State of war... and some coaches

I haven't had much chance to do any modelling for my own benefit recently as I've been getting a few Chris Ward 3D locos into shape and listing them on eBay. I'm hoping to make some money towards a family holiday, I've also sold a couple of under used IoSR locos too.

Most of what I've done has been painting and weathering but I have also built a splendid new kit from W^D models. It is a tank wagon which sits on the standard 4 wheel chassis and has 3 individual tanks which were used for 3 types of lubricating oil in the WW1. It comes with transfers but I've decided not to use them for my version which will live in the works once its built. Lovely looking kit and a pleasure to build, well done Barry.

Apart from this I've weathered the other two of my PQR coaches and finished off the Drewery diesel, I'm pretty happy with both projects. A spot of matt varnish will seal it all in.

Lights and L&B

I got the colour changing LEDs in the post today and wired them in as soon as I got home. The night club looks great now, not sure where it will be on the layout. I've made a short video of the lights in action which you can see here:

Also today the rep for PECO came to see me at work which was, as always a pleasure. Among other things that we talked about he left me a pre-production L&B coach to put on display... which I will do but tonight I brought it home to take for a spin on the IoSR. Here are a couple of pics posing with Prince and an IoSR brake composite.

Back ache and spray paint

I've finally had a bit of time to do some modelling this weekend which has manifested itself mainly in painting the Penrhyn quarry-man's coach which I got at the 009 AGM and also spray painting my new Beddgelert. 

I'm quite pleased with the finish and I guess I'll get used to the colour once all the other colours are added etc.I hope to get a bit further with this this week.

The coach is now one of three, the other two are in pretty tidy condition so I thought it would interesting to make the new one look as though it hadn't been looked after for donkeys years.

I started with some grey and pale brown which I mixed on the kit as I went along and then added a darker brown mainly on the floor. I then dry brushed the red paint colour over the top; I did all of this while the paint was all still slightly wet. Being acrylics they set pretty quickly but slow enough to blend quite well especially with a bit of water on the brush too. It looked ok but I decided that some weathering powder would give a better patina and I think I was right. I used some dark brown and some dirty white on the bodywork and some rusty orange on the underframe. I think the other 2 now need a bit of the same treatment but rather less vicious so they still look better cared for.

The other thing I did some work on was the lighting in the nightclub I've been fiddling with on and off for a while. I bought some colour changing LEDs off evilBay a while ago but hadn't got round to installing and wiring them up. The colours look great but they fade from colour to colour which is a bit subtle so I've ordered a couple more that cycle quickly to add which should give a more discoey sort of look. Once installed I'll post a video.

And the back ache? Mrs Lord Stoner and myself were attending to the garden which involves using a petrol strimmer to mow the grass, I went to fetch a broom to sweep the cut grass away from the back door and when I picked it up I felt the old war wound go ping... and that was that. I've spent the rest of the weekend popping handfuls of ibuprofen and making strange, broken old man noises; much to the amusement of the daughter. Hence sitting here writing this at midnight.

I spent some time playing trains too.

Loco building

I haven't had enough time to do much modelling recently but I've been working intermittently on getting a couple of my big locos sorted out. The first  one is 'Blower', the GEM bash with the Farrish chassis. I've been fiddling with the cylinders and rods trying to get it to run properly... fail. It looks better so even if it just ends up parked in a siding somewhere it is an improvement.

The second loco is a Parkside Dundas Hunslet but I've bodged it onto the second of my lovely Fleischmann 0-8-0 chassis. This is all fine but I've buggered up the valve gear on one side so the bloody thing won't run. I hope its not beyond repair as it cost a fortune. I like the look of it and it sits nicely with 'Blower' I'll be cheesed off if it ends up parked next to it not working. Its mostly built as intended but I've made different buffer beams and added a sand pot rather than a generator, it also has a slightly smaller chimney which gives it a slightly more 'Russell' look.