Saturday Film Club: Welshpool and Llanfair Railway in the 1950s

If I'm honest, this wasn't the Welshpool video I was planning to bring you today, but I lost the link to the intended film, and found this instead. Fantastic old footage, OK, the quality isn't great, of the line in the 1950s when it was really running. A scene that even with the best preservation we can't recreate.

Lewin

All done. A little tickle from the weathering powders, especially on the outer edges of the buffer beam where photos show rusty patches. 

The drive was a fiddle to fit, eventually he found a happy position himself, so I'll live with that. 

I'm a little disapointed that photos don't show coal piled up in front of the cab - it would be a nice detail but I assume the harbour was small enough that running back to the shed for fuel wasn't a problem. 

OK, I'm not responsible for most of the work on this model, but I'm pleased to take it from a box of bits to a nicely running locomotive which can now join the fleet in my display case. One project ticked off!

I hope the original builder would approve of what I've done anyway.

Getting grubby

 

It's a long while since I broke out and airbrush and made a locomotive dirty!

So long, that my Iwata has long since gone and been replaced by a Sparmax. And more importantly, the cat food boxes I used to pearch models on have changed, and are now too large (OK, we might just be buying bigger quantities of cat grub) for the job, forcing me to to use an old jam jar to raise the model up a bit so I can shoot paint under the footplate. 

The recipie is the same though. First, a dry-brush with dark grey, then out to the garage for s blow over with rust, then some earth colour on the lower reaches, followed by a light clean with a turps filed cotton bud. Then a little more earth followed by a dose of Track Colour everywhere and finishing up with some Revell Anthracite along the top to represent the soot. 

OK, it's not Martyn Welch, but I think gives me 80% of the look for about 20% of the effort. This is a mucky loco, and the dirt has certainly reduced the impact of those buffer beams. Maybe I was working fast because Jacob-Rees Mog was staring out at me from an old copy of the Daily Express too.

Now to let the paint harden, tickle with weathering powders and a bit of glazing.

Waterborne Wednesday: SD Bovisand

My parents have just returned from a holiday in Cornwall, and as well as bringing me back several bottles of cider, they also have some interesting photos of boats. 

First up, is the SD Bovisand. This 23m long supply vessel was built in 1997 for the Navy, but has since passed into private hands. 

You can track her here. And here.

 

 

As a modelling prospect, she'd be quite a challenge. Two hulls, lots of detail. And you are going to have to scratchbuild as I'm not aware of anything remotely similar in the kit world. 

Crew

 

Bit of a crisis with the Lewin build - I went to my box of good figures for a crew, and the cupboard was bare! I don't know when I used the last set, but obviously didn't think to re-order. 

Loco crew figures will always come in handy, so I spent some time replenishing the stash from the Dart Castings website. I know 3D printed people are more fashionable, but I've always liked the Monty's Models range. At the time they first appeared, they were a revolution compared to some of the badly proportioned horrors of the time. These are a lot cheaper too, always a bonus. 

Anyway, a few days later a Jiffy bag arrived with my order, and I set to to decide which person would fit in the cab. Answer, very few of them. In the end, I think that MSV71 Industrial or Narrow gauge loco driver will just about squeeze in. The cab is very low and the others are just too tall. IT's a job for some HO scale people really. 

A bit of paint flipped over him, followed by a wash of Nulin Oil, and he will look the part. The photo close-up is cruel, he looks much more refined in real life!