SRman

I was trying to figure out the STL's origins - I knew it was a kit but couldn't work out whose. Very nice modelling and a very evocative setting.

Thanks David. 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! Don't expect a super-detailed fine-scale result like Colin Oarks' one, from me! Lofty's one looks good in your photo. 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!

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 included the floor/chassis units 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/milling 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, where the Pullman buffing plates were normally used in conjunction with the buckeye couplings, and also with the Bachmann 4 CEP or 2 EPB units with which this one will be able to run. It could also run with a Hornby 4 VEP - I have a couple of photos (in reference books) of this occurring. 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.

Still awaiting the TTS version to come back into stock but when it eventually arrives I had thoughts of running it as a parallel universe preserved example on a 'raspberry ripple' rake of mark 1 coaches.

Invasion of the EMUs! Nice photos, as always, Rick.

The front fairings from the cylinders to the buffer beam were removed in 1952, or thereabouts, on both the Merchant Navy and the Battle of Britain/West Country classes. Personally, I think they looked better with it in place but obviously they must have been removed for practical reasons.

Even so, if we in Oz buy from the UK, we get 20% VAT taken off, and the postage cost added on. That £21.21 translates very, very roughly to $AUS40 including postage, still a far cry from $AUS70 being charged locally. Hornby retailers over here are also subject to the whims of a single wholesaler/importer, with the same monopolistic results. Any wonder a lot of us buy direct from the UK (as mentioned earlier). We would very much like to support the local industry, but when we can buy nearly two models for the price of one by shopping elsewhere, there is no competition!

Ha ha! I wish I could say yes as that's a nice compliment to me. As it is, it takes me long enough to get around to doing these things. I have to say Peter Mantle (PCM) has influenced my weathering style a bit. I tried the same line on him ("Can I give you some of mine to weather?") but for some strange reason, he declined my offer!!!! What I can say is have a go and try something yourself. Choose something where if it goes wrong you can easily repaint and start again - wagons are better for this than locos or coaches. Cheers, Jeff Lynn, Melbourne, Australia.

Another attempt from me: two parcels vans await collection.

Here are two more vans of the workbench, weathered using the same techniques as the previous two vans. For dirty roofs I use a lot of Humbrol #66, a very good all round weathering and roof colour - good for tyres on road vehicles too. For the previous crimson SR Van C roof I used the same grey #66 at full strength, then a very thin wash of the Revell brown #84. The next two vans have variations on the overall weathering, starting 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!

My attempt at realistic angles with an ex-SR 'N' class 2-6-0 hauling an ex-SR 'Van C' and ex-LNER extra-long CCT. It still looks a little like a model to me, so I'll have to work on that a little more.

More weathering! I bought one of the new Hornby extra long ex-LNER CCTs in BR crimson. It is a very fine model but way too clean - these types of vehicle rarely saw anything like a carriage washer between overhauls and repaints. I used the usual weathering techniques and colours (much the same as the 2 BIL in the previous post but with heavier weathering on the vehicle sides) but wanted to try a patchy effect on the roof. My attempts at that failed so I ended up repainting the roof with Humbrol #66 but thinned it towards the edges, allowing a little of the previous colour to show through. This is pretty close to the final result - I think I am happy with the overall effect. I must do this with a few more of the SR style CCTs/PMVs/Van Bs and Cs! Edit: One Van C in crimson done as well, using the same techniques.

Thankfully it does look like just leaves and twigs, Rick. I hope I can get to your next gathering. Oh, and I forgot to say "Welcome back."

More excuses - trains stopped by leaf fall ... again?????

There were still quite a few 33s without yellow panels of any sort in 1967. It was possible to see 33s in green with no yellow, green with small yellow panels and blue with full yellow ends side by side in June/July 1967, also side by side with the last of the steam locomotives on the Bournemouth line.

I bought quite a few Hattons decoders with a view to using them as function-only decoders in the likes of Bachmann's DMUs that require a decoder in the trailer/unpowered cars. However, I have used them in several locomotives and units and they are surprisingly good, especially in view of their price. They are not quite the equal of expensive decoders such as ESU, Zimo or Lenz but they are still full-functioned and reasonably smooth in operation, at least in the installations I have done so far. They don't seem to have any overload protection though; I have managed to blow up a couple already, although that is probably coloured by my use of cheap decoders to test 'iffy' subjects where I didn't want to blow up more expensive decoders.

The hush-hush top-secret Bulleid experiments with Maglev concepts!!

Personally speaking, the extras sound good but I can only afford one at this stage - already ordered in green syp. Thanks for the quick answer too.

Dave, I would have thought that as long as you didn't do E5001, the NRM wouldn't have any say over licensing the model. How are we doing regarding numbers for the funding of the model, at this stage?

Not on 71s but a few exceptions did occur, with the old crest on blue livery. I'm not too sure if it ever happened with full yellow ends but certainly there were one or two class 25s with blue syp and old style numerals and crests. As always, there are exceptions to whatever rules applied. However, I agree that this particular picture shows a green 71 with fye.

Hi Malcolm. This was a 'native' Lima offering - 'skinhead' 31 004 was its out-of-the-box guise. I did detail another Lima 31 and made up my own handrails from fine wire. They are coarser than the Lima originals and doing the ones with the bend in was a bit of a pain. The Lima handrails are very fine and very easy to damage or to lose, as we have both found out the hard way!! The carbon paper sound like a good idea for weathering effects and is probably really good for around the the exhaust outlets. Thanks for the kind offer to send some to me but I am in Australia, which could bump up the postal costs a bit. Thanks also for the compliments. Kind Regards, Jeff Lynn, Melbourne, Australia.

Having modified the livery and renumbered one of my Hornby 2 BILs so it represented a unit getting near the end of its life I decided that the bogies and underframe and its equipment were much too clean and shiny. In fact, this applies to all of the units, BIL, HAL, CEP, EPB and MLV! However, one at a time is the way to go, otherwise I get bogged down and lose interest again. The techniques used on this one were simply to use thin washes. My usual colours for this are Humbrol coal black (#85), dark earth (#29) and rusty browns (#100 or #133), and sometimes a bit of leather brown (#62) as well. I have also recently acquired some of the weathering washes so have been experimenting with those too. However, having said all that, I chose to use only a few of those for this project. For the roofs I used the Humbrol dark grey wash, which came up quite nicely. Buoyed up by the success of that, I tried the dark brown wash on the underframes and bogies. This was less successful as it dried very glossy, in spite of my having mixed and shaken the jar well. Next was a wash of Humbrol #66 over the bogies, underframes, equipment, buffers and beams, and inner ends. I also did a very thin wash of the same along the lower body edges, up to the side waist mouldings and jumper socket level on the yellow ends. After that was a thin wash of a colour I hadn't used for weathering before, a Revell dark reddish brown #84. Again this was done over all the same areas that had had the grey (except the previously done roofs). I also used this colour in less thinned form for the brake blocks and brake rigging. Again I applied a very thin, tapered wash up the lower sides to the waist moulding, thinning the colour right down to almost non-existence at the waist mouldings. The effect is quite good and I am not inclined to do too much more to this one. I did apply slightly thicker grey #66 to the step boards under the doors to emulate where people's shoes scuff them. The trick with all these washes is to build up the colour in layers, rather than applying it all at once. I noticed that the driving motor coach body was not properly seated at the inner end and fixed that up after these photos were taken.

I love the subtle weathering on the ballast wagons, Peter. It's all really taking shape now and looking very good.

I sincerely hope Colin is OK. If you are able to, Colin, please let us know how you are doing.

Very effective. Would you mind posting some details of the camera you used for that, please?