Friday Update: Two Ten Twenty...

Coming to you from a fresh lock down, here in Denbighshire we're under a local lock down that is nearly as restrictive as the original March one. Personally that means I'm not able to travel to see the kids or my family, it also means the end of steam on the Llangollen Railway for the forseeable...

Is this the last steam in the valley this year? The last train of the day yesterday...

All this casts a shadow on what has otherwise been a busy week with lots of custom transfers heading off to their new homes (and thank you to those customers who've sent kind words of thanks) and a bumper re-stock order from Shapeways with kits from all of my kit ranges (EuroNG, 6point5 and Planet Industrials). It's hard to stay positive but I'm doing my best to at least stay balanced. Yesterday I got out on the bike for the first time in months and explored some new tracks on my door step, and my own Canadian project is a good mindful distraction to wile away the early evening researching, and looking forward to my Kaslo Shops MLW S13 kit arriving!

This week saw the completion of the chassis unit on the 1/2" scale Edaville Plymouth critter - this uses some Slaters wheels and laser cut frames like I use in my 7/8ths scale models, along with a Branchlines 50:1 and Mitsumi 5 pole motor - there should be room for a flywheel to smooth things out. You can see I've added pickups and wired her up - nice and slow, but a little growly still at the moment. The 3D printed couplers have been glued, filled and blended to the frames to appear as one piece, and the axleboxes are nice touch too - so next up will be the bodywork. My customer has sent me an engine to use under the hood, but no sign of it yet in the post, so I may pause rather than have to reverse engineer the cab to fit it in!

I mentioned the 7/8ths models - a trio of the quartet are moving towards priming, a concerted focused effort has seen the cab control stands, throttle linkage, sandboxes and buffers all crafted and fitted. The last step will be adding the radiator front screen and securing bolts and exhausts which should be today - then I need to get the cab upper sheets cut by my friend Steve. The fourth model will be completed after the initial trio as it's being modelled on a specific prototype so needs more scratch building.

I'll finish this week with another (have you had enough yet) of Pont-y-dulais and my latest, and possibly favourite Planet Industrials kit to date - the cut down cab for the Hornby Peckett, a sort of W6 Greenhithe. Modelled as Hornet, which saw out it's industrial career up the road at Bersham colliery before preservation, the weathered finish has turned out pretty neat. This was achieved using a pre-shaded pastel green as an undercoat, as I knew the weathering would darken it. A layer of grime was airbrushed on and then carefully removed with brushes and sponges to leave a dirt build up and subtle streaking. This was then tied together with a second airbrushing before finishing with a dry brushing of gun-metal on the frame edges and buffers. She's a fabulous runner and some way from the PLA liveried example she started as!

I hope you're all well, safe, wherever you are, and that your model making is proving to be a useful and valued friend in providing a distraction and some sort of positive therapy if you like in these trying times. It certainly is for me, and in those moments where modelling feels too much, then just loosing myself in a railway themed book or magazine, or taking the dog for a walk and looking at the preserved railway here, are all good for the mind and soul. Take care, and more soon...