Classic in Maroon

Outwardly it may appear that it has been quiet of late on the workbench, in reality there have been a sequence of frustrations...

My MG Models 'Classic Diesel' build contributed a few of these, not least the area that I was least happy about, the join between the bonnet and footplate. I suspect that I haven't got the bonnet sat down into the etched groove properly, and didn't help myself by trying to be too clever when gluing the painted parts into place - I had excess glue ooze under the edge. I tidied it up as best I could in the hope weathering could hide it. I tell myself that a real loco like this would most likely have a bonnet that consists of a frame bolted to the underframe, so there ought to be gap. 

Weathering took two attempts and I think I have got it about how I want it. Its maybe a little too much on the bonnet sides compared to elsewhere but I figured that area would get mucky, especially if the bonnet side flaps were opened up with grubby hands on a regular basis. And it's too late to change it...

The main effect I have been seeking is to enhance the louvres on the bonnet sides, to achieve this I washed over a dark grey, then removed a lot of it quickly to leave a deposit at the base of the louvres. When this was dry I dry-brushed a maroon colour a shade lighter than the main body colour from above - to highlight the top and edges of the louvres. The same colour was used to highlight the edges of the bonnet and cab etc.

Other areas have also been weathered, including the underframe and bufferbeams and the top of the exhaust. I have made a couple of adjustments since looking at the photos, I'm still not 100% on the model but getting there. In theory there are two remaining jobs, to add couplers, and an air horn in the hole I drilled for it in the cab front!

Colin

Trigger's Broom

Yesterday I spent some time considering what the rolling stock requirements would be for the 'Getting Something Moving' project. Amongst other options I wondered how I could generate further Black Dog Mining chassis if I went wholly down that route (other options under consideration include KB Scale Hudson chassis).

I opted to free up a chassis from one of my recent 'tops' wagons by adding the 'tops' body to that Shifting Sands classic of the low sided wagon with generator load, seen here when first completed about 15 years ago. I had been considering adding a 'tops' body to this anyway so it isn't as huge a leap as it seems....

It's had a couple of rebuilds over the years, including a failed and subsequently reversed chassis swap. On this occasion I decided it was less destructive to do a chassis swap under the newer body and after drilling dummy bolt holes in the new floor to match those on the original wagon, switched the load and details over, aiming to get everything in the same places. Some grey paint has altered the colour of the new body from brown to weathered grey. Why swap the chassis you ask, well to me it is still the same wagon...

Where's Trigger when you need him?!

Colin

Adding Character

It's been a couple of months since my MG Models 'Classic Diesel' build featured here, at the time it was put to one side awaiting some inspiration to hit as to what it was going to be used for. With the 'Getting Something Moving' project requiring shorter locos than most of my existing 4w fleet I have been looking at ways of completing the build. Wanting to add some character to the model I opted to look at how I could add some more detail to the underframe area to hide the Kato chassis and create something more realistic. 

My starting point was to look at 'Redgauntlet', the RHDR loco that clearly inspired the kit.

Scouting around the spares boxes I found some Parkside 4mm scale solebars and W-irons, from a poorly-built kit I had picked up at a show for a pound or so just because it had a decent set of Jackson-Romford wheels underneath. After a false start trying to thin one of the W-irons down, which weakened it somewhat, I opted to make the Kato chassis narrower  instead. This was not without incident... Eventually after a trip to the workshop to meet the "big" file all was well! The axlebox units were added to a structure made up from 20 thou styrene and 40 x 80 thou Evergreen strip.

Wanting something in between the W-irons that could be fashioned into a Lister-esque weight below the solebar. I scouted around the spares box and looked through the usual Dapol railbus and Drewery bits. However, what caught my eye was the tool/battery box part from the Knightwing shunter kit. Just one problem, there was only one, despite me building three of these kits over time. Luckily I remembered one was stuck to the back of a redundant tender in the loco bits box so that was carefully pinged off and cleaned up. 

On the loco body I decided to add a box alongside the bonnet at the cab end, echoing a feature on 'Redgauntlet' (on the opposite side to the picture above) and some other 15" gauge locos. This will have a sliding panel added once tidied up, it is only held in place with blu tac in the picture, hence the wonkyness!

I also opted to construct a new, more characterful, exhaust on the other side. This was soldered up and holes drilled in the corresponding positions on the bonnet side. The old hole in the bonnet top has become a filler cap, this is a Dapol Drewery coupling rod pin that had already lost it's hex head.

Just in case anyone thinks the weights look a bit low to the ground, there is an extra thickness of blu tac holding them in place , in practice they will sit at the same point as the base of the Kato chassis.

Colin