Jack P

That looks absolutely fantastic! Makes me think I should really crack on with building one myself. My only advice would be (and I may be wrong) I don't think the steps would've been green in post war malachite - not that it matters much, it's still a stunning model, great work!

Looks excellent bill!

John, would you say that the malachite green SR set would have the maunsell Patterned wheel inserts? Regards

That's a good price.. I wonder if the other big retailer might try to match that to shift boxes? Did you get any pictures from warley? I posted over in the H2 thread, am really keen to see!

Apparently there were livery samples at Warley, does anyone have any photos?

Kernow has the olive brake ends in stock now it seems, but as has been previously discussed, not the composite.

Looking good! Can't wait to see it lined out, How does the railmatch malachite compare to hornbys malachite?

Just placed my order for the Malachite green set! (yes I regret not doing it sooner) Not sure what sort of delivery time i'm looking at, but i'll be happy if they're here before Christmas!

Thanks Chris! Rule 1 is much easier to apply when you're only talking 2 years, as opposed to say, 10! Update! Being disheartened by how old the Lord Nelson (tooling) looks compared to all of my other Locos, I thought I'd have a go at weathering and detailing it. Went for a slightly heavier approach with this one, but i'm happy with it overall, a few places that could be touched up. I've shortened the gap between loco and tender, added cab doors, added cab detail, front footsteps, rear pipework, on the tender and fitted screw link couplings. There are still a few things left to do, but I'm happy with how it's coming along - thoughts? I've also spent a pleasant evening disassembling a BR(S) Open second, and removing the transfers. Leaving me with this: It's set numbered '105' on the end, so I assume to keep it in line with that set it will need to stay as 1327? I'm not sure that it ran as that set/number in SR days though. If anyone could help fill the gaps here that would be great! I'm also not sure of where the number should go, would it be waist height, in the same place as the BR(S) number, or is it just below the roof line, like some of the other southern stock of this period? I'm yet to crack open my david Gould 'Maunsell's sr steam stock' book, but it may have the answers i'm looking for.. That's all for now!

Hi guys, Another post from me, I am after any of the BoB/West Country Class pacifics, China made, in Malachite green, Or just tender, or just locos. Not fussed. BR numbered or SR no worried, running or damaged, not worried either, please let me know what you have!! Regards

As the title states, I'm very keen on this train pack, not too fussed on Opened/run etc, ideally just in good condition mechanically (not too much of an issue) but definitely in good condition cosmetically. I would also be interested in just the loco by itself if anyone is willing to split. Drop me a PM - Disclaimer, I'm located in NZ but am willing to pay for postage, have family in the UK too (oxfordshire) so can have it posted there if it's easier! Regards

Was this pre 1948 or post? Because if it's pre 1948 that's perfect. Also, possibly when you have said publication to hand, you could confirm if it tells you which?

In short - no. I'd be using some modellers licence here, but the one i'm referencing, the lamp irons look like SR ones being the slightly offset type. It's also hard to reference any SR allocated tenders, so the location is again a guess. (unless graham can advise otherwise) With such little reference material for the time frame i'm after, it's hard to pin-point an exact configuration.

Thanks Steve, Now If I could but and L1 like yours I'd be happy! I usually start by brush/airbrushing the black parts with a sort of grimy black/brown mix, under the running plate, cab roof and smokebox on any black locos - although with anything black I repaint them with satin black 'British Paints' areosol cans, as I think it gets rid of the plastic looking sheen you get, but still leaves a relatively smooth surface to work on. I'm glad you think it's subtle too. I think I need to try and inlcude a gentle transition of colours, there is the faintest hint of a rust colour on the lower part of the smokebox, and on the ashpan but it doesn't really show up in pictures. A little variation is good I think but I don't want to overdo it. The techniques are just a mix of the usual, some dry brushing, paint removal with thinners etc. The WC is done in much the same way but is much easier to do, simply apply some of my own thinned out wash, wait for it to dry and then wipe off with a rag and cotton buds. I think in future I'm going to start gloss varnishing before I weather, but obviously with some refinement i'm sure I'll be confident going at the rest of my stock! I had a feeling this would be the case, I might just save them for any pre-grouping un-rebuilt or unmodified. Although I may need some new wheelsets as I did fit them to the LSWR rebuilds - yes, yes, patience is a virtue (that I may learn one day), luckily they aren't too expensive. - Ahhhh, Duke, as usual. an absolute wealth of information, thank you so much for taking them time, to both write and format your replies in a clear and easy to read way, I'm sure it is of huge benefit to not only myself, but many others too. Just to clarify, set 44 only ran as a 2 car set its entire life? I shall have to figure out where the other coaches fit, some more renumbering possibly! I had noticed the brake ends being 1 number different per set infact, as on both set 209 and set 328 that's the case. One of the books I have on maunsell coaches also explains the reason behind this, being at work and it not being to hand, I would assume/recall it has to do with them being built in batches. I'm currently sitting on 25ish coaches, but If I carry on the way i'm currently going i'm sure i'll catch up to your 365 (one for every day of the year!). I must confess that southern coaching stock appeals to me far more than goods stock/wagons, with a few exceptions. I have purchased a few more books to try and bring myself up to speed. Blessed to have the LSWR rebuilds released in malachite, the gate stock and the Birdcages all hit the market at around the same time. Roll on some re-tooled Bulleid's please Bachmann. Hopefully will have another update tonight! As always thanks all for reading!

If you click here and here You can see two different types of smokebox mounted lamp irons, I have decided to model the ones which look to be the slightly offset type, that you might find on Schools locos. The one in that picture was allocated WD No: 77090. Thanks for all the help so far guys, and Graham, you are probably the most useful southern resource! I will be sure to update with a picture when it's complete!

If you are referring to my comment, please note that it was simply in jest that I referred to it as being an 'expensive' time. All things considered, there has never been a better time to model the southern, all of the new releases will have extremely fine and refined tooling, just compare the Older M7 to the new one, almost unrecognizable. While I have no issue - and, in fact hope that the influx of southern stock does not stop, My wallet might have one or two things to say about it...

Corrected Not that i'm complaining!

Instead of simply bugging Graham with my modelling questions, I thought I'd move my questions into a thread, in-case anyone has the same. I have a few in regards to the WD 2-8-0'd in 1946-1947: Did they have the two upper disc/lamp irons fitted, if so, where? Were the buffer housings painted red to match the beam, or were they black like the LNER ones? What font was the numbering on the side in (and as an aside, if it't not Bulleid, which I suspect it's not, where can I get transfers?) Is there anything else, or any stand out differences I need to know about the few of these locos that ran on the southern before I proceed to re-number my LNER one? Regards

Thank you kindly, and welcome! It has been far too long since I've updated, so here we go. Starting with and M7, one of the ones that had the sandboxes below the running plate, It was quite cheap from hattons and I wish I'd taken a few before photos, a it had obviously lived a life. I started out but sanding back the damage, which was mostly on the tank sides, it looked like someone had tried to remove the lettering and numbers with a scalpel. Sadly I didn't take many pictures, and if I did, They cannot be found. However black isn't much of a difficult livery to repaint into as it's simply colour and transfers. Here she is, finished for now. When I can get in contact with markits I'll have one of their whistles to replace the missing one. The next thing, in chronological order is my order from dart castings. I picked up a few of the maunsell wooden wheel inserts - however since purchasing, I've decided that I don't actually think they went on the coaching stock they are posed in front of, Maybe some older LSWR vans or something, but i'm not sure. Maybe someone is able to tell me if these would've been left on anything on the southern in 1947? Next up, the purchase of Hornbys LSWR Rebuilds in malachite green, I'm still not sure if all 4 were in set 44 together of, or it was simply made up of the two - again i'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I can point me in the right direction. These, still so far, haven't had much done to them, only screw link couplings added. I need to get them out again and try and address the not-so-free running issue. Aside from that they are excellent! I am looking forward to receiving my birdcages, which I can only hope are of similar quality. Here they all are, posed with set 45 at the rear in olive green (not that you can see) and in front there is the next item. To touch on the topic of malachite green, it's pretty clear that Hornby decided to use paint from the same tin for both the BR(s) green and their representation of malachite on coaching stock. Which is confusing because they have the malachite green that's on the majority of southern locos. Either way it makes it slightly easier for me, because I do not plan to repaint any R-T-R stock that's already in malachite green, Kit-built stock definitely though, although I may play around with colours to try and match the Hornby colour. This is all musing for a future time. The bogie van B however Arrived on my bench in BR(s) Livery Sadly (again) I didn't take any photos before, but I simply removed the transfers with a cocktail stick, cotton buds and some thinners, and removed the windows I then, even though I've been previously advised it's incorrect, painted the droplights brown and applied the transfers to bring it to its current state, then wafted a coat of matt varnish and reinstalled the windows. I'm pretty happy with it, because at present it's nothing something that can be bough off the shelf, it matches my coaches, and they are currently rather hard to find in this colour! I also tried my hand at weathering the LSWR rebuilt set 45, giving one of the coaches, what I hope looks like panel repairs. I've narrowed my modelling period to august 1947, so anything still in olive green was probably quite worn, I'm still unconvinced about how it looks, I did try and reference pictures as best I could, but there's not much available, I had a look at some more modern stuff, and it looks similar, i'm just not sure how I could improve it. And finally, to come full circle, another M7 I decided to give weathering another crack on 243, because It's all practice, practice, practice. Here are the results, in a variety of different lighting conditions - feedback appreciated And finally the one that probably showcases it best And finally, here's my current WIP, waiting for detailing and replacement parts, but currently almost finished in terms of weathering. Until next time!

Any updates on this marvelous build?

The craftmanship and engineering of the baseboards and eletrical systems are amazing, a real knack you seem to have! The modelling isn't half bad either

Not sure how I haven't followed or seen this topic yet, it's a fantastic layout!! Eagerly looking forward to more updates

If the modelling wasn't enough, the appearance of an S15 a page or so back, has convinced me to 'follow'. Now, some 659 odd pages of catching up to do..

Subscribed to the topic, extremely interested to see how things progress from here!

Hi guys, looking for 2 Hornby China 8f chassis, or alternatively someone that would be interested in splitting the costs and taking the body shell and complete tender, would figure out a deal of sorts. Let me know either way!