37415 Mount Etna in O Gauge

The work to detail and name/number my new Class 37/4 has been completed. I choose this Loco as it was something a bit different. It was unofficially named after the famous volcano by the Tinsley Depot painters. I had a few small issues with the Loco, mainly the colour of the off white body side stripe and a few bits that came unglued in transit.

The loco will be medium weathered later when all varnishes are thoroughly dry.

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Playing with the big boys !!

Over the weekend I decided to name and number some of my larger O Gauge Loco’s. I purchased them all when they first came out, one to five years ago.

They still have to be varnished over the plates and transfers and then weathered, so this is the ‘before’ and the after will be posted later.

D9006 The Fife & Forfar Yeomanry -CLASS 55 – Livery 1964-67

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D9019 The Royal Highland Fusilier -Class 55 – Livery 1967-68

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D118 -Class 45 -Livery 1967-68

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D217 Carinthia – Class 40 -Livery 1964-67

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Heljan Class 31 in Green SYP.

This is  a light to medium weathering of a standard Heljan Class 31. I have to say that this is the third Loco I have done in this livery and they weather very well and certainly look the part, I love the subtle blending over the lower stripes, and its easy to achieve. Must get around to weathering my Green Class 31 (30) and looking forward to working on the new D5578 and D5579 coming out before Xmas (Hopefully).

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Little Loco Class 15 with Sound.

I purchased this loco off Ebay for my Merlins Lane Layout. It was not until I placed it on the layout next to a Heljan Green 31 and a Dapol Green 08 that I realised just how light the green is on the Little Loco offering! To my eye the Heljan BR Green looks about right, the Dapol 08, very slightly darker, but very acceptable.

To ensure the Class 15 blended in with other Green Loco’s the decision was made to weather it quite heavily – below are the results.

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Making Tree armatures

At the Bressingham Narrow Gauge Exhibition I noticed that a trader was selling a jig to make tree armatures. The trader Norfolk Heath Works was selling a kit that included the jig, reel of wire and a jar of latex. I duly purchased a kit and the next day out came the jig to ‘have a go’. The jig is graduated in feet for the height of the tree from ground level, this covers N Gauge, OO Gauge and O Gauge. The kit costs £15.

You simply wind the wire around the steel pegs until you have done enough for your chosen height, remove from the jig and the cut the tops of the loops. It is then a case of twisting the wire into the trunk and branches. when satisfied keep coating with latex until you are happy with the thickness and shape. Even after coating with latex the armature is fully bendable.

Below are some photo’s of my first attempts of various types and sizes of armatures. I will post further when foliage is added.

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Two quick jobs for Colin

Here we have a Tram Loco rebranded from LNER to Early BR – After removing the LNER logo’s and re-spraying the sole bar and buffer beams, I added the new BR logo’s and the buffer beam numbers. I then blended the original paintwork and weathering to make the changes less obvious.

 

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The next job was the straightforward weathering of a Minerva wagon. This was the first wagon of this type I have weathered and very impressive it is,  very well made and very accurate. This wagon will be running on Colin’s layout at Quorn this weekend.

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