Making a start in O gauge

[Sun Chariot]

It’s a Sierra (wait for it, wait for it) Ghia.

Has it been SORN'd? It was parked there and snow-covered more than a year ago.

Making a start in O gauge

I think the brambles (or it is some climber like old man's beard or ivy?) look very convincing! The subtle rust variations on the rails/buffer stops/etc and the track weathering is very nice as well. Rapidly coming together!

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Gloster]

Has it been SORN'd? It was parked there and snow-covered more than a year ago.

Making a start in O gauge

I think the brambles (or it is some climber like old man's beard or ivy?) look very convincing! The subtle rust variations on the rails/buffer stops/etc and the track weathering is very nice as well. Rapidly coming together!

www.railforums.co.uk

No SORN before February 1998, so Cowley hasn’t upset the DVLA.

 

[Cowley]

No SORN before February 1998, so Cowley hasn’t upset the DVLA.

I’d chucked a load of stuff including newspapers and sweet wrappers etc on the dashboard to cover the date of the expired tax disc in case anyone tries to look at it.

That should keep things at bay…

 

[Ash Bridge]

I’m a little late to the party as usual, but have to say the 20 looks like a great purchase Mr C! That Sierra Ghia caught my eye too, from memory all the other lesser spec models had a front grill?

 

[Iskra]

It’s been a while since I posted anything on here because I’ve basically been too busy to do much in the railway modelling area.

Anyway, I missed out on Rails of Sheffield flogging off their last few O gauge 20s for £299 each a few weeks ago and I was fairly disappointed. I’ve been keeping an eye out for one ever since and this beauty popped up second hand on eBay the other day, it’s missing some cab steps but I should be able to make some up, I’ve tested it and it runs fine. It ended up being a bit of bargain (by O gauge standards).
View attachment 201571

View attachment 201572

I’ve just added a couple of Eastfield doggie symbols to the nose end doors and my original wish list of banger blue 20, original Railfreight 26 and large logo 37 is now complete.
View attachment 201573

I suppose I ought to start building something now…

That looks awesome!

Is that stabling area the one you posted development shots of on here previously, it looks different? It does look great though and at least you have somewhere nice to pose your loco’s

 

[4COR]

A lovely looking lot of locos! O looks to be wonderful to work in for detail, just space consuming - I'd have no chance of approval

 

[Harpo]

Anyway, I missed out on Rails of Sheffield flogging off their last few O gauge 20s for £299 each a few weeks ago and I was fairly disappointed. I’ve been keeping an eye out for one ever since and this beauty popped up second hand on eBay the other day

Nice one! I saw that and was badly tempted but had just got a weathered green one with discs (20023) for £329 from Kernow, to join my two class 15s. Enjoy your purchase.

 

[Cowley]

I’m a little late to the party as usual, but have to say the 20 looks like a great purchase Mr C! That Sierra Ghia caught my eye too, from memory all the other lesser spec models had a front grill?

I think you’re right about that. The one that I remember an old flame having was like that and I think it might have been a 2.3 litre.

That looks awesome!

Is that stabling area the one you posted development shots of on here previously, it looks different? It does look great though and at least you have somewhere nice to pose your loco’s

Thanks and yes. I will eventually incorporate it into the new layout. I’ve got to build an L shaped board to slot into it, which might be the next big job actually.

A lovely looking lot of locos! O looks to be wonderful to work in for detail, just space consuming - I'd have no chance of approval

Yeah it is big. I’ve been out in the shed all day and I thought I’d take a quick O vs N comparison for you (I know you do 4mm).

Nice one! I saw that and was badly tempted but had just got a weathered green one with discs (20023) for £329 from Kernow, to join my two class 15s. Enjoy your purchase.

At the time that was a good price to be fair. I guess they discounted everything because of the impending Accurascale takeover of Heljan?

Heljan were selling O gauge class 45s at £249 when I looked the other day. A bit rare in the West Highlands though unfortunately…

In other news, I had this old DCC E-Z (dreadful name) Command controller kicking around and on function 10 it allows you to run stuff on DC.


Unfortunately though, it seems to switch every single light on - including all the head and tail lights at both ends in my currently DC locos. Which definitely isn’t right!

I found this out after I’d spent quite a while today building and wiring up a test track on a length of wood that I had stashed away.


So I’m going to have to either buy a DC controller, or just start the process of adding DCC and sound to my locos. Not sure whether to go for the cheap get things running option or just bite the bullet yet though?

One thing that does work on that controller is the carriage lighting in the mk1s. They’re way too bright though and will need toning down to look a little more 1980s...


I’ve got some passengers for them as well as some Scotrail decals. I might do those bits and weather them in the next couple of days. Here’s some interior pics of the detail though.

This is the TSO


A compartment and the guards section of the BSK


The 1st class compartments in the CK.


Anyway. Quite enjoying tinkering around with stuff at the moment.

Ramble, ramble , mutter, mutter, trains etc.

 

[4COR]

Yeah it is big. I’ve been out in the shed all day and I thought I’d take a quick O vs N comparison for you (I know you do 4mm).

Yep, quite large - my dad and I saw Newchapel Junction at ABRail this year - amazing detail, amazing rolling stock - just the size, and dread to think of the cost of a rake of 6 Maunsells!

 

[Iskra]

I use one of those EZ controllers too and find function 10 useful, shame about the lights but I think it’s a decent controller for the price.

 

[xotGD]

I’ve got some passengers for them

Hopefully including a bunch of cranks doing a Freedom of Scotland in the front coach.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Hopefully including a bunch of cranks doing a Freedom of Scotland in the front coach.

Back in the 1980s, I used the top halves of Subbuteo 4mm scale "cheering football crowd" figures in my OO Lima Mk1s. With footie garb scraped off and repainted, they made a good version of "flailing from every window and droplight".

 

[Cowley]

Yep, quite large - my dad and I saw Newchapel Junction at ABRail this year - amazing detail, amazing rolling stock - just the size, and dread to think of the cost of a rake of 6 Maunsells!

Yes not cheap…

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve managed to pick up the odd bargain. The three mk1s came to £375 and all three locos were just under £700 if you add them together. My Lapford layout paid a fair chunk of that lot but yeah, still slightly eye watering!

I use one of those EZ controllers too and find function 10 useful, shame about the lights but I think it’s a decent controller for the price.

Definitely. I think it was the first DCC controller I had and it did the job until I got more and more N gauge locos!

I’ve borrowed Paul’s DC controller this weekend so I’ve been able to trundle things along the test track…

Hopefully including a bunch of cranks doing a Freedom of Scotland in the front coach.

I think at some point that might be a fun thing to recreate.

Although maybe not quite to Renton on the WHL level though…

Back in the 1980s, I used the top halves of Subbuteo 4mm scale "cheering football crowd" figures in my OO Lima Mk1s. With footie garb scraped off and repainted, they made a good version of "flailing from every window and droplight".

It would take some bravery chopping a window out of one of these coaches, and never say never but I am probably going to set it in winter, so maybe it’s a steam heat on, windows closed time..?

Coach detailing

This weekend I have mostly been sawing the legs of people.

My dad gave me some figures for my birthday last year and they’ve been sitting in a box for ages. You can easily take the roofs off so I was able to get them into the compartments fairly easily, but not into the TSO as the tables are too tight, resulting in some rather brutal attention from the saw.


Wasn’t really sure what to do with his legs?


My Dad’s sense of humour being what it is obviously led him into buying me some slightly strange characters, including this lady who may well cause the guard to let her off for not buying a ticket (although I’ve stuck her in a 2nd class compartment with a chap who’s body language suggests that he’s not particularly happy with the way the journey’s going).




Then I’ve got this “I am smoking a fag” lady, who I’ve naturally stuck in a smoking compartment (and you know she’s not opening those windows).


What else have we got? Well there’s returning army guy with his bags, there’s business gentleman in 1st with a briefcase and then there’s Mother with a big mauve coat and a handbag on her lap in the TSO amongst others.

Hopefully she’ll get over the operation I had to perform on her…

 

[hexagon789]

Yes not cheap…

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve managed to pick up the odd bargain. The three mk1s came to £375 and all three locos were just under £700 if you add them together. My Lapford layout paid a fair chunk of that lot but yeah, still slightly eye watering!


Definitely. I think it was the first DCC controller I had and it did the job until I got more and more N gauge locos!

I’ve borrowed Paul’s DC controller this weekend so I’ve been able to trundle things along the test track…


I think at some point that might be a fun thing to recreate.

Although maybe not quite to Renton on the WHL level though…


It would take some bravery chopping a window out of one of these coaches, and never say never but I am probably going to set it in winter, so maybe it’s a steam heat on, windows closed time..?

Coach detailing

This weekend I have mostly been sawing the legs of people.

My dad gave me some figures for my birthday last year and they’ve been sitting in a box for ages. You can easily take the roofs off so I was able to get them into the compartments fairly easily, but not into the TSO as the tables are too tight, resulting in some rather brutal attention from the saw.
View attachment 201749

Wasn’t really sure what to do with his legs?
View attachment 201750

My Dad’s sense of humour being what it is obviously led him into buying me some slightly strange characters, including this lady who may well cause the guard to let her off for not buying a ticket (although I’ve stuck her in a 2nd class compartment with a chap who’s body language suggests that he’s not particularly happy with the way the journey’s going).
View attachment 201751

View attachment 201753

Then I’ve got this “I am smoking a fag” lady, who I’ve naturally stuck in a smoking compartment (and you know she’s not opening those windows).
View attachment 201752

What else have we got? Well there’s returning army guy with his bags, there’s business gentleman in 1st with a briefcase and then there’s Mother with a big mauve coat and a handbag on her lap in the TSO amongst others.

Hopefully she’ll get over the operation I had to perform on her…

Love the "set-dressing"; those figures are an eclectic bunch!

 

[Harpo]

including this lady who may well cause the guard to let her off for not buying a ticket

Mmm. I’m reminded of the very old story of a ticketless lady returning to Bristol after an evening’s work in Swindon and insisting she had no means to pay. When the guard insisted she must have something to pay with, the answer wasn’t something he’d have got commission on.

 

[Iskra]

Legless cranks, even better

 

[Cowley]

Love the "set-dressing"; those figures are an eclectic bunch!

Thanks Hexagon. It definitely brings them to life.

Mmm. I’m reminded of the very old story of a ticketless lady returning to Bristol after an evening’s work in Swindon and insisting she had no means to pay. When the guard insisted she must have something to pay with, the answer wasn’t something he’d have got commission on.

I’m just going to assume that his solid professionalism caused him to decline the offer and swiftly move on (him and me).

Legless cranks, even better

Oh no. Never a good combination!

Nothing was ever clean…

A certain amount of bravery is always needed when taking an airbrush to new models. So I swallowed hard and got on with it.

I bought a set of 1980s style Scotrail decals online recently and researched where they’d go on each type of coach - pretty much always underneath the first proper window on the left hand side of each coach as you look at it. I’d never noticed this before and I probably wouldn’t have done it right if I didn’t have pictures to look at.

Then after that was done I made a wash to go over all the areas of detail before taking it back with a damp cloth and just leaving it around the window frames, hinges, door lines etc.


After that I made a spraying area in the shed, mixed up a suitable grime colour with Humbrol enamels and thinned it down before coating the running gear, ends of the coaches and lower parts of the bodies. These are the results.






A brave close up of the guards section.


I must say, they are lovely models. The detail on them is brilliant and even more noticeable with it all picked out.

I’m not sure that I’m going to get away with another day in the shed this weekend. I heard the ominous phrase “Does the strimmer work?” Just now.

I feel a list of gardening jobs rapidly heading my way…

 

[Harpo]

I’m just going to assume that his solid professionalism caused him to decline the offer and swiftly move on (him and me).

The punchline of the story is that the passenger was asked if they had anything smaller! (I’ll stop there too!)

 

[Sun Chariot]

Wonderful work @Cowley and proves yet again that "less is more".
RHTT levels of grot are not what a typical work-stained use looked like; and I really cringe at some of what I see done to models, on a well-known online auction / Buy It Now site.

As to the ominous phrase “Does the strimmer work?”
I think a valid reply is "Yes of course - do you want me to get you the long cable-reel too?"

 

[Iskra]

Great work, and it’s nice to see a few posts from the O gauge layout, I sense progress is being made behind the scenes

 

[Cowley]

The punchline of the story is that the passenger was asked if they had anything smaller! (I’ll stop there too!)

Was this back in the days of threepenny bits?
Actually. We should probably stop this now.

Wonderful work @Cowley and proves yet again that "less is more".
RHTT levels of grot are not what a typical work-stained use looked like; and I really cringe at some of what I see done to models, on a well-known online auction / Buy It Now site.

Thanks for that. Yes it’s tempting to overdo it because you’ve got all the stuff in front of you just begging to be used.

More on that later. *

As to the ominous phrase “Does the strimmer work?”
I think a valid reply is "Yes of course - do you want me to get you the long cable-reel too?"

Well I ended up sharpening the chainsaw, reducing a small tree, chopping a load of logs up and strimming a big area of nettles.

I felt that I’d earned the right to disappear into my shed for the rest of the afternoon after those exertions!

Great work, and it’s nice to see a few posts from the O gauge layout, I sense progress is being made behind the scenes

Yes. I’m not rushing things but a plan is slowly coming together now @Iskra. Up coming jobs are:
1) build boards
2) start buying points,
3) get the 26 sound fitted
4) receive a staggering financial windfall due to an invention that I haven’t actually thought of or invented yet.

*You probably shouldn’t have done that

The weathering on the class 20 I bought off eBay was very flat and not particularly convincing. I thought I’d do a bit of test on one of the bodyside doors to see if I could take some of the dirt off, introduce a bit of faded paint and airbrush it back over.

Bad mistake.

The weathering was really really thick and I assume done by the previous owner - possibly to cover over a couple mistakes that I’ve noticed... I ended up spending all of my relaxed afternoon in the shed wiping as much of it off with thinners as I could. It was a bit of an undertaking though as once I’d started there really was no going back!

I’ve used oil paints to fade a few areas (which doesn’t show up that well in the photos), and it’s probably still a bit more grubby than I wanted it to be but it’s getting there.


I’m probably going to have to get a new set of numbers for the cabs as the thinners dissolve the decal fix. I put new double arrows on earlier for the same reason.


I still need to do a bit of work on the yellow nose end, but at least it’s mostly blue now rather than dark brown.

 

[Sun Chariot]

A very impressive recovery-job there, @Cowley and a big improvement to how it looked in post 86.

 

[Iskra]

That 20 looks stunning, top work!

 

[Cowley]

A very impressive recovery-job there, @Cowley and a big improvement to how it looked in post 86.

Thanks @Sun Chariot

That 20 looks stunning, top work!

Thanks.

On closer inspection I can see why it was so cheap now…

The previous owner had renumbered it but had obviously had a bit of a nightmare trying to match the paint up because the blue that Heljan used was just wrong. It too dark and almost slightly purple. Heljan unfortunately are known to make the odd glaring error.

So they’d painted over the original double arrows on the cab sides with what’s probably the correct BR blue colour but it’s completely different to the rest of it, at which point I think they gave it a hard weathering to cover the problems up.

This leaves me in a quandary and I’m currently considering masking up the yellow ends and respraying all of the blue to the right shade. I’m going to sit with that decision for a bit though.

Don’t go too far with it…

My 37 had a small amount of weathering on it from the previous owner, but I always felt it looked a bit plasticky, so I’ve been doing various little (hopefully) subtle jobs on it over the last week. This is how it looked when I got it a couple of years ago.


Recently I’ve:
Painted the cab door handrails
Painted the little fire alarm things on the side of the noses.
Glued the nameplates back on properly
Weathered the exhaust areas on the roof a bit more.
Painted the backs of the snow ploughs to get rid of the yellow
Picked out all of the detailed areas and grilles with various washes
Weathered the underframe and added oil deposits
Painted the buffer beam pipe work in the appropriate colours.

I think it looks a better now:

 

[Iskra]

Thanks @Sun Chariot


Thanks.

On closer inspection I can see why it was so cheap now…

The previous owner had renumbered it but had obviously had a bit of a nightmare trying to match the paint up because the blue that Heljan used was just wrong. It too dark and almost slightly purple. Heljan unfortunately are known to make the odd glaring error.

So they’d painted over the original double arrows on the cab sides with what’s probably the correct BR blue colour but it’s completely different to the rest of it, at which point I think they gave it a hard weathering to cover the problems up.

This leaves me in a quandary and I’m currently considering masking up the yellow ends and respraying all of the blue to the right shade. I’m going to sit with that decision for a bit though.

Don’t go too far with it…

My 37 had a small amount of weathering on it from the previous owner, but I always felt it looked a bit plasticky, so I’ve been doing various little (hopefully) subtle jobs on it over the last week. This is how it looked when I got it a couple of years ago.
View attachment 202321

Recently I’ve:
Painted the cab door handrails
Painted the little fire alarm things on the side of the noses.
Glued the nameplates back on properly
Weathered the exhaust areas on the roof a bit more.
Painted the backs of the snow ploughs to get rid of the yellow
Picked out all of the detailed areas and grilles with various washes
Weathered the underframe and added oil deposits
Painted the buffer beam pipe work in the appropriate colours.

I think it looks a better now:
View attachment 202322

View attachment 202323

That looks stunning, great work!

 

[D1511]

Very nice job indeed.

Behold my example of how a 37 looks with just a bit too much weathering........

Yours is way better and far more realistic. If there was an easy way to undo mine, I'd have done it, but I can't face a full respray with a giant list of stock that needs weathered!

 

[Cowley]

Very nice job indeed.

Behold my example of how a 37 looks with just a bit too much weathering........

Yours is way better and far more realistic. If there was an easy way to undo mine, I'd have done it, but I can't face a full respray with a giant list of stock that needs weathered!

View attachment 202357

It looks good to me!

I mean also bearing in mind that yours is four times smaller (fnarr fnarr).

 

[D1511]

It looks good to me!

I mean also bearing in mind that yours is four times smaller (fnarr fnarr).

Very polite of you, but although those locos were often really filthy, I don't think it looks right, even although it is only 1/4 of the size of your whopper! Ooh errr missus!

 

[Iskra]

I think that looks pretty nice.

I never touched my large logo 37 with weathering, it's too easy to over do it and regret it. I might have a go soon though seeing your examples, as it does look far too clean, but I'll try keep it really minimal.

 

[xotGD]

Very nice job indeed.

Behold my example of how a 37 looks with just a bit too much weathering........

Yours is way better and far more realistic. If there was an easy way to undo mine, I'd have done it, but I can't face a full respray with a giant list of stock that needs weathered!

View attachment 202357

Clean by Gateshead standards!