David Holman

Thanks Patrick - there's some fine stuff here. Did make it all the way to Burtonport once myself. Must have been an amazing journey back in the day.

Sounds like a great project Dane - and if it essentially freelance, so what? Looks like it is more about the journey than the destination and what a fine way to have some fun & gain experience. I did much the same thing in 0n16.5 a few years ago and it was really worthwhile in terms of how my skills developed.

That is very good to know. Thanks JB, and indeed everyone.

They are all nominally 6ft, Paul. However, being hand built (by me) wouldn't like to say for sure. Plus they have been rebuilt a couple of times to address tight spots. The two points on the quay side are both Ys. Based on earlier custom made ones by Marcway, for Arigna Town, they are only 12 inches long from toe to clearance and are a good six inches shorter than a standard left or right, so great space savers.

Well, the shiny nickel silver and brass has gone, replaced with Halfords rattle cans, starting with self etch primer [pale yellow], then red oxide primer and finally dark green gloss, as shown below. As so often with these things, the colour is a bit of a wing and a prayer, but was the darkest I could find. In some lights, it looks almost black, but the green comes through quite a bit more in others. No matter - I'm intending to make the final finish worn but well cleaned with some careful weathering. So what we have above is the primary phase of the gloss green, with lining, plus a first coat of red on the buffer beams and rods, and dark grey on the smokebox, footplate etc. The lining is from Fox Transfers [0.35mm yellow], while the Swilly lozenge uses the same for its outline with hand drawn logo using a fine dipping pen and acrylic paint. Lining and lettering took about 5 hours over two days and rates well down my list of favourite things to do. Very little is fixed in place yet, while the photos [for me at least], show why a model looks far too stark without at least some degree of weathering. It all needs toning down if it is to look realistic. Some of the lining still needs looking at too, but note how the shade of green varies between pictures Anyway, it's a start though it might be a while before the model is finished as attention now turns to Northport Quay, which is going to the Orpington Show in two weeks time. Always a nice occasion, but not the biggest. At the end of May, NPQ is going to Railex at Aylesbury as a late replacement for a layout which had to drop out. Galteemore David is going to join me on the Sunday, so there should be a fair variety of broad gauge stock on show, maybe some GNRI too.

Have usually found that being creative is the antidote to the stresses of life Eoin. Worked particularly for me when I was doing 80-100 hour weeks as a primary headteacher. Yes, had the holidays in between, but found a few hours creativity in a busy week helped keep me sane. Always enjoy reading about your stuff, in particular the technical and practical approaches that I would just never think of.

What are you building these days Eoin?

Looks great to me, but then so did the previous picture... and to think I spent a whole day in the company of the real loco!

Love it, though am ashamed to say my own solution to cutting rectangular holes in things involves a slotting disc in as Dremel. Crude, but effective.

Witchcraft! Necromancy! Or just magic...

Always so satisfying to get to that stage!

Yep. Very best wishes John and hope things settle down for you all now.

Absolutely. In this age of seemingly almost everything available ready to run, it is great to hear of someone keen to expand their skills in making stuff.

The last two posts show the difference between what I would call a modelling approach and an engineering one. Clever stuff that we can all learn from. I think there is also the element of how often you are building locos. I probably average at most one of two a year and daft though it may seem, lose the mind set in the six months or so between finishing one project and starting the next. Anything cosmetic (bodywork, buildings, scenery etc) is less of a problem because it doesn't have to work, so am endlessly grateful to the likes of Eoin and John for all their practical advice.

As a long time 7mm scale modeller, have more recently had to turn to Gibson wheels for some of my 3' narrow gauge locos as the Slater's range didn't cover my needs. Have found Gibson's to be ok and their service is decent. However, the lack of automatic quartering is a pain, while the wheels are not happy if you have to take them on and off the axles more than a couple of times. I have also found that tyres can come loose from their rims. Both can be fixed with a touch of cyano, but overall they are not as robust as Slaters. Or maybe I am just too heavy handed?