Friday Update: Seventeen One Twenty...

Largely large scale commissions on the workbench this week with a mix of rolling stock and locomotives - as well as a little more progress on my own etched brass model...

This trio of Model-earth wagons are heading off shortly (once the barrel is weathered later today) to a new home with one of 2019 Hudson Hunslet's  - they make a nicely proportioned train for the model and have been finished as looked after but well worn in. The flat has had a brake added with stantion and hand wheel, which makes it a unique model, after my customer asked me to replicate my own budget flat with the brake. The bulkhead has one plank replaced, and the fuel oil tank has a pump and hose to add as well. Happy to price up building up kits and models to your specifications in any scale or gauge - get in touch for a personal proposal.

My own etched brass model is progressing - it has been some time since I worked on a chassis this small from flat etchings but I was excited to get the rods on this week to find I'd built a smooth and powerful runner - no doubt largely to the High-level gearbox and 1219 motor. I've also added some of the brake gear (the linkages were wrong for the 0-4-0, only the 0-6-0 were provided in my kit - and I figured they'd be in the way for pickups anyway). These were carefully soldered up from laminations and then the holes drilled out for clearance to take 0.5mm brass wire for the supports - all carefully soldered in place. The rods were laminated from two pieces and then the holes opened out with tapered broaches to clear the Romford Deluxe crank pins from Markits. Wheel balance weights provided in the kit were superglued in place. Adding these details has transformed the look of the model, I'm hoping to get the body details finished over the weekend.

Back to commissions, the Campagne Autotracteur was started before Christmas, and has featured on here before - but this week the body work and cab detailing was completed - largely in styrene from limited photos but a technical understanding of how it should work - hopefully it's close enough as although I am a qualified mechanical engineer these days I'm more a model maker! 

The roof supports have been added but the last stage before painting will be to add this important detail for a cane railway locomotive - then I will be in touch with the customer to specify the final colouring. What I love is how the primer (below) has pulled all the detail together and shows off the wonderful springs as well as the heavily riveted (! a labour of love) chassis.

The Ruston 20DL is now in primer as well - and the customer and I have agreed for a fairly standard Ruston finish of mid-bronze green over a black chassis with mid-green gearbox cover. It will make a good base for some restrained weathering - hopefully this will start next week.

The custom etched grills I designed that arrived over Christmas were fitted a few weeks ago, and now in primer the model is tied together and looks very much the part - so much so that I am itching to build my own Ruston in this 'slope sided' form - although I really should build the Moel-fferna example before I do anything else on my own Dyfrdwy Tramway.

If you'd like to commission you're own dream model in any scale or gauge, be it a kit build, scratch build, multi-media custom design project or just re-decorating and weathering a ready to run model I can provide a professional one stop shop for all stages of your project. Contact me for a personal proposal. More soon...