Well, enjoyable but very frustrating project – but lack of spare parts and even the correct paint has made it stall. It will now be put to one side and hope Ebay or a future swap-meet will come to my rescue.

Anyway, this is as far as I got, pictures below, enough said!

More work on the O Gauge Heljan Bodyshell. I have now added all the hand grips on the roof and given it a coat of roof grey, very time consuming, but has to be done!

I have removed the lamp brackets I originally fitted and replaced them with less steam engine looking ones. I then gave the Warning Panel another top coat of yellow..

I have come to a couple of conclusions about this conversion – I put the roof cab grills in the same position as the Skytrex ones on the donor loco – I now feel that they are slightly too big and should have been a bit higher on the cab. To late now – but we live and learn – even when you are 77 years old.

I have some spare Headcode Disc’s – so will fit them. As far as getting a complete Heljan window pack and a Heljan roof fan and grill – I have no idea!

More work done on the O Gauge Skinhead. Cab handrails added and the front handrails on both ends completed. This was then airbrush sprayed warning panel yellow after masking as needed. I then touched up with a brush as necessary, both top coat and some undercoat.

I will probably rub down the warning panels once more before adding the discs.

The next job is to make and fit all the Roof handrails and then paint the roof.

I can get a replacement Roof Fan Grill, but the glazing could be difficult to obtain! Help!

I continue to work on the bodyshell for the O Gauge Skinhead. I have to admit it is slow going at the moment. The original plan was to have two useable bodyshells for one chassis, then it moved on to finding a donor Chassis or cheap complete loco. As my body is an un-refurbished one, the donor parts or chassis must be the same.

I would still like the two body option, but after searching high and low spares seem to be non existing! Anyway the below photos show the progress.

I ordered some more straight wire for the new front handrails – delivery Thursday – still not here!!!!

47212 was a loco I saw quite a lot in East Anglia. As modelled it used to work the North Walsham Condensate Carless tanks and when it was transferred to Freightliner in 1995 it worked to Ipswich and Felixstowe regularly.

Again weathering to follow – thanks again to Accurascale/Heljan for reasonable prices and great service.

Here is one of our local engines during late 80’s – early 90’s. 37144 was based at Stratford and had been equipped with the East Suffolk line onboard signalling systems.

The Loco was purchased from the Heljan/Ultrascale Sale. Another Loco for my ever increasing ‘to be weathered’ list.

Here is an O2 Loco recently purchased from Accurascale/Heljan in their recent Sale by my Son. He asked for a particularly dirty machine as it lived with steam engines in the North West of England. Fantastic Price and great Runner – it has now lost its plastic look!

Here are two locos for two different friends. I just numbered and weathered them. Both worked in East Anglia in this particular era. D5568 worked on the Waveney Valley Line to Harleston on a train of Howard Rotavators famous orange machines!

D5568 – Light weathering (for Michael)

D5580 – Light to Medium (for Graham)

A couple of months ago I purchased an O Gauge Skytrex Skin Head Body Shell for £25 ! What a crazy mixed up model that was – it was a crossbreed between an original and a refurbished loco, I gave up all hope of making it into an acceptable model and put it to one side.

Three weeks ago a friend managed to get me an O Gauge Heljan 31 un-refurbished Body for the princely sum of £30. This changed everything and plans were put in place to make a 31/0 or 31/1 with a cab vent instead of a four character head code box.

I have to admit, before I took the saw and knife to the Skytrex donor loco, I searched everywhere for some form of conversion kit to achieve it a bit less painfully, I really expected a 3D printed part would be available, or a cast resin or a whitemetal version – sadly I found nothing.

I decided to cut the cab vent off the Skytrex model and after cutting the Four Character Headcode off the Heljan model and filling with car filler, lots of shaping took place using Large files, Small files, various grades of Wet and Dry and looking at photos to ensure the new shaped Cab Roof was as near as possible. Probably not quite perfect but the best I could do, the salvaged Skytrex vent was then made to fit the best I could !

I have bettered the flat roofed Skytrex example and I still have some fettling to do and a rub down with 1200 Wet and Dry, before further under coating – Oh I forgot —- and do the other end!

Here are two Class 26’s albeit 15 years apart. The first one is late 60’s with pre-tops numbering. The second one is as running in the mid 80’s in Tops livery with the depot logo, ‘the Highland Stag’ and twin headlights for the Far North Line.

Both were purchased from the Heljan/Accurascale sale at very reasonable prices, especially after cashing in all my discounts!

Both are on my massive weathering list !