Jack P

If you find it, can you let me know how much post to NZ would be?

Hey, thanks Steve! The fallplate is actually deceptively simple, now I do apologize because the next photo shows the rather ugly underside, previously i've used tamiya thin cement but I have found it to not bond all that well, the new stuff i'm using is just some $1 super glue from bunnings but it does the job. It's just a piece of thin plastikard with some ribbing support and a bit of wire at the back, real simple, a little crude, but it works well enough for me! As for the layout it'll be some time, currently looks like i'll need about 5 x 1.5, maybe longer if I want to include the full roundhouse..

Update! Courtesy of the work computers I printed off some reference photos of Guildford 70c, lots to go through, but I've found some great pictures facing towards the tunnel from the station platform under the Farnham road bridge. I had previously had set up in the garage, because it would mean no worries about mess, air compressor, paint smell etc, etc. But the garage leaks! Which I only found out about when I came home and all the engines were sitting in a puddle, fearing the worst, I just assumed that they were all a write-off. However moving everything inside and blow drying everything obviously did something because they all work! It is also a much nicer, warmer, dryer area to work in, I'm now just on the hunt for a bigger desk. All the engines have been tested on 3 small bits of Hornby track, going back and forth, while I wait for my DCC Concepts rolling road to turn up, this will eventually become my dedicated test track/rolling road. Its a little crude but it works! I also shortened the loco/tender coupling on the N15, I will admit, I cut the wires to the existing coupler and used the spare schools one. when I obtain a soldering iron I will re-attach this small piece connector piece so that I can still use the tender pickups. Leaving me with a far better looking connection, and means I can still use the Hornby fallplate Finally I caught this shot of the S15 in the sun the other morning, If only it had a more scenic backdrop That's all for now!

That really is fantastic, I now regret not pre-ordering Royal Mail. What does the engine come with in terms of a detail pack?

Thanks Nile, your bench is pretty inspirational, have just finished my 700's fall-plate in the same way as yours! With Methfix is it the same as pressfix where you push them on to the model and dab with liquid, or is it in the same vein as water-slide but using spirits instead? I'm thinking it's probably the way to go, the modelmaster decals are nicely printed, but it's the transfer film that really lets it down, on the sheet it says you can remove the film with some low tack tape on a corner and peel away gently, but i would always peel the whole thing away or maybe just the edge of a letter which was extremely frustrating.

John - bit of an odd colour, not sure who's choice it was, and it certainly seemed odd to me, but I shall run with it for now, the benefit its, no-one's going to see it anyway! Thanks RFS, that link is excellent, I shall peruse through those photos!

Ah yes, thanks for that! I don't claim it to be 100% accurate, but the more I learn, the better! Were the boards around pre '48, if you know?

Hey John, thanks for taking a look! The word I was looking for was definitlety dynamo, the name escaped me at the time! As for the train Duty numbers, I have plenty of blank white headcode disc's, it was just to add a little interest! Plus using what was left of my 7mm transfers, Graham Muz sent me the list of duty turns as a pdf document which has been extremely useful. Thank you though, means there can be locos on shed with duty numbers on the headcode discs. As for the interior, I was going off the picture of the coach 6686 on the bluebell - http://www.semgonline.com/coach/maunco05.html click the link and scroll to the bottom to see what i'm talking about, I had always thought the interior was stone coloured too, show's how much I know knew don't know! cheers

Update: Realized the bogie on the King Arthur was missing it's guard irons, so I made some rudimentary ones from some scrap brass That's all for now!

Gary, just my 2c when it comes to painting figures, I like to prime them well before hand, trying to make sure to remove any molding lines then I paint in this order: Skin, making sure to cover more area than I think I need to Whites, or any ties, undershirts etc Blue, making sure to be very fine in following the detail lines I follow this with a very diluted wash of black to taste, I wipe/blot the majority off to just leave it in the detail lines The close up probably cruelly picks up how bad it is in reality, it looks fine from regular viewing distance, on the left is what you start with on the right is what you end with - currently hasn't been washed with black yet. Not that i'm a pro, or that this is the be all and end all, but it's just what works for me! Hope this helps to some extent

Don't take it as criticism, definitely not suggesting i'm a pro when it comes to the complex southern liveries! I was under the impression that pre-war/during the war smoke deflectors were black, but the steps were lined. Then post war the steps were black and deflectors were lined. To be completely honest there are photos of some odd combinations both before, during and after the war so it doesn't really matter much, because the model is stunning regardless!

Not to hi-jack your thread, and not to say i'm a pro, but what's worked for me in terms of weathering below the footplate is a mix of semi gloss black and nato brown (tamiya) You can see here it breaks up the black of the loco/tender body, and get rid of the shiny plastic and shiny wheel rims. I paint the smokebox and cab roof, the flat surfaces, as well as edges of the wheel rims. Due to being acrylic, it means that if I get any paint on the tread I can just use some thinner on a cotton bud to wipe it off, I'm currently waiting on the arrival of Vallejo oily steel to see how it looks on connecting rods. With inside cylinder engines it's pretty simple to take the wheels out, usually only a few screws in the chassis, that way you can get the chassis without leaving any areas and it makes it easier to get the wheels and tidy up any discrepancies. Obviously the above picture is a pretty tame example but you can add some rust colour to give the whole thing a redder hue, and just mix the whole thing to taste. Hopefully this helps to some extent!

Excellent thread. Followed and looking forward to seeing more!

Wartime malachite due to black cab front? The lettering looks pre-war though?

Update: Still nothing exciting to report. Removed the modelmaster transfers from the 700 and painted the interior of the tender a sort of rusty colour (trying to go off photos as best I could), Crew fitted, and like the rest of the engines is just waiting for coal! Made some more progress on 938 'St Olaves', as this used to be 'Cheltenham', it had the speedo cable on the rear left driving wheel, I cut this down and left the small portion that slots into the groove on the stub there so it didn't mess with the motion too much. I also managed to get everything back together relatively straight, with a little bit of help from my heat gun, which is a massive improvement over how it arrived, I chucked the body on the chassis from 'Wellington' to make sure it all lined up. (Feels like the first real modelling i've done!) Before: After: You can see here it's not quite perfect, but it's certainly better, and you really wouldn't notice unless you looked She's just awaiting the donor chassis, with the wheels swapped in, chimney and transfers she'll be done! Order placed for some etched plates today too, this means that hopefully from now on any more schools that arrive should just be a simple re-name/number. In one of my first posts I made a closer coupled draw bar out of plastikard, the only issue was that the screw holding it in to the loco chassis was really tight, and would inevitably cause issues later on, so I just set about bending up the metal draw bar that it comes with - I don't claim to be the first purveyor of this idea, but it certainly works, well! My next task is to tackle the connection between the loco and tender on my King Arthur 'Pendragon', Which is slightly more tricky, I should be able to figure it out, but if anyone has any suggestions let me know! Still not very exciting, so I do apologize to all those reading. That's all for now!

A brief update, I have managed to find another schools who's chassis I can nab, it will also leave me with a bunch of spares, which is great! I also referenced the photo of the wartime schools class, steps are painted and lined, but so are the smoke deflectors, which means it's sharing both pre and post wartime malachite styles, which is confusing. Either way, my model will become 938 'St Olaves', which I made a start on this morning . Not very exciting but until I can sort some pressfix or maybe succumb to methfix, I will wait. The waterslide transfers got a coat of varnish today too, and look abysmal, so I will have to sort that out. It's okay from a distance and some angles but it's not really good enough. I also quickly made up a fall-plate in the same style as the one I did for wellington. Black areas have been painted 'Dirty black' and the pipework and nameplates are still off while i figure out a way to straighten the front of the running plate. I also made up some more route discs with train reporting numbers on them, Guildford had the reporting numbers allocated between 180-230, a few of the others are Nine Elms and Feltham. Finally, my favourite 'Never-Was' of all time. Hopefully I'll have more exciting things to report soon. That's all for now!

Excellent! That L1 is fantastic, as is the night ferry train.

Update! I've been working on detailing the motive power for my upcoming layout, dirty black on the flat surfaces and below the footplate. Need to make a start on weathering further. The green ones are easy, but the black ones i'm unsure of, so they look a little plain at the moment. I also picked up hornbys excellent '700', which was an absolute steal from a certain online model store (ex vat is a great thing). I always had plans to update into sunshine livery, So after some useful advice, and some enamel thinners,and matte varnish, it looked like this: I seem to have knocked the rear most lamp iron off the top of the tender, I've made this same ham fisted mistake with my T9, if anyone can advise where you obtain frets of these lamp irons from - as i thought it was roxey but can't seem to find them. This mornings efforts left me with this: I have had to use Modelmaster Waterslide decals, but I'm not a fan, I really think pressfix is the way to go, the only issue is HMRS are sold out, and after some communication, it will be a while until they have any more. A backlog of Methfix Bulleid decals are preventing them for ordering new stock - so i may have to try methfix, or just leave the loco black for now. I also had a bit of an unfortunate purchase from ebay, in the form of "Cheltenham". If memory serves, some engines had a chassis made of mazak (sp?) and this one was absolutely rooted. The front looked a bit funky too: Long story short, the chassis was crumbling to bits, and had snapped up the front where the cylinders connect to the main chassis. I did manage to salvage the body, wheels, bogie, motor, a few gubbins and the tender. Sadly what was left of the chassis was only really fit for the bin. Although I might take to it with an angle grinder and make some weights.Thankfully the seller was extremely forthcoming and a refund was agreed upon, so no complaints here. A lamp iron is also missing here, but that will be fixed in due course. Having a spare tender meant that I was able to finally re-create one of my favorite photos from a: Southern Railways Liveries by Brian Haresnape. Page 38 shows a schools class in malachite, with a Lematire chimney and the back of the tender painted black with no number on the rear of the tender. Once I'm able to find a new schools chassis I will be recreating this engine in hopefully running form. The only Minor discrepancy is that the loco is in pre-war malachite. I think rule 1 will apply here though That's all for now!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hornby-RAILWAYS-MODEL-No-R-350-SR-Class-LI-4-4-0-LOCO-TENDER-MIB-RARE-/401028467139?hash=item5d5f28c9c3:g:Ly0AAOxywh1TDP3k Is this reasonable?

Nile, not to hijack your workbench thread, but as it's a 700 I thought I would use that similarity - how do you stop your Matte varnish from ending up all splotchy? If you excuse the rather average picture, it highlights the issue I seem to be having, although it seems my photography belies the finish

As I thought, it's a barely noticeable difference in 4mm. I think it's an excellent representation. I was also under the impression the smokbox door was slightly smaller or the boiler was bigger? Either way it really looks the part!

Excellent looking models! Is the ACE kit a brass kit or a whitemetal kit? It certainly is a very attractive mogul, thanks for posting the pictures up for me, If you have any pictures to hand of your N15X I would love to see.

A very interesting thread, a great period of time to be modelling, - if you ever want to part with that malachite 4 compartment brake 3rd, lemme know! As for the T9 de-railing, you've obviously sorted the issue, but looking at my own model and the way the bogie pivots, I would say it's due to the set-track curves. It could be the same issue with the N, obviously if you've bent the wheels out of alignment that won't help, but try the N around the largest radius and see if it will go around without derailing. hope to see more Jack

That H15 is excellent, looks like a relatively straight forward conversion too! Did you re-wheel or were you just happy to use the N15 ones?

This layout, and thus the thread is actually Incredible. One day I hope to have something of both this size and quality! Any chance you can snap a few pictures of the K class that you have, and its origins please?