Amberleigh Halt

Well another weekend came and went, with much body boarding with my son, and no railway modelling! However, after deciding to make a senic plinth for photography on my blog, this developed into th idea of modelling a small station halt over the weekend. Literally 1 baseboard 2ft long, which can be connected to some pre-existing fiddle yard baseboards (or the ones that will be constructed for Watergate Halt). Building this plinth will give me some much needed experience of landscape modelling. I am currently building the Halt, which I am going to call Amberleigh Halt, from a Wills kit. I am going to add just a few basic senic details, such as pillbox, platelayers hut, and bridge, but it is essentially a small excerise in layout construction. I am really looking forward to developing this micro layout, no doubt with plenty of help from my son and girlfriend!!

Other projects are progressing slowly. The walrus wagon is almost primed (half done!!). I intend to put some photos up of this tomorrow night and write about tweaking the construction of this. I also am planning to build another straight away, whilst the details of the build are still in my head!! The NSE class 108 nears completion and Southern Pride FO plods on as ever, although I must confess I am rapidly losing interest in that project.

I have nearly finished the weathering on the Bachmann Intercity MK1 RBR. I took some photos of it tonight to identify any flaws in it, etc. It is starting to shape up, although a few more subtle pieces of weathering are required to finish. I have posted a couple of pictures of this ongoing project. I hope to finish this and few other projects this week. I am off on holiday next week, but the week after I hope to be able to build the baseboards for Amberleigh Halt and Watergate Halt.

Flangeways mermaid

Well I have finally finished detailing and weathering the first of my two flangeways mermaid wagons. All that work to remove the floor and add the couplings, plus the underframe grime, with a light body dusting of dirt. For a simple wagon conversion it was very hard work, but I have to say I am pleased with the result. It definitely looks the part, but with the amount of work put in I could have just built one of the excellent cambrian kits, which is what I shall do next time!!

With hindsight I am now not so sure it was worth removing the floor, however the whole wagon does look better for it. Problem is, as you can see on these photographs, you can barely tell. The second of these wagons is now on my desk, so I might undertake a conversion for couplings, etc, but leave the floor in place for a comparison.

Other projects are progressing well. The Southern Pride FO had the roof fixed on this evening. Just a few details left to glue on this one and then some painting and it will be finished. The NSE class 108 had cables added tonight, a few other bits need putting on, and the underframe detailing, but this is also going to be completed next week. The bridge and the concrete lineside hut are also part painted, and again I would hope to get these finished soon. I must get that lighting kit ordered for my class 08 shunter from Express Models, so I can start that in the next few weeks.

Lastly, I intend to make a short senic plinth for photographs for my blog, as I realise how awful my partly finished railway/work bench looks!! This is going to be built over the next month, so I can produce some higher quality photographs. Also a week off work in August is going to suffice for the construction of a mini-layout/test track. The first boards of WaterGate Halt will be built, ready for some senic detailing by myself, son and girlfriend over those long winter months!!!

DMu's

Last night I finished the first car of the two car DMU detailing project I am undertaking. With the new Craftsman detailing parts added and the decoder installed this car now looks the part. I have yet to fully tackle the second of the two cars, but this is on my desk for this evening maybe. The roof was painted in roof dirt and then gently weathered with powders. The underframe details were picked in out in various weathering shades and cables were added to the front. All in all I am very pleased with how this car turned out, it is such a pity that you can see the central mountng block for the motor through the windows though. I guess that is the price you pay for smooth running qualities.

I have finally finished detailing the flangeways mermaid, couplings changed and ready to go, all weathered. This has definitely been a long job and I am not sure I can face undertake detailing the second one. I will post some pictures of this tonight on my blog.

Progress

Well I finally retrieved 47035 back from Taw Valley trains, who had done an excellent job on fixing a burnt out decoder and circuit board. All returned to normal service. I realised this week that I had accidently purchased two intercity Mk1 RBRs, so I have decided to give one a heavy weathering job, whilst leaving the other in a clean condition. This is the first bachmann Mk1 coach I have taken apart and I think these carriages are excellent, well built and well put together. I am looking forward to getting stuck into this project.

Progress on detailing the Flangeways mermaid has progressed well, with the underframe now painted. I hope to reassemble the wagon tomorrow night. I have also just about finished the Cambrian Walrus wagon. Whilst a lovely kit to build, after having built one, I would recommend a few tweaks to get a better result from it. More on this in a later post. I hope to finish building the walrus tonight and prime it ready for painting tomorrow. The NSE108 has one car nearly finished and ready to go, I am hoping to have it ready tomorrow night. The other car is still a long way from completion though, maybe in a week or so. I have also just installed an 8 pin decoder into the Heljan class 33/2. I think this is an excellent locomotive and am about to start detailing it, once I have finished the class 108. I have many projects on the go at the moment, hopefully some will be finished in the next week or two!!

OCA and NSE108

Well a busy week or so. Sisters wedding and all. I am progressing well with detailing the class 108, with the sockets hacked off the original buffer beam and new craftsman whitemetal ones added. Some hoses are being added tonight. The multimedia construction of the bachmann model can make it very difficult to add details, especially as the original sockets etc are metallic. It took quite an effort to get that off last night. I will put up a pic of the new buffer beam when detailed and then when painted. An OCA has also had graffeti added and been weathered, although i think one decal too many here, I got carried away!! Other than this the mermaid is progressing smoothly as is the walrus. I hope to finish off the class 108 and mermaid next week. Hopefully over the next week or two I will have more time for modelling!!