Glenderg

Hornby ARC wagons are the current variant from the railroad range. €10.99 in marks when I last bought one.

If you heard a thud, that was my jaw hitting the floor. Amazing how a prototype you may have not had much time for previously, comes alive when presented and assembled like this. Superb stuff david. Richie

Ha ha, I had meant to mention that particular gripe being missing. Very hygienic bunch in stafford, says I, not to mention the "tables too high/too low" perennial bugbear not evident either. I've seen a few oddballs and quarehawks at the shows over here, but I've never had the urge to activate the sprinkler system from the patrons "humm". I spose the phrase "great unwashed" has to come from somewhere.....

So you're not going to lathe each one individually then

I knew some day, someone would find a use for cat litter (clean) for modelling, and that looks spot on. Fullers earth Patrick? Richie.

Well said HF, astonishing bit of work.

Great pics Broithe, thanks for posting. Have to laugh at the report on RMweb - moaning about mud, parking, quality of the pasties and the tay. They've no idea how lucky they are judging by the quality of the layouts!

Yes. Too many vents to be removed from the restaurant coach. Mods - should these OT's be moved? Love the detailing on the ballast and oil tank. Yum yum.

Nelson, Roket Max or Zap Medium superglue work fine on that kit, plenty time for adjustment, can be applied by fine nozzle or cocktail stick. Looking good George, as always, and I now know what a "strake" is!

Great idea skinner, possibly something as an alternative design. Something between a sperry wagon or a per way canteen that might sit between an 071 and the autoballaster consist.... nice idea, if only i had one more to play with :'(

Whilst i totally approve of the photos, i have a concern over the risk exposure for the chap taking the photo from a height. He may be a friend of barrys. There is no high level railing, nor fall arrest system above the shed, and plastic people could fall to their plastic HSA enquiry at any time. Barry for President!

wow, what a response gents. Mind is blown truly. if Dapol want to steal me idea, it's copyright by virtue of publishing it here. Pah, they could just give us a roar first. I know the wagon conversion is a mad idea, not to everyones approval, but i'm really happy with it, even if the client is pissed i went "off piste" To address "donnelli dave", i get more of a kick out of lads here having a crack at stuff, and posting it up, than chequebook modellers showing off wot they bought and got weathered by others. I come from a background where a bag of scatter cost IR£9.95, but sticking a manky bit of a foam mattress in a blender with some green and brown paint cost about 20p and a bollicking from mammy for ruining her blender. Any one who models the irish scene, no matter the scale, has to bash scratch and hack their way to a finish. The more hacking and bashing, the better the overall scene.

She's not motorised, designed to be dragged/pushed around a track. A 201 in matching livery would be sweet...Dave? Ha ha.

Cheers Eamonn and Dave, but I can't take credit for the donelli's. I've since done some research on them, and have enough info to have a go at my own version, so we'll see how that takes shape. But since we're on topic of "yella tings"... On one of his visits before last Christmas, Wrenneire brought along a Dapol Track Cleaner. "Can I do something to it, to make it a bit more Irish?" says he. Had a snout around in the Per Way folder and decided I could cobble something together if I stole bits from about 4 different vehicles. So the first thing to do was put a wrap on the "hoover" bag bit of the wagon. The mesh has been darkened with black permament marker to leave the mesh intact. Masking off, again to protect the mesh, to get a squirt of yellow on. The side panel design was extended either side left and right, but I felt that this odd piece of stock at least needed a cab if it was to be towed around a layout. So again borrowed heavily from the Plasser & Theurer design book, this emerged. Once completed, I gave the thing a quick spray, and put it up against the basic shell of 742, a proof of concept model more than anything. The naked area of the roof and lack of detail throughout is now obvious and time to raid the bits box. Damned bags of prestwin spare parts are everywhere, so liberal use was made of them, along with bits of other kits. I detached the cab at this point to let the above dry and sort out the underside of the cab. Since it's got an extensive overhang over the front bogie, the real vehicles seem to fill up this area with equipment and sensors, so coupling hooks, brake levers, pipes and valves from the prestwin were all employed. At this point she looked like this.... and my bloody workbench is running out of space. Need to clean the thing up pronto... Anyhoo, because there are a lot of panel lines and joints on the vehicle I wanted them to "pop" and give her a lick of dirt, but not too much. IE's Per Way Stock generally tends to be quite clean. A mix of payne's grey and a muck brown gouache mix was applied to the top and the panel joints at the side, and allowed 5 mins to dry. Using a large chisel brush, clean water, and kitchen towels, I reactivated the paint and took off as much as possible. When I was happy with the finish, it was sealed with Games Workshop Gloss Varnish spray. Decals were a mash of homemade, weshty's, a panavia tornado kit, and an ME109. Hope it bloody well works now! Richie.

Veeeery nice. C rail for the tank?

From memory, the 123 cross town from Marino to St. James, and onto Drimnagh. I believe the route is unchanged. There were a few more in the three digit range, but I didn't use them. Don't ever recall any imps sitting outside Heuston ever, 'twas always double deckers back then. The imp used to sit around town selling tickets for the nitelink up on westmoreland street for a while also.

Popeye, your work never ceases to amaze me. The subtlety of the weathering is divine. Hard to fathom its only 4mm scale...

Absolutely bloody gorgeous work george. Just goes to show how many hours is involved in professional kit building, youre a credit to the scene. Great photographs too all along, really looking forward to the finished article. Incidentally, is that etching primer the only solution prior to brass painting? Richie

Touching Dave, as always!

Killucan, i did that mk3. It was a prototype. The coach has a 0.25mm styrene machine cut overlay glued to it which has been baked in an oven at 115 degrees for one minute to get the tumbledown and tumblehome correct. I didn't think it would be put up here for public consumption. The ass end windows are wrong, because i cut them wrong. It was based on a mk3 lima restaurant coach and the roof is left as is. I have no photo of the real thing to compare. Neither hornby nor mir do anything close to the real thing, and i'll happily put up the latest version of the same coach for your approval or comment. Richie Edit - incidentally you failed to notice some of the good things about the model - like the custom 0.122mm windows with scale aluminimum trim, much sharper than anyone else does?

John, thanks a mil for posting the photos and info. Yet another peculiar prototype....R.

Great to see Heath Robinson alive and well at Kirley Jct!

76.2 cough cough, not 76... good little app though, cheers Tom!

Modelfarmbaseboards.com is available Dave....

+1 jhb!