The gronk in my pocket…

On occasion we encounter prototypes (and models) that seem to transcend time and act as markers through our lives… like Badwolf in Doctor Who, the humble Class 08 has been a part of my childhood and teens, before forming the catalyst of my rebirth in my early twenties…

Indeed, even this model itself is a marker… bought in another life, and part of a 2000 era layout that never got finished (and where this blog gets it name) it’s hung on through all the clear outs and now forms part of the next step. Earlier this year I made a start, stripping the thick factory applied paint revealing a neat moulding that hopefully will shine through my thinner airbrushes finish. I documented the upgrades in May, I replaced some of the flimsier parts (plastic cab handrails), rebuilt the front steps with nicer handrails, added lift rings to the bonnet and a RT Models exhauster cabinet to the footplate. 

The intention was to backdate its grey paint to a 1980s/1990s era in BR blue, but how to choose an identity? the Cornish scheme gave me a push to pick a Laira based machine and my 1990 spotters book helped out selecting 08839 as suitably mundane example to blend in to any layout without any depot specific oddities. Precision paint faded BR blue and Humbrol gloss yellow were applied by airbrush, and Fox transfers wasp striping applied. Numbers and markings are from an old Nairnshire Modelling Supplies sheet (which I believe were produced by Microscale in the US) they’re lovely and thin and respond well to the decal softeners…

There are still some details to add along with touching in colours before weathering but it’s nice to imagine this model, a relic from my rebirth in the hobby, pottering about Pont-y-dulais or even a clay layout in future… it’s these ribbons through the hobby that mean something to me, yes the Hornby model is better detailed and would have been a more obvious place to start, but it wouldn’t have been from my hand in the same way as this has been. I’m enjoying working on it, a familiarity with the prototype and memories of childhood mixed with the muscle memory of working on her in the past, adding those brake hoses and weathering that still permeate from her previous life, more soon…