bogies and on the roof.

Thanks for the photos of Llanbourne Jeff, looks like a great layout.
The repair on the class 40 looks very firm, glad you were able to sort it.

cheers
Marty

Thanks Marty.
Llanbourne is a superb layout. Lots of tiny details everywhere one looks. It was exhibited in the UK many years ago but is now permanently set up here in Australia. I have suggested that Peter join YMR but he says he can only cope with one forum and even with that he runs out of time!

A quick update on the class 40: I have now painted the repairs black and while I had the black on the brush, did some initial weathering on the roof.

The Ayjay Models 4 SUB kit has arrived from Radley Models. Oddly, it came with four trailer bogies and four motor bogies. I contacted Phil Radley and he immediately offered to sed out the two missing trailer bogies. I also asked if he wished the extra motor bogies returned but, as yet, he hasn't replied to that. Excellent service, as always, from Phil.

With this kit, I am using the Hornby 2 BIL motor chassis but will have to use the Ayjay resin chassis/underframes for the remaining three coaches.

I have cut off the buffer beams from one of the DMBS bodies and sat it loosely one the Hornby underframe.

The semi-saloon seating unit will have to be cut to suit the Hornby chassis configuration, losing one seating bay in the process to clear the motor housing.

I have not yet chosen a unit number but am probably going to select one from the 4355 to 4363 group as these had two 10-compartment trailers to match what was supplied in the kit. That also means I will retain the foot steps over the front buffers and add handrails above and either side of the front at windscreen level (similar to the 'Tin' HAL).




This also shows the interesting contrast in front ends for what were otherwise almost identical body shells for the DMBS vehicles in the 2 HAP and the 4 SUB. The roof details also differ somewhat.

It also shows that I have thinned the lower roof edge gutter on the HAP to improve the appearance.

School holidays for Christmas are here. I am hoping to get a bit more modelling done over the break, including getting the 4 SUB and 2 HAP completed, wiring and more tracklaying on the layout, and some weathering on more of the Hornby ex-SR units (2 BIL and 2 HAL).

The first move on this has been to scrape and file off the moulded on pipes on the Ayjay 4 SUB and replace them with separate wire fittings.




Next job is to add lamp irons, windscreen wipers (both of these items to be from selectively flattened wire), and handrails on the cab and guards' doors.

I'll be cutting those roof-mounted horns off and leaving the whistle in place, as many SUBs still had their whistles in the late 1960s.

More details added to the fronts of the Ayjay 4 SUB. Lamp irons and windscreen wipers added, horns removed from the dummy motor coach but not yet from the motorised one.

I must change the wire gauges used for the jumper cables. The ones I used match the resin moulded-on ones but they are really too coarse - I seem to recall I discovered this when I did the 2 HAL previously. I think most would agree the effect is still better than moulded-on detail though.






Also visible in the photos is the small section of electrical conduit I had to repair after the paring and filing of the jumper cables. The body is not sitting correctly in the photos but I only noticed that after posting them!

I decided I just had to fix the overscale jumper cables. The wire used originally for the centre cable is now the thickness used for the outer ones, while much thinner wire, from some multi-strand cable, was used for the centre one. I am now much happier with the effect.