Adam

Both sides of the latest wagon, a Parkside Tube, modelled as one of the first 450 of BR's diagram 1/448 with RCH long link brakes, so about as simple as a big wagon can be. Because it's such a good kit the only additions were minor - new brake levers, those tricky little cruciform tie-down cleats (short lengths of 0.3mm wire with oblong washers of 10 thou' superglued in place) and new buffers and most of them are now invisible... Adam

That's fabulous - and not at all unusual, of course. I've seen quite a few trailers much like that over the years (and photographed one or two, not that I can find what I've done with the pictures...) What's the beast in front? Adam

Thanks Steve. Humbrol enamels! The light blue was applied neat over grey primer before a faded version of the same blue was applied over the top. Everything else was applied as heavily thinned washes in greyish browns and mostly wiped off. The red was applied using a very fine brush to represent flaked and worn paint. The final touch saw the metal parts picked out in a mix of gunmetal and a bright orange before being mostly removed with a clean, thinners-moistened brush (remember, vertical strokes). Adam

And here we are, worn and used but not decrepit. Adam

Branchlines (and SE Finecast) do the chassis for it - it'll be the same chassis since the recommissioning of the moulds was a joint enterprise.. Adam

Not sure about that - K's did a 57xx, but the small wheels suggest that this is a Cotswold 16xx which I think did have opening smokebox door and all the features shown here. A pretty good kit, far, far better than the K's 57xx. The Cotswold kit is now available from SE Finecast. Adam

Thanks so much for those pictures, Paul! Adam

A quickie. A quickie. Back in February, we went up to Durham visiting my sister and her tribe and, naturally, we went to Beamish. This item took my fancy: It's a modernised farm tip cart. The shafts for the horse have been sawn off and a drawhook for tractor haulage added - classic mid-century farming bodging. Most obviously, however, the cartwheels have been replaced with something off a pre-war car with pneumatic tyres. A week later, I happened to be at the Tonbridge show and saw that Dart Castings have a kit for something similar (but a little bigger) so here's my rendition of a variation on the same theme: The wheels are off a die-cast Ford van which is a bit more modern than the wheels used on the real thing, but not so much as to be wholly implausible, I think. Adam

And could you put me down for one as well? Adam

I don't suppose Dave will be remotely bothered; it's not exactly a commercial enterprise, and just like Ian, it'll be something he wants to do. I've enjoyed building kits from both. Neither will be able to - or would want to, necessarily - retire to the Maldives on the proceeds. Adam

Nearly ready for paint: Lamps, strapping details, vac' pipes (through pipes only) and roof - rainstrips, chimney for stove, location strips underneath. There won't be a fully-worked interior but since I've modelled the door open at one end, I'll have to add something even though you won't really be able to see. That can go in after painting, however. Adam

Nah, two's plenty. Adam

A nice, clear image of a 1/100 (ex-PO Chas Roberts slop-sided mineral at Hessle in 1964. Some nice features, including the italic free hand tare weight, mixed wheels - neither with an awful lot of tyre depth - and also mixed axleboxes. https://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-diesels/40351290533/ Adam

Between dad and I we have (well, will have) five LMS vans. That's probably sufficient. If we're short of anything it's probably GW vans (I can live with this), though a BR unfitted would be nice and I have the makings of one of those and, and... Adam

And here we go, a brake van with the defining visual feature, the footboards, now fitted: The footboards are knocked up from bits of scrap Nickel Silver with brass for the toe boards at the back. Fans of Captain Cock Up will be delighted to hear that now, just as the epoxy cures, he has made his presence felt and I have I FOUND a length of 3mm x 1mm angle ideal for the purpose. It's now ideal for some other purpose... Adam

On the North Norfolk Railway (where, in homage to the Titfield Thunderbolt, they have installed a small bar). Adam

Ah, ladders! Actually, if the 'straight' Prestwin build is any sort of guide I'm hopeful this should be relatively simple. I used some of Justin Newitt's etched ladder stiles intended for Bachmann's anchor-mounted tanks (suitably straightened out which is certainly possible, post-assembly). That must be roughly the stage I'm at, but the boxfile containing the wagon is at the other end of the garden! Adam

Ah, I've got most of one of those - some details here: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/37002-adams-em-workbench-an-early-lms-brake-part-3/&do=findComment&comment=3155437 As a starting point for the chassis, the Red Panda kit has the wrong axleguards, but also more shallow solebars - you'll see I chopped up a 12' wb moudling (it's wrong for the pipe wagon it came with). Not that there's a 'correct' route towards this, of course. I must finish mine... Adam

Bearing in mind even this small picture is twice life size on my monitor, I'm reasonably pleased with the hand-painted (inside a red Gill Sans 'O' transfer) Roads Reconstruction roundel and the lining (transfers - 1" black lining from Railtec). Glazing next... Adam

Below you should be able to see all the strapping that I've either taken off or added, as required for the conversion. For practicality this has all been done in 10 thou' which is a bit thick for the most part - so I'll leave it to harden off for a few days before sanding it back a touch. I guess it'll be handrails and lamp irons after that; I wonder whether I have sufficient brass angle to do the footsteps? Of course I don't... And here it is the other way up with the brake gear installed (and safety loops still to be added) and quite a bit of lead sheet (I've used epoxy here because that way I could seal the lead as well as securing it in place - oxidation can make lead stuck in with superglue fall off...): Note that the brake linkages added in 0.3mm wire are slotted into hols and glued at each end - I drilled through the actuators with a 0.5mm drill and a very deep breath (first go, too! There's a spare on the sprue though). These don't get in the way of removing the wheels for painting and the safety loops will also, prototypically, just protect the yokes - these will be bent up using a bending jig from a Rumney Models etch and epoxied in place. Adam

And it's out in the wild (well, Smiths at Waterloo this morning anyhow). The below appear for info.

That is sad indeed. I never met Colin, but I corresponded with him via this forum, discussed various modelling things and his illness and enjoyed his company through the kits he worked on which of course outlive him. The ambition that he and Barry had in producing things with relatively simple, relatively crude technology to produce some truly excellent (if tricky) kits of some less than obvious prototypes remains impressive and the resulting models have given me and others a lot of pleasure as well as a certain degree of challenge! So with that in mind, here's a memorial to him, in the form of one of the kits he engineered, the Catfish, modelled from a Dave Larkin photograph using some Cambrian transfers. Go well, Colin and thank you. Adam

Er no. It's going to be (and is, now) a fairly bold grass green which seems a decent match for the Roads Reconstruction locos by the '60s. Like this, in fact: https://mickpope.zenfolio.com/p506284746/h21f7997b#h2261ab58 I don't have an airbrush, so for small things - wagons, small locos - I brush paint most things with several well-thinned coats of Humbrol so it started out looking quite anaemic. It'll be lined, too. Adam

I've made a start on something new, though it is (yet another) brake van. This one is an early LMS vehicle, heavily inspired by Midland thinking and derived from a Parkside kit. This will be modelled as M802, pictured at York in 1963: https://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-diesels/46498277551/ As you can see, it's piped rather than vacuum-braked (the brake pipe is white indicating that it's through-piped) and unlike the 'pure' Midland vehicles built by the LMS has a ducket and ends with the sheeting on the inside of the framework, a design feature probably discontinued owing to water ingress at a guess. The Parkside kit of course is for the slightly later dia. 1657: https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/lmsbrakevan/h25187C05#h25187c05 [before the familiar longer-framed versions came in there was a final version of these vans with plate W irons and a 14' wheelbase - as opposed to the 12' here - for the LMS brakevan completist] but the main modification needed is in reversing the ends so I started there. The new sheeting is scribed 20 thou'. For scribing I use the tip of a scalpel blade and a small engineer's square. Note that I cut the strip slightly over height and trimmed it down before fitting. As it turned out, I neglected the fact that the veranda screens on these earlier vans were lower. Here's what they initially looked like before I corrected them: A comparison between the dia. 1657 and whatever this diagram actually is this morning. The confusion over which diagram it is arises from the fact that Paul Bartlett ascribes a couple of different options, 1656 or 1658, to similar vans and I don't have the Essery books to hand to check (it doesn't much matter to me for the purposes of making a model from a fundamentally accurate kit and a good clear photo). Note that, like Geoff Kent, I've added a bit 0f 10 thou' by 30 thou' strip to beef up the springs. The other thing - that I dimly recalled from reworking the earlier, unfitted van - is that the bearings need to be inset a fair way to ensure that the solebars are parallel when you put the wheels in. THIS IS IMPORTANT! A few twists of a 1/8" drill were needed and the flanges of the pinpoint bearings should be inset rather than proud or even flush to achieve free-running with this kit. Adam

I have all the pictures (and the models, of course, but finding the wagon or loco in question? The web is quicker!) . Adam