Commission: A diesel for Paddington...

Sometimes I get to work on some fantastic commissions where a balance of imagination, creativity and Engineering can be blended to create some fun and whimsical models with just enough of a hint of reality to be believable...

Last year I worked on a Peter Barnfield inspired steam engine for a customer, who was so pleased he decided he'd like to work with me again on another whimsy, this time a 'what if' Paddington 7/1/4 gauge ride on diesel. Imagine that during their teens the Brown's children, especially Jonathan, began building a 7/1/4" gauge line in the garden at 32 Windsor Gardens. For his A-level project Jonathan built a pair of power bogies and linked them up with a simple diesel engine on a basic steel frame... 

...imagine that Paddington decided to 'finish it off' whilst Jonathan was away, and using some old floorboards, a box of nails and a saw, along with some windows from the old shed, a rudimentary body was constructed for the chassis, with a cab commodious enough to fit a bear, but no one else...

So this is my interpretation of the brief. Based upon a G-scale Bachmann GE side rod drive narrow gauge diesel I ditched the entire body and had a core laser cut in MDF. I then hand scribed plasticard to 'look' like wood, and wood cut badly by a bear, and then hammered together with nails (hence the nail holes, note deliberately all over the place). A few metal panels and grills were added, and I decided a fuel tank would be necessary, and an exhaust pipe... the speaker for the sound system is inside the bonnet with the grills, so the sound emanates from the right spot! 

I tried to incorporate believable touches, like the fuel tank lid on a piece of chain, and the footstep to the cab. The worn wooden floor boards in the cab scraped by claws...

...the old exhaust pipe that was from an old ride on lawn mower, the heavy wooden buffer beams that were axrtually fitted by Jonathan so cut a bit neater, contrasting to the thin planks used on the bodywork...

...and in the cab a removable seat (because Paddington the toy actually sits neater without it) including a real Welsh woven wool seat cushion. I was keen to work with texture, so we've got the carved styrene representing rood, I've used canvas on the roof, painted black to look like a bitumus tar paint. The bonnets are covered in tar paper! Just like a shed, this is wet and dry paper though. The model is very lightly weathered and I've touched in some bare wood in places. Overall, I think it has an air of believability despite it's fictional beginnings. I enjoy the balance of these models, working on something that has to look and feel right, that has come from imagination. I hope you can see that both my customer and myself have had a great deal of fun with this project. If you've got an idea you'd like to make a reality, be it a scale model of a local prototype, or an equally fanciful creation, then do get in touch for personal proposal using the website form, email, Facebook or the forums. Until next time, more soon...