Wednesday 14 July 2021

Tall Slim Aussie

While I was away Himself was making progress on the test etches from RT Models for the Dinas shunter number 9.


At this stage the bonnet and cab are just resting on the footplate, and in the case of the bonnet it's just a basic former which will need some thin door and grill pieces scratch built on top.

What surprised me was how comparatively thin it appears, probably on account of the cab being so tall.

The most important developments have been down below where the chassis has had its Farish fly cranks replaced with brass ones from Meridian Models and the jackshaft drive has been grafted on.


Himself has decided not to use the replacement keeper plate supplied with the kit but to insert a brass tube through the rear of the chassis to hold the unpowered axle.


Its been reassembled and test run on the layout.

The next stage will be for me to do something with the bonnet.

Monday 12 July 2021

Another Round Of Toast

Having embarked on my project to scratch build models of the FR / WHHR Hudson 'toast rack' carriages, on account of the 009 Society kits being sold out, imagine my surprise when one of them turned up in the post at Himself's place.

As luck would have it this appeared just before I began any serious work on the model of the WHHR example, which regular blog readers will know has its L-section strapping the opposite way - the correct way - round compared to the replica built for the FR by Winson Engineering in the early 1990s.

While I was away on holiday in the West Highlands last week, Himself put together the kit, which includes very neat etchings for the protective hoops on the side, which I scratch built using brass wire on my model.

In the photo you can see it posed next to my first attempt at scratch building FR carriage 39 which I did from guesswork more than 20 years ago - it wasn't such a bad effort.