...Unfortunately too fast sometimes!
Can't believe that its been a couple of months since I posted anything here. To be honest January was very busy with work commitments - for a change - and February has sort of come and gone without me even noticing it. Still hopefully the modelling mojo has now returned to a more regular rate and I can catch up (and more to the point finish off) some of the existing projects before moving on to the next batch.
Can't believe that its been a couple of months since I posted anything here. To be honest January was very busy with work commitments - for a change - and February has sort of come and gone without me even noticing it. Still hopefully the modelling mojo has now returned to a more regular rate and I can catch up (and more to the point finish off) some of the existing projects before moving on to the next batch.
So to get us bang up to date this is where we stand at the moment:
The rake of Bachmann BBA/BZA's are almost finished now. I'm just waiting on getting some more Humbrol Metalcote paint to finish off the coils and then they are ready to go. Once thats done I will post up some final photos of them. Have to say I'm really pleased with the way they've turned out and they make up a really nice rake. I've altered the detailing on the coils slightly and they look far better than they did - you'll see the difference when i post up some photo's.
The Hornby MGR rake is progressing slowly. I have to wait for a load of new white metal replacement OLEO buffers to arrive before I can finish off all the subframes, but all the cradles have been painted and decaled up, plus I've all the new data panels ready to apply to the hopper bodies themselves. Again I'm really pleased how these are progressing and they will look great fully loaded behind a Class 56 or 58, but that might be a while yet.
Having said all that, I haven't been totally idle - what I have started on is my collection of Dapol IOA ballast wagons. Untouched I have to admit they do look a bit plasticky, but with a bit of work they soon start to look like the real thing. I've a rake of 14 that I want to make up into a typical ballast train.
First thing I did was to paint all the bogies and wheels with frame dirt and paint all the axle covers yellow. I also changed all the couplings - the main wagon couplings were changed to Bachmann short tension link couplings, the first wagon that connects to the locomotive has been fitted with a Kadee No.19 coupling and the end wagon has had a scale coupling and pipe fitted. I've also fitted a scale warning light at the end too. The plan is to model the wagons as full so I'm working on modelling scale ballast loads for them as well.
After an initial wash of frame dirt to generally grime up everything my attention will turn to the interior. I mentioned that they will be modelled as loaded wagons, but you will still see the sides of the interior at the top, so they will be treated to a build up of rust and ballast (grey) colours. The frame dirt wash takes away the thin plastic feel of these straight away and so I'm sure they are going to look great when complete.
The wagons are only half the story for this project as you also need a locomotive to pull them. I'd already pretty much decided that this train would use one of my Class 66 models but having been out and about recently I'd noticed that more often than not Class 70's were the haulage power of choice for these trains. I'd got a couple of models of the Bachmann Class 70 when they came out and so decided to use one to make up this train.
The loco was taken apart and cleaned thoroughly - recent Bachmann models seem to suffer from being 'over greased' and the stuff seems to ooze out and find its way all over the body if you're not careful. I ended up completely stripping both bogies and got tons of the stuff out. The parts were then cleaned/degreased in methylated spirit and reassembled. At this point I painted the frame and bogies with my usual frame dirt wash to tone everything down. Whilst the body was off I also repainted the driver, complete with hi viz jacket. I also took the opportunity to fit a 21pin Loksound chip and duly purchased a legomannbiffo chip from DC kits with an upgraded speaker and sound box. These were fitted and tested and are great for the added 'play' value they bring, not to mention the accuracy and realism - don't think I could afford to do that for every locomotive I own though.
The Hornby MGR rake is progressing slowly. I have to wait for a load of new white metal replacement OLEO buffers to arrive before I can finish off all the subframes, but all the cradles have been painted and decaled up, plus I've all the new data panels ready to apply to the hopper bodies themselves. Again I'm really pleased how these are progressing and they will look great fully loaded behind a Class 56 or 58, but that might be a while yet.
Having said all that, I haven't been totally idle - what I have started on is my collection of Dapol IOA ballast wagons. Untouched I have to admit they do look a bit plasticky, but with a bit of work they soon start to look like the real thing. I've a rake of 14 that I want to make up into a typical ballast train.
First thing I did was to paint all the bogies and wheels with frame dirt and paint all the axle covers yellow. I also changed all the couplings - the main wagon couplings were changed to Bachmann short tension link couplings, the first wagon that connects to the locomotive has been fitted with a Kadee No.19 coupling and the end wagon has had a scale coupling and pipe fitted. I've also fitted a scale warning light at the end too. The plan is to model the wagons as full so I'm working on modelling scale ballast loads for them as well.
After an initial wash of frame dirt to generally grime up everything my attention will turn to the interior. I mentioned that they will be modelled as loaded wagons, but you will still see the sides of the interior at the top, so they will be treated to a build up of rust and ballast (grey) colours. The frame dirt wash takes away the thin plastic feel of these straight away and so I'm sure they are going to look great when complete.
The wagons are only half the story for this project as you also need a locomotive to pull them. I'd already pretty much decided that this train would use one of my Class 66 models but having been out and about recently I'd noticed that more often than not Class 70's were the haulage power of choice for these trains. I'd got a couple of models of the Bachmann Class 70 when they came out and so decided to use one to make up this train.
The loco was taken apart and cleaned thoroughly - recent Bachmann models seem to suffer from being 'over greased' and the stuff seems to ooze out and find its way all over the body if you're not careful. I ended up completely stripping both bogies and got tons of the stuff out. The parts were then cleaned/degreased in methylated spirit and reassembled. At this point I painted the frame and bogies with my usual frame dirt wash to tone everything down. Whilst the body was off I also repainted the driver, complete with hi viz jacket. I also took the opportunity to fit a 21pin Loksound chip and duly purchased a legomannbiffo chip from DC kits with an upgraded speaker and sound box. These were fitted and tested and are great for the added 'play' value they bring, not to mention the accuracy and realism - don't think I could afford to do that for every locomotive I own though.
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