Primary Colour

Some aerosol action for you, once again. Himself has given 'Lyd' a spray.



As you can see the Backwoods kit divides so that the front running plate and buffer beam is attached to the chassis. That's not as silly / obvious as it sounds because until Pete's products came along with their bespoke chassis the norm in 009 was to have a whitemetal kit where the front bit of the locomotive was attached to the rest of the body.

The rest of the paint job should be relatively straight forward because I can now reveal that our 'Lyd' will be turned out in the spoof BR livery the locomotive has been wearing for the last six months.



I think it looks lovely in the lined black livery, and beside which there's no shortage of Southern liveried Manning Wardle tanks out there on the exhibition circuit.

It also fits with our decision to model 87 in the photographic grey livery it wore for the first year after restoration at Boston Lodge, rather than the dark blue it now sports.

I'd love to hear what you all think of our decision.

Count 'Em

No new modelling but a new picture I wanted to share with you that shows up really well the effect you get with resin transfer rivets.



Now, to be fair, you are looking at a 7mm scale model here so it's a much bigger target. But I have to say I've been really pleased with how these have turned out and I'm seriously thinking about applying them to some 4mm models in future.

Prime Time

A coat of primer's been applied to the two Barns 102 & 105.



And I suppose that's about all there is to say.... There's no special technique employed in shaking a bog-standard can of grey stuff that you can pick up in any car accessory shop.

Perhaps I should mention, though, that the light is shining a little unkindly in these shots, which were taken while the paint was still wet, so the finish isn't as lumpy and bumpy as it might look. Honest.

We're All Domed!

The best part of a day's worth of modelling has seen the construction of my commissioned model of 102 completed. One of the landmark features on these carriages are the sloping ends to the roof above the obs compartment.



I have a tried and tested way of doing these, which are also a feature of the late-70's 'tin carrs'. My way is to cut a triangle section out of the roof skin before it is glued in place over the former (see the carriage building guide in the page menu for more details on how I make my roofs) and then put filler into the void and sand down to shape.

I've seen other 009 modellers try to use filler but doing it across the whole width of the carriage where the roof skin is cut short at each end instead of having a triangular section. This means they have to rely on the sanding of the filler to define the triangular edges leading from the centre of the roof down to each corner.
It seems like an awful lot of hard work and hassle. I think my approach is much simpler and dare I saw more effective?



As usual this carriage has a removable underframe with the interior detail fixed onto it - the interior doesn't include seats as per my client's specification.



And here it is alongside 105 which is the other half of the commission. Next stop the paintshop.

The Joy Of Movement

As promised (and with apologies to a popular brand of anti-inflammatory painkiller) here is some video evidence that Lyd's chassis does work, on test on the rolling road.



Himself tells me not to be alarmed by the bouncing movement, it is not so noticeable with the body in place.

And here are some pictures of the virtually complete locomotive, all that remains is a couple of oil fuel tanks to be knocked up in styrene and dropped into the bunkers and then it's off to the paintshop.

Joy Machine

After the burning of more midnight oil, accompanied by the sound of coins being dropped into a swear box, Himself has completed valve gear on the other side of Lyd's chassis.



Our Lyd is going to be a pure-bred Backwoods kit. No cheating with simplified Joy valve gear or grafting on a Grafar shunter chassis here, this one's the real deal, built as Pete McParlin planned. (And proof that it is possible to build them that way!)

There's been a bit more progress on the body as well, mainly around the cow-catchers on the front and rear buffer beams. (I suspect that's not what the L&B called these devices and am open to correction.)

Himself did mention that there is some video evidence of the chassis on test and if I receive it through the ether in due course I shall attempt to post it here.

I should think there's every chance now that Lyd will be ready to undertake some public test runs on Dduallt when it comes out of retirement at Railex in Stoke Mandeville next month. Maybe see some of you there too??

The Ends Of The Affair

I like making FR Observation Carriages. (A good job really, as this is my 9th)

I think it's because of the varied design - the guards compartment at each end, the frieze rail only on the centre portion of the bodyside etc. And because the two ends are different.

Somehow it's just that much more interesting making different ends copying the same part twice.



And so another carriage takes shape...