It is actually a nice kit that goes together well. It's just that there are many repetitive bits to deal with that make it tedious - not Cambrian's fault, just a side effect of the real thing's design (28 handrails, 28 door bumpers, 28 door springs!).

If I paint it in pristine black, the detail will be almost lost, but once I weather it heavily, I think the detail will be enhanced.

The Sturgeon A has now had the first coats of paint. After masking off the couplings, I sprayed some automotive grey primer, followed by matt black from the same source. This will eventually be followed by various shades of black, grey and rust colours to weather it down a bit.

Normally after spray painting an item, I would brush paint the final coats of paint to fill in any holes or gaps in the spray coats. However, because I want to model the Sturgeon A in a heavily weathered and slightly battered condition, I didn't bother with more black paint, instead going straight to the greys (Humbrol #66 and #79) and browns (Humbrol #29, so far) in washes and dry brushed streaks.

The initial results are shown in the next two photos.






While I should have added the transfers before weathering commenced, it doesn't matter too much with this build, as there are more layers of weathering to go on. This is the stage it is at at the time of typing this post. Still to do: more rust is needed on the metal parts (of the real thing - they are all plastic in the kit!), more shades of grey and brown for the insides and outsides of the wooden planked bits, and more weathering on the floor, before adding the rail load I have earmarked for this wagon.

Great looking kit Jeff. As it is a reasonably long wagon, I would like to know how the couplers are fitted to this wagon ? Are they body mounted or someway connected to the bogies, although they are in from the ends a long way.

I trust you had a great Christmas !

Cheers, Gary.

Hi Gary. We had a nice quiet Christmas at home but caught up with friends and family on days either side of Christmas Day.

The Couplings are *sort of* NEM pockets on long extensions from the bogies and take standard NEM couplings with the fishtails, and they swing with the bogies. The pockets are formed during the construction but may be a little delicate for repeated plugging and unplugging of couplings. The extensions can be left off if the builder wishes to mount couplings directly under the floor (such as for some Kadee types.

I haven't actually taken any photos of the undersides of the wagon, so I will try to get one or two once the light is better.

Answering Gary's query about the coupling arrangements on the Sturgeon A, here is an underside shot of it. The NEM 'fishtail' couplings slot into a pocket formed during construction. I'm not sure it is robust enough to stand repeated plugging and unplugging of couplings, but it does allow for future changes, perhaps to NEM type Kadees (numbers 17 to 20). As can be seen, they are mounted on long extensions of the bogie top members, and swing with the bogies.




Now, to a different project: I have been contemplating the Hornby S15 and the weathering to date, which came out just a little too brown for my liking. I mixed up some Humbrol coal black #85 as the predominant colour, with a tinge of Humbrol #66, olive drab, and even less Humbrol #62, leather. The whole lot was then mixed with some matt varnish and 'watered' down with turps to form a grey, almost black wash.

I am much happier with the result, but I'll leave it to you to judge for yourselves.

looks very good to me,spot on
:thumbs;-):cool:
Owen

Thanks, Owen.
:cheers

I still prefer them in clean  Maunsell green, that's why I model mid 1930s, no Bulleid malachite, no smelly diesels, still some of Adams's beautiful 4-4-0s and 0-4-2s   about.

No smelly diesels, Mike?




The three Maunsell diesel shunters date from 1937.


:twisted:   :twisted:  :twisted:

And just about complete, now. The Sturgeon A with some additional rust coloured weathering, and with a rail load added, using some cut lengths of rail and some plasticard strips cut to represent wooden battens. Just a few minor paint touch-ups to go and it is ready for service with my model Engineers Department.

Very nice Jeff. The weathering came up well. Quite a unique vehicle.

Marty

The wagon looks brilliant and the weathering is superb. Thanks for the reply on the couplings. I had a feeling that they may be attached to the bogies, but saying that, the bogies looked a long way in from the end of the wagon making the draw bar (?) very long. I thought there may have been issues with this method especially through points and tighter radius corners. Then again, what do I know ? ;-)

The S15 on the other hand, well its another stunning piece of work. A well worked locomotive showing signs of heavy use. Now, do I send my locos to you for weathering…?? :cool wink

Cheers, Gary.

Thanks for the compliments, guys.

Gary, send me your locos and I'll keep whichever ones I like!!

:cool wink  

I have been doinga comparison of the new Sutton's Locomotive Works (SLW) class 24 against my already modified Bachmann one to see what further work could be feasible to bring the Bachmann model closer to being accurate (or at least, looking accurate).

I have previously modified the gutter line over the cab windscreens, and have been aware that the windscreen shapes were wrong, although they are the hardest thing to correct without having to do a complete repaint. The centre door could be beefed up just a little.

Looking at the models, the roof looks easy to correct, with the Bachmann model needing a little backdating of the exhaust details. It could also do with the addition of the 'flaps' over the boiler water fillers, although these went missing on the real locos quite early on. My modelling period for the 24s is the early 1960s, when around 15 of them were on  loan to the Southern Region for several years. The "L" shaped panel will be easy to produce in plain plasticard.

As the Bachmann model side grilles are correct for the majority of class 24s, but I needed any of the first 15, I had arbitrarily chosen D5014 for my original renumbering. As it turned out, that was not a good choice as D5014 was one of the early ones with an extra grille on each side (as correctly modelled by SLW on D5000). Also out of contention were the first six locos, which had the horizontal divider in the main radiator grille (again, correctly modelled by SLW for D5000). Chacking photos (which were unavailable when I first renumbered the Bachmann one) showed that D5009 0r D5011 were built without the extra side grilles - there were others as well - and D5011 was the easiest renumber because I only had to change the last digit.

The rest is not too bad. The thing that spoils the character the most on the Bachmann model (the windscreen shape) is also the most difficult to correct, so I will have to consider my options on that. The rest should be easy.





(Note the extra grille on the upper level behind the main radiator on D5000 at the rear in the above photo).









Well, it's something to contemplate for a project this year.

A few years ago, I picked up a Hornby green class 50 with aftermarket sound. 50 007, Sir Edward Elgar, was fitted with Olivia's Trains' sound, and was in generally good nick, apart from a little of the orange lining rubbing off.

This particular model was a limited edition version with red name and number plates, representing 50 007 as preserved. I was not at all happy with the Olivia's sounds, so the decoder was reblown and fitted into something else completely different, and a Lenz Standard+ decoder was fitted in its place. I decided that I would order Fox Transfers lining transfers and etched nameplates with black backgrounds to put Sir Edward back into service as she/he was in active BR service before preservation.

The original Hornby lining was scraped off with a wooden lolly stick and a little water - this doesn't mark the original paint finish or the plastic of the model's body. The new lining transfers slid easily into place, apart from trimming one side slightly to shorten it, and the etched plates were trimmed easily off their frets with a sharp pair of scissors. A little PVA-type glue smeared lightly on the backs of the etched components allowed them to sit perfectly over the printed plates and crests.

I will varnish the sides to preserve the transfers and also seal the edges of the etched components, but it is best to leave them to dry out thoroughly first. Here are a couple of photos to show the results so far - sorry one is a little blurry because I can't take the camera any further back from that side.

a very smart model Jeff,I like it a lot
:thumbs:thumbs;-):cool:
Owen

I got brave and decided to try hiding toning down the vertical bars on the main cooling group grille with a little bit of black wash. While I had the paint out, I also toned down the white pipes on the bogies.The photo actually shows the grille bars too well, but from normal viewing distances and angles, the vertical bars are far less obvious than they were.

I have had a rolling program of upgrading printed name plates with etched ones over the last few years. I put in two orders to Modelmasters just before Christmas to cover most of the remaining diesel and electric models I have, although a couple were not available for various reasons (either not made or out of stock).

The following photos show the ones I have fitted so far.

London Transport (ex-Metropolitan Railway) Bo-Bo no. 8 Sherlock Holmes has benefitted from having its over-thick plastic plates replaced by the etched versions, although I have to say the Heljan version was not too bad at all.




ViTrains class 37, 37 428 David Lloyd George needs a little more work to patch up the paintwork at either end of the new plates - that's where I had to scrape off the slightly longer printed versions. This locomotive had its yellow bits overpainted with a deeper (correct) colour, plus some black paint inside the noses to reduce light bleed. It has the TTS sound chip in it from a Hornby RailRoad class 37, with a home made speaker enclosure to house the speaker.




I like my Lima class 73s for their liveries, but the running qualities were nothing to write home about. All of my operational ones except one now have Hornby mechanisms (the odd man out has a ModelTorque motor fitted). 73 125 Stewarts Lane 1860 - 1985 looks much better with the etched plates instead of the printed ones. It would benefit further if I weathered it lightly.






Another hybrid locomotive is class 59, 59 005 Kenneth J. Painter, with Hornby chassis and Lima body. I experimentally fitted LED head and marker lights at one end only - something I would rate as entirely successful but I need to tidy up the internal wiring a bit. The plates are black, where I think they should be blue for the earlier condition. I may flood some blue paint into them at a later date, but they still look good now, as is.




And finally, for the name plate fittings for this session, Hornby class 09, 09 012 Dick Hardy, now sports the etched plates. The printed ones were just a tiny bit longer, but I didn't modify them at all; you don't see it from normal viewing distance, and only notice if it is pointed out at closer viewing distances.








Since placing the order for name plates, I have landed a few more models, two of which are named! I'll have to order plates for them next time I place an order.

First up is Heljan BR blue class 47, 47 508 S.S. Great Britain, bought second-hand but almost unused. I spent yesterday evening gluing the buffer beam pipes and coupling hook in, then cut them all off at a level just below the bottom of the buffer beam to clear the model coupling swing. I still think this looks better than having a bare buffer beam.






Also from the same source, and almost unused, was BR blue Heljan class 33/1, 33 117. This one is not named (whew!) but needs some buffer beam detailing and weathering.






And finally, from eBay, sound-fitted Hornby 08, 08 844 Chris Wren 1955 - 2002 in EWS livery.

Some minor tweaks to two of the locomotives shown in the previous post.

I have touched up the BR blue paint on the ViTrains 37 at the ends of the name plates. Using Humbrol's acrylic BR blue, the shade is a fraction darker than ViTrains' shade, so I lightly streaked it down the sides in several places, particularly where there might be water runs at the edges of windows and grilles.

The result looks like light weathering but barely shows up at all in the photo.




The Heljan 33, 33 117, has benefitted from some extra paint touches in yellow, plus the start of the weathering process. As it comes out of the box (first photo repeated from an earlier post), the EP pipes and jumper cables are plain black plastic, as are the lamp irons. I have painted the attached ends of the cables and jumpers, plus the sockets, in Humbrol's bright yellow as a primer, to be followed later by proper BR warning panel yellow. The cocks at the tops of the air pipes will get a touch of red paint later on. 

I mixed up my usual weathering colours of Humbrol 62 leather, 67 dark grey (although I often use 66 olive drab here) and 85 coal black, with a blob of matte varnish, all thinned with turps. this was brushed in thin washes onto the whole of the under-gear except for the sides of the solebars, which I had previously painted BR blue. I also used the weathering mix on the jumper cables and air pipes.

The roof is way too clean at the moment. Apart from painting the fan grille BR blue, I haven't touched the roof at all yet. That too will eventually get some weathering washes.

Progress so far is shown in the second photo. Where before the black areas were almost lost in shadows, the new weatherd effect brings out any detail to advantage.