I have now finished my O Gauge STD tank. I have coaled the Bunker, added a crew, painted the back-head, painted the fittings and pipes as the prototype with brass and copper metallic paint, glazed the windows and given it a very light weathering.

That was quite a job, but was so satisfying. I found a photo of the prototype about a month out of works and tried to weather it as the photo.

This is a item I purchased nearly two years ago, it was plain black with red buffer beams and made by Bachmann Brass. I have to say that lining locos has very much taken a back seat recently, at 76 years old, I am not as good as I used to be, hence I kept putting it back for fear of messing it up.

Well, I picked up enough courage to have a go today, it went reasonably well, but one side is slightly better than the other, it took me seven hours to do what I used to do in half the time. I used Johnsons Clear floor polish (the old type), to get good transfer adhesion, the transfers were mainly Fox, with the logos being HMRS.

I can not say that I enjoyed doing it, but I did it, and that is the last loco I need to do for myself. I still have a lot to do to the loco, I will post again when it is completely finished.

I picked a Loco that was used on three different Regions of BR so that I can run it in all as necessary.

In my last post reference Class 24’s, I said that they were all finished – wrong! The day after our group member Nick asked whether I would weather one for him, how could I say ‘no’.

Slightly different to all the others I have done, BR Blue in PRE-TOPS. After research, I came up with D5008, just after it was repainted into blue. Because of what it is, it is Light on the body, but medium on the underframe.

As I said in the previous post about this Loco – a quick turnaround so that it can be displayed at the Mid Suffolk Light Railway August Bank Holiday weekend.

I added a red connecting rod to make it a bit different – other than that, it’s as previous photos. It has been given a light/medium dusting on the body and a medium underframe weathering. A crew has been added and wheels cleaned.

This Dapol J94 arrived yesterday as an early logo British rail Loco 68030! Just 24 hours later, it is Loco number 14 and named ‘Maggie.

What do I think of the Dapol J94, yes great little loco, but it again suffers from push fit or not enough glue on handrails and other detail items. I found several pieces in the bottom of the box, except one rear window that was totally missing.

After putting back all errant pieces, stripping the original tampo printing, a partial repaint and full varnish, I added the plates for its new identity, which is totally fictitious. It will now dry for several days before weathering.

You may ask – why an industrial? Well I am doing a display of Industrial O Gauge Locos at the Mid Suffolk Light Railway over the Sunday and Monday of the August Bank Holiday and I simply wanted a J94 in my stud of Locos.

Here are the final four Heljan Class 24’s that I had to weather, I have had them since they were released some months back.

Usual methods used, wash and wipe, followed by airbrushing and dry brushing. All transfers were Railtec and the paints were Railmatch Enamels.

All locos are from different era’s and are in livery order.

D5037

D5040

24082

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