Matt B's going loco (mostly)...

[Ratch]

Suitably grubby J94 Matt

[mattbacon]

Thanks, Ratch.

Today has been a good week on eBay:





Kits sell for silly money, but this built up was more affordable (and on a Buy It Now). The black is all bare plastic, so I just need to remove the decals before commencing a tidy up and repaint.



The box is in really good condition... lots of nice collateral for the display.

And this one was a real bargain:




It was advertised as built, with only one picture, of the box. I checked whether it had the tender, thinking that it would provide the needed companion for the built and painted "restoree". But when I opened it, the tender is more or less complete, and the main chassis and wheels are together, but the rest of the kit is untouched, with a bunch of small parts off the sprues in a matchbox. Nothing is painted. After going through it in detail, it's complete except for one small cam part for the right hand side drive mechanism. So now, the plan is to take that teeny tiny part off the restoree, and have a pretty good run at building the Duchess of Gloucester myself. For £7.99, I call that a win!

bestest,
M.

[Ratch]

The black is all bare plastic, so I just need to remove the decals before commencing a tidy up and repaint.

I'll bet someone sells decent LMS decals. Mind you, most pictures I've seen, these are even dirtier than the J98

[ShaunW]

A great haul indeed Matt. That push-me-pull-you Beyer Garratt is a strange looking machine, which I presume was built for a very specific purpose for instance such as hauling heavy trains up long inclines as an alternative to double-heading?

[mattbacon]

Shaun - aye, it was. Also used for the hugely long circulating coal trains supplying the big power stations along the Humber. There's a tale somewhere online of one of the B-Gs going u/s while double-banking another freight loco up something like Shap summit, and the whole lot having to be rescued by another B-G. That must have been a sight to see! Also, apparently, they were a bit temperamental and OVER powered, so if they had to wait around for more than about half an hour at the summit for a down-going train, the steam pressure regulator would blow, and it took them another hour to get back up to working pressure. Something like that, anyway...

bestest,
M.

[ShaunW]

Interesting stuff Matt, thanks for that.

[mattbacon]

Last bit of eBay folly(?)

£8.19 for a built-up New York Central Hudson. It's from the same guy as the Beyer Garratt, so I expect unpainted plastic, but neatly assembled. Anyway, once I'd found this picture:



I thought what a cool looking thing it could be!

bestest,
M.

[splash]

Hi Matt

I looked at that one, but bought the little Italian 0-6-0 instead.

I think the Kitmaster and Airfix boxes will make a small display on their own.

Regards Splash

[mattbacon]

Repaint and re-decal is now complete. Out with the weathering kit!







bestest,
M.

[splash]

Smooooooooooooooth

[chrism]

that looks nice ... please don't louse it up with weathering ...
however if you are expert in such matters ignore me .. if not or if you are questioning of us forum minions as to what you do next ... leave alone.

[ShaunW]

Wow, that is certainly a very different looking locomotive Matt and will no doubt be a talking point for those, like myself, who know little or nothing about things railway. Great stuff.

[PaulBradley]

Very nice, Matt!

[mattbacon]

Thanks, folks!

I'm happy with this one, now. Whether it's "loused up" or not, I shall leave as an exercise for the interested reader ;-P



bestest,
M.

[mattbacon]

...Don't worry -- I'm not going to be giving all my contributions a Force 9 weathering job. But trying out different levels and styles of weathering are one of the reasons why I'm keen to tackle this set of way-outside-my-comfort-zone subjects!

bestest,
M.