Friday update: Twenty nine nineteen...

It's been a week of variety with combining work on commissions in 09 and 7/8ths, work on both 009 and standard gauge kit design and prototyping as well as work in 009 on and standard gauge OO of my own models...

East Works is moving forwards, slowly, all the buildings are now underway and these are looking promising proving my original concept sketches. Here is the engine shed with Russell and Stanley (whose chimney doesn't quite fit!), with ballasting complete and this stage done I've also finished wiring up sockets for track power and 16v AC supply, as well as beginning to work on the lighting pelmet.

This Heywood 0-8-0t is Muriel, based around a Bachmann Spectrum N gauge Consolidation chassis that has been somewhat 'modified' by reversing the cylinders to the opposite end of the chassis. The next stage will be the cab detailing before adding the rear guard rail and front lubricators - but in parallel I will be working on etched plates and transfer design for this 7mm/ft scale model.

The Planet, a forthcoming Narrow Planet kit, uses the Tenshodo motor bogie. This has advantages in offering a ready to run chassis, and is quite a smooth performer but can be a bit coggy at slow speed. I've designed a push in replacement cradle for a double ended can motor, and have been testing this - slow speed performance is much improved, and a slow crawl is now possible. We'll look into offering this alongside the kit when it is released later this year.

The forthcoming EuroNG Hungarian C50 is being painted, and now sports yellow buffer beams (ready for wasp stripes) and red side frames - pictured here with the first EuroNG diesel, the NS2, a strong seller that is still doing well today, I've repainted mine from a maroon colour to green so I can use it on East Works in lieu of a the O&K RL3s used at Norden.

Finally, the DJ Models Austerity is coming along slowly. I've stripped it down and removed the LNER livery, replacing it with a mid-green that was pre-shaded to give a patchy appearance on the cab and some staining on the tanks. This will slowly disappear under the filth and grot I plan to apply in the coming weeks... and the idea for a small OO industrial engine shed layout are beginning to be hatched!

If you have a model you'd like me to build, either from scratch, a kit, or just modifying, repainting or weathering an existing model I offer a complete professional service including all sourcing, design of appropriate components be that name plates or transfers, even 3D printed details or etching. Contact me for a personalised proposal. More soon...