4mm Llanfair

[LarryG]

The LMS 3-coach Inter-District set has now been completed. The LNWR coach has replaced a Period I coach...


However, I have far more coaches than I could ever use at Llanfair Road and so the two Period I coaches have gone on the transfer list as part of a thinning out process...


While I am keeping the LNWR coach as a 'swinger', the Midland D1284 and the LMS D1755 and D1756 are going to a friends layout for summer holiday traffic...

 

[Gismorail]

Superb Larry just wish I had half of your talent for coach building though with coaches of that standard I could never make up my mind as which one to put on the transfer list

 

[LarryG]

Hi Gismo, it is easy to move on or scrap unwanted coaches with no sense of loss.

 

[Dave Holt]

Larry, it might be easy for you, able to knock out a complete coach in a couple of days, but for us who take months to build a single vehicle, it is a big deal to chop and change.
Dave.

 

[LarryG]

Larry, it might be easy for you, able to knock out a complete coach in a couple of days, but for us who take months to build a single vehicle, it is a big deal to chop and change.
Dave.

Yeh, I understand that Dave. I was simply saying how it is for me. There were no takers when I advertised coaches at less than half price of WT and so I kept the bogies and interiors and binned the carcasses. The painted bogies popped up in pictures of brass coaches on the WB thread.

 

[LarryG]

The completed LMS 3-coach 'Inter-Corridor' set approaching Welshtown from Crewe...

 

[Gismorail]

Larry it always amazes me how you make Peco track look so realistic and yes I know you’ve had many years perfecting the dark art but it still baffles me ……. (Note too oneself….) ’keep practicing and never give up ‘

 

[LarryG]

Larry it always amazes me how you make Peco track look so realistic and yes I know you’ve had many years perfecting the dark art but it still baffles me ……. (Note too oneself….) ’keep practicing and never give up ‘

Thanks Gismo. It's down to colouring really. I lay clean ballast and then weather it with a spraygun and portable compressor. Rails are brush painted with Phoenix-Precision 'Rusty Rails' paint. Sleepers are sprayed (rattle-can) with Howes 'Sleeper Grime' before laying the track.

 

[Gismorail]

Thanks Larry I will try it ‘that way round ‘ next time on permanent way duty

 

[LarryG]

I dont know if I am alone in thinking that weathered models look like models of the real thing while ex works models look like toys. Similarly, highly polished heritage steam has no chance of bringing back memories of the real days of steam for me. And so following yesterday's photo shoot of the '3-coach Inter corridor set', I weathered the other brake third. If nothing else, the coaches do at least match now...


PS: I like the idea of the 'inside out' brake. It mirrors the untidiness of BR.

 

[Focalplane]

I agree, Larry. Modelling what we remember (or what we think we remember after looking at old photos!) is why many of us model a period that we lived through. I certainly plan to weather just about everything on Moor Street, possible by letting off a “bomb” of fine soot over the layout!

Later, in the smokeless zone era, Birmingham started steam cleaning its buildings, changing the childhood memories for ever. I returned after a long gap (30 years) the year that Birmingham hosted the G7/8 and was astounded - no old prams in the canals, etc.

 

[Gismorail]

Your spot on Larry I hate out of the box models somehow the shiny plastic is all wrong and a simple coat of Matt varnish just gets rid of the plastic look and makes it look like metal.
Careful and considered weathering brings a plastic model ‘to life’

 

[paulc]

I agree Larry , unfortunately a large percentage of RTR buyers prefer the better than new look . Kit builders seem to be evenly split between clean and weathered. I recently asked a friend who has just completed a rake of six GWR coaches if he was going to at least weather the roofs from the gleaming white back to something approaching reality . He replied that he didn't want to do anything else with the ^&=$##% things .

 

[simond]

I usually get to that point before finishing coaches…

 

[Focalplane]

Simon, I don’t even get that far, yet! But it is my best intention to get going again after regaining my “mojo”. There are too many coaches waiting to be finished and I just ordered another SideLines open first to complete the Midlander rake.

One good thing about the Midlander was that only light weathering is needed. The Bushbury shed staff were famous for turning out their Jubilees, so why not the coaches as well? Here is the proof!

Birmingham New Street Station - BR Period Locomotives: Ex-LMS 5XP 4-6-0 No 45647 'Sturdee' is seen about to enter Worcester Street tunnel at the head of the up 'Midlander' to Euston

 

[LarryG]

Everything I painted professionally for builders was finished ex.works. It was understandable when a feller has spent months building his loco. I toned down the smokebox, cab roof and tender top to a dull finish, but that was the extent of 'weathering'. To add rust and muck would in truth have devalued the model. Personally, I like to see polished unpainted brass.

 

[Compton castle]

Im very much in the dirty camp, good weathering brings a model to life. I’m to young to remember steam so I go by colour photography and even clean locos had some dirt about them.

 

[Focalplane]

In the late 1950s I sent away for permits to various works before a cycling trip with a friend. At each location we had to find an adult leader and 9 other youths like ourselves. Never a problem. This was really the only time we saw ex works locos and then only a few as most were in varying degrees of undress. The three places were Crewe, Doncaster and Derby. I can’t remember Derby at all!

 

[Phil O]

Im very much in the dirty camp, good weathering brings a model to life. I’m to young to remember steam so I go by colour photography and even clean locos had some dirt about them.

As soon as a fire is lit and smoke starts coming out of the chimney, the weathering process has started, boosted when the regulator is opened.

 

[Quintus]

I showed this photo to a group of seven friends all with various modelling interests, from vintage tinplate to fine scale.
Three of them said they preferred the right hand straight out of the box wagon, which dented my mojo a little.
Oh well, each to their own!